Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Vampire Counts (section)

====Lore of Vampires====
No matter how you play, you will end up with at the minimum a Level 1 caster in this lore. 

The Magic Phase of Warhammer Fantasy is basically a glorified game of chicken arbitrated by dice. Approach Lore of the Vampires from this perspective: how can you scare the wits out of your opponent? The short answer: the healing power of your Lore attribute, Invocation of Nehek spamming, the Dance Macabre, and Curse of Years. These three spells are the core of what makes the Vampire Counts terrifying: endeavor to have all three of them available to you, preferably with a redundant Invocation every turn on a Vampire or Necromancer Hero. 
They're all cheap spells (low casting values for what they do, combined with the ability to reduce their casting values with different options in your army) and have effects that dictate the flow of the game. Taking a Level 4 Master Necromancer or the Hero level Mannfred in games where you can't afford a kitted out Vampire Lord caster is always your best bet. The Magic Phase is where Vampire Counts have a huge advantage: if you want to play the army to its fullest, exploit the shit out of it.

The lore attribute, Curse of Undeath, allows you to allocate one healed wound to the caster or a model within 12 inches of the caster of any spell in the lore. For great times late game cast spells around your Coven Thrones to keep that rape train running and make your opponent cry as the ladies cause their troops to hit themselves. Early on it's the primary way to keep your Mortis Engine from self-destructing. Note that this doesn't require the target to be undead, therefore being funny in allied games

*Invocation Of Nehek: The signature spell and the army's bread and butter. 6+ cast value to affect all models in a 6 inch bubble, or at a 12+ cast value all models in 12 inches, and at a 18+ cast value all models in (you guessed it!) 18 inches. It's an augment that heals infantry for D6 plus the caster's level. Thanks to the newly dead rule, zombies get 2D6 instead. Ghosts, vampires, and large targets heal exactly one wound from it (two if you factor in the lore attribute).  Characters (and their mounts) are not affected by the spell.  Everything else heals 1 plus the caster's level. This is the spell that stands up all our terrible infantry to fight another round. At least 2 casters should have this at all times, no exceptions. 

*Vanhel's Dance Macabre: 6+ Augment with a range of 12 inches on a target Undead unit (so no throwing this on living allied armies in 2v2 games) or 12+ to affect everything in a 12 inch bubble. Models reroll failed To Hit rolls in close combat until the next Magic Phase, and if they aren't busy they can move another 8 inches immediately like it was the movement phase still. Say it with me: Movement wins games. Your army is on par with snails (or worse, Dwarfs!) without this spell. With this spell, you are one of the fastest armies in the game. Your troops are also 100% close combat, so if they're not in combat, you're losing. You want to guarantee that you have this spell in every game, even if it means taking the Book of Arkhan in every. Single. Game. The rerolls to hit just make this spell even better: the AoE version is cheap, and with a Corpse Cart or two it can turn your army into an unstoppable murder machine. Factor in a Mortis Engine or two and 12+ can be achieved with just two power dice by a level 4 caster, negating miscast issues. In big games, two Corpse Carts and two twenty-strong hordes of Crypt Ghouls accelerated by a caster with this spell and supported by multiple castings of Invocation will steamroll the opposition. Your opponent will cry when each block of Ghouls tosses out 30 ASF poisoned attacks with rerolls to hit, and then the casualties he manages to inflict just get back up and keep killing him. If you manage to get two casters with the AoE version, watch your opponent's face when your army covers 20" in one turn and drink the sweet despair. Also wonderful in other lists since Zombies can become terrifying when they hit first (see Corpse Cart) and reroll hits. This spell can also be used to push Hexwraiths across enemy units and trigger more hits from their Spectral Hunters rule. With some good positioning and multiple casters with access to this spell (Mannfred and Kemmler get it automatically through Loremaster, and it comes in a bound form on the Book of Arkhan) you can yo-yo a unit of Hexwraiths back and forth across your opponent's line to devastating effect. There used to be some debate about if this was legal, but the the April 2013 FAQ for Vampire Counts explicitly says that Spectral Hunters works with Danse Macabre. 

*Hellish Vigour: 8+ Augment to affect one Undead Unit within 12 inches, or all Undead within 12 inches for 12+. Reroll all failed To Wounds until the next Magic Phase. As you can see, combined with the above spell our base infantry murders everything it touches. Woe be to the foe if we get a magic phase all to ourselves. Put on Grave Guard for ultra lulz. Most players won't let you get off both of course, but even Zombies can chew up some Special options if you can get Vanhel's and Hellish Vigour on them. A horde of Ghouls with both goes beyond broken, and with a score of lucky rolls can obliterate almost anything they get their hands on. Bear in mind that it has an expensive casting cost for what it does by itself, and is only really effective when cast on a lot of bodies. Danse Macabre is far more effective in most situations if you have to decide between the two. 

*Gaze of Nagash: 9+ Magic Missile with a range of 24 inches, 48 inches with a 12+. 2D6 Strength 4 hits. Not huge or game changing but will ruin Beastmen and other Light Armor-only armies. Also useful for picking off lone wizards.

*Raise Dead: 9+, unique spell. Within 18 inches anywhere at least one inch from any terrain or Unit, you can spawn 2D6+3 Zombies. For a 14+ instead, you can spawn 2D6+3 Skeleton Warriors. It becomes a new Unit with no upgrades and does not award Victory Points but also can't be dispelled once they hit the table. Amazing since it can be cast in combat. Get your main mob of zombies or skeletons in combat and let the flank charges begin! May not add a whole lot but if you get it on less than Fearless units the Fear test alone can win the fight. If you roll it keep it, provided you have the models to support. It can be especially useful in summoning models directly in front of your opponent's gunlines to soak of their fire. You can also eat the turn of a warmachine by tying it up in Close Combat. That being said, this spell shouldn't take priority over Danse Macabre or when there's a nice opening for one of your other spells. 

*Curse of Years: 12+ Hex with an 18 inch range, no boosted version. Remains in play until the enemy manages to dispel it. On casting, roll D6 for every model in the target Unit. For every 6, they take a Wound. At the end of every Magic Phase (yours AND your opponent's) every turn after, roll a D6 for each model, suffering Wounds on a 5+ that turn, a 4+ the next, 3+ the next, to a maximum of 2+ if your opponent's Wizard is staring at the sky not even trying to dispel it. No Armor Saves are allowed against it. There's absolutely NOTHING bad about this spell. It is one of the best in the game, for various reasons. It's painful to your opponent when it's cast on his point-expensive deathstar Unit because it ignores Armor Saves (bye-bye Ogres, sayonara Warriors of Chaos, don't forget to write High Elves!). It's a fire-and-forget spell, letting your opponent dictate what's going to happen. Once it's on the enemy, their top priority is getting rid of it as whatever it's on will be devastated in three turns so your opponent will burn dispel dice getting rid of it, only to leave himself open to your Augments or you just recasting it. Oh, and did you catch the fact that it can be cast into Close Combat because it's a Hex? Unless your opponent has a Lord level spellcaster (unlikely for most armies below 2000 points) then he's going to having to get very lucky in his dispel once he burns through his Dispel Scrolls and even if he does have a Wizard Lord you can try to nail them using a Feedback Scroll or some sniping; in this case, cast this as your Lord level caster character (doesn't matter if it's a Necro or a Vampire) and cackle like a witch as your opponent has to write off whatever this spell hits as doomed, then cast it on another Unit next Magic Phase until the field looks like a very dusty pantry.

*Wind of Death: 15+ Remains In Play Magic Vortex with a small template, 25+ for a large template. Once it's been placed <s>(anywhere you want)</s> (no, it's a vortex and follows the normal vortex placement rules as stated in the BRB), you choose the direction it'll go. Roll one artillery dice and multiply it by 3, which is how many inches it'll move. Anything it passes over takes D6 Armor-ignoring Strength 3 hits, Strength 4 at the higher casting value. If you roll a misfire on the artillery you begin the template on the caster instead of where you chose  and roll a scatter and a D6 to determine the direction it'll move and how far. If you roll the Hit side, it'll move the direction of the hit instead of the direction you chose. Regardless of where it starts you throw an artillery dice in the direction a scatter dice indicates with a misfire causing it to fade away. Use this spell to thin deathstars, or superior hordes such as those of Orcs & Goblins. Anything with low Toughness also suffers, such as the armies of Elves. The only problem with this spell is the chance of it fading and the possibility of consuming yourself on top of the high cast value. Curse of Years is far superior in every way, except against armies with lots of small Units.