Anyone have any good tactis for a 1500 point game against vampire counts? What magic for slann, magical items for him and any special units i should take? I thought bout taking the blood statuette with revered guardian and plaque of dominion on the slanns banner.
In my first (and only) game against VC, his undead hoards clashed with my Saurus..... all the while his Necromancer advanced with his troops for obvious reasons. I simply slipped a squad of Skink Skirmishers around the side over 3 turns that he foolishly ignored, then killed his Necro. The rest sorted itself out. Killing their lords and heroes is the number one priority.
A lot will depend on the type of vamp list you are facing. A combat heavy vamp list will move fast and strike hard with cavalry and characters that will chew through saurus like a knife through butter (red fury + ASF + sword of might = up to 10 dead saurus/TG per round of combat!!). On the other hand, a grinding list will have large blocks of ghouls backed by corpse carts and likely a mortis engine (has a bomb that is 2d6 + turn inches area of effect that causes hits to your units and gives regen to vamp units). Lore of light can't go wrong as the two magic missiles each get an extra d6 hits and the buffs are all fantastic. As for kitting out, I would suggest diadem of power + cogitation + flaming banner for the slaan. If you can shut down/severely limit a vamp magic phase, it is usually possible to wipe out entire units through instability whereas failing to do so usually means all the casualties simply come back to life.
VC really don't like it when you take a Banehead Slaan. I'm a fan of metal, you can wipe out a knight-bus if you have to and Blades/Trans of Lead can give Saurus an edge if they're grinding against Ghouls. Final transmutation is always hilarious if he tries to bunker his characters together.
I find it often better to focus on killing the units that come with the Vampires & Mages, rather than trying to kill a Lord who will eat yours alive- Undead are one of the few armies where you can cause Wounds to a guy without ever throwing a shot at him. Via CR, you can chip away at him. Lore of Light still hurts Undead extra-good, but Metal is always good if they go high-armour with their troops. Lore of Life is always great for upgrading your units. Units of Saurus are EXCEPTIONALLY good at wiping out units of Undead infantry- our attacks combined with their poor armour makes for easy kills.