HUGE End Times: Archaon reveal!!!

Spoilers R' Us!

Check it out yo.  You can thank our Chinese friends for this.

End Times: New Bloodthirster model!

Here's what's coming to kill everyone.

Quick, everyone gang up on Chaos!

Tyrion is alive, Incarnate of Light?

Nagash, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, everyone against Chaos..

The new Bloodthirster in all its glory.

Skaven: A more well-rounded list

So many rats, so many possibilities!

After exploring the prospect of fielding double Storm Fiends, I still feel that that particular configuration is not the better list.  If you think about all the weaknesses that Storm Fiends present, there's just too much risk in fielding two units of fatty gun rats.  What if someone brings a shooting dominated list and you're not playing the Storm Banner?  Chances are that you're going to get out-ranged, possibly out-gunned and that you'll have a bunch of dead fatties on the table before they even attempt to make their points back.  This is no good.  You never want to enter any kind of competitive environment where you're banking on your opponents not showing up with particular lists.  That's almost asking for trouble.

Enter the more balanced list:

2400 ETC

12 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer, Plague = 275
Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse, Gem
+Screaming Bell = 200

Grey Seer, Ruin = 320
Power Scroll, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Chieftain, BSB = 124
Halberd, Shield, 4+ Ward Armor

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
46x Stormvermin, FC, Razor Standard = 392
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
5x Gutter Runners, Poison, Slings = 90
5x Gutter Runners, Poison, Slings = 90

RARE:
3x Storm Fiends, Rattling Cannons = 255
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

In this list, you basically take everything that's good about Skaven and stick it in one list.  All the characters minus the Doomrocket Caddy sits in the MR2 Stormvermin unit with the Razor Standard.  Depending on the matchup and what the map looks like, you either deploy tight with 5, 7 with 2 on each side, or a full horde with 10 across.  The objective here is that you have 2 Grey Seers slinging magic out from the Bell unit, ODing on Warp Tokens while you push up with Storm Fiends nearby the BSB.  This strongly compliments your already lethal magic phase since Skaven has some of the most brutal ranged magic spells.  I'm trying out the Power Scroll lately because I really want to capitalize on the power of magic so I can take full advantage of my double Grey Seers.  Everyone that matters has a 2++ ward save vs. magic attacks thanks to the Bell, and the 2x units of Gutter Runners will fend off any warmachines that stray too far from support.

The thing I like most about this list is having the 2x WLC and Doomwheel as support for the Storm Fiends.  There are a couple of things that Skaven fear more than anything else and one of them is big monsters and fatties getting into close combat.  If you haven't noticed by now, rats are not the best in close combat and the Skaven try their best to tie up good combat units with plebs while you blast them away with Rattling Cannons and Warp Lightning Cannons.  While the Stormvermin are pretty decent in close combat, Skaven prefer to win the dirty way.  As you can see, this list poses a stronger threat element against more list combinations than just double Storm Fiends.  The WLC gives you confidence that you can destroy clumped up infantry, counter-battery when needed, and provides you with a long-ranged answer to advancing monsters.  Of course, things typically goes to shit if a dragon manages to reach your lines, but that's why you have the Doomwheel to assist in such times.  When things get hairy, send in a spinning rat wheel powered by warp lightning.

Skaven: Storm Fiends and ETC Draft 2.5

Shoot everything that ever lived.

Well, it looks like ETC put some pretty sizable restrictions on Storm Fiends as predicted.  They were a little bonkers against certain list archetypes, but they were not without weakness.  You can find the latest copy of ETC Draft 2.5 here.

Here are my observations:

• They utterly changed the metagame because of their high impact ranged offensive ability.  A unit of 3 puts out 9D6 S5 AP magical shots that re-roll wounds and ignores almost all shooting penalties minus cover.
• They are fragile, and Ld.7 is death magic bait.
• Suffer vs. armies with superior shooting elements: WE, DE, HE, Empire, Dwarves, even Ogres with Leadbelchers. With 18" range and 24" threat total can be counter-deployed by longer shooting elements.
• Suffer vs. light councils, any army with magic missiles, Warlocks will draw dice every time and they cost less than half the points.
• They will do very well vs. knight-heavy armies with minimal shooting, to a point where if you roll well, you will earn at least 2x their points back if played well.
• They can do very poorly vs. armies that have more shooting elements than the Skaven player and thus, are a complete waste of points. A direct comparison can be made with the Abomination, which costs about the same points as 3x Rattling Cannons. In those cases, the Skaven player would rather have the Abom since it can absorb more damage.

Case in point -
Regular Skaven configurations in the Rare slot in ETC, all of which I have played so far:

• Abom, 2x WLC, Doomwheel
• 2x Doomwheel, 2x WLC
• 3x Storm Fiends, 2x WLC, Doomwheel
• Abom, 4x Storm Fiends

Look at what you give for Storm Fiends: The Abomination for its durability and power to kill entire units by itself while not being vulnerable vs. shooting, including cannons (bar the flaming ones). If you take the Abom and Storm Fiends configuration, you give up the ability counter-battery or heavily damage elite units because of the lack of WLC. You also miss out on the Doomwheel, so you lose the ability to deal with monsters that hit close combat.

To sum up Storm Fiends; they are fragile, they are hit and miss, literally, from their 3D6 shot variations to their effect in game vs. different comps. Killing one drops the power of the unit by a third, whereas something like the Ironblaster, Skullcannon, or Organ Gun maintains its power, lethality and ingame effect regardless of power inflicted onto the unit. They are also Rare so if Skaven players must sacrifice other powerful elements in their army to use Storm Fiends.

I can remember these of the top of my head:
2 Games vs. HE
3 Games vs. DE
1 Game vs. WE
4 Games vs. Empire
2 Games vs. Ogres
2 Games vs. Dwarfs
1 Game vs. VC
2 Games vs. WoC

Storm Fiends with Rattling Cannons did major work vs. 2 Empire lists with minimal shooting and knight buses, 2 games vs. Ogres because of 1 Ironblaster and 1 tiny unit of Leadbelchers, absolutely mauled a VC list because he has no shooting and my WLC destroyed the lone Terrorgheist, did serious work against the WoC because of limited shooting. They suffered vs. a light council Empire list and another with knights and heavy shooting, suffer horrendously vs. the Dwarfs because of 30" Organ Guns and super accurate cannons, and suffer vs. 35+ Archer, RBT HE lists with Shadow book, DE was just a pain to play against, possibly even more than WE.

Overall, the Rattling Fiends have some very swingy effects on the metagame.  They can either completely wreck unprepared armies or those with small shooting elements, or they can be utterly destroyed by the right kind of list composition.  This, is a problem in itself because it causes too much polarity in game balance.  No balanced army should show up to an event and just feel like Storm Fiends are uncounterable by their army.  I feel that Vampire Counts eats shit the most from the new gun rats.

With that said, let's explore the latest comp on these guys:

• Each Stormfiend in a unit after the first model 1 pool choice

This basically means that a unit of 3x will cost the army 2 points out of the 5 total that you can take.  I think in its current form, this is pretty fair as you are now locked out of the Storm Banner or other tricks if you take these guys.  This makes shooting armies that much better vs. the Storm Fiends because you can no longer pop banner on their turn after you get a round of successful shooting.  Of course, you can still take 2x units of 3x Rattling Fiends and the Storm Banner if you so choose, but only if you take nothing else.  So what does this mean?  This means that we should test just how truly these Storm Fiends are impacting the meta.  Are they absolutely destroying everything you face?

I want to try double Grey Seer for all the nonsense that you can throw out with enough Warp Tokens.  Essentially everyone important has a 2++ ward vs. magic and the double unit of Rattling Fiends will put down enough lead down field that your opponents' army will either fold, or do have the right elements to fight against it.  Jam up whatever you can with Skaven Slaves and continue to mow down your opponents' stuff while Gutter Runners takes out any warmachines.  The single WLC keeps fatties honest and the rest of the list speaks/shoots for itself.

Skaven: Different list variations

Killing everybody.. yes, yes..

Having played a ton of games with my Skaven on UB so far, I've decided to try a few more list variations.  There's three of them..

Real quick, let's talk about list design in general.  Keep in mind that all of my lists have been designed with ETC Draft 2 in mind.  That's the new hotness where I play and the majority of players on UB are rocking that.  You can find a link to the ETC restrictions in some of my previous posts, and I really suggest you guys give this new version a go.  I was really hating on ETC a couple of years ago because the comp was much harder than I like, but now ETC is considered by most to be light comp with a few tweaks.  This is really good for players like me who likes minimal change to the game while preventing the most heinous power builds from occurring.  The 5 dice cap and LoS on killer death spells is also a blessing.

If you guys are reading this on the East Coast, get ready because ETC will be the main ruleset for majors over there.  Now, let's go over the lists that I've been tinkering with, check it out.

The Two Towers
2399 ETC
11 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer = 265
Lore of Ruin
Earthing Rod
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 82
Halberd, CShield, Ironcurse

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 129
Flail, Scroll
+Plague Furnace = 150

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
32x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 279

RARE:
1x Hell Pit Abomination, Spikes = 250
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

A few points tweaks here and there, but you'll see mostly good stuff on the lords/heroes selection.  The BSB is a little fragile in there for someone who's going to be on the front lines, but since the entire unit is Unbreakable I'm not all that concerned.  Yes, swinging at the Grey Seer is troublesome and yes, having two giant blocks of infantry will limit my deployment options, but so far I've been very successful vs. the Dwarfs, WoC, Empire and HE lists I've played against.  I don't think most of my opponents faced something like this in a long time and I'm happy to show them that old lists can still work.  The Plague Monks are especially effective against anything Elves once they hit combat, and they absolutely tear up things like BotWD blocks, Halberdiers, and even armor if I force enough wounds.  Even if you stay in there with heavy armor and S3 bounces off you, I don't care either because I'm Unbreakable and my Furnace will be denying combat res and dropping smack in your face every turn while forcing Toughness tests all day.

Rat Storm
2400 ETC
12 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer, Ruin = 275
Power Scroll
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 122
Halberd, 4+ Ward, Charmed Shield

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 129
Flail, Scroll

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
29x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 258
5x Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison = 90
5x Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison = 90

RARE:
4x Storm Fiends, Rattling Guns = 340
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90

You can either set these Storm Fiends up in 2x2 or 4x1, it doesn't really matter.  You just walk these guys forward and let loose with 12D6 worth of S5 AP magical shots that ignores everything but cover.  Against some lists, they can be utterly fucking ridiculous since it outright murders knight-heavy Empire lists, most VC lists, and mostly any lists that doesn't shoot back or have weaker shooting elements.  They suffer against heavy-shooting armies from Elves and light councils in general, but otherwise they're horrible to deal with if your opponent knows what he's doing.  I'm missing out on the Abomination and Doomwheel in this list, but that's fine as long as I can pour enough hot lead into my opponents to make their points back.  If you think about it, if I eliminate all their shooting options and chaff, the Storm Fiends will walk around, utterly unopposed and kill everything on the board with their shooting.

Now that you guys see the lists, here's some brain cake to think about.  Skaven, being one of the older books, still sports some of the nastiest stuff out there  The biggest boon that Skaven has is their don't care attitude toward elite, heavy armor style armies.  If you're running a knight bus, you might as well pull it from the table when fighting most Skaven lists.  I know for a fact my current VC list will most likely auto-lose to my Skaven because I just have no way of dealing with their damage output from range.  Storm Banner is a luxury and it will seriously hamper armies that rely on ranged shooting, and if I don't need it, I don't need to use it.  In my Two Towers list, a Storm Banner is a huge boon since it can keep my hammer units alive until I reach combat.  In my Rattling Fiend list however, they are less useful because it also impacts my shooting.

Another really ridiculous thing about the new Storm Fiends is that they add another dimension of power and confusion for your opponents.  During list construction, do they build to fight something like the Abom, Wheel and 2x WLC configuration or do they anticipate facing the 4x Rattling Fiends?  What about 2x units of Rattling Fiends or a unit with Grinder Fist?  Do they anticipate the Gutter Runners which is generally weaker vs. heavy armor lists with minimal shooting, but can they risk drawing a Skaven running max shooting?  How will armies that rely on breaking enemies and minimal attrition handle 2 huge Unbreakable blocks that can potentially ignore armor saves?  What if I have that Assassin with Weeping Blade and Potion of Strength?  The only thing that's really apparent to me now since the release of the Storm Fiends is how much they're going to change how people view Skaven.  If they were Special like some people suggest, they would be utterly broken.

I suspect that we might see a +1 restriction for Storm Fiends and maybe even more if I take the Grinder Fist on one of them.  Having them come up on the backfield of my opponents and blast away his stuff after charging a WM is kinda ridiculous.  Regardless, if ETC comps them, I can just swap out the Storm Banner with Razor Standard and call it a day.

WHFB: It's official, I'm restarting Skaven

The feeling when WLC scores a direct hit..

I owned the army a few years back and I've had a lot of fun with it.  As times changed and I wanted to play something else, I eventually sold off the army and forgot about it.  Thankfully, a couple of weeks ago, I was digging through the garage and found a bunch of stuff left.  Lo and behold, The End Times are upon us now and I'm getting the urge to play the army again.  I seeked out some of my contacts and immediately re-purchased the elements I need, so if anyone has some leftover IoB rats that they're not assembling, let me know!

Here is what my current army looks like under the 2400 ETC format:

2399 ETC
11 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer = 265
Lore of Ruin
Dispel Scroll
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 74
Shield, Halberd

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 116
Plague Censer
+Plague Furnace = 150

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
35x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 300

RARE:
1x Hell Pit Abomination, Spikes = 250
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

If some of you remember, this is my Two Towers list and is a pretty old school army.  I maximize on what I view to be the best units in the book while keeping everything under restrictions.  No Gutter Runners are in this list so it's susceptible to enemy WM shooting, but the combat blocks are rock solid and the rare choices are maxed for dealing death.

At 2500 points and in unrestricted WHFB, that's when I add a few more nasty toys like Brass Orb and Death Globe, but for now, this is looking pretty good.  I've had a few games with this list on UB and I've been doing quite well with it.

WHFB: ETC vs. Swedish Comp?

I'm thinking about restarting Skaven.. someone stop me!

So recently, I've been doing some heavy research into comps for my local meta to play. While 2500 regular WHFB is on the table, we're looking for something else to introduce so we can have more balanced games of Warhammer.

I'm just trying to see what you fellas think is the better comp for balanced Warhammer here. I'm personally enjoying 2400 ETC Draft 2 myself, but a lot of the events on the West Coast is using Swedish and some people swear by it.

My biggest problem with Swedish I think is that a lot of the time, it feels like it comps "netlists" or popular lists really hard, not necessarily looking at power level. This, IMO, keeps it away from being balanced warhammer and rather, a popularity contest. An example that I can give is that one of my VC lists hovers at 6.4 while what I think is a weaker HE list, without BotWD comes in at 2.0. I don't even know what to make of this, considering that a tooled up Lv.4 Vampire Lord with LoV cost less than a Lv.4 Shadow Mage with Book. It just doesn't make sense to me sometimes.

For funsies, I plugged in my DE list, my DoC and my Skaven list into the system too. My Skaven is a -3.3 (ROFL), DE is a flat 0, and my DoC is a whopping 13.9 because its mono Slaanesh.  In terms of power level, based on what I have faced thus far (and I've played many games with these armies), I would say that my Skaven > DoC = VC > HE > DE in terms of power level, but the Swedish comp is DoC (13.9) > VC (6.4) > HE (2.0) > DE (0) > Skaven (-3.3).  This means that my second strongest army here, would be playing a relatively soft army by Swedish standards.

Can anyone with experience in these systems explain this phenomenon that I'm seeing?

The 3 big things that WHFB 9th Ed. needs

Random Skaven Warlord here we go!

Honestly, I think 8th Ed. is a pretty good edition with all things considered.  The End Times stuff is just as good because of the 50% lords/heroes and the bigger models will let people better eat their points.  While these are good things for the game, they're not necessary for the next edition of Warhammer to be good.

Here is what I think 9th Ed. needs to be the most successful edition of Warhammer yet. Keep in mind I'm also doing this with the business in mind and the direction of the company from what I've seen so far.

1. Simplified ruleset, mainly in the movement phase of the game e.g. Kings of War.
2. Reduce barrier of entry for the game to be played e.g. scenarios designed for smaller games, horde units being less effective.
3. Reduction in power for magic spells e.g. Purple Sun, Mindrazor, Dwellers Below.

When you think about it, there's not too much to improve. Stuff like laser cannons and the such while good, is not needed for the game to be successful. Reducing the barrier of entry, having a simpler ruleset (while still maintaining tactical gameplay), and generally making the game more fun, is what is needed.

The latest rumors on 9th suggests that a skirmish version of WHFB is coming, so maybe like Mordheim again, but WHFB will not be reduced to a skirmish game.  Phew.

OMG The End Times Khaine leaks!

Bat shit crazy powerful.

Have you seen this guys?  Absolute craziness.

I'll just leave this here..

Power overwhelming..

The one true king has returned..

..and his beautiful wife!

For one, I'm happy that Malekith reunites the Elves and is crowned as the true Phoenix King.  That's right, I said it.

PS - Fuck you GW for making this only 500 copies.  That shit literally sold out 5 minutes after I got the email.  So yes, I will torrent your shitty ass business model once someone puts it online instead of giving you my money.  Dipshits.

VC: Playing as Undead Legion

I googled Blood Knights and I got boobs.  Was not disappointed.

Before you dig any deeper, please see the article I wrote about VC/TK interactions here.  I'll start off with my VC list because I have the most experience with them (I got into them when they got their new 7th Ed. book).  My playstyle has always been a killy armored Vampire Lord because that's how I envision myself if I was to personally take command of the army.  It just sings well with me.

For now, I'll skip the Special Characters and all the Nagash Vol. 2 units.  I want to concentrate on the original army books.

Vampire Counts Unit Bucket:
Vampire Lord, Master Necromancer, Necromancer, Vampire, Wight King, Tomb Banshee, Zombies, Skeleton Warriors, Crypt Ghouls, Dire Wolves, Grave Guard, Black Knights, Crypt Horrors, Vargheists, Fell Bats, Spirit Host, Bat Swarms, Hexwraiths, Terrorgheist, Mortis Engine

Tomb Kings Unit Bucket:
Tomb King, Liche High Priest, Tomb Prince, Liche Priest, Necrotect, Skeleton Archers, Skeleton Horsemen, Skeleton Horse Archers, Skeleton Chariots, Necropolis Knights, Ushabti, Khemrian Warsphinx, Sepulchral Stalkers, Hierotitan, Necrosphinx, Screaming Skull Catapult, Casket of Souls

Preliminary Observations
I don't think Skeleton Horseman and Archers are worth it because of the price range.  Skeleton Horse Archers maybe because of the Fast Cav, but I'm not sure if I like the price on Horseman vs. just having Dire Wolves for chaff purposes.  Our Skeleton Warriors are better than the TK book, Ghouls are excellent forms of core choices as are the Skeleton Archers.  The good thing here is that they fulfill very different roles and thus, do not compete for choices.  Skeleton Chariots are up in the air because while they can be good, I think with Archers, Dire Wolves and Ghouls they will be hard-pressed for a slot.  That is, unless you want a take an all-moving list with perhaps a Tomb Prince or King in tow.

The next big observation is that VC stands out in two unique ways from TK, and that's via the Ethereal units, and with the scream mechanics.  For TK, it has to be shooting, and Undead constructs for me.  This is why you see me listing out a lot of the competitive options from the TK book that you normally wouldn't see by itself.  I'm talking about the Necero Knights, Ushbati, and Sepulchral Stalkers especially.  These guys were subpar until all of a sudden, you can take 2x Mortis Engines and a Necrotect in the same list with them.  All of a sudden, 4+ Regen is very, very scary for a lot of people who thought they can just shoot them to death.  VC also provides the UL with 2+ armor via the Black Knights, and as we all know by now, that's our main mode of transportation for the Blenderlord if we a well-placed hammer blow.

From a lords/heroes perspective, the Vampire Lord remains the strongest melee component that we have.  Tomb Kings and Princes are more unit buffers more than anything, until you fit the Golden Death Mask and then their role changes (only the King, and only mounted on a Chariot I feel).  More on this later.  Master Necros and High Liche Priests are always good, especially since we have such diverse magic coverage now.  For example, you have access to Death, Shadow, Lore of Vampires, and Light, Death and Lore of Nehekhara.  This is great, but you have to also consider the fact that you can't mix and match magic items.  The VC magic items just destroy TK in terms of competitive selection, and I think that outside of Light and LoN, there won't be much that the TK casters will offer us, simply because the best item there forces through an IF.  That might be a game changer with Purple Sun, but we'll see.  In terms of BSB, VC dominate the arena with Vampiric powers and the beefy WK, but also because of magical items like the Nightshroud.

Last, but certainly not least, we just gained an ass ton of monsters that we can bring in our lists.  That's the only thing that can be said right now because there is a significant price-tag that comes with it.

Exploring Different Archetypes
Before we look too deeply into how we can expand on the archetypes, we need to explore what the existing archetypes are for the armies.  In VC, because we have a more flexible book, we have a ton of different archetypes to explore.  To give you an idea, here are a couple of things:  Walking Blenderlord with an infantry heavy army, Blenderbus with fast moving options, magic-heavy double Necro lists with Regen engines Crypt Horror meatwalls, magic-heavy double Necro with infantry armies, magic-heavy scream machines with Terrors/Banshees, Blenderbus 2x Terrorgheist, and any combination of these.

When you look at TK, you have either your balanced playstyle of some shooting, some combat, and a block of Tomb Guard, or you have flat out all shooty lists with minimal combat.  Monster-heavy was something that people experimented with in the beginning, but with the changes that everything can wound anything, this quickly went out the window because a lot of people hated spending a lot of points for minimal protection.  Even with the Lore of Nehekhara's awesome healing aura, this was not enough to keep the expensive constructs up.

OK, so now that the boring stuff is over, let's talk about how we can combine the strategic flexibility of the VC book with the TK book.  Just to let you guys know before hand, I see the TK book as a support book to our more powerful VC book.  This is quite apparent when you look at the units and uses of the units.  Things like the Tomb Prince for a WS buff, Necrotect for Regen + Hatred buff, Archers/SSCs for shooting solutions, Casket for magic buff, Hierophant for magic buff, all of these things are buffs at the end of the day.  The only combat elements (close combat) that the TK book has to offer us is when you can combine Regen from the Necrotect, with the Regen aura that our Mortis Engines can provide.

With that said, here is the first and most apparent archetype of the combined books..

The Regen Undead Construct Engines of Doom
No, I'm not really calling it that, but the pieces of the puzzle should be pretty self-explanatory.  The first thing you'll notice here is the vast amount of points needed to sustain this combo.  Not to crap on anyone's parade, but the first thing I need to call out is the vulnerability to flaming, and the fact that Dwarf Cannons with RoBurning and Skull Cannons of Khorne will make your life really miserable.  Sure, there will healing, sure, there will be shooting, but you need to keep in mind that laser cannons with flaming shots makes large things with Regen very unhappy.

Here is what you will need:
Necotect in a zombie bunker - The dude that gives as 12" bubble of 6+ Regen to all Undead Constructs.  He needs to survive, he needs to be protected, and you might as well put a MR3 Black Peripat Master Necro with him in that bunker to give him added magic sniping protection.

Mortis Engines - These are your Regen engines because they stack with each other and give the rest of army bonuses to Regen.  If you have 2x Mortis Engines and the Necrotect, you will see 4+ Regen on all of your constructs as long as they're within range of the engines.

Any Undead Constructs that you can think of - Necropolis Knights, Ushabti, Khemrian Warsphinx, Sepulchral Stalkers, Hierotitan, Necrosphinx.  Choose some of these guys that you want in your list and go to town.  Even with a sole Mortis Engine and some decent healing, you will greatly increase the lifespan (lol) of these units.

The shooting that never existed in VC
OK, so here's what you do here.  You take all the cool shooting components from the TK army and then supplement your existing VC army with it.

What you do:
Gut your entire core and replace them with Skeleton Archers.  How you want to take them completely depends on what you want.  A big unit does a lot of damage, you don't need a musician because you always hit on 5s no matter what you do.  I would probably roll with units of 10-15, or bigger units of 20-30, I would take at least 2 units of these.  You want to maintain your deployment advantage with Vanguarding Dire Wolf chaff, so make sure you have save 160 points for 4x units of 5.  The rest can either be all shooty, or if you want, take a unit of Ghouls and have some combat in there.

Next, you take 2x Screaming Skull Catapults and keep them cheap, the 90 point variant is fine.  Then, you add a Casket of Souls because it's the most awesome thing in the world and gives you a pseudo-shooting solution that can buff your magic as well.

This will allow you to keep the rest of your army how you want.  From here, you either branch into an counter-punch style Blenderlord bus, or you can play a beefy counter-punch Regen style block, or you can play a bunch of fighting infantry like a Tomb Prince in Grave Guard with Banner of Barrows block.  Basically, at this point you can pretty much freestyle because you just reprimed your core for archer-based chaff removal, kept your own chaff superiority, and added a cheap firing solution in the form of 2x SSCs, which can potentially remove large monsters from the field, like Chimeras.  The first time you hit a Regen WoC Chimera with this thing, he will be pissed that you now have this option.  Infantry blocks from other armies will also be shocked by the fact you can now rain terror onto his face.

Another cool addition would the Lv.4 High Liche Priest taking LoN.  This gives you a greater chance to get Incantation of Righteous Smiting, and possibly allow your big archer units shoot a lot more.  Just something to keep in mind.

Terror Bombing you into the ground
OK, this one is a little more gimmicky as you guys know, but the idea here is to deliver a Tomb King with Golden Mask into the enemy lines along side your Vampire Lord's knight bus.  I think this one is the least competitive out of all of them, but the option is definitely there.  The best way to deliver this kind of combo because....

1. It's effective, not because of the fear-bomb, but because Golden Deathmask is amazing as an item overall.
2. When it does fear-bomb, it's hilarious because it makes your army godly.
3. Blenderbus + Chariots is the key:  It allows you to dictate where the combo is delivered and with all the speed and precision to do it.
4. You might as well bring Terrorgheists because if you're taking this combo, you're not out to make friends anyway.

So here's what you need:
-To be able to play 50% Lords.
-Golden Deathmask on a Tomb King (because it was deemed unfun for it to be on a Tomb Prince), on a chariot, with some more chariots from core.
-You need a Blenderlord in a Black Knight bus, with LoV because you need to be able to heal stuff and move the fast-movers with VDM.
-You need 2x Terrorgheists because they move fast, and combos insanely well with the combo you're going to produce.
-No matter what, you will need the Golden Deathmask, Screaming Banner (on knightbus), Fear Incarnate (on Red Fury, Quickblood Lord), Aura of Dark Majesty (on supporting Vampire BSB).  You might as well go Supernatural Terror too while you're at it.

The Splash of TK
This one is pretty self-explanatory.  Here, you just take the bare essentials from TK and add it to your army.  I'm talking about just adding the Casket or something else, because you want the rest of your army to be VC for some reason.

Biggest additions to the VC army:
Casket of Souls
Liche Priest with Incantation of the Desert Wind
Necotect, for Hatred on Ghouls
Skeleton Archers
Screaming Skull Catapults

A sample army list

2491 UL
12 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 553
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade, 4+ Ward, Ironcurse

HEROES:
Lv.1 Vampire BSB = 250
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Nightshroud, Gem, PoFools

CORE:
15x Skeleton Archers = 90
15x Skeleton Archers = 90
36x Ghouls, Ghast = 370
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
13x Black Knights, FC, BoSwiftness = 383
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Screaming Skull Catapult = 90
Screaming Skull Catapult = 90
Casket of Souls = 135
Terrorgheist = 225

This army likes to sit back and shoot to weaken the enemy force, and then counter-charge with a Blenderbus, Terrorgheist and 6x6 Ghoul block to do the damage.  The shooting elements consist of the 2x SSC, Casket of Souls and 2x Archer units.  Ethereal Spirit Hosts are a must so you can have extra shooting with the SSC.

I mean, compare it to something like this pure VC list..

2497 WHFB
14 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Lv.1 Vampire BSB = 245
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Nightshroud, Gem

Lv.1 Necromancer = 100
Lore of Vampires
Cursed Book

CORE:
37x Ghouls, Ghast = 380
25x Zombies, FC = 85
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
11x Black Knights, FC, BoSwiftness = 331
5x Hexwraith = 150
3x Vargheist = 138
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225

The first thing to note here is that I lost some drops when I decided to cut the Dire Wolves. The Spirit Hosts are still there so that's super good, but losing 2 drops means that you're on average instead of above average drop-rates for most balanced lists (armies range from 8-12 on average). This simply means that you might get out-deployed by a cannier opponent.

Let's look at what we cut from the list. I'll use the first VC list I posted as an example and you'll see there, that I lost: Vargheists, Hexwraiths, 2x Dogs, Zombies, and my Cursed Book Nercro. What I gained was: 2x units of Skeleton Archers, slightly increased the number of Black Knights that I have, put in the Casket of Souls, and bought 2x SSCs.

What this means overall is that I lose some of my mobility for a slightly more durable knightbus, +D3 PD per turn, 2x flaming stonethrowers, and I see the dogs cancel out as chaff for anti-chaff because that's what the Skeleton Archers will be used for. Because of the mobility loss, the army will have to play a little bit more static, basically having the VL bus observe the first couple of rounds of combat while the Archers and SSCs do their job clearing up the board. Archers will kill chaff, SSCs will hopefully kill big beasties or put dents on enemy infantry formations, and the Terrorgheist will hang out in the back looking for a good opportunity to jump on something.

Keep in mind that this is one way of playing this particular mixed/shooting hybrid, and incorporates a mounted Vampire Lord. Like I pointed out above, VC have a huge array of different builds they can muster, so this only the tip of the iceberg.

You can follow this living thread on the VC forums here.

WHFB: Army tiers and hypothesis

The lost art of dominating with an outdated book.

Now, I will talk about uncomped and very slight comp based off the WHFB 8th system (2400 and 2500 games).  I will rate the armies based on tiers from what I've experienced. Here is what I think of the tiers in respects to the armies under them.

Tiers Explained

• Tier 1 - This tier represents the pinnacle of army power in the current metagame.  There are a lot of viable, competitive choices and they're all strong vs. netlists and cookie-cutters from other armies.  This level also indicates that regardless of build, the army is able to minimize on the number of bad matchups it will most likely encounter in a tournament setting.  Most of these armies have flexible magic, multiple viable builds, and strong options all over the book with some major power units that just soars above the rest.

• Tier 2 - This tier demonstrates a solid book with many competitive choices. Whether it is due to good internal balance or a few stand-out units, the army preforms fluidly on the table.  While certain builds are strong vs. netlists and can compete on equal footing with other armies out there, there are not as many as Tier 1 armies.  There will be more bad matchups that exist in this army tier, but not much since the majority of the book has the answers it needs.

• Tier 3 - This tier demonstrates workable unit choices with few competitive options. While some of these options are strong, the rest of the book suffers from not enough viable choices for a tournament setting. Whether it is due to subpar internal balance, or just that the units are not powerful enough compared to the other armies, there are noticeable weaknesses.  As a result, the number of bad matchups increases.

Tier 1
Warriors of Chaos
Dark Elves
Skaven
Empire

Tier 2
Lizardmen
High Elves
Undead Legions*
Daemons of Chaos
Ogre Kingdoms
Chaos Dwarfs
Wood Elves*
Vampire Counts
Dwarfs

Tier 3
Orcs and Goblins
Bretonnia
Tomb Kings
Beastmen

*Represents fairly new armies that I'm not sure about yet.

Here is what I have to say about some of the armies, not all of them.

Warriors of Chaos - Have some of the most BS builds in the game. While a lot of the book has a lot of uncompetitive options, the bulk of the book are competitive and very competitive at that. You have some of the best lord/hero build options in the game, from Chaos Lords to flying DPS to 3++ BSBs, with some of the best magic, the toughest core in the entire book that rivals other book's elites, and can take multiple monsters and Hellcannons. I would say this book has the highest amount of competitive options, which results in the largest degree of raw face beating. This is an example of a book that has too many over the top elements.

Skaven - An archaic book in terms of age, since the book literally came out forever ago. However, because it's an old book, it retains a lot of flat out BS elements from another edition. This is the one book that benefited the most from 8th Ed. changes, and from a raw price to power ratio, there's no other army that can pay so little for such devastating results. Sure, the results vary, but when your entire army is virtually unbreakable, ignore armor saves and cause D6 wounds, and for dirt cheap, that doesn't matter. This is an example of an older book that just benefited too much with new rules.

Dark Elves - Has multiple builds that can utilize fast cav characters, strong/flexible magic presence, multiple Executioner and Witch blocks, with powerful supporting Warlocks. You can construct the army around avoidance, flying circus, combat blocks, and take either an infantry heavy or cavalry heavy force, built from core. All of which circulate around mobility and superior shooting for chaff solutions. This is an example of a book that can just about do anything.

Empire - Can take arguably the strongest shooting force in the entire game. It has the damage, the range, and most importantly, the points efficacy to invalidate a lot netlist and metagame threats. Cheap wizards allow you to utilize light councils while the rest of the army builds allow for multiple Stubborn blocks, armored knights, Demigryphs and Steam Tanks. This is an example of a book that is just geared at fighting the current metagame.

Lizardmen - Can take an all skink core that gives you multiple, accurate poisoned shots while providing you with deployment advantage. Saurus Warriors are above average troops in terms of bang for your buck, Slann's magic ability, multiple mounted characters with strong saves and damage, with the ability to go monster-heavy, character buses, Slaan magic + Temple Guard, or avoidance. This is an example of a book that has all the right tools in all phases.

High Elves - A lot of people say that High Elves are the leader of the mid-tier and I think that's very accurate. Although this list isn't in order of power or whatnot, I think that High Elves has one of the best internally balanced books in the entire game. You can build flexible shooty avoidance core, or armored core, or infantry core. Then you have Phoenix Guard which are ridiculously good, White Lions with Stubborn, and some of the best magic items in the game via the BotWD and Book of Hoeth. Not to mention the flexibility of knowing all lores, having one of the best monsters in the game via the Phoenix, and having multiple playstyles to the army itself. You can either take monster bash, infantry, mixed balanced, cavalry-heavy, or very shooty. The only thing that keeps this book in check is the pricing, which is priced very well, which is also its reason why it's kept in the middle. There's simply not enough High Elves to go around in terms of body count. Why not top tier? Power to price ratio.

Undead Legions - This is basically built off of VC with a few star units from the TK book, and by default, this just means more options for the VC player. You gain access to the TK movement spells, can march within the general and no longer crumble. Tag on the fact that nothing changes except for your player options and you have a good solid army. Why not top tier? Because at the end of the day, you're just VC, so yeah, bad matchups.

Demons of Chaos - Despite having what I consider to be a trainwreck of the book, this book exemplifies what it means to be highly competitive with poor internal balance. While Khorne and Tzeentch are pissed off to all hell at the options it offers players, Slaanesh and Nurgle units are rolling around in wins. It goes without saying that Nurgle is questionably one of the most overpowered elements to ever grace the table, Slaanesh magic is out of control, the Eternal Blade as a default option is hell on wheels, Soul Grinders are closet OP sleepers that everyone comps low and ignore, Beasts of Nurgle are way over the top, and Khorne cannons humble the Ironblaster in game balance. Why not top tier?  You see the same units over and over again.  Predictability, although different in playstyle.

Ogre Kingdoms - This is a prime example of solid, competitive choices, but cookie cutter builds. While this army book has strong elements that work in its favor, there is limited build variation. You can take a bruiser wall, but most builds default on 2x Ironblaster, 3x Sabers, a big block of Ironguts and Mournfangs. If not Mournfangs, then you see Maneaters, and you hardly ever see a Tyrant over the default SM. If you Gutstar, you Runemaw, but if you don't, then you see more characters. You basically take the same shell of a list and then change a few things here and there for the metagame and that's all you see. The other rare choices are subpar, and there's not a lot of choices to begin with. Its simple, straight to the point, cookie-cutter, and brutally effective. Predictability with very little variation in playstyle is what keeps it from top tier.

Chaos Dwarfs - You are a better version of Dwarfs with more over the top elements like the K'daai Destroyer, Ashstorm and Hellcannons. The entire army pretty much shoots and everyone is very well-armored and has a lot of powerful abilities. Unlike the Empire, you lack diversity in army builds and tunnel vision into specific cookie-cutter lists that yields the same maximum damage output. This cookie-cutter means you're susceptible to the same weaknesses and this is what keeps you in this tier. Why not top tier? Predictability and completely linear playstyle.

Vampire Counts - This book is capable of two very strong playstyles, and although very powerful, are very predictable. This is also the book with the largest variance of bad matchups to any given army because of the gimmicky nature of screams and ethereal. You roll up in an event and everyone is running Ogres with no magic missiles? You have a field day with large units of Hexwraiths. You fight a lot of WEs? You might as well get tabled. The same goes with Terrorgheists and their susceptibility to Cannons and Light councils. You either win big or lose big with this army, and while it can Blenderbus and meatwall magic players to death, it has gimmicky options that are either stellar, or terrible depending on the matchup. Why not top tier?  Because most VC builds either work great, or completely flop vs. certain matchups.

The rest of the armies are just missing some things that make them truly competitive.  I would say Dwarfs and OnG lead the pack of the semi-bad books, but the rest of the books are just subpar and need an update really badly.  For example, I can't think of a reason to take TK as a standalone army now that Undead Legions is a thing, but I can see people just taking VC.

Why is Undead Legions not Tier 1?

There a very few things that I would add to my existing VC army from the TK arsenal. Magic is the big one because you have the most amount of combinations from the interactions there. Because this is centralized around magic, and magic as we all know is fickle, you can't rely on it with absolute certainty. The only thing that is a must-take for me from TK is the Casket of Souls.

Undead Legions does make things a little bit easier for us, but the fact of the matter is that TK just offers us very little. All of those options that you listed are fairly mild in terms of power or overpriced for what they do. Boosting of magic is already a boon, but not from the Hierotitan because I don't like the cost associated with a +D3 to cast. The thing costs a lot, is not terribly effective in combat, and has nowhere close to the flexibility of the Terrorgheist. Remember, when you take this thing, you're literally sacking Mortis Engine/TG points. The same goes for duders like Horse Archers or normal Horseman, both of which are Core, sure, but lack the lovely price tag that is the Dire Wolves, which IMO should be considered one of the best chaffs in the game for the price (and in Core!). I would never take a Tomb Price over a Wight King because I find his stats to be subpar, magic items from the TK book to be disgraceful, and he has no options to be mounted with you in a knight-bus. Remember that thing I wrote a while ago about the playstyles of VC? When you look at the TK book, it doesn't really fit into either playstyle as well as you would think.

TK characters cannot travel with us in a bus, and only by themselves via the Chariots, which IMO is a tax to deliver them into battle in a fast list. The only TK realistically adds to the VC army is magical flexibility, via the Casket of Souls and with the Lore of Nehekhara. These are the only 2. Undead Legion gives us no crumble (yay), the ability to multi-lore (another yay), and the ability to take TK allies (meh). As you can see, this is still primarily a VC army because in a competitive setting, our options are flat out stronger in all areas.

We are blessed that we have such a nice book. It really is one of the top3 best internally balanced book in WHFB right now, and I've done a lot of research/design work on figuring out the armies. While some options are there: Necrotect adding Hatred to Ghouls, WS5/6 Grave Guard + Banner of Barrows, and being able to take High Liche + Master Necro in the same list, it all comes down to bang for your buck. Is your list truly stronger with TK elements? If so, which elements are you taking and how does it increase your army's power level compared to your previous list with just VC? I really am interested because outside of the Casket, and maybe a Lv.1 Liche Priest scroll caddy, the rest are really subpar. Next up would probably be the Necrotect though.. the Hatred on Ghouls is out of control.

Lastly, the reason why I don't put the new VC+ in the top tier is because we run into pretty abysmal matchups. Terrorgheists/Hex-heavy armies just get eaten alive by Allerielle/Empire gunlines, but can be super good in other draws. I think that degree of RPS (rock paper scissors) is what's keeping us out of the top tables in all areas (ETC, uncomped, slight comp, and definitely not hard comp), and that won't change with the addition to TK. Unless you roll a baller magic phase and then IF both movement spells to close into light councils gunlines, you're just going to have a bad day.

Alright, I'm finally done.  Bring on the comments!

WHFB: A few places adopting ETC

There is something hilariously appropriate with this picture and this article.

Word on the street is that next year, Crossroads GT in NE USA will be using the latest ETC restrictions.  For those of you who don't know what ETC is, it's the European Team Championships, a format that players over in Europe have been using for some time to help steer the game into more balanced lineups.  However, they normally play in a team setting.

Let's be honest for a second here.  I dislike the idea of comp because at the end of the day, it's just dude's houserules.  I will say that some forms of comp help mitigate the enormous amount of crazy shit that can happen in a game, and that's always a good thing.  A lot of the time, it's a good thing that some light comp is imposed, but only when it's fairly light and doesn't change the game too much.  Unfortunately, when you have some kinds of light comp that affects certain armies and not other armies, you end up with the meta for that tournament just shifting what kinds of filth will be present at the event.  The latest Crossroads GT restrictions can be found here, and despite WoC being comped pretty hard, you saw light council Allerielle White Lion deathstars with full on shooting.  I think the winner was some dude running VC scream with congoline zombies.  Not to take away from the hard won victory, but this is literally just picking your poison when it comes what's being played under a comped tournament setting.

ETC borderlines what I feel comfortable with because I think there's a good amount of fundamental game changes.  While this version is a lot better than the previous editions of ETC (they got rid of the ridiculous channeling shit), there's still some things I have a bit of an issue with.  Magic changed from max of 6 dice to 5, that's a big change to how probabilities work for some armies.  For Death, 4 dice is the cap and for Mindrazor in particular, this is also restricted to 4 dice.  This makes the spell fail on just below average and this changes how the Shadow lore should be used entirely.

Then comes the army-specific restrictions.  I personally think my VC army at 2400 points ETC is very solid.  All I really do is drop the Necro, fix my core, drop a Spirit Host for some Fell Bats and I'm good to go.  The rest of the army is still intact and retains much of its existing power.  My High Elves on the other hand, is completely restricted under this comp.  My regular list right now runs with a Shadow Book of Hoeth Archmage, 2x Phoenixes and a BotWD on the White Lions unit.  Not only can I not take Shadow with the Book, but Phoenixes/BotWD/BoH are considered max 2, which means if I want to take my Phoenixes, I have to drop both the BoH and BotWD.  As for my Demons, I can't help but laugh to think I can take my standard competitive DoC list with very little changes.  Sure, I need above average dice to mass Caco Choir, but much of the potency remains the same (double Soul Grinders for example).

What do you guys think?  Do you guys like ETC?

VC: Adding the Casket of Souls

Releasing all dem souls!

In a previous article, I wrote about how to play with both VC and TK in the same army.  I mentioned in there that the Casket of Souls was practically a must take in all lists.  Why is that?  Well, here are some of my reasons:

• It gives you +D3 PD to use per phase, and it doesn't have to be for the casket. No matter how you dice it, there's just not many things in the game that gives you this kind of advantage.  You want it to boost your normal casting? Go ahead. You want to use the Casket? Sure. You want to feed your Peripat? That's fine too.
• It gives you a pseudo-shooting option that you will always have.
• It allows you to remove a key pieces off the map if it goes off. I'm talking about serious key pieces here: The Skullcannon is Ld.7 with 4 wounds, Empire Cannons away from their general are also under threat, Ogre Ironblasters are Ld.7, although 5W will be harder to manage. Most of the other danger pieces only have 3 wounds. Elf RBTs only have 2W are are Ld.8; thus auto-dying on average rolls. Mournfangs in a flanking position are now suddenly threatened big time, so are most low Ld. chaff: Furies, Dogs, Sabertusks, the list goes on. And it has the potential to bounce.
• Once your opponent have figured out that this is a dangerous piece on the battlefield, he will throw dice to dispel it. The fact that he has to throw DD at a FREE spell potentially (D3 averages 2 dice free), you will now be ahead in the magic phase. This increases the chances you will have VDM, Desert Wind, or anything else you want to conjur up with your opponents are on a 2-dice deficit. If he fails to dispel and loses concentration, while the probability is low, it's just a shutout.
• This limits your opponent's movement, deployment and chaff potential. Will he risk bounces and lose large amounts of low. Ld chaff? He will need to deploy tight, or not be very careful of his movements or risk getting blasted off the board.  Forget about low Ld flankers, forget about warmachines trying to get flank shots, anything that can possibly threaten flanks is also threatened by the Casket if their leadership is low enough.
• With Peripat and Casket, you're literally +2 PD/DD on your opponent from the beginning of the game. You get 2 from the casket, you decide to bank it, and thus you're up 2 while you negotiate your existing magic phase. This is free advantage on both offense and defense.
• It works with a number of things that messes with your opponent's leadership.  Doom and Darkness makes it more effective, Golden Death Mask of Kharnut, Aura of Dark Majesty, anything that reduces or prevents superior leadership from being used.  While I'm not saying that this is the best use of points in the army, the synergy is there and cannot be overlooked.
• It's relatively cheap, small and you can keep it out of LoS because it doesn't need it to do its stuff. The effect is Direct Damage. It's also T10, I've had people shoot it with a cannon and call it a waste on a 1,2,3.  Most people don't even bother with it, and if you tuck it away in a corner without LoS, no one really bothers.

Aside from the magic that Liche Priests can offer, I don't think there's too much from the book that VC can use to their advantage.  If only Tomb Kings can take their steeds, maybe I would be able to utilize that Golden Deathmask in more of my army lists.  Sadly, that is not to be.

What would I change in my existing VC army to incorporate the Casket and Liche Priest?  Cut the Vargheists and Necromancer for a Lv.1 Liche Priest, Lore of Nehekhara with a dispel scroll.  Unless you get something you really want, you'll almost always default of Invocation of the Desert Wind.  Otherwise, just place the Vargheists for the Casket and you're good to go.

VC: Analyzing my current 2500 list

Long reads require a beautiful vampire chick.

Before anything else, I'll throw up the army list so we can go over everything piece by piece.  My current rendition of VC is pretty much the same of what I ran in the past.  I still have an all-powerful Vampire Lord, but I've changed a couple of components around the rest of the army to fit a more aggressive playstyle.  Probably the biggest change here is the fact that I dropped a Terrorgheist for a greater selection of units and magic support.

2497
13 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Dark Knight, Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Lv.1 Vampire BSB = 245
Lore of Vampires
Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Dark Knight, Nightshroud, Gem

Lv.1 Necromancer = 100
Lore of Vampires
Cursed Book

CORE:
33x Skeleton Warriors, FC = 195
30x Ghouls, Ghast = 310
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
11x Black Knights, FC, BoSwiftness = 331
5x Hexwraiths = 150
3x Vargeists = 138
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225

First, let's take a look at my Vampire Lord.  He runs Lore of Vampires obviously, and comes with the standard kit of Quickblood and Red Fury.  I always run my Vampire Lords with Beguile because the chance to make someone re-roll successful hits against you is just too good to pass up on.  This combined with your 1+ save, 2++ vs. fire and 4+ ward, you're extremely tanky while still capable of putting out ludicrous amounts of damage yourself,  With 13 deploys, you should be able to drop your characters last, placing your VL and supporting Vampire away from enemy characters so you're not forced to fight them.  If you do, I have strong faith in my lord's ability to take them down because of..

The Vampire.  I chose the Vampire over the Wight King BSB that I regularly take for 3 main reasons:  You can take another Invocation of Nehek that can be used close to your general, you are S5/S7 on the charge, and you can take vampiric powers.  The extra IoN gives me sustainability on my unit once I enter combat and allows me to heal up any characters that take damage.  S7 on the charge is just huge for me these days because there's a lot of T5 out there that I want to force damage through.  While the Wight King's main advantages over the Vampire is the extra wound and T5, he lacks the raw killing potential that the Vampire delivers.  Over a sustained fight, you need to be able to pile on those additional wounds, especially if the WK can't KB stuff like monstrous infantry.  In terms of durability, I'm already sporting the Nightshroud and 1+ AS, but the -1 Ld aura plus Beguile tests at -4 for both Lord and Vampire is remarkably good.  The Nightshroud's ability just can't be underestimated:  It is seriously one of the best defensive items in the game, rendering most magical weapons and GWs ineffective vs. your vampires in combat.  Not only that, but it strips away ASF and allows Quickblood to do its thing.

When you deploy these guys in a bus, you want to put them on the edges, away from any characters that you might face.  The first rank of 5 should look something like this:  VL V CH BK BK.  The VL on the edge means that hopefully, the least amount of attacks will be going towards your lord on a unit of similar size.  Since the last model swinging will also be in BtB with your Nightshroud, the Lord will reap all the advantages and additional protection that the NS will provide.  In addition, you will have 2 instances to apply your -4 Beguile, and hopefully that will be enough to push the damage through the unit instead of into characters.  Should you absolutely need to fight enemy characters (such as a challenge), the character fighting your VL will also be in BtB with the Nightshroud, and lose ASF in his fight as well.  Let's just say I got money on our guy.

Lastly, we have the humble Necromancer.  Sure, he gives me yet another IoN to cast around if he so desires, but he carries the awesome Cursed Book.  I don't know about you guys, but I think this is one of the best magic items in the game.  For an average of 2 dice, he can cast a lot of spells that a Lv.1 Necro would normally struggle with.  He has a 33% chance to cast a great spell on one dice, and I think that's a great price to pay for some of the best combat-swingy spells in the game.  All of them are hexes that can be cast in combat, and some of them are Remains in Play.  To make it even better, a lot of them have greater range than your other spells, allowing you to stay back a little further and still be a threat on the battlefield.  I absolutely love this item and I think it's a great way to improve your magic flexibility while keeping your LoV spam strong.  Good players can often play fine without a scroll in their army, so give this handy little thing a go for a couple of games and see where it gets you.  I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Alright, now we enter the bulk of the army and you'll see some set staples here.  I always take some kind of chaff and that's why we'll see 3x Dire Wolves and 3x Spirit Hosts.  Personally, I think VC have some of the best drops in the game for cheap and effective chaff.  Spirit Hosts might be one of the most annoying things ever since they can kill other cheap chaff, work as redirectors, and offer static combat res if your opponent is already tied up.  They can tie naked knights up all day, and being Ethereal means they can get places other units cannot.  In short, they're probably one of the best units in the entire book and everyone should have 3x for chaffing purposes.  Later in the game once your forces hit combat, make sure to run them behind enemy units and rear charge them for a static +2 combat res.  If they can't reform and all their characters with magical weapons are already fighting in the front, then it sucks to be them.  The same would apply to your Hexwraiths.

Speaking of Hexwraiths, I always like running one unit whenever I play VC.  Their applications are truly outrageous and they can do so many things its unreal.  I only like taking one unit of them because if you take too many, you risk drawing a bad matchup in the form of heavy magic missiles, magic shooting, or something else that can just wipe them off the board.  They're relatively expensive, and you can only heal a single one per IoN, so you gotta be smart about how you use them.  For me, they're excellent chaff killers since they can pass through enemy (and friendly!) units and deal good damage.  They can kill chaff, hunt warmachines, threaten any unit that won't beat them in combat res naturally, provide Terror tests, strip Regen, and offer static combat res in later parts of the game.  You just need to make sure you keep these guys away from magic attacks and within range of your general.  Since I'm running a relatively fast army, I don't really have an issue with that.

My Skeleton Warriors are there to be a bunker of my Necromancer, and the Ghouls in 6x5 allow me to fight on a semi-decent level.  The 2 poison attacks each really help once I push these guys up and tie up something nasty.  I always like some Ghouls in my army because they threaten a lot of the big beasties out there with high T.  Apply enough wounds either through luck, or with Vanhels and Ghouls become really threatening to some armies.  My Black Knights form my VL's armored bunker and BoSwiftness helps me get to where I want to be.  The Vargheists are just there to keep pace with my army and hunt down anything that threatens to block me or can threaten my flanks.  Since they're not the toughest things in the world and they have Frenzy, then tend to fly out to kill chaff and enemy warmachines.  Their plentiful attacks at S5 can really make short work out of most light units, and the fact that they're vampires allow me to reach out to other areas of the map I wouldn't otherwise be able to.

Finally, we have the lone Terrorgheist.  I've ran two TGs for the longest time, but as new armies come out and high S, D6 wound shooting becomes more and more accessible, things can get really bad, really fast.  Multiple Terrorgheists, Ethereal units and scream-lists are purely a meta thing I feel because there are some armies that just don't care they're on the board.  When you're playing something like Wood Elves, or Daemons of Chaos, investing in multiple units of Hexwraiths is just a bad idea.  You're essentially giving them points because you WILL lose them.  If you don't lose them, you know you've probably played them too conservatively, and thus they're not making back their points.  The same philosophy holds true for Terrorgheists because while they're god damn amazing, cannons just erase them from the board.  Unlike the Hexwraith unit that costs 150 in your list, these things are 225 per pop and each one lost is a huge chunk of your points.  Hexwraiths are also easier to hide and keep out of range.  Terrors need to be within 8" of something to scream, and if they're not screaming, they're not making their points back.  For this reason, I've reduced the number down to 1 and used the points to buff up other areas of my army.  Losing one is bad enough in a poor matchup, but losing two before you can get any use out of them is disastrous.

That's it from me, good night folks.

WHFB: What 9th Ed. will hopefully bring

Bring on 9th Ed., but not yet.

There's a lot of talk on the streets right now about what will happen after this whole The End Times thing comes to an end.  Several rumor sources hint at 9th Ed. being less than a year away and that makes total sense to me.  I don't think GW will spring 9th Ed. WHFB on us mid-way through their end of the world campaign, but it will make perfect sense to whip it out right after.  That way, the players have time to digest what has happened and be ready to embrace a new edition.  With that said, I have high hopes for 9th.  What would make 9th great for me would only be a couple of minor changes, since I think 8th is pretty good except for some major issues.

Here is what I want to see in 9th:

• Allies is definitely the most probable from what I see right now.  I'm not sure how the rules are going to be for WHFB, but you will definitely be able to take different components from other army books.  Whether or not this will resemble Undead Legions or not, I don't know.  All I know is that it's the most reliable change.
• Simpler rules for movement, as seen in Kings of War.  You will still have the core fantasy mechanics, but more streamlined movement rules will reduce the amount of clutter you have for funky movement issues while preserving battlefield tactics and maneuver war.
• Magic needs to be looked at to be not as killy.  There's just too many kill spells in the current edition of the game and it's not fun for anyone, in fact, it's quite frustrating.  I think spells like Dwellers, Mindrazor, Final Transmutation, and other spells of that sort will be reduced in power.
• They might limit the amount of PD wizards can cast again; so instead of 6-dicing spells in hopes of getting IF, they might bring back the older system where wizards can only cast with max dice equal to their power level +1.
• Perhaps a change to Steadfast, making it so more things are able to disrupt ranks from the flank or rear.  The current playstyle of Steadfast just makes the game turn into a grind fest instead of letting of letting you outplay your opponents via maneuver.
• Cannons and Stonethrowers will also need to be reduced in effectiveness if larger, more expensive models are to be played.  I'm anticipating maybe a scatter or damage reduction for the cannons, but I can't be so sure.  All I know is that if these things don't change, all those centerpiece models GW is selling right now will be collecting dust real soon.

Overall, 8th Ed. is a pretty solid edition.  It just needs a few fixes here and there, much like what 7th Ed. is compared to 6th.  I'm pretty stoked.