TWW2: Vampire Counts Hints & Tips

A compilation of the hints, tips, strategies, and plots that I have discovered while playing through several games as the Vampire Counts. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are undoubtedly turn-by-turn guides available elsewhere on the internet, but this guide should be helpful for those playing as the Vampire Counts for the first time, especially in the early game.
This guide is a work-in-progress, as I continue my long games playing with the Vampire Counts, adapt strategies, and find new things to include as helpful anecdotes.

Some Personal Notes

Varghulfs? Varghulves? Varghulfses?
Varghulves!

Acquiring New Territory

Overview
The Vampire Counts (VCs) begin in a bad position; they are stuck between two of the largest race-nations on the Old World map: the Empire (humans) and the Dwarfs (dwarfs). Thankfully, both race-nations have other things to deal with than Western and Eastern Sylvania, your starting position.
Vampires are ageless and immortal, and they can afford to play the long game. Taking territory a bit at a time, and solidifying it behind you, is arguably the best strategy you can use. Vampiric Corruption is a useful tool on the campaign map, as it increases public order and causes attrition among enemies, but it takes many turns to establish, by default.

VC Suitable Climates are anything human-based, including the Empire and its Provinces, the Border Princes, and the Bretonnian Kingdoms (mostly west). For some reason, so are many of the Greenskin settlements to the south-east.
VC Unpleasant Climates include other nearby race-nations such as the Dwarfs (mostly east and south). This is another good reason to leave the Dwarfs alone until you can afford it.
VC Uninhabitable Climates are those uncivilized areas of the map like the Wood Elf kingdoms to the west, and naturally inhospitable to Vampiric Corruption, like the extreme north.

Slow & Steady Progress
In the early game, it is unwise to expand too quickly; even though cities are the single biggest source of income for VCs, their armies in the early game are weak, and not well-able to defend newly-seized territory. The cost of new cities, new armies, and public order penalties must be accounted for before new territory is claimed. The first main "questline" of the VCs is to seize more and more territory, but survival and management of your current domains should take precedence most of the time. It is not worth it to seize a new town like Pfeildorf if it means you lose Castle Drakenhof to an invasion by Dwarfs or Greenskins.
VCs need to take time to restore Public Order in their seized towns; since all of the other nearby race-nations have a diplomatic Aversion to vampires, new VC acquisitions outside Sylvania have stronger public order penalties. A military presence in an occupied town or city will forestall unrest and rebellions, but the military presence needs to occupy that site for many turns before public order is restored and there is a high enough level of Vampiric Corruption to start giving public order bonuses. Having a hero in the army with strong Vampiric Corruption traits can speed this along.

Pillage, Raze, Colonize
To maintain a strong treasury and good public order, VCs should conquer a town, pillage it for the most money, and then raze it the following turn. On the turn after that, they should be able to colonize it with the conquering army, or a following, cheap army composed of skeletons and zombies. The more stacks of units an army has, the cheaper the colonization.
There is a trade-off in pillaging & razing versus Occupying a city, however. Razing destroys all the buildings, including recruitment and income buildings. You can start rebuilding, but this will take a long time. If you Occupy a town, however, you have to find a way to defend the town & avoid rebellions or competing Corruption (ex: Chaos, Skaven). Pillaging and Razing is better in the early game when you have less money and less income, but more skeletons & zombies; you should be able to afford Occupying a city later, when money for defensive armies & Vampire Corruption-spreading Heroes is not such a serious concern.

An extremely valid strategy for the Vampire Counts is to seize control of towns and cities that were razed by other armies. The trade-off for this is that this can be difficult to accomplish, because in the first place, any army that is powerful enough to raze a city or town is likely your enemy, and might return to raze your new town soon after you found it. In the second place, if you are making friends with your nearby races, the conflicts that result in razed towns will be further away, and you will almost certainly have to travel extensively across uncorrupted terrain to reach the towns (this sort of travel causes attrition in your armies).
The good news is that VCs can take over razed towns fairly cheaply thanks to Raise Dead. A half-stack army can move around the map and defend itself (or flee) long enough to reach a razed site. Then, the Lord of the army can use Raise Dead to summon a number of Zombies and Skeletons to fill out the ranks, reducing the cost of founding a new town on a razed site. After a VC player has researched cost-saving methods (see "Savings" in the "Treasury Management" section), this process can be comparatively very cheap, and give the Lord of the founding army a stack of cheap trash troops to defend the new town and increase public order until the settlement can better defend itself.
Even if an enemy returns and attacks your new city, you do not lose as much investment as other races do. Founding new towns on ruins also prevents you from having to go to war with the race-nation that used to occupy that city.

Vampiric Corruption
The campaign map trait of the VCs is Vampiric Corruption, which grows steadily over time. Taking over settlements in a territory, garrisoning armies, and many Hero and Lord traits can increase the rate at which Vampiric Corruption spreads. It is worthwhile to have one hero in an army who has high Vampiric Corruption (part of the blue campaign traits at the bottom of the skill tree for Vampires and Vampire Lords) in order to spread it faster. Taking over a settlement in a territory also gives Vampiric Corruption in a range around that settlement, which means your armies do not suffer attrition in that range.
When VCs take over a new settlement, it will suffer a public order penalty until Vampiric Corruption reaches 50% or higher. At that point, public order should stabilize at around 0, gaining or losing slowly each turn, depending on other factors. VC public order is directly related to the amount of Vampiric Corruption in a territory; the higher the Vampiric Corruption, the higher the public order bonus.
NOTE: A sometimes-viable strategy is to simply let a settlement rebel, and quash the rebelling army, then enjoy the high public order bonus in following turns.
The second effect of Vampiric Corruption is to cause attrition in any non-Undead army. (The only armies I've confirmed that Vampiric Corruption attrition does not affect are the Vampire Counts, Vampire Coast, and Bretonnian Vampire Lords). Specific units may also be immune to attrition caused by Vampiric Corruption (such as stronger Greenskin units).

Lords, Heroes, and Their Roles

Legendary Lords
Mannfred Von Carstein

Helman Ghorst - Helman Ghorst is only available if you have "The Grim and the Grave" DLC for TWW1!! I consider this to be a good investment, since I often play VCs with Helman Ghorst as my first Legendary Lord, for three simple reasons: all units in his army inflict poison attacks, he gets a Corpse Cart mount early (level 10), and he receives some very nice cost reductions to Raise Dead. Poison slows and weakens your enemies attacks, which gives you a slight bonus when fighting an army that is stronger than yours; the Corpse Cart mount heals nearby troops, giving your army slightly more staying power. Cheaper Raise Dead helps you spawn a new army quickly, without hurting your treasury as much as other Lords such as Vampire Lords, who receive no special cost reduction.

Heinrich Kemmler

Vlad Von Carstein

Isabella Von Carstein

Lords
Vampire Lords
Master Necromancers
Strigoi Ghoul Kings

Bloodline Lords
Lahmian Vampires - Lahmian bloodline powers may not seem like that much, but they are excellent if you enjoy using lots of heroes. You can afford twice as many heroes just by taking the 1st tier bloodline power, or and their effectiveness is increased by an INCREDIBLE amount if you have a Lahmian army Lord in the same province. Lahmian army Lords are Vampire Lords with a few special abilities that improve their combat effectiveness, and the "Queen Bee" skill that lessens the cost of your heroes, improves action success of your heroes, and reduces success chance of enemy heroes in the local region. Lahmians make great provocation if you want to cause someone pain, but not go to war just yet. Add on the "Guile & Glamour" skill to increase vampiric corruption, and you might be able to seize a province (over many turns) through low Public Order and rebellion, than seizing it through war.
Von Carstein Vampire Lords
Blood Dragon Vampire Lords - Blood Dragons hail from a small bloodline of vampire knights, and so their skills focus on military actions. The single best reason to specialize in the Blood Dragon Bloodline is their tier 3 ability, which eliminates the attrition caused by moving through uncorrupted territory (other forms of attrition, such as Deep Sea attrition and Chaos Corruption attrition still apply!). As military commanders, Blood Dragons benefit cavalry units the most (Black Guard, Black Guard Lancers, Blood Knights), reducing their upkeep and increasing their attack power. Otherwise, Blood Dragon Vampire Lords have the same abilities as other fighters and leaders.
Necrarch Vampire Necromancers - to be honest, I find Necrarchs more useful for their 1st and 3rd Bloodline powers (+25% overall research speed, and -10% unit upkeep for all armies, respectively), than I do as actual army Lords or spellcasters. I would recommend investing in the Necrarch bloodlines for these bloodline powers, especially the tier 1 power in the early game, to give yourself the biggest research boost. Otherwise, use Necrarch Lords in the same way you would use Master Necromancers.
Strigoi Ghoul Kings

Heroes
Vampires
Wight Kings - Use almost exclusively in fighter and leadership roles; Wight Kings excel at dealing damage as part of a larger body of troops, especially to other heroes and lords. On the campaign map. they are also good at training your troops over time to give the more levels (which increases unit leadership, melee defense, and accuracy for ranged units - you know, for all the ranged units you don't get).
Necromancers - Necromancers are good for three things: spellcasting in battle, and Stealing Technology and Wounding other heroes on the campaign map. Though Banshees are better at Wounding and killing other heroes, you will probably have Necromancers earlier than Banshees, giving Necromancers a few levels to specialize in Stealing Technology, Wounding heroes, or specific spells that help your battle tactics the most.
Banshees

Lord & Hero Roles
In a "standard" VC army, you should field 1 Lord who is either a spellcaster or a fighter, and at least 1 other hero who fills the other role (fighter or spellcaster). It is also a good idea to field a third hero, who can support your army Lord, or gives campaign map bonuses such as higher Vampiric Corruption, better public order, or economic bonuses for your defensive armies that mostly stay within your own territories.
The more you perform a certain action with a Lord or Hero, the better they will become at that action.

Treasury Management

Overview
Vampire Counts (VCs) benefit from large stockpiles of Dark Magic (hereinafter referred to as "money"). They have a slight advantage in the early game because the bulks of their armies are cheap trash troops like zombies and skeletons, meaning that they can save up money for larger projects and expenditures.

Gains
Most of the VC gains come from their cities; unlike other race-nations such as the Greenskins and Norsca, they do not get any special benefits from raiding and pillaging cities (though Lords can "specialize" in pillaging if they do it often enough, gaining bonuses to the amount of money harvested).
VC research in the Lahmian tree gives bonuses to several different building chains, such as Repression (small gains of 100-150 monies/turn) and Vampire Crypts and Necromancer Libraries (large gains of 300-500 monies/turn).

Savings
VCs play a long economic game; it takes quite a bit of research and specialization to have a high steady income. A lot of this income is based on reductions in upkeep costs for most of your army troops. All of the research trees eventually have upkeep reduction costs for specific army units, and there are several extremely valuable researches to perform in the early and midgame. Namely, these are "Master of the Putrid Horde" and "Defiler of the Ancient Barrows" under the Arkhan tree. These give free, no-cost upkeep to zombies and skeleton units, respectively.

Expenditures
Counting things like the additional cost to recruit units with Raise Dead, a VC player will often be forced to choose between upgrading their armies or upgrading their settlements.

1) Bribery - It is a very good idea to save up money for diplomatic gifts to give to your surrounding race-nations, such as the Dwarfs and the Empire. Even though these are your two biggest enemies, and crushing them is your long campaign goal, in the beginning it is better to pay them off so they do not declare a two-front war on you. Small gifts can keep them happy enough so that they won't declare war, and medium or large gifts can improve their attitude enough so that they will agree to Non-Aggression Pacts or even Trade Agreements.

2) Raising Dead - The major strategic strength of the VCs is their ability to raise large armies on short notice thanks to Raise Dead. Between city-based recruitment and Raise Dead, a VC player can raise a full army of 20 stacks in 3-4 turns, AS LONG AS they have enough money to pay the Raise Dead costs and at least a few turns of upkeep on the new army.

3) Building Upgrades & Repairs - Building upgrades for the VCs get expensive fast; it can take several turns to save up enough money to buy a single building in one city or town. It is a good idea to stockpile a great deal of money, and then buy as many building upgrades as you can afford in your most well-defended cities. There is some synergy in VC buildings, meaning that one building will often benefit another building chain somehow. Research in the Lahmian tree also helps a great deal with income from buildings.

Diplomatic Relations

Overview
The Vampire Counts (VCs) have a long history with the other race-nations surrounding them; in the past (and probably the present), they have been aggressive and war-like against the Empire and the Dwarfs, which are your two biggest neighbors. Accordingly, most of the race-nations around you have a Diplomatic Aversion to vampires, setting your starting relationship at a penalty ranging from -15 (Bretonnian Kingdoms) to -50 (Dwarfs), with the average being -30 (almost everybody else, including the Empire).

Allies
The closest allies (socially, not geographically) of any VC nation are other vampire-based Undead race-nations, namely: The Vampire Counts, the Von Carstein Bloodline, Templehof, Mousillon, The Barrow Legion, and the Vampire Coast nations in the New World.

The Problem of Templehof
Your first mission playing as a Vampire Count is to exterminate the Templehof faction; I would advise that you continue this policy until Templehof has only one settlement left. Assault this settlement, but afterwards choose to Subjugate Templehof as your Vassal, instead of exterminating them entirely. Optimally, Templehof will seize an Empire Province territory outside of Western and Eastern Sylvania, which you should pick as your final target to Subjugate them. In this way, Templehof will 1) give you tribute each turn in the form of money, 2) act as a buffer between you and more aggressive Empire Provinces, 3) eventually become a steadfast trading partner, and 4) give you a Blood Kiss point to spend on bloodline upgrades.
A similar policy can be adopted with the Von Carstein Bloodline or the main Vampire Counts faction led by Mannfred, depending on which you have chosen to play.

The Enemy of My Enemy
It is wise for a VC player to choose from the beginning who they will ally with (if anybody), and who they will keep as long-term enemies. This helps control the amount of wars that the VCs are fighting at any given time, and therefore the number of fronts they are fighting on. Even if your chosen allies have a diplomatic Aversion to you, this can eventually be mitigated and overcome.
The safest way for VCs to gain diplomatic relations with their allies is to offer them gifts in the form of money.
Maybe the quickest way to gain diplomatic relations with allies is to send Heroes to attack and harass the enemies of your allies, since this can be done every turn, and the diplomatic bonuses stack with your chosen allies (and the penalties stack with your chosen enemies!). For this purpose, I recommend using Necromancers to "Steal Technology" from an enemy settlement, as this will give a bonus to your research speed. If you have chosen an enemy far away from Sylvania, then actions such as "Assault Garrison" are less beneficial to you.
For example, if you want to ally with the Empire, it is a good practice to harass the Beastmen, Norsca, and Greenskins with your heroes in order to gain diplomacy bonuses with the Empire. (The Beastmen are a good target in particular, since they almost never have the strength to pose a serious threat.)

Long-Term Diplomacy
Once you get diplomacy started with another race (thanks to natural empathy, playing 'the enemy of my enemy', or unadulterated bribery), you should first work towards establishing trade agreements with them. Sylvania has a few trade resources, and creating agreements will give you extra income per turn, as well as increased long-term relationship with your trading partner. This snowballs into more important agreements such as military alliances.
However, greater ties with your neighbors come with some greater risks. A common ploy of the AI is to declare war against other race-nations that they are far away from - but depending on the political regions of your game, this may put you smack between your supposed allies, and the enemies they want to attack. This means that your territories will suffer attacks and raids from the enemy while your allies probably dither and muck about in their own lands, or in a war far away. If you do not like this call to war, and you can afford it (having at least +100 relationship with your ally), you can refuse the war for a hefty Reliability penalty, which means making new deals with new or old allies much harder. Your Reliability rating will recover in time - probably just in time your ally to call another war.

Army Building

Overview
Generally speaking, Vampire Counts (VCs) benefit from balanced forces - a roughly equal spread of low-level, numerous units (like Skeletal Spearmen and Ghouls), and powerful top-tier units (like Terrorgheists and Hexwraiths). VCs also benefit greatly from the player taking direct control of the battle; with concerns about morale and having lots of easily-destroyed units in the early game, having human intelligence behind the battle-management of your army often means the difference between victory and defeat. Even then, though, the game will often give you a "Pyrrhic Victory" rating, because you might purposefully sacrifice numerous skeletons and zombies (which are easily Raised again) in order to achieve victory.

4-Army Core
Using this 4-army strategy maximizes your ability to claim and domesticate territory quickly. With luck, you can use this core as a single "fist" to take over new territory with a series of short, powerful jabs. After each province, however, give all 4 armies time to replenish and work their bonuses on Public Order and Vampiric Corruption.

Army 1: Vampire Lord, Necromancer, Wight King; heavy armor-piercing troops such as Crypt Horrors and Varghulves. 4 units of Skeletal Spearmen as your front line, and to help take down Large enemies such as Giants. This is the "anvil" army that is meant to duke it out with other heavy hitters such as Dwarfs and Chaos Warriors. Use the Vampire Lord and Mortis Engine as your Terror troops. Use your Vampire Lord and Wight King to assassinate enemy Lords, and use your Master Necromancer to support your army with Invocation of Nehek.
Army 2: Strigoi Ghoul King w/Terrorgheist, Vampire w/Hellsteed, Vampire w/Hellsteed; many flying troops such as Vargheists to quickly seize walled towns, or flank enemy armies while reinforcing Army 1. This is the "hammer" army that strikes the enemy from behind, and causes high morale damage. Use the Vampires and Terrorgheists as your Terror troops. NOTE: You MUST have at least a few ground troops alive in order to achieve victory in any battle! Include some cavalry units such as Black Knights for their speed, hitting power, and ability to kite enemies.

• Armies 1 and 2 are your "attack" armies, used to fight off other armies and attack settlements.

Army 3: Master Necromancer w/Replenishment bonus, maybe a Wight King; trash troops such as Skeleton Warriors and Zombies. Use this army to colonize ruins that were Razed by Armies 1 and 2. Can sometimes support Armies 1 and 2 in battle, but you will be paying a lot of Raise Dead costs to replace your trash troops. Thankfully, you can replace zombies and skeletons anywhere. Keep this army close to new towns you've colonized until the army is fully replenished.
If you choose to recruit a Wight King hero, level up his army training skills. Then, you can use Army 3 to train up more valuable troops such as Ghouls or Black Knights in relative safety (it just takes much longer).
Army 4: Master Necromancer w/ Income Boost, Wight King w/ Public Order, Vampire w/ Vampiric Corruption; army composition needs to be just strong enough to fight off rebel armies and prevent raiding. Use the Campaign skills of your Lord and Heroes to rapidly create Vampiric Corruption, maintain high Public Order, and build new buildings more quickly and easily. Keep this army in your own territory, behind your front lines to hold settlements and give your first 3 armies somewhere to retreat to and replenish in, if necessary. Having this army garrisoned in a town should give your Master Necromancer (and maybe Heroes) lots of bonuses for building construction and public order.

Alternate Builds
I have seen great success with some alternate builds from friends of mine and TWWII broadcasters.
Fly, My Pretties - A friend of mine likes his armies winged and mobile, and in two of his early-game armies, he recruited 6-8 units of Vargheists in a single army. He would swarm the enemy with his Vargheists after the enemy was distracted by the main body of ground troops, especially hitting their back line of archers. Vargheists can also often outfly fast cavalry or quick ranged units. This army build is extremely useful in siege battles, where he could quickly take control of the walls with the Vargheists for comparatively few casualties.
Master of Horse - This cavalry-heavy build relies on at least 2 units each of Blood Knights, Black Knights with Lances & Barding, normal Black Knights, and Hexwraiths. (You can leave out the normal Black Knights if you can afford more Blood Knights or Hexwraiths.) Make the Army Lord a Blood Knights-bloodline Vampire Lord with a ground mount, to lead charges and give some powerful bonuses to cavalry units in the army thanks to the "Doomrider" skill chain and the "Ordo Draconis" skill. This army can out-maneuver most other ground-based armies, hitting them from two directions at once. However, it has some trouble against large monstrous units and flying units, so also put in a few Skeletal Spearmen, Vargheists, and Varghulves.

Battles

Overview
As a Vampire Count, your weapons are the black arts, guile, and terror.
In the early game, a Vampire Counts army will probably have to field twice as many low-level troops as any other army to have a good chance of winning.

General Tactics
NO RANGED UNITS - Perhaps the main weakness of VC armies is their almost complete lack of ranged units, unless the player wants to super-specialize in order to get access to them. By taking the Von Carstein bloodline powers, a VC can unlock 2 Sylvanian Crossbowmen and 2 Sylvanian Handgunners (powers level 1 and 3). By taking a skill in Von Carstein Vampire Lords, they can unlock a 3rd unit of Sylvanian Crossbowmen for that army only. All these ranged units are recruited as Regiments of Renown.
BUT FLYING UNITS! - To make up for the lack of ranged units, VCs have several flying units: Dire Bats, Vargheists, and Terrorgeists. These are extremely useful as mobile troops to strike enemy units from behind, while they are engaged with your main body of slower troops. Keep the flying units out of range until the enemy is engaged, then use them to disrupt and cause morale damage, or chase away broken units so they cannot recover morale.
Vampires (ladies and lords) & Bloodline Lords also have access to flying mounts at level 10 (Hellsteed) and level 18 or 20 (Zombie Dragon, which is everything you need in this game).

Keep Your Army Tight - don't spread out too far, or send your units too far away from your main force. Weak units can be picked off, and all VC troops will start to disintegrate if they lose their morale. Even strong units like the Varghulf can be overwhelmed and start to disintegrate if outside your heroes Leadership Auras. If you have incoming reinforcements for your side, meet up with them as soon as possible, sending only quick, disposable troops to harass the enemy and slow them down before the main engagement.
Field Several Heroes - The backbone of the army are the Heroes and Lords, which provide a Leadership Aura around them to strengthen the morale of your forces. They are also the only early units capable of withstanding enemy Heroes and Lords. (Zombies, skeletons, and ghouls will get taken to pieces if they don't disintegrate first.)
Keep An Eye on Morale - The TWW2 interesting take on the Undead is that they do have morale, and it is a constant concern for an army commander. Unlike other races, VC troops will not flee when their morale is low or broken; instead, if a VC unit loses its morale (even Heroes and Lords), they will start to take heavy health damage, and the troop can die in a few seconds.

Lords & Heroes
Many VC Lords and Heroes are excellent assassins; Vampire Lords and Vampires both regenerate hitpoints while in melee combat, giving them great staying power.
Wight Kings - Your front-line fighters. Well-armored, with a strong attack and damage, Wight Kings are best used to bolster a weak line, assassinate enemy heroes, and lead charges.
Vampires & Vampire Lords - Both are leader units, meaning that they give strong bonuses to the Leadership of your hordes, which is extremely valuable if you field large numbers of weak units like skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. Spread your Vampires throughout your deployment, so that these units are always covered by the leadership aura.
Vampires (the females) lean more towards magic, and can be upgraded to be strong spellcasters or melee combatants. Vampire Lords (the males) are strong melee combatants and leaders.
Necromancers - Spellcasters, meant to be stationed behind the front line to support with spells such as Invocation of Nehek, Raise Dead, and Wind of Death. The main concern with Necromancers and spellcasting Lords is not to cast too many spells too quickly; save up your Winds of Magic reserves to keep regeneration high, and casts spells only when you need to protect or support expensive units. Keep in mind that you can cast Inovcation of Nehek on Heroes, Lords, and single units such as Varghulves to heal them to full.
Banshees - Your hero assassins. Quick, deadly, and with a chance to ignore physical (non-magical) damage, Banshees excel as assassins both in battle and on the campaign map. They are not as good in prolonged engagements as units of incorporeal troops are (Cairn Wraiths & Hexwraiths), so save them for decapitating strikes that will demoralize the enemy army.

Specific Units
VC units can be divided into the following categories: weak/strong, slow/fast, easily-broken/army-breakers.

Siege Weapons - Vampire Counts don't get actual artillery, but can build siege weapons like other race-nations can, and they can also use Crypt Horrors, Varghulves, and Terrorgeists to destroy city gates quickly.
Dire Wolves & Dire Bats - Weak, fast, easily-broken = Harassers; use Dire Wolves and Dire Bats in the same way: to chase down enemies who are fleeing because of Fear or Terror, or use them to attack an embattled enemy unit from behind, to deal morale damage. Dire units can keep broken enemies off your back, so that the enemy unit does not regain its morale and return to the fight. The advantage of Dire Bats is that they can fly over a battle, instead of having to go around. DO NOT USE against armored troops with high morale!
Crypt Horrors - strong, slow = front & center troops. Even though they are few in number (6 in a full unit), Crypt Horrors are very useful because they are probably the first unit you will field that has Armor Piercing attacks.
Varghulves - strong, fast, easily broken = With speed, armor-piercing attacks, regeneration, and huge size, varghulves are excellent formation-disruptors and hero-slayers, taking out chunks of powerful units with each attack. They do need support, since they have comparatively low morale; group them with your hero or lord to create an assassination squad, or send them plowing through the enemy ranks while they are engaged with your Skeletal Spearmen or Zombies. Varghulves also deal great damage to city gates; two Varghulves can take a gate down in about a minute.

Spellcasting
Use spellcasting (especially Invocation of Nehek) judiciously; like money, VCs benefit from stockpiling their Winds of Magic reserve, to either cast several spells in rapid succession, or make sure they have enough Winds of Magic to cast a spell at the right time.
Every Lord and almost every Hero has Invocation of Nehek, which heals a friendly Undead unit, and can reanimate lost units. Aside from its obvious uses during battle, Invocation of Nehek can be cast after the battle is finished but before you leave the battle screen (assuming you won), to heal and replenish your troops for the next fight (especially if you have another enemy just waiting to pounce on your weakened army).

Fear & Terror
A good part of the battle-play for the VCs is control over morale; just as low morale is a dangerous weakness of your armies, it is also a powerful weapon against your enemies.
Several VC units cause Fear or Terror (ex: Hexwraiths, Terrorgeists), and several Heroes can be upgraded to cause Terror as well (Vampire Lords), so spread them throughout the line of battle and have them attack different units one after another. When a unit routs, send Dire Bats or Dire Wolves to harass them and keep them running away.
The only armies where this tactic is not effective are the fellow Undead armies (who are your closest allies anyway).

Poison
Ghouls, Crypt Horrors, and certain special units have Poison attacks, which slow your enemies and makes them do less physical damage. Spread it around! If you have several units of Ghouls, have them attack several different units of the enemy, inflicting Poison on all of them. Be sure to have a decent unit backing up the ghouls, though, such as Grave Guard, who are better able to soak the lessened damage, and catch up to slowed enemies.

Raise Dead

Overview
Raise Dead deserves its own section because of the important role it plays in Vampire Count logistics and army recruitment.
Raise Dead is a recruitment option for any Vampire Counts army led by a Lord (which is all of them). When selecting an army, select the golden skeletal hand listed at the bottom of the army unit window. Using Raise Dead allows the VC player to instantly recruit troops into their army, for a slightly greater cost than recruiting the same unit from a settlement.
A VC player can recruit as many troops in one turn as they can afford, and as are available in the Raise Dead window. More and better troops can be Raised at Battle Site Markers.
NOTE: If you have a Lord who can Raise Dead very cheaply (such as Helman Ghorst or a Master Necromancer), you can use that Lord to raise an army, and then trade that army to another Lord, who may not have Raise Dead discounts. This way, you can save the most money to create several armies using Raise Dead.
If you keep one Lord who is specialized in Raising Dead, Vampiric Corruption, Public Order, and/or reducing Build Costs, you can keep this Lord in your home territory (near a Battle Site Marker) to Raise new armies quickly and then trade them to your more aggressive Lords.

Battle Site Markers
A golden skeletal hand with a plus symbol (+) on the campaign map is a Battle Site Marker; this means that because a large battle with powerful units was fought in this territory, using Raise Dead will offer better and stronger troops.
Interestingly, Raising Dead at a valuable Battle Site Marker can let the VC player recruit much stronger units (ex: Varghulves) than they can recruit from their own cities, long before the recruitment buildings are unlocked. However, these units are both expensive to Raise, and have expensive upkeep (in the hundreds of monies per unit per turn).
If you can manage it, it is very worthwhile to win a huge battle in your own home territories. (It's even better if you can manipulate two non-VC armies to fight it out in your territory!) This will create a Battle Site Marker that you can use indefinitely to Raise Dead more and stronger units in your richest and most well-defended provinces.

Strategic Uses
Raise Dead can be used anywhere on the campaign map; the only difference is in the number and quality of the troops you can raise. Once Raise Dead is used to raise all the units available in a province, it cannot be used again for several turns. (This is important to remember in the early game; less so in the later game when you have powerful Battle Site Markers.)
Raise Dead can be used "on the go", even when the raising army is in March mode (extra movement distance per turn)! You can use this to quickly strengthen a retreating army and turn the tables on your pursuers, or use Raise Dead to summon a powerful army to break a siege, while you are traveling to the besieged city.

Chaos Invasions & How to Avoid Them

Overview
First, you may ask, "Why should I bother avoiding Chaos invasions? Mostly, they are things that happen to somebody else."
The answer is, "Because after they are done with somebodies else, they will come for you."
Chaos and the Vampire Counts (VCs) do start off at war with one another, but Chaos will go for Norsca, Kislev, and the Empire first, which allows the VCs some breathing room before having to confront Chaos - but sooner or later, confront them you will. The confrontation can be postponed for a good long time, until you have the economy and troops to deal with at least 1 Chaos army at a time.

Avoiding Chaos Invasions
The simplest way to delay Chaos invasions is to never completely seize both Western and Eastern Sylvania, and never complete the Battle of Hel Fenn. Seizing both territories gives you Mannfred Von Carstein, another faction leader (if you did not start play with him; otherwise it gives you another legendary lord), and starts a countdown to the first Chaos invasion. If you seize both provinces by turn 40 or so, the first Chaos invasion can start anywhere between turn 60 to 100. You may get the occasional warning about "Chaos is coming", but they should not actually spawn armies for a good long, long time, if ever. Through these delaying mechanisms,I have postponed the first Chaos invasion until turn 160 before.

Dealing With Chaos Invasions
As mentioned above, when Chaos spawns, the initiative is on your side. Chaos will be happy for many turns subjugating Norsca and razing Kislev and the northern provinces of the Empire. All-too-soon, however, they will enter your territory, especially if you have been pushing north.
Working the viable VC tactic of inhabiting ruins, you can send a cheap army full of zombies and skeletons in the wake of the Chaos hordes, colonizing new settlements. Expect to lose these settlements. Build only light economic infrastructure, and maybe also Vampiric Corruption buildings if you're flush with wealth. Though the economic gains are small, they add up if you colonize a dozen new cities without much further investment. Vampiric Corruption in your new provinces may whittle down Chaos or Norscan armies passing through your territory, though they are 99% likely to Raid their way across the map, preventing attrition. Causing attrition in this way does not seem to impose a negative penalty on your diplomatic relations (like it did in TWW1).

And Then Things Get Worse
As if normal Chaos Lords were not bad enough, if you and the AI manage to defeat or at least delay the first Chaos invasion, the second wave will be named Legendary Chaos Lords such as Archaon the Everchosen and Kholek Suneater. These increase the danger of Chaos armies geometrically, since they also bring along Regiments of Renown and give themselves economic and replenishment bonuses.
At minimum, VCs will need 2 armies to defeat 1 Chaos army if you choose to auto-resolve - including as many armor-piercing units such as Crypt Horrors and Varghulves as you can. Even then, it is certainly better to manually control the battle and preserve your best units with discrete, effective use and Invocation of Nehek. Chaos units also have high morale and are sometimes immune to Fear and Terror, making their armies almost unbreakable. Having 2 VC armies gives you the chance to surround and more effectively demoralize a single Chaos army. Assassinating their Lords and Heroes is also more difficult, but affects their Leadership just like it does for other armies - then the only issue becomes defeating the naturally-high base leadership of each unit.

When Fighting Chaos
Against Kholek Suneater, swamp him with lots of low-level troops such as Skeletal Spearmen. He is usually specialized in taking down single strong units such as Lords and Varghulves. Save these single strong units to attack the rest of Kholeks army.

Vampire Counts - Lore Bits

Just a neat little section covering some of the lore I've uncovered about the Vampire Counts, through playing TWW2 and reading Black Library novels.

The von Diehl Lords and Heroes are named for Lothar von Diehl, a necromancer who ravaged the eastern provinces of the Empire around 1115 IC (Imperial Calendar). He tried to attack the necromancer Vanhal, but failed, and became Vanhals apprentice.
Vanhal (of the "Vanhels Danse Macabre" spell) was a priest of Morr who lost his extended family to the infamous Black Plague that started in 1111 IC. Tapping into ancient necromantic lore kept in his temple, he sought to purge all life in Sylvania in order to bring peace and quiet to the land. He used the ancient lore of the Mourkain to create Vanhaldenschlosse, a major site for channeling black magic. Vanhal might also receive credit as being the first Necromancer to raise a zombie dragon, Graug the Terrible (beheaded by dwarf Skalf, who became King of Karak Migdhal because of the feat). (Yes, this means that the zombie dragon had no head.)

Sources
Information about Lothar von Diehl and Vanhal [Vanhel]:

• Dead Winter, by C L Werner, first publication 2012
  
• Blighted Empire, by C L Werner, first publication 2013

[Azrael]

How i do vc is SPAM GRAVE GUARD with manufred von crarshiten and it works too well i kill all the empire with it

[Revan]

Not saying they are powerful at all, but Heinrichs zombies regen in melee 16hp per sec which is pretty damn good. Just makes them difficult to kill in melee. Pretty good for early game. Matter of opinion. Some think they're badass and others think still trash. I think they're badass if you have decent fast units like Black Knights to hit the rear.

[Destroyer of Worlds]

Don't love seeing quality content jacked for profit, but I guess it speaks to the value of the guide at the least. Struggled to find any better follow-up/supplementary guides and that article felt far too familiar. Thanks again for the clear and enlightening walk through!

[Angraug]

Also, the re-poster misspelled some things. >.<

[Angraug]

That is 100% scalped without my knowledge or permission! But it looks like they gave me authorship credit, so I'l count it as free publicity.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention!!
I do kinda wish they'd waited until the guide was completely done, though...

[Destroyer of Worlds]

https://gameplay.tips/guides/3881-total-war-warhammer-2.html is this you, or did this writer fully scalp your content? Either way, thanks for the walk through!

[MeowKitty]

In the early game, it is unwise to expand too quickly; even though cities are the single biggest source of income for VCs, their armies in the early game are weak.

Lol this guide is nonsense, Vc's armies are very powerful early game but they have some of the worst late-game armies, you should just shitstomp everyone right away you can have like 10 armies in no time as VC and own a huge amount of land and income.

[MeowKitty]

To maintain a strong treasury and good public order, VCs should conquer a town, pillage it for the most money, and then raze it the following turn. On the turn after that, they should be able to colonize it with the conquering army, or a following, cheap army composed of skeletons and zombies .

What the fuck are you talking about? this is like the worst way to make money and have good public order i've ever heard.

[AloStan]

Well-written good sir especially in the "Army Building" part. I am 50 hours in as Mannfred and my army buildups are quite different to the ones you suggested though I guess everyone has their own play-style. Considering that skeleton sprearmen are free of upkeep (after that tech research), the bulk of my armies consist of those guys, 12 units of skeleton spearmen units, 3 units of ghouls and 5 units of specials, usually 4 units of dark knights/vargheists and one vargulf/terrorgheist unit. Since it's a cheap army (<2000) and primarily a good defensive army when paired with a decent garrison, I usually have 3-4 of them attacking together which has proven to be a good strategy especially when followed with raising the dead to replace those lost spearmen. The only drawback is their vulnerability when in open field alone, backed by neither a garrison nor an allied army.

[Murderface]

I've got a couple questions:

The only Strigoi Lord I can recruit is the Strigoi Vampire Lord, and he gets a Terrorgheist mount, not a Zombie Dragon. Am I missing something here?

You've mentioned both Vampire Lord and Master Necromancer in the Army 1 lineup. Since an army can't have more than one Lord, is it the Vampire hero or the Necromancer hero in Army 1?

Is there a full list of traits available to Vampire Counts Lords and Heroes somewhere?