Lore of Vampires, Vampiric Powers and Magical Items
February 2, 2012 by darrell
Video Sponsors: Wayland Games - Battle Foam
Darrell and Andy take a look at the brand new Lore of Vampires, Vampiric Powers and the Magical items in the new Vampire Counts Army Book... will there be any that take their interest.































I found the Lore of Light particularly helpful with the Vampires, even though I tend to only use the Vampire Lore on my casters anyway (the buffs in there are just too good, especially with the healing side effect).
The 75 points for the re-roll power dice are well worth it, in my opinion. A magic ohase low on power dice can really ruin the game for a VC player, and this way you can be reasonably sure to at least get an average amount of dice to actually do stuff with.
I love the nightshroud on a Wight King: +1 armour and negating all strength boni is just too good for a T5 model. That + ASL for the opponent makes a Wight King extremely good in challenges (especially with his Killing Blow ability). If the Wight Lord happens to be in a unit of Grave Guard carrying the Banner of the Barrows, all the better…
Again, the items and powers work at their most effective when you consider the synergies between different parts of the army. That´s what I love so much about the new book, you can tactically combine everything you have. It´s a lot of fun playing that way.
Most useful spells in Lore of Vampires are no doubt onces that support army. I find Vampiric Powers to be good way not only to boost vampire lords and vampires but also make them way you want them to be so that they fit your own playing style and your personal preference. With Magical Items I am little upset that they took out The Flayed Hauberk that was my favorite magical armour.
Well there are no capture table quaters etc anymore , the only thing you can capture is the watchtower which that unit can do and since it awards no victory points if it is destroyed they are really nice for misdirecting and things.
you seem to misunderstand RIP spells, if you cast one you can still cast your other spells you are just not allowed to cast that spell again so theres no problem using a lv 4 for this.
Hero Vamps only get 50 points to spend on vampiric powers.
You seem to forget then ASF gives you a reroll if you have the same or higher Int then your enemy so for 25 points this is pretty much a must for any vampire who wants to go combat also teamed with redfury is quite good and i pointed out in another post makes the ghoulking pretty pointless.
Again already pointed out the Dark acolyte opwer in another post.
It does seem you have a maasive problem with things being random which does beg the question why on earth do you play fantasy and it is a very random game ? 😛
Thanks guys, I’ve been in a hiatus for a while (but have lurked like a bad smell) and I couldn’t help but get involved in some banter (although I’ve gone back to playing 4th Edition so it’s pretty irrelevant to me) – I was thinking Lore of Beasts is a good fit (as Vampires are pretty bestial) with their signature spell granting a unit +1 Strength and Toughness to a unit – which will make Grave Guard, even the humble Zombie, pretty bad-ass – not to mention the buffs you could cast on your, already pretty meaty, characters – why buy potions when you could, potentially, give your Lord + 3 Toughness or Konrad/Krell +3 Strength and Attacks Bwahahahahaha – those are my thoughts anyway, you want to augment your units and characters as much as possible.
It’s a shame Lore of Life isn’t allowed though – you’d think being dead and needing life to survive/un-live (?), the Vampires would be more appreciative of such things and the regen saves they could have given to their units – idiots 😉
Wind of Death is pretty nice, however: It cannot kill skirmishers, lone characters or basicly anything that has no ranks, cuz it deals D6 hits for every rank of models ( of at least 5 I guess). The good thing about this is when you roll a miscast on your artillery dice and lands on your own wizard, it also doesn’t hurt him. Where as the Purple Sun can be the end of your wizard.
The Cursed Book is awesome guys. Yes you could lose 3 dice, but also 1 dice. Say you lose an average of 2 power dice, than you’ll still auto-cast spells of which most have a casting value of 9+. Try that with 2 dice! Furthermore, it has to be done at the start of the magic phase, which can force your opponent to start dispelling, instead of saving his dice for your own Vampiric spells. The only drawback: in turn 1 and 2 the enemy will propably not be in range yet. Yes, it is random as hell, but it’s a good random thing for its points 🙂
You missed out on the pun of reheated zombies for the rod of flaming death
I have to say that I disagree about allot of things they say. Random stuff have won allot of tournament for people. And the 75pnt sword is going to be used allot in tournaments theyre is never allot of terrain so u wil get a kill of for sure.