Should I "buy in" to the Vampire counts

[kyussinchains]

following on from my other thread on characters, I'm teetering, wondering if I should pick up the makings of a vampire counts army from GW..... I *really* like the characters, the wee Heinrich Kemmler model is awesome, and I'm quite a fan of the black coach aesthetic with loads of soggy skeletons and grave guard tramping through the mist....

however I'm on a limited budget and I'm wondering if it's better putting the money into my planned bret and orc forces (which will be mostly TBline and Copplestone respectively)

I was thinking of the following....

characters
skeletons
grave guard
ghouls
black coach
black knights

I have no problem with quantities, just getting the right units, I'm happy to proxy zombies from other sources, can use copplestone wolves as dire wolves and even GW bats as fell bats, Kallistra do a decent spirit host

if someone can point me at good grave guard/black knight/ghoul equivalents I may go almost all non-GW

any advice? are vamps even any fun to play?

[fracas]

i have a nib black coach if you ever start this army

[kyussinchains]

I'd definitely be interested

although I'm incredibly poor after the spending spree activities of the past month!!

I have noticed that the model quality of the vamp infantry appears to be poorer than the dwarfs, is this the case with all of the 'second wave' armies?

[wellspring]

I'd definitely be interested

although I'm incredibly poor after the spending spree activities of the past month!!

I have noticed that the model quality of the vamp infantry appears to be poorer than the dwarfs, is this the case with all of the 'second wave' armies?

Not at all. Both the Vampire Counts and the Dark Elves, while good, aren't up to the standards of the other armies (and in the case of DE Corsairs, subject to near-constant breakage). On the other hand, IMO the two best looking and best-sculpted armies are the Lizardmen and Araby, with some of the original armies close behind.

[David Wasilewski]

I agree. VC are the "worst" of the sculpts and Araby are the "best" sculpts.
Saying that, the Vc characters and Black Knights are good - its the ghouls and graveguard that don't seem to have as much detail.

Of course, that's just my taste/opinion!

Dave

[Dave]

I think the original armies are the best from the whole line. I never really liked any of the second string sculpts, aside from Daemons and Skaven.

I would agree that Vampire Counts and Dark Elves are at the bottom of the barrel though.

[jchaos79]

Hi about the figures, let's see:

Pendraken have a good proxi for black coach
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4261.0

For black knights, I'm afraid there are only two manufacturers which have undead raiders, pendraken FU4 and irregular TFAN30. Both of them are naked skelleton. An Idea is mix some TB line knights painted in black and red with these two fantasy reference to obtain the idea or the mood of the unit

For grave guard, you could go again mixing some historical full plate armour (maybe old glory or TBline) painted in dark tones with some grim reaper FU18 http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=4303.0 in the central base.

Another idea for grave guard, is making a proxi. Make a unit of "horror things that bump in the knight" and use it as grave guard. Pendraken have grim reaper FU18, vampires Fu13, mommies FU12, spirits FU14.

For ghouls, not sure maybe some pendraken zombies ... not really sure of this.

Hope It helps, they are just ideas, still searching and thinking, maybe someone find a good solution

[kyussinchains]

Well I now have some GW grave guard and black knights, after a quick measure they seem to be about 11.5mm to the eyes.... How would they compare to kallistra skeletons and zombies?

I like Kallistra as they do the buy 5 get a free pack deal, plus they come on strips, and Paul K from kallistra was my woodwork teacher so I'd like to support them.....

[jchaos79]

Great, if you know Paul, tell him to expand the fantasy range 

Anyway, I mix a lot of manufacturers for my armies, and sometime I mix them in the same bases of the unit. The differences of sieze are not notice during a game or when showcase your army. Of course the differences depends of the threashold of "paranoid" of the owner of the army. In example, my paranoid is that Kallistra fantasy goes OK, but Kallistra history dont. In despite they have beautiful figures I do not use them.

[fracas]

just PM me about the Black Coach
I will hold it for a while before ebaying it

[kyussinchains]

After playing my first game of warmaster last night (many thanks to EmpireAddict for loaning me the models, teaching me the basics and letting me win, a true gent!) I've decided that I'm a bit crazy for wanting to start 4 armies, so I'm going to stick to dwarfs for now, then pick up a TBLine bret army for a bit of variation as and when it's required... so unfortunately I won't be grabbing the black coach