[Archive] Chaos Dwarfs vs Vampire Counts

The Flying Beaver:

Post your tips for fighting Vampire Counts armies here.

1. units with additional HWs mow down skellies like nobodys business… even hobbies out class them in combat…
2. best to go offensive… otherwise they just sit at the other edge of the table getting bigger…
3. i like the S. lord… 8 dice will see a spell off… and 6 dispel dice will tone him down a little…
still a quick BC lord can get to those casters and turn it into a non issue…
4. watch out for being outnumbered… bring lotsa troops…

metro_gnome
the "normal way to winn against VC is to take out his “fast stuff” like bats, dire wolves, and ghouls - and if u can stop most of his magic thats a big help

the black gem can be usefull against the vamp - so u can get his unit so small, u can take him on combat resault. 3x bull heroes so u can take his fast stuff (one can take gaundlet + sword of striking)

qwe50
Take a lot of small units of BBs (get as many shots as possible. S3 minimum will kill LOTS of them). The obligatory Earthshaker. They’re pretty slow anyway though. Definitely a few bolt throwers. Maybe a few HGs with shields and bows (a little extra shooting and they get a 5+ save in combat. Bye bye skellies). Flying Lord is best (preferably Lord not S-Lord. Take 3 sorcerers though!) to breathe fire and maybe charge his general. REMOVE THE GENERAL! And DEFINITELY go offensive! Take BCs because they have 2 attacks (if you play that they can use AHWs, use those too! Invaluable against skeletons. Get as many rear and flank charges as possible!).

Hashut’s Blessing
Undead Observations
Not rocket science but I now win far more than I lose against the Undead. I now think of the Undead as being a twofold army.

Magic Strong:
Here YOU MUST kill their lesser necromancers.

Here are my general tips vs Undead:
1. Assassinate all non-general characters first (unless he has a
weak general) these are easier to kill and give the Undead their
extra punch. Be it casting dice or extra combat punch. Use
character assassins and/or hit unit with multiple units to dissolve
quickly.

2. Know what to dispel and what toleave. Generally let him raise
units but NEVER let him use movement spells.

3. Try to take 1 or 2 fear causing units (or fear resistant banners)
and use them to minimise the effects of psychology tests by
using them where the critical combats will take place

4. If you are going to charge a unit, try to double charge it with units
that can win the combat during the first round both for unit strength and in case 1 fails

5. Always have 1 character with a cheap magic weapon (for
ethereals)

6. If he/she has a lot of magic try to approach with two parallel
combat lines so that if he does raise behind or in the flank you
can counter charge.

7. Kill the general if you can!

Monty

Dracomancer:

You should ALWAYS work on killing off units that can’t be brought back first, when you’ve done that, they’re stuck with skellies and zombies, which really aren’t all that in a fight (Just make sure you don’t lose combat and are outnumbered, dawi-zharr don’t move very fast after all :~)

Large units of Hobgoblins will eat up spirit hosts and banshees, throw in a cheap hobbo hero with a magic weapon to do an extra couple of sneaky wounds to help towards the all-important combat resolution.

Killing off his Necromancers will cause the VC player serious trouble in later turns, if the opertunity arises to et rid of one, take it.

Vampire counts/Lords are up there with chaos lords in terms of power, as such you’re probably better off using cannons and whatnot, if you do get lucky and kill them off, then it woun’t be hard to win the rest of the match as the troops slowly turn to dust…:cheers

wallacer:

Primary Earthshaker target: Vampire general

Secondary Earthshaker target: Grave Guard

The key to beating VC is to turn their flank. Once they lose their rank bonuses it’s crumble city. This means getting wolf riders round the side possibly supported by a Lord on Taurus. Bull Centaurs are also a must to try and get into the flanks of VC. The lore of shadows’ movement spell can be very helpful at achieving this.

Anything with static combat res will kill an ethereal creature, although be aware that a banshee will hurt low leadership hobgoblin heroes.

dispel as many of his summoning spells as possible. Once his undead outnumber your CD warriors then all you need is one bad round and your outnumbered Dwarfs will be autobreaking.

Keep your wolf riders away from Ghouls. 2 attacks and poison will hurt your fast cav bad.

Blunderbusses are fantastic against undead. A decent sized unit will wound on 2s and negate his armour save. I would take at least two units of Blunders against VC with at least 15 guys in each.

grismund:

Try and get rid of the general, and other necromancers/vampires. Without a lot of power dice undead suffer.

And as said above kill everything that can’t be resurected. This also means that the only things that will be left are the skeletons and zombies which will be easy kills.

Watch out for big units of skeletons with characters in them as they will to the killing which added to the skellies static combat bonus will normally auto-break any unit.

Rootbeer:

Dont depend on hobgoblins being able to charge anything on their own leadership. You may setup a perfect charge on a lone banshee or unit with necromancer to assasinate, and your wolf riders will sit like idiots from fear. Earthshaker to slow them will help greatly. Bolt throwers on flanks will eat black knights, so will a taurus in the flank.

Metal magic has a good base spell you can tag a necromancer/vamp with even if in a unit, and good stuff vs black knights.

Ghouls have low Ld so pick on ones away from the general with simple magic missles like fireball. Ghouls will eat up low armor units like centaurs, bull taurus and hobgoblins. Many attacks + poison can = dead bull taurus

Dont hit large blocks of zombies with centaurs. You will win, but lose a man a round like every zombie movie youve ever seen. If you are gonna hit them, hit them big and take em out in one swoop.

Skellys are overpriced and harder to summon, likely will be smaller units, so hit them before the zombies

grave guard are an excelent target for missle weapons as they cant be raised. after knights these are a good bolt thrower shot. killing blow so never charge with characters unless silly, like they only have 2 ranks and you are in flank

fell bats mostly suck, just keep them off the warmachines with something like bull centaurs or a magic missle.

Banshees will rip up hobgobs. wolf riders would be an easy target, but they arent a threat vs dwarf Ld.

Large units of black knights are a threat and should be shot to hell without mercy, and led astray by wolf riders bait and flee. I know from using VC that 10 black knights with warbanner, and a vamp can shoot through your lines turn 2 easy with movement spells. With a few necromancers and the book of arkhan its not too hard to be able to cast 3 movement spells a turn.

Ancient History:

[[Chaos Dwarfs vs. Vampire Counts]] up on the Wiki.

Coopervisor:

Does anybody have any tips on fighting the new VC book? Or is it still too early? It’ll be the army I end up facing most so could do with some counters for the common issues.

Baggronor:

Its still pretty early but some general pointers can’t hurt.

Someone in your army must, must, must have Lore of Fire. It kills Ethereals and removes regen. Flaming Sword of Ruin cast on a Dreadquake Mortar will do very bad things (auto-killing Skeletons is just excessive, and it can one-shot a Mortis Engine…). Must.

Take a Dispel Scroll. Obviously.

K’Daii (both varieties) are very good vs VCs. The auto-flaming hits will negate their regen before anyone even swings a blow, and both types can rack up combat resolution fast to crumble the VCs before they can rise again.

Magma Cannon. Its like it was invented to shoot at Crypt Horrors. Ash Storm them first if you’re feeling particularly cruel.

All Castellans and Tau’ruks should carry a magic weapon of some sort. Prophets and Daemonsmiths have them already, so they’re fine.

Hellbound will usually be worth it.

Death magic will hurt the Necromancers a lot. Snipe away the Lv2s asap.

Skullcrackers will rock vs VCs. Just keep the ghosts and wolves away from them. Fireballs, archers and lone Khans can help with this.

Ceann Fine:

I predominantly play against immune to psychology armies like vampires and a nice trick I’ve had is to run a taur’uk with a 2+ armour save and great weapon with crown on command in my block of banner of swiftness infernal guard block. And then when he gives you your twelve inch charge you solo charge you solo charge out the cow and challenge. If he doesn’t accept, you mop up his unit and if he does you have a realistic of killing him in the challenge. Also terrorgheists need to go first, the only thing i would give target priority over them is hexwraiths as they can maul you

Baggronor:

I predominantly play against immune to psychology armies like vampires and a nice trick I've had is to run a taur'uk with a 2+ armour save and great weapon with crown on command in my block of banner of swiftness infernal guard block. And then when he gives you your twelve inch charge you solo charge you solo charge out the cow and challenge. If he doesn't accept, you mop up his unit and if he does you have a realistic of killing him in the challenge.
I doubt it's a good idea. A Red Fury Vampire Lord with the usual load-out (Ogre Blade, 4+ ward) will kick the crap out of a Tau'ruk.

Ceann Fine:

In etc its very hard to get the full blends vampire without having anything else worthwhile. I’m seeing a lot of quick blood, red fury, great weapon and 4++

Grimbold Blackhammer:

The ETC stopped being “Warhammer” a long time ago. It may use the Warhammer rulebook for its core rules but they are now their own little world and have no bearing on this discussion.

Yodrin:

I agree with you Grim. I play warhammer for fun and fluff, but ofc i want to also win :). Just hate that I can use whats in the rulebook of items and models, that I have to choose. It ruins it for me.

There will always be armies that are more powerful than others, so evening it out a bit I think is fine, but not in a great distinct. Why the hell restrict a unit at 450 points?, everybody can make a 450 points unit…

Baggronor:

In etc its very hard to get the full blends vampire without having anything else worthwhile. I'm seeing a lot of quick blood, red fury, great weapon and 4++
Ohh you meant in ETC-land. I know basically nothing of the ETC other than the changes made to the game appear to be longer than the actual rulebook ;)