Vampiric Undead Skirmish Tactics

Vampiric Undead

Setting:	Age of Fantasy
Games:	Age of Fantasy, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish, Age of Fantasy: Regiments
Species:	Vampires
Version:	v3.2.0

Why Play Vampiric Undead

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Pros:

Cons:

Army Special Rules

Undead: You can't fail morale tests — if you would fail one, you instead roll dice equal to the unit's effective remaining health and take an unavoidable wound for each 1-3 you roll. This makes units with more than one remaining wound more or less immune to getting Stunned from morale, and even single-wound units get a 50% chance to completely shrug off any failed morale test. A model that is already Stunned also gets at least a 50% chance to stick around instead of automatically routing when morale is rolled. However, these benefits come at the cost of reduced long-term survivability, and bad luck may occasionally result in a unit dying where it would otherwise just have gotten Stunned.
Protected: This rule allows a few units to reduce incoming AP by 1. Usually paired with Def 4+ or better, this makes these units fairly resilient.
Reap: Enemies that roll a 1 on Defense rolls against weapons with this rule take an extra wound. With the amounts of attacks that get thrown around in Skirmish, this is honestly more of a neat gimmick than something to plan around.
Warning Cry: A few of the heroes can take a pet that prevents enemies from Ambushing within 12". In Skirmish this rule actually works properly as the units that can take it are single-model units.

Caster Spells

Spell	Lvl	Effect	Comment
Spectral Wind	1	Target enemy unit within 6" takes 1 hit with AP(2).	With only 6" range and the potential to deal a single hit, this is probably nothing to write home about.
Vigour	1	Target 2 friendly units within 12" get +1 to hit rolls next time they fight in melee.	All those Qua 5+ units in the faction would definitely appreciate this.
Dance of Death	2	Target 4 friendly units within 12" get +2" next time they Advance, or +4" next time they Rush/Charge.	The high number of targets makes this a nice tool for helping your units get into the action quickly at game start, and if you ever find one of your units being just barely out of range to pull of a charge, any other nearby units probably won't complain about free extra movement. Can also negate the Slow rule of Zombies.
Deadly Gaze	2	Target enemy unit within 6" takes 1 hit with AP(2) and Deadly(3).	This can kill more or less any single-model unit including heroes (though Regen may make it less likely to work), and the AP means even elite heroes are at risk. The most difficult part is probably getting within the very short range.
Curse	3	Target enemy unit within 18” takes 1 hit with Blast(3).	High range… for a spell. It remains to be seen if 3 potential hits with no AP are really worth casting a 3rd-level spell for.
Invocation	3	Target 4 friendly units within 18" get Regeneration next time they take wounds.	Giving Regen to basically half your army is certainly something.

Unit Analysis

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Heroes

Vampire Master: Just like in AoF, the vampire's good stats, Furious, and baseline AP(1) on all weapons make them a formidable melee fighter. However, they are rather expensive for a Skirmish hero, limiting how many upgrades you can reasonably add onto them.
- Abilities: Considering the unit's base cost, Insatiable Hunger is probably the most budget-friendly option here. Blood Chalice, Frightful Gaze, and Caster(2) are still possible without breaking Force Org in a standard 250pts game, but even without other upgrades they still make the unit cost more points than you'd probably want to invest into a single unit. Caster(3) breaks Force Org right away.
- Weapons: The aforementioned baseline AP(1) makes even the vampire's default hand weapon a viable option. All the other standard options exist, though some may get a touch expensive if you want to also bring an ability. The spear in particular is an unreasonably big investment, and it also has antisynergy with the vampire's Furious rule (especially if you boost Furious with Insatiable Hunger).
- Mounts: A normal horse just barely leaves room for Insatiable Hunger and maybe a cheap weapon before breaking Force Org at 250pts, and the flying version only leaves room for one of the two — in your average game, neither of them is probably worth it. The Winged Terror is technically available, but far too expensive to ever reasonably fit into any Skirmish game.
- Extras: You get the option to pick up a pet with Warning Cry and/or heavy armor for Protected. The latter could be useful for a dedicated melee tank (although it does stretch the boundaries of how much you should invest into a single unit), while Warning Cry seems like more of a point filler if anything unless you know you'll be needing it — if it comes down to it, the vampire's good Def makes it decently likely for them to survive a charge from an ambusher anyway.
Skeleton Champion: Slightly cheaper than the Vampire Master, with worse base stats but Reap on all melee weapons and Protected by default, the Skeleton Champion is still fairly expensive for Skirmish.
- Abilities: Frightful Gaze is more of a long-term strategy, increasing the chance of utterly destroying your opponent if you can get them below the threshold where they need to start rolling morale tests, but until you reach that point it does nothing. March Order seems like a good budget-friendly standard option with neat tactical potential. The Army Standard is very expensive and doesn't really seem worth the price.
- Weapons: You get all the standard weapon options. Qua 4+ makes the champion still decent in melee, and in addition to the same baseline AP(1) as the Vampire Master they also get Reap on all weapons — probably won't make a difference most of the time, but neat to have considering it doesn't make a cost difference compared to other heroes with the same AP and Quality on most weapons.
- Mounts: You get a basic horse, for a few points less than the vampire. Here it might actually be affordable if you really want it.
- Extras: You get the option to equip a crossbow with two shots Rending, for the same price of an entire extra Skeleton Watch unit with an A1 version of the same weapon. Oh, and it also leaves you with only 10pts to spend on hero ability and weapons before breaking Force Org at 250pts (not to mention the familiar putting-too-many-eggs-in-one-basket issue). Probably not worth.
Ghoul Champion: With Regeneration, Strider, and Poison in melee this is probably the most unusual hero of the bunch. They come with no weapon options or extras and none of their mounts are available in Skirmish.
- Abilities: See above for Frightful Gaze. They can also get Caster(1), which is probably your best way to get a somewhat melee-viable Caster with the vampire being too expensive, albeit with less magic power than a classic Necromancer.
Drained Leader: Your average support hero with infantry-level Quality and Defense.
- Abilities: See Skeleton Champion entry for Frightful Gaze. The unit's low base cost means Caster(2) and Caster(3) are both affordable. The Corpse Master upgrade is probably not worthwhile though: without Fear it could've been justifiable, but paying 20pts for +2 to enemy wound effect rolls in melee is a massive waste on a Qua 5+ unit whose ability to wound enemies is unreliable at best, and the ability to Spawn a unit of zombies costs the same as actually just bringing a separate zombie unit with The Rising Dead, which does nearly the same thing.
- Weapons: They get the standard weapon options except for the Lance, and lack the other heroes' baseline AP. With their 5+ Quality, these are probably best used as point fillers.
- Extras: As this one is much flimsier than the Vampire Master, they might actually appreciate the Warning Cry pet to protect them from Ambushers. Even if you don't know if your opponent will bring any, it's probably a viable point filler option if you happen to have 5pts left over.

Core Units

Skeleton Guard: With Def 4+ and Protected, these are unusually resilient for their very low base price, and their 15-20pts cost also means you'll always have an option to fill up your list even if you only have a few points left over.
Skeleton Knight: Fairly low cost for the potential damage output, high threat range due to Fast, and unusually good defense for Cavalry with Def 4+ and Protected. This one is neat.
Drained Soldiers: Your basic infantry unit with the typical weapon options.
Skeleton Watch: TBD
Stitched Zombies: Their 6 attacks make them a potential threat to almost anything despite their low quality, but between Def 6+ and Slow it'd normally be very easy for your opponent to dispatch them before they get to do damage. Upgrade them with The Rising Dead for a chance to have them claw out of the ground right behind an enemy hero or a unit contesting an objective, in which case they can attack before your opponent gets to react (if you go first on that round).
Vampire Knight: TBD
Bat Swarm: TBD
Drained Archers: With 1 average hit and 3 maximum hits per activation, these are probably your most reliable shooters, though they're also more expensive that the Skeleton Watch and lack Rending or notable defenses.
Zombie Wolves: Scout allows you to put them on an objective during deployment, or you could utilize it together with Fast to set up a charge during round 1 (possibly into your opponent's deployment zone if you have a clear path). With 6 attacks and Furious, they definitely have the potential to accomplish something.
Ghouls: TBD
Giant Bat: TBD
Ghoul Horror: TBD
Bat Horror: TBD
Werewolf: TBD

Vampiric Undead Skirmish Tactics

Contents

Why Play Vampiric Undead

Army Special Rules

Caster Spells

Unit Analysis

Heroes

Core Units

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

Tactics

See Also

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Vampiric Undead Skirmish Tactics

Why Play Vampiric Undead

Army Special Rules

Caster Spells

Unit Analysis

Heroes

Core Units

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

Tactics

See Also

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