Taken with permission of Skavenblight
In these dark and mysterious pages
;) I'm going to represent some of my favourite tactics when
playing vampire counts and Blood Dragons particular.
This article has two section. First is section where I will tell
what I think about every aspect of undead force. Second is where
I'll talk about magic.
Now every non-vampire player should not read this or you will
lose your sole to the gods of vampires and you will soon tart
vampire army. For us vampires it's already too late ;) Now if you
have decided to read on keep in mind these are written for 2500
pts games since they are what I'll play mostly. Any tactic
however can be converted into different point values but that's
your problem. Not mine.
Section 1 - Unit by Unit
CHARACTERS
Vampire Lord
Big ugly but so costly I tend to favour count rather. They have
+1 attacks +1 wound and little better magical ability almost
double points. I don't think it's worth of it but if you do give
him heartpiercing. With only 4 attacks it's needed badly if
you're going to cause any major damage against good characters.
Recommended number:0
Vampire Count
My usual general. Very good(I would say underpriced if nothing).
He has standard vampire strengths with S7! and T6! Now add there
level 2 caster with 1 spell and your favourite character is done.
However he has one big weakness. 3 attacks. With that high
strength you would like to get more attacks but it can't be done
so we have to look at ways to counter it. And only solutions are
bloodline abilities or magic items. Lets look first one first.
Now while Blood Dragon ability list have many good abilities I
tend to spend points on protective stuff(yes. On vampire ;).
Because of this standard ability for count or better is strength
of steel which gives you ability to wear armour without loosing
spell casting and without spell casting I'm not going to war. So
That will spend half of available bloodline slots. Next thing
I'll always add is armour. And there it will go problematic. You
can either give him light armour and get good speed but then
strength of steel is almost wasted. Other option is to go heavy
and give him full armour since with barded nightmare you have 2+
save. This will lead problem with speed because it's going to be
6 at steed and personally I think that's too slow. So if I give
him full armour I'll give him doomrider as well. That's for plan
enchanting combat abilities with bloodline abilities...
So what I'll do then? Answer is simple. I'll look magic item list
and find weapon which suite my mission good. Problem is that
there are so many choices it's hard to choose but I'll list few
of favourites(not in any particular order): Rending sword. It
will let you kill almost any character. But against most
rank&file useless. Heartseeker. Same as heartpiercing but
higher price. However it's available to count so this is actually
good weapon. Very good against both rank&file and characters.
Blade of leaping ???. Now anything which increase numbers of
attacks(too bad they can't take additional handweapons)is *good*
thing. While they are little too costly for my taste they have
their place. Again good multi purpose weapon. Blade of
ensorcelled iron. Well since your big problem is number of hits
you cause this is very effective weapon considering price.
Against lower WS troops your gonna hit almost every time which
can cause major havoc. And final weapon I recommend is Dragon
Blade which will let you to try twice to wound against each model
you hit. While not very effective against rank&file since
your going to wound on 2+ it's particularly deadly against
characters who are going to watch with fear in their eyes. Now
rending sword sound better doesn't it? Half price and almost same
effect right? No. This weapon is going to have party against
dudes who have special saves since he is less likely to save all
wounds(I'll take anytime less wounds if they can be archieved
more safely than more wounds if it requires luck). Now while
others are useful these are perhaps best weapons within 50 pts
limits you can take.
All right then. Now we are going to finish study about vampire
counts by looking rest of bloodline abilities and few more magic
items which are useful. Bloodline abilities first. While my
combination has it's merit you might as well kick speed and magic
into earth and make your count really combat monster. Then there
are few abilities are deadly. Blade master(or what was that parry
ability) is deadly since not many can kill vampire even with full
attack value and this reduce one. Add there parrying blade and
nothing is going to stop you. Second is red fury. As I mentioned
above anything which increase number of attacks of vampire is
*good* thing. This does it. Add there good magic weapon and you
can render anything dead. Now we are almost finished. Only magic
items(little longish tactics isn't it ?-) There are not many
things you need
to give your count other than magic weapon. About only thing I
would give him would be jade amulet just if some pesky cannon
ball hit you and you fail look out sir roll. This will take care
of it. Otherwise there are not much magic items you could
consider except in one off battles. If you *know* that your
opponent general is going to try your count with van horstman
give horstman to yourself. Very risky tactic since if opponent
doesn't have one you are just going to give him your sstrength
toughness and iinitiativefreely. Solve for that is to avoid
challenges. But then. If your opponent has speculum and he say:
'I'll now have your S, T and I since I have sspeculumyou just say
'You may have but so do I. Stats back you tthief;) Now that will
make your opponent smile vanish(but then do not even dream of
challenging. Always have other character to handle other
challenges). BTW. This is untested strategy. It's so weird and
risky I have no courage to that. Try at your free will. I will
not take guilty if tactic backfire.
Recommended numbers: 1-2
Vampire thrall
Cheap vampire. What more can be said? I'll usually spend points
on other things so I'll never have enough points for thralls. But
if you do keep them to support infantry. While your count(or
lord) is cavalry support this has so low point value that you can
afford it to infantry supporter. Pretty much all count tactics
work except don't think of getting sstrengthof steel ;)
Recommended numbers:0-1
Army standards
Usually army standards are not worth of points. But with
undead(like chaos) this is not true. Although I still say do not
think of wight standard bearer because you want you standard
bearer to be tough. And that's what vampires are. Now usually
when I have standard bearer I'll have him some sort of special
save since he is going to die quickly. With vampire that is not
needed so you can afford magic standard. Personal favourite is
war banner since with it you get +2 CR plus re-roll break test at
55 points. Now re-roll doesn't sound great does it? But it is
infact. I have run into situation where my count and army
standard have been without wights around them because of bad
fight and then you can be broken. This will stop that(or do you
want to get your general getting killed?-). Well you have already
guessed it but I'll but army standard next to general on wight
cavalry unit. Just to replase those rank bonus you don't have.
Recommended numbers: 1
Necromancers
Essential to your army. Without them your army is just slow junk
of bones which will never get into fighting or if they do without
rank bonus to just get killed. Yes. I'm talking about van hel and
summon spells. Many people gives them attacks spell like curse of
year(spit) or gaze of nagash(smile). Now while gaze is good(read
magic section for more information) I'll rather have my necros
suporting unit. So in which numbers I'll take my necromancers?
Usually I'll get master necromancer with staff of damnation and
wand of jet. And dispel scroll if possible. Yes I know potion of
knowledge(spit) would be better but it is so overused and way too
cheap so I'll restict myself from that. Beside wand works just as
good with van hel... Then I'll take 1-2 with dispel
scrolls(reason is told in magic section). If your games are
bigger than 2500 more of them are never bad. Equipment is usually
pretty light although I do give my necros double handed weapon
just in case. Halberd would be other choise of course.
Recommended numbers: 2-3
Champpions
Well I did not want to separate these too. Anyway. Undead have
three type of champpions which is something other race can't say
about themself(except dwarfs). Now this is trend I would like to
be more popular in future army books since this will give you one
good thing: varierity. You can tailor your champion to whatever
task you like. And these are things I give to each champpion:
Wraith: Truly your elite champpion. Ethereal, dhw and ignore
armour save. Add there terror and auts. Usually I'll run out of
points when I'll add champpions so while they are good they
seldom see any combat for me. If you do use try to get him into
fight where opponent doesn't have magic weapon. He will not be
able to hurt you. One uglu although way too expensive trick for
me is to give him sword of destruction. Basicly it's gives you
stat of invinsible against anything except spells and daemons.
But as I said too expensive. I'll rather run without magic items.
Also because they cost so much I'll usually have only one leading
main unit.
Recommended numbers: 0-1
Wight: Mediocore champpion. While they are good they are not so
impressive. Biggest bonus is the fact that you can tailor your
armament from unit. So you can lead your skeletons with spear by
wight with heavy armour and double handed
weapon to give more punch. Not bad at all. Still not so good.
Exception comes when it comes into wight cavalry. there he will
be. Always. And since I'll always have wight cavalry I always
have atleast one wight lord. One wight lord per wight cavalry
regiment.
Recommended numbers: As many as you have wight cavalry units.
Skeleton champpion: While having poor stats they have their
place. Challenge bait. I'll give one for every foot unit
containing character. Then he will wait and when good enemy
character issues challenge he will take that. Will make your good
character more survivable.
Recommended numbers: One per foot unit with character
REGIMENTS:
Wight cavalry
What is Blood Dragon army without cavalry? Nothing! So I'll
always have one unit and while second one would be nice it's too
expensive. So I'll have to stick on one unit. By default they
start with fast cavalry set-up and while useful I always add
shields to them to archieve 4+ save and lances to help combat.
That will also not reduce speed which is one of the most
important stat in my mind. I'll usually have 4 including standard
bearer led by wight. Then add there count and army standard and
you have decent unit. One ideal target for this unit is
multiwound units because of *nice* wights weapon.
Especially if your count is armed with rending sword...
Recomend numbers: 1 unit with 5 model including wight lord and
standard bearer
Grave guard
Sorry. I have not used them yet but looking at them they have
uses. Not being able to replase dead members is drawback but not
bad. Ideal when facing wood elves(dryads) and beastmens since
they have multiwound troops.