You should re-do this in your new and improved guide structure. With so many lord options I'd love to hear you analyze each one individually istead of summarizing them in 2 general groups
@@RakkhotI'm no good i english. but i just want to point that you really should get this images changes when you talk about different species of heroes or the beast. best regards thou i realy like your video. :)
Yep. But they also nerf vampire counts badly. Invocation cost more and have less efect and that necomancer efect is less efectiwe it revitalized corpses. Its too much nerfs for vampire counts in my opinion.
Some time stamps to help out. INTRODUCTION 0:00 Vampire Counts General Overview- 0:35 Binding and Crumbling- 1:43 Regeneration- 2:30 Vampires are a Rush faction- 3:17 STRATEGIES 3:28 Rush faction- 3:29 Magic- 3:44 Cheap units and harassment- 4:16 Necromancy- 4:33 Psychology- 4:56 Air Superiority- 5:46 Flank Monsters- 5:58 UNITS 6:35 Value for Money Issue- 6:35 Lords- 8:38 Heroes- 10:14 Infantry- 11:12 Cavalry- 12:25 Monsters- 13:58 War Machines- 16:19 Battle Demonstration vs Wood Elves- 18:04 👍
Dire wolves on the whole are underated. They counter missile cav fairly well and rack up damage quickly on archers and other skirmishers. Rather than sending them headlong into the enemy as an arrow sponge, park them off on a flank to force your opponent to guard against them. As soon as they turn to deal with your more dangerous units, pounce on their skirmishers. You can also use them to chase down broken units and save you're valuable units for breaking the enemy that's still fighting.
you can improve dire wolves a lot by taking certain skills and tech on campaign! there is also a lord trait called creature of the night which gives them another 10 melee attack.
I think part of the reason Vampire units look like bad value for money stat-wise is because Crumbling is considered a benefit, not a detriment. Having your unit die 25% faster is usually preferable to it routing at just under half health. You mileage may vary, of course.
I think Vampires are not bad value, because, for example, skeletons cause fear and more importantly they never rout, unlike spearmen.These advantages are not mentioned when he compares with spearmen; he only mentions stats and crumbling.
the reason why undead units are generally more expensive than their living counterparts is for the most part INVOCATION OF NEHEK. I.e.: a jade wizard can heal but not resurrect a unit of greatswords; on the contrary a vampire wizard can heal and resurrect a unit of graveguards for more or less the same mana price (even multiple units)... This is also the reason why it is almost always a bad idea to assemble an undead army without at least a wizard capable of using this spell...all the undead units will start with a disadvantage.
You skipped right over Isabella von Carstein as if she was totally worthless. That's what I thought at first too when I was comparing the stats in-game myself. But when you go into campaign mode, you'll notice that her middle skill tree. the red one that buffs units in her army, are amazingly powerful and much, much better than Vlad's. Isabella herself is a much less powerful lord than Vlad in this comparison, sure, but when you consider her campaign skills and the extent to which she can overbuff all her units, then she has the potential to have a much stronger overall army than Vlad. There's also the fact that you're meant to use 2-3 vampires with her as well, which would be a pain to fight against and also to micro-manage but can potentially be very powerful. If you take a look at all these skills below, and then on top of that you factor in the Technology bonuses for these same units, you wind up with insanely powerful units and you quickly see why Vampire Counts have no need for ranged weapons like bows and arrows or artillery. Although it would be cool if they had some dilapidated old trebuchet or catapult that launched rotten, writhing corpse balls. The Ravening Beast lvl3: Armour: +35 for Vargheists units At Dawn They Sleep lvl3: Armour-piercing damage: +6 for Fell Bats, Melee defence: +12 for Fell Bat units Time of Arising lvl3: Leadership: +12 for Varghulf units, Melee attack: +12 for Varghulf Units Flying Horrors lvl3: Charge bonus: +10% for Vargheists and Terrorgheists, Melee attack: +12 for Vargheists and Terrorgheists Midnight's Children lvl3: Melee attack: +12 for Terrorgheists, Leadership: +12 for for Terrorgheists Dread Knights lvl3: Charge bonus: +10% for cavalry units, Melee attack: +12 for cavalry units
althouh this is true. it seems zark is more focused on battles. than he is on campaign. still. yea maybe he should have known. but tww is a massive game
Most badass intro scene ever. Hey Zerkovich! I've have been watching your video for a while now and I have to say they are all some of the best Total War: Warhammer videos I have ever seen. Your guides are comprehensive, well thought out and have helped me personally go from a person who got absolutely stomped on (Foot of Gork stomped) in my first multiplayer to one who is pretty high on the leader board and consistently wins 75%ish of multiplayer battles. I recently watched your Patreon video and I commend you on your hard work, dedication, and what I think is the proper philosophy on content creation and viewer support that so many other RU-vidrs lack. Although I cannot help support you financially (as you may well know those still in school have little money), you, sir, have earned yourself a happy subscriber and loyal supporter. I look forward to seeing many more excellent videos, in the futcha.
Well thank you man. That is always the finest of compliments **high five** Glad to help you level up your game! Bit of practice and knowledge is all that's needed! And thank you again, I appreciate the sentiment. I want to maintain a high quality and honest channel, and any kind of support allows me to do that so your views/comments/likes are all contributions to the channel. That's awesome enough for me!
I adore the Vampire Counts, but the developers goofed by making them rush-dependent. It should have been made possible to win the tabletop/lore way, by outlasting their opponents, exhausting the enemy's vigour and ammunition and wearing them down. Rush tactics should only be required if the VC army is of heavy hitting composition.
The Vampires are my favorite faction. First one I managed to take through a complete campaign. I think they work best for my play style, which is funny because I never would have pegged myself as a "hold the line and attack from the rear" style of player.
Another great one Zerk! It's great to see you "leveling up" in your video making, especially the editing! Things that I thought were awesome, 1. Rolling your usual two part faction vids into one succinct bundle 2. Using the army selection screen to go through the stats of each unit 3. That little window showcasing the unit models 4. Discussing the RoR and their abilities Might I suggest in the "fewcha" maybe changing the unit in the window to the one you're talking about each time? It's a unique detail that I've not seen anyone else do; capitalise on it! Also maybe a little discussion about the match ups with other factions? Probably not as hard core as army setups, more like how the factions strengths/weaknesses relate to their enemies Great job mate, looking forwards to more!
Thank you G. I did wonder how the long time subs would find this new arrangement so thanks for the feedback. The window thing did cross my mind, and does make sense. But I didn't want to put too much focus on the visual of the unit, as I think that's what was wrong with the old format. People don't give that much of a shit about looking at the unit, they can do that in their own game. So I was trying to get more of a focus on the details and what I was saying, but keeping it brief as not to get boring. But haven't a different unit up to the one I'm talking about does look/feel a bit odd. So I may experiment. The other idea doesn't sound like a bad one. And I did feel this was maybe a bit short so it may bolster it out a bit, talking about factions match ups. Another useful idea. Thanks. But now that I haven't done in it this one, the next one's will be laughing at this guide for not having it xD That's how my perfectionist mind see's it. I'd like all faction army vids to be symmetrical in terms of arrangement and content. Oh well! Thanks for your support as always!
Late to the party. I think the new format is good as it will cut down on the workload considering you still have a bunch to do, especially with the new games and potential dlc packs and such. I kinda miss having the actual units be showcased since I really liked that touch but again workload. You are right in that it may not be important for the information aspect but it just adds production quality I feel. Anyway as you mentioned having a visual up of one unit and you talking about another was a little off. And I agree with MrLizard in that a factions match ups section would probably be a good thing to have. Better go back and redo the video mister perfectionist ;)
Well, not every but yeah most of them looks like this. It's also Vlad/Isabella/Mannfred as lords, Nehek/Raise Dead/Macabre or Wind of Death for spells. Sometimes it's other support stuff but core units are the same most of the time. Vampires have quite poor roster and decent opportunities of units to choose. Red Duke is most safest and probably best VC lord for now. BK actually is the only choice to have good anti-large unit (there are only 3 anti-large units in VC roster). Grave guard arguably the best VC infantry even though they're basically non-ap anti-infantiy elite fodder unit. Mortis Engine is quite important but I don't think it's "must have" unit after Raise Dead became good. And Claw of Nagash in fact don't get shevrons so you pay extra 200 for 25% magic resistance and chilling aura. Crypt Horrors always were the key unit. VC don't have any cheaper analog with AP and self-regen. Even though they are slightly too good for VC faction, I think now they are at right place, since Crypt Ghouls and Vargheists ain't that good and Grave Guard with GW are expensive.
Zerkovich Yeah. Though it's 20 summons if to be more accurately. But it's there playstyle for now and from what I heard it's supposed to be so (which is a little bit sad since I hoped CA make other VC things work better so they would be more balanced and could use better their stuff, not give VC only one super strong spell instead to make VC competitve). And spamming Raise Dead is the only way to make one of there main support abilities (Curse of the Undeath) work.
Well they don't have much going for them unlike other factions that can win with flexible rosters. Their units just aren't cost effective and have poor leadership. So they are forced to use the typical build. Though i would chose Mannfred over Red Duke any day.
Didn't need this guide, have done very well with vc anyway, But then I watched it and still managed to get a few ideas to improve my game. Thanks a lot man. Educational even for the non beginner ( maybe not for a pro, I'm only a mid tier player at best)
Just a correction for the Black Coach. It may be a chariot but it shouldn't be used like a chariot because it doesn't act like your typical chariot. You want to keep the black coach in sustained front line combat (with support of course) against infantry. As long as you leave it in combat its three abilities will activate over time which will make it better. Assuming it's still around and didn't crumble.
Well that's the problem. It doesn't stay around and crumbles like a biznatch. 10 Melee Defence and and 80 charge bonus... those are Shock Cavalry stats. Why would it have a huge Charge if it was meant to sit in melee? Even against the crappiest units like Empire Swordsman, it takes SO much damage so quickly in melee. It'll scare off Swordsman. But lose half it's health in the process. So I think there's truth to both sides. It's Abilities say it needs to stay in melee. It's stats say the opposite. Running down routing units seems like a good call with the BC.
When you try to embark on a relentless crusade on the Empire of Man but then you get spanked by Vampire corruption when it makes all your provinces revolt, and you end up sitting in the same town for 20 turns just to get your corruption above 30%
Have to admit a year after playing I tend to come back to vampire counts in sfo. Removal of the regen cap truely makes them an outlast faction with some regen units and nehek.
Vlad is to this day my favourite Lord in the game. I once threw him into the middle of battle in a desperate bid to counter an ambush. The mad lad not only took out 2 units by himself, he actually healed from doing that.
Wow, such a great guide. This will surely help me! I'm new to Warhammer and I am really struggling with armies. Still I don't know how to use them properly in siege battles. Capturing Altdorf is impossible for me.
playing the vampire counts seems to be in some way more like chess than anything:a king to protect most units can only go forward and sacrificing them is worthy to win the battle. (as you will quickly regain your army from the corpses left by the bloodshed anyway.)
Good guide, nice and clear. I'm not new to the total war genre but warhammer definitely is, and this helped me understand the strengths and weaknesses of the vampires better!
I like these in-depth discussions about the rosters of the various factions. This is one of my favorite games, and learning how to better use the various factions is a huge boon. Keep up the good work. Liked and subscribed.
Hey man, thanks to your guide i actually managed to survive a grueling battle against overwhelming odds and then survive the Chaos Army and kill them also, i saved the bad odds battle and i'll try to upload in on my channel sometime soon so you can see what you think :D And this is my first Total War game, without this guide i was getting frustrated with my poor decisions and trying to spread to fast and getting put in my place. Now i feel like i know my units a little better and the Vamp tactics, sort of haha after fending the Chaos off i'm hiding in my Castle right now trying to get my Army back with no trade incoming or real finances and still only the starting province under my control.
You explained the units, strategies, and advantages and disadvantages very well but you didn't actually click on the units so we could see them as you were explaining them.
The price to quality of the unit mainly comes down to one good heal bringing back 3 units that have lost half their numbers back to almost full in battle and a whole army that lost all 70% of their numbers back to full in like NO Time plus raise undead.
Vargheists at the beginning of the campaign are a game changer. I used a lot of them combined with bats as my main force plus added some skeletons to hold the line and hounds to flank the enemies. Also they work well with capturing castle walls.
Thanks for this cool video. It's quite good and informative. I may not agree with everything but still think it is well made overall. Good luck and keep it up. Hope to see VC campaign playthrough from you someday.
I'm curious, will you be doing a guide on hero mounts? I've seen a lot of debate among players if mounts are worth it (especially flying mounts), and I'm curious what the pros and cons of the land and flying mounts are.
first time i saw the vid i didnt really understand the crumbling mechanic so i thought all units in the vampire counts army just slowly take damage from the start of the battle xD
I've just done some testing, and the corpse cart balefire seems actually quite good when facing enemy wizards. It works like this: when no unit is in the range of the aura, everything is as normal (power recharge at 1/6secs); when any one enemy unit is in the radius, it is 1/8 secs, when 2 are 1/11, when three 1/16 secs, when 4 1/33 secs, and when it gets to five it stops altogether. The main problem I see with it is that it only really starts taking effect when the main lines clash, so the enemy will still probably have 30 power by that point, and the radius is small so it will be hard to get units in the radius.
Yeah I think the aura radius is it's problem. Even if a wizard does wander into range, it can quickly get out, even on foot. And the Cart is slow so may struggle to keep up.
I think you may have misunderstood, it's ANY enemy unit - not just wizards. The main difficulty is getting that many enemy units in the radius. EDIT: The thing it's affecting is the rate magic transfers from the 'unusable' pool to the 'usable' pool, if maybe you thought it meant the cooldown on the spells. Also, I love your vids! You make excellent content, and I always enjoy them immensely.
I had a battle recently, Campaign, I was using Gelt up against a slightly weaker (though with an overwhelming number of fliers) Vampire Counts army lead by Vlad. It was a tough battle but I wiped out the opponent army *except* vlad.. I had 3/4 of my units still on the field, but all varied between 20 and 40% health. Vlad *routed* the entire rest of my army all by himself. Between his healing and his high armor value I just couldnt hurt him long enough to do anything
I just started WH2 with Imrik and my first dragon had the undead causing fear all over the field. Seems like WH2 added some new units too. That fear just ruins all my plans with HE.
right now red duke and vlad are the most popular lords but i still think Manfred is the best the reason people don't like him is because they put him on zombie dragon and against factions like empire and bretonia he gets sniped pretty easily and then you are doomed you only need to put him on normal mount and defend him with blood knights and you see how good he is ,and he has massive magic pool more than any other lord and that allows him to use both lore of death and lore of vampire
undead 78 I see what you mean although that being said in my experience he is just a lot more squish than the other REAL 'LL of the vampire counts. Vlad can tank and does a very respectable amount of damage. Isabella has her cup and can seriously heal herself and other hero's, although I'm not sure of it works on hero's for other factions but it makes her useful for supporting allied v.c players. and the Red Duke, he is a damn good hero sniper with El Sif (not sure of spelled right) and a great weapon damage of 460, which at first does not look special, but that with spells and his ability, he can take out lords above his paygrade with enough time. Manfred just doesn't seem very viable to me when I can just get a vampire hero (Or 2) with the spell or spells you want, put em on a hell steed and boom a hero nice and cheep with lore of death/shadows.
undead 78 I see what you mean although that being said in my experience he is just a lot more squish than the other REAL 'LL of the vampire counts. Vlad can tank and does a very respectable amount of damage. Isabella has her cup and can seriously heal herself and other hero's, although I'm not sure of it works on hero's for other factions but it makes her useful for supporting allied v.c players. and the Red Duke, he is a damn good hero sniper with El Sif (not sure of spelled right) and a great weapon damage of 460, which at first does not look special, but that with spells and his ability, he can take out lords above his paygrade with enough time. Manfred just doesn't seem very viable to me when I can just get a vampire hero (Or 2) with the spell or spells you want, put em on a hell steed and boom a hero nice and cheep with lore of death/shadows.
Jaden Harrod i really like vlad (as you can see from my profile pic) but his lack of mobility is his biggest weakness how ever you are some how right, like you can pick red duke and 2 necromancers with only raise the dead and you have 21 units of zombies!!!. how ever people usually ban this ability in tournaments (and red duke special ability is El Syf).
Mannfred is WAY better than taking a regular vampire lord and a vampire with lore of death because Mannfred has Mastery of the Black Arts which greatly increases winds of magic reserves and winds of magic regen AND the Sword of Unholy Power which again greatly increases winds of magic reserves and winds of magic regen. He is by far the most powerful spellcaster in the game simply because he can cast far more spells in a given battle than any other lord, combine that with his high armor, melee attack, and melee defense for being a vampire lord and he is an amazingly strong character. Trick is to not bring him on the zombie dragon unless you're confident that you wont get sniped for being in the air. So, zombie dragon is really only good against Greenskins/Dwarfs and possibly Chaos. I prefer to keep him on a regular steed to help keep his cost down and don't forget to drop spells that you don't think you'll be using. Go to's are Invocation of Nehek, Spirit Leech, Fate of Bjuna, Raise Dead, and potentially Doom and Darkness depending on if you're going to try and terror bomb or not. Oh and I'm fairly sure Mannfred can win against Vlad 1 on 1 because he has access to spirit leech.
Watching the videos once again through this playlist I've notice the absence of the new units video for the Shadow & Blade and for the Warden & Paunch, have you considered adding them anytime? Greenskins update as the one for the Empire that's already in the playlist would be awesome as well. Loving your Warhammer videos!!!
With Isabella plus 6 up to 13 Vampire heroes with Hunger and Invocation of Nehek paths for Legendary lords and 6 Terrorghis or Vaulgarf my army can handle even three armies.
You forgot to mention the vampire's biggest strength: Wind of Death. It can single highhandedly (castedly?) annihilate three to five stacks of long beards for 23 magic. The vampires are a magic faction first and foremost, and rely on their magic to make up for their subpar troops.
God, this makes me want to do a ReVamp run with all the addition and changes. I played vanilla without the DLC even for the first campaign. So many games, so little time. Always not enough time.
Does anyone know when to use crypt horrors VS cairn wraiths VS varghulf? All three are armor piercing flankers, except both crypts and varg have regen, and cairns have physical resist. When should I use one over the other?
Also which isn't exactly unit strategy and more campaign strategy. You can get a tech upgrade which makes skeletons entirely free -> you can run across the map with 12,16 or even 20 armys full with 19 skeletons and a vampire. Tbf its not a strong army in its own rigth but if you have simply an infinite amount of skeletons and a bit of vampire magix you can beat early and midgame armys as well as every garrison except the largest ones. -> You may loose against specialised armys but you simply siege 2 cities in the time period the wipe 2 of your armies. you just raise in the different provinces skeletons again. Bang armies immediatly replaced. and if you are sieged with the skeleton army inside you are doing decent. And with high casualty battles you can raise more and better troops on the campaign map. I once had a province were I could fairly regularly raise Terrorgheist and that also damn early. Only issue with that strat is you cannot have good armies until you disband everything due to how maintenance works
From a top ranked ladder player: I haven't played in ages but vampire lords were probably one of most powerful factions (you wouldn't conclude this by watching your guide btw ; ), their main line works like combination of both types of crypt guards and crypt horrors (at least 4+4 units) - that is your main line. If they are properly supported with mortis engine they cannot lose. Then all tactic revolves if you can keep it alive - if you can - there is no faction that can face your core charge. You will literally grind down anything. If ME dies - you may lose. Best lord is vlad - and no mount is just a bonus - low lord cannot be targeted by missiles among infantry and good luck trying to grind him down in melee. He will kill hundreds every time.
Nobody has responded but what I learned is mass fell bat spam can work to support an army of Grave Guard with great weapons and Cairn Wraiths. The bats bog down all the artillery and ranged units while the armor piercing melee units get to work. If the Dwarf player has his units lined up drop a good old Wind of Death down on them and enjoy the show. Sadly if the Dwarf is using a lot of flamethrower units you are in a lot of trouble. Why the bats and other fast units are required so you can stop them from firing. I know throwing some Varghiests in with the bats works to if you want to kill the units faster.
Dude thanks for army help. Do you have a campaign guide as well? As in world map? Also, you say no ranged units but isn't corpse cart artillery? Haven't got them yet but might be wrong 😂
Amazing video, thank you so much! Looking at your battle at the end, is there a lot of controls going on in the back or are you leaving your units do their own thing?
Thanks man. You're welcome. I'm not entirely sure what you mean but yeah there's probably a lot going on. Never a good idea to let units do their own thing as such. They'll probably end up in a silly match up.
This is great. I just started playing this series for the first time. Picked Mannfred and so far the game actually seems underwhelming. Probably because I don't have most of the options yet, just the cheap cardboard undead and a grand total of one Varghulf I can hit people in the back with. I'll keep trying.
