WARNING LONG (yet hopefully informative) POST!
VS undead, skinks are actually your friends, although you will need a saurus hero to hunt their general, as the chances of a skink priest rolling (and being able to cast) Uranon's Thunder Bolt is low, forked lightning is easier to cast, but they still get an armour save. Against VC, there are few things you need to look out for:
Level 1 Invocation Spam Wizards - These are used to raise as many models as possible in the shortest amount of time, easily making up for casualties lost in the recent shooting and combat phases. These will be one of your primary targets, as once you eliminate the source of their Invocations, you eliminate their means of regenerating wounds and models. One thing you must not do is waste dispel scrolls against them, it's easily castable on a roll of a single die, and casting can continue far after the use of a scroll. Another thing to remember is not to fall into the trap of thinking they can't cast the same spell more than once per wizard in the same magic phase, the invocation does not follow this, as it is listed in the VC book that it can be cast multiple times by the same wizard in the same phase, so long as you have sufficient power dice.
General - Kill him and the army crumbles, those that do not crumble can easily be hunted down and killed. But do not expect an easy job, it's just as easy for your opponent to stick the general in a large unit of zombies, refuse all challenges and just sit there whilst you grind away at zombies that will be revived next turn. This is why you must kill the invocation spammers quickly, as a general like this relies on the quick regeneration of ranks within his unit to protect him.
Ethereals - Units immune to all but magic attacks. This can be remedied through using a scar veteran with magical weapon. The weapon of choice for me against VC is either the piranha blade (you do NOT want the enemy regenerating wounds after each combat, the piranha blade ensures that one failed wound = 1 dead hero due to most heroes having only 2 wounds), the burning blade of chotek (can easily deplete the heaviest armour save you face in the VC army), or the sword of the hornet (striking first allows you to batter enemies before they even get the chance to strike) failing that, a simply sword of might or battle will suffice.
Tarpits - Due to the abundance of revivable models at a low cost, VC armies can allow 1 or 2 units to be purely tarpitters, charging your saurus units and turning the combats into a grindfest. They must be avoided unless you have removed invocation spammers from the field. If you take away their revival ability, then you drastically remove their effectiveness as tarpits.
Regeneration – The regeneration of the corpse cart means that flaming attacks are a must. The only flaming attack we get at this points level is the Burning Blade of Chotek; which will chew through a corpse cart with ease.
Devilishly High Initiative – The initiative of heroes and some rare and special units is such that only a charge on them will allow you to strike before them. A scar veteran with any hope of killing a combat geared hero needs a sword of the hornet, unless against a bare general or a wizard, in which case the piranha blade or burning blade do just as well. A fighty hero will probably cripple the veteran before he can strike unless he is resilient, so we must strike before them if we are not built for resilience as well as combat (for how to do this see the Scar veteran entry below).
Things that we excel at against vampires:
Skinks – They outrun all but the corpse cart and dire wolves, but the range and strengths of their weapons aren’t great when you take their movement into account. Javelins have a range of 8”, but crypt ghouls have a charge range of 8”, same with zombies and skeletons, blowpipes can be fired from 12”, but you won’t be able to double tap if you moved; only chameleon skinks, skink braves and skink chiefs can do that. However, you can move, fire a single volley and repeat, or you can go into 6” range and lose the –To Hit for over half range, allowing you to double tap poisoned shots.
However, VC is one of the only times when I’d recommend javelins over blowpipes. Sure, you don’t get the extra range or shots, but you do get no movement penalties, which means you’re hitting on 4s. Poisoned doesn’t really matter here, as you’re wounding on 4s as well. Out of 10 blowpipe shots at 12” range and after moving, you will probably get 2 poisoned hits. With javelins, out of 10 you’ll get 5 total hits, and then about 2.5 wounds. It’s not much for 1 point each, but it does put strain on their casters, as they need to roll more invocations.
Dire Wolves will fall to these guys very fast, as will the corpse cart, if you use blowpipes, however, you will have to sacrifice the unit and go to 6” range, as double tapping is the only way to get enough poisoned hits.
Cavalry – One cavalry charge can crush entire swathes of VC units. We’re hitting them on 3s and wounding them on 2s (ghouls on 3s) and with 2 attacks each + 1 each from the mounts (which hit zombies and skellies on 3s and crypt ghouls on 4s, wounding skellies and zombies on 3s and 2s and crypt ghouls on 4s) they can really wreck battle-lines. They’re also good at hunting wizards, with fast movement and hard-hits; they’ll destroy any lone wizard they come across.
Saurus Warriors – With spears, Saurus warriors will deplete whole ranks at a time. Due to the low strength of undead core units, Saurus will always get a 4+ save, but let them charge you. You do not get the extra attacks from spears if you charge until the next round of combat, but taking 1 or 2 casualties from a charge is acceptable, as you’ll still be getting ~20 attacks back, not the ~10 you’ll have had if you charged. Against VC, attacks>armour with Saurus; count cores don’t hit hard enough to pose sufficient enough threat to force the use of the HW/S combo.
EotG (Cheese Warning!) – It’s cheesy. Very cheesy for this points level. But if you really don’t care, it’s a one way ticket to Winsville against VC. They have almost nothing that can scratch it, and yet we have The Burning Alignment, that does D6 S4 hits with no saves allowed to all units within 2D6… it also happens to deal S5 hits if any of those units are Daemons, Forest Spirits or… Undead. Guess what the general VC army is… that’s right, forest spirits… wait, no! They’re undead, fool! .
That’s right, plonk it in the middle of his army and watch as swathes of his unit go down. You can add the Plaque of Tepok and give the priest level 2 whilst you’re at it if you want, Uranon’s Thunder Bolt can shred heroes that attempt to revive the fallen ranks, and with 3 spells being chosen; (2 for the level, 1 for the plaque) you have a good chance of rolling it.
But if you use it, be prepared to lose some friends. It’s only recommended in a highly competitive tournament environment, where everyone brings whatever cheese they can to the table.
Saurus Scar Veteran – One of the most versatile heroes in the game. His basic profile is great, as is his list of options. The cost… not so great, but manageable, and not really worth complaining about. Out of the chiefs you have in you current list, I’ve dropped them all in favour of something better:
Scar Veteran w/ Cold-One, Light Armour, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotek – 133pts (He will go in a unit of cavalry)
Scar Veteran w/ Cold-One, Light Armour, Enchanted Shield and Sword of the Hornet – 150pts
OR
Scar Veteran w/ Cold-One, Light Armour, Enchanted Shield and Piranha Blade – 160pts
Both the SotH and PB veterans are amazing character killers, both of them being resilient (0+ armour save, needing a hit of Str6+ to start taking his armour save past 2+, nothing in the VC army you face should be able to) and both being great at killing heroes. The SotH set-up makes sure you strike first, you’re going to be hitting on 4s, but you should be wounding on 3s. A vampire with an armour save of 3+ needs to make at least 2 5+ saves against you in order to not die, and that’s before he has even struck back!
The PB set-up relies on your resilience, unless you charge, you will strike after the vampire at every turn, but if you charge you should only need 1 round of combat, just 1 unsaved wound and the vampire is toast (albeit slightly mouldy, but toast nonetheless). The Vampire will be hitting you on 3s, but wounding you on 4s! With 3 attacks, 2 should hit, and 1 should wound, and being str5, the vampire cannot bring your armour save above 2+, and you should easily pass it. You will strike back with a huge 4 attacks, hitting on 4s (so about 2) and wounding on 3s (so still about 2 wounds). Again, an armour save of 3+ will be made into a 5+ thanks to the scar vet’s str5, and just 1 failed save will mean the vampire is dead.
If you can ensure that you get the charge with the piranha blade set-up (the cold-one should make it easier) then I doubt you’ll even need the enchanted shield, which means it’s suddenly cheaper than the SotH set-up, which in turn may not need the shield if he can force 2 unsaved wounds in the first round combat.
