Necrarchs are very magical, no doubt about it. +1 to cast is somewhat helpful, and their bloodline powers are obviously geared towards making the Necrarch a powerful magic-user.

The reason they're not so popular is that they don't fight as well as the other bloodlines, and their magical superiority may be overkill, given that the lore is already so effective and any lvl 2 caster in the list can make good use of it. Blood Dragons are not actually handicapped, you realized.

Their Thralls are also nearly useless. They are unable to fulfill the normal function of a Thrall: to add CR to the mainline units. WS 4 just doesn't cut it nowadays, and it's ridiculously easy to kill a Necrarch Thrall also because of this, and because of their lack of armour. There is only one good reason I can think of to take a Necrarch Thrall, and that is to make him a scroll caddy who can still fight some very weak units. Anything more than a Skink or Gnoblar is a danger to him though, and you might as well take a Necromancer, seriously.

That said, a Necrarch is capable of doing some things the other bloodlines can't. Here are some of those tricks.

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Necrarch Lord: lvl 3, Noble Blood, The Awakening, Master of Black Arts (and take a Biting Blade if you have the points to spare)

Here is a Vampire who will almost never fail to raise a new unit with Invocation, who can do this up to 24" away, always. He can also Danse that same unit within the same turn. If you're lucky in your Turn 1 magic phase, you could be removing one of your opponent's units by then, and probably causing Panic all round.

This can also be done with a Count. He's less durable, but you will usually want to keep your General out of combat anyway, except against significantly weaker units. He's a bit of a wuss, really.

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Necrarch Lord: lvl 3, Noble Blood, Forbidden Lore, Spell Familiar, Dark Acolyte/The Awakening/Master of Black Arts/Cynosure (take your pick, one of these)

This is the build that makes him know all 6 spells. You will have 25pts left over. This can buy you the Book of Arkhan or the Gem of Blood, if you are so inclined. You have space for one of the above powers as well, to fit your style of playing.

IMO, not a very useful build. I don't need to know all 6 spells. Do you?

A Count does not work as well with this build.

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Necrarch Lord: lvl 3, Noble Blood, Master of Black Arts, Ring of the Night/Wristbands of Black Gold

This is a compromise build. This is if you expect your Lord to need the Ward Save at some point. Which is very bad, you want to be keeping him away from combat because most things can kill him. If it can't be avoided though, i.e Warp Lightning or whatnot, then the Ward Save will help. And he can still do the 24" thing, just with not as much certainty.

DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO TAKE THE CROWN. It's bad enough for other Vampires to be going stupid, but when you play Necrarchs your Lord is your main offensive weapon. If he goes Stupid, that is usually IT.

A Count can work, but is sub-par with this build.

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Necrarch Lord: lvl 3, Master of Black Arts, The Awakening, Forbidden Lore, Ring/Wristbands, take Biting Blade if you have points spare. Take Spell Familiar if you REALLY want to make sure you get Danse.

This is quite good IMO. It allows you to pull the 24" trick with 4 Dice, which is the most you'll ever want to throw, and gives you quite a good chance of getting Danse. It also affords you some protection. IMO the ideal build, if I ever want to play Necrarchs.

A Count will NOT work as well.

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As you can see, Necrarchs tend to break the rule of thumb that a Lord is too much for 2k armies. It is useful to have the option of casting with 4 dice, and it is useful to have an extra spell, so that you can increase your chances of getting Danse.

The reason you take a particular bloodline is for the tricks they can pull that no one else can. You take Blood Dragons because of WS and armour save. You take Von Carsteins because of Aura and wolf-related powers, which give you power in the Movement phase. You take Strigoi because of their sheer fighting power, and because they can fly. You take Lahmians because you like sexy women -- ok, ok, because you can Always Strike First with 4/5 s6 attacks with decent WS, and your 5+ Ward Save can't be Vauled or Corined or Golded.

IMHO, you take Necrarch because they can pull off that 24" trick in turn 1 or any other turn where it matters, and +1 to cast helps them do it.

Strategies for Necrarchs:

3 blocks of Zombies, 3 units of ghouls, 2 units of wolves, 1/2 units of Bats, maybe a couple of Spirit Hosts, 6-10 Black Knights. Necromancer with standard kit, and a Wight Lord to go with the Knights, or maybe you would like a nice mounted Wraith with Talon of Death. One of the Zombie blocks is your escort unit. I will illustrate this in a moment.

Play defensively to make use of your extra range for spells. Deploy well back. Refuse a flank. Delay your opponent's units with your skirmishers and flyers. Use your Knights on the flank not refused to threaten would-be flankers. Wait for them to come in range, and start summoning units behind them. Or summon units from the get-go to delay them and to block off war-machines, which you will charge as soon as possible.

Here is how the Zombie Escort Service works, with 3 blocks of infantry:

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You see 3 blocks of 20 Zombies. The 3rd block behind is deployed 6 wide. Your General and Necros go into the front rank of this 6 wide unit, and stand such that nothing and nobody, and I mean nothing and nobody, can sneak up on that unit and contact your wizards, without first chewing through the units in front, or chewing through the escort unit itself from behind, which should not happen.

This is a very basic trick for protecting your casters. It is even more important in the case of a Necrarch caster, on whom the army depends.

My sample list above conforms to Dutch GT rules. To summarize for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar:

- All 4 character slots may not be filled with Wizards. You may have 3 Wizards, and no other characters, but you may not have 4 Wizards.

- No tripled Specials

- No doubled Rares

Very fair isn't it? I quite like it myself. It's becoming more generally accepted, too.

That means we cna't have a Necrarch Lord and 2 Necros. We're essentially restricted to a Lord, a Necromancer (probably with the Book and a scroll), and a combat character. The Thrall is thrown straight out the window, and we can have either the excellent Wight Lord, and the very useful mounted Wraith. Wraith on foot for this army is not quite so effective I feel.

OK this is really long, I'll stop now.