By Mark “Give me a bolter and power armour any day” Wilson.
Images copyright of Games Workshop - used without permission

he last month or so has seen me wrestling with inner demons. Preview photos in White Dwarf and on the Internet piqued in me an interest in the upcoming Warhammer Fantasy Battle army. What was it about them that tempted me so? Normally I would dismiss the Vampire Counts as whiny self-mutilating Emo-Goth rubbish and go back to thinking about how to best paint my next Space Marine.

So when the Store Copy of the new book arrived, I settled down with it in an attempt to answer the question; Why do they tempt me so?

The book itself is another 96 page Opus from Gav Thorpe, divided into four distinct sections: The Undead; Vampire Counts Bestiary; Raising the dead; Vampire Counts Army List. It is filled throughout with a collection of new and classic illustrations from GW’s art department, including a number of John Blanche pieces.

This section covers the nature and history of Vampires in the Warhammer World, concentrating on the Von Carsteins of Sylvania. Retelling in brief the tragedy of Nehekhara, the Land of the Dead, it touches on rise and fall of Nagash, the Great Necromancer himself, before focusing on Lahmia where the curse of the Vampire originated.

The book then moves onward to Sylvania and the Wars of the Vampire Counts, beginning with Vlad von Carstein’s ambitious campaign to take the throne of the Empire, and covering the reign of Konrad and then Mannfred after Vlad’s destruction at the siege of Altdorf.

This section finishes off with a brief look at other Vampires around the Old World, providing examples to inspire the creativity of the gamer.

Presenting the rules and background of everything the Vampire Counts army has available, from the humble Zombies and Skeletons up to the Vampire Counts themselves, the bestiary is the first stop for the serious gamer. From here the earliest decisions about what you want in your army take shape.

Special Rules: Vampire Counts armies are Undead and subject to a range of rules that reflect that unnatural state. Most particularly, Undead cannot March unless within close proximity to a Vampire. Other than that they still cause Fear and ignore psychology.

What’s old?

Vampires are, funnily enough, the first entry. Taking two pages, with but a column given over to more John Blanche art, and rules conveniently packed into the last quarter column, the Lords of the Night are described in depth. These things are powerful combatants and competent Wizards.

Wight Kings have only had a name change. They’re still big, tough and scary dead guys, more than able to dish out some pain to the ranks of the enemy.

Necromancers are the basis of the Vampire Counts magical power. Each of these level one wizards automatically knows one of the three Necromantic spells and may know up to all three. And they may ride a Corpse Cart.

Skeletons, Crypt Ghouls, Zombies, Grave Guard, Black Knights, Spirit Hosts, Bat Swarms, Fell Bats and Dire Wolves round out the old standbys, with Skeletal Steeds, Nightmares, Hellsteeds (renamed Winged Nightmares) and Zombie Dragons available as mount options. Some subtle adjustments have been made to profiles.

Cairn Wraiths are now a unit with an optional Tomb Banshee upgrade. Ethereal Skirmishers who cause Terror, with a crazy old hag who’ll scream the foe to death - I like the sound of that!

The Black Coach has had a bit of an overhaul, and can get rather unpleasant over the course of a game, eating magic dice each turn and gaining additional powers as it does so. The end result can be an ethereal, flying chariot that visits death and destruction to all.

What’s new?

Blood Knights: A tip of the hat to the Blood Dragon Vampires from earlier incarnations of the army, the Blood Knights are a hard hitting heavy cavalry unit made up entirely of Vampires riding Nightmares. Armed with Frenzy and all the trappings of a Knight, these fine folks hit hard and make a mess of the enemy.

The Corpse Cart: A hideous amalgam of flesh, bone and wood destined to augment the Undead units nearby, Corpse Carts have a built in Bound Spell that grants Always Strikes First and may be further upgraded to augment the spellcasting of friendly units or hinder the casting of enemy spells. A Corpse Cart is a Monster and may be used as a mount for a Necromancer.

Varghulf: Vampires who have left behind any semblance of humanity and lost themselves in the hunt for blood, the Varghulf are frightening, ravenous large monsters. Need I say more?

Abyssal Terror: For those times when a Hellsteed isn’t quite enough, but a Zombie Dragon is overkill, there is the Abyssal Terror. A monstrous flying mount of no fixed description, this could be anything from a zombified Wyvern to a gruesome chariot built around the animated remains of a Manticore or Griffon.

A page on army list design followed by 16 pages of colour photos and loosely structured colour advice. While not as in depth as offerings from older books, this section is more detailed than in other recent army books.

Just a quick look at the new models:

Firstly the new Vampires themselves, no longer adhering to the hammer horror imagery of high collared capes and widows peak hair, the Vampires display a more feral, hungry appearance (which the designers say is to represent the Vampires unleashing aspects of the beast within whilst on the battlefield. This is contrary to the more human look they adopt to fit in and hide within humanity when not in war. – Ed)

The Blood Knights look almost like a collection of mounted Vampire characters.

Plastic Skeletons that look like they fit inside a man sized figure, and their heavily armoured Grave Guard cousins, delightfully decayed Dire Wolves with riches of surface detail, hunched and feral Crypt Ghouls that convey their lost humanity, the truly disturbing Corpse Cart and the battered, bestial Varghulf round out the new additions to the range.

The old bloodline powers have been polished up and repackaged as Vampiric Powers under groupings that reflects the nature of the Vampire rather than its lineage, while also loosening up the options for your army lists. With Vampiric Powers from The Severed and The Bestialle groups you can recreate a Strigoi, while The Martialle provides a basis for producing a Blood Dragon.

The Magic Items in the list bring the usual subtleties that I freely admit I don’t understand. A couple of special notes here, with thanks to the people who understand this magic stuff better than I do.

The Black Axe of Krell has made a comeback as a Wight King only option, causing D3 wounds a with a lingering effect that can kill the victim later in the game. The Sword of Kings grants Killing Blow to its wielder, or increases The Killing Blow ability of a Wight King to 5+.

The Helm of Commandment allows a Vampire to have a wider effect on the battle, letting one unit within 12” use the Vampire’s WS if he should find himself not engaged in combat. A vampire Lord with the Armour of Night, Talisman of Lycni and Wristbands of Black Gold becomes a solitary hunter, with a Move of 9”, a 3+ ward save against Shooting and enemies suffer a –2 penalty on ranged attacks against him.

The Sceptre de Noirot increases the effectiveness of Raise Dead by raising an additional 5 Zombies with each successful casting.

The Banner of the Barrows is a subtle force multiplier for Grave Guard, Black Knights and Wight Kings, granting them +1 to hit in Close Combat. The Cursed Pennant of Mousillon brings spiteful retribution upon any enemy that should capture it, while both the Banner of the Dead Legion and Banner of the Endless Nightmare can potentially improve a unit’s combat resolution scores.

Vampire Counts Magic includes a subset of three Necromantic Spells that may be cast any number of times a turn by each caster. The Necromantic spells are also the only spells available to Necromancers, who get to choose which ones they know.

Invocation of Nehek. This one sits outside the spell list, and is known to all Vampire characters in the army, regardless of their Magic Level. A quick and unsubtle way to replenish a damaged unit or restore wounds to a character.

Raise Dead creates a new unit of at least five Zombies near the caster. Great for setting up a flanking unit or a meat shield to mess with the enemy’s grand plans.

Vanhel’s Danse Macabre is still possibly the most important spell in the list, allowing units to move or charge outside of the usual turn structure. Combined with careful positioning of Vampire characters, this spell can really open up options for manoeuvre. Alternatively, when used on a unit in combat, it grants Always Strikes First and re-rolls to hit.

Gaze of Nagash. A quick and dirty magic missile. What can I say, there seems to be one in every spell list.

Curse of Years still causes affected enemies to grow old and die in a hurry. Remains in play, and gets better at killing the enemy the longer it lasts.

Wind of Undeath dishes out wounds to all enemy units on the table, creating a Spirit Host near the caster.

Summon Undead Horde is the great big nasty spell that Vampire Counts players will want to use at least once each game they have it. Creating a unit of 5d6 Zombies from out of nowhere is too big a laugh to resist. Doing so on the flank of an enemy, and following up with Vanhel’s Danse Macabre to get them into combat is just icing on the cake. Can instead be used to restore 3d6 wounds across the army.

It should be noted that those spells that create units carry the risk of giving away Victory Points. Not that this is going to worry a canny Vampire. If he’s creating a unit, he’s probably putting it somewhere it can do a lot of damage first, or at worst, putting it between a threat and his own unit.

The Army list remains flexible enough to recreate most themes form the previous incarnation, whilst offering plenty of opportunities to leave your own mark on the army. By using more Crypt Ghouls, Dire Wolves and Bats, and including a Varghulf the flavour is that of a Strigoi army, while mostly zombies, Spirit Hosts and Cairn Wraiths suits the concept of a Necrach list. With Wight Kings, Grave Guard and Black Knights supported by Cavalry you begin to evoke the Blood Dragons, just add Blood Knights for flavour.

I still don’t quite know why I like the Vampire Counts, but I’m building an army. The first couple of games should be the good ones, while the foe works out what I have up my sleeve and finds counters for it. After that, I’m back to waiting for his mistakes so I can exploit them.

Happy hunting!