A Blood Dragons Warband list

Here is a list i made for the Blood Dragon Vampires. Let me know what you all think

Choice of Warriors:

A Blood Dragon warband must include a minimum of three models. You have 500 gold crowns to recruit your warband. The maximum number of warriors in the warband may never exceed 15.
Blood Knight: Each Blood Dragon warband must have one Blood Knight: no more, no less!
Blood Errant: Your warband may include up to two Blood Errants.
Skeletons: Your warband may include any number of Skeletons.
Grave Guard: Your warband may include up to five Grave Guards.

Special Rules:

Only the worthy: The Blood Knights only recruit those who prove themselves worthy in combat. A Blood Knight will give those a chance to become an immortal warrior. After winning a game, check for all enemy heroes who are taken out of action. If any of those models are killed or captured and during the game they took at least one model out of action have the hero take a leadership test. The vampire offers the hero a chance to become immortal and avoid his current fate. If the model passes the test then the hero will die as normal or follow the captured rules as normal. A hero that is dying will take a leadership test at -2 as he is more inclined to take the offer of life rather than dying. If the hero fails he has succumbed to the Vampire’s offer and will join the ranks of the Blood Dragons as a thrall. The newly formed thrall will start with no experience and will lose all equipment and skills. He will choose his skills from the same tables as the Blood Errant. Its stat line will also change be as follows.
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
6 4 3 3 4 1 4 1 6

Note: You may recruit one hero a game like this but multiply heroes can be tested if they fit the criteria.

Walking Death: One Vampire is a force of destruction but multiple vampires are force nigh unstoppable. As such once a hero gains a total of 36 experience he will add a further 20 to the warband rating (so a total of 20 +exp).

Honor by Combat: Honor is the foundation of a Blood Dragons warband and as such if a hero ever has a higher leadership then the warband leader they will duel each other for control of the warband. Roll a die and the highest counts as charging. Conduct the fight till one model is out of action. If the Leader wins the combat he will remain the leader and the losing hero will take a permanent -2 to his leadership. If the leader loses, he will leave the warband as he is now without honor in the eyes of his warriors. The winning hero will become the new leader of the warband gain the leader skill and the respect of his fellow warriors.

They are few: You may never re-buy a Blood Knight. Once he is gone from the warband he may not be replaced. If the Blood Knight dies the hero with the next highest leadership will gain the leader skill. If there is a tie for the highest leadership then the hero with the highest WS between the tying heroes will be the leader. If there is still a tie then models tying will conduct a duel and the victor has earned the right to become leader. The loser will not take penalties for losing this duel as it is not a challenge as much as a way of choosing who is best to lead the band in the absence of a leader. Look above in Honor by combat for rules on a duel.

There is no Honor in this: The Blood Dragons are always looking to better themselves in combat and to keep their honor. As such if they ever fight a battle where their warband rating is 100 above their opponent they will have a -1 to all route test as they feel they gain nothing from fighting such a weak enemy.

Starting Experience:
The Blood Knight starts with 20 experience.
Blood Errants start with 8 experience.
Henchmen start with 0 experience.
Blood Dragon’s Skill Tables
Blood Knight may choose from the Combat, Academic, Strength, Speed or Special.
Blood Errant may choose from the Combat, Strength, Speed, or Special.

Blood Dragons' Equipment List
Heroes
Hand-to-Hand Weapons
Dagger 1st free/ 2 gc
Sword 10 gc
Double handed Weapon 15 gc
Spear 10 gc
Halberd 10 gc
Lance 40gc
Armor Armor
Light Armor 20 gc
Heavy Armor 50 gc
Shield 5 gc
Helmet 10 gc

Henchmen
Hand-to-Hand Weapons
Dagger 1st free/ 2 gc
Sword 10 gc
Spear 10 gc
Halberd 10 gc
Wight Blade* 25 gc

Armor
Light Armor 20 gc
Shield 5 gc
Helmet 10 gc





Miscellaneous
Warhorse** 80g
Barding** 40g


*Only Grave Guard may take these items.
**Only Heroes may take these items.

Heroes

1 Blood Knight; 110 gold crowns to hire
Blood Knights lead their retinue into the city of Mordheim and the surround areas in search for worthy opponents to test their skills. Although but pale shadows when compared to the dread Vampire Lords, these immortal warriors are still some of the most powerful creatures who fight in Mordheim. Honor and the tests of battle are the goals of a true Blood Knight.
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
6 4 4 4 4 2 5 2 8
Weapons/Armor: A Blood Knight may be equipped with weapons and armor chosen from the HeroEquipment list.
Special Rules:
Cause Fear: Blood Knights are terrifying Undead creatures and therefore cause fear.

Immune to Psychology: Blood Knights are not affected by psychology and never leaves combat.

Immune to Poison: Blood Knights are not affected by poison.

No Pain: Blood Knights treat Stunned results as Knocked Down instead.

Leader: Any warrior within 6" of the Blood Knight may use his Leadership characteristic when taking Leadership tests.

0-2 Blood Errant; 65 gold crowns to hire
While not as powerful as their leader the Blood Knight, Blood Errants are a force to reckon with. Blood Errants are focused on one goal. To become the greatest warrior they can become and in some cases over throw their Blood Knight leader and become a leader themselves.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld

6 4 3 3 4 1 4 1 7
Weapons/Armor: Blood Errant may be equipped with weapons and armor chosen from the Hero Equipment list.
Cause Fear: Blood Errants are terrifying Undead creatures and therefore cause fear.

Immune to Psychology: Blood Errants are not affected by psychology and never leaves combat.

Immune to Poison: Blood Errants are not affected by poison.

No Pain: Blood Errants treat Stunned results as Knocked Down instead.

________________________________________

Henchmen (In groups of 1-5)
0+Skeletons; 15 gold crowns to hire
Shifting and cracking bones of the dead, skeletons are re-animated corpses of dead warriors. As Mordheim is filled with the dead and dying it is the prime location to summon these abominations back from the darkness.
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 2 0 3 3 1 1 1 5
Weapons/Armor: Skeletons may be equipped with weapons and armor chosen from the Henchmen Equipment list.

Cause Fear: Skeletons are terrifying Undead creatures and therefore cause fear.

Immune to Psychology: Skeletons are not affected by psychology and never leaves combat.

Immune to Poison: Skeletons are not affected by poison.

No Pain: Skeletons treat Stunned results as Knocked Down instead.

Brain Dead: Skeletons are dead creatures hence they gain no experience.

May not run: Skeletons are slow Undead creatures and may not run (but may charge normally).

0-5 Grave Guard; 30 gold crowns to hire
Grave Guard were once dead champions of men and beasts. When brought back to the living they retained part of their memories yet these are normally just basic memories such as how to fight and speak. The magic that animates them is the same magic that cause their deadly Wight blades to suck the life from the living.
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 3 0 3 3 1 3 1 5
Weapons/Armor: Grave Guard may be equipped with weapons and armor chosen from the Henchmen Equipment list.

Cause Fear: Grave Guard are terrifying Undead creatures and therefore cause fear.

Immune to Psychology: Grave Guard are not affected by psychology and never leaves combat.

Immune to Poison: Grave Guard are not affected by poison.

No Pain: The Grave Guard treat Stunned results as Knocked Down instead.

Brain Dead: The Grave Guard are dead creatures hence they gain no experience.

May not run: Grave Guard are slow Undead creatures and may not run (but may charge normally).

Blood Dragon Special Equipment

Wight Blades (Grave Guard Only)
30 Gold Crowns
Availability: Common
Range: Close Combat
Special Rules
Killing Blow: A warrior with a Wight Blade will wound its target automatically if you roll a 6 to hit.

Note that you can still roll a dice for every wound inflicted in this way. If you roll a 6, you will inflict a critical hit with that roll. If you do not roll a 6, you will cause a normal wound. Take armor saves as normal.

Special Skills

Uncontrollable Thirst: The Vampire’s thirst is overwhelming and the sight of blood will cloud his judgment and he will rush to drink. If an enemy model loses a wound within 4” of the vampire the vampire must take a Ld test at -2. If fails the vampire will immediately charge the model who was wounded. If the vampire is already in a combat count him as having failed a leadership test for trying to leave combat.

Red Fury: The Vampire moves with such speed that he is able to defend himself and attack simultaneously. If a vampire parries successfully he rolls a d6 and adds his Initiative. The attacker does the same. If the vampires score is higher than his attacker he may make an immediate attack against the attacking target.

Honor above all: Honor is not won from range combat but from meeting your opponent face to face. Anything else is just cowardice. Such is the Blood Dragon’s distaste for ranged combat is that they hate any model carrying a missile weapon.

Honor bound: This skill can only be taken by the leader. Such is the Blood Dragons honor that they will fight to the last man (or vampire). The leader can re-roll his first fail route test of the game. They also can never voluntarily route.

My first instinct is to point out the #1 rookie mistake for undead, namely "You don't have any henchmen that gain exp!"... but you kinda covered your bases with the "pressganging" rule. I think it COULD work, but you'd definitely need to test it. (for clarity, I suggest that you break the "only the worthy" into a 'recruiting captured" and 'recruiting dying'.)

Max Size - consider 12. This isn't a horde warband.

Blood Errant - maybe allow them to take 0-3? I know they're tough, but with NO standard recruitment method, 0-3 is not unheard of. (and as bad as 1 vamp and 3 lesser vamps are, look at the Norse list... they have 6 heroes, four of which are EVIL.)

Skeletons - eh, why not give them BS2? They're the undead peasants, lobbing rusty arrows at the foe.

Uncontrollable Thirst - if there's an upside to this skill? I can't see it.

Mounts - Nightmares seem more appropriate.

Your income potential is low for a starting warband. 4 heroes would be a good start.

Using the Tomb Guardians template your Grave Guard would be the henchmen who could gain experience and LGT. (Or you could call them Black Knights and make them the Blood Dragon's honor guard...)

Skeletons--Warhammer Skeletons had BS 2 in 5th edition (the basis for most stats) and they kept it in 6th even though they lost missile weapons is the official lists.

Is the Blood Knight as wizard? He should be, for fluff reasons. Also you need a 3rd henchman type. Maybe Dire Wolves or a undead hound equivalent?

Your list would benefit from a 3rd hero option that fills the 'youngblood' place. While Blood dragons only feature strong vampires within their ranks, even blood knights need squires of some kind.

I'd add 0-2 dregs to the list who are bascially the groupies of the warband looking for the chance to prove themselves. Once they accumulate 24 XP, they may be upgraded to thralls, as above.

you definately need a 3rd henchmen type that can gain XP and LGT. I'd suggest the black knight featured above.

Overall, I think the warband makes for a fun warband, but can be crippled easily with a few unlucky serious injury rolls. You might want to allow recruiting a single thrall if your warband doesn't feature any anymore.

First off; Sorry to bring up an older thread, but when i read this one i got a wee bit in love with the immortal gentlevamps.

I like vampires, armor and honorific fights so ive been lookin into models that would fit into this band.

That said, i do think theres room here for improvement. The Grave Guard bodyguard is a good one, and also the idea that the vampire do know some basic spells.

How has it gone for you? Any updates??

Ontop of what everyone has said, I do like this idea for a warband.

The vibe I am getting from this warband is more of a 100% Melee army or an 'Elite' undead army, which is a great idea.

I know everyone is pressing for a 3rd Blood Errant, a Necromancer, or Dregs of sometype for your 4th hero slot which is all good, but to fit the refined feeling of the army you could make an Undead Retainer/Butler who could either be an zombie, lesser vampire, or sometype of dreg.

You could even add Wight/Black Knights as your super elite infantry or a Dreg Vassal or something like that.

For skills you could add more 'Charm' related skills, like Beguiling/ Transfixing Gaze.

4th: Well, a Squire would fit that well. I suppose "groomsmen" also fits the bill.

I'm surprised there's no hunting dogs, really. Dire wolves, undead wardogs, spectral hounds, something. Otherwise, you have mounted warriors on warhorses (though Nightmares might be more appropriate), and undead henchmen- that move 1/4th the speed (all the more reason to switch to a nightmare, which can't run.) That way, you have fast moving troops, and slow moving troops, and heroes and hench in both areas.

Houndsmaster maybe? A Youngblood style hero that allows you to take 0-2 Dire Wolves? And maybe as long as he in the same combat as one of the Wolves he gains +1ws?

Houndsmaaster works. Other possible names: houndman, pages, varlets, aides and veneurs

By adding the 2 to the Scellies BS, would that make them more expensive?

And by giving the Vampire one of the lesser spells, or a undead spell, would that make him TOO powerful??

On the Heroes/Henchmen subject im all in for the Black Knight-thingy. And some warhounds.
It does seem to fit the fluff.

Im kinda torned about this warband. It really feels like something is missing and its sad to see when it has the chance to become something really nice!

Perhaps i build me one and tries out your ideas.

Giving the skeletons BS2 should only make them more expensive if they can actually *use* their BS. Since they don't have access to any shooting weapons and no way to get access to them I don't think they should go up in price.

I also would strongly recommend the addition of a youngblood level Squire, Valet, Houndsman or what-have-you. Preferably someone human that the warband can use for all those occasions they need someone to go out in daylight or visit a normal city or some such.

In my circle we have playtested a few experimental warbands and one thing we found is that almost no matter how powerful the heroes were, starting with only three of them was *crippling* and not only does this warband start with only 3 heroes but they also have no xp earning henchmen. Possibly the thrall mechanic will counter for this, but my gut feeling is "no, it won't". *Shrug*. Playtesting will show one way or the other.

Just looking over it, I wouldn't object to the leader being a wizard with access to Necromantic magic, but you might want to make something that replaces 'zombie' with 'skeleton' or something. In one of the Town Criers it suggested a house rule that when a vampire learned spells from a Tome of Magic you could allow them to choose from the necromancy spells rather than just the Lesser Magic spells. I don't think that would be too powerful as first he has to get Arcane Lore, then he has to get a Tome of Magic, then he (realistically) has to get armoured wizard, and then he has to use a skill on actually getting a spell. With all that effort, I don't think it makes much difference if the spell is a lesser magic spell or a necromantic spell.

Oh, I think you should make it that whoever is the leader also gains access to the Academic skill table, just like how sisters and chaos leaders gain access to casting when their leaders die.

BS: Well, give them Bows. Not as deadly as xbows or longbows, but something that makes them resemble the Bretonnians they once were.

An alternate way of the Vampire being a spellcaster:

Wizard: he starts with one random spell from the Necromantic spell list. Treat all mentions of "zombies" as "skeletons".
Hone Craft: Blood dragons may use magic, but aren't strong believers in it, preferring to use their physical might in battle. The Blood Dragon knows only 1 Necromantic spell, and may not learn another. However, every time the Dragon earns an advancement, he may roll on the Necromantic Spell list- he may choose to trade the existing spell he knows for the one just rolled. This does not cost a skill, and may be done for free. The only way the Blood Dragon may learn an additional spell is with a Tome of the Dead item, in which he immediately learns a second Necromantic spell (and none further!) If he knows two spells, he may only trade one out per advancement.

Very [b] nice StyrofoamKing!! That solves the "issue" with spell directly AND fits the fluff!!

Oh, gotta get me some count as models to try out. Especially when it comes to the last Hero.

Hi All, Im glad you guys are toying with my list. I was surprised to see a message from Styrfoamking saying that the topic was brought back up.

So here is where I originally wanted to go with this list.

I wanted a warband that all of the heros were vampires. (Blood Dragons to be specific) But we all know a warband that has 6 Vampires would be completely ridiculous. So I was trying to come up with ideas that allowed a warband to potentially have 6 vampires and not be so crazy,

I have not been able to playtest the roster yet tho. Im not sure what works and what doesnt. I like the idea that the army has no shooting. Its very in line with the theme. I read somewhere that maybe adding bowmen would make them more in line with the Brets. I agree with this but as far as blood dragons I dont think they would use them. They prefer to fight in close combat. Up front with blood all around. As such thats why i didnt add any bowmen at all in the roster.

I think I like StyrofoamKing's idea for magic. I think that would work well for them. Also explains how the force is staying together.

I like the original way of recruiting new heroes, but I think you need to crunch the numbers, so you'll have the same probability of getting a new hero as your opponent:

EDIT: Crunched numbers
Three henchman in individual groups (and let's say they don't die, by some miracle) each have a 1/6 chance of becoming a hero each time they advance. They advance on game 2, 5, 9, and 15. If there are 3, that means that after each of those 4 advances, you have a 50% chance of getting a new hero. Divided evenly between 15 games, that means in any given game, you have an average of a 13% chance of getting a hero.

Thus, a super simple way to recruit is to steal from the "dead".

Coven: Every time your opponent has a living, non-large hero die, you may recruit him as a new hero. He loses all skills and stats, and gains the same rules as a Blood Errant. All equipment is lost. Only one hero may be recruited per post game.

A hero dies on a D66 roll of 11-15, which comes out to 13.8%. Odds are, not more than 1 hero will die each game, but if you want to take the safe rout, and or include the "strength of the warrior test."

A. make the dying hero take a Strength test. If he passes, he becomes a worthy Blood Errant. If he fails, he becomes a worthless Skeleton.
b. same as above, except he rolls 1D6 and adds his S. The Blood Knight rolls 1D6 and adds his strength - if the dying hero ties or surpasses the Blood knight, he becomes an errant.
c. Either of the above, except any Knight is automatically recruited, and retains his equipment.

The pirate recruitment system is an example of a fun idea that is super complicated to use. However, recruiting from DEAD warriors (rather than living ones), means that the player was going to lose that warrior ANYWAY. Less resentment from your opponents that way.

What about a skill a hero can take that converts him from a mortal hero into a vampire? So they have something like the pirate thing but the recruited warriors become a thrall that can eventually become a blood errant? May need some modifying but could be interesting.

Blood Knights don't have Heavy armor?

Eh?? That aint seem right!

All my planned models wears heavy armor! Seem kinda wrong otherwise..

Typo perhaps?

its actually there its just meshed with the Melee Weapons
and then written again.

Balrog might have a thought... what if the new recruits (from the opposing dead), got recruit as Thrall Henchmen? Thus, you could have henchman that become heroes, they'd just be unbuyable.


0-7 Thralls
Hiring Fee: Special Recruitment
M WS BS S T W I A Ld
5 4 3 3 3 1 4 1 7
Whenever an opposing hero dies... yadda yadda yadda.
Immune to Psychology

New Thrall Skills:
Embodiment of Terror: granting fear.
Embodiment of the blood fiend: immune to poison and +1 Movement.
Embodiment of Death: Immune to Stunning.

So, this way, it's not like the Undead Warband, which is filled with 0 zombies, 0 dire wolves, and tons of zombies. You can get thralls... but only when your opponents die. That way, you'll not have TONS of them, but just enough to replenish your dying Errants

This is really starting to come together as something i would really like to playtest!!

A Vampire Boss with an lesser magic spell and still be a force to recon with? Great!!
Lots of Zombies?? Sweeeet!!
Rivalty inside the warband? I can dig that!

And as the cherry on top; "Steal" an hero from another warband!!

Perhaps Siredge would be kind to update the roaster as he sees fit with the suggestions/ideas given in this thread?

Lesser Magic doesn't fit... of the core lists, it's the strongest. It also feels even MORE "magicy" than Necromancy, so it doesn't seem to fit the warrior type of Blood Dragon. (Reminder: the Blood Dragon needs to specifically say, "starts with one Necromancy spell, cannot learn another. A Tome of Magic or Tome of the Dead will grant him an additional Necromancy spell."

Version B: Or, if we don't want to have a too top heavy warband, give the Groom / Houndsman "Call of Vanhel." So, his job is to act as "spur" to both the dogs at the skeletons. Cannot learn other spells, but he starts off with a semi-useful one.

StyrofoamKing wrote:

Balrog might have a thought...

It's been known to happen occasionally!

Blood Dragons are a fun thing from the Warhammer fluff. I may never have a chance to play them myself, but I eagerly look forward to what comes of this!