I am happy to say that the new VC book has been out now for a couple of months, I went and bought it from www.maraudergames.co.uk and immediately realised my Ghouls were going to be put on the shelf for a bit, they are still good, don't get me wrong but zombies are cheaper and make good enough core for the lists I am thinking of, most importantly you gain 2d6+caster magic level of them and they can go over their starting number.. I do really think ghouls are worth taking, as if you take zombies to support them you could still take 100 zombies (3pts each) and have 30 Ghouls. The main problem Ghouls now face is that they can no longer be increased above their starting amount. Invocation is great now, cast on a 6/12/18 for a spell that covers every unit in 6/12/18 inches and if you have a lvl 4 necro that means you get back 5 Black knights if the spell goes off, which is utterly devastating. Invocation cannot be cast multiple times by the same caster now, which is a shame but hey ho! The lore attribute is the same as Lore of Life which I like a lot, combined with "the hunger" (if vamps roll a 6 after a combat kill they get a wound back) it makes Vamps hard to kill off. I do think an FAQ is required asap as with invocation if you cast it on a unit containing characters its not clear if just the unit regains wounds or if each character within the unit may gain 1 wound also.
Curse of years is awesome now, its a hex so it can be cast into combat and it now goes off on a 12...more than last time I hear you say so how is it better? for me it's better because if its goes off, it needs to be dispelled in the opponents magic phase before it becomes devastating, now trying to dispel a spell on 12 is not as easy as it sounds and it can ruin your magic phase...how many dice do you throw at a 12 dispel? 2? 3? depends on your level I guess but rolling 8 on 2 dice is against the odds, so 3 is safe? maybe 4 to be sure? I love it. The magic in general is better I think, sure Danse Macabre can no longer be used to charge, but that was retarded anyway, conga line charges (HOWLEY!) is not a nice way to die.
So lets have a look at a couple of the new units. I have picked out my favourites from the new book.
Hexwraiths:
These guys on paper look amazing, str 5 flaming magical attacks, ethereal fast cav!!! great stuff...but at T3 and with a 6+ save they are dealt with with 1 or 2 magic missiles, they can move through units doing a str5 hit per wraith, which is great for killing Aboms and the like. I used them in about 6 games and they rarely got their points back, I need to find a better way to utilise them as I am sure they are better than they have been in my games.
Crypt Horrors/Vargheists
The book sees us VC players getting some monsterous infantry!!! love it! the Horrors are tough with T5 5+ regen, 3 str4 poison attacks each and 3 wounds...they are fairly cheap in points and are most likely going to be popping up everywhere. I personally prefer the Vargheists (I seem to be alone on this atm) but with 3 str 5 attacks + frenzy and initiative 4, they are devastating if charge correctly, they are LD7 so its one of the only units worth mindrazoring too. The most important thing for me is the FLY rule for the vargs, -1 to hist for skirmishing and able to fly round the tabletop causing havoc is great, if you tie enemies up with zombies then hit their flanks with vargs, generally you can break a lot of units in 1 round of combat. I love them and intend to run 6-12 of these in every list...depending on how many Black knights I take :D
As for Lords and heroes the Necromancers can now be taken as lvl 3 or lvl 1 with an option to upgrade to lvl 4 and 2, they can take Vampires or Death with the Vampires being given access to Shadow.
There is a lot of playtesting needed for the new book but so far its looking like Black knights are still the daddy of the special choices and you can expect to see these all over the place, they have killing blow but are no longer magical attacks, they are nasty, and the new models are ace.
I for one am in love with the new book, I find myself wanting to paint my army just because I cant wait to play with it and I haven't had that before. There are so many different lists to be written that could work and nearly every special and rare choice could be featured usefully in a tournament list. I love the way you can now field a proper zombie horde as that's what I personally have been waiting for.
Will let you know how I get on with my upcoming games and feel free to let me know what you think of the new book. :D
Jay
No comments:
Post a Comment