Hi everybody,
Once again I'm dabbling into VC, but this time I've got hooked on a furiously fast (therefore fragile) AoS list with a mounted lord on winged nightmare. I plan to take this to an upcoming tourney, so any general comments/ strengths or weaknesses of this list will be great. Have I screwed up big time? Or is it somewhere in the right ballpark?

Von Kleigerhof's Procession of Awakening 2250 Pts - Vampire Counts Army

1 Von Carstein Vampire Lord @ 616 Pts
Von Carstein; General; Grave Marker; Level 3 Wizard; Necromancy; GW
Crown of the Damned [35], Summon Wolves [25]
Black Periapt [15], Dispel Scroll [25]
MOUNTED ON
1 Winged Nightmare @ [175] Pts

1 * Von Carstein Vampire Thrall @ 135 Pts
Von Carstein; From Death Awakened; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield
Wolf Form [20], Summon Wolves [25]

1 Von Carstein Vampire Thrall @ 162 Pts
Battle Standard Bearer; Von Carstein; Heavy Armour
Sword of Might [20], Summon Wolves [25]
mounted on a Nightmare

16 Sylvanian Levy @ 138 Pts
Spear; Light Armour; Shield; Standard

5 Dire Wolves @ 55 Pts
Scout

6 Dire Wolves @ 60 Pts
6 Dire Wolves @ 60 Pts
6 Dire Wolves @ 60 Pts
5 Dire Wolves @ 50 Pts

4 Fell Bats @ 80 Pts
3 Fell Bats @ 60 Pts

10 Drakenhof Templars (Black Knights) @ 332 Pts
Barding; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard,Champion
The Drakenhof Banner [50]

1 Black Coach @ 175 Pts
1 Black Coach @ 175 Pts

1 Banshee @ 90 Pts

Casting Pool: 5, Dispel Pool: 4

Models in Army: 68, Total Army Cost: 2248

Thanks :
:fight:

2250 tournament, eh? Well, then you have some more points to play with. I can't remember the last time I played anything but a 2k game, so my lists tend to contain less than this list of yours, of course. But I believe the principles stay.

Try a Count on Winged Nightmare instead. Yes, yes, I know that I myself said a Lord is essential for magic defence, but in this army you're counting on magic not being much of an issue. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and recommend 3 scrolls and Summon Wolves. Artillery is not a problem for you, because your list charges every soft target by turn 2. Turn 1 you spend moving the Count under cover. Turn 2 he flies out and starts wreaking havoc behind enemy lines. Choose your fights so that you never need magical protection for him. You might even want a lance, so that if he ever gets stuck in a combat he can strike first with s5.

With a Count, this frees you up for 3 Thralls. Mad wolf fun. Also imagine 3 Wolf Thralls zipping around the battle! 18"! You want to consider Hauberk for your BSB, but if you want to max out on Wolves, stick with what you have, it's plenty good.

And if you want to max out on Wolves, drop the Levy -- they have no place in your army, if you need infantry at any time you still have the Markers -- and take 2 largish units of Wolves. With Thrall assistance, they can charge fronts for some units. They also screen your Thralls. In the flanks, they add valuable US if enough survive.

Your small units of Wolves are on the right track. Scouting Wolves are hardly necessary because you'll be summoning them like mad, so you're fine there.

Bats are fine.

Templar are fine.

Banshee is a good utility piece. It's fine.

And in this list, and in very few others, your 2 Coaches are fine.

Your job with the list is to present your opponent with sheer target saturation for his shooting and magic. He may take down half your Templar. He may take down a Coach. If you make a mistake he may even take down your General. But he cannot take them all down before you hit him in Turn 2. That's the idea.

WOW. That's all I can say. I never thought I would see the day when a speed-based AOS army would really blow my mind. In my opinion, this is a terrific list. However, I do agree with Derfel: take out the levy, downgrade to a count, and equip the way he reccomends. To bad you can't get walking death in there, that would really let him take on whole units on his own. Maybe 2 scrolls, walking death, and black periapt? I think in the long run you would have more magic defense (lets face it, you won't be having much of an offensive magic phase, so why not give yourself that extra dispel die)? This would take away a summon wolves, but if you add it to all your thralls you should be fine. The extra points could go towards more wolves, or perhaps another banshee. Though with a tournie army, bashees are risks, cause if your enemy is immune to psych, you've wasted 180 pts. Pretty much stick with what you have, and what Derfel said.

P.S. Derfel I know your army is based around speed (at least the last version I saw) but it had more of a balanced feel that this. When I said this was the best speed list I had ever saw, I didn't have your list in mind, so no slight on your army. ;)