u/naythencarl

Greetings VC Reddit!

Back today after an awesome trip to Kingaroy QLD Aus where I took Vampire Counts to a 3 game tournament. Here to share my learnings as promised, as the list I took was experimental as we continue to find new ways to play our faction.

Overall, I am disappointed yet somehow not surprised by this list. In premise, I wanted to try adding some significant k1lling power to the army by trialling two units of blood knights, each led by a Vampire Thrall - one wielding the Dreadlance and one with Dark Acolyte.

To me, the Blood Knights were uninspiring. Unfortunately for how beautiful the original models are (and the Highlands Miniatures prints I personally used), they just didn’t seem to do me much of a justice. The amount of damage you do into a wide range of targets never seemed to match the math in my head when writing the list, and I really struggled to utilise them well IN COMPARISON to the ‘meta’ options we have currently being Hexwraiths.

The WINNERS of the list:

1. Fell Bats

Just straight up goated. If they’re not collected the enemy baggage train, they’re controlling my own. If they’re not doing that, they’re flying in March 20” to threaten flanks and screen war machines. Absolutely insane unit and I’ll never have a list without them.

2. Grave Guard + Wight BSB

I had Hellish Vigour on the BSB, which I admittedly forgot about half the time. It was great in theory but I needed more reps with this list to remember it lol. Aside from that, total beatstick, never have a list without this unit + character. No one wants to fight them, and if you ignore them they will get you.

The LOSERS of the list:

1. Blood Knights and Vampire Thralls

As mentioned before, just straight up ass. I can see a list with one big unit of these, without the vampire thrall, or possibly including one with dark acolyte. I think you’d need 8 to make it work, complemented by a Hexwraith unit. They fold like deck chairs even with the 2+ save if they lose combat due to crumble, and the way I took them just wasn’t it.

OVERALL LEARNINGS

I can see why our Mortis is the glue keeping our army together. I really missed the +1 to move and initiative, and the +1 to casting. I do miss having two Tomb Banshees as well.

As experimental as it was, I had a blast nonetheless. We went 1x Loss to Empire of Man and 2x Draws against Ogre Kingdoms and Royal Clans Dwarves.

A huge shoutout to Starkey who organised this even in Kingaroy QLD - if you’ve never been and are in the QLD scene, definitely watch Old World Rankings upcoming tournaments and get amongst it.

I’m going back to the practice board next weekend with some more farmiliar units, in preparation for some GT’s later this year.

That’s all from me, bye for now and thanks for reading!

It’s me, your favourite Necromancer back again with a competitive list for this weekend. The Vampires are heading up to Kingaroy in QLD Aus to play against a bunch of great guys in my third WH TOW tournament.

This time around I wanted to give something different a crack whilst staying true to our roots as a competitive faction.

Stay tuned, I’ll provide a recap on Sunday as to how we went with my learnings and potential wins. Any questions about my list, happy to share in the comments! Wanted to steer away from our swingy screams and Mortis given the amount of cannons in the meta right now. Gladly so as this tournament also has 4x Empire armies.

P.S - The Highland Miniatures blood knight kit is gorgeous, highly recommend.

Just finished up competing at Winter in the North here in QLD Aus with the attached list below, finishing 11th place with 2 wins and 1 loss (win/loss/draw event for placings).

I figured it would be a good time to share my experience with the current state of VC Renegades and what I experienced in this tournament for new upcoming players who may be theory crafting and planning their lists!

1. GOAT 🐐 units included the following:

- Mortis Engine, though I wouldn’t recommend personally making it your general as I did for this tournament. Being a large target in a meta with lots of artillery, I had some scary moments where I’d almost lost the game before it really even began. I was quite surprised at its durability, though giving it Talisman of Protection was a great choice for this. In future I’ll be running my general on foot instead. The +1 to cast is fantastic and crucial given you are so spell reliant, and the movement/initiative bonuses are also massive for a slow army like undead. Overall, amazing unit, auto include in my books, however for me personally I think not to have as the general.

- Hexwraiths. Hexwraiths. Hexwraiths. I specifically ran these in two units of six, spent mostly in marching column. These bad boys are so annoying for your opponent and for good reason. When they’re not flying 24” causing Spectral Reapers every turn, they’re scoring you baggage trains and terror bombing the living shit out of your opponents. Well worth the points, however fold like deck chairs to missiles and combat res.

- Fell Bats. Auto include for me, cheap as chips, and just all round good. I also love the sculpts!

- Grave Guard with the Wight Lord (Helm of Commandment + Charmed Shield). This brick is immovable. Give them the Drakenhof Banner and an Obsidian Lodestone and you have yourself a Death Star for the ages. Making them Drilled offers an incredible amount of additional movement, and gets you out of some tricker spots when playing close to special features. It also allows you to play quite wide to get additional supporting attacks in.

- Zombies. Auto include. Get used to building a f@$k tonne of them. I previously ran only one unit, though after running 2x40 at this comp, I truly believe two is the way to go. I likely won’t run battle standards moving forward as they just don’t need it in my opinion and if your comp runs trophies of war, you’re giving away free points for minimal gain.

2. The 💩 choices.

- As mentioned, General being the Mortis Engine led to a huge target on his back. My only loss was against a great opponent who rushed my back line with Peg Knights, Grail Knights and a Hipogryph Duke. Be sure to keep your generals close to your units and allow no chance for fast armies to rush your back line, as you will, literally, crumble to death.

- Dark Magic with no Lore Familiar. I didn’t get Phantasmagoria all day, which is a big reason I took Dark Magic. On top of that, I only got Battle Lust in two of the three games which is the other reason to take DM. In future I’ll either run a Lore Familiar or at the least a Spell Familiar.

- Overall just not keeping my back line tight enough. My biggest win which was Game 3, I attribute highly to aggressive use of the Hexwraiths, keeping my back line and army tight, and utilising the Fell Bats like sweepers.

3. Recap and conclusions on the current state of VC.

I love this army. Right now I feel like our competitive lists are quite linear, however versatile. I lent into 3x screamers in this list, and find that to be the perfect blend of VC flavour without going all out with 5-6 screams. Not once did my opponents have awful feelsbad moments, despite the Banshees coming in clutch during Game 3 to save my bagged train with a few spiked screams.

The army feels strong, definitely deserving to be in S-Tier. I’m by no means a top player, though I can see in the hands of a better player the strength of the army competitively.

My goal with this post was to provide a 2026 much needed update of information for Vampire Counts, as I know when I was building and painting this army I really struggled to find info on how to build a competitive list. I had to do a lot of deep diving and research via Old World Rankings, which was fun, but I wish I had a post like this to give me some initial guidance.

I hope this helps, and if the feedback is good I’m happy to provide further updates during the remainder of this competitive season as I have a few tournaments coming up over the next 3 months.

**Once again, I’m by no means a top player and expect to have made mistakes. This is just my personal recap of the list I took, and my experience.

Scream on brothers 👊🏼

The spooky skelingtons are ready for their second tournament tomorrow - a local comp here in Brisbane, Aus!

Drop your predictions for how you think these ghostly boyz will go 😎

Final family photo before my first GT this weekend! Baggage train front and centre, ready for a great time with some beers and great guys/gals!

List attached for anyone interested. Keen to see how we go, but used this tournament mostly as a deadline to complete this project and win or lose I’m stoked with the painting outcome. Fallen in love with the undead during the last 4 months working on them 🙌🏼