by Gordon D Easingwood

Created on: April 14, 2010   Last Updated: April 16, 2010

Those who guard the grave

Grave guard are wights, wights are animated by ancient and powerful magics.  Before mankind truly settled down he often interred mighty warriors and kings in great cairns and tombs throughout the lands.  These were often sealed with dark magics meant to curse any who defiled them to a dark death.  This dark magic infused the already enchanted bones and armour of these mighty warriors with an unholy afterlife.

Many vampires have released these foul creatures from the spell binding them from their tombs to serve as elite troops with the forces of the vampire counts.  Wielding ancient armour of bronze and blacken metal and carrying the ancient and now corroded enchanted weapons that they wielded in life.

These wights or grave Guard as they are more commonly know are often found as sentries standing silently watching atop castle walls and towers, ready to animate into unholy unlife should any approach who threaten their vampire master.

In battle these grave guard form into a vanguard often taking the roles of bodyguards to their powerful vampire masters.  Having been enchanted and infused by dark magic for so long wights are more powerful then other undead.

In the Game

Grave guard are a heavily armoured elite infantry, though not the best in the game properly equipped and supported say by a vampire and a nearby corpse cart they can be a deadly opponent.  All wights including grave guard have wight blades which grants then killing blow.  This makes them a threat to many characters.

Disadvantages

Although the best infantry available to undead, there is better infantry out there.  One attack each also limits the number of attacks and therefore the amount of damage the unit can inflict.  The switch to two-handed weapons comes at the expense of losing their shield (this gives them a 3+ save in hand to hand, very nice).

Other tips

Grave guard are still an infantry unit this means invocation of nehek grants D6 worth of models back!  Ensure your unit is of a decent size to last long enough for you to restore any casualties.  There are of a reasonable points cost to put on the table in a 20 strong unit with full command and ranks.  With toughness 4 and a 3+ save or double handed weapons with a corpse cart for always strike first they can threaten most units in the game.  I prefer to take a magical banner that increases static combat resolution in particularly I like the Banner of the dark legion which doubles you unit strength this gives you an excellent chance to outnumber your opponent which will cause them to automatically break if not immune to psychology should you win combat.  And with full static combat resolution you should have a good chance.  A character with the staff of damnation nearby also helps by giving the wights an extra attack in the magic phase to whittle the number of enemy troops down.

I hope this little guide to the Vampire Counts Unit Grave Guard has been useful to you.

Thanks for reading

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