Vampires. Lots of Vampires.

[Haareth]

Hi everyone!

This weekend I have a couple of games with undeads, wich I've never encountered before. Maybe you have some ideas&advices how to kill 'em second time.

[King porky]

Shut down there magic never let then invcate a unit in cc and hit the general with very thing you have got.

[Haareth]

Thanks. Actually, how Hydra will work? Or COK?

[King porky]

Both need support especially COK but my hydra has won me more than one game against undead so i would highly recommend taking as many as you can try to get it in the flank same with COK and the should be fine on their own.

[The avenger]

Take enough dispeldice, so you can dispel as many raisingspells as you can, and a few scrolls for the move-spell and missiles.

Also, a BSB on steed with full mundane armour, pendant of khaleth and sword of might is necessary to take out the wraiths. If not, they'll take out your army all by them selves

Some shooting is nice, but you need 2-3 units to give you some static combat points. If not, you're doomed So atleast one unit of black guards, as they are imo our most reliable unit. Then you can take a couple of spearunits, and support them with a chariot or the hydra, giving you some good kills

Take 2*5 harpies as well, to march block and divert

But if we knew what your opponent most likely will field, it'd be easier to give tips

[Haareth]

BTW, how tough undead are? Is it reasonable to take Execs or BG?

[Excidium666]

I've heard that which elves are pretty good in chopping down large undead units. You might what to consider taking them. Killing blow might be useful againts vampires but not really againts massive units so be careful with your executioners. Not sure about Black Guards...

[Haareth]

Don't like WE. Prefer Corsairs with SSS Corsairs in my army like main battle tank, and they have 2 attacks each plus one additional attack from Reaver... I think they'll manage to kill a couple of zombies. And wich WS most of undead have? 3 or 2?

[Svarthofthi]

Assassins are fairly decent so long as two things are in your favor.

1) you can get into base to base contact without being nomed.

2) that his vampire is NOT immune to killing blow or poison.

Assuming these are both true then more often than not you could assassinate the general with some smart maneuvering. Of course, if he did take the Cadaverous Cuirass then he's working with a footslogging 5+ armorsave from the armor. So high strength attacks would certainly be worthwhile.

If you do decide to use assassins I also advise to look out for the nightshroud, if he takes that as magic armor your assassins will make a most fine meal.

It's kind of a judgment call on how you think the person will play.

Other than that undead hate being losing combat resolution.

[Drek]

Against VC, the key is to avoid protracted combats, which you will inevitably lose. If you're going to get into CC, do it hard and fast and make sure you wipe the unit quick.

I have had tremendous success vs. VC with this list. It almost entirely negates combat and their magic phase.

http://www.druchii.net/viewtopic.php?t=58607&highlight=

[Edrick]

Zombies are toughness 2, Skeletons are T3 and Ghouls are T4.

I play with a VC army as well as DE. As VC, I'm mostly afraid of shooting blasting away my units before I can get them up to strength for combat. Concentrate shooting at one unit at a time. This is why ghouls can be great vs us, as they have no armor but toughness 4 helps out vs S3 shooting and close combat for that matter...witch elves seem like a good choice with their poisoned attacks, but ghouls also have poison, so be careful with the naked ladies.

Another thing that worries me is protecting my casting Vamps and keeping them out of combat so they can keep healing the front line. Thing is, even a caster vamp is pretty capable in battle, so I'd say the best thing would be to tarpit his bunker somehow...keep him from supporting his troops while you waste them away with shooting and CR. Don't rely on screens or anything, since he doesn't need line of sight to cast his most useful spells.

I've never faced VC before with my Dark Elves though, so this is all theory...

[Christian]

I just played VC yesterday. I'm not a pro in this game but my advice would be: Take care of the Black Coach early( I think it's called like that), it can take Power Dice from you every turn and once it has six its nearly undefeatable (MR 3, killing blow, immune to non-magic atacks, and so on).
And take care of a lord or hoeroe which has the wind of undead. If you have Ring of Hotek it won't even help against this spell. It affects your whole army (one wound attempt each unit) and will summon ghouls, which are only killed by magic weapons or magic itself.
This all acounts if he brings these models into play of course:)

[Tethlis]

A few notes on dealing with Vamp Count magic:

1) Read through each Vamp Count spell before the battle so you're 100% familiar with each spell and its effects. Many of the VC spells have multiple effects or impact different units in different ways, so be familiar with what each spell will do in each situation.

2) You won't be able to stop every Vamp Count spell, so you need to prioritize what is dangerous and what isn't. The big threats to watch out for are Invocation of Nehek raising models back in a unit you're trying to kill, Raise Dead bringing a zombie unit to life in order to redirect a charge you're about to make or block line-of-sight, or Danse Macabre to give a VC unit additional movement, rerolls in combat or Always Strikes First. The other spells, while dangerous, are mostly just filler.

3) Don't count on Ring of Hotek or Magic Resistance. Neither of these will make much of a difference, since Vamp Counts are usually casting on one dice, sometimes two, and rarely more than that. Defeating the Vamp Count magic phase is about mage hunting and stopping crucial spells, rather than trying to shut everything down.

[Cananatra]

One somewhat unconventional idea i've used a few times against massed VC's is this.
10BG, no banner, no mus. Kouran.
Its a somehwhat expensive unit for what i usualy use it for but this is it. Walk that into the front of skels (no vamp) or zombies and unless he hits you with a big killy unit in the flank, you'll stop that block cold and wont have to worry about it too much. Either he wastes PD keeping the unit ressed, or yours slowly cuts it down.

As I said though, somewhat unconventional.....

[Haareth]

Looks like they have a lot of units immune to mundane weapons... That's bad. Really bad. But main threat is magic, yes? So, I have to kill their wizards...

[Drek]

Kill their general and they start to crumble. Literally. So that's nice if you can do it.

Saying that magic is the threat is not entirely true though. They don't "kill you" with magic. They kill you by tarpitting you in combat, raising their own models and either flank/rear charging or grinding you down until you autobreak. So you have to know which spell to counter at what time. Sometimes, you have to let him add a model back to a unit of blood knights that you don't care about so you can stop him from adding models back to the skeleton unit that is the real threat.

Bottom line: you have to understand how they work to beat them, and I think that you are probably going to have to learn like the rest of us: the hard way. But it can be done, I do it regularly. Good luck!

[Gastronauticon]

Park some harpies close behind his engaged units.
No raising closer to 1" of enemy units means you can acually win a war of attrition this way.

[No one]

early in the game the vc general will try to grow his units with the raise dead spell, ignore this, the real danger early in the game is vanhell's dance macabre wich gives a unit an 8' move wich can be used to charge so they'll probably try to raise zombies in your flanks and then use the dance to charge. So don't use all your dispell dice on raise dead spells, save some for the dance.