Special

Corpse Cart (YELLOW): This filthy wagon has some valuable features, especially
against elven MSU lists. Its biggest merit is giving our troops Always Strike First
(thus negating elves' reroll To-hit). Unfortunately, the Corpse Cart is only M4 and a
chariot (thus cannot march). To properly use the Corpse Cart, we need to cast Van
Hel's on it, and that's just so it can keep up with even our infantry! With that said,
proper use of the Corpse Cart can be effective when your army is built around it, as
undead with Always Strike First are frightening for anyone to face. Also, unlike many
other undead units, the Corpse Cart does well thrown into multiple combats. Its' T4,
W4 and Regeneration makes it fairly durable, so it doesn't tend to bleed much
combat resolution. Corpse carts also have some interesting options that a creative
general can build around. Balefire's -1 to enemy casting rolls within 24" weaken
enemy magic phases and make our dispel dice go further. While Unholy Lodestone's
Invocation of Nehek reroll helps grow our infantry quicker. For general's attempting
to raise up an unholy and disgusting amount of zombies (and possibly break the
world record for most raised in a single game), this upgrade is essential!
Grave Guard (GREEN): Grave guard have two distinct roles in our army. Want to
punch through enemy armor? Give them great weapons, deploy in horde formation
and you got a solid hammer. With a bucket load of S6 attacks and Killing Blow, these
bad boys cut through armor like a hot knife through butter! Need a solid slab to tie
your enemy up and grind them down round after round? Throw hand weapons and
shields on these T4 infantry and deploy them five wide. Now you've got a reliable
mini-anvil that enemy characters want to avoid and is the perfect home for a tooled
up Wight King or Vampire blender. In either case, Grave Guard draw a lot of heat
and can die fast, so support them with Invocation of Nehek. Fortunately, they regain
d6+level Wounds per casting which is amazing for an elite unit like this. Although
Grave Guard come at a fair price for what they do and are good standalone fighters,
they compete with many other Special options. If you field them, plan your army
around their role. Keep in mind which units and characters they threaten the most
with Killing Blow and that they only have M4. Grave Guard do best when controlling
key positions, so staying within range of the general's march bubble and a Van Hel's
Danse Macabre is important. Likewise, their Killing Blow synergizes well with Hellish
Vigor, especially when equipped with hand weapons or fighting against an enemy
whose Toughness is greater than their Strength. Furthermore, Grave Guard can
carry a Magic Standard of up to 50 points. What you choose specializes them similar
to Skeletons and their options include the Razor Standard, but most of the time
Banner of the Barrows is auto-include since Grave Guard have that pesky WS3 and
it adds +1 to their To-Hit Rolls in combat.
Black Knights (GREEN): These are the bread and butter of a mounted Vampire
Lord list, easily being a (BLUE) for those armies. In other lists, they lack some punch
and mobility, hence the rating. Regardless, Black Knights are tough to kill, deal

decent damage on a charge and can move as ethereals (when not accompanied by
a vampire). They also have a solid armor save, allowing them to tie units up and
absorb a lot of damage. Because they are not ethereal or vampiric, Invocation of
Nehek raises an impressive 1+level wounds. With their armor save of 2+ (when
barded), this makes them easy to keep alive. Unfortunately, they deal very little
damage on subsequent rounds, though this can be improved with a Wight King or
Vampire armed with a great weapon or Ogre Blade. Black knights are best fielded in
units of 12-15 models and used as either a flanker that supports your general's
infantry unit or as the infamous Black Knight bus to deliver your mounted Vampires
and Vampire Lord. Since they can take Magic Standards, popular choices include
Banner of Swiftness (with Vampires), Razor Standard (to help punch through armor)
and Banner of the Barrows (when using them as support or with Wight Kings). There
are some tricky formations that involve leveraging Black Knight's armor, Killing Blow
and movement, putting Wight Kings and full command in the front rank to push
mounted necromancers into the second rank, thus allowing Black Knights to carry
Invocation of Nehek and Death sniper spells with them. Black knights can also be
built into death stars housing all of your characters in an even larger unit, though
this severely limits your army's flexibility.
Crypt Horrors (PURPLE): Our Crypt Ghouls vampire-blood fed big brothers. With
T5, W3 and Regeneration (5+), Crypt Horrors are only second to Beasts of Nurgle as
the greatest anvil in the game. But unlike the Beasts, these big boys are healed
1+level wounds from Invocation of Nehek and being multi-wound models also
benefit from the Curse of Undeath Lore Attribute. With 3 S4 Poison attacks they are
not exceptional in combat but they play the grind game just fine. Like Crypt Ghouls,
they are strongest against low armor and are twice as deadly with a Van Hel's reroll.
With support from Invocation, there are few units in the game Crypt Horrors cannot
take on and come out on top. Because of poison, T5 and Regeneration, Crypt
Horrors can threaten high Toughness monsters and units normally outside a S4
unit's capability. Plus with M6 they are also one of our more mobile units, which is
just icing on the cake really. Oh, and did I mention that they work well with Mortis
Engines? Just one mortis engine pushes their Regeneration to 4+ and a second
keeps it there should a Mortis Engine fail. They play well with Terrorgeists too. Let
your Crypt Horrors tie something powerful up, and then have your Terrorgiest
scream (and shout and let it all out) right in their face (...umm, please disregard the
Britney reference). Crypt Horrors do great in 4 and 6 man units, but they really
shine in 8 man units as two ranks of 4. An 8 man Crypt Horror unit has 25 poison
attacks, 4 stomps and a total of 24 T5 wounds to eat through. Disgustingly good
really.
Fell Bats (GREEN): These bloodsuckers are versatile. They are cheap (same cost
per wound as Dire Wolves), have a small frontage, and they fly! Their only downside
is they are competing for those ever popular Special points. That said, Fell Bats are
great as redirectors. Where dire wolves are best used in the early game, Fell Bats

can hang out behind the ranks and near your general. Then at an opportune
moment drop in the middle of everything and ruin your opponent's plans. This
allows Fell Bats to get into places Dire Wolves can't go, and its whether you need
this advantage or to save your Special points for something else that determines if
you should take them or the Dire Wolves instead.
Bat Swarms (YELLOW): You might immediately notice the Bat Swarms & Corpse
Cart combo. The cart gives your units Always Strike First, the Bat Swarms give
enemy units Always Strike Last. Just like peanut butter and chocolate...how could
that not be good? It looks so nice on paper, but fact of the matter is that both units
are very circumstantial and managing the two properly is more effort than its
usually worth. This is partly because where Bat Swarms should give you the upper
hand in close combat, they all too often bleed combat resolution even worse than
zombies. Bat Swarms have great movement and keep up with the units they are
meant to support. However, they don't deal much damage and with their T2, die all
too fast. Bat Swarms are used best flanking enemy units (where fewer models can
attack them) and in a single file of two ranks. This minimizes their contact to the
enemy and keeps the Bat Swarm in combat as long as possible. Like many of our
Special choices, Bat Swarms require being built around and are not worth taking if
you aren't going to make use of their effect.
Spirit Host (PURPLE): Oh my, where to begin? Spirit Hosts are insanely cheap,
have many wounds, good movement and are Ethereal! Need to harmlessly kill Night
Goblin Fanatics? Done! Need to hold Monstrous Cavalry for perpetuity? Done! Need
to redirect that big, scary unit? Done! But wait, there's more! Need to bait frenzied
units? Kill bunkered Wizards? Target saturation? Throw out multiples of these
and...Done! Done! and Done! It slices, it dices, it Juliennes! This unit is pretty much
the Veg-O-Matic of the Vampire Counts, and is there anything it can't do? Well,
needless to say be very cautious taking Spirit Hosts in units of 2 or more. They can
act as an anvil against certain armies, but lose their target saturation role and
become a big target in exchange for less risk of crumbling. Spirit Hosts also are
(GREEN) against armies with high amounts of magical shooting like Wood Elves or
Dwarves. It doesn't hurt to take a base or two of Spirit Hosts in most armies. If you
are going to field more than that, they start to compete with the coveted Special
choices and require you to build your army around them.
Hexwraiths (BLUE): Either you love them or your hate them. Truth be told,
Hexwraiths are one of the trickier units for the aspiring Vampire Counts general to
use properly. They are expensive, are T3 with no real protection and they strike last,
plus they contend for attention in that ever popular Special choice. But Hexwraiths
are a very unique unit. First, they are Ethereal, have great weapons and magical,
flaming attacks (take that Hellpit!). They ignore armor (Skullcrushers? What
Skullcrushers?) and they are Fast Cavalry. But the real secret to the Hexwraiths is
their unique rules: Soulstrider and Spectral Hunters.

Soulstrider let's Hexwraiths move through unengaged units (say what?). Yes,
move .. through .. units. Mastering this is key to getting the most from them. Along
with Fast Cavalry reforms, Hexwraiths can stay close to enemy, while remaining out
of charge arcs and line of sight. They can hug flanks and rear arcs or move through
units to take the shortest route to a piece of cover, becoming highly inconvenient
for an enemy to pursue. With Vanguard, M8 and a well-timed Van Hel's Danse
Macabre, Hexwraiths can move 30" on the first turn, placing them behind enemy
lines with little exposure to threats. The real trick is keeping your Hexwraiths within
12" of your general so they keep marching throughout the game.
Spectral Hunters makes all of this moving around and harassing your enemy worth
it, as Hexwraiths automatically deal a S5 flaming, magical hit that ignores armor for
each model in their unit that rides through one unengaged enemy unit. Say good
bye to chaff or ride over Chaos Knights and watch them die. Hexwraiths used
properly are brutally effective.
Now all this awesomeness does make them magic missile magnets (which is a
bonus in itself if we're going for target saturation). But there are a lot of ways to
mitigate this:

Good magic defense - Balefire, Black Periapt, Book of Ashur, Dispel Scroll,
Scroll of Shielding, Staff of Sorcery, and level 4 Wizards.
Get them into combat (though choose selectively as they are better when
kept moving).
Keep them out of range, charge arcs and line of sight.
Bring something more terrifying for your opponent to target (Terrorgeists are
good for this).
Keep them in range of Invocation (difficult as Hexwraiths operate away from
most of your Wizards).

Hexwraiths are best fielded in multiple units of 5-7 in one rank, allowing them
maximum Spectral Hunter hits while keeping opportunities for Soulstriders open to
them. They can also be fielded in units of 10 in two ranks, ideal for disrupting ranks
but dependent on your local meta. Hexwraiths are very adaptable, removing enemy
knights, chaff, gunlines and other small units with ease. They can hunt mages, take
out artillery or act as redirectors in a pinch, all the while ducking and weaving
across the battlefield and (hopefully) staying just out of harm's way.
Vargheists (BLUE): Highly mobile and hard hitting, few lists can do worse than
picking Varghiests. On the other hand, if used poorly they die fast and become a
total waste of points. But what makes Varghiests attractive is how independent they
are. As a Vampiric unit, they can always march and with flying they can move very
fast. They are MI, S5 and A3 with Frenzy, so these beasts have 4 attacks and a
stomp against most enemies they fight. Varghiests are best when flanking, creating
a threat on a second front your opponent must react to (usually by dividing his

forces). Make sure they have a couple of targets, and can get into combat without
facing a lot of attacks as Varghiests only have T4, I4 and W3. If used properly,
Varghiests tear through an enemy unit and easily overrun into the next one.
Varghiests are very flexible too. A unit of 3 can be deployed in a single file with a
champion and go Wizard hunting all day long! A unit of 4 can be deployed 2x2 and
get the majority of its attacks into an enemy's flank while minimizing attacks back.
That same unit can go 4 wide if the enemy are little threat and maximize their own
attacks and stomps. In addition to their squishy nature, Varghiest's Frenzy and Ld7
makes them a bit unruly, so move them carefully (moonwalking towards the enemy
if you have too) and then choose your targets with care, ensuring you get the
charge. Because of this, if you aren't proficient at moving or facing them or your
opponent is effective at baiting them, Varghiests can be difficult to use.