Vampire Counts 2400 - completely new to 8th Edition

I would make some serious changes unless your group is very very fluffy. Judging from the armies that you say you are going to play against I'm going to guess they aren't.



Please take a look at the following links;



Sedges Tactica


Sunny's Master Thread


They will get you in the right ballpark. Until you find the style that you prefer to play.



Realistically I find there are only two real good lists; MSU and Hordes. There are many variations on those two themes.





Let me pick apart your selections briefly but again please take the time to read those above posts, they are invaluable.



Overall- What is going to win you the game? At a quick glance I only see two units that will do any actual damage; your Lord and your Terrorgheist. You have 2 tarpits (good) and one anvil, zero hammers, nothing fast to clear backfield, zero chaff*





Lord - Not a fan of combo lords but can work okay. I would drop Quickblood + Beguile. Especially since he is on foot. Not sure where you are going to put him but will cover that later.



I prefer to go cheap(ish) blender mounted and use black knights to get him into combat. Side note - Only take 5-6 Black Knights and run them two wide, that way front rank is Champion and Lord. Enemies can only ever put one wound on the unit, keeping combat resolution in your favor.

Heroes - No real problem with the first necro but the second can be removed/changed. Don't take a corpse cart as a mount, pretty bad choice. It is solid in a Horde army and I almost always have one usually in between a horde of ghouls and grave guard. Just not as a mount. 

Core -  Split up your dire wolves into two units of 5 imo. Gives you another placement and another chaff unit.
            Skeletons - meh, spears meh, banner of swiftness???. I would replace that entire unit with a horde of ghouls
            Zombies - Maybe split into two units? Though one big one is fine.

            Ghouls - they are a unit that can actually generate wounds as opposed to skeletons and zombies. T4, 2A, Poison. Really good.

Special - Nothing really to say other than the fact that your Black Knight unit will struggle to do anything in most games. Can't march, has very few attacks, will get destroyed in extended combat with almost anything. I find that they are useful only as a delivery mechanism for a mounted blender. You could even argue that dire                   wolves with a champion would be much much cheaper and just as effective. Screaming banner on its own on this unit is nearly worthless. Lets say by some miracle the opposing unit fails a fear check, you've probably only gained .9-1 wound and that is assuming str 6 (charge).

               Crypt Horrors - make an awesome anvil. I would like to see maybe 8-9 of these guys instead of 5. Being able to add 1+CL in wounds is great. Combo'd with Mortis Engine these guys are a great choice.

Rare - No issue with the choices and both of very good but I would remove the add ons. While BT is decent I find its not necessary and can be deadly to you. The TG addons are just bad imo. 


I've been back playing 8th recently and only really playing VC. Some of my thoughts in no particular order;

Vargheists are really really good.
Mortis Engine + Infantry Hordes + Corpse Cart is almost dummy proof.
If your list doesn't include ; Nightshroud, Book of Arkhan, ghouls, Terrorgheist you are being nice.
I'm bad with Hexwraiths.

This is amazing! I love this list! Thank you guys so much! I'm so excited to jump into 8th!

I think you should have some games with the list to see what you may need.
Fell bats are great warmachine hunters, spirit hosts can hold up things like chariots and monsters for the entire game. I wouldn't bother with more dire wolves. Generally speaking vamp core is rubbish, so you don't spend more than what you have to on them. (List dependence ofcourse)

Some other random thoughts.

- since you are using points on the enchanted shield for the vamp, you don't need to give him a regular shield. Save 3 points!

- flaming attacks are great against regeneration. But it's very situational, for your first games I would recommend banner of swiftness. The other downfall to flaming attacks is running into characters with dragon bane gem or dragon helm. Very cheap items that give the bearer a 2+ ward save from flaming attacks. Also I forgot that a vamp with a magical weapon won't get the flaming attack bonus. So would just be the unit.

-iron curse icon can be swapped out for potion of full hardiness. Pop it when you are about to charge, get an extra attack to help with the blending vamp! One great thing about 8th is playing around with the magic items, I enjoy trying out new combos and seeing what works!

Anyway, build up your army and go from there! Watch some batreps and keep up your enthusiasm!

Oh this is super cool. I love the idea of having both a master Necro and Vamp Lord running the board!

I definitely need to get some games in. At this point I have everything but the Flesh Eater Court units built, and about half of it is painted. I'm hoping to get everything finished here soon. It's going to be a lot of learning but the battle reps on here will be super useful.

Thank you guys for the OUTSTANDING advice. Truly the EEFL community is the best!

I would decide how you want to play your VC, there are a few different options. You can try and raise spam people, in which case you NEED magic phase domination. Select magic items to try and achieve this. You can go Ld bomb (obviously less effective against certain armies), vampire build and magic items and terror causers need selecting as required. You can go blender Vamp and actually try and kill stuff. All are reasonably valid, or some kind of hybrid method.

The problem with VC is that large chunks of the list are garbage and need to be selected. The only thing they are good for is dying as slowly as possible. Even Ghouls are pretty terrible. Also, if you play with any reasonable amount of scenery, multiple hordes are quite difficult to manoeuvre around the battlefield. Particularly with limited marching.

I don't agree with the hate on Black Knights, they are fairly decent and aren't hamstrung by frenzy like Blood Knights.