Von Carstein Tips

[Gilgamesch]

Hey guys
I wanna play the Von Carsteins in mortal empire campaign. Do you got any tips for me? Should I expand quickly or just take it easy? I once have played them but I think I rushed to quickly.

[Hieronymous]

My tip is to figure out how to deal with the Ravenously expansive Riekland and Dwarfs, between whom you are sandwiched.

I failed to do that on my last campaign with the counts. Consider going to great lengths to knock out Riekland very early, like turn 35.

Observe that there is tech to get skeletons for free. And skeletons are effective for a few unit.

Also make heavy use of magic.

Finally, familiarize yourself with their 2 signature mechanics - raising the dead and blood kisses. Note that raising the dead can indeed give high tier units even you dont own the requisite buildings.

[Gilgamesch]

So I should attack Reikland early?

[James Howlette]

Originally posted by Gilgamesch:

So I should attack Reikland early?

It's a dangerous move, but if you can pull off eliminating Karl early it makes the rest of the campaign much much easier.

If you let him sit for more than a couple dozen turns he'll start confederating everything and become nearly impossible to oppose.

You could also try pushing into Zufbar or just packing up shop and expanding south into the badlands (towards Nagashizzar preferably).

As hieronymous said, the last thing you want to do is end up sandwiched between mass confederated Dwarves and mass confederated Empire.

[Gilgamesch]

Okay got that.
My aim is always to conquer the whole world. Is it still possible with them?

[Hieronymous]

In Mortal Empires yes.

[Father Ribs]

I try and keep diplomacy going as long as possible; I don't care if nations hate me, as long as they don't trample my front lawn.

To the west, I look for provinces that are at war with Reikland. Not only can I expand into that area without repurcussion, but it actually makes for better relations with the Empire. Likewise, I always debate whether to make the dwarves tolerate me or ally with the mountain greenskin clans...long term, peace with the dwarves is better.

Two things to keep in mind with the Carstein folks; those two provinces that are "undead lands" can be developed into very rich provinces...building tall and not wide also means less annoying the empire if/until there's no other option.

Heck, I had one campaign recently where the Empire and I had split Kislev (cleaning out the skaven on his part), and while not allied, he was sending armies into my territory to fight chaos hordes.

Undead corruption doesn't cause you any diplomatic issues either, so I like to get one small town in a province and then osmosis-undead the whole province. It causes them order penalties, it thins up armies marching around, and if two nations are fighting wandering through the poisoned terrain, it's more likely they'll kill whole units, thus being a slightly stronger drain on their gold (as in that Empire-Chaos war just mentioned).

TLDR: TK really benefit from diplomacy; not for friends like the good races do, but to just barely keep out of wars and grow your provinces in quiet.

[Gilgamesch]

So, Father Ribs, you suggest me to take it easy in the beginning?

[Michael Daemon]

INFINITE FREE ZOMBIES

Technically they aren't "free", you do have to pay for the lord. But after that initial cost of 500-1k per lord at like 10 lords, you can field support stacks of zombies and skeletons for no cost per unit with the techs. Yeah they are weak but it gets stupid easy to just overrun and clog up any serious threats like artillery and ranged units when you have a stack of 2000+ zombies running around on the map. 120 models per unit x 19 units. Beyond that it's just good fun.
Zombie apocalypse!

[RCMidas]

The Infini-Skelespam is the current meta, yeah. Takes about forty turns to get going properly, but after that you've got nothing to worry about so long as you move four full armies in concert with each other at all times.

[Nonoche]

I suggest expanding quickly. Expand quickly but spend money only in your starting region or Templehof region. Empire can become tricky if they confederate fast, Dwarf will have orcs to deal with but will most likely turn on you at some point, if you didn't expand it can become impossible to manage.

Be careful of the dwarf and always be ready to defend Drakenhof.

Mannfred become completely insane with his dragon and magic lore. If you are not familiar with Winds of death, be ready to kill 300 people in one spell.

If you go for Human early, don't force keeping The Moot, west of where you start . Wasted so many times in my last campaign trying to keep it, but it's kinda useless.

Force keeping Averheim/Wurtbad as these two capital can be reach in one turn, making it easier to defend.

Fight a lot and get Xp for Mannfred as fast as you can.

[KellyR]

Immediately put 6 vampire heroes into Isabella's army. Win.

[Gilgamesch]

Yeah I prefer to wipe Manfred out untill turn 10 . The Thing is not only the empire will confederate extremly. The orcs are doing it, too. It's insane.
In my opinion it is realy hard to play the Von Carsteins. You guys already have mentioned it.

[Gilgamesch]

I prefer playing Vlad. Do you guys think Isabella makes it a bit easier?

[RCMidas]

Provided you can maintain a decent Vampire Hero spam with her, yes, absolutely.

[RED /(Weber)\]

Always pick Vlad, get Coven of undeath asap.
Isabella is monster focused, and early game a monster based army is upkeep heavy.