Need help understanding Vampire Coast (combat style & campaign)

[Zeon]

I'm trying to play as Noctilus in Vortex and I'm just really confused as to how the new faction works. I don't understand the army style or their units and could use some help with what I should be doing from a campaign perspective (are they horde? should I take settlements? What should I be doing in regards to pirate coves?). I play alot of dwarfs & dark elves & I feel like a child trying to comprehend a theoretical physics lecture. Any preferd 20 stack army composition lists would also be highly appreciated.

[Wh♂♂par]

Yes/No; Can, not should. Main focus depends; as you're Noctilus, main focus is your ship - secondary, if available, go for some settlements.
You want your frontline to not do anything but hold. Hold forever. Let your ranged, every single ranged unit - from pistolier to Queen Bess - do the killing. Just imagine them as Dwarf with a bad frontline. That's the playstyle.

[Mavkiel]

Imo, take settlements only if its in a location you want/need to control. Coastal cities are very valueable as coves. So making a b-line straight to vamp captains and sending them out to cove every settlement. You then build an army to fend off any factions you annoy.

On a plus side every cove you build up with captains levels up that unit.

Army style -
Overlapping fields of fire. You don't want a solid melee front line that blocks your shots, leave openings for them to fire. On a side note crabs don't block rifle fire. So if you do want solid front line make use of them.

Side note, lore of the deep rocks. Get vangiests revenge, it is perhaps the most powerful spell out there.

[Jerroser]

Basically the real killing power comes from their ranged units while most of their front line units are good at holding but not so good at dealing damage.

While in the late game it pays to actually use their monsters to fill the melee roles while keeping only a small number of their higher tier infantry (the Depth Guard) to act as a counter charge/anit large. As although they are good damage dealers they are supprisingly fragile due to their low unit count.

[Sargeist]

Hold the line with your cannon fodder units (such as deckhand mobs) and monsters (rotting prometheans are good at tanking) whilst shooting the crap out of the enemy with all your gun and artilery units.

But since this faction uses guns and not bows, you have to keep an eye on your line of fire. Gun units can't shoot over the heads of your other units normally unless your on a hill or slope with your gunners positioned further up than your melee line.

[Zeon]

Thanks for the suggestions, what about preferd 20 stack army compositions for campaign?

[Wh♂♂par]

Originally posted by Zeon:

Thanks for the suggestions, what about preferd 20 stack army compositions for campaign?

4-6 Depth Guard, preferably Halberds. 2-3 Mortars, Queen Bess. 1-3 Heroes of your liking, 1-2 Prometheans/Leviathans, 1-2 Necrofex Colossi and the rest Handgunners.

[Mavkiel]

Deck droppers are underrated. You don't have to worry about blocking fields of fire, and they are fairly good at harassing units and retreating.

[Gazzza]

Heres a simple formation you cant go wrong with,

Have a 1-3 arty for range advantage

Frontline of 5—8 gunnery mob with hamdguns, they are expendable, dont worry about them getting charged as they hold suprisingly well

Depth guard behind the handgunners so they dont get shot up and can charge through your zombies when in melee range

Crabs to be a roadblock on yoir flanks

Fill the rest with whatever ye like

Its a pretty basic army that will get you through most fights

[Sir uP]

Campaign:
Max out your ship. It will become the fastest easiest recruitment. Start with the green tree tho flt campaign movement, growth, upkeep reduction all that good stuff.

Fight mostly other pirates, I take the pox marsh cuz its nearby, but mostly pirates and islands to level up, get gold, unlock RoR.

Get vamp captain from your shipm. Cove up the big cities for their 50% income. Small cities you dont want take the +hero recruitment. Small cities you want down the road take the +corruption.

Pick one landmass to focus conquest once you have a second stack started or are running out of stuff at sea to do.

Battle:
Protect your starting depth guard and necro, everything else is totally expendable and you will burn through a ton of gunnery mobs.

Regular zombie are ok but you want handgunners first, pistols are ok and work as decent skirmishes.

Formation is up to you. I like spreading out pairs of handgunners to support eachother and your shaggy main line of zombie chaf. Some people gun the centre and melee the flanks.

Protect depth guard as mentioned and use them sparingly as noc's bodyguard, lord dueling, or to clean up and support dying/dead zombies.

Bloated corpses are ok filler but you will lose them instantly if you auto resolve so plan accordingly.

Spells to abuse:
Summons are OP. Nocs zombies + deeps captains crabs.

Late game doomstack:
Lord
Bess
Mortar x2
Cannon x1
Gunnery white
3-4 necros
3-4 depth guard
Mourngul hunter and/or Vamp Captain (both adds to the micro)
Remaining choose some combination of:
Assortment of handgunner mobs or deck gunners to go range
Or to be more melee focused go more depth guards, crabs, zombie chaf (more gunners or polearms or regular zombies no need to be picky everything else does the killing)

[Foolswalkin]

I’m unable to play due to bugs, but I’ve heard good things about Prometheans. My hope was that with adequate teching for phys resist I could have my late gamefrontline be all Promethean Gunnery mobs and maximize my pew pew pew and still be able to hold the line. Anyone try this?

[TaurusBully]

I won my Vortex as Nautilus with only the starting Galeons Graveyard.

[Tenshin51]

Originally posted by Foolswalkin:

I’m unable to play due to bugs, but I’ve heard good things about Prometheans. My hope was that with adequate teching for phys resist I could have my late gamefrontline be all Promethean Gunnery mobs and maximize my pew pew pew and still be able to hold the line. Anyone try this?

Depends on Ai army composition anti large will hurt them, promethean are awesome as frontline unit due VP gun unit will not block their LOS. W/ crumbling mechanic you need more bodies due prometheans have few models per unit it will start to crumble if outnumber.

I really love the promethean units due they can really tank damage against Ai bloated corpse spam.

W/ Frontlines late game don't put your Depth guards as frontlines. This unit will suffer some range damage. Better use Depth guards as flankers and reserve to enforce your battleline OP. Best frontline unit will be prometheans and syreens for me.

Syreens enforcing the promethean w/ numbers. Also Syreen can block range damage, cheaper than depth guard and suffer less except for magic damage. W/ lore of vampire you can heal the Syreen. Also syreen have debuffs and armor piercing.

Seriously I got 2 syreens and 2 promethean, this unit can really hold the line really well and suffering less casualty against range attack supported by lore of vampire. W/ 4 Depth guards being in flank to enforce my battleline if collapse and reserve to protect my artillery against monster and flying unit.

Tactics of Vampire coast is quite similar to Skaven strategy pure artillery and meatshields w/ light cavalry. Also don't forget to use flying unit and scurvy dogs. Totally prefer scurvy dogs against flying due they can hide, can kill a ton of routed unit and can deploy anywhere. Having light cavalry or flying unit will make the campaign easier. Killing routed unit if you kill them quickly will not come back if you will face this ai army again.

Problem with light units will be the autoresolves, autoresolves will always kill this unit.

Early campaign you will use checker board position leaving some gaps so that your gun unit can shoot. Unlocking artillery unit in early game will make the game easier. Mortar is a must than cannonade. If you unlock NC replace the cannonade.

W/ late game checker board position is quite unnecessary due to Prometheans. Leave some gap w/ your infantry either depth guards or syreens. W/ those gap put the Prometheans filling the line, this unit will protect your gun unit.

[Lady MacBeth]

I basically just played them like dwarves (with no armor) that also had access to a heal spell and summons. Worked out just fine.

[Lasanga]

Lol my late game doom stack was
Harkon
A mournghul haunter
A gunnery wight
3 promethean gunnery mobs
2 of each depth guard type
Queen bess
4 rotting leviathans
And the rest are the colossi.

[Lady MacBeth]

As arnessa my late game stack was Arnessa, a mournghul haunter, a vampire captain (lore of vampires), a gunnery wight, 4 Depth guard, 2 Depth Guard with halbards, 5 Deck Gunners, Queen Bess, 2 Rotting Leviathans, 2 Necrofex Colosi. Worked well for me. Arnessa and the haunter would snipe a lord in seconds with her net and hornswaggle, and then move onto cleanup duty.