Good Bloodline bonus for Vlad?

[robert.s_a]

Title says it all really. Started a Vlad campaign on very hard, but ive never used this bloodline mechanic before and i dont know which one would be good. What do you lot think? Von Carstein looks good for the fact it gives ranged units, but said ranged units...dont look great, in my opinion.

I like blood knights a lot, but im not sure they are worth using precious blood kisses for.

[Gentlest Giant]

Resarch, replenishment and public order (corruption included). In that order imo.
After that it's entirely up to situation and goals, those three stats are the only strict go-tos.
So it's Necrarch, Carstein then Strigoi to level 3 I think?

[Sir uP]

I go for research, then upkeep, then replenishment. VC dont need replenishment as much as they have invocation of nehek to heal after battle. And even with skele/zombie 0 upkeep I find it a struggle to have stacks to match my expansion as they grow slowly economically.

[Cacomistle]

Originally posted by Gentle Giant:

Resarch, replenishment and public order (corruption included). In that order imo.
After that it's entirely up to situation and goals, those three stats are the only strict go-tos.
So it's Necrarch, Carstein then Strigoi to level 3 I think?

I think research is heavily overvalued. It only reduces turns to free skeletons by like 2. And vampires get students so they can easily get massive research bonuses.

I go either lahmian or blood dragon first. Those are the 2 strongest combat lords, with blood dragons being better for their large upkeep reductions on core units. Lahmian bonus is nice though because you can get a lot of early heros and quickly get more blood kisses that way. Although unfortunately I don't think it applies to heros in your army, so it won't help isabella and vamp heros.

If you're not gonna recruit one of those early its a toss up between replenishment and research. Depends on your strategy. Replenishment doesn't help much with heros, and theres honestly no reason to have any units other than vamp heros after you take Drakenhof, at least for Isabella. But if you don't like the mass hero playstyle, replenishment will help a ton with the large skeleton stacks you'll likely have instead.

So in short my recommendation would be carstein or necrarch first, then blood dragon or the other of carstein/necrarch depending on whether you feel ready to recruit a 3rd lord any time soon.

Definitely do not strigoi to level 3 before you've gotten at least 1 blood dragon though. Those guys are overpowered lords, and the bonuses to cav is nice. Certainly better than strigoi 3 considering its 1/4th the price.

Also public order is unnecessary. You've got almost free skeleton stacks and if you make your main army out of vamp heros its also almost 0 upkeep (and vlad+isabella+6 vamps alone will beat 2 low to mid tier empire stacks with a few levels). So you can afford like 5 stacks off basically just background income, easily enough to quell any rebellion. They'll probably make you money.