The Ghoul Factory

My least favorite part of Warhammer, and war gaming in general, is assembling miniatures. I really, really dislike it. However, until assembly is complete no games can be played. I received my first order for my new Vampire Counts army the other day, and finally had sometime to start assembling Ghouls during the kid's naps today.  I have 10 do, and 29 more in process. I figure I should have my batch of 120 Ghouls assembled up sometime in the middle of next week. They go together pretty easy, although the arms can be a bit of a pain in the butt.

A few picture of progress thus far:

Bodies and legs

Waiting for bodies

Updated Vampire Counts Army List

My order arrives tomorrow. After much fiddling, this is the army I have decided to build. Very excited to get assembling ans see how this army plays.

I am not 100% decided on the lores for my two main casters yet. The caster lord will likely take either Beasts(very fitting) or Light (completely wrong but oh so useful). The regular vamp caster will either stick with the Vampire lore or use Death. That is something I will need to play around with.


3000 Point List

Vampire Lord (Sword of Strife, Armour of Destiny, Ironcurse Icon, Red Fury, Infinite Hatred)

Vampire Lord (Charmed Shield, Helm of Commandment, Forbidden Lore, Master of the Black Arts)

Vampire (Sword of Anti Heroes, Nightshroud, Ghoulkin, Infinite Hatred)

The Ghoul King (Wight King using Strigoi model) (BSB, The Flag of Blood Keep)

Vampire (Beserker Sword, Flayed Hauberk, Luckstone, Forbidden Lore, Summon Ghouls)

37 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Combat Lord and BSB go here - Horde Formation)

28 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Combat Vamp Goes Here)

Corpse Cart (stays in 6" of above units)

28 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Caster Vamp Goes Here)

20 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Caster Lord Goes Here - Behind Horde)

4 Cairn Wraiths + Banshee

2 x Varghulf

Vampire Counts (and other) FAQ's updated

GW has issued a new update to the recent FAQ's that were released for 8th edition. There are a couple of changes, but the most important one for Vampire Counts players is the addition of:

"Break tests

Change to “All Undead units have the Unbreakable and

Unstable special rules.”"

The big change here is that in 7th edition ward saves and regeneration could be used against these "crumble" wounds. In 8th the Unstable rule (BRB 78) states that no saves are allowed. What I find most interesting about this FAQ is that it does not specify what part of the Break Tests section to replace with this new wording. I wonder what happens to the part in the VC army book about each undead unit in the combat suffering the wounds?

There is a link to the page with all of the FAQ's in the sidebar.

Army Builder Files

Very happy to see that a couple of people have been working on updating the Army Builder files to 8th edition. They have done a ton of work already, but I am sure they have tons more to do. The files are very usable now, even just with the percentages and magic item updates. Huge thanks to Silks, karlhunt and any others on Warseer and elsewhere who have worked on these files.

You can find the details, discussion and downloads in this thread on Warseer.

BRB in the house

Montags got the 8th edition rule books in today, and I stopped by to pick mine up. I had seen the book before, but you really cannot appreciate just how massive it is until you carry it around a bit. Quite happy to have the book now as I was getting tired of looking up rule snippets in online forums.

I recorded a short video of the book, and included a quick trip to the baby scale. At 512 pages and more than 4 lbs it is quite a lot of book.

Bases, Movement Trays and Flock

I always regretted not doing a better job with my basing in my previous WFB armies. I decided that I wanted to make this new army very consistent with my basing, and extend that out to my movement trays. Nice bases go a long way towards making the army complete. Along with nice bases I wanted strong magnets so that this painted army can sit out in my game room and travel short distances inside of the magnetized movement trays.

After looking around, and doing some reading, I decided to purchase bases, magnets and flocking materials from Gale Force Nine. I ordered movement trays based on my current army list design. I think I am pretty well settled on unit sizes and types, and the trays are pretty standard size anyway. I did order one of the new GF9 horde trays for my Ghoul horde.

Sample from Gale Force Nine Site

After looking at the various basing options I went with the Parched Pasture basing kit. I have always done very simple bases in the past, so I am looking forward to a nice layered effect. This looks like it will provide a suitably Vampire Counts looking base.

Buying bases and movement trays for everything is quite a bit more expensive than other options, but I am hopeful that it will make for a nicer overall army. I am ordering the first miniatures for my army tomorrow, and will be getting started towards building the first 1000 points next week.

  

8E Vampire Counts Army Thoughts

Updated: I keep messing with the list!!

As of right this moment I am leaning heavily towards a Vampire Counts army. I used to play VC, and still have some miniatures. I would love to try something new like Skaven, but I always found VC to paint up easily which will be nice. I picked up a copy of the army book yesterday and have been reading through it. Lot's of little (and big) changes from what I remember in 6th edition. I like some of the new plastic models that are available, especially the Tomb Guard, Corpse Cart and Ghouls. With that in mind I set out to build an army to take advantage of them.

I am building to 3000 points because there is a lot of talk online of games being played at that level, and I like the options. I should not have a problem cutting it down to 2500 or so as needed. This list comes out to 3000 exactly, and I will likely rethink powers/items for the vamps. Just added some for points purposes. I plan to use the Strigoi miniatures for all the vamps. The grave guard are not 100% in holding with the theme, but I felt like I needed something with an armor save and some hitting power.


Unit 1

1 Vampire (

Talisman of Protection, 

Avatar of Death, S

ummon Creatures of the Night, 

Summon Ghouls)

23 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast


Unit 2

1 Vampire Lord (

Blood Drinker, 

The Flayed Hauberk, 

Crown of the Damned, 

Infinite Hatred, 

Red Fury, 

Walking Death)

1 Wight King (BSB, S

word of Kings, 

Nightshroud)

47 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast


Unit 3
1 Vampire (

Sword of Battle, 

The Cadaverous Cuirass, 

Ghoulkin, 

Summon Ghouls)

23 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast


Unit 4
14 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast


Unit 5
14 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast


Unit 6
1 Corpse Cart (Balefire)


Unit 7
1 Corpse Cart (Balefire)


Unit 8
1 Vampire (

Spectral Form)

2 Cairn Wraiths (Great Weapon; Causes Terror; Ethereal; Skirmishers; Undead)
1 Tomb Banshee (Causes Terror; Ethereal; Undead)


Unit 9
1 Black Coach (Causes Terror; Chariot)


Unit 10
1 Varghulf  (Vampire; Causes Terror; Hatred; Regenerate; Undead)


Unit 11
4 Fell Bats (Flyer; Undead)


Unit 12
10 Dire Wolves (Fast Cavalry; Undead)