Vampire Count Tips?

[coolasianinja]

Hello, I was wondering if I could get any tips for playing them. Ive tried playing as Vlad/ Isabella for my first run with them cause they seemed cool but I just cant seem to get their economy going. I could field 1 - 1.5 armies that could stand pretty decently in a fight but my economy just collapses. Ive played as the High/ Dark/ Wood Elves, Cathay, and Skaven and was able to manage my economy fine. Idk if I'm just playing them wrong but I really wanna learn how to play them so any tips would be very helpful! Playing on H/H just in case anyone asks :)

[Skydan]

Make lots of repression buildings.

[coolasianinja]

Originally posted by Skydan:

Make lots of repression buildings.

Yea ive tried doing that but it comes to a point where I still dont have enough armies to defend the territory ive taken cause everyone declares war on me. max ive had was 2 armies with grave guards, skeletons, and some blood knights.

[chronobomb]

Vampire Heroes will carry your armies for a long time. I recommend starting as Isabella as she get's better buffs for Vampires. The other heroes are good too, but you get a lot of vampires as Isabella. Your armies should be your 5 heroes, Isabella and Vlad with a lot of skeletons and you can beat anything early game once you get to level 8 and unlock hunger for your heroes. The only early game expensive unit I might keep is one Vargheists and one Varghulf to deal with other races cavalry. A couple balefire corpse carts which will be replaced by necromancers and a unit of black Knights. Bats, Skeletons, and dire wolves are all you need to be effective for a long time as VC.

Spec your heroes into melee. Isabella should get red and blue line. Necromancers will be your casters.

Do not build any recruitment buildings only economic buildings. Keep a zombie stack with your main army and anytime you run into an army with more than 14 units, make sure to get your zombie stack wiped out to start creating massive graveyards. Goal is 5,000 dead on Ultra army size. With items, skills, and tech you can get your recruitment costs on graveyards down to less than 25%. Between the raise dead mechanic which can give back 50% of your lost units and cheap raise dead from your graveyards, you can replace losses for way less than their upkeep would have cost you had they survived.

There are 2 gold mines and a diamond mine controlled by the Greenskins near you in the mountains. You can grab the close by settlement in the Zufbar mountains and trade one to the Dawi to make early friends with them. This won't last forever as they naturally hate Vampires and will turn on you about the time you are close to finishing of the empire. By then my scouts have found other allies to trade with.

[coolasianinja]

Originally posted by chronobomb:

Vampire Heroes will carry your armies for a long time. I recommend starting as Isabella as she get's better buffs for Vampires. The other heroes are good too, but you get a lot of vampires as Isabella. Your armies should be your 5 heroes, Isabella and Vlad with a lot of skeletons and you can beat anything early game once you get to level 8 and unlock hunger for your heroes. The only early game expensive unit I might keep is one Vargheists and one Varghulf to deal with other races cavalry. A couple balefire corpse carts which will be replaced by necromancers and a unit of black Knights. Bats, Skeletons, and dire wolves are all you need to be effective for a long time as VC.

Spec your heroes into melee. Isabella should get red and blue line. Necromancers will be your casters.

Do not build any recruitment buildings only economic buildings. Keep a zombie stack with your main army and anytime you run into an army with more than 14 units, make sure to get your zombie stack wiped out to start creating massive graveyards. Goal is 5,000 dead on Ultra army size. With items, skills, and tech you can get your recruitment costs on graveyards down to less than 25%. Between the raise dead mechanic which can give back 50% of your lost units and cheap raise dead you can replace losses for almost nothing.

There are 2 gold mines and a diamond mine controlled by the Greenskins near you in the mountains. You can grab the close by settlement in the Zufbar mountains and trade one to the Dawi to make early friends with them. This won't last forever as they naturally hate Vampires and will turn on you once you start attacking the empire.By then my scouts have found other allies to trade with.

Thank you for this! This is really helpful! A major roadblock that I have as well is that if I expand west to deal with the Empire, the dwarves in the east kinda screw me over. Idk how to really deal with that. Not entirely used to having enemies all around me with little to no friends...

[chronobomb]

Originally posted by coolasianinja:

Thank you for this! This is really helpful! A major roadblock that I have as well is that if I expand west to deal with the Empire, the dwarves in the east kinda screw me over. Idk how to really deal with that. Not entirely used to having enemies all around me with little to no friends...

Early Vampire sucks at dealing with Armor. You need your monstrous infantry to deal with armor and they are both expensive and vulnerable to the enemies ranged units. It's hard to protect them in the early game but once you get your economy going then it's no issue.

Focus on Greenskins and Drycha which will help your reputation with Dawi. Making enemies of Dawi, Kislev, or WoC too early can ruin your game.

Empire will never be a major problem for Vlad as he gets vanguard deployment for the whole army even when he is a Hero.

[MrSoul]

Here’s some of my anecdotal advice to add too: I find, in lieu of the traditional zombie support stack(which is fine), a bat/wolf stack with generic vamp lord or necro is pretty good. Mash into main enemy mob with your heroes, grave guard etc once that timer for reinforcement is up, say goodbye to any ranged enemy has and/or hello to mass flanking action that breaks potential stalemate main forces are in.

Towards late game I’ll cycle those support stacks out for 50/50ish stack of bats, vargs and black knights.

Oh and vargs in general imho, make huge difference if can get them early as possible, even two in an army and like saying above me with return from grave etc, don’t be shy to bum rush them in early in a match to nuke enemy arty etc, sure the enemy mob prob turn around and intercept but then got them all disorganized while your shambling horde main line and heroes close the distance.

Guess in summary my last thought, you can out tank a lot of melee units in game with basic vamp units, but key I find is taking out ranged from equation cos if enemy can bog you down and fire away with ranged unrestricted, well that’s extra damage they need to out dps your tankiness I guess best way to put it lol

[coolasianinja]

Thanks you guys! I guess last thing for now, any worth in recruiting those sylvanian units for the ranged support? Im assuming no haha

[MrSoul]

Eh, it’s a toss up with vamps I think personally.

With allied recruitment too may be able to field some extra ranged too, and I know from playing with mod adds skele archers, unlimited slyvanian recruitment and undead trebuchets, like it can work but in vanilla iirc only get them through blood kiss lords and just not enough beyond one army to make a difference versus their bum rush and revive most of what lost(especially if still won the match) tactics.

[coolasianinja]

Originally posted by Mr.Soul:

Eh, it’s a toss up with vamps I think personally.

With allied recruitment too may be able to field some extra ranged too, and I know from playing with mod adds skele archers, unlimited slyvanian recruitment and undead trebuchets, like it can work but in vanilla iirc only get them through blood kiss lords and just not enough beyond one army to make a difference versus their bum rush and revive most of what lost(especially if still won the match) tactics.

gotcha, thanks!!