Take a look at the recent Welsh Open winning list for Warhammer: The Old World, and why it works.
The other weekend saw the 2025 Welsh Open: The Rise Of Sylvania take place. Held in Cardiff, Wales this is a large event. Something like 80 people registered, making it one of the largest events in the world. The event had a pretty cool pack, using a verity of custom missions, which I’ve heard added a lot of fun to the games. It had some light comp (only 2 Grand Cathay Lanterns) and did not use the Renegades pack. When the dust had settled on five epic rounds of The Old World, only one list had won all five round (another list was technically undefeated going four wins a tie). Jack Ward with his Vampire Counts (appropriately) went 5-0 scoring the most victory points as well. A big congrats to Jack and lets take a look at his list.
Jack Ward’s Winning List – Vampire Counts
Jack Ward (mopward)
240 – Master Necromancer, General, Wizard Level 4, Necromancy, Spell Familiar, Sceptre Of De Noirot, Cloak Of Mist & Shadows
400 – Master Necromancer, Mortis Engine, Wizard Level 3, Dark Magic, Spell Familiar, Lore Familiar, Talisman Of Protection
60 – Necromantic Acolyte, Wizard Level 1, Illusion
90 – Tomb Banshee
90 – Tomb Banshee
110 – Wight Lord, Battle Standard Bearer, Charmed Shield, Helm Of Commandment
431 – 26 Grave Guard, Shield, Drilled, Seneschal, Charmed Shield, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Drakenhof Banner, Musician
65 – 20 Zombies, Standard Bearer
68 – 21 Zombies, Standard Bearer
254 – 8 Hexwraiths, Hellwraith
192 – 6 Hexwraiths, Hellwraith
How The List Works
If you’ve been watching the game a lot lately this is going to be a pretty familiar list. The army is built around a very solid and hard to move core of units. Cheap Zombies act as cannon fodder and can be brought back with ease. They are a great unit for scoring in the modified Matched Play Guide missions, and give up almost no points if destroyed. To bolster that you’ve got the massive Grave Guard unit.
This is a super great core unit that is almost unkillable. These guys are T4 with a 3+ save in combat and thanks to the Drakenhof Banner have a 5+ Regen. On top of that the list is also built with the ability to get them up to a WS 9 and have a -1 to be hit. So you can rock these wights so that most units are hitting them on a 5+ or even a 6+, before all the saves. Nasty.
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Backing up the big blocks are some very deadly characters. They aren’t great at fighting but have a lot of magic and debuffs to through around. And can heal a ton. You’ve also got 3 screams to destroy enemy units that are tied up by the infantry. The most unique part of the list is the two good sized units of Hexwraiths. You don’t always see these, with a block of Blood Knights being more common in this kind of build.
Now Ethereal units are always pretty great, and this list does have some options to buff them. Hexwraiths are also a pretty nice unit to counter Cathay with. Cathay doesn’t have a ton of magic attacks, and the Lanterns can’t do much to hurt them, while their speed will let them catch a Lantern. I can’t 100% say that’s why Jack is running them, but it does seem like a decent plan.
The Characters In Detail
With nearly half the list in characters we can take a bit of a closer look at them as they are pretty important. The first thing you will notice is that this Vampire Counts army has no Vampires, which sadly isn’t all that uncommon. The list runs 6 characters which is a lot, but several are pretty basic. The two Banshees for instance are there to scream and don’t need much explanation. The cheap lvl 1 with Illusion seems to be built to go into the Grave Guard and cast Glittering Robes on them for a -1 to be hit. Likewise the Wight Lord is there to buff the Grave Guard and make them core.
That leaves us with the two Master Necromancers. The general is Ethereal, making him pretty hard to kill as he can hide near a unit. He also knows 5 spells and can heal twice. He’s mostly there to buff/debuff, dropping LD minuses on the enemy for the screams to take advantage of. At the same time he can heal the Grave Guard and make it very hard for the enemy to score points.
The 2nd Master Necromancer is on a Mortis Engine. This does all the Mortis Engine things. He’s got a ward save to make him harder to kill, and is rocking 4 spells that he gets to pick. Dark Magic lets him do some fun things. Word of Pain for instance is a great spell and used to support the Grave Guard can make them even harder to kill. I also like the option to throw Battle Lust onto the Hexwariths making them randomly very deadly. It’s not a combo you see often.
As you can see each of these characters has a real role. None of them are super deadly on their own. But they give Jack a lot of options. Combining them can be devastating. So once again congrats to Jack on his wins and a well played event!
Let us know what you think of the list, down in the comments!
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Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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