How to kill vampires

[Cram]

I finally get a decent squad and 5 of these guys just roll up on me and instawipe me. I've tried nets and stun but i can never bloody hit them. Is there an effective way to kill these things?

[Dindomir]

Well, nets and stun. That's it. Also, spears, swords and anything that gives you a chance to hit bonus. And dogs are always nice.
Edit: Don't bother with armor piercing, or bleeding.

[batteran]

I tried and find "taunt" work very well to save your injuried bro. This help you both to save bro, and get a "vampire" surrounded if you place your "taunters" well.

[Caliell]

Taunt and two handed swords, when your bros are experienced enough. Otherwise you need to basically surround your weakest bros (archers, crossbowmen) with the more stronger ones. and focus fire them. I dont know how did you roll on them, but they usually appear only at fringes of the map. Greatswords usually one or two shot them (sometimes even 3 at once), but for greatswords you need bros basically around level 8 at least.

[McGrits]

Originally posted by Dindomir:

Well, nets and stun. That's it. Also, spears, swords and anything that gives you a chance to hit bonus. And dogs are always nice.
Edit: Don't bother with armor piercing, or bleeding.

Bleeding vampires is one of the best and most reliable eay to kill them since bleeding will kill a post-nine-lives vamp.

[Dindomir]

Originally posted by McGrits:

Originally posted by Dindomir:

Well, nets and stun. That's it. Also, spears, swords and anything that gives you a chance to hit bonus. And dogs are always nice.
Edit: Don't bother with armor piercing, or bleeding.

Bleeding vampires is one of the best and most reliable eay to kill them since bleeding will kill a post-nine-lives vamp.

Didn't know that. Thanks.

[Pringles™]

Vampires are suspectible to stun from maces, counter-attack from swords, cleavers' bleed, multi-tile attacks when allowing them to surround a heavy-armor unit, nets, goblin poison, stagger from mauls/2H hammers, are easier to hit with spears and have no armor. Group up and give heaviest armor to your men with the lowest melee defence. Bring heater shields for non-two-handers. Dogs can be good distractions since vampires dont gain Confident morale from killing them, but do gain health from them, which is no concern if you use the dogs when the vampires are at their maximum health.

Good luck. They are perhaps the hardest enemy type to deal with vs any other single unit type, but are still very doable with a defencive strategy.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Puttiis:

Vampires are suspectible to stun from maces, counter-attack from swords, cleavers' bleed, multi-tile attacks when allowing them to surround a heavy-armor unit, nets, goblin poison, stagger from mauls/2H hammers, are easier to hit with spears and have no armor. Group up and give heaviest armor to your men with the lowest melee defence. Bring heater shields for non-two-handers. Dogs can be good distractions since vampires dont gain Confident morale from killing them, but do gain health from them, which is no concern if you use the dogs when the vampires are at their maximum health.

Good luck. They are perhaps the hardest enemy type to deal with vs any other single unit type, but are still very doable with a defencive strategy.

This is good, comprehensive advice, but I am not so sure about dogs, as they will often do nothing but replenish the Necrosavants' health pool. I would suggest giving the Perk Taunt to your tanks and have them attract the Necrosavants instead.

[Caliell]

I would advise against dogs as well. Dogs are basically health packs for necrosavants and they get in the way of those valuable positions when needing to chase them down after teleport. Dogs go for the path of least resistance (range) from a to b and do not try to circle around necrosavants, and their damage isn't something in comparison of a good solid greatsword whack.

[screeg]

Originally posted by Caliell:

I dont know how did you roll on them, but they usually appear only at fringes of the map.

Not true at all. There was a fortress on my map called Coven of the Ancients (or something like it) from very early game. Luckily, it said right on it it was a haven for hemovores. What was the garrison, you ask? 8 Necrosavants, that's all!

OP never said what level his team was, which is of course key to your hit chances. I could take two of them quite early (level 3-4), using nets and providing every single unit with mace weapons, but maybe I was lucky.

[千仞万渊]

Goblin poison wont work that's for sure

[Caliell]

Originally posted by screeg:

Originally posted by Caliell:

I dont know how did you roll on them, but they usually appear only at fringes of the map.

Not true at all. There was a fortress on my map called Coven of the Ancients (or something like it) from very early game. Luckily, it said right on it it was a haven for hemovores. What was the garrison, you ask? 8 Necrosavants, that's all!

OP never said what level his team was, which is of course key to your hit chances. I could take two of them quite early (level 3-4), using nets and providing every single unit with mace weapons, but maybe I was lucky.

I am on day 120 on the hardest difficulty, raided goblin city, orc warlord sea of tents, finished War of the Nobles event, (Tried Monolith once but got my ass kicked since I heavily rely on archers in leather armor. Good thing it is not Iron Man) and I had not ran into any necrosavants in early games anywhere close to roads.

Thus my words are from personal experience. Then again I run 50/50 archer pathfinder Warbow specialist, with pathfinder heavy armor and greatsword in front veterans. Highly skilled Archers easily kill Necrosavants as soon as they see them and greatsword waiting for them cose in easily decapitate their heads.

[zosh127]

Reach weapons. It gives you the range to get to them as they jump around. Rotation is also nice since you can use it to get your big damage dealers into position without using their AP.

When a necrosavant attacks a dog instead of you, it not only loses the ability to wound you, but it also recovers less than it would if it attacked you because dogs don't have much health. The replenish is insignificant. Don't be fooled by the people who don't use them and their assumptions, they can be really nice distractions while you lay damage on the bad guys.

The downside to dogs is price. You're paying for them and you know you're going to lose them. Since they'll almost always be one shot anyway, take the cheap ones if you take them. No need to spend on the better ones. Also, consider what you expect to gain in the battle. If you aren't expecting much, it might be better to go find fame and fortune elsewhere.

[Estieukua]

If your ranged fighters have c. 125 initiative equipped with their weapons and armour, they'll be ahead of necrosavants in the turn order and can use Overwhelm and Dagger Mastery (3 stabs per turn with minimal fatigue usage) to strongly impair their attack skills. Add to that a high Dodge bonus, and a high % of Nimble, and they'll be hard to hit/damage.

If you give the Adrenaline perk to your troops with the highest melee skill, they can move into position and then attack immediately in the next round before the vamps can teleport themselves out of reach.