DISCLAIMER: I'm not claiming to be the greatest VC authority in the world, but I do think I have a good understanding of the basic mechanics behind using a VC army. As such, this Tactica is aimed at the beginner, and should be of little help to veteran players. If you disagree with anything I say, feel free to raise it with me and we can "discuss" the error of my ways! ^_^

Thread contents:

• 1. Putting together a VC army
• 2. The Bloodlines
• 3. Characters
• 4. Core troops
• 5. Special troops
• 6. Rare troops
• 7. The Lore of Necromancy
• 8. Vampire Counts magic items

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As this is one of the most frequently asked questions on this forum, I thought I'd throw together this quick guide to outline what I consider the basics to creating a battleworthy Vampire Counts army.

First, you need your big blocks of infantry. These will usually be zombies or skeletons, and should ideally be around 25 strong to get those all-important rank and outnumber bonuses in close combat. They should also have a standard, because all big blocks of infantry should have them! Don't worry about giving your skeletons lots of armour and weapons: they probably won't kill anything anyway, so keep them cheap and let them get those bonuses listed above.

So you've got a couple of big blocks with +5 combat resolution. Now you need something to do some killing! This is where your characters come in, and thankfully Vampire Thralls are one of the best cheap close combat characters in the game with 3 S5 attacks a turn (more if you are strigoi or blood dragon, most likely). Make sure each of your big infantry blocks has a combat character to lead it, both to score kills in the combat phase and to stop your own troops from getting mowed down.

The final component to a game winning army is flankers. Once you have engaged the enemy with your main blocks, they will be stuck there until they run away or they have chopped all of you down. So they will be stuck there for quite a while! To make them run away quicker, you need troops capable of taking advantage of these exposed flanks. Ghouls, dire wolves, black knights and the black coach are all excellent for this. They are all maneuvarable enough to get into position to get at said flanks, plus they pack quite a punch on the charge and will remove the enemies rank bonus in close combat (with the exception of ghouls, as they are skirmished). Ghouls and wolves are good against lightly armoured troops, and black knights and the coach are better against tougher opponents. Either way, denying the enemy their rank bonus will be instrumental to your victory.

So those are the three basic principles I base my army around, and they work very well for me indeed. I'll include here a 1000 pts army list which is based on all these principles so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

Characters:
Necromancer (Lvl 2). Dispel scroll, Book of Arkhan. (150 pts)
Strigoi Thrall. Summon ghouls, Iron Sinews. (125 pts)
Strigoi Thrall. Iron Sinews. (100 pts)

Blocks:
23 Zombies. Standard, musician. (153 pts)
19 Zombies. Standard, musician. (129 pts)

Flankers:
5 Dire Wolves. (50 pts)
6 Ghouls. (48 pts)
6 Black Knights. Barding. (150 pts)

Miscellaneous:
Banshee. (90 pts)

TOTAL: 995 pts

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I'll add more to this topic as and when I feel like it! ^_^

Cheers,
DLJ

The Bloodlines

Now we'll start taking a closer look at the different parts of the army. I'll begin with bloodlines, as they are normally the first thing you will choose when selecting a Vampire Counts army.

First up, Strigoi. These guys are my favourite bloodline. Monstrous in close combat with some nice abilities, but some people don't like the restrictions imposed on them (no magic items, no mounts, no mundane equipment). I think this is made up for by a free ward save and an extra attack for no additional cost though. Combined with hatred and Iron Sinews (a must-have bloodline power, after all S6 is the magic number when it comes to strength, as it wounds even T4 critters on a 2+ and makes a considerable dent in armour!), they suddenly become frighteningly proficient at chopping the enemy rank and file into tiny little pieces. They work best in large blocks of troops (although this can be said for all vampires, this applies especially to Strigoi, due to the fact that they can only be fielded on foot).

The Strigoi bloodline powers are quite useful.
Curse of the Revenant gives Regeneration to your Vampire. This can only be taken by Counts and Lords due to the high points cost, but it effectively gives them a 4+ ward save in addition to the 5+ ward save they come with as standard. Combined with 3 or 4 wounds and a toughness of 5, this power makes a Strigoi Count practically unkillable.

Massive Monstrosity is the main alternative to Curse of the Revenant. It gives your vampire an extra wound, so makes a Thrall more survivable, but I would only really consider putting it on a Vampire Lord to give him an impressive 5 wounds: not much will be killing that thing!

Bat Form has its uses on a thrall, it being risky to spend points on your general that will allow him to fly around all by himself, lonely and vulnerable. A Bat Formed thrall is good for tackling enemy war machines from afar, and they can generally be relied upon to take care of small regiments of skirmishers, fast cavalry and missile troops without too much bother. They are also useful in getting some high strength attacks to where you need them at the right time. Just bear in mind that a thrall by himself will be gone if he loses combat by 2 points or more: so never charge him into ranked infantry by himself!

Infinite Hatred is the favourite of a lot of people. Being able to re-roll all missed hits in close combat is great. You can generally only fit it onto your Count if you take Massive Monstrosity over Curse of the Revenant (choice between killing power and survivability).

Summon Ghouls has many uses, and is my favourite bloodline power by far (never leave home without it!):
Taking care of war machine crews and small units of missile troops.
March blocking.
Redirection of frenzied troops (a game winner against Khorne!)

A personal favourite of mine is to bring a unit on behind the enemy army on the first turn, then charge one of their main units in the second. The ghouls should have no hope of winning the combat and flee. If the enemy pursues, they are pursuing away from you, and it will take at least two turns for the unit to get back into position. This has worked wonders for me, imagine a unit of chosen chaos warriors failing their restrain pursuit role and running away from my lines!

There's also the psychological factor of having enemy troops running around behind your main battleline. If anything, this will worry the enemy general and distract him from the main battle a bit.

And finally there's Iron Sinews, the old dependable. It's practically mandatory for a Strigoi, S6 is just too good to miss. The only instance you should ever have a Strigoi without Iron Sinews is if it is a thrall with bat form!

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Next up, it's those noble knights of the night, the Blood Dragons!

These guys excel at one thing: killing enemy characters! They can go toe-to-toe with the most skilled elf prince, the most fearsome Black Orc warboss, the toughest dwarf lord or the deadliest Champion of Chaos. So you should always equip him to kill these characters, and to survive their retaliation if they are lucky enough to survive. As standard, blood dragons get bonuses to their weapon skill and full plate armour which doesn't affect their ability to cast spells much. On the bad side, they lose a power dice and they always have to challenge, even if you'd rather they chopped up some rank and file.

One good thing about the Blood Dragon bloodline powers is that they are all cheap, so everything said here can be applied to Thralls almost as much as they can apply to Counts and Lords.

Red Fury is a fairly standard power that grants the Vampire an additional attack. It's particularly deadly in conjunction with Master Strike and an additional hand weapon, giving Counts 6 S5 attacks with Killing Blow. If that won't kill a character, nothing will!

Blade Master is of very dubious use, in my opinion. 30 pts to remove one attack against you will not be that useful. I'd rather get a 5+ Ward Save for the same number of points: it will achieve more. I guess it would be useful against the Hand of Dust though.

Heart Piercing can be useful on a thrall riding with a unit of Black Knights. Being able to re-roll those S7 attacks is very useful, and will help to break the target unit on the first turn. Useful on the attack with the correct supporting troops, but for a Vampire on foot, I'd prefer Master Strike.

Master Strike should be the bloodline power of choice for Blood Dragons. Killing Blow is just a bit too good to miss, especially as it can be taken with any level of Vampire. It can be combined with Red Fury as described above for a nasty combination, but there is no single bloodline power better suited to dealing with enemy characters.

Strength of Steel would be another bloodline power to be used in the same way as Heart Piercing (not necessarily in conjunction with). A Vampire toting this power should be mounted to be confident of getting the charge. The 15 points will be wasted if you are charged.

Honour or Death is useful if you would rather your Vampire was chewing on some rank and file. Useful for skipping unit champions and the such in favour of cranking up your combat resolution, but I would only take this if I had 10 points to spare.

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And now the Von Carsteins, the stereotypical Vampire bloodline, no doubt modelled on Dracula himself!

Now, the Von Carsteins have some very useful bloodline powers. Not obviously powerful like the other bloodlines, but definitley utalitarian and of use in most games you will play. They have no bonuses and no penalties whatsoever, making them if anything a safe choice for most games.

Having said that, I wouldn't take Call Winds unless I knew I was playing a gunline army or wood elves with their ridiculous numbers of flyers. It can be really, really crippling for a budding Empire or Dwarf Engineer. With the help of this power, enough of your army will make it across the other side of the battlefield to eat the enemy missile troops alive! Obviously it is of little value against armies employing little or no missile troops, such as Chaos or other VC armies.

Summon Bats and Summon Wolves can be used in exactly the same way as Summon Ghouls as described above. There are a couple of things which are worth bearing in mind. Both Bats and Wolves have a much greater movement than ghouls, so it is not as obvious where you are going to charge (if at all). There is no chance either unit will panic and run away due to shooting casualties either, very useful as you are bearing down on that cannon. A summoned unit of Dire Wolves also has the potential to remove a rank bonus from the enemy, which is potentially devestating if combined with a charge from a hard hitting, ranked unit.

Walking Death is an extremely useful skill. It basically means that everything else being equal, you will be one up before combat even starts, and that is almost a worse case scenario. You can't really say no to a guaranteed point of Combat Resolution.

Aura of Dark Majesty is another useful skill. This will make your faster troops even more maneuvarable, and you can afford to spread your army a bit more, reducing the risk of being drawn into one massive combat (a very bad idea for undead) and reducing the chances of being flanked. Most Von Carstein generals I know favour this skill over any other.

Wolf Form is useful on a thrall, in combination with the Flayed Hauberk and a great weapon. This gives you a highly mobile, difficult to kill chariot-killer! Invaluable against Tomb Kings, Chaos, Goblins and any of your opponents that likes fielding chariots.

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The Necrarch bloodline has a distinct emphasis on the magic phase, with a nice +1 to casting and some decent bloodline powers in exchange for reduced impact in the combat phase. Even saying that, they are still vampires and will go toe-to-toe with anything that isn't a Chaos worshipper or a Lizardman.

Nehekhara's Noble Blood is one of the reasons why Necrarch's are such powerful wizards. They can have a higher magic level than any other Vampire thanks to this bloodline power. It's of more use to a Count than a Lord, the difference being you get an extra dispel dice for your points.

The Awakening is useful if you plan to summon lots of units. It can often mean that you actually roll well enough to raise a new unit, and the extra d3 it adds to the unit can make all the difference in close combat, making that zombie speed bump last one more crucial turn.

Dark Acolyte is probably the Necrarch power of choice. It's a cheap way to add more dice to your power pool, and overall it's far more cost effective than a power stone. Definitley worth taking one or two vampires with this power in a 2000pts game just to beef up your magic phase.

Unholy Cynosure is one of the powers I am a little dubious about using. Although it is useful for avoiding that fatal miscast or making sure you get off that critical spell, that indicates that you are relying on magic to win the game for you. I'm firmly of the belief that magic is too random to be relied upon, and should be taken more as a supporting roll rather than a be-all and end-all of your game.

Master of the Black Arts can accomplish some wonderful things. With the aid of this power, it is possible to get a rear charge on an important enemy unit in the first turn of the game. That extra 6" makes all the difference. It is also rather nasty when combined with the Lore of Death. Soul Drain with an 18" radius makes a mess of enemy cavalry, skirmishers and Skaven weapon teams.

Forbidden Lore is fairly bog standard. Knowing an extra spell can be useful, but I'd rather spend the points on a Ward Save.

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The Lahmian bloodline is the only bloodline that I have never played with, so all my comments here will be purely hypothetical due to my lack of experience in this field. If anyone feels they can add to what I write, then please feel free to PM me!

The first thing that strikes me about Lahmian's is that they seem fairly difficult to get rid of. All those Ld tests which an enemy is forced to make, just to attack the Vampire, combined with the -1 Ld for being in base contact with her, means that more often than not she can enter close combat without fear of being harmed. A reduction in weapon skill does make her a little less effective, but it is not completely dibilitating, and is made up for to some extent by a huge Initiative value.

Seduction is in my opinion expensive for what it can do. It's not that often that you are going to meet an opponent who it is worth doing this to, and when you do they are probably going to pass their Ld test anyway! I'd leave this bloodline power at home, in favour of taking more of the lesser powers to force more tests on hapless opponents.

Domination is the most expensive bloodline power any self respecting Lahmian should take. It's quite a nice one, which allows your comparatively weak Vampire to actually inflict some harm on the enemy. Useful on a Count or Lord, but wasted on a Thrall.

Quickblood is your stereotypical cheap ward save. A must for your general, but there is one important thing to remember when concerning this: it is a bloodline power, which means that you still have a slot for another Talisman magic item. A strange quirk, but one that could be useful in the correct situation.

Innocence Lost is a fair waste of points on a Lahmian, it only being useful when being charged or when fighting against a similarly equipped enemy character. Lahmians have such a high Initiative anyway that it almost nullifies the usefulness of this item. I'd personally never, ever take it.

Transfix is another useful skill for protecting your Vampire. It won't increase her combat potential, but then Lahmians aren't a combat orientated bloodline. Helps to keep her alive, though.

Beguile is cheap, and useful for filling those spare points that you have left over. It's most useful against rank and file, but making that uber-Chaos Lord roll one less dice in close combat can only be a good thing.

Now its time to look at the characters. Firstly, the Lord choices. VC get three of these, which is a little better than most armies, but you still get nowhere near the amount of choice a Chaos army can get!

I'll start with the Vampire Count, which is by far the most widely used of all three Lord choices. In a 2000pts game, the only characters that can stand up to a Vampire Count is a Chaos character or a Saurus Old Blood, and the Vampire still has a good chance of coming out on top. Due to the bloodlines, its a little difficult to make big sweeping statements about this character type. What we can say though, is that they are robust enough with T5 and W3 to go relatively light on protective magic items, so you can really go to town on making them magic/close combat monsters. There isn't really a situation where I wouldn't be happy with a Count as my general. Something to consider in larger games is a Count mounted on a winged nightmare. He shouldn't be your general, but a character on a flying monster, especially a character as powerful and versatile as a Vampire, opens up new tactical options which I have unfortunately so far been unable to explore.

Vampire Lords require a little more consideration before they are used. Lets compare a Level 2 Lord (worth 285 pts) with a Level 2 Count (worth 240 pts). For an extra 45 points, you get an extra point to WS, BS, W, I, A and Ld. Plus you have the option to upgrade to a Level 3 wizard, and also have the ability to ride a Zombie Dragon: something else Counts can not do. So to begin with, it seems that Lords are far better value for points when compare with Counts. The one thing that, in my opinion, makes them unusable in 2000 pts is the fact that they take up two character slots. At this points level, I feel that VC need that fourth character to make them more playable. However, at 3000 pts or higher, the loss of one character slot in exchange for these horrendously good upgrades is more than justifiable.

Necromancer Lords are characters I've always been a little dubious about. I don't play games of more than 2500 pts normally, which only leaves me with one Lord choice. And this makes me think "why would I want a Necromancer Lord when the army is VAMPIRE Counts?" I have always taken a Vampire as my general. However, a Necromancer Lord is extremely viable if you want to take a magic heavy army, perhaps even more so than a Necrarch Vampire. They are far weaker than Vampires though, and so require more points invested in protection, which in turn can limit their effectiveness in the magic phase due to a lack of magic-enhancing equipment. You certainly wouldn't have this problem with Necrarch. A Necromancer Lord would make an excellent second Lord in a game of 3000 pts or more, boosting up your magic phase considerably.

Next, lets look at the Hero level characters. The VC have access to four different types here: the Vampire Thrall, the Wraith, the Wight Lord and the Necromancer.

Vampire Thralls are pretty powerful Hero level characters. High WS, S and I characteristics make them decent fighters in close combat. They have access to more mundane equipment than Lord level Vampires, as they are not spell casters, and they can also take Magic Armour (assuming your Bloodline allows it). Generally speaking, thralls should be used to add some good, hard hitting combat power to your otherwise weak infantry units. The one possible exception is a Necrarch Thrall, who have the option to become more powerful (on account of +1 to casting rolls) but less versatile (only Lvl 1) Necromancers with Nehekhara's Noble Blood. I am personally running two thralls in my 2000pts Strigoi army.

Wraith's are surprisingly useful. They are a cheap way to get a Terror causing model into your army, and are especially useful at games of less than 2000 pts where Terror become even more of a powerful weapon. They're ethereal, which makes them difficult to kill with anything other than a Hero with a magic weapon, any they have two S5 attacks, which can only be a good thing. Items commonly given to wraiths are the Obsidian Amulet, which makes them even more survivable, and the Cursed Book, which makes them and any of your units nearby last longer in combat. I have used this latter combination to great effect at my gaming club.

The Wight Lord has two things going for him. He is cheap as chips, which means you can spend more points on other parts of the army, and he gets the Killing Blow special rule for free: great for taking out enemy characters and heavily armoured troops. His stats aren't fantastic, being well below those of a Vampire, but they are great as fighty heroes when points are tight. They also have access to a very potent magic weapon, the Sword of the Kings, which doubles the chance of getting a Killing Blow. It's practically a mandatory choice for Wight Lords. They're also effected by the Banner of the Barrows, so hitting on 3+, *killing* on 5+ is pretty good. Can add a nice punch to a unit of Black Knights or Grave Guard comparitive to a Vampire.

Necromancers are your bog standard Level 2 wizards. Useful in VC army due to the nature of our magic, at lesser points games they are the most viable choice as your general (with the only other choice being a Necrarch Thrall with Nehekhara's Noble Blood). They work best with a mixture of aggressive and defensive magic items, and two should normally be enough for any game up to 2000 pts. I tend to run my Necromancer with my Grave Guard, and then jump him out just before they engage. Some people like to leave them running around by themselves behind their lines, but I feel this leaves them a little too vulnerable to marauding fast cavalry, magic, tunnelling Scorpions and any other nasty tricks your opponent will undoubtably have up his sleeve.

I'm sure I have only just scratched the surface of the uses of characters, so feel free to discuss it in the Comments thread stickified at the top of the forum.

Vampire Counts are not precisely spoilt for choice with Core troops like other armies (such as Chaos, O+G and Empire). The troops we do have at our disposal have one thing going for them, though: they are reliable. You can always count on those zombies and skeletons to hold their ground.

Skeletons: Many people prefer skeletons over zombies due to their superior fighting skills. Skeletons can achieve a quite respectable 4+ armour save in close combat, which can certainly help keep the number of casualties you take from those saurus warriors down to a minimum. They have access to spears as well, which allows them more attacks back in close combat and can arguably make them a better defensive unit than zombies. They also strike in initiative order, whereas zombies don't. However, they have a low initiative score, and so will only be going before saurus, and at the same time as dwarves. One final point is that they can take unit champions, which allows a certain degree of protection from challenges for whichever important character happens to be leading the unit.
On the down side, skeletons cost more than zombies, and this really adds up when you are taking them in large units to maximise their fear-causing effect. They are also more difficult to raise in large numbers than zombies are, and so taking under strength units and hoping to raise them up is a little more risky.

Zombies: I personally prefer these guys over skeletons, although I take both in my 2000 pts army. When you look at them, they have less than impressive stats: no armour, always strike last, very average strength and toughness. However they are cheap, and easier to raise in large numbers. I am firmly of the belief that undead rank and file are not their to cause casualties: they are there to give the rank, standard and outnumber bonuses to the combat, whilst the characters do the actual killing. Therefore, these guys are cheaper than skeletons and still fill the role that I see them best suited to: fantastic!
Being easier to raise, they are also better for raising new units for blocking line of site, redirecting frenzied troops, attacking warmachines, march blocking, and so forth.

Dire Wolves: Our fast cavalry are quite a utilitarian unit. On the down side, they have no armour and they can not choose to flee as a charge reaction. What they do have is tremendous speed and maneuverability. 18" charge range, combined with the free reforms for being fast cavalry means it is easy for them to get in position for a flank charge. They also count as being armed with spears on the charge, which can make them useful for seeing off enemy fast cavalry and light auxiliary troops. I feel that the ideal unit size for Dire Wolves would probably be seven: this allows them to take a few casualties from shooting and close combat, and still be able to remove the enemies rank bonus, which is something they excel at and something that really helps the undead win combats.

Ghouls: Ghouls are unique amongst the VC troops as being the only unit that can actually run away from a charge. This makes them very useful for baiting troops and drawing frenzied targets out of position. Their poor Ld stat does mean that once they start running, it is unlikely that they will stop unless the general is in range (and even then, in my experience they still won't stop fleeing!) As stats go, they are actually pretty decent. Ok, no armour, but that's a trend in our Core troops. They do have two poisoned attacks each and toughness four, which makes them able to decimate lightly armoured units such as goblins and clanrats with relative ease. Owaria, my regular opponent, remains convinced that they should be able to take down large monsters with their poison, but in my experience it just gets them killed. Being skirmishers, ghouls are great for contesting key pieces of terrain, and it also makes them surprisingly maneuverable. However, they can't remove the enemies rank bonus. If they could, Dire Wolves would never make an appearance in my army.

Bat Swarms: I'm dubious about the usefulness of this unit. It's essentially another holding unit, in a list full of holding units. What it has going for it is high movement and attacks, and the fact that they don't take wounds from losing combat. Going against it, they don't have any ranks, they will very rarely outnumber the enemy and their S and T are pitiful (even snotlings have a good chance of hurting these guys), so they are likely to let your enemy win any combat they join by an even greater margin. I personally don't like them: spirit hosts do the same job, and are much better at it.

Again, Vampire Counts aren't spoilt for choice in the Special Unit section. The choices that we do have are all very solid and dependable. They are on the most part fairly expensive points-wise, which makes taking useful amounts of Special troops tricky in smaller points games.

Black Knights are one of the two Wight units available in the army, and they are also the cheaper of the two to field in a battle-influencing unit. They have a fearsome reputation due to their fear-causing, S6, Killing Blow charge, which can be absolutley devestating when supported by a character and/or the Banner of the Barrows. This reputation does come with a price, however: anyone who has fought VC before, and sees a nice big unit of Black Knights in your front line will invariably throw everything they have at destroying this unit before it makes it into combat. So it is something of a gamble, taking a unit such as this: either it makes it into combat and wins you the game, or it gets taken out, robbing you of your most powerful unit. Black Knights are the better wights in games less than 2000 pts, due to the comparitive lack of cannons and such like, and because you can get away with smaller and cheaper units.

Alternatively, as I have started doing recently, you could try to use this killer reputation to your advantage. Small units of Black Knights not only make excellent flankers, but they are sufficiently cheap so as to be expendable. Making bold, threatening moves with six un-upgraded knights can really relieve the pressure of hostile magic and missile fire on your main units in your battleline. They're also generally fast and tough enough to survive a turn of shooting and engage the enemy missile troops in combat in the second turn, and they stand an even better chance of success than Dire Wolves do.

Grave Guard are the elite shock infantry troops of the VC army, but you do have to pay for their abilities. A typical unit of these troops will come in at around 300 pts, not including character support. This makes them far too expensive to use in games of 1000 pts or less. 1500 pts and over are the territory of Grave Guard, and they can really bolster your infantry battleline. With appropriate magic banners, a unit of Grave Guard can hold it's own, leaving your characters free to support the weaker zombies and skeletons. One decision you have to make is whether to arm your GG with halberds or not. It comes down to S5 and 5+ armour save, or S4 and 3+ armour save. I prefer to give my GG halberds, as well as the Screaming Banner. When charging, the odds are good that my opponent will fail his fear test, hitting me on 6's. Out come the halberds for some major kill time, as casualties on my side will be greatly reduced. If he passes, I'll settle back for a protracted combat. I think shields are practically mandatory for GG, the option for a 3+ armour save on T4, Unbreakable troops with Killing Blow making them fearsome in a protracted combat.

Fell Bats are a useful unit. Fairly standard flying troops, they can happily fill the normal roles of war machine and mage hunting. Ok, they're stats aren't fantastic, but it's good enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, due to the lack of armour, if there are no suitable targets for them to prey on, there is not much for these beasties to do. As they are fliers, you need at least five bats to be able to claim flank and rear bonuses, and a few more on top of that to cope with the inevitable casualties that the unit will take. That theoretically could tip a combat in your favour, but really Fell Bats are better off away from combat with anything that has ranks or lots of armour or better stats. To sum up, they're good at what they are intended to do, but no good at anything else.

Spirit Hosts are a very strong unit, but they take a little skill to use well. They're the quintessential flanking force due to their relatively quick movement and the Ethereal special rule which allows them to ignore terrain and most attacks directed at them. Their stats are again quite average, but then as with most Undead troops they shouldn't be expected to kill much. You need at the very least two bases of Spirit Hosts: one by itself is purely a waste of points. Like Black Knights, Spirit Hosts also have a nasty reputation. You'll have to expect a lot of magical attacks to be directed at this unit, and be able to counter them, if you want the Hosts to perform.

Spirit Hosts are possibly the one reason to take a BSB. If you were to get your hosts into the flank of a unit of knights, you could feasibly pin the cavalry there for the entire battle if the BSB is in range of your Hosts. You should be losing the combat by one each round due to not having a standard, but this will be negated by the presence of the Battle Standard. A useful tactic for neutralising that killer unit of Chosen Chaos Knights of Khorne, but tricky to execute.

The rare choices of the Vampire Counts army are both quite powerful, but they are very different and require some skill to use properly. Of course, you can say that about the entire army anyway, but it applies even more to the Black Coach and the Banshee.

The Black Coach is underrated by a lot of people because it is a 200-point Chariot which can be removed from the game with a single cannon ball. Not a great investment if this happens to you on a regular basis. Hiding the huge Black Coach from such enemy weapons is the hardest part of using it, and most of the time there is nothing you can do other than hide it behind that hill or woodland until the threats have been dealt with by your other troops. Imperial and Dwarven gunlines aside, the Black Coach is an extremely tough critter. Lots of wounds, very high toughness, a reasonable armour save and a ward save means this chariot can absorb a lot of damage which other chariots can't. The Terror it causes also makes it very powerful against low Ld armies like O+G and Skaven.

Like all chariots, the Black Coach is only any good in combat when it is charging. This will allow it to gain even more wounds with the Invocation of Death special rule, and lends the Coach superbly to infantry support. There are two ways the Coach can fill this role. Firstly, as a flanker. As it is a Chariot, the Coach can't march anyway, so it can happily operate on the flank out of range of the general's influence. Also, it has Unit Strength 5, which allows it to negate the enemy rank bonus with a devestating flank charge. You have to be careful not to be outmaneuvered by enemy fast cavalry and other flankers however, as the Coach is fast but quite ponderous and slow to turn/wheel due to its deep base.

Alternatively, the Black Coach can support infantry with a frontal charge. This will work as long as you deploy your troops no more than four wide. As the Coach is a Large Target, it can see over your own intervening troops to the front of the enemy units, and so should be able to charge in to support. Keeping the Coach behind a block of skeletons will allow you to declare simultaneous charges with the skellies and the Coach, and so long as you move the skeletons first, the Coach can use its superior movement to join the same combat with obvious consequences for the enemy.

Banshees are great when used properly, but they are very fragile. They can't hope to stand up to any unit larger than themselves in close combat for very long (despite being Ethereal), but they are small and mobile enough to avoid any confrontations if you are careful. Moving like a character (always marching at 12" a turn, ignoring all terrain) makes her extremely mobile and gives her Banshee Howl attack an effective range of 20". She is best used attacking from the cover of terrain or behind units: practically all normal targetting restrictions are waived, so there are few places lone mages can hide. They are perfect for slipping behind the enemy battline through difficult terrain or through the gaps in their battleline, march-blocking and generally irritating the hell out of the enemy.

As with most Ethereal troops, you can expect a disproportionate amount of Magic to come flying towards your Banshee, and at 90 pts a piece it's really up to you whether you let her get fried or not.

Good targets for banshees are generally units that are small and difficult for the rest of your army to get hold of. My favoured targets are enemy fast cavalry, which normally operate away from the calming aura of the enemy general, flyers, skirmishers and chariots, in that order. After that, any large units that seem big and threatening enough for my main combat units to be worried about.

Banshee's are not worth taking against armies that are Immune to Psychology. That basically covers Undead and a large proportion of Chaos. Be especially wary of Daemons. Not only are they immune to the Banshee Howl, but their attacks are also magical, which will quickly tear your ethereal beauty to ribbons.

Many thanks to Kael Anduar for taking the time to complete this Tactica with his reviews of the Lore of Necromancy and Magic Items. Alas, Uni got the better of me and I have not had the time to finish this myself!

THE LORE OF NECROMANCY:

1. Invocation of Nehek: the basic spell of the lore, and arguably the best. You should have AT LEAST one caster in the army with this spell, and maybe more, depending on how magic-heavy you are. This does not apply to the army of sylvania, as your grave markers will supply you with all the invocations you need. I generally try to cast this at a 7+ difficulty, though sometimes for a new unit I will go for 11+, but with a level 2 caster, this is generally too much of a risk as he needs an eleven. This is a great spell, and because of the rest of the spells in the lore, your opponent will let it through, which van only be a good thing .

2. Hand of Dust: Killing your opponents with 1 hit....yay. This spell is the only spell in the lore that is bad, as necromancers shouldnt be in combat, and vampire's should have no trouble killing enemy characters. ALWAYS switch this for invocation, and if you roll this and invocation, curse the dice gods.

3. Hellish Vigour: a great spell, one which is sure to lure out some dispel dice. Great for a unit of grave guard that has been charged, as they will kill most enemies in base-to-base. A nasty surprise for most units, and if you have a vampire in the unit, you are pretty much garanteed to win combat as long as you have a good sized unit at his back. Especially good with Drakenhof guard from the sylvania list, as this will allow them to strike first, even with great weapons, and re-roll misses!!!!

4. Gaze of Nagash: your basic 2d6 S4 magic missile, and great in a VC army because of your lack of shooting. This is not the best spell in the lore, but is useful, as most enemies with use alot of dispel dice on it, leaving you free to cast the juicier spells of the lore, like Vanhel's or curse of years. Also, it can be great for softening up a tough enemy unit before you send your guys after it. Definately useful, especially for taking down things like skirmishers, scouts and fast cav, which can irritate your whole army and be very difficult for a VC army to hunt down.

5. Vanhel's Danse Macbre: perhaps the best spell in the lore, this is tied in my mind with invocation. A dead useful spell, it is great as it can ensure that your units get the charge or can set up a flank charge. If you really think ahead, this spell can set up some things your oppoent may never consider, like a flank or rear charge a couple turns down the road. Also, if you make a mistake in the movement phase, or if one of your units is vulnerable thanks to a failed charge or something of that nature, you can correct yourself and save yourself alot of pain. A fantastic spell, and one that has saved me on many occasions, though your opponents are likely to know about it and try to stop it at all costs, so dont always rely on it.

6. Curse of Years: One of the scariest spells your opponent will have to face. Great for taking out heavily armored opponents, as it permits no armor saves. Also, this spell just keeps getting better, and thus will limit your opponents ensuing magic phase, as he will definately use power dice on it. Its a great spell, but not easy to cast, so not the best, but definately close to it.

VAMPIRE COUNTS MAGIC ITEMS:

MAGIC WEAPONS:

We generally get crap in this seciton, but i will outline the crapiness of the weapons in detail :

Frostblade: If you consider this weapon, you have much to learn. The fact that any VC player would consider forgoing bloodline powers is crazy, plus this weapon is not exactly breathtaking, though it is good. NEVER USE THIS!!!

Blood Drinker: not a very good weapon, simply because you cannot go above your original wounds. Seeing as how vampires are naturally very resilient, i would much prefer a ward save to this weapon.

Black Axe of Krell: not very good either, because you are paying 50 pts. for an ability your opponent can aviod on a 3+. I would not reccomend this item at all.

Sword of Unholy Power: this can be alright in the correct surcumstances. A "fighting necrach" might consider this, but i would rather take dark acolyte for a guaranteed power die for only 25 pts. I would say that this item, in general, is not worth using.

Tomb Blade: Ah. This item can be good . Its not to expensive, leaving you free to spend points on bloodline powers, and you can beef up your units of skeletons and zombies using this. Not great, and i would rather using invocation any day, but this can be a useful item, as your units will simply not lose many models in combat, as vampires should be slaying plenty of enemies.

Asp Bow: WOW. There are not enough letters in the word BAD to express the badness of this item. I would never even consider using this on a Lahmian vampire. So bad its not even worth mentioning. 1 strength 4 hit with a range of 24". 30 points for something thats not even as good as a hochland long rifle. I say it again. WOW.

Sword of Kings: Now, this makes all the unmitigated crap above worth it, as this is a fantastic magic weapon. If you take a wight lord, ALWAYS take this item. It is that good, and its only 30 points, leavin you with enough to take something like the enchanted shield. A great item, if somewhat limited by the fact that only wight lords can take it.

Magic Armor:
We don't have much here, but its still better than magic weapons.

Wailing Helm: I would only consider this on a blood dragon count/lord, but in general i would not use it. Terror is great, but it is 50 points, and i would not like to lose 50 points of potential blood line powers plus whatever else I'm going to spend on magic items (yes, i do love bloodline powers )

Armor of Bone: Total crap. A 5+ save that you lose when you fail it? I necromancer with this can't take anything else, and it is a waist on a vampire. I would rather take the gem of blood for half the points, as it essential does the same thing.

The Flayed Hauberk: A very good item. Not good on any lord/count besides a blood dragon (because of losing the ability to cast), but it is great on a thrall, especially a Von Carstein with a great weapon and wolf form .

The Cursed Shield of Mousillon: I don't really like this one. Taking away one attack its good, and compared to blademaster its great, but i would not want to pay this many points. Generally, Vampires can handle most enemy characters, and taking away one attack from rank-and-file is just a waste.

Talismans:
Now things start to get intersting, as we have waded through the crap section of magic items.

The Carstein Ring: Gives incredible survivablity, at the cost of bloodline powers. The same goes here as for the frostblade. NEVER USE THIS, especially because vampires are pretty tough as it is.

Obsidian Amulet: If you plan to run up against tough characters with magic weapons, this is a very good item. Magic resistance is also very useful, though one is not too great, and this item is only good in certain circumstances. Also, this is a very good item on a wraith, as it will help keep him alive even longer, seeing as how he will now only be vulneralbe to spells and wounds cause by combat resolution.

Crown of the damned: I don't like this, as though you're characters have high leadership (well, not thralls), you may fail this at the wrong moment. I would not reccoment this item, however cheap it may be. It is sort of like cold ones for dark elves (lizzies get cold blooded): its seems like a great addition, but you may end up wishing you had left it at home when you fail to get a very crucial charge.

Wrisbands of Black Gold: A very good item against shooty and magic missile heavy armies, as it gives you a great save against those attacks. Also good for a necromancer if you plan to have him hanging out by himself. I see some people using vampire casters (especially necrachs) on horse alone, and this can be great protection so that you can continue to pound your enemy with magic.

Ring of the Night: A great, if somewhat standard, item. An affordable way to give a count/lord some protection, i never leave home without this. This is great for count/lord characters, as magic armor will cost them the ability to cast (which is factored into their original cost, so is not a great idea to lose), but i would rather take the flayed hauberk on a thrall.

The Gem of Blood: A good item, as it does rebound wounds onto the enemy, and prevents one to you. Though a 2+ is not a given, this will generally give your opponent a nasty surprise, especially as it ignores armor saves. This is really only useful when fighting against enemy characters, as it is not worth it to use up your talisman selection on an item if it will only, at best, kill one single rank-and-file trooper.

Arcane Items:
Some really high quality items here.

Power Familiar: Expensive, but it can be useful on a master necromancer. I would not give this to a vampire, as necrachs can use dark acolyte for much cheaper, and others wont want to spend this much on magic augmentation. This also helps your dispelling power, but if you are going magic heavy, you shouldnt have much trouble dispelling, and if you are going magic light, well, these points are better spent on something that will make you more brutal in close combat.

Staff of Damnation: A good item, as it casts a very good spell at power level 4, meaning your opponent will need to use 2 dispel dice to reilably stop it. It can exaust at the wrong time, and its not quite as good as the book of arkhan (but thats just because if prefer vanhel's to hellish vigour), but if you want to help your magic phase, this is a very good item.

Warrior Familiar: I really dont like this item, as 1 S5 hit is not worth 30 points. Sure, it always goes first, but against uber-tough characters, 1 S5 hit wont do much, and its kinda pointless against rank-and-file, as thats nothing a vampire cant handle.

Book of Arkhan: A fantastic item. A bound spell that casts perhaps the best necromantic spell. Generally, I use dont use this until the second or third turn, when i can perhaps get a charge off with it, and at that point i will use it at the end of the magic phase so that it catches my opponent off guard. In subsequent phases, i will use it first to lure out dispel dice, as he may have dispel dice left over (if i failed to cast my spells) and it will just risk running out of power. The exaustion is a small problem, but this is so cheap that it you wont have lost as many points as you would with the staff of damnation. My favorite arcane item by far.

Black Periapt: A useful little item, as it lets you store dice and is cheap. If you dont use all your dispel dice, or if you have nothing to use that last power die on (though i would always try a 3+ invocation) this is a very useful item. If you have a few extra points left over and have already taken the juicier arcane items on other wizards, this can be very useful, but i would rather take the book of arkhan or staff of damnation if you are just relying on one caster (like a Vampire Lord in Sylvania)

Spell Familiar: If you have 15 points left over, i would spend it on the Black Periapt, but this still can be useful, though the chances of rolling a bad spell in necromancy are slim. Only ever take this on a level 2 caster, as high level casters are guaranteed to roll really useful spells (a level two caster could roll hand of dust and invocation, not a good combo, as you wont be able to switch off hand of dust for invocation, and with a level three or four, you will have at least one more strong spell.)

Enchanted Items:
Another good section, and it has some very strong items.

Rod of Flaming Death: This can be a nasty trick to use, as your opponent must take a panic check after taking even one casualtiy. Agaisnt high leadership armies it might not be worth it, and you do pay for its abilities, but i do think that this can be a very good item. Be carful not to use it until you are sure you are in range, as this will be something that your opponent will save a die for if he knows it is coming (especially if he has low leadership/toughness troops). I would only select this in a magic heavy army (like necrachs) and combine it with the book of arkhan and the staff of damnation just so you have a ton of bound spells to augment your already formidible magic battery. Much screaming and cursing from your opponent should follow .

Cursed Book: This is a very useful item, one which I use often. Try giving this to a wraith and sticking him between a couple of your blocks of infantry. He cant be hurt by flyers and the like, and he will have a good impact on the combats around him. I would rather have this on a character in one of my tar-pit units, as they will be able to hold your opponent in combat longer if he is hitting them on 4's instead of 3's, and this will give your "hammer" and "flanker" units more time get a good charge and crush him.

Cloak of mist and shadows: perhaps useful on a lone necromancer, but i would not reccomend it, as i would rather spend the points on other magic items. Dead useful if the necro is your general, cause he will die really fast in combat. Good in low point games when you dont have a vampire count/lord, but not great when you can use another general.

Talon of Death: This is a very good item to give a wraith on horse, as he will be inflicting a 3 S5 attacks to the models in base to base, plus another 2 from his great weapon, and he cant be struck back. A very strong combo. I would rather give this to a character on a horse, especially a wraith (because he cant be struck back) because of the larger base, but it can be useful on foot.

Casket of Ages: Pure crap. This reminds me of hand of dust, but it only works once a game, is easier to dispel and does not have nearly as good a shot at killing your opponent.

Magic Standards:
We're almost at the end. Hang in there!!

Hell Banner: I would not use this simply because of its cost, but terror is an awesome ability. Though with the ability to cause fear already, i think its too many points.

Banner of Doom: I'm not a big fan of this, as a 5+ ward save is not something i would like to count on, especially for 50 points. The only units that can take this (if you forgo a bsb, that is) are grave guard and black knights, and they dont have too much to fear from missiles, but if you really are attached to your grave guard, this might be a decent pickup, but i would rather the banner of the barrows or the screaming banner.

Banner of the Barrows: What an amazing banner. Having your wights hit on 3+!!! This is simply fantastic. It is probably more useful on black knights (though dont shy away from giving it to your grave guard) simply because they dont have the resolution bonuses (such as ranks) that grave guard do, and realy more on kills to win decisive combats.

Screaming Banner: this is a great banner, as it makes your opponents fear checks much harder, which sometimes will even make it so you dont even have to resort to combat to break his units. Also, it is a useful addition to a unit of grave guard with halberds, because if your opponents hit you on sixes (we are assuming that you dont outnumber them) then you are free to use the halberds and forgo the greater armor save because you wont be hit very often. A slightly cheaper alternative to the banner of the barrows.

Banner of the Dead Legion: For smaller units, this can be useful, only so that you outnumber and get that autobreak. Not too great, but not terrible either. This is pretty cheap, and could possibly have a use on a unit of black knights, but a bsb should never take this, as your main blocks of infantry will hopefully outnumber anyway.

I would just like to say thanks for this great guideline. I was considering playing VC and this sealed the deal. Good job :thumb:

Thanks man this really helped me out, i've been considering VC, and this helped alot in my decision. They seem fun to play ^_^