My advance order of the VC Spearhead which includes the new book arrived yesterday and I had a chance to read it last night as well as compare it to the old book. Here are my first impressions:

1. The new VC system allows complete customization of the Vampire Characters by eliminating the old bloodline restrictions on vampire powers with a buffet where you can pick and choose any combo you want (Lords get 100 points to spend on powers in addition to 100 points on magic items and Heroes get 50 each), but VC players will have to be careful not to over allocate points to characters.

2. VC lists will be dominated by Vampire Characters including the special named ones as your only Lord choices are Vlad Von Carstein, Count Mannfred, or a Vampire Lord; at the Hero Level you get 3 Von Carstein choices plus a regular Vampire, a Wight King (who is clearly destined for BSB), and a Level 1 necromancer. As all vampires are wizards that automatically know Invocation of Nehek (Lords are Level 2 and know 2 additional spells from the Lore of Vampire and Heroes are level 1 and know 1 additional) and allow units within 6 inches to march, taking a Necro seems like a poor choice.

3. All units in the VC list are now undead including ghouls and bat swarms which will allow them to benefit from the new VC spells but surprisingly many of them have also had REDUCTIONS in leadership which makes the army much more vulnerable to crumble (crumble)

4. The new VC units will play much different than last edition - Zombies cost 4 points rather than the old 6 but unit size is now 20+ (doesn't apply to new units raised) have WS 1, S 2, T2, and LD2. Bat Swarms now cost 35 per base rather than 60 but also have 1 less WD and Attack and LD is now 3 rather than 10! plus unit size is 3-10 bases. Dire Wolves cost 8 rather than 10 with the same stat line except that LD drops from 6 to 3. Ghouls have the same cost and stat line as before except their LD drops to 5 from 6. Grave Guard still cost 12 with the same stat line as before excpet LD drops to 6 from 8. Black Knights actually increase in cost by a point and drop in LD from 8 to 6 but their mounts ignore terrain as long as no characters join the unit. Fell Bats cost the same as before with the same stat line except their LD drops from 6 to 3.

Spirit Hosts still cost 65 points but WS goes up 1 to 3 and LD drops from 6 to 4 and unit size is now 3-10 (and along with the bat swarms can have multiple units).

The new Cairn Wraiths (50 Pts each) and Blood Knights (55) are rare choices but have LD 5 and 7 respectively. Cairn Wraith stat line is M6 WS3 S3 T3 W2 I2 A3 and their champion (Banshee) is identical except for I3 and only 1 attack plus her Ghostly Howl which has a range of 8". Blood Knights are WS 5 BS 3 S 5 T 4 W 1 I 4 A 2 and have Frenzy (Champion is identical except for 3 A).

I will post more later - btw Corpse Cart page says clearly that Lodestone has no effect on Vampire Units.

Black Coach now has a 4+ Ward and 3+ armor save and causes terror in addition to being considered a vampire unit. Rather than absorbing wounds, at the start of every magic phase, the BC can absorb magical energy - roll the dice in the power pool plus any generated by any wizard within 6" of the Black Coach with any roll of 6 means that the BC absorbs the dice (which is lost) and the Coach permantly adds to the Evocation of Death Chart below:

1 dice absorbed - BC grows leamingscythes and inflicts +1 impact hits on charges
2 " " Cairn Wraith Driver and steeds gain hate all enemies
3 "" "" BC gains MR (3)
4 "" "" BC impact hits, Steeds & Cairn Wraith gain Killing blow
5 "" "" BC becomes Ethereal
6+ "" "" BC becomes a flyer

Stat Line is S 5 T 6 W 4 LD 5 for BC

Corpse Cart M 4 WS 2 S 2 T 4 W 3 I 1 A = 2D6+1 LD 7 Regeneration & 5+ Armor Save.

Vampire Stat M 6 WS 6 BS 4 S 5 T 4 W 2 I 6 A 3 LD 7
Vampire Lord M 6 WS 7 BS 5 S 5 T 5 W 3 I 7 A 4 LD 10
Wight King M 4 WS 4 S 4 T 5 W 3 I 4 A 3 LD 9 Wight Blade KB
Necro M 4 WS 3 BS 3 S 3 T 3 W 2 I 3 A 1 LD 7

Varghulf M 8 WS 5 S 5 T 5 W 4 I 2 A 5 LD 4 Terror, Regenerate, Hate all Bestial Fury (no flanks or rear for CR).

In addition to the Skeletal Steeds that ignore terrain, mounts include Nightmares M8 ws 3 S 4 T 4 W 1 I 2 A 1 LD 3 (Blood Knights), Hellsteeds (flying nightmares), Abyssal Terror M 6 WS 4 S 5 T 5 W 4 I 2 A 3 LD 4 Terror, Fly, Large Target and Zombie Dragons M 6 WS 6 S 6 T 5 W 5 I 2 A 5 LD 4 Fly, Terror, Large target 5+ scaly skin Pesitlential breath & cloud of flies. Vampire Lords can choose to ride any of these except Skeletal steeds (Count Mannfred can take any except zombie dragon and his hero level can take nightmare or terror). Regular Vamp hero mounts are nightmare or Hellsteed and Necro take Nightmare or Corpse cart (Wight King mount is Skeletal steed).

Great read, thanks for the heads up!