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

====Generic Characters====
'''Note:''' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.
=====Lords=====
*'''Vampire Lord:''' 
Brilliant stat line, a metric fuckton of upgrade options, and outside of the Chaos Lord is probably the most dangerous generic combat lord in the game (he probably would have been the best since he can kill more models per round compare while the Chaos Lord is better at single combat, but there's the whole problem where your army starts crumbling if he dies unless you're at the point level to take more than one). Naturally, characters are the first place points go in a Vampire Counts army, and this motherfucker will likely soak up as many points as you can give. Properly kitted out they can stand toe to toe with Lords and go on to rampage through Special units all while having excellent magical options. Remember, if your general dies very bad things happen to your army, so whatever you do, keep him in a unit at least until he is in combat: losing a game on turn one from a fucking cannonball is not fun. Mounting these badasses up is not only an option, but depending on your goals may just be the point of taking him. All Vampires are level 1 Wizards in Lore of Vampires, Death, or Shadow and you can upgrade them up to a level 4. Item selection and powers will be covered later. 220 points at base level. 
An important thing to remember that he doesn't come with jack shit for equipment standard, so browse through all the options when making your list or you'll wind up with an ancient immortal Vampire walking into ranked Halberdiers naked with his bare hands (he'll still kick ass, but do you really want to picture it?)
They can ride Barded Nightmares, Hellsteeds, Abyssal Terrors, Zombie Dragons, or Coven Thrones. All of the choices though are just kind of...meh.

*'''Master Necromancer:''' 
For only 165 points, this is a cheap level 3 Wizard (which can be upgraded to a level 4) in either Lore of Death or Lore of Vampires (NOT Shadow) that can be used to support a fighty Vampire Lord, or to be the main caster and general should you decide to bring a slew of ordinary Vampires. If you are considering making him your general, that certainly frees points for the other great choices you have, but remember that your army will start crumbling as soon as he dies. If you assign the other Vampires to Lore of Vampires then at least one of them can take over as general, although this is not ideal. 

The Master Necromancer can be mounted on Barded Nightmares, Hellsteeds, Abyssal Terrors, and something Vampires can't ride: Corpse Carts. The main point of putting him on a Corpse Cart is making a combo out of casting Invocation of Nehek on the Corpse Cart, which ensures that Vigor Mortis activates, giving all friendly Undead units within 6" the Always Strikes First special rule, but it's not a great idea - siege machines are already pointing at him to start with, and putting him on the cart makes him that much easier to shoot down.

*'''Strigoi Ghoul King:''' 
A Strigoi may not look like much, having a slightly inferior statline to a Vampire Lord for 260 points, not being able to take magical armor, being stuck as a level 1 caster in Lore of Vampires. What it gets for these tradeoffs is Hatred, the ability to reroll ALL failed To Hit rolls instead of just the very first, Poisoned Attacks, Regeneration 5+, as well as the 100 points of Vampire upgrades and 100 points of magic items (sans armor) that Vampire Lords get. It can also be mounted on a Terrorgheist. 
Giving him a magic weapon isn't necessary seeing as he already has 5 Poisoned Attacks and S5 is not as much of a boon as you'd think.  If you're paying to swap his poisoned attacks for extra attacks or strength as he loses those Poisoned Attacks (as they do not apply to magic weapons, and it's stated in the core rulebook a character with a magic weapon MUST use it). 
No matter how you're planning to use him, just make sure you have a plan for your casters since this guy is almost pure combat at mastery level 1.

=====Heroes=====
Leadership is almost meaningless to Vampires as they cannot be broken. It is, however, what stops your army from falling apart if/when your general dies. If you have the points, adding a few basic heroes to your list to bump the leadership in a few key units can still be a worthwhile investment for the wounds they prevent when crumbling comes around. Something that can take Lore of Vampires can also take over as general. 

*'''Vampire:''' 
105 points. Cheaper Vampire Lord and almost identical other than having inferior stats, half the allowance of magic items and Vampire upgrades, and can be a maximum of level 2 Wizard in Death, Shadow, or Vampires. Like the Lord equivalent they don't come with any equipment standard, so if you put all your points in magic don't send them into combat or they're going to get slaughtered. Can be upgraded to BSB, and gets Vampire upgrades regardless of that fact. Can ride Barded Nightmares, Hellsteeds, and Coven Thrones. The last option is great for supporting a killy Lord, or maybe even helping Mannfred get some kills. 7 LD.

*'''Wight King:''' 
85 points.  Pretty much the same statline as a Vampire, with the S and T swapped around and an extra Wound being the notable changes. Can be upgraded to BSB. Can mount up on a Skeletal Steed with barding as an option and take a lance if you want him with Black Knights, otherwise stick him in a unit of Grave Guard with the Banner of the Barrows for an incredibly cheesy unit that will melt all variety of faces. Gets Killing Blow. Can take 50 points worth of magic items if he's NOT taking a <big>magic banner</big>. Oh, and like Krell this guy has a fucking beautiful model.
Taking this character over the Vampire makes you lose the Vampire Power options, despite this he's still 20 points cheaper and has 2 more points of Leadership, so if that downside doesn't matter then go for it, and at 9 LD he's very good at preventing crumbling in his unit. 

*'''Necromancer:''' 
As above, 8th makes Necromancers more viable (65 points for a level 1 Wizard in Lore of Vampires or Death that that can be bumped up to level 2 is good). Same basic deal as Vampire Lord VS Vampire, look to Master Necromancer as the baseline. Use them to keep your armies at good strength, but don't expect too much from them. You get what you paid for. Necro's are good for supporting large units of infantry with a little extra LD and some magical support if they end up away from the General, and if they're in LoV can take over as general if shit hits the fan. Mount options are Nightmare and Corpse Cart. 

*'''Cairn Wraith:''' 
60 points. Ethereal, Terror, Undead. Has a special ability called Chill Grasp, allowing it to trade in it's 3 Attacks for one Attack that automatically wounds if it hits and ignores armour. Only S3 and great weapon, T3, and 2 Wounds with a low as fuck 2 Initiative. Can't be upgraded in any way.
Sadly not a great choice. Spirit hosts are cheaper for simple tarpits and the Cairn Wraiths unit from the Rare section are more cost-effective for cavalry/monster killing. Both are also more resistant to magic by virtue of having more wounds. Finally, Wight Kings are better at simply killing normal stuff by virtue of their Killing Blow and awesome (for points) stats. It's possible to use them to nail characters, but chances are good that whatever you're aiming to kill has a magic attack which renders the Cairn Wraith's only defense moot, and at 5 LD, don't expect him to prevent anything from crumbling (in fact, he's more susceptible to it truth be told). On the other hand, they are heroes, so as of the End Times Archaon you can make some truly game breaking lists with them. Add in an allied Prince from Aestyrion with the Banner of the World Dragon for that 2+ save vs anything that could hurt them to begin with, and Poof- you just win- no ifs, buts or maybes.

*'''Tomb Banshee:''' 
95 points. Ethereal , Terror, Undead. Crap stats and two Wounds. Can use Ghostly Howl, which targets an enemy unit and is used in the shooting phase and can be used in close combat.  8" range, needs LOS. Roll 2D6+2, for each point you beat the enemy's LD score they take one Wound with no armor saves against it (although they DO count as magic attacks so there's still Ward Saves and immunity to that). 
Generally not the best investment for points. Any competitive army will have at least 9 Leadership in important units, most will have 10, so the hysterical woman is unlikely to earn her points back (she will on average deal less than 0.5 casualties per turn in those cases). She can take out a low LD unit very quickly however (seeing 10 Skaven Slaves drop dead bleeding from the ears from one single attack can be fucking hilarious). As a result, she's best used to wipe out ranks of anvils and let you wash over everything that was supposed to flank charge you, though thanks to the range of the scream she's not very good at that, and at LD 5 has the same problem as the Cairn Wraith.

=====Mounts=====
*'''Skeletal steed:''' 
The Black Knights basic mount, ignores terrain as they are treated as Ethereal for movement and does not get the -1M for barding if you take it. Think about that for a moment, you can charge units on the '''other side of buildings''' if you can see them. Never take a dangerous terrain test with these guys again! This 12 point mount is only available to a Wight King. Can be barded for 8 additional points (Do this).

*'''Barded Nightmare:''' 
Simple undead horse, best in a squad of Blood Knights, and never put Black Knights unless there's no terrain, as they'll lose their Ethereal movement. Ordinary in all regards. ''other than being S4 WS3 horses''. This mount is available to Vampires, including Mannfred the Acolyte (16 points), Vampire Lords including Count Mannfred (24 points) and Master Necromancers (20 points). Only non-barded option is available to Necromancers for 15 points.

*'''Hellsteed:''' 
A 30 point flying Barded Nightmare, and overall a better horse. Not too expensive and still a great investment if you like running with Fell Bats or other silliness (can't join a unit of Fell Bats as even flying characters cannot join flying units). Still, if used right it can be a scary model that's great for picking off warmachines or other small units, since arrows don't tend to have the killing power needed for a Vampire (although those war machines you're hunting tend to!). Available to Vampires, Master Necromancers, and Vampire Lords, including Count Mannfred.

*'''Abyssal Terror:''' 
Not great by any standard of a monster. Can be given Poison Attacks or Armour Piercing, has Thunderstomp (which doesn't get the upgrade abilities sadly). Fairly cheap (120 points) and it flies so it's not exactly bad, but it's just beaten out by the next two usually. Available to both versions of Mannfred, Vampire Lords, and Master Necromancers.

*'''Coven Throne:''' 
Hot motherfucking damn (also damnably hot if you know what I mean), this thing has a good number of abilities. The Battle of Wills is a fun way to mess with your opponent as before anything rolls To Hit against it or whoever is riding it in melee OR shooting rolls a D6 and add it to their LD (unless something doesn't have to roll To Hit anyway), then the Coven Throne rolls LD plus D6. You subtract the enemy's LD from the Coven's and the result is the effect caused. 0 or less means nothing happens. 1-2 and the enemy fights at -1WS and -1BS. 3-5 and they reroll To Hits that succeed. 6 or more, the unit '''TURNS ON ITSELF''' causing one melee attack per model against the whole unit, with War Machine crews taking one S3 hit for each crewman left against their Toughness and whatever is affected doesn't get to shoot or attack in any other way this turn. All this is available to Vampires and Vampires Lords for 230 points.

A mixed bag honestly, absolutely fucking awful against any army with high leadership and siege weapons (so mostly Dwarfs with their army wide LD 9 or Elves) or usually just any army with a lot of cannons as they'll pass eventually.  The only thing worthwhile to put on it is a Vampire Lord, but then you're at 450 points naked AND you just made your general a much bigger cannonball magnet which might lose you the game, and lesser vampires don't have a high enough leadership to consistently use The Battle of Wills effectively (and it costs a shitload of points).

On the other hand, excellent in combat, you get 2D6 attacks from the ghosts hauling this thing around, the ghost horses grant it Ethereal movement so there's no troubles from terrain, a 5+ Armor Save, a 4+ Ward Save, four S5 ASF attacks from the Handmaidens, D6 S5 impact hits, and it has one of the most glorious models Games Workshop ever released.

*''' Zombie Dragon:''' 
Exactly what you think it is. It's got beefy stats, can be healed massively thanks to lore attribute plus Invocation, his Pestilential Breath attack causes -3 to armour as well as causing a S2 hit and it adds that extra "fuck you" to Ogres in the form of terror. Has Swarm of Flies (ew!) which causes -1 to To Hit rolls in melee. Also, it only costs 245 points! For a dragon! Available only to Vampire Lords.
A great time if your Vampire has the same stat line as the mount its on. Can really wreck heavy cavalries day as well as rank and file, though it will die to cannons or Heroic Killing Blow. Still a wonderful kick ass model and is our only dragon, but like most fun things, it's a magnet for artillery and mass shooting.