My next event is Battlefield Birmingham, on 15-16 February. This event is slightly different to some others, as it is 2500 points rather than 2400. It may not sound like a lot, but that extra 100 points means that the allowance for Lords increases to 625 from 600. This meant that a Dragon riding Vampire Lord has enough allowance to get enough equipment to actually survive for more than a single turn!
I've wanted to run a Dragon list for a while now. Dragons are brilliant, and a very characterful part of the game. However, the two armies that I have been playing recently don't really have the option to have a Lord mounted on a Dragon. Closest I have been was using a Lord of Change in a couple of events in 2011, or a Hunter on a Stonehorn for last year's Mersey Meltdown.
Unfortunately though, mounting a Vampire Lord on a Dragon is not just putting all your eggs in one basket, it's putting all your eggs in a paper bag and throwing it around a bit. It's not a particularly safe option to say the least! But I'm not that bothered by that. I don't get to play much Warhammer at the moment, so I'd rather play an enjoyable list to start the year. There are other events that I'll run a more standard list for, but for this I'm going out of the box! It also helps that I recently got hold of a fantastic Dragon model that I want an excuse to use!
My Dragon, in the process of being assembled
The point of this blog post is to run through my list design ideas and show how my list develops. Usually I wouldn't post this before an event, but as I'm going to this purely for the fun of the game I don't think having my list out there beforehand will be an issue. I'm also posting my first draft of the list which was written a fair while ago, so some items and things may have changed since then. I'll get to these changes as I go through the process.
There is minimal comp for this event, but before I go through my thoughts on my list it's always a good idea to consider the limitations in place. For Vampire Counts, there were the following points to consider:
- Units have a cap of 450 points and 40 models (as all Undead are Unbreakable). Doesn't include characters though!
- Up to 3 units with the Ethereal rule are allowe.
- Up to 3 units of Dire Wolves are allowed.
Not too much comp at all. There are a few other restrictions that help, namely that other people are limited to a maximum of 3 war machines - so I may face fewer cannons that I normally would!
Firstly I needed my Vampire Lord. I knew I wanted her on a Dragon, so that was already a massive 465 points taken care of. you can't put such an important model on a big mount without protection, so next up was the Talisman of Preservation and Charmed Shield. My army is Lahmian themed (hence calling my Lord 'her'!) so Quickblood is not only a really strong in game choice, but it fits the theme. After all of these, I had ran up a bill of 545 points. Before I spent any more, I moved on to the rest of the army.
Core is almost the easiest to do in a VC army, as very little of it is any good at all. The best unit in the Core section is probably the Dire Wolves, and I was only allowed 3 units of them. Seemed like a good starting point though, so in went 2 units of 5 and a unit of 15. The bigger unit is mainly to eat points, but also gives me a faster moving block to help out the characters when they hit combat by adding ranks. I then put in a minimum size unit of zombies to hold a banner, as Blood and Glory will be played and I'd quite like to not automatically lose that one! Finally, a big block of ghouls filled my 600 point Core minimum. I'd normally have a block of skeletons, but these usually have a fair few characters in and without character support ghouls usually do better.
Having spent nearly half my points I turned to the Rare section. Again, this would be relatively easy to fill, as an idea was forming of how I wanted to play my list. The advantage of the Dragon is that it is fast - it can fly 20" per turn with a possible additional 8" move from Vanhel's Danse Macabre. If this is the major asset of the list, I needed to build on that theme. I needed to only add in things that were fast, and could redeploy a lot more quickly than a standard VC army. The 3 Dire Wolf units help with this, as they can Vanguard as well as move a minimum of 9" a turn and can Swiftstride their charges. To fill Rare, I went with this theme too, adding 2 Varghulfs and a Terrorgheist. It would probably be better to have 1 Varghulf and 2 Terrorgheists, but that was 50 points more expensive. Also in terms of models to build and paint I knew I would need a fair few more than I already have, so the fact that I already had 2 Varghulfs made this decision for me!
I went to Heroes next. I could get away with a single zombie unit with a banner, as I was thinking of taking a Vampire BSB to help with Fortitude and march tests for the Dragon. To fit the theme thought she would have to be mounted on something, and a normal Nightmare made the most sense. Then I saw that they have the option to go on a Hellsteed. This is sort of like the Pegasi that other races get to use in that it is a flying cavalry mount, and the idea of having lots of flying Vampires really appealed! Not only did I add in one Vampire on Hellsteed to be my BSB, but I put in a second as an additional fighter. Equipment on these proved a lot more problematic that I thought. Quickblood on them both made sense thematically, and I tried to get them as good an armour save as I could. One got the Dragonhelm and the other got the Enchanted Shield. Along with Heavy Armour and the mounted bonus, they each got to a 2+ save, which was as good as I could find!
When designing Heroes, I try and keep in mind the role they will play in game. Are they going to be doing a lot of fighting? If so, what are their targets? Are they more a support Hero, augmenting the unit they are with or casting magic? The Vampire Lord, with the Dragon's attacks, Breath Weapon and Thunderstomp, should be able to take on units of troops and be OK. She would come unstuck though if she was challenged by a defensively geared character with a good Ward (the standard Tzeentch BSB on Disc springs to mind). I therefore wanted one of my Heroes to be able to take these challenges instead. I gave her the Sword of Anti Heroes to up her strength and attacks, and a Luckstone to give her an extra chance to make a save. I also found a few points spare at the end, adding a Potion of Foolhardiness for that extra attack when she charges. I decided I would keep her on Lore of the Vampires, as I was expecting the Lord to die at some point and I didn't want the entire army crumbling away to nothing.
The other Hero Vampire I thought could be my Scroll caddy and BSB. I envisaged her in a support role, taking Invocation more often than not and casting it to heal the monsters. She already had the Enchanted Shield for protection, and I simply added the Sword of Might to help against heavily armoured targets.
All of this left me with just over 200 points that I wasn't sure what to buy with. I wanted something else fast, and looking in the Special section I saw Vargheists. I'd never used these before, mainly as I have an idea for how I want them to look and I'm struggling to find models that I like to represent them. But 5 of them could make a useful flanking force and they filled the gap in the list.
And that was it! My list now looked like this:
Vampire Lord: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the
Vampires; Charmed Shield; Talisman Of Preservation; Ironcurse Icon;
Quickblood; Zombie Dragon; lance; heavy armour. 566
Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Dispel Scroll; Enchanted Shield; Sword Of Might; Quickblood; Hellsteed; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 244
Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Sword Of Anti Heroes; Dragonhelm; Luckstone; Potion Of Foolhardiness; Quickblood; Dread Knight; Hellsteed; shield; heavy armour. 231
38 Crypt Ghouls 380
15 Dire Wolves 120
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70
5 Vargheists 230
Terrorgheist 225
Varghulf 175
Varghulf 175
2,496 points
There is minimal comp for this event, but before I go through my thoughts on my list it's always a good idea to consider the limitations in place. For Vampire Counts, there were the following points to consider:
- Units have a cap of 450 points and 40 models (as all Undead are Unbreakable). Doesn't include characters though!
- Up to 3 units with the Ethereal rule are allowe.
- Up to 3 units of Dire Wolves are allowed.
Not too much comp at all. There are a few other restrictions that help, namely that other people are limited to a maximum of 3 war machines - so I may face fewer cannons that I normally would!
Firstly I needed my Vampire Lord. I knew I wanted her on a Dragon, so that was already a massive 465 points taken care of. you can't put such an important model on a big mount without protection, so next up was the Talisman of Preservation and Charmed Shield. My army is Lahmian themed (hence calling my Lord 'her'!) so Quickblood is not only a really strong in game choice, but it fits the theme. After all of these, I had ran up a bill of 545 points. Before I spent any more, I moved on to the rest of the army.
Core is almost the easiest to do in a VC army, as very little of it is any good at all. The best unit in the Core section is probably the Dire Wolves, and I was only allowed 3 units of them. Seemed like a good starting point though, so in went 2 units of 5 and a unit of 15. The bigger unit is mainly to eat points, but also gives me a faster moving block to help out the characters when they hit combat by adding ranks. I then put in a minimum size unit of zombies to hold a banner, as Blood and Glory will be played and I'd quite like to not automatically lose that one! Finally, a big block of ghouls filled my 600 point Core minimum. I'd normally have a block of skeletons, but these usually have a fair few characters in and without character support ghouls usually do better.
Having spent nearly half my points I turned to the Rare section. Again, this would be relatively easy to fill, as an idea was forming of how I wanted to play my list. The advantage of the Dragon is that it is fast - it can fly 20" per turn with a possible additional 8" move from Vanhel's Danse Macabre. If this is the major asset of the list, I needed to build on that theme. I needed to only add in things that were fast, and could redeploy a lot more quickly than a standard VC army. The 3 Dire Wolf units help with this, as they can Vanguard as well as move a minimum of 9" a turn and can Swiftstride their charges. To fill Rare, I went with this theme too, adding 2 Varghulfs and a Terrorgheist. It would probably be better to have 1 Varghulf and 2 Terrorgheists, but that was 50 points more expensive. Also in terms of models to build and paint I knew I would need a fair few more than I already have, so the fact that I already had 2 Varghulfs made this decision for me!
I went to Heroes next. I could get away with a single zombie unit with a banner, as I was thinking of taking a Vampire BSB to help with Fortitude and march tests for the Dragon. To fit the theme thought she would have to be mounted on something, and a normal Nightmare made the most sense. Then I saw that they have the option to go on a Hellsteed. This is sort of like the Pegasi that other races get to use in that it is a flying cavalry mount, and the idea of having lots of flying Vampires really appealed! Not only did I add in one Vampire on Hellsteed to be my BSB, but I put in a second as an additional fighter. Equipment on these proved a lot more problematic that I thought. Quickblood on them both made sense thematically, and I tried to get them as good an armour save as I could. One got the Dragonhelm and the other got the Enchanted Shield. Along with Heavy Armour and the mounted bonus, they each got to a 2+ save, which was as good as I could find!
When designing Heroes, I try and keep in mind the role they will play in game. Are they going to be doing a lot of fighting? If so, what are their targets? Are they more a support Hero, augmenting the unit they are with or casting magic? The Vampire Lord, with the Dragon's attacks, Breath Weapon and Thunderstomp, should be able to take on units of troops and be OK. She would come unstuck though if she was challenged by a defensively geared character with a good Ward (the standard Tzeentch BSB on Disc springs to mind). I therefore wanted one of my Heroes to be able to take these challenges instead. I gave her the Sword of Anti Heroes to up her strength and attacks, and a Luckstone to give her an extra chance to make a save. I also found a few points spare at the end, adding a Potion of Foolhardiness for that extra attack when she charges. I decided I would keep her on Lore of the Vampires, as I was expecting the Lord to die at some point and I didn't want the entire army crumbling away to nothing.
The other Hero Vampire I thought could be my Scroll caddy and BSB. I envisaged her in a support role, taking Invocation more often than not and casting it to heal the monsters. She already had the Enchanted Shield for protection, and I simply added the Sword of Might to help against heavily armoured targets.
All of this left me with just over 200 points that I wasn't sure what to buy with. I wanted something else fast, and looking in the Special section I saw Vargheists. I'd never used these before, mainly as I have an idea for how I want them to look and I'm struggling to find models that I like to represent them. But 5 of them could make a useful flanking force and they filled the gap in the list.
And that was it! My list now looked like this:
Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Dispel Scroll; Enchanted Shield; Sword Of Might; Quickblood; Hellsteed; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 244
Vampire: Level 1 Wizard, Lore of the Vampires; Sword Of Anti Heroes; Dragonhelm; Luckstone; Potion Of Foolhardiness; Quickblood; Dread Knight; Hellsteed; shield; heavy armour. 231
38 Crypt Ghouls 380
15 Dire Wolves 120
5 Dire Wolves 40
5 Dire Wolves 40
20 Zombies: musician; standard bearer. 70
5 Vargheists 230
Terrorgheist 225
Varghulf 175
Varghulf 175
2,496 points
It looked ok, and very fast as was the plan. With such a different style of play I knew I needed a game to test them, so I played one against the High Elves of Simon at a local club before Christmas. This game gave me a load of insights into the weaknesses of the list and ideas on how to change it, but as this is already looking quite long I will go through them in the next post!
Hope you enjoyed my ramblings about list design, if you have any comments please feel free to get in touch!
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