Games Workshop Raise Up the Vampire Counts
July 30, 2011 by dracs
Games Workshop are once again raising up the armies of the dead with some new additions to the Vampire Counts range now available as advance orders.
First of all two vampires have made their way over to Finecast. Here is Vlad von Carstein, Patriarch of the Vampire Counts.
Vlad is quickly followed up by his successor, Konrad von Karstein the insane Vampire Count.
These two vampire lords are sure to provide your army with whatever it is you might want, be it the magic and power of Vlad von Carstein or the butchery of Konrad.
However, it is these next three new releases which really draw the eye.
The Tomb Banshee, ready to strike fear into the hearts of the opposing army.
The Cairn Wraith, going forth to reap the souls of the enemy.
Last, but definitely by no means least, the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon.
This Dragon is particularly impressive and would make the perfect centre piece for any Vampire Counts army.
However, maybe you fancy something a little more feral than this. Well you're in luck as the kit also provides you with the choice of making a Ghoul King mounted on a Terrorgeist.
All in all some pretty nice new stuff available eh? But after you've got yourself such great heroes you need to go and raise yourself an army and the Garden's of Morr are the perfect recruiting ground.
Now this terrain kit allows you the perfect objective for you and your friends to fight over.
So what do you guys think of this plethora of undead releases? Any of you fancy grabbing some and telling your armies to rise from their grave?
The garden is spoiled by the over use of skullz tm for my tatste and usage,
Which is a shame as some of the architecture would be very handy for me, But hey ho.
The Albert Memorial bit especially pleases,
The zombie dragon I like except the rider looks like he is about to slide down the spines.
No wonder he looks worried, he could lose his ghouls. lol
Not sure whay tatste is, could be some sort of fly!
apologies for the typo
I sort of agree with the skulls, but if you are going to have skulls anywhere, a graveyard is the place for them I guess.
Having said that, its £25 for all that stuff , which, surprisingly for GW, makes it very good value for money in my view.
Oh, and Zombie Dragons are rather nice too.
Of all the GW ranges, you could argue the terrain is probably the best value for money.
But then you could also argue that a big table of GW terrain is their best form of free advertising, so selling it at a reduced margin makes sense.
Also it seem like they don’t go as detailed as they do when it come to minitures, I did built a few of the Arcane Fulcrums and they seem … ok, but not good enough
I think the miniatures are fairly priced too, the banshee and the necromancer each cost 10,50€ which is kind of ok compared to other miniatures.
..necromancer = wraith …sorry
**in a robotic voice** “reduced margin… reduced margin… doesn’t compute, doesn’t compute” XD Cmon we’re talkin GW here XD.
Only gwPLC could over-use skulls in a grave yard. The poses wraith & banshee are worrying if they are in finecast as there have been lots of reports/stories of models with top heavy banner poles or similer parts bending under its own wieght.
The wraith and zombie dragon look very good, and I generally don’t think much of gw’s big monsters or anything with a skull (which is what, 90% of their line?). If money falls out of the sky I will certainly put those two on my luxury models list -that’s impressive considering the quality of other models on that list.
The graveyard looks great but I can’t really see it being very functional. A few high fences and small los-blocking buildings are probably not worth the price tag. Oddly enough though, once again, the gratuitous skulls don’t bug me like normal.
I might get one of those Banshee and maybe a Wraith to use for D&D, but I have loads of Dragons, and while a zombie version would certainly be characterful, it’s not an essential purchase.
I need to stop posting sleepy, that previous one makes me sound like an arrogant jerk.
The models are very good, I’m just surprised by it.
Okay, the fact that i have literally spent the past 4 hours looking at that dragon means i love it and since im doing a vampire counts army as is, BOOOOYYAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Honestly, the Vampire Count looks totally out of place on that dragon, at least with his armour painted bright, untarnished red next to all the decayed bone, and while GW are making a big show of the realistically sized skeletons, the dragon is about half the size of the live ones.
Vlad and Konrad should have made the first run of finecast, if they didn’t need material to bulk out this release.
This dragon is definitely thinner than the new live dragons, but still is tremendously large in stature, its supposedly the same size as the arachnarok spider, which is a tremendous model
and it’s a sodding graveyard, where you really expecting anything except skulls.
Not a bad dragon that – very nice. Reminds me of some awesome vampire stories they used to do for Black Library with the Nerarch(spl?)
Curse of the Necrarch?
That’s the one – not the best written book in their range but it was a pretty awesome story. Loved the sense of dread throughout the entire thing.
I have it, have started to read it three times but never get any further, really should finish it to write a review
Tis pretty good at showing the different levels of Necrarch society and the ending has some good twists in it. It suffers a bit like I mentioned from a bit of poor writing here and there which confuses you but it sorts itself out in the end.
I really like the new VC stuff. Vampire Counts were my first warhammer army and I still have a soft spot for them. The Zombie Dragon is great but the single plastic figs are too expensive for single pose plastics. I’m glad they made the Wraiths and Banshees into heroes though – and the Terrorgeist isn’t bad. You could easily make use of the vampire/s you don’t use if you buy the kit. I actually think the Garden of Moor needs moar skulls, the walls should be made out of them and the ground should be paved with them –… Read more »
I think warspawned has a point here. This graveyard has only got the normal ration of skulls, and it’s full of bodies (well it would be if they hadn’t got up and wandered off)! This is clearly not a proper piece of Warhammer scenery. Maybe we can use some of Secret Weapon’s bag of skulls to “Warhammer” it up a bit 🙂
Must admit I love the dragon. I’ll some how fit one into my Tomb Kings amy I think…I necrosphinx type thing or something.
The new plastic blisters are nice. the banshee looks like it will be fun to paint.
However that graveyard is awesome. it reminds me of the one in Brill! (aimed at the warcraft players lol)
Would be nice to take that huge skeletal statue standing on the plinth and use it for a unit of Knights of Morr being carried between them by their horses or something – nothing in the Warhammer world is ever that functional anyway so lets make it awesome heh 😉
well, fluff wise, if its a true garden of morr, then it would be bloody hard to raise anything, those places are warded against such, and the corpses have had rites that prevent raising too….
that said its nice stuff, i think im going to get myself a terrorgheist, and a banshee and a wright. i still wont dig my vampires out of the cubbard, seeing as the important bits, the troops, are way too expencive pointwise.
I still love the Garden of Morr card from the Warhammer: Invasion card game – epic card which sooooo helps out the Order side 🙂
£8 for that tiny Cairn Wraith! LMAO!
Nice model but come off it. You actually need a unit of these guys as well.
mantic has like 5 resin plastic wraiths for much less per model!
It’s actually about 10 res/plas wraiths for about the same price as 1 GW one…..
http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Undead/Elite-Units/Product/Undead-Wraiths-10-Figures.html
As always, GW terrain is outstanding and, weirdly, worth the cost.
cool minis but look closely at the banshee it looks like she got a whisker ^^
Does anyone else think the Banshee looks like a reflection of Lindsay Lohan’s soul? Or is it just me? 🙂
The Banshee and the Wraith are quite impressive. It seems the finecast will allow both more detail and articulation. Plus, as others pointed out, they are fairly priced. A nice step in the right direction for GW. Also, they may be feeling the pressure from other minis companies like Privateer Press, Mantic and several others eating into their business. That’s a most excellent thing for all wargamers, because it seems they are listening better than in the past. Releasing models without a new codex, releasing sets like Storms of Magic which lets players field many new models and revive factions… Read more »
Hate to break it to you, but the Wraith and Banshee are plastic kits, not finecast.
The Banshee and Wraith (you need at least THREE of these to use them in a GW game) are NOT FINECAST. They are £8.00 and made of PLASTIC. They quite obviously look sparsely detailed compared to what GW have proved they can produce, but these are ‘ghosts’ so you wouldn’t expect them to have much detail on them. On what planet are these plastic models with no extra limbs, poses etc (other than 2 extra heads apparently) is that worth £8.00 ? The Wraith is great but it’s just a guy in a cloak, let’s not beat around the bush.… Read more »
I wonder what case can hold the terrorgeist? Its wings seem to point up rather high and the base rather long and broad. Good luck to you that try.
It says that kit is built from the Zombie Dragon, so you should be able to make it with the wings at a lower angle.
@manpug – A Battle Foam case… they do that custom foam case/tray stuff!
This type of “odd shaped” model is exactly the sort of stuff that system is designed for.
Otherwise a cardboard box and padding courtesy of Andrex is probably in order.
I think the banshee looks more like Dave Mustain with a meth habit.
@bishmeister – Is that the rock star… or our friendly pirate captain and Warren alter-ego?
😉
am liking the dragon/terrorgeist a lot
I have to say I love the dragon/terrorgheist model. I would have liked more options for the armoured vampire, more heads etc, and I think the ghoul king looks awkward, but overall, win. The garden of Morr is excellent. I thought it was a single finished piece, but it can be used for a load of different terrain, not to mention fillers and so on. The wraith is beautiful, not so much the banshee, but I’d like to see an unpainted version before I make my mind up. All in all, fantastic, and what’s even better is rules for fantasy… Read more »
Some of those are rather nice but I liked more from old Zombie Dragon than from this new one and cemetery has too many skulls.
Plastic banshee and wraith are rip offs
I really like the zombie dragon but the price of the regular plastic banshee and wraith is pretty disgraceful!
Yet more evidence to make me feel better about my decision to drop GW products and go over to KoW. £8 for a single wraith with only the option to change the face, or £1.40 with several different designs and weapon options from Mantic… Hmm, I wonder which I’m going to spend my money on?
The Garden of Morr is a solid release. I’ll be getting this one at some point. Other vampire counts stuff is pretty boring (okay, the banshee and wraith are ok). The ghoul king rider is pretty good but I doupt I’ll be getting it as I have no use for the mount.