Building a tournament Vampire Counts Army


Now then. You’re headed to a tournament, and you think to yourself, “Hey, I really could enjoying bringing out my lovely new vampires. But whatever should I bring?” The basic premise of this essay is to outline how to build a tournament-optimized list using the Vampire Counts book. This has nothing to do with the Army of Sylvania, which is another matter entirely. The appendix lists are also not covered, as they are not tournament-legal lists.

The first, and most important, part of army selection is having in mind what kind of army you wish to have, and how you plan on forming a strategy based on this army. With Vampire Counts, you can use a magic-heavy army, a speed-based army, or your basic horde of shambling corpses. When attending a tournament, you obviously can focus on one of these themes, but you want to have a well-rounded army that can deal with all kinds of threats. With this in mind, you need to ask yourself several important questions:

Can my army deal with fast cavalry?
Can my army deal with heavy cavalry?
Can my army deal with a gunline?
Can my army stand up to massive amounts of magic?
Can my army deal with elite infantry?

If you can answer yes to all of those questions, you know you have a well-balanced army. Keeping this idea in mind, I’ll run through the various ways do deal with these threats, pinpointing specific units. Keep in mind, however, that this is NOT a replacement in any way for DLJ’s tactica, and in fact you should read that first before you read this. That said, lets have a look at how you can construct an army to deal with these threats.

Can my army deal with fast cavalry?

Fast cavalry relies upon using its speed to flank, and with our undead masses, we have less to fear from a flank attack than would other armies. However, this does not mean that you can wantonly throw your units into situations in which they will be flanked. A flanked unit of skeletons, also engaged at its front by enemy infantry, can crumble to dust before your eyes in just a few rounds of combat. This, of course, is not what we want. So to counter fast cavalry and take away perhaps the most dangerous flanking force in the game, we can do many things. First of all, we can use direct damage magic. This, however, is the most unpredictable, as it would require you to roll gaze of nagash from necromancy (assuming you use necromancy, which you should). But magic can have another use. A well place invocation of nehek can raise a “speed bump” of skeletons/zombies in front of enemy fast cavalry, which wont stop them like heavy cavalry, but would force them to use valuable movement to avoid your new line of troops, giving you time to react. But what should you react with? A small, mobile, hard-hitting unit would fit the bill. Ghouls and charging dire wolves come to mind, and these both can be effective counters to fast cavalry. Also, spirit hosts, with their ethereal abilities, would be perfect, as they cannot be struck back by the cavalry. With the cavalry out of the way, you are free to use these mobile units to strike back and use the same devious tactics against your enemy’s units.

Can my army deal with heavy cavalry?

This, for undead, is much simpler. We can use magic to raise “speed bump” units around heavy cavalry, and force the issue with a nice vanhel’s danse macbre to bring a infantry block, equipped with a kitted-out vampire, to the fore, and in the path of the heavy cavalry. The cavalry will have no choice but to charge our infantry, and now he has become stuck. As long as you have a character with strength 6-7 in a large block of skeletons/zombies, heavy cavalry should pose little trouble. If this is no the case, you have problems. The best way to deal with heavy cavalry without using characters is to delay them with march blockers (fell bats and wolves come to mind) and concentrate on trying to destroy as much of the rest of your opponent’s army as possible. Then, try to “stick” the cavalry to one of your units, and hopefully get some wights into the mix to add the knock out punch.

Can my army deal with a gunline?

Ah now. This can be tricky. An empire or dwarf gunline can cause some problems for Vampire Counts. First, we are a slow army. There are no two ways about it, in general, Vampire Counts couldn’t beat a one-legged goblin in a footrace. However, we do have our secret weapons, namely fell bats, spirit hosts, and banshees. Fell bats are the most obvious, and can be effective when flown in as war machine hunters. These bats, however, are very vulnerable to missile fire and most likely will be a prime target for your opponents missile troops. Spirit hosts and banshees, on the other hand, are invulnerable to shooting and can move fairly quickly and easily through terrain. Banshees especially are good, because you don’t need to get into combat. Beware using these lovely ladies of the night against dwarves, however. Their high leadership makes it a bit of a gamble. The best strategy is to try to distract the missile troops with bats and perhaps wolves as well, all the while shambling forward and trying to get into combat as fast as possible. When facing a empire army based on the “order of the holy cannonball,” combing this with the above tactic to deal with oncoming heavy cavalry. Against all shooty armies, use magic to urge your troops on (vanhel’s danse macabre) and to replenish your units (invocation of nehek). Also, ghouls and bat swarms, as well as the aforementioned spirit hosts, can be a good shields for your valuable units (wights come to mind). Don’t bother shielding basic infantry, as they are meant to be expendable!

Can my army stand up to massive amounts of magic?

There are three ways to tackle the problem of potential magic-induced damage:
1. Bring your own! Many successful vampire counts armies have 6-8 levels of magic, and this should be sufficient, when combined with a scroll or two, to ward of most magical attacks, or at least survive with some of your army attack. Be sure to go on the offensive as well, using your magic to strike back and put your opponent on his toes.

2. Use your units to engage in combat quickly. Most magic spells cannot be cast into combat, and you can survive the magic phase even with only a little magic defense if you engage quickly. The best ways to do this are to stock up on knights and wolves, backed up by fighting characters, to strike early and hard. With your infantry bringing up the rear (if you have any, that is), you can count on backup when things get tough for your initial attackers.

3. Bring lots of corpses to the party! This is Vampire Counts at its finest: bringing so many dead things that your opponent cannot possible stop them all. This approach is best used with zombies or bare bones (no pun intended) skeletons, to keep points low and troop numbers high. Of course, be sure to have an ample supply of fighty characters so you can win combats when you arrive at your opponent’s battle line. This approach is the one I do not particularly espouse in tournament setting, as the likelihood is that you won’t be able to deal with the other kinds of threats above with this inflexible force.

Can my army deal with elite infantry?

Vampire Counts can deal with elite infantry in many ways. First, and most obvious, is to throw our elite units right at them! Using grave guard or black knights is a viable approach to dealing with elite infantry, especially when backed up by a character. We can also simply try to tie up the infantry with massive amounts of cheap infantry of our own. A large unit of skeletons/zombies can tie up infantry for many rounds of combat, and once they have chomped through your corpses, they don’t have the speed to have a meaningful impact on the rest of the battle. Unfortunately, this route will not net you the massive victory points that defeating a unit of elite infantry is bound to supply. My favorite approach is to combine the two above: engage with a horde of cheap infantry, but backed up by an elite character. Elite character means one thing to me: a vampire, preferable lord-level. Throw in the hitting power of the vampire and the numbers of the unit he leads can spell doom to any unit of elite infantry, especially combined with fear and the autobreak that may follow.



Well now you have made sure you can deal with the various threats that may be thrown your way. You have a well balanced army, which can take the initiative, deal with threats, and defeat the enemy. All that is left is to make an organized plan, deploy based on how your opponent sets up his units, and implement your plan through the combined use of the movement, magic, and combat phases. I have included a copy of my Von Carstein tournament list, annotated to show how I deal with the various threats that I have outlined.


The Masquerade of Eternal Twilight: Von Carstein Vampires

Characters:
Rasputin Von Carstein, Vampire Count:
-lvl. 3
-sword of might
-ring of the night
-aura of dark majesty
-summon wolves: 346 pts.

-this guy joins a block of skeletons, and is effective in helping them deal with either elite infantry or heavy cavalry. Not only that, but he can lend magical support and his summoned wolves are instrumental in hunting war machines.


Necromancer Kraven:
-lvl. 2
- dispel scroll
-book of arkhan: 150 pts.

Necromancer Seth:
-lvl 2
-cursed book: 145 pts.

-both magicians aid in magic defense (5 dispel dice and a scroll) and can replenish units that are in combat with elite infantry and heavy cavalry. Also, they can create "speed bump" units that can help to deal with fast and heavy cavalry.

Lucius Von Carstein, Vampire Thrall:
-great weapon
-heavy armor
-walking death: 123 pts.

-he preforms the same task as the Count above, increasing the combat-effectiveness of the core blocks.

Core:
Skeletons: 23, full command: 209 pts.

Skeletons: 23, standard, musician: 199 pts.

-these are coupled with the characters to deal with elite enemy units, and to soak up shooting and magical attacks.

Dire Wolves: 5: 50 pts.

Dire Wolves: 5: 50 pts.

-the wolves can fufil many roles: on the charge, they can take down most enemy fast cavalry units, can hunt war machines, and can shield the black knights from shooting.

Ghouls: 6: 48 pts.

Ghouls: 6: 48 pts.

-these utilitarian scavengers can also deal with fast cavalry, can hunt war machines if needed, and are effetive in dealing with small enemy missile units due to their high number of poisoned attacks.

Special:
Black Knights: 6, barding, champion: 166 pts.

Black Knights: 6, barding, champion: 166 pts.

-these are the elite troops of the army. They can help smash apart enemy heavy cavalry or elite infantry, and can aid the skeletons by flanking elite enemy units.

Spirit Hosts: 2 bases: 130 pts.

-these babies can also outflank the enemy, and are useful in attacking fast cavalry as they are immune to non-magical attacks.

Fell Bats: 4: 80 pts.

-these monsters are the best war machine hunters, and can also help with magic control by hunting down and killing lone mages.

Rare:
Banshee: 90 pts.

-this lady can also war machine hunt, can kill of fast and heavy cavalry with her ghostly howl, and can help whittle away at heavy infantry.

Total Army: 2000 pts.



So there you have it. These are just my ideas on tournament play, however, please add your thoughts/opinions/criticisms/hate mail/death threats.

Same error as in your other post. A Vampire Count is lvl 2, not 3.

the same as darfel there ;) other than that I think this "tactica" is very good and brings out the things one need to cover and think about. Not only in tournament play but also in regular battles, well balances armies often works best :) I think there are something for everybody to pick up in this article so well done :)

It's definitley a good start. There are a couple of things I'd add/change though.

First off, vs Fast Cavalry, it's definitley worth mentioning the use of the banshee. She's maneuvarable enough to keep up with the Fast Cavalry, and as they're often operating outside of the influence of the general's Ld anyway the Banshee Howl should be effective at reducing them to piles of fleshy goo.

Vs Elite Infantry or Heavy Cavalry, as long as we engage them from the front and don't get flanked ourselves, we'll win with the proper support from the rest of the army, hands down every time. This support can come in the form of flankers of our own, combat characters to inflict the casualties, enough magic to keep our unit replenished or a couple of banshee's to scream into the combat. In my own tournament experience I haven't found a souped up unit of infantry or cavalry that I haven't been able to deal with.

One thing to be careful of against massed heavy cavalry (and Ogre/Minotaur/Kroxigor-based armies) is taking a charge from his entire front line, that draws your own entire front line into one massive combat. It's a mistake I've only made once, and I ended up losing combat by something in the region of 15 due to taking four or five casualties from each unit involved in the combat. Of course, this meant that I lost four units of infantry in one fell swoop, pretty much! Moral of the story is, against fast hard hitting opponents, don't keep all your units in a line. Stagger them a little!

I'd disagree entirely with your assessment of gunline armies. In my experience it's really just a case of marching across the battlefield, sending your fast units ahead of you and tearing the enemy asunder in close combat. Gunline armies rely heavily on panicking enemy units away by shooting casualties, and as VC armies don't run away for the most part, their tactic simply isn't going to work as well. They'd need to roll very well indeed to diminish your numbers enough to dent your combat potential, and then there's always the possibility that you'll just raise them back up again in the magic phase.

Other than that, it might be worth going back over it and just touching up a few bits towards the end. As always, if you sit down to do a long piece of work like this your concentration wavers towards the end and the quality of the writing suffers as a result.

Cheers,
DLJ

Thanks for the respones. And Derfel, you're right, should've caught that in my last post.

As for DLJ, you make some good points. I agree with your assesment of how to deal with heavy cavalry, and that was one of the main things that I pointed out. I was just introducing alternitave methods if you don't have a situation where you can get a massed block into combat with them (astute enemies would try to make sure they wouldn't be sending a unit of knights alone into a large block with character support).

As for shooting, I agree to some extenent. SHooting isn't as scary to us as it is to other armies, but you still have to beware of massed war machine fire. Black knights and grave guard can dissappear very quickly when targeted by cannons, bolt throwers, or even handguns. So I believe at least a little war machine hunting is an absolute must here, as you can't replenish these units through magic and if you have a large unit of either, your combat effectivness will be greatly reduced without them or if so many are killed that they become a non-factor.