Vampire Counts Army Composition

This weekend I participated in a small tournament at a local game store.  This is the second one they held this year.  The first had 12 while Saturday had 6 participants.  With these tournaments and other games from campaigns I am going to analyze the VC army build options.

My current army list revolves around an infantry based build with two mortis engines.  I have essentially two combat blocks, one skeleton bus with cairn wraith heroes and a large block or crypt horrors.  From there the list is rounded out with wolves and spirit hosts as chaff.  There is also a unit of vargheists to clear chaff or chase war machines.  This has proved fairly effective at times but can really struggle against some armies.  It lacks the punch to get through a lot of armor consistently.  It seems to do best against infantry armies as the crypt horrors can eat most infantry alive.  They are extremely tough to kill unless it has poison or heave strength flaming attacks.  The wraith wall unit struggles to inflict damage.  Too often they can flub their attacks and the unit just begins to crumble.

Vampire counts seem to be one of the armies still stuck with the core tax.  Right now the only core unit I see a clear purpose for is the Dire Wolf.  They are great redirectors or war machine hunters.  Two units of five always find their way into my list.  Zombies are great at dying and coming back.  Since the overrun rules have changed, they are not quite as good of a tarpit.  To have them last more than one round you will need at least 30 and that might not even be enough.  Skeletons are slight better at sticking around then zombies, but are harder to bring back.  A large block can last quite a few turns in combat, but they really won't kill much.  They can be used as a bus for characters and can carry a magic banner.  Ghouls round out the core as a unit that is quite expensive before they come effective.  They have poison can 2 attacks each so they can hack through lightly armored troops fairly quickly.  Against high armor armies they are worthless and can be an extremely expensive unit. Right now I am leaning to exploring the following core build.  This tops out at 630 for a 2500 point list.  

5 Dire wolves - 40

5 Dire Wolves - 40 

40 Ghouls w/ Ghast - 410

20 Zombies w/ Muso/STD - 70

20 Zombies w/ Muso/STD - 70 

Moving to special, the VC have a wide selection of choices.  Of that I will refrain from commenting on Fell Bats and Bat Swarms as I have never used them.  

Spirit Hosts stand out to me as the first no brainer unit in special.  They are a 45 point drop with 4 wounds that many armies struggle at killing.  I have had many a spirit host capture units of monsterous cav because they failed a break test when I charged them.  

Grave Guard are the VC's elite infantry.  They can pump out the strength 6 attacks when equipped with great weapons.  Due to this I think GW are a must over HW&S for a single point.  If they are going to be ran it is a large block over 30 models.  Also they will probably be toting the Banner of the Barrows for a +1 to hit.  Can be a really nasty unit, but can struggle in the era of monsterous cav.

Black Knights - They are essentially mounted Grave Guard.  Most often they will be used a bus to deliver 2+ vampire characters that will do the killing for the unit.  This is a unit that I don't have much experience with myself, but will be something I probably explore more here in the future.  

Hexwraiths were called a broken unit when they came out.  I don't think that is the case, but they definitely attract a lot of attention when on the battle field.  I think a unit of 5 for 150 points can be a useful tool with a vanguard.   I don't think they can serve a large unit inflicting a lot of damage, because if the enemy has magic attacks, the Hexwraith's will die in the wind.  

Vargheists are the glass cannon unit of the VC.  They can hit like a ton of bricks against a lot of things, but will die easily to most things including ballistic skill shooting.  Being vampiric fliers, they are great at chasing war machines or going after a mage bunker.  I almost have a unit of 3 in my army lists for this kind of thing.  

Crypt Horrors are the epitome of an anvil unit.  They are toughness 5 and have the 5+ regeneration.  When combined with a Mortis Engine they become near indestructible.  On the flip side they have issues killing anything other than infantry.  They do have poisoned attacks, but just cannot punch through the armor that is everywhere these days.  

Where to go with special....I am hesitant to do the typical BK bus build for a few reasons.  I don't want to do the "Net list" and also I don't like putting all of my eggs in that one basket.  The second option I see and used to play around with is the horde of Grave Guard.  This gives me one effective combat unit, but as I write this what I am starting to see is that the VC struggle at putting together more than 1 effective combat unit.  Everyone of the the stereotypical builds only has one effective fighting block.  Creating that second and third threat to the enemy is the challenge that the VC face.  

Moving to rare the options usually boil down to one of two options, the Terrorgheist or the Mortis Engines.  The Terrorgheist is the answer for most everything that the Vampires struggle with.  Two of these beasts can wreck a lot of face, but a couple of cannon shots and they can be easily removed from the board. On the other hand the Mortis Engine makes the rest of the army much more durable and tough to kill.  It also creates the ability to have a powerhouse magic phase with its upgrade. Due to the strengths of the these two choices the rest of them are often overlooked.  A unit that I have never played with, but that really intrigues me is the Varghulf.  It is a 175 point monster with regeneration.  I feel if it was 150 or 160 you might be seeing these a lot more often.  Even with that said there still may be a place for them in the VC army.  I intend to explore this more here in a fast army with multiple threats.  A list with 2 Varghulf's, a unit of Vargheists, a couple of units of crypt horrors, and a unit or two of hexwraiths provides a lot of threats and can actually have some tactical movement options.  

All of this rambling aside, I am interested in what others think might be options for the Vampire Counts.  As mentioned previously, it is something I am frustrated with at the moment, but not an army I want to throw the towel in on.  How would you design a Vampire Counts army list?

Vampire Counts versus Lizardman Campaign Game

This is another battle report for the campaign I am currently taking place in.  This time the combat was against one of the two Lizardman players where he was invading my home lands.  Remember in this campaign only the total list construction has to meet the percentage rules.  Sublists or banners moving around the board due not have to abide by that rule.  His list was as follows:

Skink Priest
15 Skink Skirmishers
15 Skink Skirmishers
25 Skink Cohort w/ 1 Kroxigor
10 Chameleon Skinks

My list was:
Dymtra the Bone Rattler (Master Necromancer)
20 Zombies with Muso/STD Bearer
8 Crypt Horrors
Spirit Host
3 Vargheist
5 Hexwraiths
Terrorgheist

Here is was everything looked like after deployment and the vanguard.  The game was played with the Dawn Attack rules.

VC's 1st turn

I was able to steal the first turn by rolling a 6.  I move the hexwraiths and the vargheists to put pressure on the large cohort.  The Horrors move up to take on the Kroxigor.  The Terrorgheist moves into position to scream away the pesky Chameleon skinks who scout out from the swamp.  In magic he lets the Wind of Death go off but it only kills two skinks.  I raise a unit of zombies and also got off Invocation to grow my bunker out.  He stopped Gaze of Nagash.  The terrorgheist killed 6 chameleons with his scream and they fled away from him.  

 LM 1st turn:

Here his Kroxigor charged my raised unit of zombies and slaughtered them.  They over ran from that. Otherwise he just positioned his cohort to take the Hexwraiths head on.  In magic he casts iceshard blizzard on the hexwraiths.  Then he irresistible forces Thunderbolt killing all 5 hexwraiths.  For the miscast he rolled up the models in base contact one so nothing happened.  He inflicted a wound or two on the vargheist from the skinks.

VC's 2nd

The vargheists charge the cohort which flees but is chased down.  The horrors charge the Kroxigor which also flee and they stumble forward.  He is able to shut down my magic with dice and a dispell scroll this round.  The terrorgheist goes after one of the skirmisher units killing 7.

LM's 2nd Turn

The kroxigor and the chameleons both flee off of the board this turn.  Both units of skirmishers start the retreat.  In magic he rolls three dice up and manages to irresistibly cast Thunderbolt again.  This time with the lore attribute he is able to kill the rest of the vargheist unit.  Once again he rolled up the hits to models in base contact, so he got off for free again.  

VC's 3rd Turn

Not much happens here except the terrorgheist finishes the one unit off.  The horrors charge again but, he flees and ends up running off of the board his next turn.  

Overall, this was a large win for the Vampires.  My force was kitted out for a fight where he was not.  His couple nice magic rolls allowed him to delete two off my units.  

Vampires vs. Ogres Campaign Game

I am not going to diverge the whole contents of the list as this is for a campaign and the other people in the campaign will be reading this.  In general my first list has a unit of zombies with some Cairn Wraiths and Sorin the Rotting(Master Necromancer).  There is a unit of crypt horrors and a unit of hexwraiths.

The Ogre play had a unit of 8 lead belchers with a Firebelly.  A unit of 4 Mournfang Cavalry and sabertusk tiger in his first list.  

Here is the deployment after the vanguard.

Ogre's 1st Turn

He brings on a Ironblaster, a unit of Gnoblars, and a unit for Ironguts with a Slaughtermaster.  He moves he army forward.  In magic he cast the magic missile from the Lore of the Maw killing two hexwraiths.  He focused his fire on the zombie unit with the ironblaster and leadbelchers killing 9 or 10 zombies.  

VC 1st Turn

My second banner arrives with the following.  

- 3 units of zombies

- 2 units of dire wolves

- 2 spirit hosts

- Necromancer (in the Z2 unit of zombies)

- 3 Vargheists

- 2 Terrorgheist

The hexwraiths charged into the sabertusk killing it and overrunning into the Mournfang.  Sorin could not control the winds of magic resulting in a three dice phase and a dispelled Spirit Leech on the Slaughtermaster.  One of the terrorgheist was able to scream 2 wounds off of the Mournfang.  

Ogre's 2nd Turn

Not much happened in the magic phases.  In shooting the Ironblaster hit a Terrorgheist but only inflicted a single wound.  The leadbelchers were able to take 4 wounds off of the other terrorgheist.  The Mournfang used the dragonhide banner to kill of the hexwraiths before they could do any damage to them.  

VC's 2nd turn

I am positioning to combo charge the leadbelchers in turn three with the larger unit of zombies and crypt horrors.  A spirit host charges into the Mournfang to tie them up while the two terrorgheists move up to scream on them.  Their screams did 7 wounds combined to the unit.  

In magic I rolled up four dice and irresistibly casted Purple Sun aimed down the flank of the Mournfang towards the leadbelchers, but the necromancer could not focus the force correcting landing the vortex on himself.   This combined with the miscast killed 16 of the 20 zombies in the unit.  

Ogre's 3rd Turn

In this turn - the magic phase did not produce much.  The ironblaster misfired this turn while the leadbelchers finished off the wounded terrorgheist.  In combat the Spirit host was able to cause a wound and the Mournfang failed their leadership and were chased down by the spirit host.  

VC 3rd Turn

I had a lot of charges this turn.  A unit of wolves and a spirit host charged the gnoblars breaking them and the wolves overran into the leadbelchers.  The Vargheists charged the ironblaster breaking it sending it fleeing through the leadblaster combat.  The crypt horrors and the zombies with wraiths charged the leadblechers.  

Once again the magic phase was disappointing. In the end of the turn the Ogres are severely crippled losing most of their units.  

Ogre's 4th Turn

The ironblaster rallies and other than that not much happened on this turn.  He attempted to cast his level 6 spell but failed.  

VC's 4th Turn

The Vargheist charged in with a unit of zombies to clean up the ironblaster and were able to kill it.  Once again in magic nothing really happened.  

The Ironguts turned and ran on the board in his next turn.  

Summary -

It was an big win for the VC.  The scenario for the campaign  allowed me to start deployment on the right hand side of the table where I knew my reinforcements would be showing up.  I could have spaced out my reinforcements a little better to get bet use out of my terrogheist the first round.   If the Purple Sun did not misfire this game might not have lasted as long as it did since I was able to bring the Necromancer in with the Z2 unit of zombies.  

Introduction

I am creating this blog to serve as a place to share topics on Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  These topics will range from tactica surrounding the game, reviews, a painting log and battle reports.  By no means am I actually an expert on any of these topics, but by sharing them with other people and actually having a place to log these topics, I hope grow and expand my knowledge and skills related to the game and hobby.

Currently, my hobby efforts are going toward building a Vampire Counts army that I acquired when starting the game in November of 2012.  I am close to completing painting on a 2500 point list which would be my first for the hobby.  Beyond the VC, I dabble in making my own terrain for the wargaming table I have built.  A second army of High Elves is starting to be assembled.  This was after a short stint with Orcs and Goblins that never really got off the ground. 

That is enough for now and I hope to post my first battle report in a couple of day.