A Tactical Look: Dracula’s Host

Hello Venetians, today we’re going to look at one of the most powerful men in Venice and how you can add him to your games of Carnevale!

Vlad Dracula is hundreds of years old and the progenitor of almost all of the vampires in Venice, once thought dead, the rent in the sky has brought him back from ashes and filled him with renewed purpose. Along with his brides Miriam, Ceres, and Cibele he guides the Strigoi in his quest for ascension.

He’s also the second most expensive leader, not leaving much room for the rest of your gang, especially if you want to use his brides as well. While there are many Strigoi characters we could include in a list with Vlad, we’ll show you how to make a list including only the models available in the Starter Gang and Dracula’s Host box.

You can find all of the stats for the Strigoi faction on our gang builder over on the Carnevale website.

75 Ducats:

Our 75 Ducat list contains Vlad, one Bride, a Newborn Strigoi, and a Thrall (using a crossbow). This list is one character down compared to most 75 point gangs and three fewer characters than a 75 point guild list (though we tried to squeeze as many characters into that one as we could). With this list, Vlad is definitely going to be your heaviest hitter so he’ll need to be front and centre. In this list we’d give the bride Fateweaving, Curse of the Rent and Blessing of the Sky are great at increasing the odds of either Vlad or your Newborn. The Newborn Strigoi is fast, with a Move of 5 you can get him into combat in no time, keep Vlad behind him to use as a walking shield in case your opponent charges at Vlad first. Finally keep your Thrall close to the bride to make use of its Bloodletting to fuel the brides spells and fire crossbow bolts at whoever has Curse of the Rent applied to them.

100 Ducats:

Now onto 100 Ducats, here we add an additional bride and upgrade our Thrall to a Common Strigoi, losing our ranged support but gaining a capable melee combatant as well as another discipline of magic. Much the same as the 75 point list, you’ll want to get Vlad into combat as soon as possible. With the addition of Blood Rites, Vlad can get up to a mighty 10 Attack, with 3 Actions he can potentially kill anything short of a Morgraur with good (and bad) rolls. That’s not even taking his Frenzied rule, which lets him use his Life as if it were Will, bringing his potential attack up to 12! Common Strigoi are great at taking on lone characters themselves, as long as they deal at least 1 point of damage you can safely use Frenzied for a single Life and recover it from Vampiric Attack, essentially giving it an Attack of 5. With 4 Protection and 5 Dexterity they’re not easy to wound either, as well as perfectly able to take to the roofs.

150 Ducats:

The final list is our 150 Ducat list, adding in the final Bride as well as two Thralls, one of which is a crossbow wielder. We’re also taking a Bottled Courage and Intercepted Documents to infiltrate one of our more combat capable vampires. With our final bride we get to add Runes of Sovereignty. Ice Lock is great for adding stun markers to opponents and Madness lets you use your opponents best character against them. Like with the 75 Ducat list we’ll be keeping the Crossbow wielding Thrall close to one of our brides for ranged support, or a meal. You can keep the Club wielding Thrall near one of your melee fighters, Stun should be used to great effect in this gang, with so few characters you need to make your attacks count. Making sure to charge, as well as getting good use out of magic and Frenzied will let you take this list far.

So there you have 3 easy ways of playing Vlad and his brides in your games of Carnevale. While these lists don’t have much in the way of model count they have a lot of tactical depth with 3 mages and a very risk-reward approach to Will.

All of this was achieved using only the Strigoi Starter Gang and the Dracula’s Host boxes.