Hi guys,
I am entering a tournament in a few weeks and I was pondering over which Bloodline to take. I have changed my mind countless times whilst constructing my Undead dark elf horde (I HATES dark pansies.....), but I finally settled on the good old Von Carstein.

Talking to a friend of mine who attends tournaments far more regularly than I do, I was a little surprised to find that the vast majority of Tournament armies were led by Blood Dragons (although in hindsight, I should not have been as they are blatantly the most popular bloodline). My thoughts here were that, whilst being something of a combat monster, a Blood Dragon is not the ideal general to take into the highly competitive tournament scene.

Sure, he has the best armour options and can take some nasty Bloodline powers to make him a great character killer, but is that worth the reduced magical power? I don't believe it is: magic is the crux of a Vampire Count army, and anything that reduces it's effectiveness is a Bad Thing. Plus these Blood Dragon players seem to have a tendency to mount their Vampire on something big and nasty, and proceed to run it away from their troops, leaving them unable to march.

So surely it is better to have your Vampire general in with your troops, where his magic and leadership can be used to the greatest effect? This is why I (eventually) chose that most Vanilla of vampires, the Von Carstein's. They have no penalties to their magic or combat potential, and the tasty Bloodline powers make them perfect (in my own view) for tournament play. Walking Death is as effective as an extra rank of troops, and Aura of Dark Majesty makes the army even more mobile.

Strigoi are fantastic if you are expecting to fight many hordes of cheap troops, where they can bump up their combat resolution by slaughtering them with their many attacks. However, I don't like the way they can not be given any additional equipment or magic items, which is a slight handicap compared with the other bloodlines.

Necrarch could work with the "Zombie Horde" idea, althought not particularly good in battle, they can raise a lot of zombies very quickly and swamp the enemy through sheer numbers. Such magical supremacy is balanced by the slightly more fragile nature of the Necrarch Vampire, and I wouldn't feel safe committing him to any kind of combat.

Lahmian's, whilst really cool fluff-wise, just don't have the powers or equipment to make it in tournaments. However , it would be great if someone could prove me wrong!

Anyway, I'm spent. Sorry if this all seems really obvious to some of you, but I am relatively new to VC ^_^ . What do you guys think the best tournament bloodline is, and why?

Cheers,
DLJ

first, you shouldnt be scared to put your necrach in cc, since ws 6(5, 4) is really good(look at those lizardmen) but you should watch it

second how many point you play in that tournament?

if its a 1000 pts battle, red my texte old scare of battle in vamp section

strigoi are really good in 1000pts

I do not think magic will do the trick, a Necrarch is just a little above average human lord in stats. I prefer Blood Dragons because you anyway can have the magic support by necromancers, but a clever general can use Strigoi as well, I believe the best placed vampire count player in Warcon X a great danish tournament used Strigoi. I have no tricks with Lahmia I do not like their blood line powers so other vampires are better. Von Carstein I like too, because of their summon bloodlines, perfect for taking out an anoying warmachine or prevent march moves.

I'd rather put any of the other bloodlines in combat before I put a Necrarch into combat. He should stay out of combat where he can cat spells efficiently, but that would be at the expense of a good fighty character. Hence my preference for Von Carstein.

The tournament I am entering is 2000pts, and I am entering another 2500pts tournament later on this year. I still think Von Carstein have the best tournament potential, and that Lahmians have the least.

DLJ

First of all welcome to the Von Carstein faction. You seem to have a very good idea of what these vampires can do, Von Carstein's can be equally powerful in both combat or magic but more importantly they are the ideal general. That and their fluff was what lured me to their dark ways :P and the fact that Strigoi's models were awful.