Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Undead Legions (section)

==Tactics==


[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]

Well... somebody actually thought that the Undead Legion wasn't a broken idea? Let's get right to it, then.

Vampire Counts have a fantastic core army composition, but few supporting elements. Tomb Kings have a bad core army roster (except for the chariot units), but fantastic support elements. Undead Legion lets you use all units of both armies. Cherry picking the good units from both books isn't rocket science.

50% Lord and Hero allowance is a dream come true for Vampires. Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon in 1500 point games? Multiple Vampire heroes? Vampires were always obese in their character choices, and suddenly having twice as many points to put towards them is.. well, completely game changing. You might want to let the other End Times alliances come out before taking advantage of this particular change. The alternative is that all your opponents will hate you, and not in the 'ha ha friendly rivalry' way. There is really no excuse, you should have at least one level 4 caster in every game now.

Nagash and Friends are cool looking, but they're HUGELY inferior to a kitted out Vampire Lord, point for point. Yes, they have a lot of wounds. That doesn't mean shit. You could take a Level 4 Vampire Lord on Nightmare with a decent power and gear kit, drop him in a bodyguard of Blood Knights or Black Knights, and the whole thing would be about as expensive as New Mannfred. It would also have more attacks, 2+/1+ armor saves, a 4+ ward save on the Lord, and just about as many wounds. Flying isn't even an advantage for the Morties, because taking advantage of it means that they'll be ahead of the rest of your army (which is to say, dead first).

In the same vein as the above point, cheap troop spam has NEVER been more appealing. Let's be real for a moment. Two fully loaded Vampire Lords are about as expensive as Nagash, and honestly I would rather play against Nagash than 1,000 points worth of Vampire Lords. And if Legion has options like that, you're going to want to load up on lots of cheap troops to saturate the field while still leaving room for your scary Vampires. Yes, Gee Dubs wants you to play with Lore of Undeath and summon lots of undead to the field.. but y'know what? Lore of the Vampires works just fine, especially since it'll buff the TK elements of your army now too. 

Why are two Vampire Lords scarier than Nagash? Two words: Target priority. Nagash is big, so killing him is straightforward. You shoot him with cannons and spells until he stops moving. While scary, he's only got a 4+/4+. Any number of horrible things could happen to him (Warhammer Fantasy is basically Horrible Things: The Game), and once he's dead, you're out 1,000 points and literally all of your magic juice. Arch-Necromancer might be nice, but if Nagash is doing all your casting, eventually you'll 'whoops' him from miscasts alone. By contrast, if you have two Vampire Lords running around, you can set one up on each flank of your army and pose two very difficult problems to your opponent, especially if one's on a Zombie Dragon.

Spirit Hosts have a new model that doesn't look like a bunch of dudes hiding under bedsheets. There's really no excuse not to take them anymore.

Tomb Kings have a lot of really nice support elements in their list that VC just doesn't have. Necrotects, pretty much the entire Tomb King Rare list, and.. Tomb Princes. Tomb Princes and Necrotects with a unit of Grave Guard will turn anywhere into a charnel house. Necrosphinxes will also be funny for killing Nagash and Friends, or whatever other End Times badasses pop out of the woodwork. (Like Glotkin!)

Speaking of murdering really expensive models, Screaming Skull Catapults are your friends. Really. They're inexpensive artillery, which is one of the glaring flaws in the Vampire Counts roster. Since The End Times seems to be all about huge-sized monsters, a couple artillery pieces will be a good investment if you want to make sure everyone else joins you in the afterlife.

The only really big drawback to Legion lists is that VC's two best casters got cut. Kemmler is out, and Mannfred's not a loremaster anymore. This means that reliable buff spells (from their loremaster abilities) are no longer on the menu (sigh) so you'll have to make up for it in list anatomy. Luckily, Caskets of Souls and TK casters are in to replace their magical edge. If you can't have quality, make up for it with quantity, I suppose. Just take several casters (two minimum, and one of them should be a Level 4) and you'll be fine.

Opinions differ on whether Lore of Undeath or Lore of Vampires are optimal for Undead Legions. Discussion can be seen in the Talk page.
Similarly, there are mixed opinions on Morghasts. See Talk page as well.

'''Shriek List'''

Not the most popular, but quite interesting tactic, especially against low-Ld or high-T armies.

With this list Undead's innate Fear becomes hilariously powerful.

It revolves around Death Shriek and Ghostly Howl rules.

What you need:
*Terrorgheists - bring the two rare ones, and maaaybe one as Strigoi mount.
*Tomb Banshees - sure, they are sub-optimal, but with new 50% Heroes limit, you might as well take some in Hero slots. Alternatively you can grab small units of Cairn Wraiths with Banshee champions in Rare slot.
*Skabscrath - your general needs a weapon anyway and another Death Shriek is very nice.
*Casket of Souls - besides being awesome as it is, it basically follows the same mechanic, so fits perfectly.
*Golden Death Mask of Kharnut - Synchronizes very well with this list.  Ideal for breaking through a opponent line and into his rear, as it prevents all enemy units within 6' from using the general's "Inspiring presence" and the BSB's "Hold your ground", thus rendering a unit horrifically vulnerable to failing a LD test and subsequently run down, with causing Terror as the icing on the cake.
*Lore of Death - essential for this list. Mostly you need just one spell - Doom and Darkness, to reduce enemy's only defense. Aspect of Dreadknight and Spirit Leech are fine too, as they benefit from reduced Ld.
*Aura of Dark Majesty - another nice Ld reducing ability, and quite cheap at that!
*Mortis Engine - pretty good on itself, it also packs some banshees on board, so can do banshee howl as well.

What is nice:
*Lore of Undeath - "Khizaar - the Soul Stealer" is basically Casket in spell form and therefore is quite nice in this list.
*Lore of Dark Magic - you will need a multiplayer game for that, but "Shroud of Despair" compliments this list perfectly.
*Supernatural Horror, Fear Incarnate and Beguile  - these vampiric powers shine in this list, so might as well grab some of them. They are cheap after all.
*Coven Throne - Battle of Wills is awesome as it is. In this list it is just stellar. Just mount that mind-screwing vampire lord on it...
*Curse of the Revenant - while not the best vampiric power, Death Shriek scales off user's remaining Wounds - so it maaay be useful.
*Hierotitan - another Spirit Leech and general bonus to spellcasting - what's not to like?
*Screaming Skull Catapult - Panic tests do wonders with this list.
*Krell, Mortarch of Despair - with all the Ld-reducing shennanigans and all the Terror and Panic you're likely bringing in such a list, Krell with regain health at a staggering speed.

'''Magic Heavy List recipe ;'''

You'll need :
A BARREL to collect tears, an opponent to '''RAPE''', 1 tbsp of '''Hierotitan''', add some chopped '''Mortis Engine''' (don't forget to add salt, hum I mean the Blasphemous Tome), mix both for 3 minutes (just to watch the tears slightly rolling on your opponents cheeks) then add a '''Casket of souls''' (the last must come from your pants, '''unzip for maximum surprise of Raping Rapeness''')

Want Nagash to cast vampire spell with +10 bonus ? Or maybe you're more the necromancer spam tournament-winner kind of guy and want to see those little lv1 bastard spam Nehek with a +6 bonus ?
Either way you'll definitely lose some friends.


'''Balanced Vampire and TK list;'''
1 level 4 vamp lord with the +1 to hit you sword, ASF, WS9, Beguile, Aura, -1 to hit me armor and 4+ward. This guy never gets fucking hit and when he does it don't do shit as he's level 4 so just spell it back.
1 level 4 Liche high priest- The lore of Nehekkarra is nasty when you got a high level with either number 2 or 3 spells
1 Level 3 necromancer there now all the Lore of undeath
1 level 4 necromancer these fuckers are dirt cheap and now you got vamp support
then smack two 50 man units of spear skeletons from vampire book
then 1 unit of skeletal archers
1 Casket
1 Coach
4 Wraiths with a banshee
3 Spirit hosts
and then sit back and watch the raping begin.