"Reclaiming his long-denied birthright, Great Prince Vladimir Tzepesci rides his warhorse Vsada into battle to defend the lands of Umbrey restored to his family. He wields weapons of the ancient Tzepesci horselords, carrying a spear in one hand and the mace Huntsman in the other. Should strength of arms alone prove insufficient, Vladimir lashes out with dark sorceries, the blood of kings that runs in his veins lending him the strength to secure victory."
Vlad keeps most of his stats the same as with most of the third tier reincarnations with a little more ARM and a lot more SPD (He's on a horse) Vlad gave up his sword for a spear with brutal charge gains an additional die on damage on a charge, and it's really long so he has Reach. Vlad also carries the huntsman, his mace which has a higher P+S and it's a chain weapon so it ignores shield wall, shields and bucklers. Don't forget the War Pony he packs quite the punch with a standard P+S and Crit Knockdown.
Special abilities the great prince and his pony have Combat Rider allowing his horse to boot you in the face even if he didn't charge. He gets Relentless Charge meaning that on his charge he gains pathfinder meaning that he can get to you Even Faster! Last but not least Vlad gets Blood-Quenched, whenever he kills an enemy this round he gains+1 STR +1 ARM meaning on a charge if he angles it right kills the things in front then when he get to his charge target he's going to have more STR and more ARM that on top of Brutal Charge equals ouch!
On the spell front Vlad is no slouch as with previous incarnations he brings not just melee brute force but a collection of spells that puts many casters to shame. Top of the list is Dash giving all warrior models in his CNTRL area +1 SPD and immune to free strikes meaning that now Uhlan's can impact charge away with extra SPD and not worry about pesky free strikes. Plus this also gives Vlad more brute force on his own Brutal charge.
Next they gave Vlad Flashing Blade so at the end of his charge before the combat he can cast flashing blade on his lance lets say hit everyone within 2" gaining more Blood-Quenched goodness before he finishes his attack.
Not to be out shown is Hand of Fate a disgusting cheep upkeep-able spell that gives a unit an additional die to hit and damage with dropping the lowest of those dice. Meaning reliable hitting and reliable... well... Squish.
Infernal Machine is all kinds of sick nasty giving a warjack in your battle-group +2 SPD and MAT along with the oh so useless terror! Yes one in twenty will scare the pajesus out of a unit but just a nice added bonus for the MAT and SPD bonus especially Khador's swift footed Warjacks am I right?
How can you go wrong with Razor Wind a Khador classic a cheap ranged spell of decent power giving Vlad a nice way to rid himself of extra foes at range.
His last spell another Vlad classic Wind Wall he can't make ranged attacks and non-magical ranged attacks automatically miss models within 3" of this model cannot make ranged attacks and non magical ranged attacks targeting them automatically miss.
Last but most certainly not the least is Vlad3's Feat: Charge of the Horse Lords - Friendly faction Warjacks and Cavalry models in Vlad's CNTRL area gain Side Step ( A model with side step can move 2" without free strikes every time they hit with an initial weapon. No bought attacks) and Sprint ( A model with sprint can move it's SPD at the end of it's activation if it destroyed at least one model during it's activation)
This feat can be uneventful if not planed out well or absolutely devastating. Vlad3 with a unit of Uhlans with Hand of Fate and Drago with Infernal Machine up, can by turn two can be impact charging with three dice to hit three dice damage dropping the lowest Vlad Blood-Quenched and sidestepping can lead a brutal charge followed by a swift retreat leaving you room to for you to run extra units up from the back to block charges after your smash then regroup for another attack. I think that this feat will catch a lot of people off guard making it a problem that opponents of Vlad3 will have to deal with.
My thoughts on Vlad, Great Prince of Umbrey is that he give you a reason to field cavalry and has ways to make them even better. As far as the Cav casters go Vlad3 gives his cav the biggest boost that being Hand of Fate and well his Feat. With a unit of light cav on the horizon makes me think that Khador will remain the mounted kings of combat in the Iron Kingdoms. The added boost of a cav caster just helps them be even more effective. That being said there still is numerous weaknesses of cav and not sure if this will balance the gap or just make it a little more interesting when you see a field of horses bearing down on you.
