Editing Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Vampire Counts (section)

==Alternative Army Lists==
===Army of Sylvania (Storm of Chaos list)===

''And lo, in the Age of the Rings Franchise Deal there shall be a decline in sales, and metaplot shall become the fashion among the nerds, and skub shall be the whole of the lore. And in that time of darkness, man shall become beard, and beard shall become man.
- Excerpt from Warhammer: Storm of Chaos (2004), probably''

The Army of Sylvania represents a bizarre extension of the Von Carstein theme force from the regular army book, this time into an army designed to fight on Mannfred's home turf and a final attempt to make a Necromancer-free variant of the faction actually work on the tabletop. In subsequent editions, the Vampires would just be made into proper Wizards, but here, the developer responsible decided to... experiment. It worked rather well, if you happen to like the Von Carsteins and think they were a bit overshadowed by the other Bloodlines, with only Lahmians seeing less table time. It is, however... a tiny bit unbalanced. Just a little.

The army gets two Grave Markers for turning up, plus one for each Vampire Count or Vampire Lord in the list. After choosing table edges, but before setting up, place these markers on the board (up to half on your opponent's side, but none in your opponent's deployment zone) and scatter them 2d6". They can't go off the board.

In each Army of Sylvania magic phase, each Grave Marker casts From Death Awakened: power level 4 Bound Spell with a range of 6" that summons 2d6 Sylvanian Militia, 2d6+2 Sylvanian Levy, or 2 extra wounds for a multi-wound model. New units may have any weapons and armour allowed by their list entry. This will be important later.

There are a clutch of new Bloodline powers, which are all good. Spectral Attendants (35 points, -1 casting penalty to all enemy wizards, one per army), Wolf Lord (10 points, Vampire may use Invocation of Nehek to raise d3/2d3/3d3 Dire Wolves), Earthbind (10 points, Vampire has Magic Resistance 1). There is a new magic item, the ''Drakenhof Banner'', which is very good: 50 points and the unit gets Magic Resistance 2, while any Summon Bats or Summon Wolves power within 12" generates double the number of creatures.

So far, so good. You can see how it works: the Grave Markers are easy to dispel but they keep the units topped up if they fight nearby; Dire Wolves play a more significant role; the new powers introduce a defence against aggressive enemy magic to compensate for losing Dispel dice from the lack of Necromancers.

Then we get into the list itself.

'''Lords:''' Von Carstein Vampire Lords (PLURAL) and Vampire Counts.

'''Heroes:''' 1+ Von Carstein Vampire Thrall (may be the army general), Wight Lords, Wraiths

'''Core:''' Dire Wolves (one unit may have Scouts, for +1 point per model), 0-2 Bat Swarms, Fell Bats (do not fill minimum Core slots), Sylvanian Militia and Sylvanian Levy.

'''Special:''' 0-1 Spirit Hosts, Grave Guard (0-1 unit may have full plate and greatswords for 15 points per model), 0-2 Black Coaches.

'''Rare''': 0-1 Black Knights (must have barding), Banshees.

You will have observed the S6 Grave Guard, the multiple Black Coaches in SPECIAL, the MULTIPLE Vampire Lords in the 3000+ games GW was trying to encourage at the time. Now we reach the endgame. Let's look at those new unit types.

Sylvanian Levy are Zombies with light armour, shields, and either spears or halberds at 8 points per model.
Sylvanian Militia are Skeletons with light armour, shields, and either a spear and shield, halberd and shield, or a FUCKING CROSSBOW. 10 points a head.

The Army of Sylvania springs Skeleton Crossbowmen out of the ground whenever it can: sure, they're inaccurate, but it's hard to hide from them when they can just be raised anywhere, and it's not like any points were wasted on them. Opponents are march-blocked and triple-charged by Dire Wolf units from all directions, slammed into by double Coach charges, and meanwhile a huge block of Black Knights with Magic Resistance 2 and three Vampires in the front rank just grinds around the table chewing through anything it can charge.

It's not invincible: in particular, it can do very little about magic that doesn't target its own units, it doesn't have the capacity for Dispel Scrolls as the Vampire Lords have better things to spend their points on, and any opponent who can stack bonuses to Dispel rolls can shut the Grave Markers down just by putting a die on them. It also sucks horribly between 500 and 2000 points, where two Grave Markers are increasingly likely to be shut down until the Vampire Lord or Count arrives to take the strain. But it doesn't rely on Vanhel's to be fast or Invocation to get new Dire Wolf units into play, and a lot of the usual tricks like the ''Cursed Book/Book of Arkhan'' power couple, the Wraith librarian and the Wolf Thrall are still very much available if you walk back from the monobuild a little.

While it lends itself to lovely post-mortem Empire conversions and can be played as a fairly straight infantry army, the potential for the Sylvanian Nightmare is always there. And all the Storm of Chaos lists were like this.

And forgive me, reader, I enjoyed every minute of it.

FinAnon has never played with this list but has made some theoretical calculations. In a 2000 points list the only wizard could be a count or a lord and that fourth dispel dice and fifth power dice are very valuable so I'm calculcating with a lord. The lord will have Book of Arkhan. Now the army has three power level 4 bounds which are very annoying to dispel with just one dice. If the markers are in good places, the enemy must sacricife two dispel dice to counter each. Or the marchblockers just appear in random places. After these comes Book of Arkhan and depending on situation, the enemy might want to cancel it without risks so two dispel dice is absolutely needed. The best thing about bounds is the reliability, no miscasts will end your magic phase abruptly. And finally comes normal spells from the lord. The vampire will absolutely surely have Invocation of Nehek so four summons in one turn, the enemy will have hard time to dispel them all. You'll cast two spells in a turn with five dice and since you'll have three spells, at least two will be useful (Hand of Dust won't). The opponent's magic phase could be very annoying but with four dispel dice at least that one crucial spell could propably be dispelled.

===Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast===
WD 306/lustria campaign

'''Army special rules:''' 

'''Undead''': yep, just remember lone characters don’t crumble and can March outside the general bubble. A skirmisher double pace is not a March move either!

'''Braindead''': everything that is not a character is a zombie, so hits last, even when charging.

'''Wet powder:'''  any ballistic skill firearm used by a model with bs0 will always hit on a 6, however a roll of one misfires and is resolved against the unit.

'''Lords''':

''Luthor Harkon'': 
Must be taken as a lord, for 260 points you get a naked vampire lord with a brace of pistols who brings dwarven level dispels to your army(while he’s not stupid) and provides mr2 to his unit.he does gain regeneration when on his last wound but is ultimately rather fragile against kitted up characters.
Make use of brace of pistols counting as additional hand weapons after the first round of combat, also remember that since you test his sanity at the start of every turn and he might just become frenzied and charge off, stick him in a unit with an accompanying character(to eat a challenge)

'''Heroes''':

 ''Vampire fleet captain''
it’s a wight from the vampire list with different equipment.So innate magical killing blow attacks while hand weapons are used means additional hand weapons, or a brace of pistols are of course fun too(but remember undead can’t stand and shoot). These guys are the the edge you need to win combats, bother charging or protect luthor. 

Some ways to use them are as follows;

1: obligatory bodyguard for luthor with light armour,hw and bloody bills buckler and wharf rats 5+ 5++  d6s2 poison attacks every round as well as 3 killing blow basic attacks. 

2. Slann gold BSB the wight becomes a level 1 caster and vampire coasts only way to use spells, if you ever get a spell off be surprised. The real benefit is an extra dispel dice. BSB of some kind are integral to vampire coast as you will lose most combats.

3. Syreen but better: Take a wight,give him a brace of pistols. Mad mullets spyglass,light armour and an enchanted shield.
You get a t4 body who can shoot other characters/champions out of units on a 4+ with 4+ armour. 

4. The sweeper: give a wight bloody Nora’s whip and stick him with some pistoliers, yes he loses killing,blow but 3+d3+2 s4 attacks on the charge will wipe a front rank with a little luck.

''Syreen'':
Banshees musical sisters are unfortunately pricey, with a strictly worse ability(can do a special shooting attack which causes the unit to take an ld test and if failed suffers the effects of the ‘doom and darkness’ spell.As a result they can’t sing into combat like their sisters. Since they are packing 2 s3 attacks and can’t take magic items to they don’t really fulfill a role within the army. Use 1 at most, but a shipwight could do better.

'''Core:
'''

''Deckhands'':
Ws3 zombies! Take between 30-40 with command if you want something to provide passive combat Rez. Being brain dead they won’t often get to hit so consider protecting their flanks.

''Gunnery mob:''
These must take the cake for the worst unit in 6th Ed with their default load out of handguns. 7ppm grants you a unit that is move or fire, will only hit on a 6(unmodified) and misfire. The best part? They can’t even stand and shoot being undead. However upgrade the whole unit  with a brace of pistols and suddenly you have something almost interesting. 
in the first round of combat these pistol wielding goons suddenly have three s4 ap attacks each hitting at their own ws(2) instead of bs0(and no misfires!) they still have ASL even on the charge though, so these are your go to units to stick characters into as if your character can sweep the front rank of your enemies then these guys might even get to attack with their pistols. 

''Bloated corpses:''
For 30 points you get a single infantry model (thus is treated as a skirmisher so -1 to be hit can always move at double pace according to 2004 errata) who is t4,w2 with a poison attack and explodes on death. 
But the real usage of these guys is they make amazing redirectors, line of sight blockers(for luthor) ,March blocker, artillery protection and deployment time wasters. Take 2-3 and plop them down during deployment one at a time.

''Scurvy dogs:''
Recoloured dire wolves but they always strike last, even on charges. Still sometimes useful to harass warmachines or deny a rank bonus.

'''Special''': 

''razortooth rats:''
A skaven rat swarm unit that can crumble. Best used as unit fillers.

''Deck Droppers:''
These are your fel bat equilavents, but with 3 s3 attacks at the cost of always hitting last.
so take 4 of them if bother bringing them to harass warmachines/archers and fly around being a general nuisance.

''Carronade'':
70 points for a move and fire aquatic unbreakable cannon with d3 damage s7.
They are even better than they sound, roll them into lakes and blast out, roll them along behind your infantry blocks, start with them hidden behind stuff and roll out the guns. 
Remember they can grapeshot which is an auto hitting artillery dice worth of hits. 
strongest unit in the list. Take at least 2 at all times.

''Undead hulks:'' 
M6 surprisingly, these undead ogres/whatever you stick on an 40mm square are s5 d6 attacks, at ws3..
Useful to be sure however always hitting last means apart from light cav/archers they generally shouldn’t be thrown into a combat unsupported as they can and will whiff horribly, then crumble.

''Deck Gunners:''
S6 ‘36’ handguns for 10 points each which hit on 6’s.


'''Rare:
'''

''Rotting leviathan:'' 
200 points for a fantastic monster which is not even a large target. -1 to be hit hit in melee means most things hit it on 4’s. Its real weakness is crumbling due to ws3 whiffing its 6 attacks, so keep them close to a bsb and use them to break ranks/win combats

''Queen Bess:''
250 points, one rare AND one special slot gets you a hellhammer cannon. Which shoots small templates.
With No saving throws of any kind allowed(such as armour and ward) Let that sink in.
Queen bess fires similiarly to a cannon but using 2 rolled artillery dice for the range thus is quite inaccurate and prone to misfire though I have found 11.5 to 12.5 from the front a good estimate.
She then rolls a further artillery dice as the template goes forward further. Anything directly under template as it lands is hit, partial/rolling template  is then on a 4+. S10 d6 wounds.

Speaking honestly the moral threat of queen bess is much greater than the practical effect, as she will spend half the time misfiring or overshooting.however the threat of deleting entire units along with the warded up character inside them is a very powerful deterrent.

===Army of the Cairns (White Dwarf supplemental list)===

Kemmler's back, baby, and he's brought the fourth edition Undead list with him. Well. Kinda-sorta. Some of the unit types will be familiar to pre-Vampire-Counts players, others are reminiscent of the early Tomb Kings army from fifth edition, some are completely new. Thematically, it's an army fresh out of the vaguely Celtic-style tombs of pre-Bretonni civilisations on the edges of Athel Loren, led by an extremely accomplished Necromancer who's cranked the entire Lore of Necromancy into overdrive, reducing casting values or adjusting effects to make every spell that bit more efficient. Such is the breadth of Kemmler's accomplishments that he's even managed to make Hand of Dust look palatable (it's a niche case, but Kemmler has the capacity to facetank a Stegadon, Giant, or other large model without magical attacks and try for the one-hit kill over time).

{Full writeup to follow: gotta dig the White Dwarf issues out.}
===Unofficial Army List Variants: the Back of the Book===

Each Bloodline has its own wild and wacky theme force tucked away in a two page spread at the back of the book. All move units around between slots and adjust the numbers you're allowed to take, and three of them invite in units from other lists. 

Note that this section can be used only with the permission of your opponent, and even the book says they are in no way as balanced as the main list (one in particular just rips open the concepts of 'game balance' and 'good sense' and 'verisimilitude' and 'god I didn't want to think about that', be warned).

*'''Von Carstein''': Lose Master Necromancers and Ghouls, gain 0-2 Bat Swarms, 0-2 Black Coaches, Fell Bats in Core and Sylvanian Levy, aka Empire Free Company, Archers, Crossbowmen and 0-1 Huntsmen. A perennially popular theme force, with a lot of flexibility: Huntsmen are great march blockers and diverters, Crossbowmen add a good solid punch from a distance, Free Company aren't as mobile or tough as Ghouls but can bait, switch and throw down two attacks in melee well enough. Really benefits from a Battle Standard Bearer with all those living units around, and the best way to avoid rules headaches around Undead characters in living units is to not have them join and bring a Skellie bunker just to be sure.

*'''Necrarch''': Lose Master Necromancers and Ghouls, Dire Wolves move into Special, all Heroes can ride Winged Nightmares and unridden Zombie Dragons appear in Rare. Hot damn, it's a Vampire flying circus, and a perfect opportunity to use those Zombie Dragon models we should very much avoid otherwise. Lots of Terror, lots of mobility, lots of eggs in one basket probably.

*'''Lahmians''': Lose Master Necromancers, Ghouls and Zombies, gain Swains: Heroes from ANY OTHER WARHAMMER ARMIES BOOK, with all their usual options, including mounts, who gain Hatred of the enemy if the Lahmian General, the immortal object of their desire, turns out to be less immortal than planned. Clearly meant to be used with restraint and dignity, to bring in a Bretonnian or Empire hero, maybe an Elf if you wanted to get daring, a Dark Elf Sorceress if you wanted to summon the artfags. Clearly GOING to be used to snuggle-smuggle Skaven Warlock Engineers, Skink Priests on Stegadons, Beastmasters on Manticores and Exalted Champions of Chaos on big gnarly Daemon mounts (actually, those last two veer back around into sexy again, forget I said anything, carry on). Whatever you end up indulging in, the Swains had better be able to survive and contribute to the game on their own as there are all sorts of rules loopholes around putting them safely in any of your units and life's too short. 

*'''Blood Dragons''': Easier to list what you can take than what you can't, to be honest. Blood Dragon Vampires of any size. Wight Lords. Black Knights (must have barding), Grave Guard and Skeletons with hand weapons and bows at 10 points each as Core. Regular Skeletons as Special. Black Coach, Banshees, and Dogs of War... unless you want to go off the deep end and let your Black Knights use Lance Formation, and since this list is clearly derived from Bretonnia rather than the Empire I say go hog wild. Accept that you'll only be attempting one spell per turn; take those Black Knight lances with a Thrall in the front of each one; fill up on Skeleton Archers and bring a Banshee or two to deflect. Deal with enemy wizards by spitting them upon your lances. Game on.

*'''Strigoi''': Only Vampire characters. Core is Ghouls, 0-1 super-Ghouls with WS 4, S4 and Ld7 at 10 points each, 0-1 Bat Swarms, 0-1 Strigany (another set of Empire Free Company, this time as Warhammer gypsies because GW finally reached the 'uncritical racist tropes' level of White Wolf's garbage bags). Special is Skeletons, Dire Wolves, Fell Bats and 0-1 Spirit Host. Rare? Banshees and Dogs of War, no Black Coach for you! Another army where you won't be casting many spells, but in your defence you won't need to as the majority of your army isn't even Undead. Skeletons are there as a bunker option in case your vampires need to hide from shooting for a few turns, everything else is full feral. It's an interesting idea for a list, that'll be asking a lot of the Strigoi Thralls. You might as well go full Lore of Death with this one and not even bother with raising conventional Undead. This anon is a coward and would never play it, but you absolutely do you if you're coming in from a later edition and own the twelve kajillion Ghouls you'll need to fill a 2000 point army.

*'''Necromancer's Army''': Lose all Vampires, Ghouls, Bat Swarms and the Black Coach. Dire Wolves move into Special. Everything not a Necromancer gets a points break. Essentially, you're giving up on the combat potential and cool factor of the Vampire in favour of an absolute barrage of spells and combined arms play to compensate for your lack of really strong heroes.