Gav On New Vampire Counts, From March White Dwarf (WD 338)

My March White Dwarf came in the mail yesterday and features the new Vampire Counts Book & Models with an interview with Gav Thorpe who authored the new book and a 3000 VC v. Empire Battle Report among other things.

Here are some interesting tidbits from the White Dwarf:

Bloodlines from last edition were too restrictive and the new book allows people to mix and match vampric powers to create customized characters with heroes getting a 50 point allowance to purchase powers and lords getting 100 points. According to Gav, VC players will now be able to tailor Vampire characters by coming up with combinations of types, equipment, and powers. One new power is hunting which gives the Vampire scouting ability - in the battle report, the vampire lord took this and deployed in the rear of the Empire set up area behind a building and attempted to raise new troops .

There are a large number of special heroes & lords - for example the following Van Carsteins (Vlad (490 pts), Mannfred, Konrad (145 pts), Isabella (90)) are available and you apparently can mix different bloodlines.

All VC troops are now considered undead as crypt ghouls now count as undead and thus will be affected by the new spells. It sounds like all vampires can use magic from the lore of Vampires (which can only be cast once as opposed to Necromantic spell which can be cast multiple times). The good news is that there are no Necromancer Lords in the new book, just lowly level 1 Necro thralls (though for 15 pts you can buy extra necromancy spells for them).

VC units will now be able to march if within 6"inch range of a vampire (character or unit) in addition to the old 12" rule for the General. And since the new book now has several non character vampire units (Black Coach, the new Blood Knights, and the Varghuff are rare choice vampire units), VC players don't even need to put characters nearby to take advantage of the march move.

The Varghuff is a giant bat like vampire inspired by the Strigoi bloodline monster with high movement, Weapon Skill, Hatred with 5 attacks and regenerate - they also cause terror and the bestial fury rule (have no flank or rear, and so these modifiers to CC don't count).

Speaking of Regenerate - the new VC book allows ward saves and regeneration attempts against CR wounds In the battle report, the Varghuff manages to survive for 3 rounds despite lossing CR against a swordsman block solely by regenerating CR wounds.

New Corpse Cart is a mount option for necromancers with 2d6 attacks and regeneration with a bound spell called miasma that allows undead units close by to strike first in combat and also allows you to choose 1 of 2 upgrades (balefire causes -1 to enemy wizards casts if within 24" while Unholy Lodestone gives units within 6" targeted by Invocation of Nehek an additional wound).

Invocation is the one that allows any unit or character to regain D6 wounds (Gav confirms that this includes all VC units) and is known by all Vampire counts, Raise Dead is the one that allows a new zombie unit and the Summon Undead is the souped up version that allows either 5D6 new unit of zombies OR replenish 3D6 wounds to any number of units within 12".

Danse Macabre is easier to cast and can either give them an additonal move of 8" or give them first strike in CC. Gaze remains a magic missile, but Wind of Death is a new one that summons spectral wind that rips the souls from its victims body and turns them into Spirit Hosts bound to the vampire's will

Spirit hosts remain the same but with higher leadership and the 0-1 restriction has been lifted so multiple units are now possible. Wraiths are no longer a hero choice but are now a unit with the Banshee as their champion.

Bunch more, but wanted to post this now.

Edit note - I don't have the VC book and just was repeating what is in the WD issue, which is presented as a Q&A with Gav, so the corrections post below likely is correct as the black knight steeds being etheral and ignoring terrain are mentioned in the battle report. I saw that the advance order for the VC spearhead is out and release date is 2/22 for US btw. I put an order in and advance orders are supposed to be delivered on that date, so after that date I will be able to update this post.

I also forgot to mention that the black coach no longer gains extra wounds it absorbs power dice in the magic phase with each new dice adding a new power such as scythed wheels and hatred and eventually flying . It also gets a 4+ ward save.

Blood knights have 2 attacks and Frenzy and their Kastellan champion can take a 25 pt magic weapon (though he must always issue and accept challenges unless a character with equal or higher ldr joins the unit).

Just adding to edit rather than reposting - about Curse of years, WD article only says that it has had a suble tweak to tone it down slightly but is easier to cast whatever that means.

Just wanted to pass on what I had come across.

not all totally correct - I've had the VC book in my hands fora half-hour slot and have a few corrections:

the raise dead spell doesn't heal D6 wounds on a character - all vampires can only heal 1 wound from this.

the wind of death casts on a 12+ and effects every unit in the enemy army, doing a wound to it on a 4+ roll of a D6 - the amount of wounds done is the amount of spirit hosts the VC player gets to place within 12" of himself.

so if 4 wounds are done, they get a single spirit host base.

something you missed that scared me:

skeletal steeds now count as being ethereal for movement purposes, meaning that black knights can now move through terrain without penalty (the new blood knights are mounted on nightmares and don't get to benefit from this).

but, on the positive side, this might catch up to us when we get our rewrite imagine our chariots avoiding the terrain penalties...

The most important thing here..

How many of the spells can effect undead... Eg us Tomb Kings..
Does curse of years still effect us...

Also I heard that the 1D6 only heals one wound on other non infantry units too is this true??.

yes that's true to.

the VC can only raise zombies now to, no more fresh skeletons to worry about. The raise dead brings up 1D3+4 of them. All raised units are worth 50 vps no matter how many zombies it contains.

they also have a spell that casts on a 12+ that raises 5-30 zombies at once! This can be used to heal multiple units/characters at once, but the restrictions on only 1 wound coming back for cavalry and vampires still holds true.

zombies no longer always strike last, but are I1 and WS1 so they're not great. they can't overrun or pursue, bt if you break and flee from them they get to do a bunch more attacks as they claw at you!

Also zombies are S 2 and T 2 too hay...

So what about spells does curse of years now effect undead or not??.

sorry, I can't remember

I do recall that the banshee wail will effect us now as ItP models are no longer immune to it - its more like our caskt in that respect, so we'll have to watch out for them.

Invoc, Spell #0; known by all Necro's & Vamps. Raises D6 models (D6 + 4) for zombies. Can raise zombies>starting size, but not for other units. Non infantry models, and models with the vampire ability can only have 1 wound gained regardless of roll - note that a corpse cart can be upgraded to increase the number by 1, if the unit is within 6" of the Corpse cart. Not much use for raising troops, but doubles the number of wounds you can get back on vamps and other troops

I'm pretty sure it was D3+4, not D6+4

It's D6 for spell 0 (my mistake), and D6+4 for the Raise zombie spell (Spell #1)

So the Corpse Cart can increase the wound healed to vampires.. I thought it was 1 max per spell even with bonuses??.

From my reading of it, yes. The spell is max 1 wound on non-infantry models. The corpse cart says it adds +1, so I think (and so do others on warhammer org) that this means 2 for vamps, cavalry etc.

but vampires and cavalry are non-infantry??. That makes no sense if it says non-infantry ... You better re-read it or post the correct wording of the rule from the army book??.

Fron the WD article on Unholy Loadstone corpse cart upgrade:

"If a friendly Undead unit within 6" of one or more UHLoadstones, including the corpse cart, is targeted by Invocation of Nehek, the unit gains an additional wound".

and from Gav on Invocation:

"This helps units gain extra wounds with Invocation." and "This makes the spell the thumping engine behind the Undead army, and its value in battle should never be underestimated".

So it sounds to me that successfully casting Invocation on any unit (including vampires) that is also within 6 inches of the Cart gets +1 wound than normal, which would mean 2 for Vamps and cav.

Not sure if we are allowed direct quotes on this site - if not I will summarize.

Precisely!

But what does it say under the "Invocation of Nehek" spell.. if it says only 1 wound max can be healed then it does not matter if its +1 or +1000 its still 1 max..
Thats what we need not the UHLoadstones rule..

They get 1 wound healed from the spell, and one wound comes magically from the cart, the way I see it

Does anyone know already if it's mandatory to have a Vampire lead the army? Or would Necromancer armies still be possible?

mos to f the things are right guys.....

but when you get your book chaeck out the crumble test rules.......
there is nothing to say you dont gain ward or regenaration saves now, which differs alot from the tomb king book

you do not have to take a vampire.........althought the waye the book is set up your screwed if you dont

black ccoaches absorb dic eto gain different abilities, but no longer have a 3+ ward now its 4+ have 4 wounds and dont count as lage targets.....

blood knights= the hardest cavalry in the game.....with one exception they are frenzied and really expensive

vargulf a really hard nutty vampiric monster, one of these fellas took down 2 charging TS of mine in a single turn.....although i did only hit twice and failed to wound lol

also anything with the vampire (vampires, vargulf black coach and blood knights) speacial rule can now invogorate undead and cause march moves.

mounted wights have spectral steeds that can move through all terrain features

really you have to take a vamp. necros are hero choices and pretty much suck

but vampires and cavalry are non-infantry??. That makes no sense if it says non-infantry ... You better re-read it or post the correct wording of the rule from the army book??.

its really simple.....if you are an infantry unit you can be healed by as many wounds as possible......if you fall under any other catogry....vampires. cavalry monsters, etherial only one wound can be restored on you per successful casting

evey vampire caster auto has invocation.
necromancers are levl one wizards who can one of the 3 necromancy spells...you pick, and can pay more points to know the others.

any wizard may cast necromancy these any amount of times in the magic phase, even on the same unit multiple times......

so you can really easily heal stuff with lots and lots of cheap castings of invocation almost like the tombkings except its not auto cast....looking at it i think its better in someways

So one wound max per casting even with bonuses from corpse carts..

OK..

Ra-num,

No.

1 wound max with the spell, +1 if corpse cart is about.

OK that was rude ..

I want ruling and army book wording from now on.

If it says in the armybook "One wound max" then even with bonuses from other models effects one wound max can only be gained..

Unless it says something like "overrides the normal wound gain limit on targeted models" under the corpse cart rules..

hehehe I will get to the bottom of this edventually... No army book makes it hard.

So one wound max per casting even with bonuses from corpse carts..

OK..

ok ive made a slight cock up....the rule is
if a unit with 6 inches of the corpse cart and has the load stone....
and has invocation cast on it it gains one addition wound as you would expect.
this 'bonus 'does not get the plus one if the target is a vampire(or anything with the vampire special rule)
the bonus will be gained if the tartget is a cavalry unit (mount wights), and dire wolves to as there is nothing in the description that says about non infantry units...it only states that vampire only the get the standard (ie +!) wound increase

ps has no one notice my comment about regenaration and wards vs crumlbe and i think general dying tests....