Vampire Counts @2000 points

Halloween is upon us once again. Here's a quickie list for our favorite blood  suckers for a late night skirmish or three.

• Vampire Lord, L2 wizard, red fury, quickblood, armor of destiny, ogre blade, shield (428pts)
• Wight King, BSB, nightshroud, barded skeletal steed, shield (174 pts)
• 28x Ghouls with Ghast (290 pts)
• 40x skeletons, full command (230 pts)
• 28x Grave Guard, great weapons, full command, banner of the barrows (416 pts)
• 9x Black Knights, barding, lance, full command, screaming banner (289 pts)
• Varghulf (175 pts)

2002 pts total

Vampire lord goes in the GG block, and the Wight King rides with his knight buddies. The weight of number per unit should enable you to survive a round or two of combat to get that Invocation off to replenish the ranks.

Happy Halloween!

Quick WHFB Vampire Counts army list

This is what I do while the baby is taking her nap, I organize undead minions to take over the world. :)

• Vampire Lord [1] w/ Mage Level, Forbidden Lore, Master of the Black Arts, Helm of Commandment, Armor of Destiny, Enchanted Shield
• Wight King [2] BSB w/ Barded Skeletal Steed, Black Axe of Krell
• 10x Ghouls [1] w/ Ghast
• 21x Ghouls w/ Ghast
• 27x Skeletons w/ Full Command
• 20x Grave Guard w/ Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 5x Black Knights [2] w/ Full Command, Royal Standard of Strigos
• Black Coach
• Varghulf

Total: 1990 pts

The rationale behind this army is to keep the lord in his bunker and out of harm's way. The main battle line will consist of the Ghoul, Skeleton and Grave guard units. The black coach, Varghulf and Black Knights will cover the flanks, or launch to harass the opposing flank units.

A drop-in replacement for the Wight King could be a Vampire BSB w/ Waking Death and Dread Knight. Depends on my mood.

Dark Eldar Halloween List

A few years back, I organised a haloween game of 40k. It was imperial guardsmen vs the walking dead. Well not really the walking dead, but they *were* Grotesques , Talos and Haemonculi. It was great fun to have the Grots trot across the board while the Guard were pouring tons of ineffective fire into them.

So here's a 1500 point Dark Eldar Halloween list for the new codex:

• Haemonculi Coven
• 95pts - Haemonculi[1] w/Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun
• 95pts - Haemonculi[2] w/Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun
• Elites
• 185pts - 5x Grotesques* w/Aberration
• 185pts - 5x Grotesques* w/Aberration
• Troops
• 100pts - 9x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• 70pts - Raider, Flicker Field[1]
• 100pts - 9x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• 70pts - Raider, Flicker Field[2]
• 100pts - 10x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• Fast Attack
• 130pts - 5x Scourges w/ 2x Splinter Cannon
• 130pts - 5x Scourges w/ 2x Splinter Cannon
• Heavy Support
• 135pts - Talos Pain Engine* w/ Chain Flails, Additional CCW, Heat Lance
• 135pts - Talos Pain Engine* w/ Chain Flails, Additional CCW, Heat Lance
• Total: 1530pts

*: These units are deployed in the Webway

Is this an effective list? Nope. With only 3 Lances and 2 Heat lances, vehicle heavy lists will be a problem. But to take objectives from infantry, especially after the portals are deployed? Oooh boy, it will mess them up. Feel no pain on most units from the start of the game is going to help immensely. Remember to attach the Haemonculi to the Grotesques after deploying the portal to prevent them going on a rampage.

Happy Halloween!

Comp scoring, or looking out for the lactose intolerant

A friend of mine has recently sent me a copy of the WPS composition scoring system that was used most recently at AdeptiCon 2010. And I must say that I love this document so much that I want to bear its children.

I have been trying to limit the cheese in my army lists, which is a tall order considering the state of the Vampire Counts army list. IoN spamming, Crown of commandment combos, or the million cairn wraith army are but a few of the army list abuses that the VC are known for.

Now I have tried the Jean-Style army list, or consciously avoiding the "power" units like the Varghulf, Lord with Red Fury with the Dreadlance on a Zombie Dragon, or Drakenhof Banner-in-the-Grave-Guard death star unit. None have been quite satisfactory and have left my use of the army wanting for enjoyment. So much so that I have many times stated that I may sell the army.

The WPS system liberates me to use anything that I want, as long as I "pay" for the cheese by using non-cheese units as well. This way I can feel good about unleashing the cheddar since I know that it isn't over-the-top when you consider the army as a whole.

The benchmark for a "balanced" army is 3000 comp points. Rating the army list that I used in the recent campaign , I was presented with a score of 993. Which would confirm my urge to take a shower after the game to wash the stink of fromage off. I *really* don't like WAAC armies. (For the record, I did not win that game either, for my opponent scored a low 1000s in composition as well)

I have since re-tooled the my army to a more friendly 3013 points, so we'll see how that goes. I can already tell that it will be much more fun to play just because I will have to deal with the so-so VC units.

The WPS composition scoring system can be used for any WHFB army out there and I highly recommend it.

The dead will walk this weekend

Campaign turn 4 and possibly turn 5 will happen February 13th, and I hope to switch gears and actually win more than once a year.

For archival purposes and to illustrate the method behind my madness, here is the army list and the plan.

The Walking Dead (Magic: 7PD, 5DD, 2 Scrolls and 2 bound spells):

• Monique deNoir [1]: General, Vampire w/ Infinite Hatred, Beguile, Flayed Hauberk, Sword of Kings
• Eldessa [2]: Vampire w/ Master of the Black Arts, Book of Arkhan, Sword of Might
• Cornelius Barlow: Necromancer w/ 2x Dispel Scrolls, Extra Spell, mounted on a Corpse Cart w/ Unholy Lodestone

The Shambling Horde (1497 points w/ characters):

• 24x Skeletons w/ Champion, Standard Bearer, Banner of the Dead Legion [1]
  
• 24x Skeletons w/ Champion, Standard Bearer, War Banner [2]
  
• 5x Dire Wolves
• 5x Dire Wolves
• 12x Grave Guard w/ Great Weapons
• Varghulf

Ye olde cunning plan:
This is a classic "center presented" formation, with the both skeleton units holding the center and having their flanks guarded by hammer units (the GG and Varghulf). The dogs will be held back and will "fetch" any broken enemy units and run them down. In other words, I want to skeletons to *be* charged and holding for one round of combat. If they cannot autobreak the charging enemy unit, I should be able to bring to bear an attached hammer unit to support the skeletons. This will finish the job and prepping the fleeing unit for the dogs. It's the classic hammer-and-anvil routine. The Necromancer will be trailing the skeleton units to make sure that they are affected by the Miasma of Deathly Vigor.

Of course, I'll be facing Lizardmen and their annoying Engine of the Gods. I plan to ignore it and feed it as many zombies as it wants, well away from my lines.

This brings me to the Magic Phase. I didn't invest in as much magic power as magic spread, all I plan on doing is re-filling ranks of skeletons or feeding new zombies to the Stegadon.

That's the plan in a nutshell, wish me luck!

Monique deNoir

I recently acquired Monique DeNoir, a character from the Dark Heaven model line from Reaper.

The model is very nice (to my eye at least) and a suitable centrepiece for my shambling horde army. I have written her up as a Hero and Lord level character, to represent the experience gained throughout a campaign that I am currently in.

• Monique deNoir, Vampire w/ Infinite Hatred, Beguile, Flayed Hauberk and Sword of Might (or Sword of Kings if I'm not fielding a Wight King) or
  
• Monique deNoir, Vampire Lord w/ Wizard Level, Red Fury, Infinite Hatred, Beguile, Flayed Hauberk, Crown of the Damned, Blood Drinker

Of course she is an in-you-face kind of Vampire, very beautiful when she is angry. Looking out for her well being is her personal retinue of Grave Guard:

• 20x Grave Guard w/ Champion, Standard Bearer w/ Banner of the Dead Legion

She should provide some punch while the Grave Guard back her up with numbers (and the odd killing blow).

Vampires like cheese, except this one.

Vampire counts have been included in what has been dubbed "The dirty three" armies together with Demons of Chaos and Dark Elves. Apparently if you play Vampire Counts in WHFB you're one of "those" players and opponents give you the hairy eyeball.

Striving to keep the lactose out of my army I've come up with some composition rules of my own.

• Use the Jean-style 1/2/3 3/6/9 general composition guideline.
• No unit is to be worth more than 300 points
• Frontline units need to be at least 200 points
• Keep character points to a maximum of 40%, but closer to 30% to avoid HeroHammer labels.
• Not use the Drakenhof Banner
  

Here's an army list that should be fun to use, and more importantly fun to play against.

• Isabella DeLaCroix: Vampire Lord with Wizard L3, Master of the dark arts, forbidden lore, lord of the dead, skull staff, crown of commandment
• Lazarus Mock: Wight King Battle Standard Bearer with Sword of Kings, Gem of Blood riding a barded skeletal steed
  
• Cornelius Barlow: Necromancer: Extra Spell, Black Periapt, Dispel Scroll, riding a Corpse Cart with Balefire
  

And the Army of the Bloodied Cross (Fighting units, and Bunker units)

• 25x Skeletons with Full Command, War Banner
  
• 10x Skeletons with Champion
  
• 10x Ghouls with Ghast
  
• 5x Dire Wolves
  
• 3x Spirit Hosts
  
• 18x Grave Guard with Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
  
• 5x Black Knights with Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Dead Legion
  
• 5x Fell Bats
• The Black Coach

For a total of 2244 points (37% Characters), 8PD, 5DD plus a dispel scroll. This army has a little bit of everything and thus should keep me and my opponent on his toes.