Aura of dark majesty 8th edition warhammer Vampire Counts Vampiric Power

The effects of this vampiric power remain unchanged in 8th edition warhammer from 7thedition. It still causes units within 6" of the vampire with this vampiric power to suffer a -1 leadership penalty. The big difference however is that it is now half the cost of what it was in 7th edition. This makes it more appealing allround both for hero level vampires and vampire lords.

The lower cost also means it can be used more effectively on hero level characters as they can also still take the supernatural horror, fear incarnate and beguile vampiric power which will benefit from the enemy having lower leadership.

It also benefits the coven thrones battle of wills special rule as aura of dark majesty will affect enemies units in melee combat or using close ranged shooting attacks. This gives you a bit more of an edge in winning the roll off and getting that elusive completely enthralled result.

Out of the special characters Vlad von Carstein has this vampiric power which also benefits his beguile and supernatural terror vampiric powers.

Pros are that it is now cheap and there are several other vampiric powers, magic items and even the vampire mount the coven throne that synergise really well with it. It can also be used to enhance the death shriek from a terrorgheist, vampire or strigoi ghoul king wielding skabscrath as well as the ghostly howl of a tomb banshee or mortis engine.

It synergises well with the following as well as making the enemy more likely to fail fear and break tests

• Fear incarnate no re roll or re rolling passes for fear tests with a lower leadership means more chance of failing.
• Beguile stacks up to a -4 leadership penalty for the test for this vampiric power.
• Supernatural Horror less so as the panic test from being charged by a terror causing creature will most likely be out of range.
• The screaming banner this magic banner again stacks the odds in favour of the enemy failing their fear tests

Cons are that some armies are relatively unaffected by this, armies that are immune to psychology such as tomb kings, daemons of chaos and other vampire counts armies or that have large numbers of units that are immune to psychology from frenzy, stupidity or other rules will be relatively unaffected by this vampiric power. It also does not stack up regardless of the number of vampires nearby with this vampiric power so taking it excessively can limit its usefulness.