Hey all. It's been a little while since i've been on here. Warhammer had to take a back seat in my life for a bit, but i'm starting to get back into it now. :)

I'm looking to dust off my old VC army, add a few new models and have a newish army ready in the next few months. Just wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions, mainly for the lord on the WNM. I haven't played a game with vampires for a few years now, so help with refining the troop selection will be a lot of help to. Thanks. :)

Necrarch Vampire Lord
Winged Nightmare
Level 3
Wristbands of Black Gold
Cursed Book
Sword of Might

Necromancer
Level 2
Book of Arkhan
Dispel Scroll

Necromancer
Level 2
Power Familiar

3 x 15 Zombies
Standard
Musician

2 x 9 Ghouls

4 x 5 Dire Wolves

2 x 6 Black Knights
Barding

2 x 5 Fell Bats

2 Banshees

2249
PD 10 + 1 bound
DD 7 + 1 scroll

I wrote up several builds of a vampire on a WNM. I started off with a count with noble blood, but then he lacked either protection or hitting power. Tried him without noble blood, but that sort of defeated the purpose of taking a necrarch for me because i feel they're in there for the little extra magic they can bring. So i though, how about a lord. You don't see them much (maybe because they cost so much), but i reasoned, he is tougher than the count, can get the third level of magic without eating into my magic item total so i can give him something to protect him from shooting and a little in combat and with the sword of might in there for a bit more hitting power.

With the mobile large target flying lord around i thought i'd need some fast elements to back him up and try and distract my opponents, hence the faster smaller units in the army.

I wasn't to sure about the zombies though. Is three units of 15 enough? Or should i drop say, the second unit of fell bats and get another unit of zombies or bump them up in number or even drop the bats and a unit of zombies and get some skeleton?

Cheers.

Welcome back.

I’ve never tried the flying Necrarch, but I usually have a lord when playing Necrarchs. What I have done, is played a lot of games with Flying Nightmares – in my experience, they will get magicked/shot down beneath you some 30-40% of your games. The ward won’t help your poor monster, and then you’re a pedestrian for the rest of the game. Don’t let it deter you though, play a few games and see if it works.

The list seems fine. as for the zombies I would transform one of the units into a necrobunker (10 zombies ithout command). For those points you could increase the numbers in other units.

in my experience it's 70%... Then again I play Blood Dragons so I usually use the beast in a very agressive manner. It's low survivability doesn't decrease the effectiveness of the whole army though. If well used they can be extremely effective.

I've played a number of games with that Necrarh lord (thesame items), however he was riding a zombie dragon. Imho, a bad choice.
So, i suggest you take max bloodlines, and forget about cc. Maybe give him biting blade; but that's it. He will still function if charging small things, or hitting a flank/ rear; but won't be able to take enemy head on. Well, that won't change if you invest 70pts into combat; since the winged nightmare is going down if anything serious looks it's way.
The rest of the list is good; however i'd drop the standard from all zombies. They will give those +100 too easily.

It really depends a lot on your meta game, but as most of my WN games are with the Sylvanian Nightmare, shooting and missile units usually never survived turn two...

I'd rework your second necro to have a periapt and scroll, and the cursed book, IMHO, is not fully required. I'd get NNB, dark acolyte, and biting blade instead. Otherwise, I'd drop the barding on the knights or combine them into a 10-model hammer, and follow razon/NIB's advice.

Thanks guys for the replies. :)

The way i intend to use the lord on the WNM is to not rush into combat, but to fly to somewhere close to the enemy lines, out of sight of pretty much all of their shooting, expecially warmachines and just cast invocation of nehek till either the shooting units are engaged in combat by the raised units or by the other units in the army (since i have a few fast units that will be ideal for this), then come out of hiding and help out. I know a few armies will trouble me with their shooting, namely lizardman (they're my main opposition at the moment), with the skinks and their poison blow pipes, empire, elves and dwarfs with their warmachines. But if i can stay away from the warmachines and only take fire from maybe one or two small shooty units, then i figure with the ward save on my vampire and with his toughness 5 and 4 wound he should be ok. The WNM has toughness 5 and 4 wounds also so i dont think he'll get killed all that easily from small arms fire and if he does get wounded then i can always just heal him. There are 6 turns to work with in a game and i'm in no rush to charge in with my lord and get him killed. Plus with armies that dont have shooting, i should be able to positon myself so that i can cast invocation enough that'll make my opponent have to come to me to try and stop me. But as they say, plans don't usually survive first contact. :P

I'll also try the maxed bloodline lord to. I'll give him,
Noble Blood
Dark Acolye
Master of Black Arts
Biting Blade

I'm having at least two games next weekend, so i'll give both options a go. :)

Again, thanks for all the replies.

Good luck! and post battle reports!