I have acquired the the new VC book 2 days ago but was out of town. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I'll monitor this post on and off today if anybody is interested in the spells or unit, skill, point cost comparison between us and them.

1. undead rules.
2. is it true that they can march?

1.Undead
Not every creature in the armies of the Vampire Counts is technically one of the living dead, but all are bound to the will and magical power of their sorcerers.

All units with the Undead special are Unbreakable, Unstable and cause Fear, as described in the Warhammer rulebook. In addition, units with the Undead special rule cannot make march moves unless they are within 12" of the army General (or have the Vampire special rule), in which case they can march as usual. Lastly, when a unit with the Undead special rule is charged, it can only elect to hold.


This should answer both quesitons.

What special characters are there?

Are there any pictures of units we haven't seen on the GW website?

1.SC

Krell
Heinrich Kemmler
Konrad Von Carstein
Mannfred Von Carstein
Isabella Von Carstein
Vlad von Carstein

2. Yes lots of pictures that didnt appear in WD. But they are of models you have seen, just alternate paint schemes and different angles of existing ones.The new black knights and hex wraiths are ridiculously gorgeous.

Alrighty. Too bad there are only Krell and Heinrich (Whom are awesome though) and then just the Carsteins. I am so tired of Carsteins xD

Sounds good with the pics though. I adore those hexwraits <.< They are so incredibly awesome.

What are the spells, especially the healing one?????

Invocation of Nehek 6+ Sig

Augment spell that targets all friendly Undead units within 6". The target untis immediately regain a number of wounds as follow: infantry gain d6 plus the casters level in wounds, roll for each unit; other troop types targetd gain 1 plus the casters elvel in wounds. However, models with vampiric, ethereal or large target special rules can enver regain mroe than 1 wound per successful casting. Wounds gained are distrbuted as described in ressurecting fallen warriors. Spell can be increased to 12'' or 18'' with the casting value to match 12+ and 18+.


the last bit isnt verbatim but its close enough.

thanks!

but sad to see that once again, Tomb Kings are getting trumped into lower tear army's.

Can you give more detail about how the Hexwraiths "damage through moving" work exactly?

Hexwraiths

3s across the board, 1 wound 1 attack ld 5 I 2

Special Rules:
Ethereal, Fast Cavalry, Terror, Undead

Soul Reapers:
Attacks made by Hexwraiths and Hellwraiths in close combat are magical, have the Flaming Attacks special rule, and allow no armor saves.

Soulstriders:
Hexwraiths and Hellwraiths can move through unengaged units (whether friend or enemy) during the Remaining Moves sub-phase, but cannot end their movement withing 1" of another unit.

Spectral Hunters:
If a unit of Hexwraiths moves through one or more unengaged enemy units in the Remaning Moves sub-phase, nominate one of those units. That unit immediately suffers a Str 5 hit per Hexwraith (or Hellwraith) that has passed through it, distributed as shooting attacks.

These hits are magical, have Flaming Attacks special rule, and no magical armor save.

I will take these over our crypstalkers anyday. Talk about some of the best redirecters in the game.

Is nagash in the book? If so how nasty is he. Or if you'veRead about him where is he?

If you are pretty familiar with the game .. which do you think would get fielded more, the coven throne or the mortis engine? Going to paint one ... just not sure which I should do.

Both are good for different reasons, the engine gets stronger as the game goes with the aura increasing with the game lenght and has regeneration. So if you throw near a tar pit it makes it really deadly because they are taking wounds just for being in combat with it. Position is of paramount importance to maximise the auras killing power. Naturally the center would in general be the best position to generate as many wounds oppurtunities as possible and provide the regen aura to as many things as possible. You will hvae to have a caster dedicated to keeping this thing alive because when it pops its bad for anything within 12 plus turn length inches.

The throne is a chariot mount for your characters, I would be leary of throwing an expensive vamp on it only to be able to be drilled down by cannon or any other warmachine. It does generate 2d6 hits and 4 attacks from the palid handmaidens on it plus the attacks from the character. It also has a bound spell of 3 that allows you to reroll all missed hits for the remainder of the turn for all parts, so the 2d6 the handmaidens and the vamp on top. It also has a 4+ ward save. There is also a ld test for enemies to hit it with varrying resuslts from -1 ws bs, to reroll hits that land, to the unit actually attacks itself instead. The absolute cheapest your gona get this is if you put a level 1 naked vamp on it and its 335 points. To maximise the leadership test component you need a lord which is 220 points naked making this 550 points. Its expensive. Seems like its either a deathmachine or a collosal waste of points if targeted by cannons and they break toughness, roll a 5 or 6 for wounds and you blow the ward which is a 13.75% chance to be one shot. So not that bad i guess after I ran the math.

Thanks for sharing.

What is your general feeling about their invocation rate ability?
Can they still cast invocation several time a turn?
Can they still cats vanhels and charge?

Thnks

Tibo

Do the rules give any indication as to what to do if you can, for example, move them models half way into a unit but not all the way? Do you pop them out the other side? Do you have to have enough movement to clear the target (+1 inch) completely?

I can see this being a big source of rules questions since _nothing_ else in the game can do this.

The amount of healing they do is better than ours, but on the flip-side it's all the spell does (if Desert Wind could affect engaged units then I'd consider us even since we have 3 potential bubble-augments). Invocation is the new Signature spell, so it can be cast once by every wizard that knows it, but not multiple times by the same wizard, and vanhel's is a straight "move up to 8", no charging allowed (Though it also makes a unit better in combat, I believe it gives +1 hit/wound? Not sure).

This. That's what I wanted to know, but the actual rules doesn't shed any light on this.

The way I read it for now is that you have to use your movement to get through and 1" away of the unit. So for a fast unit that will want to go far ahead of the army and quickly out of the general range, it might be relativle useless outside of war machines.

The rules are pretty succint about it. They cannot end more than 1" away from the enemy in the movement subphase per soulstrider rules. Its a basic flow chart. If movement results = greater than 1" from enemy at end of movement subphase = ok. If movement is < 1'' of an enemy at the end of the movement subpahse = move is ilegal and cannot be done. Since eveyr thing can be premeasured it wont be an issue.

Van Hel's Dance Macabre 6+

VHD is an augment spell that targets a friendly Undead unit within 12". The target unit rerolls failed to hit rolls in close combat untill the start of the next caster's next magic phase. In addition of the target unit is unengaged, it can immediately make a move of up to 8 inches in the same way as a normal move made in the remaining moves sub-phase. The wizard can choose to have this spell target all friendly Undead units within 12". If he does, the casting value is increased to 12+.

On a side note the coach is better than it used to be.

untrue its not all it does, it also gives the healer back a wound or any other friendly model withing 12"s a wound back. Sooo its far superior to ours. This is the lore atribute. So by casting this several times on different units you are able to heal lets say your dragon that is down to 1 wound back one wound each time as a byproduct of raising or healing other things. Of course the target has to be withing 12 inches of each caster but this atribute is far superior to our lore because it can be used to heal characters.

Yeah, if it's that to the point it will be ok since a model anywhere on top of another model would indeed be within 1 inch of it!

SHOCK FACE!
So, for a mere 12+, the VC player can move _all_ units within 12 inches a full 8 inches AND give them re-rolls in combat AND fix more wounds than our 'signature spell' AND heal the vamp that cast the spell. WTF?

Yarp. but its not just the vamp that cast it, it can be any model with in 12" of the caster for the bonus wound, so you could tack on another wound to the unit your healing if you so wish.

Good news.

Crown of Commandment is poof. No more ws 10 ghouls or skellies.

Sleboda will looooove this one, knowing how he feels about Ushabti.

Crypt Horrors

3 0 4 5 3 2 3 5

Monstrous Infantry
Undead

but wait theres more!

Poisoned Attack

and if you act now we will throw in

Regeneration 5+!

for just 1 easy payment of.....38 points.

I'm actually baffled.

Now I'm really seeing how GW has screwed over Tomb Kings and made Vampire Counts so much more superior.. They have 100x better movement, better healing, better everything pretty much. (why couldnt ushabti be on par with these crypt horrors )

However I still love my Tomb Kings, and its much more satisfying knowing you're winning with an underdog army anyways

"epic rage"
But its all too late now.
That vanhels spell is just a massive piss take.