Off Topic fun fact: Seriously most of those^ shows, including the movie, are based of New Jersey myths, legends, and folklore. Also that show seriously made you $#!^ your pants sometimes if you are a 90's child like me
Ok all, I'm here again to talk about Vampire Counts. Now I know I am not the originator of the idea on the web first but reading through the Vampire Counts specific wargear and special rules a hugely synergetic combo pops out...and that is the fear bomb(I believe Duke or someone first posted about it but idk who coined the term). It is a general combo of certain vampiric traits and special wargear that force mots opponents to take a statistically impossible(well improbable atleast) to pass fear test. Now you can further the effects of the bomb by including the banner of the barrows and putting it in a GG unit. You can also give a special character in the unit glittering scales (lol sparkle vampires ftw? I feel my lord will somehow be named after twilight) to cause your opponent to hit the character on 6's. Here is my personal set up combination of a ogre blade-red fury lord and the fear bomb unit.
Lord. Vampire Lord, lore of Shadows, level 2, fear incarnate, aura of dark majesty,
Red Fury, ogre blade, glittering scales- 420
Hero. Wight King, BSB, Screaming Banner- 119
Hero. Cairn Wraith- 60
Special. X25 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer, banner of barrows- 355
Now before I get the question I only have 25 GG in the unit to meet requirements for the Colonial GT's cap on the unit. Also I did not give them great weapons for one the unit is killy enough as is, and two by being such a small little hammer unit I need it to be a little more survivable with the +1 to armor and parry saves.
Still look at how this unit works. It forces you take a terror check (cairn wraith causes terror which is huge with all of the fear causing units that would ignore this in the game) on your unit at -1 leadership with 3 dice pick the two highest and if you pass the test you have to reroll it (because of fear incarnate, aura, and the wailing banner)...Then with the banner of the barrows if you fail I hit you on 2's while you hit me on 5's (6's if you attack the lord from glittering scales)....Also my now Strength 7 Lord with all of his attacks gets an extra attack for every unsaved wound (-4 to your armor save also). My GG still have killing blow with good attacks from my BSB and great weapon armor, armor ignoreing cairn wraith.... Shadows is honestly in there to cast mystifying miasma as my first spell to be dispell dice bait....also shadows is so common since it is such a good lore....oh and they all have regeneration from my mortis engine....
Downsides to my little deathstar? It is a lot of points sinking me 954 points! (&#@@#$!!!!!) Still in fantasy that kind of points generally goes to lords as they can be pricey and I would ask you to match this up against the majority of units and tell me it will not win most combats. It does rely a lot on invo repllenishing my ranks as I expect every turn to be having the kitchen sink thrown first followed by everything that can shoot in the shooting and magic phases. Now for question time I know I cause terror from the wraith....but would the unit take terror checks since the majority of the unit causes fear not terror?
All in all a beast of a unit and I love the synergy....thoughts?
I've been planning the same thing. However I went with a ghoul king for the infinite hatred and gave him +3 attacks rather than +2 str (a potion of str was included to help against tough opponents).
ReplyDeleteDoes your vampire have to take the lore of vampires ? He has the highest so must be the general and the general must use the lore of vampires.
The only issue I can see is that if the fear bomb doesn't reduce the enemy to ws1 (43% chance ld10 will pass) then you lord is a bit fragile with no ward and at best a 4+ save save from mundane equipment.
Rathstar
I'm still not digging it.
ReplyDeleteYou say statistically improbably? I disagree. At LD9, a unit is testing at Ld8, and with 3d6 dropping 1 only fails about half their rolls. (I don't know why my numbers are different from Raths...I used this: http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php )
Combine that with Fear/Terror probably not working on...I'll be generous, 2/3 of your opponents, and you've got a combo that looks good on paper but will only work 1/3 of the time!
I know you play 40k competitively too...would you take something in a 40k army that only works half the time?
Don't get me wrong...it's not a horrible combo, and will be a lot of fun when it works, but it's a bit of an investment in points, and you know what? Do the Grave Guard really need the help?
And I'm with Rathstar...that Vampire Lord has to be your General, and your General has to take Vampire lore. Which is fine, trust me, you'll want it! You know what's sexier than having Grave Guard hitting on 2s? Having Grave Guard hitting on 2s with rerolls to hit and wound! :)
As to your question about Fear/Terror, we're Undead...immune to psychology. We don't take fear, terror, or panic tests. The flip-side of that...an enemy only suffers from Terror if it's in base-to-base with a terror-causing model. Your whole unit doesn't cause terror, just that one model.
Also remember your Mortis Engine only gives them Regen 6+, not 4+
Does your most expensive lord choice have to be your geneal? I didnt catch the thing about the lore of vamps has to be given to the general since my master necro had it. I know that about the mortis engine and my numbers had it working almost 2/3's of the time. Still I want to playa round with it a bit. It will work most of the time if I am out of the enemy generals range against most units but yeah only about 50 percent against a LD 9 or 10 unit.
ReplyDeleteIn 40k I tend to run nasty deathstars like biker command squads and such which are massive point sinks but work....but yeah conditionally.....Really the points is what makes me want to drop it after thinking it through but playtesting is needed. My thoughts on if it doesnt work I do rely on the vampire lord with red fury keeping me ahaead in combat res. Yet even if it was a normal block of GG it would have the same chance and people would still think they would win most combats ...ah that slipped my mind about the undead thing. If anything I want to keep the army as is but find a way to squeek in my corpse cart for those rerolls
Do you think I could risk cutting some skelies (since invo will add more during the game from my master necro master of dead and a few more pieces of wargear to fit it in....110 points is a bit of work
ReplyDeleteIt's because the vamp lord has the highest leadership that means he has the general.
ReplyDeleteOrdo: Our numbers aren't far off. My stats has a ld9 unit (reduced to ld8) failing their test (on 3d6 discarding the lowest) 52% of the time. Having to reroll a passed test would mean they fail 77% of the time.
The bomb is situational, but it doesn't cost too much, and while some armies would be completely immume it would be devasting to others. The Aura of Dark Magesty, Fear Incarnate & the Screaming Banner is only 70pts. I would take a cairn wraith even if I wasn't using the fear bomb.
Kevin: Putting the fear bomb with the grave guard may be putting too many eggs in one basket, especially as yiou only have 25 grave guard. How about putting the fear bomb on a block of skeletons while having the graveguard nearby ?Putting the screaming banner on the skeletons would mean you could lose the BSB and use the points saved towards the corpse cart.
Rathstar
yes that would make sense rathstar im gonna have to run the numbers
ReplyDelete