8th Ed. Old Ones forgive me; start vamps!

[PlasmaDavid]

I decided the idea of having an undead army, and the cheap Mantic miniatures, was too good to pass up! Soon hoardes of skeletons and zombies shall be mine! Thinking a mainly hoarde army, avoiding the more pricy models!

Any tips from anyone?

 

[Lizardmatt]

Just about everything in the book can work.
For starters, decide if you want an army based on characters who wreck face, or if you want mostly caster who support the troops.

If you want fighty characters, then you buy units to put them in (such as black knights and graveguard).
If you want casty characters, then you buy some units that can fight effectively without characters, such as wraiths (really cheap from mantic), and crypt horrors.

-Matt

 

[Ondjage]

Mantic?

 

[Lizardmatt]

Mantic?

http://www.manticgames.com/

Kings of War is their fantasy game.

 

[Ondjage]

Wow. They are even the correct base-size, great value!

 

[PlasmaDavid]

Well I got my mantic minis, along with some GW undead wolves and corpse carts (I like the models, okay?)

$100AU for 110 minis is mind blowingly cheap, GW minis would work out to more than $2 per mini.

The quality is fantastic, heaps of extra bits. Not much variety in the Ghouls, and I've not looked properly at the zombies yet, but I think I'm in love with Skellie warriors. Might have the base my army around them....

10/10 for Mantic undead.

 

[blackrainbow]

Does Mantic have good hero and lord choice alts? I'd like to give them a try, as I find painting cool figs outside my main army better than collecting whole armies (my old MO).

 

[Scalenex]

Since I'm slowly creating Lustrian themed undead I've spend a lot of time on the Vampire Forums.

Carpe Noctern has a lot of good information but it's not particularly well organized. I managed to convince the Sun King to start working on an 8E Vampire Counts Handbook and I'm patiently waiting for it.

Core

Zombies are considered the best tarpit. If your only goal is to tie things up use zombies. The consensus is to field VERY large units with deep ranks though some players leave a bunch of small units spaced about the board and go nuts casting Invocation of Nehek.

Ghouls are the only Core unit with killing power. The consensus is to to field them in groups of 30-40 in horde formation.

Skeletons are viewed as being in an awkward middle ground between ghouls and zombies. They don't kill as well as ghouls, but they don't roadblock as well as zombies. They are often used as character bunkers, usually with hand weapons. They are also the foundation of Mortis Engine armies, usually with spears.

Dire Wolves are viewed as a valuable chaff unit (mine are zombified Cold Ones). A few people endorse even taking ONLY dire wolves for Core, but that's a rareish view.

Special

Based on your desired play style. A horde of Grave Guard is probably a good idea. Toss in a badass character or two and a magic banner and go nuts.

Black Knights are frequently used as character buses for Blender Lords.

Crypt Horrors and Vargheists are fine units but they aren't a great fit for what you described you wanted.

I'd recomend getting a few Fell Bats and/or Spirit Hosts for chaff. Hex Wraiths are very valuable elite chaff. Bat Swarms are considered the weakest VC Special choice, but you can buy them for next to nothing from Reaper and glue them on 40 mm bases.

Rare

Blood Knights seem way too expensive in terms of both money and points. A Varghulf is a handy medium sized monster. Cairn Wraiths are generally seen as a sub-optimal choice (unless taken as characters). The Black Coach probalby doesn't synergize with an infantry based army. Most VC armies either take a pair of Terrorgheists or a pair of Mortis Engines. Since you described a desire to field lots of infantry, I suggest Mortis Engines.

 

[PlasmaDavid]

Thanks for the post I've got most of my minis assembled and based, haven't played yet, but my army lists will certainly be restricted to my model selection.