Editing Warhammer Army Project/Vampire Counts (section)

===Rare Units===
*'''[[Blood Knights]]:''' There are a lot of things to remember about the Blood Knights. They are as expensive at 40 points a model (coincidentally, they also have a similar effect on enemy tactics), and they are one of the top-heavy cavalry units in Warhammer Fantasy. So here's what we're looking at; Heavy armour, Barding, Shield, and Lance. They have Vampiric. They can take The Flag of Blood Keep as an upgrade instead of another magic standard for 50 points, which grants them a 4+ Ward Save against Ranged Attacks. That Ward Save comes into effect once something gets through their 2+ Armor Save, namely war machines. They come in at WS5, S5, T4, W1, I5, A2, and LD 7 overall. You can take them in Units of 4 or more.
**They are a fantastically lethal addition to an army of any size. It's a good idea to keep a loaded-up Barded Vampire/Vampire Lord within the Unit to help them keep their minds focused and overcome the Frenzy urge to go fuck something despite being in the line of sights of a Warmachine or something similarly undesirable and Taking a 4-man unit with Banner of Eternal Flame makes them fantastic monster hunters who will reliably take down even Hydras, Sphinxes, and Hellpit Abominations on the charge.
**However, don't forget that they have a big weakness - due to being Vampiric, they can't recover wounds, which, combined with their cost, makes them inferior to Black Knights in the eyes of many players.

*'''[[Lahmian|Lahmian Handmaidens]]:''' They are a pack of lesser but still deadly Vampires. Though not as geared up as a Blood Knight, they are Scouts and still hit harder than Crypt Horrors with thier M6 with three S5 attacks thanks to dual-wielding. They are surprisingly cheap for their offense and being in the Rare slot for only 21 ppm. You can fit them in as another Hammering option for undead anvil. 

*'''[[Black Coach]]:''' A 195 point Chariot. Has one crew member, a Cairn Wraith (with Chill Grasp and a Great Weapon), and two Nightmares as drivers. Causes Terror, counts as Vampiric so there's no fear of Crumble, has a 4+ Ward Save on top of the 3+ Armor Save. It has 5 Strength when trying to figure out its d6 Impact Hits. The real fun part though, is the special ability "Evocation of Death", which combines fantastically if you have a lot of wizards (both with or against you), giving you (very quickly) +1 to the Impact Hits on the Charge then gaining +1 Strength to the Wraith and the Nightmares, then gaining Killing Blow and Flaming Attacks for its Impact Hits and regular Close Combat attacks, then gaining Magic Resistance (2) and Strider, then becoming Ethereal, and finally gaining Fly at 6 points. For just 195 points and a little patience, you can get one of the most amazing fucking models crunch-wise in the entire game.

*'''[[Varghulf]]:''' 90 pts. The Vargheist's meth addict big brother and the only hammer you really want to meet anything head-on. In comparison to the 'gheist you lose Fly and Frenzy but gain Terror, Hatred, Bestial Fury (immunity to flanking or rear attacks), and Regeneration. You have 3 more points of M, 1 more point of WS, one more point of Toughness, one more Wound each, two more attacks each, but 3 points less Leadership (though it's Vampiric). It's a Monster, so it also has Thunderstomp.
**All in all, the Varghulf is a decent choice, as it's statline is pretty nice. It's decently killy in addition to that Regen and Terror, especially considering he lacks Frenzy, so he won't jump into combat without being given the order, he's also harder to kill and sucks up less points than a Terrorgheist so a lucky cannonball won't eat up a large chunk of your points. His main detriment is that he eats up Rare points, if that doesn't bother you, then go right ahead, otherwise a properly built Terrorgheist can do the job just fine (though will cost more).

*'''[[Mortis Engine]]:''' 220 points Chariot with an Armour Save of 5+ on top of its 5 Toughness and 5 Wounds, but this isn't a Black Coach that you want to run your enemy down with. It's purely a support unit. Its offensive abilities are abysmal (unless you charge it into a flank) despite it getting a lot of little bird peck attacks, but it has decent survivability. Here's where you factor in its abilities. The Reliquary ability gives your undead a nice regeneration boost to make them live longer/tarpit better and can hit a good amount of enemy units at decently high strength, making it one of the few good ranged units available to you, and with the number of wounds it has you don't even need to worry about taking a hit from doubles, and even if it does get a little hurt, you can just heal it up yourself.
**You can/should also upgrade it with Blasphemous Tome for 20 points, which lets all Wizards within 12" of the Mortis Engine have +2 to casting attempts from the Lore of Necromancy, and if anything within 12" of the Mortis Engine miscasts (both friend and foe) then the player rolls twice on the miscast table and his opponent choose which result applies. Both of these mean you want it with the front, supporting everything else making enemy wizards nervous about 4/5/6 dicing anything, and drawing lots of fire away from your actual nastiest units. That said, this thing is a magic and artillery MAGNET LIKE NO OTHER. It looks awesome, the crunch seems awesome, then you put it on the field and a Dwarf with a flaming cannonball blows it to hell before it can move. If you want to use it effectively, you NEED some distraction units, either war machine hunters or faster melee units to take the artillery off of you, or you actually want it to get shot so that your hammers don't get shot by those same cannons.

*'''[[Cairn Wraiths]]:''' The expensive, damage-dealing alternative to the spirit hosts. Must be fielded in units of 3 minimum, 10 maximum. 50 points per model, providing a bulk discount by taking them in the Rare section, as well as saving points for more Vampires, Necros, or Wights in the Hero slot. What's not to love?
**They will still die to ranked infantry as they're Undead but, unlike the Spirit Hosts who function as a sacrificial tarpit/ball and chain for a Monster, these guys function as killers as well for 105 more points. 9+ attacks (-2I, remember) at S5 or 3+ attacks that ignore armor will put the hurt in whatever they strike. That being said, they DO take Rare choice points and unlike the Spirit Hosts, you can't afford to just let them get killed by a magic missile and forget about it. It's usually better to pin enemies with Spirit Hosts and then flank later with another unit so, in essence, the Cairn Wraiths are to the Spirit Hosts as the Varghulfs are to the Vargheists.
**If you really get in a good, you can take advantage of the fact these little Ethereal buggers can go straight through terrain to stay in Charge distance of the enemy while staying safe from being Charged, which can tie up a lot of troops by forcing the enemy to either continue facing them or just bite the bullet and say goodbye to everyone on the side or back of the Unit.

*'''[[Tomb Banshee]]:''' 80 points. Ethereal, Terror, and Undead. Crap stats and two Wounds. Her only attack is Ghostly Howl, a short-ranged attack that's resolved during the Shooting Phase and can be used in b2b. Roll 2D6+2, for each point you beat the enemy's LD score they take one Wound with no armor saves against it. Any competitive army will have at least 9 Leadership in important units, so the hysterical woman is unlikely to earn her points back (she will deal 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.

*'''[[Mourngul]]:''' Forge World's large monster that's half a torso. It's an S5 T5 undead with 4 wounds, Killing Blow,  ice attacks. Their lone protection is a 4++ Ward against non-magical attacks, but considering that he deals ASL to anyone he's in b2b with, you can give him a good place with mobs. Especially when you see that he heals a wound for each model he kills, he can very easily take care of a mob of pikemen or spearelves.

*'''[[Terrorgheist]]:''' A 225 point Monster (so you get stomps) with M6, WS3, S5, T6, 6 Wounds, 3I, four Attacks, and a Leadership of 4 (it's not Vampiric so the death of the General may cause it to crumble, which at that point level can be painful). It has Fly, is a Large Target, causes Terror, has Regeneration (6+), and has a special ability called "Death Shriek" which counts as a Shooting Attack that you get to make regardless of your previous actions that turn. Death Shriek has an 8" range that requires Line of Sight (oddly enough) and can target something regardless of if you or it are in Close Combat. You roll 2d6 and add the Wounds the Terrorgheist has, and for each point that the result exceeds the target Unit's Leadership they suffer 1 Wound with no Armor Save and it counts as a Magical Attack, which isn't that great against LD high armies, a Strigoi Ghoul King can help somewhat, but that makes it a cannonball magnet. It can also be upgraded for 10 points to be Infested (ew!) with bats (wut?) that, upon death, cause 3D6 Strength 2 hits to anything in base contact with the Terrorgheist. It can also take Rancid Maw for 15 points which grant it Poisoned Attacks (not for its Thunderstomp though).
**Its main weakness, however, is that it is fairly flimsy, especially if your opponent brought some nasty ranged options, this combined with their relative vulnerability in Close Combat and their huge base size means they are tricky to actually move about. Not everyone likes them, but they remain one of the best choices (tied with the Black Coach) available to Vampire Counts owing to the fact that it is the army's most flexible option. It's ready for battle from the beginning unlike the Coach, allowing you to go on the offensive in a prompt manner.

*'''[[Zombie Dragon]]:''' Your particular dragon, while on tier with most, is let down by its 5+ natural armour. To make up for this, its breath weapon can obliterate armour (if it ever wounds) and makes enemies engaged with it take -1 to hit.

*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]:''' This unholy behemoth is essentially a legit undead giant mixed with magic support. Indeed, alongside its magical attacks and 4+ regen, it adds +1 to all casting of Death or Necromancy spells within 12". It's offensively like a Giant with its randomized rules - though none of them are lethal, all of them are very dangerous if they land. It's decked with some very unique upgrades (Re-roll stomps and random attacks, deal d6 S2 hits in b2b, gain Regen 3+ and Frenzy, become a level 1 wizard of Death/Necromancy).