2,000 Vampire Counts competitive list

[Lancaster]

Vampire Lord:

-Dark Acolyte
+1 magic level
-Flayed Hauberk
-Master of the Black arts
-Sword of Battle

Vampire:

-Infinite Hatred
-Walking Death
-Helm of Commandment
-Flayed Hauberk


Necromancer:

-Invocation of Nehek
-Raise Dead
-Dispel scroll


21 ghouls, ghast

20 Skeletons w/ spears, full command, Banner of Dead legion

10 Skeletons w/ spears, full command (bunker unit for Vamp lord)

10 Dire wolves, Doom wolf

8 Black knights (Standard bearer, hell knight)

20 grave guard w/ great weapons and full command, Royal standard for Strigos

1 Varghulf

2,000 pts. total

I would like to keep the bunker unit for the Vampire Lord, any feedback would greatly be appreciated thanks.

[Aeviaan]

First off, it's technically illegal. Can't have the same magic item twice, and you duped the Flayed hauberk. Tempting, I know. Give one heavy armor and an enchanted shield, almost as good.

Banner of the barrows is another good one to consider on the GG. Hitting on 2's with great weapons is much fun. =)

It may also be worth purchasing Vanhels for your Necromancer. The spell is very, very useful for avoiding shooting or giving you a combat edge, at a Vampire Lore low casting cost.

[Lancaster]

Okay so I dropped the flayed Haukberk on the Vampire hero and gave it heavy armour and shield. The Necromancer has Vanhels Macabre and the GG have Banner of the Barrows. What was the item that I used twice other than the flayed hauberk? Another question. Since I have to have a minimum of 25% of my points spent on core units, would that be 500 points according to my list? Thanks.

[SonsOfStalingrad]

Drop the banner of the dead legion.
1 - In the most recent FAQ they said to remove this entry from our army book.
2 - Unit strength no longer counts in this edition of Fantasy, so it's entirely useless anyway. Icon of Vengeance or Standard of Everlasting Death are decent enough.

If you really need the Flayed Hauberk twice, there's a 'copy' in the main rulebook for 20 points more than your army book version named 'Armour of Silvered Steel'. 8th edition rulebook, page 502.

Yes, 25% of a 2k list means you need at least 500 points of core units. Your 2k breakdown is; At least 25% core, Up to 25% Lords, Up to 25% Heroes, Up to 25% Rare, Up to 50% Special.

[Lancaster]

Okay so I replaced the standard of the dead legion with the Hellfire Standard, (looked around online and people said it was pretty good) I scrapped the Dire wolves and added 10 more spear skellies to the group of 10 which fills up my core points requirement. Anything else I should consider? Thanks.

[SonsOfStalingrad]

Nope. It's fine as it is, you'll need to play with it and change your list depending on your play style. =)

[Lancaster]

Great to hear. I can't wait to try this army list out! Thanks a bunch

[experiment 626]

Depending on how 'competitive' you're trying to be, you should keep in mind;
a) your current list will not hold up in any way to other "competitve/tourny" style lists.
b) VC's are a harder army right now to get the hang of, because 8th ed has made everyone else into 'better' undead due to rules like the Battle Standard combined with Steadfast, and how crippling Unstable is for us.

If you're just wanting to have some fun games and aren't concerned too much about losing more than you'll win, then there's no hard & fast rules on what to include/leave in the crypt... Just play about and have some fun!
If you're wanting to start into tournaments, well, you will need to run;
- Lord w/Helm 'o Commandment, Forbidden Lore, MotBA's, 4+ ward save. Hide in a 20 strong skeleton bunker because they can take a banner!
- 2-3x units of 30-40+ ghouls. (because they can actually kill stuff, unlike the rest of our craptastic core!)
- Wight King BSB w/Drakenhof Banner in unit of 30-40 Grave Guard w/great weapons + Barrows Banner. (use the lord's helm on them and you'll hit+kill most units on 2's!)
- 1-2 Necros w/Invocation & Vanhel's Danse for support
- Rares to flavour.

Is it a boring army after say 3-4 games? You bet it is! But it's the only serious "competitive" list we currently have... (okay, the Bloodbus works, but it's rather risky!)