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

===Army Book Items===

* ''Skabscrath:'' This is kind of an odd choice. The likelihood of the dying at the end of the game is actually pretty low but the only characters who can take it are the Strigoi Ghoul King, the Vampire Lord, and the Master Necromancer. Due to the SGK losing his Poisoned Attacks, and the Necromancer generally being something you want to keep out of close combat, that leaves the Vampire Lord as the best choice who is probably the General of your army.  Needless to say having the General be armed with a sword that means you will always try to overrun, will charge into combat without thinking any time you can, and eat points that could go into survivability are BAD things. On the other hand it can improve a killy Vamp Lord in the situation you do have a twin lord as a caster a fair amount, but in any situation, you're taking a high-risk high-reward choice.
* ''Nightshroud:'' VERY useful no matter where you want to put it. If you need help justifying the points, remember that it also takes the place of the Bat Swarm on the flank. Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with Quickblood and Sword of Striking buttfucks the enemy. Master Necromancer in a Skelly bunker may make it literally impossible for your opponent to deplete your forces before you wipe his out to the last.
*''Banner of Barrows:'' If you are going to take a unit of more then 15 Grave guard (and why wouldn't you?) and/or you have a Wight King in there, you will want this banner as the +1 to hit makes your relatively low WS (for elite infantry) far more destructive.
*''The Screaming Banner:'' If you want to troll, take this banner. It will make low LD armies suffer, and give you a small chance to drive away even high LD armies.  The flag gets better with Terror though, as then even enemies who take options like the Shrieking Blade or those pesky Phoenix Guard still have to take the test.  For the ultimate cheese special, take a horde of Grave Guard with this flag then put a Wight King BSB carrying Banner of Barrows into the same Unit along with a Vampire Lord with Aura of Dark Majesty, Supernatural Horror, and Fear Incarnate for utter carnage as a failed test means they'll be hitting on 2+. 
*''Black Periapt:'' Not a must-have item but it can be great for a dedicated spellcaster option if you get a bad magic phase or if you're facing an army where you have spells you NEED to dispel. 
*''Staff of Damnation:'' A fantastic item, best used for Ghouls or more powerful options in the offensive category. 
*''The Cursed Book:'' This item is a gamble where you can't really lose. The only thing that's wrong with it is your primary spell is Invocation and in almost all possible circumstances you want to cast it AT LEAST once per turn, and this book can take that away. But that being said, you can pull off these spells (all of which are good) for what's probably less than their casting value without risk of any miscast.
*''Book of Arkhan:'' VERY good item. Even if you make all attempts to cast that spell using all your capable LoV casters you can still at least count on whipping out one more attempt. Also can be taken by the Strigoi Ghoul King, making it fan-fucking-tastic in low-magic lists.
*''Rod of Flaming Death:'' Pretty good item even for it's price and very good for controlling the movement phase. If your enemy DOES move (possibly due to taking the forced panic test!) then you have the chance to disintegrate the whole group.  This can actually be taken by a Wight King, freeing up points on your casters.