Vampire Counts army book 8th edition warhammer product review
Contents
The book consists of 96 pages bound with hardback covers divided into four sections.
The living dead, an history of the vampire counts and their origins in the ancient lands of nehekara with the rise of Nagash to the lands of Sylvania and the rise of the von Carsteins.
Undying hordes, description and rules for all the different units types available to a vampire counts army. Also including is the listing from vampire counts magic items such as the magic weapon skabscrath(now totally revamped) and the juicy and powerful vampiric powers along with the spells and lore attribute of the lore of the vampires.
Photos missing include fell bats, bat swarms, black coach and abyssal terror many people regard this as a clue to which models will be getting a redesign in the future. So keep your eyes open for these.
Summoning the horde, 18 pages of full colour photographs of most of the models available in the games workshop vampire counts range painted to 'eavy metal standards (an odd name considering all games workshop models are now either plastic or finecast).
Vampire counts army list, contains all the various options and points cost you need when choosing a vampire counts army for a game of warhammer fantasy battle.
Quibbles
Games workshop only currently sells them the warhammer vampire counts book (and all of its other rulebooks) in a physical hardback format, with the advent of the kindle and other e-readers a PDF or similar version would be welcomed by a lot of people and save having to carry a lot of big and bulky rulebooks about.
In one of the stories Mannfred von Carstein is riding a zombie dragon, in actual game terms he cannot actually take one as a mount. As the story is before the army list it does raise your hopes a little.
The section on infamous vampires has disappeared leaving out some well known favourites such as the red duke as well as some of the lesser known ones.
Pros and cons
Excellent book in hardback format, really a must have for vampire counts players in 8th edition warhammer fantasy battle. Well written and presented, excellent full colour throughout with good quality photos of the models. Full of little well presented banners and illustrations and little tidbits of stories and information scattered throughout the book. Most of the artwork is new and has not been seen before, even the drawings that have been seen before now appear in full colour rather then in black and white as they were in the previous book.
Cons are that it is expensive even for a hardback book (though admittedly it will be years until they release an new one). It is also not actually bigger page wise then the previous 7th edition army book. It is only for fans/players of 8th edition warhammer fantasy battle. Much of the older history remains the same meaning older fans will already know much of it. For players of the game new units for your vampire counts army means more models (and therefore expense) to buy, build and paint. Some players will also be disappointed at the disappearance of some of the old magic items such as the Drakenhof banner.
My opinion
Altogether a decent book, quite balanced when playing the game as all of the 8th edition army books seem to have been so far. The rules have made nearly all the vampire counts units viable again (except arguably skeleton warriors). These books are aimed obviously at fans of warhammer fantasy battle 8th edition.
All of the 7th edition special characters make a return along with two even older favourites the master necromancer Heinrich Kemmler the lichemaster and the original wight king lord of undeath Krell himself. Unit wise there are several new additions such as the crypt horrors, vargheists and mortis engine.
The book is well written, illustrated and is in full colour throughout the hardback cover seems hard wearing and has the added advantage of keeping the book open at the page you want, useful whilst engaging in a game of warhammer fantasy battle.
