Probably the closest in terms of the old vanilla Vampire player, is the Vampire Thrower. For 110k, you get the classical statline of Strength 4 and AG2+ along with a very, very nice PA2+ and Pass for good measure. The Vampire Thrower very much does what it says on the tin whilst also being pretty flexible overall with access to all but Strength skills in its Primary skills pool. These guys will probably be your go-to Vampire for most builds as well, they’re more reliable with their Bloodlust (2+) compared to the 3+ of the Blitzers and keep their strength and armour compared to the Runners. Honestly, they’re just an excellent all-rounder on top of their “Thrower” monicker and while you can lean into that, you probably don’t want to specialise them too much to make the most out of their above-average statline and fill in the gaps your Blitzer and Runners leave. They’re a brooding, fanged, swiss army knife!

Still, there’s an argument to be made they’re amongst the best Throwers in the game, PA2+ for a start is, of course, great but having ST4 and Ag2+ means they can easily get into better-throwing positions and are much harder to put down in general. Bloodlust does keep them from being the out-and-out best but at least he won’t run off the field anymore!

Build List:

• • Random Skills
  • General Thrower
  • All-Rounder
  • Pure Passer

Vampire Thrower Base Stats:

Randomised Skills:

With their expensive cost, it’s tempting to consider some random skills on the Vampire Thrower and of the three Vampire positionals, they’re the least-worst candidate. However, you really want to pick their skills to get the most out of them especially as you only have two and can roll into some real duds for this player.

General Thrower | Vampire Thrower Build

Primaries: Block, Sure Hands, Dodge, Accurate, Pro/Leader, Safe Pass
Secondaries:
Characteristics: MA, ST, PA

This will be your bread and butter Vampire and honestly, you can’t go wrong building both like this.

The usual Block and Dodge combo absolutely ROCKS on any Vampire, the former giving them protection when handling the ball, and the ability to give some proper whacks in return with their Strength 4. Dodge and AG2+ are a match made in heaven and again, even more protection should you get hit. Sure Hands I think is a must as well, Vampires are a very ReRoll reliant team with Bloodlust so having a player who can very reliably pick up the ball will probably save you at least one over the course of the game and they have a go at stealing the ball too, especially with some choice Hypo-gazes from your other Vampires. Not only that, players will be very willing to 1 die or even uphill block your ST4 throwers with Strip Ball players, so with this you’re well protected from that too. The order you get these in, for me is going to depend on how your league looks, against faster teams I’d go for Sure Hands first as there’s more time pressure to pick up the ball, whereas Dodge will serve you better in a bashier division.

Accurate turns your Short passes into 2+s which is all you’re going to need really, the Runners are so fast that you don’t need to pass that far in order to get into a threatening position. Safe Pass isn’t a bad shout either, the last thing you want to do is drop the ball after having just succeeded your Bloodlust so a little more safety is very nice.

Pro is just better this edition and thus even better on the Vampires, any sort of protection against Bloodlust is very helpful. Leader is a decent alternative too, as mentioned above Vampires burn through ReRolls so having more on the field without needing to spend 120k (and adding that to your TV!).

Old School Vampire | Vampire Thrower Build

Primaries: Block, Dodge, Side-Step, Tackle, Pro
Secondaries: Guard, Mighty Blow
Characteristics: ST, AG, MA

As generalised as you can get, this Vampire just takes the old faithful and puts them into one very strong package. Block and Dodge as mentioned above are double good on ST4/AG2+ and then Side Step gives you a little more out of your MA6 and can help you avoid some fouling positions as well.

Unlike before, the Vampire thrower now lacks Strength as a primary, but they don’t tend to struggle for SPP, so getting some Guard and MB will help round off this player. Throw in some added Tackle for some anti-Elf/Amazon/Skaven/Stunty fun!

Pure Passer | Vampire Thrower Build

Primaries: Sure Hands/Pro, Accurate, Safe Throw, Cannoneer, Block, Dodge
Secondaries:
Characteristics: MA, PA

If you want to go the whole hog with the passing game (and, why not honestly!) then it’ll simply be a case of front-loading the usual passing skills before things like Block and Dodge.

With AG2+ you are fairly reliable and receiving handoffs and picking up the ball so you could leave Sure Hands on this one,  but I’d be tempted to grab Pro anyway to help with Bloodlusts and the odd roll of a 1. After that, Accurate to make your Quick/Short Passes a 2+, Safe Throw to make sure you keep a hold on a fumble, then Cannoneer for 3+ Long Passes and 4+ Long Bombs!

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The Vampire Throwers are arguably your most versatile of the three Vampires, with the slightly more reliable Bloodlust 2+ and the full old-school Vampire stats. It would be a shame not to make use of the PA2+, especially combined with the Runners MA8 but you can definitely have them fill in any gaps your bashier Blitzers and faster Runners leave.

That’s it for the Vampire Thrall Linemen build! Check out our guides for the Vampire Thrall Linemen, Vampire Blitzer, Vampire Runner and Vargheist!