The Vampire General - Corpse Cart

In our continuing series of investigations into the vampire counts army, we come to the corpse cart. A relatively new addition to the vampire counts army, (or a really old one reinvigorated, depending on how long you've been playing) the corpse cart is an interesting choice, if relatively fragile. Behold the stats:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I    A    LD
4   2    0   2  4   2   1  2D6   7

Special rules are: undead, miasma of deathly vigour and regeneration. It can carry either an Unholy lodestone or Balefire. More on these options later.

It's a support unit which doesn't count toward your core allowance. It's a mount option for your necromancer, but honestly it doesn't offer him enough protection and takes up valuable character points. While it does get thunderstomp, it isn't a combat unit. It's most valuable use is buffing your units and as a dispel dice soak.

Miasma of deathly vigour is a bound spell (3) giving Always Strikes First until the start of the next magic phase. This can work nicely with a vampire with the nightshroud. However, with most undead infantry units it is of little consequence whether they strike first or not, but it is useful to hamstring units that normally do have ASF, like high elves. It might also be useful for blunting those ogre charges.

Balefire can be very useful, (-1 to enemy casting rolls for casters within 24") but I think to really get the most out of this you need two corpse carts. -2 to all casting rolls can be really annoying. To an army that relies on the magic phase and includes units who are impervious to mundane attacks, this is a good choice. Getting both carts within 24" of the enemy caster can be a little tricky, however.

The unholy lodestone grants an additional wound to targets of Invocation of Nehek within 6" of the cart. It's quite meh, unless you have ethereal units (it won't heal vampire units) within it's 6" range. It's irrelevant how many lodestones you have in range too, you still get only 1 additional wound. Now, if it healed vampiric units...

Overall, the corpse cart seems really useful until you look under the hood. It's almost worth taking, and I'm sure there's a build out there it might work well in, but for me, the points are still best spent elsewhere. Shame, as I love the model. Perhaps if the new army book improves the core choices it might be a more viable option.

The Vampire General - Bat Swarms

Ah, the humble bat swarm, one of the most rarely used units in the vampire counts army, and with good reason, for they have little use in any list I can think of.

 Redirectors, you say! Well, at 35 points each, I'd happily take one spirit host (65pts) or four fell bats (80pts) for two bat swarms (70pts) any day. But, Mr Saturday, they're fast, you holler in hoarse desperation. True, they have Swiftstride, but again, our spirit host is as fast on average with movement 6, and the fell bats, they fly as well. Aha, you thunder, triumph in your eyes, they can hunt war machines. Weeelll....technically, yes. However, with strength and toughness 2, they may hold up a machine for a turn or two, but I doubt they'll destroy it. They may pass on some nasty disease to the crew, certainly a painful scratch or two, but that won't help your vampire lord with the cannon ball tombstone. At least they use up core points, you scream, tears rolling down your face. Nope, sorry, they don't count toward core points.

Now, pull yourself together, and we'll go through the motions. Here's the stats for our ineffectual little critters:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
1   3    0   2  2   4  1  4   3

Yes. Rah-hu-ba-hish. They are also a swarm, but as undead don't use the squish rules, using unstable instead.  Now, again, the main value of these guys would be as redirectors and general irritation. Yes, they have 4 wounds, the fell bats have only 2. But you almost get two fellbats per base of bats. As for spirit hosts, they are almost two bats per base of spirit host, and they are ETHEREAL, which will stop anything short of a magic cannonball. So, in the support unit stakes, the bats come out poorly. So poor, in fact, that there really is no need to elaborate much further. The only real use I can see for bats are screening. They can soak up more damage than a fellbat, and you get two (almost) for one spirit host, so they can cover more space, BUT, with true line of sight this is of dubious value against shooting.

So, a big thumbs down from the vampire general. Next up, the corpse cart.

The Vampire General - Dire Wolves

Not many units in Warhammer are so well named as dire wolves, as they are indeed quite awful. The are no longer fast cavalry, they are now warbeasts. Also, as undead, they cannot flee. They are fast, but once they are out of range of the nearest vampire, they cannot march, though you can put a vampire in the unit.  So, pretty bad. They also don't contribute to your core allowance.

But now that we are a little ways into 8th edition, I'm thinking of letting the wolves out of the cabinet. Here's the stats:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
9   3    0   3  3   1  3  1   3

As you can see, they are quite poor, low strength, toughness, meh initiative and paltry leadership. Incredible movement though. The special rules are they are undead, and as warbeasts, they get swiftstride.

I used to use them quite a bit in previous editions, mainly as a distraction unit, and as war machine hunters when the opportunity presented itself. Now, in 8th ed, a fast flanking unit that can take out war machines is getting more and more appealing. They fall into the same category as fell bats and bats, but fell bats eat into your special allowance, which I need for more lethal units like grave guard, and they are a little stronger and tougher than bats. 80 points gets you 10 wolves, so not too bad, either 2 units of five, fragile but adds to deployment and gives your enemy two targets, or a more durable unit of ten. You can raise them, and increase their numbers with the vampire power Summon Creatures of the Night.

Banners & Buffs
These boys are affected by all the usual buffs, but as they operate ahead of the lines, and there are more important units to buff, I wouldn't plan on getting many augments on these lads.

Bunker

They make quite a good mobile bunker for a mounted necromancer or casting vampire you don't want caught. With true line of sight, you can pop the unit behind you line and cast over your minions heads. This, of course, works both ways, but then, I've had cannons snipe my vampire when he was in a unit of infantry behind another unit of infantry, so what the hell.

Support
Vargulfs make good team mates for dire wolves. Both are fast, the vargulf has the vampire rule, allowing the wolves to march. This gives your opponent pause when targeting the vargulf. 'Maybe the wolves might be easier to kill? Oooh, charge of 18"? Hmm, I better kill them first.' Anything that takes the heat off the vargulf is good news. I wouldn't tend to attack infantry blocks, even in the flank or rear, with wolves. They will only get murdered, and give more combat resolution to the enemy unit. Think easy prey, vulnerable archers (watch out for stand and shoot) and war machines.

With so many undead units being ponderous, or fast but expensive, a fast, cheap, irritating unit worrying at the enemy flanks is all good. But they are supermegazord fragile. I plan on running a unit of ten with two vargulf as a flanking force. We'll see how that goes.

Here boy!

The Vampire General - Ghouls

The third core choice under scrutiny is the rockstar is vampire counts core infantry in 8th, the ghoul. It's hard to consider any other core when you compare them to this poisoned madman. Though they lack any kind of armour, they can dish out the hurt. They can also be raised up, making up for that lack of armour. Let's sit down with our insane cannibal and get to know him better.

Ghouls - taste like chicken
Essentially devolved cannibalistic humans, ghouls have been shifted about quite a bit down the editions. From ranked unit, to skirmishers, back to ranked again, it's been a windy road. In 8th, they have become the new hotness for vampire counts core, though their star has been much in the ascendancy since the release of the last vampire counts book. Now classed as undead they no longer flee at the first harsh word, and are able to be raised, which is excellent. They cause fear and are unbreakable, but suffer from crumble like any other undead unit. So, why ghouls? Let's see the stats:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
4   3    0   3  4   1  3  2   5

Ghouls have poisoned attacks, and no equipment options. Also, no access to command apart from the ghast champion. As you can see, the ghoul is above average in a couple of areas. Toughness 4 makes up somewhat for the lack of armour. It's the two poisoned attacks that tickle my fancy though which is good, as they only have strength 3. This gives ghouls the ability to really smack high toughness enemy units right in the gob. With a standard 5 model wide unit, you have 16 attacks with the ghast. Not bad. Go horde on that, and you're looking at 41 potential attacks. This is the same as a horde of spear armed skeletons, but you're swapping the armour for poison. It takes an extra rank of spears to get to 41 attacks, so the unit will cost more (skeletons with spears are 9 points, ghouls 8)

Bunker
Ghouls operate well with a character. Any vampire slumming it with the ghouls would do well to take the Summon Ghouls vampire power. I don't tend to use them to hide necromancers, as skeletons are more survivable with light armour and a shield. Ghouls need to be going into combat.

Banners & Buffs
A great match-up is with the bsb. Gasp! Yes, the grave guard are not the only unit the bsb hangs out with. This gives them a standard, makes crumble less awful, and, sometimes the Drakenhof banner can really mess up someone's day. I've seen my regenerating ghoul unit take down a fantastic amount of enemy units. Just watch those flaming attacks.

Good old shadow magic is a good one to help these guys. The Enfeebling Foe or The Withering will help their naked asses stay alive a little longer


Support
Ghouls are a good team-up with grave guard. If you can hold the enemy in place with the grave guard, the ghouls are just the thing for a flank attack. If you intend to use them this way, 20 is probably plenty, but my ghouls units are usually 30. This is about as classic a hammer and anvil as you'll see.

Ghouls don't do well in protracted combats unsupported. Watch for dwarves, chaos warriors and dwarves of chaos. That said, get a corpse cart giving them asf, vampire summoning more ghouls or Vanhels giving them re-rolls will all help tremendously. Anyone out there who plays vampire counts knows that there are few undead who can do it without some manner of magical help.

Ghouls are great for dishing out stinky hurt, something I was unused to with my core, but they melt away fast due to having no save so don't let them get bogged down. In 8th, it's an unusual vampire army that has no ghouls in it.

The Vampire General - Skeletons

The second in the series of my wee journey through the denizens of the vampire counts army. Next up, my old friend the skeleton warrior. I love these guys like the silent and emaciated brothers I never had, but 8th has treated them roughly. Let's look at how our bony servant has done under the new rules.

Skeletons - loyal to the end
Not as rubbish as zombies, skeletons are still poor quality troops. Low weapon skill and initiative make them poor fighters, but they do have average strength and toughness. They cannot be raised past their starting numbers unless you take Lord of the Dead on one of your vampires.Their main strengths are they cause fear and are unbreakable, which are quite tasty. They also have some reasonable equipment options.  However, the undead break test rule does mean they dissolve away quicker than good intentions. Here's the stats for our faithful minion:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
4   2    2   3  3   1  1  2   3

So, how do we field skeletons in 8th? As always with this edition, all infantry core are going to be compared to ghouls, especially as ghouls and skeletons cost the same points, 8. Skeletons are by no means the combat fiends ghouls are, but they do have access to full command (which I would always include) and have more equipment options. There are a number of ways to configure them.

Spears
Spear armed skeletons get three ranks of attack, in a horde four. That's a potential 41 attacks with a champion from a horde of skeleton spearmen. 41 attacks from skeletons, propably needing 4+ to hit, will get you an average 20 hits. After that, taking as our example the Empire greatswords, once again, you have S3 v T3, so 10 wounds. Chances are, after the greatswords 4+ save, you get 5 casualties. Not epic, but okay. They also come with light armour and shields so that's a 5+ save. Not bad, but against our greatswords, useless. I think whatever way you field skeletons, if they are to be a combat unit you need at least 30, and 50 - 60 would not be unreasonable. A skeleton spear unit would be a good anvil unit.

Sword and Shield
This gets the skeletons the all-important 6+ ward save. As great weapons are the new black, this is a good choice, as they skellies 5+ save will be about as useful as pouring a bottle of spring water into a volcano. Again, go large on the unit. A horde will get 31 attacks (presuming a champion is there), so our greatswords will be taking 3 casualties on average. Sucky, but the ward save the skeletons get will keep them on their feet longer. Just watch those flanks. Another good anvil. Frankly, skeletons don't do hammer.

Bunker
A small unit of skeletons can provide a nice bunker to shield a necromancer of vampire, and provide that super fabulous 'Look out Sir!' roll. I just love the image of a skeleton flinging himself across his beloved vampire master screaming that. More likely the skeleton would find himself picked up and flung at the oncoming projectile. The reason sword and shield skeletons would provide a better bunker than ghouls is again, the save. Though, granted, ghouls have better toughness.

Banners & Buffs
Skeletons do also have access to magic banners, which can tailor them a little more. There are 13 banners available for 25 points or less, so a good spread from magic resistance 1 to flaming attacks. They can also be buffed by spells (lore of death or shadows works well to weaken opponent units) or items. The corpse cart can give them always strikes first, and Vanhels can give them 8 inches movement, including charging or always strikes first and re-rolls to hit. The Helm of Commandment can sort out that bothersome low weapon skill.

Skeletons are one of my favourite units, but again, the ghouls, even without a save or access to standards or musicians, generally beat them to my list. I do think there is room for them in 8th, but it depends on your tactics and play style. They seem best suited to an anvil role, so personally it would be a big old block (50+) of sword and shield lads.

The Vampire General - Zombies

8th edition has changed things more wildly than I think most of us expected. Changes like not needing to measure ranges has seen the demise (literally) of the ridden monster for anyone who doesn't want their lord smashed off the back of his pulped dragon. Steadfast has meant units are now a good chunk bigger than before (way to sell those minis, gw) but I like this rule all the same. Infantry is king, followed by queen magic and prince artillery.

I happen to think 8th ed is the best edition of fantasy in a long time. We need a few army books under our belts to see if this bears out, but orcs and goblins looks to be a good start. What does all this mean for the forces of the undead? Here's my two cents, as the vampire general puts his feet up, takes a sip from a mug of hot blood (for blood see tea), and ruminates over 8th.


Zombies - the old men of warhammer
Zombies are, without a doubt, totally rubbish at fighting. Totally. Rubbish. Think of a ninety year old man armed with a wet hankie. Who has a cold, and who has lost the hankie. That rubbish. With WS1, S2 and T2, the zombie couldn't win an argument. Which is also no surprise, as his LD is 2. Here's the stats:

M WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
4   1    0   2  2   1  1  1   2

Special Rules
Shambling Horde. A unit fleeing from zombies takes d6 S2 hits for every rank of 5 zombies.
The Newly Dead: No characters can join the unit, Invocation of Nehek raises D6+4 zombies.

Impressive, no? No. So, seeing as our pathetic bag of skin isn't a combat monster in the same way Darth Vader wasn't big on sand people, what the hell use is he? The answer is, it depends. Let's have a look.

The Horde
Perfect you say. A horde of zombies, what could be better. You can take, say, 60 zombies for 240pts. Add a musician and standard. That's 252pts. It's not THAT cheap, considering how pants these guys are. The psychological value of 60 zombies is significant, for sure. Player will not want to tie up elite units fighting these pussbags for the game. But they are not as big an obstacle as once they were. Steadfast might be great for the living, but it means nowt to zombies, who happily crumble despite outnumbering the opponent if they lose combat. And they will lose combat.

In 7th ed, zombies were the ultimate tarpit. Who cares that they never got a hit in, 30 zombies could tie up a unit for the whole game. Now, with step-up, supporting attacks and steadfast, not so much. Say our 60 zombies charge 25 greatswords with full command, no magic banner. That's 280pts, only 28pts more than the 60 zombies. The greatswords strike last, so our undead pals hit first. WS1 v WS4 means 5+ to hit. If the front rank of the greatswords is 5 wide, 21 zombies can attack. We're looking at 7 hits on average. So to wound. S2 v T3. That's 2 or 3 hits. Let's round up to 3. The greatswords have a 4+ save, so again, being generous, we're talking 2 casualties. Not great from 21 attack, but as we said, zombies ain't paid to kill stuff. Now it's the greatswords turn to avenge Hans and Helmut. They need to check for fear, but with LD8, they have a good chance of passing. Assuming they have 11 attacks at WS4, that's 3+ to hit. That's 8 hits, rounding up. S5 with greatweapons against T2, that's 2+, that's 7 wounds. 7 dead zombies. The greatswords CR is 11. The zombies is 7. They beat the zombies by 4, so 4 more crumble. That's 49 zombies left. That'll keep the greatswords busy. Now would be the time to hit them with a flank charge. Against single attack elites, zombies not bad. Try that against say, ogres. A unit of 6 bulls (260pts) can dish out 19 attack, plus stomp, plus bull charge if they get the charge in. You could lose your 60 zombies in 2-3 turns.

You can bolster the zombies with magic. Invocation of Nehek and Vanhels will help matters. These are power dice that might be better spent elsewhere though. The Helm of Commandment can help. All the zombies will do is tie up units, they won't beat the opposition. With the changes to fear, even if they do, the enemy may not run. Ultimately, zombie hordes are a points and power dice sink.

Raising the Dead - distraction and redirection
If zombies have a role in 8th, this is it. Using raise dead to attack war machines and distract dangerous units is very useful, but remember, even 5 zombies cost you 50 victory points if they are destroyed. The Sceptre de Noirot is useful here. Redirection is where it can really pay off. Getting those frenzied or elite units off your back for a turn can mean the difference between winning and losing. Again, this all costs precious, precious power dice, but at the right moment our zombie pals can save the day by taking one for the team.

Fattening deployment
adding units of zombies to increase your deployment units is useful, but costs 80pts per unit, so not something I'm a fan of.

So, it seems zombies uses are limited, but they are not totally defunct. Most vampire counts players will plump for more ghouls, and I have to say, despite my love of the humble zombie, even though they do have access to musicians and standards, I'd be in agreement.

List Building in Warhammer 8th edition

This post's topic is once again brought to you by Kuffeh, from The Trading Post. It's a biggie, and known to spark more than a little controversy when meta-gaming comes into it: list building.

For myself, my list revolves primarily around a narrative. I often have a back story emerging for an army when I make the list, and my choices will reflect this, within reason. I don't necessarily begin with any particular section. I'll add a character, some core, a special, go back and maybe give the character an item, and in that way slowly massage the list into shape. I do, of course, consider tactics, which will on occasion jar with my theme for the army. A good example of this is my angst about skeletons which is gone into in more detail here.

This is not the way to go when preparing for a tournament, so most of my lists would be considered 'soft' lists, but then, when the top tables reasonably consistently feature the same armies in roughly the same configurations, I think there are other problems. What I love to see is an oddball army or list winning a tourney. I find some players approach to list building a little soulless, if I am honest. They pick what is regarded as a top tier army, then calculate the list that will earn them victory regardless of theme or cheese content. (This is fine, if you like that kind of thing.) They calculate percentages for amount of hits translating into wounds yadda yadda. For me, no. I want to try to attach a little emotive connection to the army, which is hard when all they are is a bunch of probabilities.

And so, meta-gaming. You may have guessed, I'm not all that into it. Yes, you can't ignore new units and rules as they come into the game in general, but I generally design a list independent of consideration about what opponent I might be facing, and to be frank, most times I don't know anyway, as there are usually a bunch of folks to choose from. I guess, it's about your attitude to gaming. If you have a single regular opponent and you are both designing lists to overcome the other, all is well. This might even have some theme introduced into it. Dwarf miners in a list built  to fight skaven in a game set underground, for example. But if you pop into a store, game-centre or dank cave with a list and your opponent builds one on the spot to counter your particular faction/list, knowing your army is a general list, I say NAY!

The question is, is it fair? I want to beat my opponent into the turf knowing we had a balanced (and also fun) game. Call me a dreamer.

Vampire Counts - Dusty Skeletons

I think I really like 8th ed. The more I play, the more I think this. It's a much more flowing game. Magic can have a big impact, but I think it balances out. The new rules for moving, charging, terrain, fleeing and so on are all big improvements in my opinion. I do wish there were more detailed rules for buildings, but it's not a big gripe.

But that's not what this post is about. There is one thing that 8th has backed me into a corner over, and I'm not crazy about. My skeletons are getting dusty.

Bear with me here.

As I have mentioned before, I'm quite the lover of theme and narrative in my games. I play vampire counts. For me this means trudging hordes of ragged skeletons and stinking zombies silently bearing down on the terrified enemy. With the new edition, and, to be honest, the most recent vampire counts book, it's all about ghouls. I have been sucked into this too. When you compare the stat line of a ghoul vs a humble skeleton (with whatever weapon configuration) you come to the conclusion that the ghoul is the man if you want to hurt people in combat. Two poison attacks and toughness four? Sign me up. My ghouls have performed great, actively winning combats. I'm not used to my core winning combats as a vampire counts player.

But for all my joy at my naked madmen tearing up the enemy, I miss my skeletons. I've racked my brain trying to come up with a unit of bonemen that compares (though the extra command options are worth consideration), but to no avail. This is one situation where my desire to win games is competing with my preferences for the theme of my army. Also, having two core units (at least) that are effectively redundant is not good. It troubles one.

I haven't abandoned my search for the effective skeleton warrior, but for now, it's all about the cannibals.

Vampire Counts - Ghouls & Gulfs

I've been having great success in 8th edition with a list I trotted out in my first game of 8th. So much so I've generally decimated my opponents, bar one almighty beating at the hands of an ogre army, which was a steamroller. Now, in retrospect, there were a few rules that weren't played correctly that game, but even so I don't know if I would have held out. However, I still haven't been able to justify changing the list much.

I field a caster lord with forbidden lore, master of the black arts and summon ghouls as well as the talisman of preservation, armour of silvered steel, biting blade and the ironcurse icon. Two units of thirty ghouls, bsb with Drakenhof banner, infinite hatred and supernatural horror leading one of the ghoul units. Twenty grave guard with wight king with sword of kings, (his most notable kill being a dwarf lord, ah delicious memories) banshee with three wraiths, fifteen skeleton spearmen with necromancer with dispel scroll and two vargulf.

I'd like a bigger unit of grave guard, but it's hard to find the points in this list. The spearmen are just to ferry the necromancer. The vargulf have proven themselves over and over again. Using two gives me a lot of manoeuvring power, and they generally stick close to each other. The bsb in the ghoul unit. Most folks field the Drakenhof banner in a grave guard unit, and this is cool, but I find ghouls with regeneration can stand up to almost anybody when they are led by a vamp. The terror from the supernatural horror for the bsb, the banshee and the vargulfs usually sends one or two units running every game. The only unit that I'd like to beef up is the lord's ghoul unit, but summon ghouls generally makes up for that.

I have been considering a new lord. Frost blade, Red fury and infinite hatred, stick him beside the bsb. Think of the possibilities...