Vampire Tournament Strategies

[Gus]

i don't agree. you just have to conservatively refrain from moving a vamp unless you have to, to avoid the OFAB roll.

[browwnrob]

yeah but to some coaches the temptation is too great and you cant really rely on thralls/hobgoblins...

[falconeyed]

of any team the vamp CAN go mental in a good turn with lots of dice, but in general turns may achieve very little. I would expect any decent player to 'ride them like a stolen car' as seams only way to get full use from ag4/st4. A conservative play style will get them killed.

( painting them soon so may be wiser in 05 )

I gotta agree with this, somewhat. After playing two games with Vamps, it seems that the strategy involving having the thralls tie people up while the Vamps take care of business. I went with two vamps and 10 thralls to start off with, and so far so good.

The vamps' strength and weakness lie in the thralls. I find myself moving the vamps only when the non-dice thrall moves have been made. Also, moving the Vamps without a thrall or two as escort is risky. I've scored two TDs after failing the Lust roll, so without the thrall escorts I would have given up the ball.

I've also found myself blitzing with vamps the same way I would with a big guy ... only if it results in a major advantage. This is as much a result of the Lust as much as it is me not wanting to leave a Vamp in a compromising position. Think, "Big Guy Plus Werewolf."

[Emberbreeze]

my unbeaten record of 1 game didn't last long. I just got pounded into the ground by skaven of all races!

total of 8 casulties, 2 self infilicated with OFAB (one with a rerolled OFAB) 1 vamp regenerated, and 2 self infilicted from my blocking

over all I ran out of players, but I don't think more rerolls would have helped much. I'm likeing the 3 vamps, 4 rerolls (I run out of rerolls on turn 6 on average)

The vampire style of play seems to be very much like I play dark elves. Slow 1st turn of the drive, then 2 turns of 'action' to get a score. The vamps are awesome players. Having a ST4 ball carrier is great, but need block or dodge to help them stay on thier feet.

I think they are a do or die team, with great plays and massive failures.

anyone else care to give me a PBeM game

[Indigo]

I'm a bit slow off the mark on this, I know, but here's my thoughts after one game.

Forget Vamps at TR100. They're a waste of time.

At TR110 I'd go with the following roster:

3 x Vamps
10 x Thralls
5 x RR
2 FF

The comments where people say "don't move the vamps unless you absolutely have to" is bollocks! What is the point in taking 330k of ST4 AG4 players and then not moving them!

Sure, BL will fail sometimes but with careful planning, 5 times out of 6 or 35 times out of 36, the Vamp will do what you want. Make sure your vampires are in the thick of it, but with Thralls nearby to help. Also, remember you can bite people on the ground so consider leaving an expendable thrall around. Rely on your best players, use your crap ones as a screen/diversion/backup and hope you don't burn your re-rolls on the blocking. Let's face it, you're more likely to turn over from a bodged 2-die block than BL.

[Smeborg]

Wouldn't the following roster work well at TR100?

2 Vampires
11 Hobgoblins (I mean Thralls)
1 Apothecary
4 Re-rolls
1 FF

13 players and an Apoth ought to be quite resilient in a tourney, AV7 notwithstanding.

And as any Chaos Dwarf player knows, the combination of plentiful Thralls (I mean Hobgoblins) and Re-rolls is quite a potent threat.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[Skummy]

I have a problem buying an apoth for Vampires, because it costs more than a thrall does. You can't use it on the vamps, so there really isn't too much of a point, aside from trying to keep a thrall on the field for the remainder of a drive. Which admittedly, could be a significant thing.

[Aksho]

Played against a Vamp-Team on Saturday with my Rotters.
4 Vamps
7 Thralls
3 Rerolls
FF 7
Well, first half was quite hard playing against, because of only 2 times of Bloodlust. 2nd half all 3 Rerolls were burned after drive 3, two because of Bloodlust, 1 because of double-skulls.
After that it was easy playing against, because he could no longer take a risk with his vamps, but against Rotters it was hard with a lot of dicerolling befor every Block

Not using the vamps for the key-play doesn´t really work because the Thralls are more or less for nothing,....well they have blood to give, but nothing more
So keeping the vamps out of action will win no games for you. Like the others allready wrote allways keep 1-2 Thralls near a Vamp and dont use the Vamps for unneeded actions.

mfg Bernd

[Emberbreeze]

vamps work quite well at TR100 (relativly of course)

I have at least a 50% win ratio using

3 vamps
9 thralls
4 rerolls
2 FF

you NEED 2 vamps on the pitch to acomplish anything. so having a spare for when one takes a cas is a good thing (on pitch spare, don't hold him in reserve) Vamps draw more fouls that werewolves!

4 rerolls run out on average on turn 6 which is good enough. not worth loosing a vamp for to get a 5th and a thrall. you need the vamps to win, you 'can' still win when you have run out of rerolls.

[Mo]

Time for some thread necromancy....

My own vamps are on the painting table now.

What have you found to be a good skill progression for tournies?

Cheers,
Maureen

[vanGorn]

I played twice with vampires on a TR110 swiss style tournament.
Last fall they managed place 7 of 16. Good dice rolls helped a lot
I lost the 1st two matches (vs woodies and lizzies) but then it went better with 3 wins (vs dark elf, dwarf and skaven) and a draw (vs elf).
The team had 4 vampires and 8 thralls, 4 rerolls and ff6
Two of the vampires got block the others dodge, and after the 4th match a thrall got kick (which was very useful against the dwarves )