Vampire Race Guide

How the play the Vampire Counts in the Campaign as well as Battle and everything else I can think of

Campaign Strategy

Script
Welcome to part 1 of my vampire race guide. In this section we’ll be going over the campaign strategy including the starting situation and where to expand from there.

Disclaimer: This guide is based on my personal experience and opinions and is by no means the definitive way to play the vampires. If you have a different strategy or want to add something to mine please leave a comment down below. Now that’s out of the way lets get into the video.

The Vampires campaign gameplay centres around corruption, vampiric corruption to be exact. It’s what keeps your provinces happy and your armies healthy as without it, public order in a province will fall by a huge amount and your armies will suffer from attrition. Not to worry though as there are many ways to increase the amount of corruption in an area. In owned settlements the population will cause it to increase by default but if the entire province is not owned this can sometimes not be enough. Buildings can be constructed to increase corruption further in both the local and adjacent provinces, Research has a similar effect across all owned settlements, and lords and heroes can be upgraded to affect the local province. When a province is owned, a commandment can be issued to greatly increase the rate of change towards the vampiric. In the vanilla game there is a local populace penalty for corruption based on who the land originally belonged to. This can be removed by the use of a mod which I would highly recommend as it makes expansion much easier.

However corruption is not only a good thing for your provinces and armies, a high level of vampiric corruption causes any non vampire armies to suffer heavy attrition when moving outside of a settlement or raiding stance. This is incredibly useful from a defensive point of view but when you realise it can also be used offensively, that’s where the real fun begins. Buildings, research and characters can be used to cause corruption in adjacent provinces to those you own, this means that not only can you move your armies into foreign lands without suffering attrition but nearby non vampire factions will suffer huge public order penalties unless they actively combat the corruption. Other faction obviously aren’t huge fans of this and as such vampires suffer severe diplomatic penalties with non vampires. This makes trade and other diplomacy very difficult.

Outside of corruption the vampires have another feature that is as unique as it is powerful. Replacing the normal function of global recruitment, the ability to Raise the Dead from the campaign map can replenish weak armies in the span of a single turn. Bear in mind that the pool of units that can be raised is very limited depending on your location, by default you can only raise 3-4 units per turn and the choice is usually limited to Zombies, Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Spearmen. However if you are near to a location of a major battle that has occurred earlier in the campaign the pool increases in both quantity and quality with the ability to raise elite units such as Grave Guard or Cairn Wraiths and many more of them.

Like all factions that inhabit settlements the vampires have access to several commandments that affect the province with different buffs. The first is the Evocation of Nagash, enacting this commandment will grant +1 recruit rank to all units and +1 to the recruitment capacity of the province.

Foster Terror will encourage growth by +20 per turn and increase the vampiric corruption by 1 in the province.

Harvest Corpses will increase the income from tax in the province by +5%.

and finally Repress Mortals will increase public order by +4.

Another thing you should know about the vampires in the campaign is the preference of climate. They have no trouble at all in wastelands, temperate, jungle or dessert areas but in islands, mountains, savannahs or frozen areas they will start to suffer from unpleasant debuffs. In magical forests or the chaotic wastelands the debuffs will be uninhabitable and will require a lot of time and resources to make the land liveable.

The start of a vampire campaign for the counts puts you in castle Drakenhof with one of 3 legendary lords which we’ll cover in the next section. You start off at war with the Templehoff faction who are quite weak and easily destroyed within at most 30 turns if you focus on them. Once you secure your starting province you’ll be given a mission battle for your faction leader that will grant you a Gold Sigil Sword and a Necromancer Hero. Once Templehoff are either destroyed or subjugated your next expansion can be one of a few options. Depending on your treaties with the von Carsteins you could pass through their lands to invade the Border Princes in the south and beyond that the orcs and dwarves. Almost all the land to the south is habitable wastelands and dessert so will make for fairly easy expansion as long as you spread corruption at an adequate rate. If you choose to expand directly north you will run into a number of human factions such as Talabecland and Ostermark but if the Empire does not come to their aid then you should have no trouble expanding all the way to the top of the map in the frozen north in no time at all. If you manage to get the von Carsteins to like you enough and can amass a military and economic power strong enough it will be easy to confederate them and gain access to Vlad and Isabella who will be invaluable additions to your armies. Overall the start of the vampires is one of the better ones as it has plenty of expansion options in the immediate vicinity without being too close to any of the major factions so can avoid a difficult early war.

The von Carsteins start in Swartzhaven in Western Sylvania with one of 2 legendary lords. They have basically the same start and strategy as the counts aside from location, starting war and the unique building chain they have access to in castle Drakenhof. The Mausoleum of the Mad Count can only be built by the von Carsteins in this settlement and gives access to the recruitment of vampire heroes much earlier than they would normally be available. This means it is wise to either go to war with or confederate the counts as soon as you can so that you can access this ability.

That concludes this section of the guide on Campaign Strategy. The next section will cover the unit roster and how I believe each unit is best used

Unit Roster

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Welcome to part 2 of my vampire race guide. In this section we’ll be going over the units of the vampire armies and how they can be best used in battle to achieve victory over any opponent

Disclaimer: This guide is based on my personal experience and opinions and is by no means the definitive way to play the vampires. If you have a different strategy or want to add something to mine please leave a comment down below. Now that’s out of the way lets get into the video.

The Unit Roster of the Vampires is composed of various infantry, powerful shock cavalry and monstrous war beasts.

Before we get into anything there’s something about the vampire units that make them very different to play as or against. When they lose morale units do not break and leave the battle. They instead start to crumble which means they will start to fall apart and lose health and eventually they will start to disintegrate and lose health even faster until finally the unit is wiped out completely. This can be seen as a good or a bad thing as they will never flee combat but defeat for vampires will generally mean the death of most units.

Onto the Roster

Let’s start with Zombies which are the literal meat of an early game army. They cost next to nothing and it really shows with their pitiful stats but they aren’t meant to be the damage dealers. Zombies are a meat shield that charges the enemy ahead of your more elite units to soak up ranged fire or initial charges. They also excel at bogging down enemy units preventing them from escaping combat or flanking your army.

Skeleton warriors are up next and they are the standard sword infantry of the vampires. Not too weak not too strong, right in the middle. They are a shielded unit so have some protection against skirmishers but leave them exposed for too long and they wont last. They are best used as your front line fighters in the early game and your armies should contain a lot of them until you unlock and can afford more elite units.

Skeleton Spearmen are basically the same except they have dropped their swords in favour of spears giving them a bonus against large units. They are also shielded so skirmishers are marginally less threatening. The Spearmen are one of the few units in the vampire army who are effective against large foes so it is a good idea to keep a couple of units in your army throughout your entire campaign. In battle I use them to focus down cavalry and of course any large units on the battlefield before they cause too much trouble.

Crypt Ghouls are next and they are a very unique unit. They are damage dealers so you want to keep them protected from any enemy fire and get them into combat as quickly as you can. They also have poison attacks so can inflict speed and damage debuffs to whatever unit they are attacking. The Ghouls are unfortunately weak against armour so sending them to fight against any more elite units will result in them being slaughtered. Overall they are proficient at taking on individual units of un-armoured troops but anything more and they start to lose effectiveness.

Grave Guard are the first of the more elite troops in the vampires army. They are armoured and shielded so are very tough to take down without armour piercing units. Grave Guard also are an anti-infantry unit so excel at fighting even the toughest hoards of enemy infantry. They come in 2 varieties, with and without great weapons. Selecting great weapons grants armour piercing damage but causes them to lose their shields and be more exposed to ranged attacks. A mid-late game army should have at least 2 units of grave guard as they are one of the most deadly front line fighters in the game.

Cairn Wraiths will finish up the infantry. These scythe wielding terrors are a must pick for their ethereal ability alone. It allows them to ignore most forms of non magical damage meaning they can stay in the fight for an extremely long period of time without suffering heavy causalities. They are also armour piercing so cut straight through any heavily armoured enemies with ease. They cause terror so their melee target will run in fear before long in combat. I would recommend taking 2 units in your armies as soon as you can as they will destroy almost any hostile infantry you can throw at them. In battle they are best used for targeting heavily armoured units that would otherwise tear through your front lines.

Onto cavalry starting with the Black Knights who are an anti-infantry unit. They are armoured and shielded so are tougher than your average horsemen but are still best used to cycle charge as they wont last long if left in melee with anything more dangerous than skeleton warriors. As with most cavalry they are useful for flanking around the front lines and either attacking undefended ranged units or slamming into the backs of infantry stuck in combat. They come in 2 varieties: swords, and lances and barding. Units with swords are marginally better in melee but it is still not advised to leave them there long. Lance units have a higher charge bonus and can cause instant routing if a unit is slammed hard enough. Both varieties are available in the early-mid game and are an excellent addition to an army in those phases of the game.

Hexwraiths are basically cairn wraiths on ethereal horses so have all the same bonuses they have. The main difference is that Hexwraiths have vanguard deployment so can be used creatively to hide in certain parts of the map and then charge the enemy before they have time to protect any exposed units. Being ethereal they can last longer in combat than most cavalry but it is still not the best use of them as a mounted unit. They are useful in a late game army but not essential if you have no room.

Blood Knights are the most elite of the vampires cavalry and they are positively terrifying. They are armoured and shielded so hard as nails and also have a bonus against large units. This doesn't mean you can just send them after a giant however, they are still best used cycle charging and causing massive impact damage. They will fall just as easily as other cavalry if they get trapped in melee for prolonged periods of time. Blood Knights also have the frenzy ability meaning as long as their leadership is high they will deal increased damage. In a late game army you want to include a couple of these units at least as they will devastate entire backlines if used correctly.

The Chariots are up next and we’ll be starting with the Black Coach. This anti-infantry, armour piercing terror on wheels is perfect for charging down undefended skirmishers or retreating units. It has the ability to cause terror so can be used on routing units to cause them to shatter and not return to battle. The Evocation or Death ability allows the Black Coach to reinforce its attack and defence using magic, this causes it to have a devastating charge and a powerful resistance to damage. This unit is best used for charging down retreating units, units returning to the fight or units about to leave the fight.

The corpse cart is the cheapest of the chariot units and it is only recommended for use in the early game when there is no alternative. It has a magical aura that buffs nearby allied units and debuffs enemies with melee attack and defence and can also regenerate its own lost health while in battle. This unit is best used in the front lines so it can buff your troops in a tight radius. The melee attack and defence mean it will not rack up many kills and will likely lose health quickly but honestly if you lose a corpse cart its not going to mean the difference between victory and defeat. It comes in 3 varieties: the base Corpse Cart, a Balefire variant and an Unholy Lodestone variant. The only real time its worth having a base corpse cart in your army is when you can not afford anything else. The Balefire version causes magic disruption in a close vicini

Lords & Heroes

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Welcome to part 3 of my vampire race guide. In this section we’ll be going over the lords and heroes in the vampire roster and what they can do in both battle and campaign.

Disclaimer: This guide is based on my personal experience and opinions and is by no means the definitive way to play the vampires. If you have a different strategy or want to add something to mine please leave a comment down below. Now that’s out of the way lets get into the video.

Which legendary lord you choose to start your game with determines many things including starting army, army campaign movement range and the cost and upkeep of certain units

First from the vampire counts is Manfred von Carstein. Choosing this lord will grant +5% campaign movement range to all armies, lower the upkeep of Grave Guard and Black Knights by 10% and increase their recruit rank by 1. When Manfred's army is fighting against men all units will gain +5 leadership allowing them to go longer before morale runs out. He has access to 3 mounts: The Barded Nightmare, The Hell Steed and a Zombie Dragon. Being a wizard he can cast spells from the Lore of the Vampires and the Lore of Death. He is armoured and a melee expert so can hold his own in a battle even without a mount and has access to several abilities including The Hunger, Curse of the Undeath, Life Leeching and Master of the Black Arts. Selecting this lord will grant your starting army crypt ghouls, a Varghulf and fell bats.

Heinrich Kemmler the infamous necromancer is next from the Counts. Choosing him will grant a 15% reduction in the cost of Raising the Dead, a 25% reduction to the upkeep of Necromancer heroes and an increase in recruit rank by 2 to necromancers in the local province. In battle Heinrich can summon Krell, a powerful hero unique to this lord, who causes devastating damage. He has no mounts but is a powerful wizard with access to the Lore of the Vampires. He has the abilities Curse of the Undeath, Master of the Dead, Undeath Resurgent and Lord of Undeath and starts with Hexwraiths, Dire Wolves and Cairn Wraiths.

Helman Ghorst is the last of the Counts and choosing him will increase the casualty replenishment rate by 20% and increase the research rate by 10%. In battle all units in Ghorsts army gain poison attacks causing enemy units to suffer penalties to speed and damage. He only has access to one Mount, The Brothers Ghorst Corpse Cart. He is also limited to the Lore of the Vampires but his raise dead spell summons grave guard or a wight king if overcast, rather than the usual zombies or skeleton warriors. His abilities include Curse of the Undeath, Master of the Dead and Magical Animus and his starting units are Grave Guard, a Corpse Cart and The Direpack which are a regiment of renown unit of Dire Wolves.

Onto the von Carsteins. Vlad is up first and selecting him will increase campaign movement range by 5% and unlock a unique building chain within castle Drakenhof. In battle all units in Vlad’s army receive vanguard deployment so they can tear into enemy lines faster and from unexpected positions. When Vlad and Isabella are on the battlefield together they grant each other +15 to melee attack and defence due to Undying Love. Vlad is also a siege attacker so he does not need to build siege machines in order to attack a walled settlement as he can attack gates directly. He has no access to any mounts but can still use the Lore of the Vampires to cause havoc with spells. Vlad’s abilities are The Hunger, Curse of the Undeath, Aura of Dark Grandeur, and Master of Beguilement. His army starts with a unit of Fell Bats, Blood Knights and Vargheists.

Last but not least is Isabella von Carstein and choosing her will grant a unique building chain in Castle Drakenhof, +3 Hero capacity for Vampires and +25% weapon damage for embedded Vampire Heroes. Obviously she gets the same bonuses when fighting alongside Vlad from Undying Love but she also causes any vampire heroes in her army to gain +10 Melee attack and defence. She has the choice between a Barded Nightmare and a Hellsteed for her mounts and of course can utilise spells from the Lore of the Vampires. Her abilities are Master of Beguilement, The Hunger, Curse of the Undeath and Red Fury and her army starts with 2 units of Crypt Ghouls and 1 unit of Black Knights.

Now onto the non legendary lords starting with the aptly named, Vampire Lord. They come with the abilities The Hunger, Curse of the Undeath and Undeath Resurgent and have access to the Lore of the Vampires. They have the choice of The Barded Nightmare, The Hellsteed and the Zombie Dragon as their mounts. All Vampire lords are Armoured and Shielded as well as being Melee Experts so are more than capable of fighting alongside their infantry units and causing lots of damage.

Next up are the Strigoi Ghoul Kings and they are a very different lord to most as they are quite like Crypt Horrors in that they both have poison attacks and armour-piercing damage. However they can still cast spells with parts of both the Lore of the Vampires and the Lore of Death available to them. They only have access to the Terrorgheist mount and have the abilities The Hunger, Curse of the Undeath and Blood Lust.

Finally we have Master Necromancers. They of course have access to the Lore of the Vampires and also have a diverse choice of mounts including The Barded Nightmare, a Corpse Cart, The Hellsteed, a Corpse Cart with Balefire and a Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone. Necromancers also have the abilities Master of the Dead, Curse of the Undeath and Magical Animus

Now onto the Heroes and first up is yet another Necromancer. They are very similar to the Necromancer Lords stats wise but have some very slight differences. The Heroes don't have access to the Hellsteed and swap the Barded Nightmare for just a base Nightmare. They also have the abilities Master of the Dead and The Curse of Undeath and of course use spells from the Lore of the Vampires. On the campaign map Necromancers can steal technology, wound heroes, assault enemy units and boost the income in the local province. When embedded in an army the provide scouting which increases the chances of magical item drops.

Banshees are the assassins of the vampire army. They are ethereal so can ignore most damage enemies throw at them and do decent amounts of armour-piercing damage themselves. They are duellists so are best used for targeting enemy heroes and lords in one on one combat. To top it all the have the terror effect so can cause their targets to flee upon entering combat and greatly reduce morale or nearby enemy units. Banshees also have access to just one ability: Slippery. In campaign banshees are the spies of the vampires so can damage wall, assassinate heroes, block enemy armies and stimulate growth in their local province. When embedded in a lords army then increase campaign movement range.

Vampires come in 2 varieties: Death and Shadows and the only difference between the 2 is the spells they can cast (either the Lord of Death or the Lore of Shadows surprisingly). They are Armoured and Decent in Melee as well as being able to cast powerful spells so are an asset to any Lords army. They have the choice between the Barded Nightmare and the Hellsteed for their mounts and have several abilities such as Dark Benediction, the Hunger, Immortal Will and Life Leeching for Death and Smoke and Mirrors for Shadows. On the campaign map Vampires spread vampiric corruption and can damage building, wound enemy heroes and hinder enemy army replenishment. When embedded in an army then increase the rate of casualty replenishment.

Finally there are Wight Kings who are your melee heroes that belong on the front lines. They are armoured and Shielded so can take a lot of punishment while in the fight. They are also anti-infantry so will have no problem taking out entire units by themselves. Wight Kings have the choice b

Overall Conclusion

Script

Welcome to part 4 of my vampire race guide. In this section we’ll be going over the overall pros and cons of the vampire race as a whole

Disclaimer: This guide is based on my personal experience and opinions and is by no means the definitive way to play the vampires. If you have a different strategy or want to add something to mine please leave a comment down below. Now that’s out of the way lets get into the video.

Let’s begin with the pros and cons of vampires in the campaign.

Firstly they have a fantastic starting location with lots of options of where to expand from either Castle Drakenhof of Swartzhaven. They can go to the north or the south and will find plenty of lands to invade without too much heavy resistance.

They also start at war with a very weak faction who are easy to take out in a very small number of turns. This allows your starting lord to level up quite quickly and be given access to more and more powerful spells in the early game.

Once Templehoff has been taken out of Eschen they also are given access to a mission very close to them which has various rewards that put you forward in both campaign and battle. The Mission requires you to complete a battle that can easily be won with just the starting army alone so makes for an excellent start in your campaign.

Your capital is incredibly tough to take down as each size upgrade gives the settlement huge additions to the garrison. This means you can leave it with no defensive army and not have to worry unless several fully stacked armies come to invade.

Vampires starting location is also fairly central in the map so when the chaos event occurs you have a lot of time before you need to worry about their armies attacking you. This makes it easier for you to attack factions in the late game in the north as they will be focusing on defending from the chaos in the north meaning southern settlements are easy pickings for late game armies.

The Raise dead ability also makes it incredibly fast and easy to get depleted armies back up to higher numbers if used in the right location. An army can go from having 2 or 3 units on low health to having a full army of elite troops in the space of a single turn. Not only is this faster than global recruitment it is also cheaper as units are not being sent across your vast empire to reinforce you lords.

Corruption can be seen as a good and a bad thing. Its good because spreading it to adjacent provinces can wreak havoc with public order for non vampires and make expansion into new territories a breeze. On the other hand it still takes time to spread corruption and when you get to the late game and can steamroll factions and take a province in the span of a few turns, you then have to spend time and money to increase the corruption as quickly as possible or face a rebellion. At best this can slow you down and at worst can completely ruin your invasion plans if a large rebel army spawns and begins attacking newly taken lands.

Diplomacy is a big area where vampires struggle as any non vampire faction will have a huge disliking to you by default because of the aversion penalty. This means you cannot make much money from trade and will have to go to war with factions if you become blocked by them. This can then cause you to be at war with so many factions at once that you get overwhelmed and wiped out which is obviously not a good thing.

Most vampire factions you meet will be your ally without much action on your part so it can be quite easy to confederate several of the other factions and gain huge chunks of land through nothing more than the power of friendship. The von Carsteins/Vampire counts depending on who you choose to play as will be a great target for alliances as confederating them will grant you easy access to the rest of the map and of course the unique building in castle Drakenhof for the von Carsteins.

You do lose the global recruitment ability in favour of raising the dead and while given the perfect circumstance and location it is a vastly more powerful ability, if you want a new army it will have to be made in provinces that have recruitment buildings and they could be on the opposite side of the map to your battle lines. This means it could take a huge number of turns before a fresh army gets to the front lines to support armies in need.

Unit cost for the Vampires is also slightly more expensive than other races for units of the same class. For example Empire Spearmen cost 300 to buy and 75 per turn in upkeep whereas Skeleton Spearmen cost 375 to buy and then 94 per turn in upkeep. This is likely due to the fact that vampire units cause fear but its still worth noting that armies of similar calibre will cost more for vampires when compared to other factions.

Now for the pros and cons of the Vampires in battle. The army as a whole has strong Infantry, Cavalry and Monsters and almost every unit unlocked after the early game can be viable into the end game if used correctly.

With fell bats you can get early game air superiority before other factions can do anything to counter you. This means you can render entire enemy ranged and cavalry units useless and give your main lines plenty of time to get into battle at full health.

All lords in the roster have access to powerful spells that can buff their own troops and cause havoc among the enemies. This means you don't have to wait until you can recruit a wizard to have magical damage on the battlefield and are ahead in the early game because of this.

All units cause fear to nearby enemies so when in combat hostile troops will lose morale at a higher rate than they normally would even if they are winning the fight. This means that even an incredibly weak army can cause units to rout through fear alone and achieve victory against heavy odds. This will also give you an edge in a fair fight as if you have exactly the same tier units theirs will begin to lose morale first and retreat from the fight.

There are several different ways that vampire armies can regenerate from spells to unit auras and even some items. It allows your armies to stay in combat for an impressive amount of time even if they are heavily outmatched. You can also save a lot of time replenishing casualties if you use these abilities at the end of a battle to bring back any lost units.

The crumble system is kind of in the middle. Its good in the sense that your units will never retreat from a fight but it also means that once your leadership falls its not long before the unit will be wiped out completely and will not return to the battle whereas any units that rout likely will return to the fight and usually with around a third of their health remaining.

Speaking of leadership the stats for it in the vampire army are very poor. There are very few units that have leadership stats even over 50. This combined with the crumble system mean units need to win the combat they are in or be supported by lord and heroes with healing spells to keep them in the fight.

Beyond leadership the armies are generally very reliant on their lords to do a lot of damage with spells as well as melee. If a lord should fall in battle there is very little chance that the army will survive for much longer even if they have the overall advantage due to the leadership penalty.

Vampire armies also lack any ranged units so must get enemies in melee to cause any damage which when combined with a lack of leadership can make combat extremely difficult. In sieges it is especially hard to defend as once the towers on the walls are lost there is nothing more they can do but wait for the army outside the wall to break in.

They also lack any real defence against large units with only the Spearmen and the Terrorgheist having anti-large damage bonuses. This leaves them weak to races that employ monstrous units such as the Beastmen or Lizardmen.

The final downside is that they only ha

[Mr RocknRoll]

videos dont work

[Azrael]

Just spam the grave gurad works for me

[tacohunter]

Don't forget to update

[loganjamesalex]

would be nice if you had some army compositions instead of just talking about the units

[OMG My Profile Name Does Not Fi]

Thanks for this! Is very helpful for new undead players and has some useful tips even for people who previously played them.

[Ben Argo]

This is better! Thank you !

[Dashing Drew]

good guide i enjoy long time