Return to the Vampire Coast

First a little background. Return to the Vampire coast is a campaign style weekend event at Maelstrom Games run by these guys. Not all armys are represented but there is a campagn pack explained what is and isnt alowd. You may even have access to brand new units. This can and does usualy mean your army/enemys force wont play exactly how your used too.
Now a few of you will remember my chaos troll army wich I took to another of their campaigns back in the spring. If not, heres an image or two to prompt your memorys.

A general army shot whilst out on display after being nominated for best painted.

Lined up against a soon to be eaten Brittionian force.

Anyhow, enough of the history lesson.  I enjoyed the weekend, I won every game, but still lost due to the 'leader' of the choas forces being a dumb struk teenager in love. (Last game he sent half the chaos armys to fight his girlfriend instead of defending the objective......)

So Im trying to get ready for the next one in July. Its a long way off but I paint at a snails pace and I need to prep my army list idea's.  Thats where Im stuck, I have 2 idea's for what to take one will be easyer to pull off then the other, the other will look way better (imo) and possible cost a small fortune....


List one - Chaos Daemons

DAEMONS OF CHAOS ARMY SELECTION: Chosen from the Warhammer Armies Daemons of Chaos book. The army may include any of the units listed as normal. All named Daemon characters are permitted

The pack also has one other unit.
The Plaguerider

Plagueriders are Beasts of Nurgle that have been adapted to carry Plaguebearers on their slime seeping backs. Plagueriders are armed with long filth encrusted lances and are adept at goring even the most heavily armoured victim, releasing countless diseases deep into their bodies.

The basic idea for this force is true unity of the 4 chaos gods. Each of the lists would have an equal showing from each god. 1 unit from each god in the 1500 and 2 from each in the 3K aswell as 1 of each herald.

The 3K list would roughly be

Bloodthirster - Forge world DP conversion
30 'letters with Herald
25 Horrors with Herald
14 Plaguebearers with Epidemius
10 Seekers with Herald
3 Plague riders - Forge world plague toad thingys
6 Flamers
3 Fiends

Would look nice and I already own pretty much everything I need. Would need to spend about another £100 to get the bits and pieces needed to finish it.

Random piccy to stop the wall of text crit hit....

List 2 - Armada of Arkhan  (thats Tomb Kings)Theres alot of changes to the usual TK book within this force.

ARMY SELECTION: The army is chosen from the latest Tomb Kings book and may include any of the following units:
CHARACTERS: Arkhan the Black; Tomb King; Liche High Priest; Tomb Prince; Tomb Herald; Liche Priest; Necrotect
CORE: Tomb Guard; Skeleton Warriors; Skeleton Archers
SPECIAL: Bone Ballista*; Necropolis Knights; Tomb Scorpion; Ushabti; Tomb Swarm; Carrion; Warsphinx; Sepulchral Stalkers
RARE: Casket of Souls; Screaming Skull Catapult; Necrolith Colossus; Hierotitan; Necrosphinx

Nothing looked great on first glance. All I noticed was they droped all the characters except Arkhan(makes sence fluff wise) and they also ditched the chariots! The best core unit in the TK book! They added an undead bolt thrower for 60pts, but forgot to give it arrows of the asp (the always hits on 5's thing) so its a bit cack.  Now they do get a few new army wide rules.

Opening Salvo: After both sides have deployed, but before the first turn has begun, the Tomb King player may fire any Screaming Skull Catapults or Bone Ballistae they have deployed. Once casualties have been determined and any panic checks made and any Tomb Guard units have made their vanguard moves, the dice is rolled to determine first turn.

Not too shabby, but Ive yet to be impressed by the Skull catapults and as i said above the Ballista look a bit cack. But were not done yet, theres one more rule.

Tomb Phalanx: Once the Opening Salvo has been fired, any Tomb Guard units in the army may make a vanguard move to represent the phalanx advancing under the cover of the Catapults and Ballistae. Once the units have made their move, the dice is rolled to determine first turn.

Thats nice. Correction TG with vanguard is damn nice.

Wasnt enough though. The lose of the chariots was the deciding factor. Without the speed the Core units would get left behind and murdered. So I sacked it off. Untill tonight. Tonight I reread that page in the campaign pack and noticed something I think I missed before. Tombguard were a core choice.....


Now all of a sudden the idea of a Tombguard based TK force realy appeals to me. Specialy as they have vanguard too...

heres a rough 3K list.

Horde of 40 Tombguard with Arkhan, necrotect and a King with the Deathmask.  - Nice 'deathstar' unit tbh
2 Warsphinx
6 Necro knights
Casket  (all of these so far have Tombguard either in, on, or crewing them)
2 Skull catapults
3 Ballista (fluff - cant vanguard without the opening salvo)

leaves about 500 points for some archers (salvo fluff) and possibly a few level 2's or a Heirotitan.

Now this will imo look far far better than the daemons, problem is its pretty much unusable outside this event. It will also need an investment of about £250 to pull it off because of the resin bases I use. 



Now I know you guys dont need to know any of this. But I find its easyer for me to figure out how my 'brain'  is working if I write it down. I could use paper, but I would loose it. So you lot get to look at it over that little bit of joy that is 'teh interwebz'.  Thoughts on either list? Thinking about attending? Let me know!