I played a 2000 point game against orcs and goblins last night using the new rules. I wiped everything off the table, however we'll have to have a do over as I used a blood line power incorrectly as it turns out.

The corpse cart was targeted straight away, so that was good in a way as it allowed me to field something other than the black coach that causes my opponent to freak out about something that didn't really need to be worried about. I've also noticed it's a lot easier to run a BsB as he's actually worth taking this time around, and a lord in a 2000 pts is a nice fit. I had mine on a zombie dragon, (WS 6 S6 S5), and used some of the bloodline and magic items but not all of the allotted 100 pts of each I was entitled to take.

Because everything that is "Vampiric" is a level 1 wizard, I was able to disperse them amongst the army allowing it to march when it needed to. I was able to make the Black coach ethereal by sacrificing some power dice to see if I could generate any of the black coaches new abilities with the changed rules for Evocation of death.

The one thing I noticed about the new army was that it was so big. I ended up being the last to deploy which is strange as I'm usually a couple of units ahead in the deployment so get the +1 to go first.

Skeleton units can take magic banners and some are nice. The banner of endless nightmare came in handy with the 25 skeleton unit, as it allowed me to include 4th rank when calculating how many ranks I had for combat.

The corpse cart, didn't really get much done as I was fumbling through the book, not having all the new stuff embedded in my head. It got taken out early in the piece, I was spewing because I wanted to test out its attacks which is 2d6 attacks at ws 2. It's classed as a monster rather than a chariot as well.

Another tough little unit was the Tomb banshee and cairn wraiths. They are 50 points each so I only took 2 wraiths and the banshee, but the unit was great. The banshee still is potent with her scream, but she's harder to target with magic as she's in a unit and the wraiths have 3 wounds each. The banshee can also stand and shoot, which is a nice edition, especially when your opponent declares a charge with his black orc general on a wyvern and the banshee is quite capable of taking them with one decent scream, (which she's done before).

Vargulf is a nice looking model and he's also quite handy. I ended up with a "Shooty" army in that all my magic consisted of for all my wizards was Gaze of nagash. Vargulf chased away a unit of spider riders on his own and then blasted them with gaze of nagash, the remnants left to limp off the table. He then took on the Wyvern and held that up for a while before succumbing. His regeneration rule is nice as I've only ever had to play against that, and his bestial fury means he doesn't have flanks or a rear.

I tried the grave guard with great weapons and they cut a swathe through everything they touched that looked like a goblin. I wasn't used to how they worked as I usually use Black knights with the banner of the barrows. I had the BsB in with the guard and he joined in the fray nicely. I lost my unit of spearmen cheaply, and the ghouls never got a look in as they were looking after the rear when a wolf riding character with a magic item broke through my ranks.

In the end I was spoilt for choice and I thought it was nice that the book still is in keeping with the Liber necris. The focus of the army has changed and is based on a von carstein blood line, though the vampire powers still do have "blood lines" as it were, though you could choose between them all instead of just one. The army I used last night was unusually combatty, it gave me hope that I could run a few different armies and use different styles, which I'm looking forward to. Not sure if I'd use blood knights yet, and there didn't seem to be room for black knights in the 2000 point game either, which was a pity, but the banner of the barrows has been toned down now, so they aren't as potent.

The banner of the barrows hasn't been toned down so much as it has been modified. In facing off against WS 7 opponents the Banner of the Barrows isn't quite as good as it used to be because our Wights will be hitting on 4's instead of 3's as it used to be, however, say you use the Banner of the Barrows in combination with a Vampire Lord with the Helm of Commandment...then you have a unit of great weapon wielding Grave Guard that hit on 2's!!! So in certain situation we're worse off, but in others we're better off. How did you take the Black Coach, the Varghulf, and the Cairn Wraiths in a 2000 point game? That's 3 rare slots.

It is going to be such a case of back to the drawing board for me with the new army book.. as this battle report seemed to suggest, it's a case of being totally spoilt for choice! But, it does seem like a good thing as there are so many options you can very easily play a completely different style VC army if you get a bit bored with one that you play alot :D

I'm having a warhammer games day this saturday which I guess will be a send off of sorts to the current edition and to my Lahmians... except I won't get to play them :(

Everyone has to come up with the best possible list that you can for 1,000 pts, and then everyone swaps lists.. so I could end up with either something like TK, woodies, dark elves or OK.. I could've ended up with Orcs n Gobbos except my mate has misplaced his O&G army book and can't find it :lol:

Just one slight problem for me with this concept.. I've only ever played VC and so my mentality is still very much stuck in VC.. I played my mate's dark elves last game day we had, and faired very poorly. Something about my comments of 'it's ok, I'll just raise them back up..' when my xbowmen got a caning drew looks and comments of 'dude, you have to get out of that VC mentality!!' :wacko:

MortisLegion, seems you've got those rules from some shady source. As mentioned, you used 3 rare choices - illegal. All units with the Vampire special rule aren't wizards, only the characters. So Varghulf casting Gaze of Nagash (or any spell) = illegal.

And Wraiths don't have 3 wounds each.