That section about the Grim & the Grave once again served as a grim reminder that the VC haven't received any DLC since game 1 despite being one of the starting races.
@@BlakesTakes420 Probably, although personally, Omen of Destructions would have been a better fit since Khornate factions hate vampires, and it could have been a cool rivalry with the Ogres being the "neutral" party available to both for hire. With the next DLC most likely being Slaaneshi, that thematic rivalry will be pretty much non-existent.
@@vahlen5281 Aww, now that you mention it, vamps would have been at home with the whole blood and skulls thing XD Although I also can see an argument for bundling up (presumably) Neferata with a Slaanesh DLC for mechanical rather than thematic reasons. If we were to get the Lahmian Sisterhood faction, I could 100% see them having access a Cults-like mechanic. And a DLC focused on Slaanesh would give CA an excuse to expand on cults as a whole, and maybe vassals as well (which would benefit all VC factions).
Tbf, what can you really give counts? They're a skew faction, kind of the anti-dorfs in that they have no guns (whereas dorfs have no magic...nor anything interesting that isn't a helicopter) Better, imo, to flesh out more interesting factions that have play styles outside "blob lel" Even on the undead side, Tomb Kings are vastly more versatile with what they can do and what fun things dlcs could introduce to them
@@BlakesTakes420 Pretty sure it'll be slaneesh and elves (maybe all 3 but at least dark and high elves). They've stuck to theming the last 3 with the other chaos monogod factions. I hope vampires get the DLC after that one, my first campaign ever was with them in WH2 and they've held a spot in my heart since then.
That's the fun part of Vampire Counts. The Order factions won't let them be part of their hugbox, but they can make their own hugbox and invite everybody in (with some... persuasion). To me, the hilarious part is always how willing people are to throw away their sovereignty for the price of one random settlement.
@@thoriumbrother Don't forget about making the blob out of your units and having them become your meatshield while your AoE deals damage to close enemies
Depending on how cheesy you want to play, instead of finishing off your enemies, you could set up dedicated blood kiss farms - set up a loss with vlad to enemy faction leader (giving them Vlad's trait for respawning every turn), pen them in in a small otherwise useless settlement and farm those blood kisses every turn, as they'll just keep respawning.
Just want to take a moment to point out that while yes Strogio Ghoul Kings getting flying later sucks, they are literal killing machines on their mount and surprisingly hard to kill for some reason. Also all their summoning spells summon ghouls instead which is fun. There bloodline skills are meh but the ambush boost can be nice.
@@BlakesTakes420 I get that. I only found out they were killing machines after watching another UA-camr use one (Monsterabound) because I value the hell out of flying casters.
It's hard to have faith in youtube and how it works when every time I click on one of your videos you don't have 100k+ subs. You make AWESOME content and your videos take a lot of work man I can tell.
One more Monstrous Healing source out there that you missed (it's niche af, easy to overlook): Kemmlers melee attacks once he gets his quest sword. It has a passive healing effect while he's in melee...that will bring units back from the dead. It's an insanely powerful weapon for an undead army on a pretty "meh" melee character so use it in spots where he won't get murdered (he's fairly defensive, just don't ram him into the Red Duke or Gryphon Franz and you'll be fine). He doesn't need to do damage for it to work, just needs to be in melee like a reverse mortis effect. Counts are a pretty great faction to "Poke'mon" lord collect with. Kemmler will faction wide buff wraith units, Ghorst will faction wide buff zomboys, and commanders like Red Duke/Manfried will neigh on be able to solo armies similar to Vlad. Love the faction, solid video, really hoping we get a WoC equivalent DLC for Vampires. I would love to see The Blood Dragons, Strigoi, Lahmians and Necrarchs get their own LL's and faction mechanics...one of them is literally already in the fucking game and we still can't start with him w/out mods (Red Duke).
Alternative proposition: Isabellas buffs are far superior to Vlads, as they let you make a nearly undefeatable vampire doom-halfstack within 10-15 turns. You can supplement it with any units you want (I prefer a bat swarm for funzies) and go ham. Decently leveled, it becomes horrifying, especially against empire AI, with its amazing mobility and striking power.
Early game you're right, but once you hit mid or late game that 10% movement for all armies on Vlad is unmatched. Isabella has a stronger early game, but VC early game is a walk in the park anyway.
I'd really like to add that the solution to economic problems in the early campaign is to play as wide as possible; base VC settlement buildings provide a substantial amount of income (much more than any other faction) even at Tier 1, further buffed through two technologies. This makes the campaign unique insofar as you can always extract value from any settlement, even if you can't hold it.
As an avid ghorst enjoyer, i for one do not suck with vampires. Nothing gets past the rotting mass of flesh. Choosing vlad is the first and only mistake
What I personally did with Karak Kadrin is replace them with Azhag and his boyz which I gave them the territory in return for vassalage and some money. It may look like a waste to go to the trouble of conquering the mountains just to give it all away, but early on the Empire dose not provide any immediate threats of attack which gives me the time I need to do it, having an Orc ally that plays around being a friend of the undead is very useful and (perhaps most importantly) I REALLY do not want to directly fight the Dawi Zharr until Altdorf is mine. Also you forgot to add a capitalist punchline. Still another great guide, thanks.
My campaign improved incredibly after watching your insightful, informative videos. I hope that you cover all the other factions. It really helps my gameplay out.
To minimize casualties when fighting the Tempelhof siege? WHYYYYYY You want to have armies of zombies and have all of them die just so you get better units with raise dead later. :O Make sure the top armies (attacker and defender) have at least 14 units each.
An outstanding guide. Learned something totally new (for Me), when you talked about healing. (how to resurrect unit models). Thanks so much for all your hard work, and thanks for your high quality videos....
I am intrigued to see how you would handle modded factions tbh. Conquest of the Blood Dragons or the Araby mod would be very interesting to get your take on. Love the content, can’t wait for the next one lol!!!
@@BlakesTakes420 A suggestion if I may for the next video. Lizardmen! They are a faction that isn't too hard to pick up but I think most people (including myself) never really get to click.
Another top tier take. Honestly I'd been waiting on some guidance for how to use vampires as I've never had great success with them. Maybe I should pick them up again in my next campaign
VC is one of the most easy factions to play. Vlad and Isabella are like 2 person doomstack, if you play as Isabella you get a buff on Vampires + 4 capacity. The just raise death and overrun everything.
wooow xmas came early. I must say the quality of your videos has stepped up noticeably with this. I play Vamps the same except for some tiny changes here and there. For example, I prefer skeletons to zombies but I know both work. I pick ambush chance in skills instead of upkeep/healing as you can get a lot of that later on. The final difference is that I rush to Altdorf through Stirland instead of Zhufbar. As you said it...A vamp player needs to be aggressive at the start and Vlad's early army is hella strong. Enemy usually rush to defend the walls and that's where Vamps shine. Lords and heroes healing themselves plus Vargheists knocking enemies down while your army is waiting or battering down the gates is super overpowered. Very nice video. I wish you all well in 2025 and can't wait for the next video. :)
Magic first, then a little fighting then blue line. Most aggressive fighting in battles of any race. Lots of trash supported by mortis engines and monsters, just make sure you maximise raise dead. Favourite faction ever, love to try and confed all legendary lords, when you do that the campaign is really enjoyable
Pf... My first ever faction ever played in WH2. Shitting out free upkeep armies and flooding the world cannot be beaten. And in WH3 they have lof of their gimmicks buffed.. Vlad is one of the easiest ones, due to his starting armies and location. Manfred is pain... The guide should go for him. Dealing with Khorne and Tomb kings is fking pain.
It's not very lore friendly. But if you rush down Zhufbar and the greenskins to the east of them, you can sell their territory to Ungrim or Thorgrim and get an alliance out of it. Dwarfs are very loyal allies in the game and very unlikely to turn against you. This will guarantee your eastern flanks are secured and give you someone to sell useless mountain territories to for extra cash. Also, a horde of undead with some artillery or gyros is a crazy army combination.
Awesome, I like knowing why I'm bad in a faction with your help Blake. Also, how about Malekith one too, it's really difficult for starters & challenging all together.
This is CAs last great gap they need to fix the vampire factions used to be the bane of order and chaos a great random factor to throw a wrench into the great swings of the green skins order and chaos empire blobs in late game. Now I never see huge vamp empires death factions have basically disappeared from late game except for the wagon vampire above kugath can't remember his name.
I recently finished Heinrich Kemmler campaign. I picked him specifically because: 1st, he called Nagash a lil byach. And 2nd, there's just some satisfaction in raising entire armies of units for which you don't even have the buildings to recruit, at a low cost. Being one of the only 2 vampire count factions that has mountains as a suitable terrain is a plus. Also, you have far less aversion penalty to your neighbors, so you can vassalise more of them, and as an extra, you have a chance to confedarate the Red Duke before he gets killed, so that's another legendary lord level character on your side.
@@oxskillxo His stats are higher than other vampire lords. He lacks Aura of Dark Majesty & Dark Pact, but he does have an active ability that weakens other heroes and lords. Also, his Doomrider and Grave Sentinel's skill lines are not mutually exclusive.
4:20 Man, I'm so glad that the counts finally dug up a zombie who knew how to hide. The last few times I played the counts they didn't even *have* an ambush stance.
@@NirrudenCorpseslaver Considering things like Ambush chance in Isabella's tier 1 blue line and the strigoi passive +ambush chance, yeah, I figured it was a bug.
@@kevingriffith6011 yeah the bug was introduced on the omens of destruction hotfix. Was very annoying, it's fixed as of yesterday's hotfix-hotfix. Now we'll wait to see what will break and require a hotfix of the hotfixes hotfix.
Normally I’ll just zombie Spam through my entire campaign. And send a hero to helman ghorst so that you can confederate him when he begins losing. The best anvil is definitely the Buffed zombies, Since they will always get the value.
Another informative video. The undercast Invocation was a nice touch since I too found that it was much more efficient to top off important units while also procking the healing passive anyway. Do you have a rough roadmap for this series? Such as which Bretonnian lord? Throgg or Wulfrik? Etc?
Love these takes! Been said here already but I think blood kiss farm solves so many of the problems you brought up. If you intentionally let Zelig von Kruger win a battle against vlad and trap him in a single settlement, he’ll come back every turn. This gives you infinite xp and blood kisses and gives you a reliable way to level up new lords. Also I try to get a battle marker at every settlement I plan on holding by fighting a 20v20 battle and letting a lot of my units die. If you combine these two tactics you end up with over leveled lords, access to all the best end game units within a few turns, and all the important blood kiss unlocks very early on.
I get bashed for my friends by playing this faction because they say i cant lose... Well just get mortis engine and make a blob of troops and you basically cant die. Also get alot of strong flyers and blood knights to destroy the enemies range.
Love this one, I will try and apply some of this to my Heinrich Kemmler campaigns. I have had a hard time getting a successful campaign going with him.
He missed it in the video but as a heads up there's one more source of Monstrous healing for Kemmler: his melee attacks once he gets his quest weapon. It's easy to overlook but it is a surprisingly powerful ability if you use him carefully in melee to support his units. It's great to have a necromancer that can passively bring units back from the dead just by fighting in melee.
1:34 1:40 I heard the Warcraft 3 UD audio. It was the Necropolis and then the Temple of the Damned. Don't deny it, it's there, I know I'm not turning mad.
FOr some reason today I was appreciating how freaking long your scripts must be, and how much work it would take to type it all out. I have never played VC so am excited to boot up a campaign with them!
Saying that it is always more efficient to undercast Nehek is simply wrong mathematically. Overcasting will allow you to hit 4 units, yes, but also probably your 4 most important units. But even if we assume the best case scenario for undercasting; that all units in your army are equally valuable, it is still always LESS efficient to undercast Nehek. In an optimal scenario for undercasting; 2 undercast Neheks: 2*6 winds of magic for: 2xNehek (0.8% * 18sec) = 28,8% + 2xCurse of Undeath (0,05% * 7sec * 20 units) = 14% . 28.8%+14% = 42.8% army heal, assuming you actually consider all 20 units equally valuable, which they are not. Compare to a single overcast Nehek, which is 11 winds of magic. 1xNehek (0,8% * 18sec * 4targets) = 57.6% + 1xCurse of Undeat (0,05% * 7 sec * 20 units) = 7%. 57.6%+7% = 64.6% So even in a best case scenario when you consider all your units equally valuable, you're getting 64.6% healing out of one overcast, which costs 11 winds of magic, compared to 2 undercasts for 6 winds each, totalling 12 winds for 42.8% army heal. 20% of the time your caster will suffer a miscast, the damage of which will be outhealed by the nehek and then some. Even if we pretend the nehek only covered the miscast health and not outheal it, one in five times we'd only get 50.2% heal out of an overcast instead of 64.6%. (64.6*4)+50.2 = 308.6% / 5 = still an average of 61.72% for one winds of magic less. Since this is a comparison of 2 undercast vs 1 overcast, it also covers the same amount of time, so the healing per second is also higher for overcast.
Great video and insanely popular as it's only 11 hours up! But don't you think VC will be overhauled soon? I hope so, they are the most in need of an update.
Vampire Counts has been my home faction since TWW1. And yes, I do suck with the vampire counts. But who needs skill when I can create a mass grave using zombies and then re-animate their flesh for a full stack max tier units for the low low price of $124,000?
Depending in the situation I opt for the strigoi bloodline first. The increased ambush chance can be a godsend when the AI is churning out armies as it is want to do. Also slander of the magnificent muscle bats is not acceptable.
Idk if it's changed since Elspeth but I had a pretty easy time placating and vassalizing the empire since there are many empire factions at odds with each other and you do get the ability to increase diplomacy as Sylvania. It's nice to be the true emperor Vlad.
Yeah i suck with accumulating bloodkisses that dont involve punching Karl in the face every 4 turns....buuuuuutttt!! The stacking cost reductions for grave guards, Blood Dragon Lord skills, and iron mine provinces can get to 90% while also recruiting them at lvl7 on average. Get one kiss for the carsteins and youre good to kill everyone.
Queen Bee is the thing I rush first in my campaign. It doesn't matter how much your opponent is strong if he's suppressed, crippled and halved by hero's barrage. The tech tree and experience makes theyr action almost costless too. I love also having all those guys dread incarnate if I can, and stack multiple lords in the enemy province, not to fight with but just to sit there at level 2 looking menacing with the first skill of the red line giving another morale penalty.
Before the Vampire Coast faction was released, I played Vampire Counts. Only, I play it with no zombies except in emergencies. I only use skeletons until I can afford Grave Guard. It's kind of a RP thing, and I also don't use Ghoul Kings or lesser ghouls outside of the Crypt Horrors. Now that I mainly play Coast, I have no such restrictions, but I find them to be a much more flavorful and dynamic faction to play.
Your first lesson is perfectly, exactly what I've been forgetting in my campaigns, but you totally missed an opportunity for "Snuff the Zhuf." A thought: black coach is not for chariot-clears, but is instead for dealing with routing troops with a lot of models left. My theory is it will likely be able to keep up with and damage most routing infantry while gaining its the kill bonuses!
Super good explanation of the vampire count gameplay and strenght although with Vlad I usually farm blood kisses on templehof while taking on Stirland and befriending Zufbar until I'm strong enough to take on Karak kadrin, also I rather go for making the lord as strong as possible first then go for the red line while the blue one is an afterthought although that's mostly because while I do get some doggos to run down enemies at the end of a battle and get rid of enemy artillery and archers I otherwise go for skelly / zombie spams with one mortis engine, this kind of army usually gets badly underestimated by the AI and allows to field more armies and thus more lords
Small thing, but I honestly don't recruit units as VCount, I just raise dead. Getting the buildings for unit recruitment is slow. Getting battle markers and raising dead is fast. Fast beats slow. Eventually you should absolutely get the buildings done but early game you'll want to find an enemy army size 14 or higher and have most of the zombie horde die as part of winning that fight. Aside from that, good video. Never thought of even trying to vassalize the stunties.
Do you prefer do go tall or wide as vampire counts? They have a lot of mechanics that really complement going wide and leaving most settlements at tier 1 with just your repression/income building. Problem is you can't get your hero caps up that way, and I really like having a couple necromancers per army.
I like the idea that if you suck enough in a campaign to the point of rage quitting, Blake will just appear in your room and berate/educate you.
you're getting pinned.
He’s like that one uncle that smells like scotch…..
Bereducate maybe?
@@blalhoihreuf "I like a portmanteau as much as the next man, but that is just being ridiculous." , Blake sharply bereducated him.
I heard if you say his name three times while playing very easy campaign and battle he will show up and kick you in the shins.
My only complaint is we don't get these videos more often. Great video Blake keep up the good work.
Thank you sir!
Agreed moar plz👍👊
Really appreciate your thoroughness mate...
Given the few amount of patreon supporters at the end it's not that surprising ^^
@@BlakesTakes420 Moar!
That section about the Grim & the Grave once again served as a grim reminder that the VC haven't received any DLC since game 1 despite being one of the starting races.
It's a grave reminder too.
For real, I believe the vamps will get the next DLC because of grave guard with polearms.
@@BlakesTakes420 Probably, although personally, Omen of Destructions would have been a better fit since Khornate factions hate vampires, and it could have been a cool rivalry with the Ogres being the "neutral" party available to both for hire. With the next DLC most likely being Slaaneshi, that thematic rivalry will be pretty much non-existent.
@@vahlen5281 Aww, now that you mention it, vamps would have been at home with the whole blood and skulls thing XD
Although I also can see an argument for bundling up (presumably) Neferata with a Slaanesh DLC for mechanical rather than thematic reasons. If we were to get the Lahmian Sisterhood faction, I could 100% see them having access a Cults-like mechanic. And a DLC focused on Slaanesh would give CA an excuse to expand on cults as a whole, and maybe vassals as well (which would benefit all VC factions).
Tbf, what can you really give counts?
They're a skew faction, kind of the anti-dorfs in that they have no guns (whereas dorfs have no magic...nor anything interesting that isn't a helicopter)
Better, imo, to flesh out more interesting factions that have play styles outside "blob lel"
Even on the undead side, Tomb Kings are vastly more versatile with what they can do and what fun things dlcs could introduce to them
@@BlakesTakes420
Pretty sure it'll be slaneesh and elves (maybe all 3 but at least dark and high elves). They've stuck to theming the last 3 with the other chaos monogod factions.
I hope vampires get the DLC after that one, my first campaign ever was with them in WH2 and they've held a spot in my heart since then.
Vassalizing the dwarfs is brilliant. Never knew that was an option and fighting them is such a slog.
I think the lore has prevented us from even thinking of such things.
@@oxskillxo sometimes the pen is mightier than the rotten fist of the zombie.
That's the fun part of Vampire Counts. The Order factions won't let them be part of their hugbox, but they can make their own hugbox and invite everybody in (with some... persuasion).
To me, the hilarious part is always how willing people are to throw away their sovereignty for the price of one random settlement.
Literally never even occurred to me.
Just remember that they will inevitably betray you.
Vampire counts are easy.
Step 1. Play as Vlad.
Step 2. Win.
Sometimes it's more complicated! It could be
1. Play as Ghorst
2. Recruit zombies
3. Win
@@thoriumbrother Don't forget about making the blob out of your units and having them become your meatshield while your AoE deals damage to close enemies
Start in Sylvania. Only recruit lords and heroes that can use Lore of Vampires. Win the game.
Vampire counts are easy
step 1. pick khorn or WoC
step 2. JUST FOKIN SMASHEVERYTHING
Isabella actually better than vlad as LL
Blake has risen from his slumber to once again teach the masses of their folly. And there was much rejoicing.
@@Frogjuice02 _and now, I rest..._
ngl, that opening cinematic was 👌
Really nice.
Glad you liked it friend!
Depending on how cheesy you want to play, instead of finishing off your enemies, you could set up dedicated blood kiss farms - set up a loss with vlad to enemy faction leader (giving them Vlad's trait for respawning every turn), pen them in in a small otherwise useless settlement and farm those blood kisses every turn, as they'll just keep respawning.
Just want to take a moment to point out that while yes Strogio Ghoul Kings getting flying later sucks, they are literal killing machines on their mount and surprisingly hard to kill for some reason. Also all their summoning spells summon ghouls instead which is fun. There bloodline skills are meh but the ambush boost can be nice.
That's true, but I value early game flying too much for them to even be considered (unfortunately)
@@BlakesTakes420 I get that. I only found out they were killing machines after watching another UA-camr use one (Monsterabound) because I value the hell out of flying casters.
yeah but they are ugly ghoul kings, while Blood Dragons are honourable Knights and Lahmias are hot
@@martinnolhaf3151 based.
I too put a lot of stock in the inherent hotness of my lords. And ghoul kings are *not hot*
@BlakesTakes420 Based. Thats why I Main High Elves.
LOL Blake has been definitely playing BG3 with that intro hahaha
giphy.com/gifs/breakingbad-breaking-bad-walter-white-l0HU8V1CHKTUFtuFO
It's hard to have faith in youtube and how it works when every time I click on one of your videos you don't have 100k+ subs.
You make AWESOME content and your videos take a lot of work man I can tell.
@@Livvvid thank you my friend, it means a lot 🫶
One more Monstrous Healing source out there that you missed (it's niche af, easy to overlook): Kemmlers melee attacks once he gets his quest sword. It has a passive healing effect while he's in melee...that will bring units back from the dead. It's an insanely powerful weapon for an undead army on a pretty "meh" melee character so use it in spots where he won't get murdered (he's fairly defensive, just don't ram him into the Red Duke or Gryphon Franz and you'll be fine). He doesn't need to do damage for it to work, just needs to be in melee like a reverse mortis effect.
Counts are a pretty great faction to "Poke'mon" lord collect with. Kemmler will faction wide buff wraith units, Ghorst will faction wide buff zomboys, and commanders like Red Duke/Manfried will neigh on be able to solo armies similar to Vlad.
Love the faction, solid video, really hoping we get a WoC equivalent DLC for Vampires. I would love to see The Blood Dragons, Strigoi, Lahmians and Necrarchs get their own LL's and faction mechanics...one of them is literally already in the fucking game and we still can't start with him w/out mods (Red Duke).
@@ithiusdomino niche is right!
I haven't played Kemmler in a good while.
Alternative proposition: Isabellas buffs are far superior to Vlads, as they let you make a nearly undefeatable vampire doom-halfstack within 10-15 turns.
You can supplement it with any units you want (I prefer a bat swarm for funzies) and go ham.
Decently leveled, it becomes horrifying, especially against empire AI, with its amazing mobility and striking power.
getting all of vlads items from turn 1 is insane, I love her campaign so much
Early game you're right, but once you hit mid or late game that 10% movement for all armies on Vlad is unmatched. Isabella has a stronger early game, but VC early game is a walk in the park anyway.
I'd really like to add that the solution to economic problems in the early campaign is to play as wide as possible; base VC settlement buildings provide a substantial amount of income (much more than any other faction) even at Tier 1, further buffed through two technologies. This makes the campaign unique insofar as you can always extract value from any settlement, even if you can't hold it.
@@Donnerbalken28 absolutely!
Dude you're so beyond thorough. It's beautiful. Well done, man!
MORE
@@SamSchlimpert thank you so much sir!
As an avid ghorst enjoyer, i for one do not suck with vampires. Nothing gets past the rotting mass of flesh. Choosing vlad is the first and only mistake
ah yes, warhammer doctor zomboss
i admit it!! i also suck with vampire counts!
Your dog is safe. For now...
@@BlakesTakes420 😄
Vampires are actually really simple
1. Play Helman Ghorst
2. Set aside a couple days
3. Spam zombies
What I personally did with Karak Kadrin is replace them with Azhag and his boyz which I gave them the territory in return for vassalage and some money.
It may look like a waste to go to the trouble of conquering the mountains just to give it all away, but early on the Empire dose not provide any immediate threats of attack which gives me the time I need to do it, having an Orc ally that plays around being a friend of the undead is very useful and (perhaps most importantly) I REALLY do not want to directly fight the Dawi Zharr until Altdorf is mine.
Also you forgot to add a capitalist punchline. Still another great guide, thanks.
My campaign improved incredibly after watching your insightful, informative videos. I hope that you cover all the other factions. It really helps my gameplay out.
To minimize casualties when fighting the Tempelhof siege? WHYYYYYY
You want to have armies of zombies and have all of them die just so you get better units with raise dead later. :O
Make sure the top armies (attacker and defender) have at least 14 units each.
This
A true Von Carstein!
Some new content to chill out to, love to unwind with that soothing voice. I’m finding Blake is now a staple for me alongside Luetin!
Thank you Hun 😘
An outstanding guide. Learned something totally new (for Me), when you talked about healing. (how to resurrect unit models). Thanks so much for all your hard work, and thanks for your high quality videos....
@@babesinclair thank you for your viewership sir, glad you picked up some useful bits!
I am intrigued to see how you would handle modded factions tbh. Conquest of the Blood Dragons or the Araby mod would be very interesting to get your take on. Love the content, can’t wait for the next one lol!!!
Finnally my favourite faction! you got yourself a like! 😍(already subscribed)
Thank you sir!
With every new vid your quality increase, good work Blake and thanks fo takes! ❤🎉
Glad you like them!
Man, those videos are fire. Really great job with this one, like it a lot!
Glad you like them!
dude ur videos are the best, thanks so much for the content and the entertainment put into it !!
thank you sir!
ooooooooooooo, blessed by another Blake
Thank you sir, merry Christmas!
I love your guides. They are genuinely informative and hilarious.
Glad you like them!
@@BlakesTakes420 A suggestion if I may for the next video. Lizardmen! They are a faction that isn't too hard to pick up but I think most people (including myself) never really get to click.
Thank you for this! I've been fumbling about with VC's since Warhammer 1. Will watch this a couple of times to get the lessons to stick.
Glad I could help, sir!
Another top tier take. Honestly I'd been waiting on some guidance for how to use vampires as I've never had great success with them. Maybe I should pick them up again in my next campaign
So good to see you again mademoiselle. Let me know how the campaign goes if you do pick them up!
Thank you Count Blakethton Von Takestein for the jolly vampire vibes
@@PoisoNico93 🫶
I'll never NOT watch your stuff blake. Genuinely the best technical advice i've ever seen in any kind of guide video.
Thank you sir !
VC is one of the most easy factions to play.
Vlad and Isabella are like 2 person doomstack, if you play as Isabella you get a buff on Vampires + 4 capacity. The just raise death and overrun everything.
wooow xmas came early. I must say the quality of your videos has stepped up noticeably with this. I play Vamps the same except for some tiny changes here and there. For example, I prefer skeletons to zombies but I know both work. I pick ambush chance in skills instead of upkeep/healing as you can get a lot of that later on. The final difference is that I rush to Altdorf through Stirland instead of Zhufbar. As you said it...A vamp player needs to be aggressive at the start and Vlad's early army is hella strong. Enemy usually rush to defend the walls and that's where Vamps shine. Lords and heroes healing themselves plus Vargheists knocking enemies down while your army is waiting or battering down the gates is super overpowered. Very nice video. I wish you all well in 2025 and can't wait for the next video. :)
Merry Christmas sir, thank you for your kind words
Magic first, then a little fighting then blue line. Most aggressive fighting in battles of any race. Lots of trash supported by mortis engines and monsters, just make sure you maximise raise dead. Favourite faction ever, love to try and confed all legendary lords, when you do that the campaign is really enjoyable
Pf... My first ever faction ever played in WH2. Shitting out free upkeep armies and flooding the world cannot be beaten. And in WH3 they have lof of their gimmicks buffed.. Vlad is one of the easiest ones, due to his starting armies and location.
Manfred is pain... The guide should go for him. Dealing with Khorne and Tomb kings is fking pain.
It's not very lore friendly. But if you rush down Zhufbar and the greenskins to the east of them, you can sell their territory to Ungrim or Thorgrim and get an alliance out of it. Dwarfs are very loyal allies in the game and very unlikely to turn against you. This will guarantee your eastern flanks are secured and give you someone to sell useless mountain territories to for extra cash.
Also, a horde of undead with some artillery or gyros is a crazy army combination.
Awesome, I like knowing why I'm bad in a faction with your help Blake.
Also, how about Malekith one too, it's really difficult for starters & challenging all together.
Strigoi are great as a early game lords when you want a low rank powerhouse. Armour piercing attacks and regeneration, nuff said.
But flying tho
Thorteen! Thorteen "Vhy you zuck" bideos! Ah ah ah! 🧛♂️🌩️
indeed 🦇
@@BlakesTakes420 mate if possible can you give guide without dlc unit it will be much needed for some of us without some dlc
Should have been a Skaven video then
Yooo i was about to start trying to get their achievement thanks for the great videos keep them coming
You're very welcome. 🫶
I literally just finished cooking up some content for my Vampire: The Masquerade campaign when I saw what faction you've covered this time. Vonderful!
The Lich speech at the end is *chef's kiss*, great job
glad you like it, he's one of my favourite villains.
This is CAs last great gap they need to fix the vampire factions used to be the bane of order and chaos a great random factor to throw a wrench into the great swings of the green skins order and chaos empire blobs in late game. Now I never see huge vamp empires death factions have basically disappeared from late game except for the wagon vampire above kugath can't remember his name.
I really like your takes, Blake. Any chance for a video on chaos dwarfs anytime soon ?
Theyt are requested a lot so I'll definitely try get them out in the new year
@@BlakesTakes420chorfs are inherently ridiculous so writing it should be fun.
I recently finished Heinrich Kemmler campaign.
I picked him specifically because:
1st, he called Nagash a lil byach.
And 2nd, there's just some satisfaction in raising entire armies of units for which you don't even have the buildings to recruit, at a low cost.
Being one of the only 2 vampire count factions that has mountains as a suitable terrain is a plus.
Also, you have far less aversion penalty to your neighbors, so you can vassalise more of them, and as an extra, you have a chance to confedarate the Red Duke before he gets killed, so that's another legendary lord level character on your side.
Does the red duke have unique skills?
@@oxskillxo His stats are higher than other vampire lords. He lacks Aura of Dark Majesty & Dark Pact, but he does have an active ability that weakens other heroes and lords. Also, his Doomrider and Grave Sentinel's skill lines are not mutually exclusive.
Blake's back \o/
@@WolfeRavenwood glad to be back in the fold sir 🫶
My favorite faction in theory
Dude that cinematic was insane. love it
Appreciate it!
4:20 Man, I'm so glad that the counts finally dug up a zombie who knew how to hide. The last few times I played the counts they didn't even *have* an ambush stance.
This was a bug, fixed in the latest release (6.0.1). Sadly, the missing stance has happened to them before.... GO GO CA QA!
@@NirrudenCorpseslaver Considering things like Ambush chance in Isabella's tier 1 blue line and the strigoi passive +ambush chance, yeah, I figured it was a bug.
@@kevingriffith6011 yeah the bug was introduced on the omens of destruction hotfix. Was very annoying, it's fixed as of yesterday's hotfix-hotfix. Now we'll wait to see what will break and require a hotfix of the hotfixes hotfix.
@@kevingriffith6011 also 04:20 blaze it.
Normally I’ll just zombie Spam through my entire campaign. And send a hero to helman ghorst so that you can confederate him when he begins losing. The best anvil is definitely the Buffed zombies, Since they will always get the value.
This is clever. I like it.
Nice to see that! Big Vlad von Carstein fan!
Glad to hear it sir
Another informative video. The undercast Invocation was a nice touch since I too found that it was much more efficient to top off important units while also procking the healing passive anyway. Do you have a rough roadmap for this series? Such as which Bretonnian lord? Throgg or Wulfrik? Etc?
I’ve been waiting for this
Hope it doesn't disappoint
I REQUESTED THIS NO LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AGO THANK YOU BLAKE!
I live to serve.
Love these takes! Been said here already but I think blood kiss farm solves so many of the problems you brought up. If you intentionally let Zelig von Kruger win a battle against vlad and trap him in a single settlement, he’ll come back every turn. This gives you infinite xp and blood kisses and gives you a reliable way to level up new lords. Also I try to get a battle marker at every settlement I plan on holding by fighting a 20v20 battle and letting a lot of my units die. If you combine these two tactics you end up with over leveled lords, access to all the best end game units within a few turns, and all the important blood kiss unlocks very early on.
Took awhile but well worth the wait!
thank you! yeah sorry I was getting married so have been a busy beaver.
I get bashed for my friends by playing this faction because they say i cant lose... Well just get mortis engine and make a blob of troops and you basically cant die. Also get alot of strong flyers and blood knights to destroy the enemies range.
Love this one, I will try and apply some of this to my Heinrich Kemmler campaigns. I have had a hard time getting a successful campaign going with him.
Glad you liked it friend!
He missed it in the video but as a heads up there's one more source of Monstrous healing for Kemmler: his melee attacks once he gets his quest weapon. It's easy to overlook but it is a surprisingly powerful ability if you use him carefully in melee to support his units.
It's great to have a necromancer that can passively bring units back from the dead just by fighting in melee.
1:34
1:40
I heard the Warcraft 3 UD audio. It was the Necropolis and then the Temple of the Damned. Don't deny it, it's there, I know I'm not turning mad.
Good ear, my friend. You're a man of culture.
FOr some reason today I was appreciating how freaking long your scripts must be, and how much work it would take to type it all out.
I have never played VC so am excited to boot up a campaign with them!
They are indeed long sir. 😅
I wanted this video for so long
@@Dolph_Vader I'm glad to have the opportunity to provide it to you sir.
Better question: how do you suck with Vamp Counts? All you need to do is abuse their magic and mortis engines
Saying that it is always more efficient to undercast Nehek is simply wrong mathematically. Overcasting will allow you to hit 4 units, yes, but also probably your 4 most important units. But even if we assume the best case scenario for undercasting; that all units in your army are equally valuable, it is still always LESS efficient to undercast Nehek.
In an optimal scenario for undercasting; 2 undercast Neheks: 2*6 winds of magic for: 2xNehek (0.8% * 18sec) = 28,8% + 2xCurse of Undeath (0,05% * 7sec * 20 units) = 14% . 28.8%+14% = 42.8% army heal, assuming you actually consider all 20 units equally valuable, which they are not.
Compare to a single overcast Nehek, which is 11 winds of magic. 1xNehek (0,8% * 18sec * 4targets) = 57.6% + 1xCurse of Undeat (0,05% * 7 sec * 20 units) = 7%. 57.6%+7% = 64.6%
So even in a best case scenario when you consider all your units equally valuable, you're getting 64.6% healing out of one overcast, which costs 11 winds of magic, compared to 2 undercasts for 6 winds each, totalling 12 winds for 42.8% army heal. 20% of the time your caster will suffer a miscast, the damage of which will be outhealed by the nehek and then some.
Even if we pretend the nehek only covered the miscast health and not outheal it, one in five times we'd only get 50.2% heal out of an overcast instead of 64.6%. (64.6*4)+50.2 = 308.6% / 5 = still an average of 61.72% for one winds of magic less. Since this is a comparison of 2 undercast vs 1 overcast, it also covers the same amount of time, so the healing per second is also higher for overcast.
You should make a video on this
Oh hell yeah, just what I was looking for my campaign
Great video and insanely popular as it's only 11 hours up!
But don't you think VC will be overhauled soon? I hope so, they are the most in need of an update.
I reckon they'll be next because they added grave guard with polearms. It's just a hunch.
The man returns
Good to see you again sir. 🫶
Mum get in here a new Blake's Take just dropped!
Love these vids, it gets me to play races I’ve never tried
Glad you like them!
The worst enemy of a Vampire Blob is Lord Kroak. Nothing annihilates them faster.
Yes.
Love these videos! I learn so much!
Vargheist while paper, is very strong as cycle charger. They fly, had armor piercing and mass, also easy to had rear charge.
Yeah useful in the early game, but they're just too fragile to be viable in the late game.
@@BlakesTakes420 they're still good against elite late game non anti large infantry unit though. But then, there's better option like terrorgheist.
Love your content as always Blake, Keep it up. Hopefully as you grow you can spew out more content for us losers who suck at WH3.
You're the best at being you though.
Vampire Counts has been my home faction since TWW1. And yes, I do suck with the vampire counts. But who needs skill when I can create a mass grave using zombies and then re-animate their flesh for a full stack max tier units for the low low price of $124,000?
I hope they get a dlc and huge rework. One of the cheesiest races ingame with like only 1 viable battle strategy that gets boring real fast.
Using the Myrkol speech and replacing words for it is so good.
@@s0r445 glad you enjoyed it friend.
Depending in the situation I opt for the strigoi bloodline first. The increased ambush chance can be a godsend when the AI is churning out armies as it is want to do. Also slander of the magnificent muscle bats is not acceptable.
YES!! HE IS BACK!!
@@Lothi66 _yeah baby_
Yus!!! We back!!!! I can finally learn to drink the pure red life blood!!
I suck so bad with factions that can crumble, but now I suck less after this video!
@@sup1602 you will crumble no longer, sir.
You actually took my fav scene in bg3 and adapted it.
MADLAD
Thank you sir! My favourite scene too.
Idk if it's changed since Elspeth but I had a pretty easy time placating and vassalizing the empire since there are many empire factions at odds with each other and you do get the ability to increase diplomacy as Sylvania. It's nice to be the true emperor Vlad.
These videos are my favourite way to learn the game :)
Thank you sir!
Yeah i suck with accumulating bloodkisses that dont involve punching Karl in the face every 4 turns....buuuuuutttt!!
The stacking cost reductions for grave guards, Blood Dragon Lord skills, and iron mine provinces can get to 90% while also recruiting them at lvl7 on average.
Get one kiss for the carsteins and youre good to kill everyone.
Lets Karl defeat Vlad once than you can punch him in the face every turn!
guess i'll be running another vlad campaign before xmas
Please do the dark elves!🙏
In time my friend!
Queen Bee is the thing I rush first in my campaign. It doesn't matter how much your opponent is strong if he's suppressed, crippled and halved by hero's barrage. The tech tree and experience makes theyr action almost costless too. I love also having all those guys dread incarnate if I can, and stack multiple lords in the enemy province, not to fight with but just to sit there at level 2 looking menacing with the first skill of the red line giving another morale penalty.
Before the Vampire Coast faction was released, I played Vampire Counts. Only, I play it with no zombies except in emergencies. I only use skeletons until I can afford Grave Guard. It's kind of a RP thing, and I also don't use Ghoul Kings or lesser ghouls outside of the Crypt Horrors. Now that I mainly play Coast, I have no such restrictions, but I find them to be a much more flavorful and dynamic faction to play.
Your first lesson is perfectly, exactly what I've been forgetting in my campaigns, but you totally missed an opportunity for "Snuff the Zhuf."
A thought: black coach is not for chariot-clears, but is instead for dealing with routing troops with a lot of models left. My theory is it will likely be able to keep up with and damage most routing infantry while gaining its the kill bonuses!
Honey! Blake just released another take!
@@4ArmedHug 🫶
Waiting for the vampire counts rework in 3 months
Super good explanation of the vampire count gameplay and strenght although with Vlad I usually farm blood kisses on templehof while taking on Stirland and befriending Zufbar until I'm strong enough to take on Karak kadrin, also I rather go for making the lord as strong as possible first then go for the red line while the blue one is an afterthought although that's mostly because while I do get some doggos to run down enemies at the end of a battle and get rid of enemy artillery and archers I otherwise go for skelly / zombie spams with one mortis engine, this kind of army usually gets badly underestimated by the AI and allows to field more armies and thus more lords
Small thing, but I honestly don't recruit units as VCount, I just raise dead. Getting the buildings for unit recruitment is slow. Getting battle markers and raising dead is fast. Fast beats slow. Eventually you should absolutely get the buildings done but early game you'll want to find an enemy army size 14 or higher and have most of the zombie horde die as part of winning that fight.
Aside from that, good video. Never thought of even trying to vassalize the stunties.
Do you prefer do go tall or wide as vampire counts? They have a lot of mechanics that really complement going wide and leaving most settlements at tier 1 with just your repression/income building. Problem is you can't get your hero caps up that way, and I really like having a couple necromancers per army.
My favorite faction,
How many zombies?
Yes
Correct.
How would you change this up for Manny, Ghorst or Kemmler? (Particularly with regard to point #1.)
How did you get copyright use of the BG3 music? Epic hilarious use lol
Adventure Time reference at the end. lol