Vampiric Undead Tactics

Vampiric Undead
Setting:	Age of Fantasy
Games:	Age of Fantasy, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish, Age of Fantasy: Regiments
Species:	Vampires, Drained Humans, various undead monsters
Version:	v3.2.0

Why Play Vampiric Undead

The Vampiric Undead are the most akin to the Mummified Undead in that their troops are disposable but are practically immune to morale.

Pros:

• Morale is not an issue
• Plenty of Casters

Cons:

• Troops are very disposable

Army Special Rules

• Reap: A rule to represent a bat creature's blood-sucking bite or a Skeleton Guard's cursed weapon. Whenever an enemy is rolling Defense against attacks from a weapon with this rule, any 1s they roll results in them taking an additional wound. This capitalizes on a bad turn for your enemies and might even make a bad save into a death blow.
• Undead: Your units can't fail morale checks. Instead, whenever a unit would fail a morale check, you need to roll a number of dice equal to the model count and/or Tough in a unit (read, the effective amount of wounds the unit could take before dying). and take an unavoidable wound for each 1-3 you roll. This ensures your units will never be taken out of action through getting Shaken or Routed, at the cost of some long-term survivability.

Caster Spells

Comment
Spectral Wind	1	An enemy unit within 12" takes 2 hits with AP(2).	Honestly, kinda hard to see a use for, as it's only really good for heavy infantry and maybe elites.
Vigour	1	A friendly unit within 12" gets +1 to hit rolls next time it fights in melee.	You'll be needing this with all the chaff you have.
Dance of Death	2	2 friendly units within 12" get +2" next time they Advance, or +4" next time they Rush/Charge.	Can counteract the Slow rule of your Zombies, and is generally helpful whenever one of your units can't quite make it to where it wants to be within one activation.
Deadly Gaze	2	An enemy unit within 9" takes 1 hit with AP(4) and Deadly(3).	Since this can't target heroes inside units, its use is limited chiefly to monsters, vehicles, and the occasional elite.
Curse	3	An enemy unit within 18” takes 1 hit with Blast(9).	Potentially dangerous against infantry, but drops in effectiveness against units that have lost a few models (except large combined blobs).
Invocation	3	2 friendly units within 18" get Regeneration next time they take wounds.	Regen is always neat to have.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Vampire Master: Your strongest normal hero, with a 3+ Quality and Defense as well as Furious to cement their role in melee. On top of that, they also have the option to be a Caster of level 2 or even 3 so you can have some decent casting.
  • Abilities: Out of the faction's heroes, the Vampire Master is most spoiled for choice when it comes to abilities. They can get Caster(2), Caster(3), or Frightful Gaze like both other heroes can as well, but they also get two unique options: Unsatiable Hunger gives them and their unit Furious (or improves it if already there), which may not be such an impactful buff but is also very cheap for a hero ability, and Blood Chalice grants them and their unit Regeneration.
  • Weapons: The Vampire Master has AP(1) on all their weapons, which is pretty sweet. Beyond that, they get all the standard hero weapon options.
  • Mounts: You've got horses, monsters, and even chariots for whatever your situation. You have your basic Skeletal Steed to act as your horse, and a Winged Steed with Flying for an extra 5pts. The Winged Terror gives you some more wounds and more attacks, but sacrifices Impact. The Zombie Dragon is the combat monster, granting Flying, Regeneration, and Fear(2) as well as Breath Attack and claws fit for ripping up all manner of enemies.
  • Extras: The Vampire Master can get Heavy Armor for 10pts, granting them the Protected rule which reduces the AP from all attacks targeting them by 1. This is primarily meant to enable them to join a unit of Skeleton Guards (since the rule only works if all models in the unit have it), but it's also a pretty nice deal for a solo hero mounted on a Winged Terror or Zombie Dragon. You also get a Hunting Pet option for Warning Cry (forcing enemy Ambushers to deploy more than 12" away from the hero), which is probably not much to write home about unless you expect to play against an army with Tunneler units. If the hero is attached to a unit, opponents may be able to circumvent Warning Cry by deploying in charge range of another model in the same unit, so it's probably most likely to do its thing on a solo hero.
• Champion: More likely your go-to hero, as they retain most of the Vampire Master's versatility without being so spoiled for choice and a cheaper price. They're not as powerful, with only a 4+ Quality and Defense and no AP on their attacks, but they can also be Casters.
  • Abilities: The Champion has access to the standard options of Caster(2), Caster(3), or Frightful Gaze, as well as a unique option that gives them a package with Caster(1) and Raise Dead: the latter allows them to summon a new unit of 10 Zombies nearby once per game. This theoretically allows you to skirt around the Force Org unit limit, but is otherwise very similar to just putting the Zombies into your army normally and upgrading them with The Rising Dead (see below).
  • Weapons: Aside from lacking the baseline AP(1), the Champion's melee weapon options are the same as the Vampire Master's. However, they also have the option to equip a crossbow with Rending, making them the only hero with a ranged weapon option.
  • Mounts: The Champion only has two options for mounts. The Skeletal Steed gives you a basic horse. The Abyssal Beast gives you a flying monster, boosting defenses and granting some fierce melee attacks.
  • Extras: Same as the Vampire Master's.
• Ghoul Leader: This freak comes with Regeneration to compensate for their mere 5+ defense, and Poison on their melee attacks (albeit at the cost of having no alternate weapon options).
  • Abilities: The Ghoul Leader has no unique ability options. Somewhat surprisingly, they still get access to both Caster(2) and Caster(3), and Frightful Gaze allows them to give an enemy unit a –2 penalty to their next morale test.
  • Mounts: The Bat Beast is a medium-sized monster, notable for high mobility due to Flying and Ambush. The Bat Dragon is basically the same but twice as big, except for lacking Ambush.

Infantry

• Stitched Zombies: Although their Slow rule and bad Defense make it somewhat difficult for them to actually get to a point where they can fight, their 20-40 attacks make them a potential threat despite their mediocre Quality. Notably, they can be upgraded with The Rising Dead, which grants them Ambush with the option to deploy as close as 1" to enemies. This negates much of the aforementioned problems and if played right grants them a safe opportunity to use their full offensive strength against a relevant target.
• Drained Soldiers: Your basic infantry unit costs the same as Zombies, featuring half as many attacks in exchange for slightly better Defense, normal movement speed, and standard infantry weapon options. Undead makes sure that they won't be crushed by a bad round of combat.
• Ghouls: For only a few points less than the basic infantry, Ghouls have half as many models, though with better Quality as well as Regeneration to boost their Defense. Still, they only have one attack per model so you'll probably want to run them as a combined unit if they are to have any hope of winning a melee. Between the Skeleton Guards and Zombie Wolves, their purpose is somewhat unclear.
• Skeleton Guard: Elite infantry with 4+ Quality and Defense, as well as Protected to reduce incoming AP by 1. All their weapons have AP(1) and Reap, and there's a surprising variety of options — including spears, which so far used to be reserved for basic infantry in most factions.
• Drained Archers: Your standard ranged infantry.
• Skeleton Watch: A more elite ranged unit. Their attacks have Rending, which is neat for the –1 to Regeneration rolls although the AP(4) shouldn't be expected to trigger often as they only get 5-10 attacks per activation.
• Zombie Wolves: Not very strong or defensive, but Scout allows them to cover ground before the game begins and Fast and Furious allow them to make that turn one charge. 2 attacks per model makes their damage output a bit more reliable than the Ghouls'.
• Bat Swarms: More chaff, but now in swarm form. Fast and Flying allows them to cover ground very quickly, or they can suddenly pop up somewhere with Ambush. Their chaff-level Quality and Defense means they're not the most competent in melee, but they can quickly get to a place where they're annoying for your opponent, and Tough(3) and Undead allow them to stick around.
• Giant Bats: With better Quality as well as Furious instead of Fast, these are fairly similar to the Bat Swarms albeit not quite as mobile.
• Bat Horrors: Basically just a more elite version of the Giant Bats; their Quality and Defense is better by 1 but otherwise they're identical.
• Ghoul Horrors: Basically just a Tough(3) version of the normal Ghouls, with an appropriately higher number of attacks and better Defense. Paired with Regeneration, this should make them decently tanky.
• Werewolves: Scout and Strider make them decently mobile, and they're your only monstrous infantry unit with AP on their attacks.

Cavalry

• Skeleton Knights: Typical knight with 4+ Quality and Defense, Fast, and Impact. Their Lances give them AP(2) when charging, although they're not quite as efficient at killing high-Defense units as Skeleton Guards or Werewolves since only half their attacks gets AP while the other half is basic Impact.
• Vampire Knights: These knights are a score stronger with a 3+ Quality and Defense while Furious and a baseline AP(1) make them more of a threat against the infantry. Other than the Skeleton Knights, these also get the option to go for Hand Weapons instead of Lances to save some points.

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

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Tactics

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See Also

• Vampiric Undead
• Vampiric Undead Quickplay Armies
• Age of Fantasy

Vampiric Undead
Overview - Tactics - Skirmish Tactics - Miniatures - Quickplay Armies - Skirmish Quickplay Armies

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