Hey guys, Andrew here.  I plan on moving back to Panama City sometime within the next year (it's only a matter of time/money).  I am still a big 40k fan, but over the years I have slowly but surely become more enamored with Warhammer Fantasy.  As such, I'd like to start writing a few articles here, talking about my views on different armies, tactics, matchups, etc.  I cannot claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do play frequently against a wide assortment of players, everything from fluff-loving theme lists to WAAC shenanigans.  Hopefully you guys will enjoy reading these.  Now, without further ado

Vampire Counts 7th Edition: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie Mob

Ah, the restless dead.  Always a royal pain to face in 6th edition, the bloodsuckers and their minions have returned to haunt our tabletops and shopping malls in 7th edition.  So what has changed?  What has stayed the same?  Does the new book herald an everlasting night for Warhammer, or is this latest batch of undead as lame as Romero's old shamblers?

 Army Focus and Heroes

Just like in last edition, the army is still built around the triumvirate of terrible rank-and-file, completely fear-causing and immune-to-psychology army, and some of the nastiest heroes in the game.  However, each of these areas has new nuances that make this version of the undead a good deal different than the prior editions.

The army still revolves around creating new units out of thin air, repairing damaged units, and shambling across the board to overwhelm your opponent's army with legions of expendable soldiers.

The big focus of this book is Vampires.  I know, it's a bit of a surprise.  Take a few deep breaths, step away from the computer, and come back when you've come down from the overwhelming shock of it all.  It's fine, I'll wait.

...okay, are you better now?  Good, we can continue.

 In all seriousness, this book is all about the bloodsuckers.  Gone are the days of a Necromancer Lord leading your undead legions - if it doesn't have two fangs, really lame poetry, and a penchant for saying 'Bleh!' it ain't leadin your army.  In terms of story and lore, this is brought across by the book's focus on the Von Carstein line.  GW has been on a big kick lately of taking armies than traditionally had many different iterations, lumping them all in one large, inclusive book, and focusing the near-entirity of the story on only one of these flavors.  In the 5th edition Space Marine codex, they basically turned it into an Ultramarines propaganda pamphlet.  In the new Vampire book, it's all about the story of the Von Carsteins.  It is a great yarn in typical GW fashion, but could have given thrown a few more bones to the old bloodlines.

In game terms, Vampires are your casters and killers.  Hero level vampires have some of the nastiest Hero stats in the game (though by no means the best - Dwarves, Chaos Heroes, and Saurus Scar-Vets are in the same league), in addition to all being level 1 casters.  Vampire Lords are level 2 casters, and can take an upgrade to become level 3, while boasting even more disgusting stats.  Even a pure caster Vampire is a terror for enemy troops to face. While like most armies,you are allowed 50 points of Magic Items for Heroes and 100 for Lords, Vampires are additionally allowed 50/100 points for bloodline powers, which are mix of old and new powers that can be mixed and matched and (unlike items) the same powers can be given to different Vampires (though no Vampire can take the same power twice).  As you can imagine, this means that most of your points will be spent in tooling Vampires up to obscene levels of power, and while specialization allows for the best success, there's nothing stopping you from giving a Vampire all the spells from the Lore of the Vampires and then giving them a 2+ armor save and a nasty magic weapon - besides points limits, of course.  The bloodline powers really are one of the standout sections of the book, and some of these powers are unbelievable - Master of the Black Arts allows a Vampire to generate 2 extra power dice, while Ghoulkin allows all Ghouls in the army a free march move after deployment (but before determing the first turn).  Much of your time will probably be spent in this section, finding the best way to tweak your obscenely expensive Vampires into obscenely effective killing/casting machines.  

Necromancers, while no longer lords, are still present.  These heroes may seem lackluster at first, since they have lackluster stats even for other armies, and they are only level 1 casters.  They only receive one of the three Necromantic spells (more on that later), and can buy the others if they choose for 15 points each (though they by no means are forced too).  Necromancers have no access to bloodline powers, additional magic levels, or any magic items that Vampires can't take.  So at first glance, these guys seem like duds.  However, they big advantage is their cost - if you give them the full 50 points of magic items, they clock in at 105, which is the starting cost of a Hero level vampire, and half the cost of a Lord level Vampire.  While this may not seem like much of an advantage, especially considering that as Vampires they do not help with the army's marching abilities (units can only march if within 6" of a model with the Vampire rule), they are essential to the army.  Instead of comparing them to all Vampires, they ought only be compared to Vampire heroes in the support caster role, i.e. bound spells, dispell scrolls, magic defense, and raising new units/healing damaged ones.  As even a Hero level Vampire can only at best  be level 2 and generate 1 Dispell die, and they seem far too expensive to be toting around dispell scrolls, Necromancers make the perfect inexpensive option to bolster your magic defense.  They still are a bit lacking in the realm of raising/support casting, but their low cost helps free up points to max out your Vampire and start your rank-and-file units at higher numbers.

The Lore of the Vampires - I Cast Shroud of Darkness on the Inky Bleak Blackness of My Soul.

The Vampires have their own unique Lore (who wants to use the lame 8 different Lores in the BRB anyway?) that both Necromancers and Vampires use.  The Lore itself has 6 spells, as usual, and includes a seperate spell, the ubiquitous Invocation of Nehek, which adds wounds back to a unit (D6 for run of the milll/infantry models, just 1 for Cavalry or larger creatures/characters).  It can't increase units beyond their starting size except for Zombies, though Vampires can buy bloodline powers to allow them to break this rule (Lord of the Dead lets the Vampire increase Skeletons beyond their starting size, for example).

 The Lore of the Vampires is unique in a number of ways.  Invocations of Nehek, Raise Dead (creates zombie regiments, which have to be at LEAST 5 models wide - no more conga lines!), and Van Hal's Dance Macabre (extra 8" of movement that can be used to charge, subject to normal movement restrictions, can only affect a unit one time per turn), are all Necromancy spells - unlike regular spells these can be cast over and over again.  This allows the Vampire player to doll out Invocations and Raise Dead attempts in as little as 1 die attempts, which allows for some interesting mind games (Vampire armies are going to tend towards 10-14 Power Dice, and most opponents rarely have more than 4-7 Dispell Dice and a few scrolls).  The real key here is using Van Hal's to cross the board quickly, and Raise Dead to create buffer units/flankers/zombie screens to cover your advance, so nothing new.

 The rest of the Lore has some interesting spells that certainly have the potential to do a lot of damage, such as Wind of Undeath which allows your to roll a die for each unit on the tabletop - each 4+ causes a wound on the unit with no armor saves distributed as shooting.  The Vampire then creates a spirit host unit within 12" that has a number of wounds equal to the wounds caused on the army.  While flavorful, the Lore is generally too expensive in terms of casting costs to be that effective, and since Vampires spend so many of their dice creating new units (the real strength of their magic phase) and their cheapest magic missile needs an 8 to cast (meaning you'd probably want to throw 3 dice), the non-Necromantic spells will see very little use.  If you are going to throw 4 dice as something that might just get dispell-scrolled away, and you could have thrown four individual rolls to beef your units or make new ones and force your enemy to possibly burn that scroll on just one dice, you must really be in a pinch.  For the most part, stick to raising and dancing.

 The Endless Nightmare - Core, Huh!  Good God ya'll!  What is it Good for?

 The punching bag of the Vampire Counts list, the core selection is an odd mishmash of different units.  Let's look at them all in turn, shall we?

 Zombies - The shamblers, these guys are literally worthless.  You can raise them for free, or you can buy them in 20+ blocks for a bank-breaking (note - sarcasm) 4 points a pop.  They are WS 1, S2, T2, and can never overrun (they just stand in place and do D6 S2 hits for each rank of 5 or more zombies to the fleeing unit).  These guys are pitiful, but they are fear causing, and when you cast Invocation of Nehek on them, you get D6+4 instead of the normal D6, and raising new units with Raise Dead gives you D3+4.  Their primary advantage is that whether paying for them or raising them aroudn the tabletop, they are essentially free.  They form an enormous blob of starchy mashed-potatoes that your opponent either has to wade through to get to your real units, or deal with on their flanks.  Outnumbering is key, as always.  There are some interesting tricks to be had, such as combos with the new Corpse Cart (more on that later), or the Helm of Commandment (an item that lets an unengaged Vampire bestow their WS on a friendly unit - Ninja Zombies!), but in reality their tricks are all about positioning.  Zombies are flesh-walls that happen to swing back.  Use them to trap your enemy, foul up their charge lanes, and just generally be a huge annoyance.  If they happen to kill anything, it's really just a bonus.  In reality though, they are the true strength of the book - free units!

 Skeletons -The undead that at least have the decency to not leave globs of bloody kibbles on your floor, the Skeletons are ostensibly the go-to rank-and-file of the Vampire Counts army.  The problem is, they are double the cost of zombies without the same kind of return.  With spears, they simply become more expensive.  WS2, S3, T3 troops will never kill anything in this game, so spears make no sense in an era where even the cheapest of enemy troops will embarass these guys (even Empire troops have a good shot of passing their fear check, then pummeling this poor saps into submission).  Skeletons truly come into their own as character bunkers.  Zombies cannot be jioned by characters, and HW + Shield Skeletons have an acceptable 4+ save in close combat, making them excellent 'Look out Sir!' bunkers for caster Vampires that can be called on to fight in a pinch.  They are by no means unusable - on the contrary, they should be in every list.  The problem is that any designs you might harbor of a legion of Skeleton blocks methodically crossing the table to overwhelm the enemy are make-believe.  Skeletons are there to flesh out (anti-pun intended!) your center line and provide protection for caster vampires.

Dire Wolves - Remember that sad July afternoon when you had to bury your family dog Rusty in the backyard?  Well good news, he's back to play!  Only this time he has a desire for the flesh of the living instead of tennis balls, and he'll probably try to chew your crotch this time.  The Dire Wolves cost the same points as a Skeleton are statistically lackluster (sensing a theme?), but have two enormous advantages - Fast Cavalry and Movement 9.  Even though they can't pull everyone's favorite flee/rally trick due to being Fearless, they are highly mobile and can reform on the fly.  They are extremely fast, and will outpace even a mounted vampire, so cannot operate too far in front of your lines (as they need to be within 6" of a Vampire model or 12" of your general to march).  They really shine as a screening unit for one of the new models in the army, the Varghulf, who has the Vampire rule.  They are cheap, fast, and flexible.  Though tehy don't count towards your minimum Core alotment, that is only a minor quibble.  I can't see them replacing skeletons, but a Vampire general would be hard pressed not to find at least enough room in their list for a unit of these puppies.

Ghouls - These guys are really the standout unit for the Core section of the Vampire counts, and would be a must-have even if GW hadn't given them an amazing new plastic kit.  They are no longer skirmishers, but rather rank up like everything else, cannot take musicians or standards (but can take a champion), and they have no armor.  Instead they have two attacks base, poisoned, and are toughness 4, all for a modest 8 points, making them the same price as HW/Sh skellies and dire wolves.  Beyond their statistical prowess, they have a huge advantage in the form of the Ghoulkin power mentioned earlier.  Not only does Ghoukin give your ghouls a free march move before the game starts, it also allows characters in the unit to move with them and you only have to have one character in the army with Ghoulkin to affect every unit of Ghouls you have - not bad for 25 points.  Essentially, with the free 8" move before the game, an 8" march if you have a Vampire with/near them, and a casting of Van Hal's Dance, you can get them to cross the standard 24" gap between armies and assault their front line in the first turn.  Even though they don't get an armor save, their T4 means it basically breaks even.  Since turns 1 and 2 are so important for Vampires, it's hard to imagine not including at least one unit in your list, if not more.

Alright Gentlemen, that's all the time I have for now.  I'll be back a bit later with the rest of the Core, the Special, and the Rare units, and eventually a tactica/sample army list article as well.  Thanks for reading, and remember: Brrrrrraaaaaaaaaains!