Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Helman Ghorst - Vampire Counts Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts
Hello everyone. In this guide I will cover:
- Victory conditions, faction and climate;
- Starting location;
- Diplomacy and outposts;
- Mechanics of the race and faction;
- Province edicts and army stances;
- Buildings and research;
- Lords and skills;
- Army compositions;
And give you my final notes on the specific faction. Hope you enjoy it.
If you prefer to watch the video, it also helps to support me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQxanosaE_U
If you prefer to read, here it goes:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
Destroy the faction of Poxmakers of Nurgle;
Control the settlement of Nagashizzar (either direct or via vassals/allies);
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements.
The reward is +15% casualty replenishment rate, which is always great for the Vampire Counts overall.
This is quite a short campaign, might still be difficult, but you do have the tools for it considering your very good early game strength.
Long victory:
Achieve the short victory conditions;
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements;
Control all the provinces of the Empire Lands;
Destroy the faction of Reikland;
The reward is +35 Winds of Magic power reserve for all armies, this is great since your faction does rely a lot around magic, so your casters are always useful in battle.
This is quite a long campaign to do, and the same as for other Vampire Counts. The issue is how far away from the Empire lands Helman Ghorst is, so it is much harder for him given this position. It is not unlikely that you can even complete domination victory before the long victory.
Helman Ghorst is a student of Darkness, and benefits from:
Bound Spell: "Lesser Raise Dead" (summons unit of Zombies) for Corpse Carts and Mortis Engines;
Raise Dead pool capacity: +4 for Zombies
Casualty replenishment rate +10%;
Poison attacks for Zombies, Skeleton Spearmen, and Skeleton Warriors.
These are very interesting and unique bonuses, and throughout the campaign he just gets more and more into the combination of Zombies and Mortis Engine effects, for a fun playthrough overall.
Climate is rather better for Helman Ghorst overall, compared to other Vampire Counts. Mountains are suitable terrain, so only the Chaos lands are really an issue for him. A great choice if you wish to dominate the whole map with the Vampire Counts.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting position is a 1 settlement province, quite defensible, but you will need to expand further in order to get a very solid base. Luckily, Vampire Counts do not need many provinces to start pumping out some good units, and Helman Ghorst does not have an issue with that because of his Zombies.
Typical expansion is to take care of Nurgle and establish a foothold, then you are supposed to go into the West for further objectives. You can always go into the North area against the Ogres, or into the Cathay area, of course.
Should be noted that you do have the sea nearby, which can give you access to those important goodies that may assist you. Also relevant that you can use the Sea Lanes for even more campaign replay value.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
Diplomatically, you are part of the Evil tide, let's say. Of sorts. This is because there are some interesting points, such as not having that much aversion towards Cathay. You may even obtain alliances with them if that is the case.
Nurgle and Chaos Dwarfs will likely be your initial enemies. Then you really may yet be able to choose between becoming evil or good. You can get good outposts from Greenskins, Cathay, or Ogres if you would like as they should be easy to obtain.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
Raise the Dead is your top means of recruitment: Fight battles, stand in the vicinity of the battlefield, and watch them gather in your raise dead pools.
Blood Kisses are all about getting the Bloodline lords. You acquire Blood Kisses by assassinating characters, by faction leaders killed in battle, factions vassalized, or other events. Blood line Lords are these sort of Legendary Lords, each type of lord has unique skill lines that will allow many compositions. The Bloodlines themselves give you significant bonuses that stay throughout the campaign, so which ones you obtain first and the ordering is an important strategic option.
You require Vampiric corruption to not take attrition. This implies you should always be corrupting where you are going to expand, perhaps lead with some heroes to gain an advantage there.
Finally, should you lose entire units in battle, the Dead Rise Again can bring back units to life; this allows you to avoid having to recruit more troops in the long run.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4, Vampiric corruption +1;
Growth +20, construction cost -10%;
Income from all buildings +5%
Recruit rank +1; local recruit capacity +1;
A good variety, although recruit rank and recruit capacity, given the raise dead mechanic, could be replaced by something more meaningful.
Army stances:
Channeling takes 10% movement, but allows replenishment in foreign territory.
Raiding is the stance that gives you immunity to attrition; 50% movement required.
Ambush costs 25% with the usual effects.
Forced March.
The key point is how the Vampire Counts, like the Dark Elves, do not have any army stance that allows both immunity to attrition and replenishment, which may hinder you in conquests where climate is unsuitable or uninhabitable.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Helman Ghorst - Vampire Counts Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts Part 2
BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH:
The Haunted Forest has 2 special buildings, one that provides income, growth, vampiric corruption, and better recruit rank of Crypt Ghouls and Zombies. Second one is a resource building, income, upkeep, and recruit rank and cost for Terrorgheists.
You require 7 military buildings for full military, 5 of which must be built in the capital. Luckily we no longer require an armory as a secondary building.
Tier 3 units are decent, but cannot build an army on its own that easily (although Ghorst can). Tier 4 and 5 are really important for your more elite armies. Blood Knights, Mortis Engines, Terrorgheists and Varghulfs, all great to have for some compositions.
Growth is rather weak, or better said, expensive. It is difficult to grow so take every opportunity to go for it.
Infrastructure:
Growth, hero recruit, local recruit capacity. It is rather expensive for what it does, though.
Income and control, (great building.)
Corruption
A bland selection, but you may enjoy having an easier time with building choices too.
Research has been mofidied and it is rather useful now. Mostly split into bonuses for infantry, monsters, etheral and crypt units, and Knights and chariots.
There are some nice bonuses for your campaign map notions too, so I encourage you to study it a bit to maximize the synergy of what you are aiming for in your campaign.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Blue line allows quick replenishment and reduced upkeep right in the first part. Second part of the line is not so inviting, unless you wish to grab Lightning Strike, of course.
Redline skill tree has good combinations and they are easy to synergize without having to spend too many skill points here. I like to go for the specific skills from the Bloodline lords and maximize certain units. Every lord is a caster, which means you do have to ensure you decide early one what you are aiming to do so you have enough points for it.
Heroes are among some of the best in the game. Two melee focused heroes, a caster than can old in melee, a Necromancer that replenishes and gives nice support. Two give replenishment, and this is excellent to ensure your armies are always nearly full.
Helman Ghorst has a nice Zombies theme, but do not neglect his Crypt Ghouls too. Most of his effects affect Zombies factionwide, so it is good to note that army compositions I make for him are good for other lords too. Zombies are not there to cause damage, but they will hold forever while your magic and mortis engine effects slowly kill the enemy. It may just be too slow for your taste, so nothing wrong bringing some heavy hitters.
Nothing wrong with having a bit of flavor either with some flyers, blood knights, or going into the crypt ghouls with extra armor, though, if that is your idea. Just remember that Zombies are definitely worth it under Helman Ghorst and you will be fine;)
Some examples follow of the specific skills that you can have from the bloodline lords. Free bats and -40% Vargheists imply you can have a great army to assist or to sweep, or to siege as they can take the walls really fast and well.
The Ghouls have some advantages for Crypt Ghouls and Horrors, so nothing wrong using those for interesting armies.
Just some fun combinations around Etheral units may be cool too, but there are a ton of enemies with magic damage nowadays, so just be careful. This works well with research in full for them.
No roster is complete without some Grave Guard/Blood Knights combinations. I like to use the specific lords for them because the upkeep is heavily reduced.
Notice as well the overall reduced cost in terms of redline skill points (the yellow numbers). This is great because you do have caster lords and you have great magic you may wish to go into...
FINAL NOTES:
Helman Ghorst is a very interesting and unique campaign for the Vampire Counts. You go as a Zombie master, endless hordes of actually good zombies that can fight and give a bad surprise to the enemies. The problem is the autoresolve, though;P
You can then support with the other lords from the bloodlines to just have some fun with typical armies too.
In addition to it, different starting position and different enemies definitely gives this campaign quite an edge. To top it all out, you have better climate than other Vampire Counts, making this a much more appealing campaign if your goal is to conquer the whole map or just domination.
Your army consists of:
1 - Zombies.
(kidding)
2 - Good infantry;
3 - Great cavalry;
4 - Great flying units;
5 - Good chariots;
6 - No missile units;
7 - Relies on Magic early on.
Replenishment is good. Climate is typically the issue, but Ghorst has such a better time compared to others that I just prefer playing with him.
Therefore, go forth and be the Zombie Master, with Helman Ghorst!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216428075
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