Interested in starting Vampire counts (or higheldar)

[Admiral-Badruck]

looks like a good one...

[Primarch]

Yeah, Reaper do some very tasty miniatures.
You can order a load of the stuff from here
From time to time, Yellow Submarine in Nagoya get some Reaper stuff in as well.

[jus]

wow nice site. Do these guys only take bank transfers as way of payment? They also say something about paying them after you have received the goods hmm

[Primarch]

I think they may have a Cash on Delivery system (they partner with Taka at Full Metal Planet who uses that system). You may have to email and ask about it.

[jus]

hmm cool ok, more vampires yay. Ok so how would you guys rate grave guard with great weapons? would you rather have them sword and board instead?

how about normal skeletons and spears or sword and board?

[Primarch]

Well, the Great Weapon gives you a chance to cause wounds to high toughness creatures and reduce the opponent's armour save, and with a relatively low I score anyway, going last isnt too much of a drawback. However, since Grave Guard always have the Killing Blow rule, any to wound rolls of 6 instantly kill any infantry or cavalry with only ward saves allowed. Using a hand weapon isnt too much of a drawback. The shield also boosts your save to a 4+ and grants a 6+ ward save in hand to hand combat, both of which are why I would always choose the shield over the great weapon. Against large monsters you have other things that can kill them, Grave Guard are there for butchering infantry.

Likewise with the skeletons, spears can be great (allowing more ranks to fight), but the sword and shield combo grants the ward save. 6+ is nothing special, but can be useful in keeping that 1 extra model alive. It also lets some models live when a dragon charges them. If you're going with lots of necromantic magic users, with abilities like Lord of the Dead, then spears may be a better choice since you can get more attacks and replace your losses. If you're not so heavy on the magic, sword and shield will keep your models fighting longer.