8th Ed. Slaughtering Vampires!

[Hebus]

yeah been looking at all the vampire builds out there and not sure if any oldblood build is good enough. so death slann with bane head and cupped hands but what powers to give him.

An oldblood with Armour of destiny, piranha blade, banehead and a shield should be able to kill him with each unsaved wound killing the vampire.

you would not asf spell or hes dead before he attacks

Statistically, he should normally survive without spell the first turn and be able to inflict one wound which is enough . But with ASF, He would murder the vamps

 

[Pyre]

Statistically, he should normally survive without spell the first turn and be able to inflict one wound which is enough . But with ASF, He would murder the vamps

Uhm yeah... no.

A mounted vampire lord is hitting you with five attacks at strength seven on the charge, either via a lance or more than likely a Ogre Blade. With the ASF re-rolls theres a good chance of five hits (I think it comes out to 4.66 or so), and then wounding on twos. With a 1+ and a 4++ you'll on average take 2.25 wounds... and then Red Fury kicls in giving him a 75% chance (about) of finishing you off before you blink.

But lets assume the Old Blood survives. You're attacking five times while hitting on fours and wounding on fours. That's an average of 1.25 hits. Strength five only reduces his armor save to a 3+ so that drops the average wounds down to .42, and his 4++ ward drops it down to an average of .22 wounds.

Basically you have about a 1 in 20 chance of pulling that one off straight up. There would be murder involved, but not the way your thinking.

On a broader note, why is everyone so obsessed with going toe to toe with a blender vampire lord? Why play to the strength of the enemy? If he's in a unit of black knights just try and redirect the buss while putting everything into killing the Terrorgheists and other nastiness! Your Old Blood should stomp the crap out of that stuff, Bane Head or not. Let the lord's unit overrun into a saurus block so you get a magic phase before the combat, then either hex or buff the hell out of a unit as appropriate. You don't need to kill a single model, just survive and let the CR kill off the enemy. Actual kills are gravy.


Pyre

 

[Hebus]

On a broader note, why is everyone so obsessed with going toe to toe with a blender vampire lord? Why play to the strength of the enemy? If he's in a unit of black knights just try and redirect the buss while putting everything into killing the Terrorgheists and other nastiness! Your Old Blood should stomp the crap out of that stuff, Bane Head or not. Let the lord's unit overrun into a saurus block so you get a magic phase before the combat, then either hex or buff the hell out of a unit as appropriate. You don't need to kill a single model, just survive and let the CR kill off the enemy. Actual kills are gravy.
Pyre

it makes sense. But how do you deal with a vampire lord into a skeleton unit?

 

[skillfull_dan]

Alright, lets math this out

5 attacks
5* 1/3 miss * 1/3 miss after hatred = .666 misses
4.4444 hits
4.4444 * 5/6 (chance to wound) = 3.704 wounds
3.704 * 2/3 ( amount that pass through armor with 7 str) = 2.47
2.47 wounds * 1/2 = 1.235 wounds after ward save
If the vampire has trickster shard he deals 1.85 wounds after ward save, otherwise he deals 1.235 wounds.

Thus we know the average initial wounds and the percentage chance to wound is 1.85/5 or 1.235/5 respectively. So after red fury the average total wounds we expect for a S7 vampire hitting a 1+ 4++ save is...
1.85 + (1.85/5 * 1.85) = 2.54 with tricksters shard
1.235 + (1.235/5 * 1.235) = 1.54 without

So this isnt an endorsement of sending your old blood at blender lords, its just the math. If i screwed it up, feel free to correct me.

This also assumes the lord is in a challenge with yours, which isnt necessarily going to happen since the lord kills just over 5 saurus per round of compbat. He kills MORE ( 6.5 / round ) if its temple guard because they dont get a parry save.

Generally, I try to avoid this guy, feed him skinks and terradons, and smoke the rest of his army. If he gets in with your temple guard you are toast.

 

[Pyre]

it makes sense. But how do you deal with a vampire lord into a skeleton unit?

First question is: what lore is your slann using?

Life lore can help deal with blender lords a lot, not when challenging but just to remove that 2+ to wound on the rank and file. That swings CR substantially. Also never underestimate Shield of Thorns for wearing down the Vampire's weaker core units, and Regrowth brings back champions for challenges again against the lord.

Light is, of course, wonderful for bumping out initiative and weapon skills to the point where the blender lord doesn't get re-rolls and hits on 4's. Again, that keep him from feasting on your rank and file. Also Net of Amyntok is WONDERFUL to mess with his zombie/necromancer bunker.

Shadow is always useful, though not quite as much in this match up as most others.

As for the skeleton unit itself... salamanders do horrible things to huge blocks of undead, especially if you do take shadow and Wither them. Any flank charges will destroy the unit, as skeletons barely outfight skinks, so take a big Saurus bus and try to absorb the initial charge and counter charge. Personally I've found a decent sized SKrox unit works well for the counter charge.


Pyre