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

===Buying Your Army===

If you don't care about participating in GW-run tournaments then go to [http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Kings-of-War/Undead.html Mantic] you can get 60 zombies for $60 (vs GW's 40 for $70) and 40 skeletons for 45 (vs GW's 40 for 99). Also if you can source some more square bases, each mantic zombie frame is supposed to only make 3 of them, but can easily make 4! Just be warned. Mantic produce ugly, crap quality minis. (that's debatable... for example, in my opinion, zombies suck because they look like infected/ghouls. But skeletons on the other hand are well made and look really good)

If you must use legit GW products, go for the battalion box set as you are going to need a lot of Skeletons, Zombies and Ghouls. The new battalion box dropped the Zombies and replaced them with Dire Wolves - still a good buy. The army box is also good as it gives you a good selection of heavy hitters in addition to the core. You will want to invest in extra zombies/skeletons/dire wolves/dire bats/fell bats (depending on what you run) beyond what you plan on starting on the table. Several spells/abilities allow you to expand these units beyond their starting size (or flat out create new units), but only if you have the models to support it. This is one of the other great advantages the army, as those extra models are essentially free points. Boost a few units and all of a sudden what started off as a 2000pt game has suddenly turned in to a 2200 v 2000 game.

And burying enemy units in piles of zombies is a lot of fun.

Avoid any of [[Games Workshop|GW]]'s overly-expensive kits for the likes of Blood Knights. Instead, either buy Brettonian knights and adapt them, use Dragon Princes, or, if you're feeling particularly [[Martini|vicious]], break open some [[Dark Eldar]] bitz and use them for conversion-fodder for damned near any WHFB armored cavalry unit. The angular Dark Eldar armor works especially well when paired with more conventional fare, since it matches the style used by most Vampire Counts units.

'''Buying a Vampire Counts army in a post-AoS World'''

The good news: Vampire Counts got hit not nearly as hard as some other factions, and arguably actually benefits from the new start collecting! boxes GW does, which have replaced the old battalions/army boxes. The range has now been split across 3 different factions in AoS: All the traditional Strigoi stuff (terrorgheists, crypt ghouls/horrors etc) have become the flesh eater courts, while your traditionally Lahmian stuff (mortis engine, hexwraiths, black coach etc) have become assimilated into the nighthaunt range. Everything else was stuffed into the Legions of (Guess who!?) Nagash. Your named characters have become generic Vampires/Necromancers/Wight Kings. Update for 2021: RIP VC named characters, guess we're waiting for the Vampire Wars in [[The Old World]] to get a few back.

The bad news: Have fun trying to get hold of square bases. While some of the older units, such as zombies, may still come with square bases, your start collecting sets and new units do not, and you're probably going to want a few of them. Someone on eBay always has a pile of old Warhammer stuff that has a few dozen bases; if you ever need more just find someone selling a bits pile you like.

Collecting an army, however, is even better than pre-end times. Buy a couple of FEC starter sets and a box of crypt ghouls? You've now got a very respectable Strigoi force that will put a dent in whatever you face them up against. Want some Lahmians running around the battlefield? Buy a couple of Malignant start collecting sets and you've now got 2 Coven Thrones/Mortis Engines, 10 Hexwraiths and a good squad of Spirit Hosts. If you want to go down the more traditional von Carstein or Necrarch route, then <s>buy a Legions of Nagash starter set and a metric fuckton of skeletons or zombies, with some Grave Guard and Black Knights to help them out. Only buy 1 LoN SC set, or you'll end up with lots of Abyssal Terrors, of which you really only need one.</s> weep for the end of the old Skeleton Warriors kit. The new basic boneboys are pretty cool as AOS updates go, but they're just not the same, and their poses make them near impossible to rank up on squares. The new Soulblight Gravelords starter is a fantastic deal, though- the other parts of the classic skeletal triad, Grave Guard and Black Knights, come at a slight discount, and you get the new mounted Wight King, who has been shown by /wfg/'s top scientists to fit on a square cavalry base with minimal work. At the moment, this is the only place you can get him. Classic GW.

The Black Coach has got a fantastic new model- much more dynamic and detailed- but is too big to fit on the right base. To fix this, cut the front 2 ghost horses from the Coach to reduce the size and take some Wraiths off to reduce the profile. Cairn Wraiths have a fantastic new unit (Grimghast Reapers are ghosts with scythes, they're basically the same), so just stick them on square bases and you have a good-sized unit for your rare slot. Blood Dragons are still the enigma they've always been when it comes to finding (and funding) good conversions for them, except it's got a bit harder - Dragon Princes and Brettonians are long gone, so you'll have to do some more hardcore conversions. 

Characters are even easier to convert - the Nighthaunt Dreadblade Harrows kit builds you 2 Wight Kings on skeletal steeds if you're brave enough, while Reikenor the Grimhailer is quite possibly the best Hellsteed base for a conversion I've ever seen.