Terrorgheist 8th edition warhammer vampire counts rare choice overview

In many legends of Slyvania and other parts of the old world legends of massive vampire bats exist, larger then even the massive fell bats. Legend has it these are fell bats grown out of all proportion through drinking the lifeblood of many creatures and absorbing vast quantities of dark magic. It is said the largest of these creatures rival the size of dragons (when you see the terrorgheist model you will realise that they indeed do). Unlike dragons though terrorgheists prefer to strike from ambush using their sonic shriek to stun opponents and then suck them dry of blood.

Though fearsome these creatures are still living, territorial and live in abandoned and forgotten places they are also thankfully extremely rare. Less rare though are the remains and these are often stumbled upon by the skulking strigoi ghoul kings in ancient caves and caverns. The ghoul kings find it a natural use of dark magic to return these dark magic saturated remains back into unlife. Magic reanimates its withered corpse and restores it to an unholy unlife, worse still its sonic shriek is now tinged with the horror and terror of the realm of the dead its body rife with decay and rot. Tinged with powerful life stealing dark magic the terrorgheist can terrify even the bravest or most stupid of creatures to death with its unholy shriek beckoning its prey to the realms of the dead.

In the game terrorgheists are a rare choice monster for vampire counts in 8th edition warhammer fantasy battle. The terrorgheist is a new addition in 8th edition having previously not exsisted in 7th edition, although it was done as an addition to the army list in the august 2011 white dwarf magazine and remains unchanged in the new book.

The terrorgheist has two upgrades options available to it rancid maw and infested, it can also be taken as a mount for a Strigoi ghoul king. Terrorgheists are unique in that they have the death shriek special rule (although the magic weapon skabscrath also grants this special rule) this is a more powerful version of the banshee's ghostly howl causing wounds with no armour saves allowed.

Pros are that at full wounds terrorgheists are excellent at taking out enemy elite units such as knights, lone characters and monsters and any other similar units even steam tanks can be dealt with. This can be sololy from use of death shriek or combined with a charge. Regeneration is also enhanced to 5+ if the terrorgheist starts its turn within range of a mortis engine.

Cons are the power of death shriek is reduced dramatically as the terrorgheist loses wounds (you can always restore some with invocation of nehek though). It is also easy prey for war machines such as cannons and stone throwers, it's large base making it easy for a shot that goes a little off target to hit still. Also beware of leadership based spells such as spirit leech from the lore of death as the terrorgheist only has a low leadership, this low leadership is also a problem if your general dies due to the crumbling roll.

Terrorgheists are excellent at taking out other units and monsters a lot of the rest of the forces of vampire counts may struggle to content with and at a more reasonable points cost then diverting a powerful vampire at the problem. They can also easily contend with small units of fast cavalry and missile troops should the terrorgheist deal swiftly with your initial target, remember as monster they also have thunder stomp and so can also deal with infantry units that are small or will struggle to hurt them.

Provided you can keep them out of harms way terrorgheists can cause substansial damage to virtually any unit in the game. They can be particularly deadly to monsters or any models with low leadership such as orc and goblin arachnarok spiders and there ilk. With a fly move of 20" if starting near your general and a 8" range on death shriek they can be a threat right from the first go.