Vampire Counts 3000 points

[knight (M.I.A)]

This little army is my first bigger goal. I already got most of the units. They only need to get painted and assembled. I added a small description on their role and abilities since most of you won't know the new vampire rules already, but many may find this useful or might want to add their oppinion how such a force would stand against their favourite armies.

Lords:
Vampire Count: 455 points
Frostblade, Avatar of Death (2 hand weapons), Infinite Hatred Red Fury, additional magic level
This nasty little guy hates everything, may reroll all his to hit rolls, gains an additional attack for every wound he causes, and instant kills. He will be running around with the Grave Guard.

Vampire Countess: 440 points
Skullstaff, Scepter of Noirot, Master of the Dark Arts, Dark Akolyte, Lord of the Dead, additional magic level
This count is basically my caster. Level 4 sorceror with 2 additional magic dice each turn. She can also summon more zombies than normal thanks to the Scepter of Noirot, while the Skullstaff gives her an advantage on casting spells and banning spells. Also Lord of the Dead allows her to summon more skeletons than normal. She will be in the skeleton unit.

Heroes:
Vampire: 180 points
Blood Drinker, Avatar of Death (2 handweapons), Lord of the Ghuls
This nice lady will be hanging around with the Ghouls and boost their live with Blood Drinker and can summon more Ghouls into that unit than normally allowed because of Lord of the Ghouls

Wight Lord: 128 points
Grave Blade, Skeletal Steed, Barding, Lance
My favourite. He is strong, fast and will be riding with the Black Knights.

Necromancer: 90 points
Book of Arkhan
The cheap Necromancer who will follow the skeletons and will hopefully use the Book of Arkhan to cast Vanhel's Dance Macabre quite often.

Necromancer: 205 points
2 Dispell Scrolls, Riding on a Corpse Cart with Unholy Draw
This Necromancer is my caddy and also a good summoner thanks to the Corpse Cart he is on.

Core
Skeletons (20): 200 points
Full Command, Spears
Skeletons are the only solid core choice. Light Armour, Spears, and the Full Command combined with a Necromancer and a Vampire Count should hopefully give me everything I need.

Zombies (20): 88 points
Standard Bearer
This block only exists for blocking and will most likey already reach a size of 30-40 until it meets enemies for the first time.

Crypt Ghouls (15): 120 points
30 poisoned attacks together with a vampire. What else do you want?

Dire Wolves (5): 40 points

Dire Wolves (5): 40 points
The two units of Dire Wolves will stick close to the Varghulf to cause the maximum of damage.

Corpse Cart: 100 points
Witchfire
This corpse cart has nearly the same abilities as the one of the Necromancer. Just that this one makes it harder for the opponent to cast spells. But it can give all your units within 6" first strike like the other one.

Special
Grave Guard (20): 270 points
Full Command
The heavy infantry accompanying the close combat vampire count. Those guys are tough fighters.

Black Knights (15): 460 points
Barding, Full Command
This unit will hopefully irritate the enemy and cause a lot of damage. Their ability to ignore difficult and impassable terrain during the movement phase will be a great advantage. They might not be as powerful fighter like the Knights of the Bloodkeep, but they'll do their job...

Rare
Varghulf: 175 points
Fast speed, combined with hight strength, toughness, and regeneration will prove to be a pain on the flanks. It also counts as a vampire and has no flanks and rear side for combat. So from whereever you charge, it will treat you as front side and can't therefore be surrounded.

[Deleted]

Wow. That would tear apart my wood elves and most armies. I didn't realise Vampires were that expensive. I don't know what armies you play against but at 3k you only have one unit of skeletons which as you said are the only solid core choices, but even with necromancer assistance the unit will get wittled down pretty quickly. My next point is that your necromancers are pretty easy targets for waywatchers and like units. Apart from that i think the list rocks, and i think its good someone finally posted a fantasy list, i wasn't sure if we were allowed. Also thanks for slipping in the special rules and stuff.

[knight (M.I.A)]

Actually they're the only solid core choice that has a good armour and counts against your minimum core choices. Ghouls are more of a breaker unit with their loads of poisoned attacks and Dire Wolves don't count against the minium units. Well and zombies are zombies and will only have the opponent get stuck in them.

You shouldn't forget that the main spell for raising the dead is the "Invocation of Nehek" which counts as a necromantic spell and can be casted several times by any sorceror and can target the same unit again and again. IE the caster vampire can use all its magic abilities to cast the Invocation several times to strengthen the unit over its initial size. Also the fact that the Corpse Carts can use their bound spells to give my troops first strike. If you want to stop my magic you'll need loads of dispell scrolls and banning dice.

The army includes:
1 level 3 Vampire Count
1 level 4 Vampire Countess
1 level 1 Vampire
2 level 1 Necromancers

The Invocation of Nehek is a 4+ spell that can be casted several times...
Additional in that army I have 2 times the Corpse Cart bound spells, 1 Vanhel's Dance Macabre bound spell. The Corpse Cart of the necromancer give all my attempts to raise dead within 6" a nice bonus.


and never forget: ALL UNDEAD CAUSE FEAR OR EVEN WORSE, TERROR!

Edit: Tonight I'll test that army in a little game. I'll have to proxy most units, but that's the only way to see how it works. I'll tell you the results tomorrow.

[knight (M.I.A)]

Its over and my vampires finished the first game. The Empire was stronger than expected and we agreed on a draw.

Some things I found out:
- Nothing can withstand my CC count and I should consider dropping his magic level. It doesn't matter that much if he is level 3 or 2. Most of the time he only raised new undead, if he casted spells at all.
- My caster count is deadly as well, but not that much in direct CC (which doesn't mean that she can't handle most heroes). She can get through all spells and proved to be a pain for my opponent more than once. He had to think about her all the time. Either he banned the Corpse Cart bound spells and other bound spells, and had not much left for banning the spells from my caster vamp or most of the cheap spells got through but he could try to ban my countess's spells.
- even normal vampires can take on most foes thrown at them. together with the 15 Crypt Ghouls I had quite a nice breaker unit.
- the Wight Lord and Black Knights worked once, but after that he knew what to do and the got stuck in CC.
- Necromancers aren't that great. I'm considering to drop one.
- I need more Skeletons. They're good and look nice on the battlefield. The survived long enough to give buy me some time. That a vamp and Necro were accompanying them surely helped a lot.
- Zombies die all the time, but as fast as they die they normally get raised again. Totally unable to hurt a thing, but you can't ignore them for their low price. Also the only unit that can be summoned into new units. And those units can become really annoying if summoned 1" away from enemy units...
- Crypt Ghouls I love them. 2 poisoned attacks from one dirt cheap mini. Ok their lack of armour isn't that good for their health, but just try to assault/have corpse carts near/use Vanhel's Dance Macabre on them/boost their health and they'll rip through a lot of things.
- Dire Wolves work really nice and I should consider takingmore of them. They're fast, cheap, and deal some nice damage if attacking enemy flanks.
- Grave Guard wasn't that good, but that was perhaps I rolled no death blow attacks for them the whole game...
- Black Knights: Oh so great even if my opponent reacted on them really well. Their ability to ignore terrain and have death blow attacks makes them really attractive. And they only cost less than the half of a Knight of the Blood Keep...
-Varghulf: I need a second of those beasts. It took ages for my opponent to bring it down and it dealt lots of damage

Most of the vampire units are rather fragile, but there are also some who'll really annoy the crap out of your opponents (Varghulf, Knights of the Blood Keep, Vampires of all kind, Black Coaches, and all kinds of Wights).