The dead are rising (New Vampires)

[knight (M.I.A)]

Today I got my spearhead fo the new Vampire Counts and on the first sight they look evil. Really evil. I'll update this thread to keep you up on what to expect against them. And if you should ever play my vampires forget that you read this thread...

I just started with assembly of my first undead and I ahve to admit that the skeletons and grave guard are somewhat dificult to assemble since youonly have small glue spots and that you have to stick them together at their backbones doesn't make things easier

[knight (M.I.A)]

Ok after reading the armybook for some time now and building most of the minis from the spearhead I have news.

First the minis:
All of them are really high quality minis and mold lines are nearly not existent, but I still have some complaints.
Like I already said the Skeletons and Grave Guard are really hard to assemble due to their small gluing spots. Pics of the new minis will follow over the next week.
Also assembling the Corpse Cart is a pain. First its a pain to get the corpses on the cart after you added all structural parts. It barely fits and its also a pain because of all those spikey parts of the corpses. (it really hurts if a hand/spear starts piercing your fingers)
The Dire Wolves are really great minis even if they don't look like it on the GW pics. On the GW pics they look rather funny, but when you hold them in your hands they look more like cold blooded and deadly predators.
The Varghulf, Vlad, the Countess, and the Crypt Ghouls are still in their sprues/box.

Now to the far more interesting parts most of you are perhaps waiting for already. The overview of the units.
So lets see what we have got.

Lords:
Vlad von Carstein: Vlad is a hard to kill lord with good close combat abilities and he is also a good sorceror.

Manfred von Carstein: This is Manfred at the peak of his strength when he was the lord of Sylvania. He is almost as good as a fighter as Vlad and a better sorceror than Vlad, but he dies a lot easier (which doesn't mean easy)

Vampire Counts: Those are the generic lords. Already without any upgrades strong enough to match some of the best lords other species have to offer. They're also proficient sorcerors and they have a lots of points to spend on wargear AND the same amount on Vampire skills. They might be expensive for generic lordsbut like I already said, they have no problems matching named heros and lords of other races.


Heroes:
Manfred the Akolyth: He is the younger version of Manfred. Still a really good hero and a really good sorceror for lower point games. And just because he is mainly a sorceror don't understimate him in CC.

Konrad von Carstein: A my favourite. He is cheap, almost as strong as a vampire count, has great magic items. He only has one big problem. He is totally crazy. Every turn you have to check if he is stupid or frenzied. But hs is still a really great hero for his low cost and if you should ever face him, get something big to get him and to kill him.

Isabella von Carstein: She isn't that good in combat and magic, but she is Vlad's wife. She gets the opponent doulbed victory points if he kills her, but that will give Vlad hatred and frenzy. Another thing is that she is really cheap for a vampire and still better than any normal human.

Necromancers: In the last edition they were your magical backbone, but now they're a magical support unit. Some like it and others hate it. A necromancer is a level 1 sorceror and knows one of the necromatic spells (necromantic spells can be casted as often as you want by one sorceror and target the same unit again and again. I'm planning on using them as healers for my undead units and to strenghten my zombies over their starting size.

Vampires: Oh those guys are great. The generic vampire hero is already strong enough to face most other races lords and has a good amount of points to spent and wargear and again he can spend the same amount on vampireskills again. And you shouldn't forget that his nasty little guy is a sorceror as well. Not a good one, but he can raise the dead.

Wight Lords: Oh those guys are great. They're not as powerful fighters as vampires, but they're tougher than most things of their size in the Warhammer world. Their bonus is their choice as a mount. They are the only hero who can get the special skeletal horses of the Black Knights. For their special rule see the Black Knight entry. So but basically they're tough blockers who can also deal some nice amount of damage.

Core Units:
Zombies: Weak, cheap dump. Most likely you'll only see one block of 20 at the beginning of the game. Don't expect them to be good fighters or anything like that. But expect new blocks appearing everywhere close to you. Flanks, rear, front. Make sure not to get stuck in them since they are only there to block you and tie you so that stronger units can attack your flanks and rear.

Skeltons: Those are the backbone of the vampire counts armies. They're cheap, already dead, somewhat good fighters and have access to magical banners. Expect to see many of them at the beginning of the battle.

Crypt Ghouls: They're as cheap as skletons and better fighters, but they lack the defensive abilities of the skeletons despite their higher toughness. Their big advantage over the skeletons are their poisoned attacks. So watch out those for those guys since they could prove to be a problem for your battleplans.

Dire Wolves: The dead mans light cav. Still as cheap as skeletons but really fast and quite good figters. Only problem with them, they don't count against the minimum core units.

Bat Swarms: Flying and weak swarms that don't count against your minimum core choices. They're not as fast as normal flyers, but they have higher unit strenght in return.

Corpse Cart: Those nasty little things don't count against the minimum choices as well, but are a great support. First they regenerate themselves. They're dead means they cause fear and they have a bound spell which allows them and all units within 6" get first strike and not to forget their two upgrades. Either their strengthen your necomantic skills when raising new zombies or they make it more difficult for enemy sorcerors to cast spells. Those upgrades have quite a nice range. It can also serve as a mount for a necromancer.

Special Choices (now we finally get to the stuff that can fight without costing loads of points):
Grave Guard: Strong defensive and offensive skills. They can exchange their shields for two handed weapons and can take a magical banner. Not much to say about them. Most of the time your vampires will hang around with those guys or the skeletons.

Black Knights:
Ah those medium to heavy cav is nice. Basically they're the same as Grave Guard, just mounted on skeletal steeds. And now to the steeds their best weapon. The steed can't fight that good, but they may move like athearels. Yes you read right, during movement they have no body. So all of you pubny woodelves out there hand over the forests they belong to our cavelry now. Even solid walls are no probem for them. The only thing with them is their price and that they still have to see their target when they want to charge, but still they're on of the best units you can get as a vampire.

Vampire bats: Undead flyers. They fight quite good and can take some damage. Use them to hunt down artillery crews and single sorcerors hiding behind enemy lines.

Ghosts: Etheral swarms. What shall I say about those. They can hurt nearly everyone. And as long there are no magical weapons with the opponent toops they got a problem. You only have to watch that you don't get problems with combat results as those can cause damage to them.

Rare Choices:
Varghulf: You want a hard hitting, fast unit, that doesn't care if it is attacked in its flank or rear? Take the Varghulf. Their only problem is that they have a really low ini. Another advantage of them is taht they count as vampires and therefore allow all units within 6" around them to march.

Wraiths & Banshees:
Wraiths are etheral skirmishers for a really high price and Banshees are their champions. The Banshee also has a ranged attacked. I'm not quite sure what to think about them. On the one hand the Banshee has your only non-magical ranged attack and Wraiths have 3 attacks. But their high price makes them too hard to use since you'll only field 3 or 4 of them at a time. Which leads me to the next unit.

Knights of the Blood Keep: Those guys are mounted vampires. They have perhaps the best non-hero profile. They're frenzied and a really high cost. Time will show how much they'll be used and I think I'll convert me some of them from Bretonnian KotR.

Black Coach: The last of the vampire units. The black coach is a chariot which can absorb the magic of your sorcerors. Every turn you may roll all your magic dice and the coach will absorb every 6 you roll. Also every 6 for magic you roll within 6" to a coach will be absorbed by it . For every 6 it absorbs it gets a new special ability. It can absorb endless amounts of 6s but after 6 abilities but it won't learn new tricks. A chariot with blades, hatred, magicresistence (3), death blow, etheral and flying seems to be pretty scary.

After I played some games, I'll be able to tell you some more.