DLJ, would it be possible for you to post the Vampire army you are taking to the tournament?? Just interested, since I have seen King Ulrik and Owaria's lists and have commented on theirs already.....

Sure thing. I thought for a minute that you would be going along with us, which would have been cool. Anyway, here is the list.

Janus Turkov, Strigoi Vampire Count. Level 2, Curse of the Revenant, Summon Ghouls, Iron Sinews. (340 pts)

Kryss, Necromancer. Level 2, Book of Arkhan, Dispel Scroll. (150 pts)

Jain Turkov, Strigoi Vampire Thrall. Summon Ghouls, Iron Sinews. (125 pts)

Ah'Mhandarr, Wraith. Great weapon, Cursed Book. (140 pts)

23 Skeletons. Spears, shields, light armour, full command. (278 pts, Janus with this unit)

23 Zombies. Standard, musician. (153 pts, Jain with this unit)

5 Dire Wolves. (50 pts)

5 Dire Wolves. (50 pts)

8 Ghouls. (64 pts)

8 Ghouls. (64 pts)

6 Ghouls. (48 pts)

20 Grave Guard. Hand weapons, halberds, shields, heavy armour, full command, Screaming Banner. (370 pts, Kryss with this unit initially)

20 Grave Guard. Hand weapons, shields, heavy armour, full command, War Banner. (315 pts, Ah'Mhandarr with this unit)

7 Black Knights. Lances, shields, heavy armour, barded nightmares, full command, Banner of the Barrows. (252 pts)

3 Fell Bats. (60 pts)

Black Coach. (200 pts)

Banshee. (90 pts)

TOTAL: 2749 pts

A nice strong combat infantry core, with plenty of auxullaries and not insubstantial magical support. All army lists are vetted before the tournament, and extreme lists like the 17 Power Dice Tzeentch army are rejected outright, so I shouldn't be facing anything particularly sick. So, young Boris: what do you think?

Cheers,
DLJ

Looks pretty good. 2750 seems a good points value for a Vampire army: lets you take just about one of everything. The only things I would say:

7 seems a bit of a random number for a Black Knight regiment. Increase to 8, or 10 if possible.

Take an additional Fell Bat so you at least outnumber any war machine crews you get an opportunity to charge.

Since the Wraith is going in a Grave Guard unit, I would consider replacing him with a Wight Lord with the usual combo. Maybe even swap some banners around so the Wight Lord's unit hits on 3s.

My personal character choices in a Strigoi army would be a flying Vampire Lord, with a Necromancer and 1 other character. I woud use the Lord's batform to allow him to pick his fights - choosing combats that can be won quickly. Then again, I've never played with Strigoi before, so have no idea how this tactic would work. Looks good in theory though...

I like Spirit Hosts, though to be honest, I don't know which special choice I would remove to take one. All in all, your special selections are probably better...

As usual, very magic-lite... :)

Who're Chris and Amanda?? :P

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7 is an OK number, actually. They're probably going to be all in 1 rank, so maybe they take 2 casualties. Their frontage can still remain decent. If all of them survive, then 1 or 2 will tend to be out of combat, but how often does that happen to Black Kernigghets anyway, people just love shooting them down. 6 or 7 seems fine to me.

I would tend to agree on the Fell Bats, but that's because mine are always getting shot to bits. My Bats also need gym training desperately. They haven't caused a single wound for the last 4 games I've played :fight:

2750? Interesting tournament.

Derfel has the right of it, the Black Knights are intended to be deployed in one long line, but not just so they can sustain a few casualties. In my experience at tournaments, people deploy their units in quite deep formations to maintain their rank bonus, which makes a nice big target for a flanking unit of Black Knights. It shouldn't be *too* hard to get all seven knights into base-to-base.

This is actually going to be the first time I've used Fell Bats, so I don't really know what I'm doing with them. Not planning on going war machine hunting with them unless absolutley necessary: that's what Summon Ghouls and the Dire Wolves will probably end up doing. Instead, I plan to fly them around behind the enemy, and charge any fleeing units that escape my main battleline into oblivion or off the board.

I'm not changing the Wraith, I like my model too much. Plus, the Cursed Book is too much of a useful item that facilitates my tactics perfectly, so I don't want to drop that for the Sword of the Kings, however good 5+ KB may be!

I like Spirit Hosts, but they tend to burn very quickly in most games I have played with them. Plus, as you've said, there isn't an obvious choice to drop for them.

Only take a Bat Form Count/Lord if you are going down the Flying Circus route (or you're playing 3000 pts or more). It's all fine and dandy being able to choose your combats, but one bad round from your Count/Lord, or if a couple too many zombies die, your Count/Lord is going to go pop. Which obviously has a detrimental effect on the rest of your army. Plus it leaves him vulnerable to a lot of spells and artillery, and not being able to restrain pursuit due to Hatred could put him in a nasty, nasty position. I have at a previous tournament used a Bat Form thrall to great effect however, but for your general you need to be a lot more cagey, so as not to die from Combat Resolution.

Oh yeah, Chris is the name given to Owaria by whatever it was that spawned him, and Amanda is one of the female players at my local club. She doesn't know that she is a wraith in my eyes, and hopefully she won't find out....

2750 is a strange points value for a tournament, but it gives you much appreciated flexibility. You can find a load of information about BritCon at the British Historical Gaming Society website in the events section. You see, it is a real tournament!

Cheers,
DLJ

... Is it Amanda Rutter???

Haha, you're not being very charitable to Chris... then again, a Strigoi has no business being charitable :)

About the Bats... frankly, I'm very surprised that you've never used Bats before. Your intended use for them is known to me, but it's like a secondary use for Bats in case I meet a list with no war-machines. Similar to what Furies are used for in Chaos armies, when they face opponents with no war-machines.

However, with 2 sets of Summon Ghouls, I see your point. There's no point in using the Bats that way unless you really have nothing else.

It is indeed Amanda Rutter of WPS fame. Don't tell her she's a wraith. I want to be able to walk at the tournament. Owaria doesn't mind. He gives me as good as he gets, we've known each other for years and just have that kind of comradely banter going on.

I've never used Bats because I've never had the models for them. I've always used Summon Ghouls instead. I'm taking the view of their role as War Machine hunters as a secondary one, with the chasing down of dangerous fleeing units being their primary role. We'll see how it goes and I'll report back on what I find.

The deadline for lists was yesterday, so there's no going back on what I have posted above now!

Cheers,
DLJ