Review: Vampire Counts Army Book

A little late with a review now maybe but now I have had an good read trough the book and I must say that GW continues doing really nice Army Books this edition. First of all it's hardback as the other 8th edition books and this makes the books pricier than before. But I for one don't mind that when the books are such better quality and they will probably last a lot longer.

One thing thing that strikes me though when looking at the book is the cover art. Which I'm not particularly fond of at all. Sure the cover looks a little bit retro which is nice but the vampire looks more like a cartoon figure and not that menacing like the rest of the book. That's not a huge deal though as all the rest of the artwork in the book looks really nice, some old used ones but quite a lot of new ones as well.

So what about the content then, the fluff from the older books are still there and there aren't many changes. There are of course some new fluff regarding the new units and also a new story with Mannfred Von Carstein. He now understand that he can't overthrow the throne in the Empire when they always are backed up by the Dwarfs and Elves when any huge threats to world is attacking (like Archaon in Storm of Chaos). So he plans to destroy the relations between them and starts with the Dwarfs and High Elves. Not a long story but well written and I hope they expand it in the future.

Rulewise I can't comment to much as I haven't played with or against them yet. But the rules looks really solid, and a lot more balanced than the 7th ed. book. For example now there's actually a choice between the main core infantry blocks. Skeletons are a lot cheaper than before, ghouls are still great but more expensive than the other choices and you can actually take Zombies now! They now have s 3 and t4 and cheaper and when using Invocation you get 2 d6 + wizard level back. So now I have to build all the Mantic Zombies and paint them :P.

The new units looks nice and should have a place in many armies. The rules for them seems nice as well, and I'm particularly interested in the Vargheists and a Mortis Engine. Won't go more into to detail than this into the rules but everything looks solid and balanced and only time will tell how they will compete against the other armies.Most seems to like the book and the new rules, not overpowered like the old one but strong and balanced exactly like every army book should be. The 8th ed. books have been great so far and this book is no exception, just hope GW continues on this route doing great and quite balanced books.

Rating: 4 out of 5