Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Vlad Von Carstein 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.
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VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Control the provinces of Northern Sylvania and Southern Sylvania;
- Control Altdorf, directly or via vassals/allies;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements;
The reward is +15% replenishment rate, great to ensure, as always, that your armies are quick to get back to full strength for more conquests.
This is a remarkably easy victory condition, great to give you a taste of the faction and to see if you wish to pursue it further.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements
- Control all the provinces of the Empire
- Destroy the faction of Reikland
The reward is +35 Winds of Magic power reserve, great to help your spellcasters throughout the domination victory or endgame.
Still quite an easy and straightforward victory condition, great to get a better view of the Vampire Counts as a whole. It is sadly a bit less of a sandbox campaign, but it is fun to do.
Vlad has the Dark Kiss, and he benefits from:
- Starts with 1 Blood Kiss
- Access to unique building in Castle Drakenhof;
- Campaign movement range +10% (all armies)
- Starts with Isabella von Carstein as a Legendary Hero.
Movement and Isabella as a Hero are key here. Isabella allows a true power couple, nearly unmatched, so it is recommended you use them together.
Climate is average, there are too many unpleasant or uninhabitable climates, in particular the mountains which may hinder variation of playstyles.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting province is a 3 settlement province, and you have another 3 settlement province to conquer right from the start. This ensures you have quite a solid base of both recruitment and income, being one of the better starting locations.
Although you are surrounded, technically, Castle Drakenhof is very defensible and the raise dead mechanic helps ensure you get some defense should you be attacked from another front. Still, recommended that you keep an eye on any possible threats until you can expand into the mountains.
Typical expansion involves taking care of the nearby Vampires and then either focusing on Drycha and the Empire, or turn to the mountains after the Dwarfs. Given that you have no underway stance or similar, and that mountains are unpleasant, it can be tricky, although you do have lots of mines there. Be wary of how you approach the expansion.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
You are part of the Evil tide, but there are some interesting possibilities. Typical enemies will be the Empire and the Dwarfs, with Greenskins and Ogres, as well as Skaven, being possible allies.
However, should be noted that Kislev does not have any aversion towards you, which is interesting to try out in a given setting. Cathay is also a possibility!
Still, attempt to obtain any Greenskins artillery or missile units, as well as Ogre missile units for your armies if you can, to complement your already massive melee forces.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
- Specifically to the faction, the relationship between Vlad and Isabella gives them plenty of bonuses to the army they are fighting with, let alone to their own fighting prowess.
- These bonuses are more complementary than it seems at first glance, since Vlad has vanguard deployment to all units, while Isabella has better stats to fast units such as Dire Wolves, Fell Bats, Vargheists, Varghulfs, and Terrorgheists. It allows a variety of possible combinations which adds to the replay value here.
- Raise the Dead is your top means of recruitment. Fight battles, stand on top of that battlefield or nearby, and you can raise a lot of units as long as you can pay for them.
- Blood Kisses are about getting the Bloodline Lords. You obtain them by assassinating characters, killing faction leaders in battle, vassalizing other factions, and some other possible sources.
- The Bloodline Lords are all sort of Legendary Lords, each type with unique skill lines that will allow many compositions. The bloodlines themselves already give you signficant bonuses that stay throughout the campaign, so which ones you obtain first is an important strategic option.
- You require Vampiric corrutpion to not take attrition. This implies you should always be corrupting where you are going to attack, 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.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4; Vampiric corruption +1
Growth +20, construction cost for all buildings -10%
Income from all buildings +5%
Recruit rank +1, local recruitment capacity +1;
A good varied and efficient set of edicts, great to use.
Army stances:
Channeling takes 10% movement, giving you Winds of Magic +15 per turn. It also gives you replenishment in foreign territory
Raiding costs 50% movement, makes you immune to attrition.
Ambush costs 25% movement
Forced march
Note how you do not have an encamp stance, so you either can be replenishing, or you can be immune to attrition, but not both. This makes the faction very difficult to manage when attacking into uninhabitable climate.
Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Vlad Von Carstein Vampire Counts Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts(continuation)
BUILDINGS, RESEARCH:
Castle Drakenhoff has 3 special buildings, including a Gold Mine. The first building is focused on Vampires, giving you a tier 4 Hero available to be recruited right at tier 1, while also giving them +3 hero recruit rank and -70% cost.
The second specific building gives you factionwide control, Lord recruit rank, vampiric corruption, and hero recruit rank, all fairly useful.
You require 7 military buildings, 5 of which must be in the capital for the full effect. You no longer require an Armory as a secondary building, gladly.
Tier 3 units are decent, but cannot build an army on its own that easily. Tier 4 and 5 are really important for your elite armies, Blood Knights, Mortis Engines, Terrorgheists, and Varghulfs, are all great for a good composition.
Growth is rather weak. It is very difficult, or at least expensive to grow, so be mindful of it.
Infrastructure:
1 - Growth, hero recruitment, local recruitment capacity.
2 - Income and control;
3 - Corruption and corruption in adjacent provinces.
It is a rather bland selection, but you may also enjoy the fact you have some clear choices overall.
Research is now very useful. Mostly divided into bonuses for specific unit types: Infantry, Monsters, Ethereal units and Crypt units, Knights and Chariots.
There are some good bonuses for campaign, including Growth which is quite important too, so study it to maximize what you wish to do in campaign.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
The blue line has both replenishment and reduced upkeep in the first line. The last part is not so inviting, but you may wish to grab Lighting Strike, if you wish.
The red line has some good combinations, and it is easy to synergyze those with the specific skills from all the bloodline lords too. The only issue is how every lord is actually a caster, so you may have to decide early what you wish to ensure that you have the skillpoints to do it.
Heroes are among some of the best in the game for what they achieve for you. Two melee focused heroes, a caster than can hold its own, and a Necromancer that replenishes and is a nice support hero in battle. Two of them give you replenishment options, which is excellent to ensure your armies never run out of steam. Specially under Vlad you can recruit Vampires from tier 1, making them invaluable for your campaign.
Vlad and Isabella's unique combination allows you to have plenty of variety in your compositions. They are mostly known for the ability to get a Vampire Hero doomstack (easier with Isabella as a Lord, though) which by all means, go for it. These combinations I provide are just to focus on the abilities and skills they give, and remember that Vlad gives vanguard to everyone. Combinations of even Fell bats and Dire wolves, supported by their elite monsters are pretty good, specially how fast you can have those. Nothing wrong with upgrading into some more deadly forces later on, of course.
I give you then some other examples that you can use with the Bloodline Lords: Free bats, and -40% Vargheists imply you can have a great army to assist or to be a sweeper, or even to siege with as they can take the walls very fast.
The Ghoul lords have some advantages for Crypt Ghouls and Horrors, so of course I can use those for some interesting armies.
Then you can have some fun with Ethereal only combinations, just be wary of Daemons or units with tons of magical attacks, though(!). This works well after all the research for them and redline skills, of course.
No roster would be complete without some options around Grave Guards, Blood Knights... I like to use them with either flyers support or Mortis Engines support.
FINAL NOTES:
Vlad is probably the most straight up Vampire Counts campaign. Go against the Empire and the Dwarfs, just like in Warhammer 1. Isabella's presence, as you have guessed, gives them some uniqueness and you will enjoy the power couple in battle for certain against any foe.
The key point in this campaign is how the long campaign victory is quite tailored to Vlad, so a quick long campaign while taking advantage of the possible rush factor from Vlad's vanguard deployment is quite interesting to play.
Your army consists of:
1 - Good infantry
2 - Great cavalry
3 - Great flying units
4 - Good chariots
5 - No missile units
6 - Relies on magic early on.
Replenishment is good, but climate will of course cause issues. Vlad suffers a bit because of his proximity to the mountains.
It is now time to play with the power couple, Vlad as your lord, and Isabella as the hero;)
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006014337
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