The big problems in no particular order:
- Cannon
- Hellpit Abomination
- Screaming bell unit
- Doomwheel
- Gutter runner poison scouts
The Hellpit abomination
This is a tough, fast piece that can really go to town on my army. It is a huge threat to my army and CANNOT be allowed to roam around my back lines, while at the same time I feel my lists really lack the tools to deal with it. I've tried chucking poison wounds on it with ghouls, but it can easily eat a unit of 30 over 3 or 4 turns. I can reliably kill it with the chainsaw vampire in a unit of skeletons with the flaming banner, but that's not a very manoeuvrable unit. If anyone has any ideas save taking a level one forbidden lore vamp and trying to 6 dice a big fireball, please let me know. For now I'll have to settle with blocking it's pivots with spirit hosts/bats etc, but he can counter that.
The Doomwheel
This piece is quite killable, and doesn't stand up to a good charge from the units it wants to get in front of and zap (monsters, crypt horrors). The problem with it is that for 150 points it is such an undercosted piece. It can eat up my chaff, has a dangerous flank charge if left alone and of course, the lightning bolts are enough of a threat that I can't allow it too near any terrorgheist, varghulf, knights, lone characters or mortis engine I happen to be running. This is it's real strength, that it's deployment dictates my deployment. There isn't much I can do about that, except deal with it and kill it quickly.
The Warp Lightning Cannon
The WLC is unreliable, but can easily take out my big pieces like the varg* units, mortis engines, terrorgheists while at the same time being back field surrounded by chaff. I can try vargheists/bats to get in and kill it or at least stop it from firing, but then that's shut down for at least one turn, likely at least two, by the storm banner. Again I can try for the 48" fireball, but if anyone can offer advice I'd appreciate it.
The Poison Gutter runners
These guys would be no problem if it weren't for the fact they are scouts. Almost any of my units can kill them but will take casualties from poison stand-and-shoot then the high initiative poison attacks. I could wear them out with a spirit host as their attacks are not magical, but being scouts he can pick his match ups and would have to be really distracted to allow that. Gaze of Nagash works well against them, as would the rod of flaming death, but with the grey seer around I seem to struggle to get spells off.
The Screaming Bell unit
I'll split this section into the unit's major components.
The Grey Seer
This guy...he's extremely survivable for a wizard, with skalm, 4+ ward from the Bell and fencer's blades. The warpstone tokens being free allow him to dominate a critical magic phase and dreaded 13th can remove a damaged or elite unit from play. He also seems to never care about miscasts, as long as he doesn't cascade killing a few stormvermin doesn't matter. I think silencing his magic would be great, but it's going to be turn 3 or 4 by the time you even get to the unit, and with skalm you must kill him in one phase. You have to choose to kill him, or kill the bell and try to break the unit once they lose unbreakable. If you don't kill both, you don't get victory points, so the choice is the Bell.
I think death magic could be key, sniping him off the bell or purple sun removing the bell and hopefully the seer. The only problem there is that with magic resistance 2 from the bell, snipe spells won't work.
The Bell
The bell is pretty survivable, T6, 4+ armour and a 4+ ward save. You have to kill it to remove the unbreakable, and this is very achievable if you brought your chainsaw vampire lord. If you didn't, prepare for a protracted combat or try to purple sun/pit it off. But remember no victory points unless you also drop the seer.
The Stormvermin
For 7 points each I think these guys are really a bargain, WS4, S4, I5 and unbreakable? Throw in death frenzy, bless with filth, skavenbrew, razor standard, maybe even roll a 13 when you ring the bell....These guys ensure that even if your vampire scores 10 combat res they'll earn it back killing skeletons/ghouls. So far minimising the amount that get to attack by going in 5-wide helps, but having to maximise means at least 5 models will get into base to base contact.
Overall, the unit combines to create a unit that is more than the sum of it's parts. The magic resistance, tons of wounds, unbreakable, tons of attacks and the fact that it holds so many victory points (and holds them very well) means that there is no 'silver bullet' answer to the unit. Deployed well it can hold a lot of victory points perfectly without danger for 5 turns while you are bogged down with chaff and getting shot to pieces. It's weaknesses include Dwellers Below, which I cannot access, and that the unit lacks magical attacks. I could put a few wraiths in the front rank with my combat vampire so the unit cannot generate combat res on my weak core troops, and I could flank him with hexwraiths. With a combat vampire working on the bell this could work, but this approach is both tailoring the list and easily countered. The majority of his ranged power is magical and hexwraiths would be giving away points.
They could drive-by the hellpit on the way though. Brrrap brap.
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