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

===Rulebook Items===

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">Thanks to the Vampires already having very high stats on most of their characters, they can benefit greatly from Rulebook items.  Note this is a very long section.
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====Magic Weapons====

*''Giant Blade:'' Close Combat with the sword is at +3 Strength for 60 points. Extra Strength is never a bad thing. Getting S8 on anything, especially a model with 5 fucking Attacks, is fucking amazing. That being said those 60 points eat up your options for magic items, so you probably should think hard about other options first. You'll still have 40 points for Nightshroud after this.

*''Sword of Bloodshed:'' +3 Attacks for 60 points. Remember that with Red Fury, any unsaved Wound caused grants you an additional attack so going from 5 Attacks (that can become a maximum of 10) you can get 8 Attacks (which can become a maximum of 16). It's by no means an optimal build even for a blender lord, but at the same time isn't terrible. Once again, take a good long look at other options, and if you do take it consider the Nightshroud. If you AREN'T making a blender lord, this really is a waste of points. Actually, the maths supports rage giant blade over this, except against very weak infantry, anything T3 with 5+ or worse save will be obliterated, T4/4+ or higher take giant blade.

*''Obsidian Blade:'' 50 points, Attacks made with it don't get Armor Saves against it. Good for a Vamp designed to go toe to toe with more point-costly enemies or for high-armor foes like Warriors of Chaos or dwarves. More specifically a Vamp equipped with this can become a FANTASTIC character-killer, particularly with abilities like Dread Knight and Beguile. Want your OC Vampire Lord to finish off Archaon or Tyrion for bragging rights? Here's how to do it. 

*''Ogre Blade:'' 40 points, +2 Strength. Vamp Lord with 7 Strength is still amazing. Also decent on the Wight King to bump it up to S6. 

*''Sword of Strife:'' 40 points, +2 Attacks. Same as above, still good on a blender lord. Forget it on the Wight King for the most part. 

*''Fencer's Blades:'' 35 points, paired weapons, bearer has WS10. With your Vamps at WS7 and WS6, this really isn't that great. The Wight King on the other hand can benefit from it a lot. 

*''Sword of Anti-Heroes:'' 30 points, quite an appropriate name. Bearer has +1 S and +1 A for every enemy character in base contact with the bearer or their Unit. Truth be told, this weapon is better used AGAINST Vampire Counts rather than BY them. Can be useful if you know you are going to see a multi hero/lord death star, at 3 characters its equivalent to SoB and GB combined.

*''Spellthieving Sword:'' 25 points, Wounds caused to a Wizard force them to lose one spell each. But chances are good any opponent in melee with your Vamp is about to die, unless you're talking about a Lord like Malekith. But really you should be focused on actually killing the fucker. 

*''Sword of Swift Slaying:'' Bearer has Always Strikes First for 25 points. For 30 points you can take that as a Vampire Power, and there's literally no reason in any situation ever to take both. Take the Sword to save 5 points when you aren't taking magic weapons of any other kind or when you're trying to save points for more powers, take the power to save magic item points or to prevent one of those item-destroying abilities like the kind High Elves in the High Lore have. You can also take it on the Wight King, which is when it's worth consideration. 

*''Sword of Battle:'' 20 points, +1 Attack. Meh. Take if if you're on a budget with your blender Vampire Lord, but if that's the case why are you trying to make a blender lord?

*''Berserker Sword:'' 20 points, grants Frenzy. WHY would you want Frenzy? More importantly, why would you want to bother with Frenzy without the bonuses from Skabscrath? Probably more of a detriment than a bonus.

*''Sword of Might:'' +1 Strength for 20 points. Not bad. Not great. S6 Vamp is okay though.

*''Gold Sigil Sword:'' Attacks made with it are Initiative 10, 15 points. Vamp Lords already have I7, Vamps have I6. Once again probably not great, especially with TWO ways to get ASF. Bumping up the Wight King is okay though. 

*''Sword of Striking:'' Attacks made with it are +1 To Hit, 15 points. Not terrible, but Vamps already have such a high WS it's not too great unless low on points and need to bump up the hero assassin.

*''Biting Blade:'' Attacks made with it are Armor Piercing (-1 to the enemy's Armor Save). 10 points. It's the poor man's Obsidian Blade. Not a bad choice. But truth be told, Sword of Might is better. 

*''Relic Sword:'' 10 points. Attacks with it always Wound on 5+ unless a lower result is needed. But chances are good your Vamps are going to be Wounding on better then that anyway. may be worth it vs Tombkings. Bleh. 

*''Shrieking Blade:'' Bearer (and thus their Unit) causes Fear. 10 points. WHY. Everything you have causes Fear. 

*''Tormentor Sword:'' 5 points, any monster or character who suffers an unsaved Wound has Stupidity for the rest of the game. There is almost never a time this is useful for anyone. 

*''Warrior Bane:'' 5 points, any monster or character who suffers unsaved Wounds from it loses one Attack each to a minimum of 1. This once again is almost never good, and honestly would be best AGAINST Vampires. In the imaginary scenario where you are facing another Vampire Counts player and throw a hero Vamp against your opponent's Lord Vamp, this could be conceivably useful. But that's about it.

====Magic Armor====

*''Armour of Destiny:'' 50 points, bearer has a 4+ Ward Save. Not terrible. Okay for kitting out a Vamp for some survivability. But there's better choices. Factor in that Heavy Armor costs only 6 points and you're looking at 44 points for that Ward Save. Forget it on the Wight King.

*''Trickster's Helm:'' 50 points, wearer has one extra point on their Armor Save. Any Wound that manages to get through has to reroll it. Probably better than the former option.

*''Armour of Silvered Steel:'' 45 points. Wearer has a 2+ Armor Save, which cannot be improved in any way, shape, or form. Here's your best choice from the magic armor. You don't need Heavy Armor with it, and the Shield will only grant a Parry. A very good choice if you are taking a great weapon or a paired weapon

*''Armour of Fortune:'' 35 points. Heavy Armor that grants a 5+ Ward Save. Not bad. Not good either. 

*''Helm of Discord:'' 30 points. One extra point of Armor Save, and at the start of each Close Combat you can choose an enemy in base contact with the bearer or the bearer's Unit. They must take a LD test. If its failed they can't make Close Combat attacks and it automatically hit by yours. Souped up version of Beguile at twice the points. Not bad, but yeah; it's just a souped up Beguile. Good on a Wight King. 

*''Glittering Scales:'' 25 points. Light Armor, enemies have a -1 To Hit against the wearer in Close Combat. Ehhhhhhh...you're better off with the stock Heavy Armor? Stacks well if on a zombie dragon

*''Shield of Ptolos:'' 25 points for a Shield. Bearer has 1+ Armor Save against Shooting Attacks. Actually pretty good, since your Vamp strategy is probably getting into melee ASAP.

*''Spellshield:'' 20 points. Shield. Grants Magic Resistance (1). Meh, Magic Resistance is pretty weak this edition so not a great choice. 

*''Gambler's Armour:'' 20 points for Heavy Armor that grants a 6+ Ward Save. Booooooring. 

*''Dragonhelm:'' 10 points. One extra point of Armor Save, 2+ Ward against Flaming Attacks. Since Strigoi Ghoul Kings can't take magic armor, there's not really any good reason to take this. 

*''Enchanted Shield:'' 5 points for a Shield. Bearer has two extra points to his Armor Save. Actually a nice option since it's only 2 points more than the standard non-magical shield Vamps can take for an extra point of armor. 

*''Charmed Shield:'' 5 point Shield, first hit suffered by the bearer is disregarded on a roll of 2+. Mostly a useless magic item, especially for the army of badass heroes who heal the fuck out of themselves.

====Talismans====

*''Talisman of Preservation:'' 45 points for a 4+ Ward Save. Taking this and regular Heavy Armor instead of the Armour of Destiny saves you 5 points of Magic Items, which allows you to take that Charmed Shield at the cost of one more point total for your Vamp. This makes it better in most cases. Sadly, there's no reason to take it on your Strigoi Ghoul King since you can't combine a Regeneration save and a Ward Save. It can give your Necromancer survivability. 

*''Obsidian Lodestone:'' 45 points for Magic Resistance (3). If you're worried about the Mortis Engine blowing up, this is your good luck charm.

*''Talisman of Endurance:'' 30 points for a 5+ Ward Save. Yeah...once again, you save one point by taking the Armour of Fortune, but if you need 5 more points in Magic Items you'll want to go with this choice.

*''Obsidian Amulet:'' 30 points, grants Magic Resistance (2). Same purpose as the Lodestone. 

*''Dawnstone:'' 25 points to reroll failed Armor Saves. Not a bad choice for a survival Vamp. Pair it with the Armour of Silvered Steel for best use. Since your SGK can't have armor, there's no reason to take it with him.

*''Opal Amulet:'' One use 4+ Ward Save. Costs 15 points. Maybe in a low point game, but in a legitimate 1.5k+ game it's a waste of points for anything but a Necro.

*''Obsidian Trinket:'' 15 points, grants Magic Resistance (1). As with the other Obsidian items. 

*''Talisman of Protection:'' 15 points for a 6+ Ward Save. Do you really need a Ward Save this bad? Not terrible, but...there's better places to put 15 points. Even for your Ghoul King.

*''Seed of Rebirth:'' 10 points for Regeneration (6+). Cash in on that Mortis Engine bonus with your Necros and Vamps! Great choice if you're fielding one. 

*''Dragonbane Gem:'' 5 points, 2+ Ward Save against Flaming Attacks. You NEED this on your Strigoi Ghoul King. 

*''Pigeon Plucker Pendant:'' 5 points, 5+ Ward Save against Wounds caused in Close Combat by a model with Fly. If you're afraid of your caster sitting in a Zombie or Skelly bunker being picked off by Fell Bats, Giant Eagles, and the like then maybe. But tailored lists are probably the only place this belongs. 

*''Luckstone:'' One use, reroll a failed Armor Save. It's twenty points less than the Dawnstone, but is reduced in effectiveness thanks to the fact whoever you're kitting out to survive will probably be facing more than one Armor Save. Probably meh.

====Magic Standards====

*''Rampager's Standard:'' 55 points to reroll your Charge distance if it fails. This can salvage a Frenzy Charge, but for 55 points you can only take it on your BSB. This alone pretty much makes it useless. 

*''Wailing Banner:'' Causes Terror for 50 points. Generally speaking, this isn't what you want in this army since it's just upgrading your Fear to Terror which a Vamp could do plus the combination of items that make your Fear-causing list badass doesn't leave room for a third Banner. Disregard!

*''Ranger's Standard:'' Unit has Strider, ignoring Dangerous Terrain tests. In a map LOADED with Dangerous Terrain it can be good, but since your Black Knights are Ethereal this only is a factor for them if you actually STOP in terrain. But if you just want to plod your way through the map without going around things, taking this is good. At any rate it'll prevent your opponent from factoring it into the Movement Phase when trying to get an edge over you.

*''Razor Standard:'' Now here we go! 45 points to give everything in the Unit with it Armor Piercing. Those Zombies and Skellys are a lot more dangerous looking when the opponents go from Heavy Armor wearing Spearmen to Light Armor. It's by no means a "must have", but it's okay and if you need to pick something for your BSB.

*''War Banner:'' +1 to Combat Resolution. 35 points. This is actually pretty good, since Combat Resolution causes you to take casualties. If you've got a Unit like Grave Guard that can take magic banners this is a good choice.

*''Banner of Swiftness:'' 15 points, +1 Move. Your army is based on getting into melee, so this is a good choice as well. 

*''Lichbone Pennant:'' 15 points for Magic Resistance (1). <s>Some survivability for Units marching close to the Mortis Engine.</s> MR doesn't do anything for magical attacks.

*''Standard of Discipline:'' 15 points, +1 LD. Sounds great to hide from Crumble? Well, you can' use the General's Inspiring Presence rule. But you only Crumble when the General dies...so it's good.

*''Banner of Eternal Flame:'' 10 points. There is NO army in the game who are precluded from this option. Use it to chop down enemy Regenerators, scare the beasties (but everything in the army already does), and clearcut those fucking Wood Elf tree monsters.

*''Gleaming Pennant:'' 5 points, reroll your first failed LD test. <s>Can save you from Crumble. Good for 5 points if you have the option to take a magic banner, but don't want/have points for anything else.</s>  Crumble is not a leadership check, it states by the amount you go over, not if you fail therefore this is utter pointless.

*''Scarecrow Banner:'' [[Count Joe Kürbisgärtner]] lists only, since this literally has no use. 5 points to cause Fear in Flyers but you cause Fear against everything anway...


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====Arcane Items====

*''Book of Ashur:'' 70 points, bearer has +1 to cast and dispel. That's a LOT of points for something there's better options for.

*''Feedback Scroll:'' 50 points, one use. Instead of dispelling, you can use this. The spell works, but for every power dice used to cast the spell the casting Wizard takes a Wound on a 5+. If you're lucky, you can use this to take out your opponent's only spellcaster. Pretty good choice. 

*''Scroll of Leeching:'' 50 points, one use. Use it instead of dispelling, you get to have as many dice as was used to cast the spell in your next magic phase (no more than 12 dice ever, remember). This puppy, if used when your opponent whips out Dwellers or Cas's Comet, can get that Black Coach out a few turns early!

*''Sivejir's Hex Scroll:'' 50 points. One use, once again you use it instead of dispelling. Enemy Wizard must roll their own level or lower on a D6, but if they fails they turn into a frog. They can no longer cast spells, their magic items stop working, and all stats other than Wounds become 1. Each turn they must roll a D6, and only on a 4+ do they go back to being normal.

*''Power Scroll:'' 35 points. One use, use when you cast a spell. ANY roll of a double causes Irresistible Force and a miscast. Suicide spell, coupled with Forbidden Lore you can try to whip out a level 6 spell that your opponent cannot try to prevent. It's actually not a bad option, taking a single Vampire on their own, far from friendlies the explosion radius can hit and whipping out something big. But that's about it.

*''Wand of Jet:'' 35 points, one use, after you roll your power dice you can tack on an extra power dice roll. Not bad when you're trying to conserve dice between multiple spellcasters.

*''Forbidden Rod:'' 35 One use. Add D6 more Power Dice to your Magic Phase at the beginning, but inflicts D3 Wounds on the user that you can't save against (You don't get Armor Saves but Ward and Regen are still allowed). Since you can restore such Wounds with the lore attribute, it's not a terrible tradeoff particularly if you can save some of them with Black Pariapt. 

*''Trickster's Shard:'' One use only. 25 points, use at the start of the Magic Phase. For that phase when one of your spells is dispelled the enemy Wizard that did it rolls a D6, taking a Wound without saves on a 5+. Eh...good if you're spamming Invoc on a bunch of different casters. But this won't really save you from dispelling, and on phases you aren't casting many spells it's wasted. 

*''Earthing Rod:'' 25 points. If you miscast, you can reroll the result. Not a bad idea but it's a bit too expensive to reroll what will probably be another "localized Exterminatus". 

*''Dispel Scroll:'' One use, 25 points, use instead of attempting to dispel. Auto-dispel an enemy spell, unless it's Irresistible (at which point the caster won't be around much longer most likely). This is never bad, for any army, to take. 

*''Power Stone:'' One use. 20 points. Before you cast a spell, you can use this to add two power dice (you must use at least one of your regulars). 

*''Scepter of Stability:'' 15 points, one use. Increase dispel results by +D6 after you find out how many you're getting, but before any casting takes place. Pretty good. 

*''Channelling Staff:'' 15 points, add +1 to all Channeling attempts to get more power dice. Eh...probably not. 16% chance for just one more power dice. You have much better ways to get it.

*''Scroll of Shielding:'' 15 points, one use. Use instead of dispelling. Target of the spell has a 4+ against Wounds caused by it. Since most spells you should be afraid of (barring the Lore of Death) don't cause direct Wounds, this is usually a mediocre option.

====Enchanted Items====

*''Wizarding Hat:'' 100 points, bearer is a level 2 Wizard in a random spell lore but has Stupidity. Since the only two options that can afford it are already level 1-3 Wizards there is literally no reason to ever take this.

WAIT- it could technically grant access to the lore of life. In massive points games, you could therefore have access to every single lore!!!

*''Fozzrik's Folding Fortress:'' 100 points, deploy a Watchtower on your side of the field in the deployment zone. Since your army relies on Close Combat and you don't really have any ranged options, this is a terrible choice. It's possible you can stick a caster in it and use it as a bunker, but your army would still need to be close by to get use out of it which goes back to the main problem; you need to be in Close Combat, you have no ranged options, your opponent probably does. If it moved, you could deploy it anywhere, or was in the middle of the field under your control things would be different.

*''Arabyan Carpet:'' Grants Fly for 50 points to an option on foot. They cannot join a Unit. The only application is a Flying Necromancer or Wight King, but WHY would you want that?

*''Crown of Command:'' Grants Stubborn for 35 points. Your army is Unbreakable, once again there's no reason to take this.

*''Healing Potion'' 35 points, one use. At the start of the turn, recover D6 Wounds. Not really a terrible choice, but it fulfills the same role as Invocation. So unless you can think of a situation where you'd want it, skip it.

*''Featherfoe Torc'' 35 points. Flying creatures and their riders reroll successful rolls to hit the bearer and their Unit in Close Combat. Good for tailoring a list, but there's not really a guaranteed need for it. It's main use is if you fear warmachine hunters going for your caster bunker.

*''Ruby Ring of Ruin'' 25 point Bound Spell, level 3, Fireball spell. Meh. Double meh. 

*''The Terrifying Mask of EEE!'' 25 points to cause Terror. The only thing in your army that doesn't cause Fear is the Necromancers, who will NOT be by themselves; so no, don't ever take this. 

*''Potion of Strength'' 20 point one use item, used at the start of either player's turn. User has +3 Strength for that turn. Eh...no. Probably not. 

*''Potion of Toughness'' Also 20 points, one use, used at the start of either player's turn. User has +3 Toughness for that turn. More useful, especially on a Strigoi Ghoul King, but still not particularly handy in most scenarios.

*''The Other Trickster's Shard'' 15 points. Models in base contact with the bearer reroll successful Ward Saves. It's a good "fuck you" to High Elves, and can be situationally useful in many scenarios against other armies. Not a bad choice for an offensive character, or any character WITH an offensive Unit. 

*''Ironcurse Icon'' 5 points, bearer and their Unit have 6+ Ward Save against warmachines. Great for 5 points, a 6+ ward on a unit is better than nothing, especially when it's a massive horde.

*''Potion of Foolhardiness'' 5 points, same rule as the other two lower point potions, grants Immune to Psychology and Devastating Charge. If you took a Vamp with Flying Horror this can be situationally useful, but as is? Nope. 

*''Potion of Speed'' 5 points, same as the other potions, +3 Initiative. Probably not. Wight King could benefit (how?) but still, not a good choice.

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