Vampire Counts Campaign Walkthrough and Tips TW: Warhammer Guide
Last update: 07 June 2016
This chapter is focused on the first turns after the start of the campaign. It assumes that you select Mannfred von Carstein as your starting Lord, but if you want to you can pick Heinrich Kemmler instead.
First turns
When the campaign starts you will be given your first Lord (the faction leader), as well as the capital of the Eastern Sylvania, Castle Drakenhof. Start by constructing a new building in the capital - Defiled Cairn. Afterwards, you should recruit some additional units. Unlike other factions, however, you aren't limited to normal recruitment - you can also raise dead (more on that can be found in a separate chapter). Click on the Lord and open the Raise Dead window by clicking on the 'hand' icon on the bottom of the screen. Now recruit all the units available there - 1x Skeleton Warriors, 1x Skeleton Spearmen and 2x Zombies. Recruiting troops in such a way has a huge advantage - it happens instantaneously, you don't have to waste time.
After you've acquired new units, attack the Templehof Lord located to the north-west of your position. This battle will be a breeze - you should command your army on your own instead of using auto-resolve to learn about this unique army. You should make use of your Lord's starting ability - Spirit Leech. It's an extremely powerful single-target spell, capable of dealing immense damage - a single use of it on an enemy Lord will take out half of his health bar! Using it twice on most Lords (and thrice on more durable ones) will suffice to kill them on the battlefield - when it happens the discipline of your enemies will severely decrease. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways of dealing with any army - killing their Lord will almost always cause the battle to end in a matter of second.
After the battle select a new ability for your Lord - The Restless Dead. Before you end the turn start a new research (you can open the research window by pressing 8) - select The Lahmian Book of Blood. Now move your Lord a little towards Eschen - but make sure that he ends his move while still on your terrain. It will allow you to recruit three additional units - 3x Skeleton Warriors.
At the beginning of the 2nd turn send your Lord to attack and conquer Eschen. After the encounter select the option to Occupy it. You will now receive your first story-related quest - The Battle of Hell Fenn. Ignore it for now. Unlock a new ability for your Lord - the first level of Undying Horde. Now start upgrading the main building in Eschen, recruit one more Skeleton Warriors unit, raze the Cemetery located in Castle Drakenhof (as it's also constructed in Eschen) and end the turn.
When the 3rd turn starts attack Waldenhof, a settlement located to the north. There will be more units in the garrison here, but you should have no problems defeating them thanks to your powerful Lord and Varghulf. After the encounter you will assume control over the whole Eastern Sylvania province. You will also be able to set a commandment for that province - Evocation of Nagash is the best for now. Your Lord is now level 4 - add a second point into the Undying Horde ability. Before you end the turn add 3 more units into recruitment - 3x Dire Wolves. At the beginning of the 4th turn send your Lord to enter The Battle of Hell Fenn quest battlefield, located directly next to the settlement you just conquered.
Battle of Hell Fenn
During this encounter you will be fighting an Empire army. Make good use of the deployment phase and your Dire Wolves units - they have the Vanguard Deployment ability, allowing you to set them up outside of the "standard" deployment zone. There's a small group of trees located directly behind the empire army - you can set them up there. They will be hidden from the enemy and you will be able to use them to attack the enemy army from the back when your main army engages them in melee.
There's really nothing difficult about this mission. You just have to wait for your main striking force to engage the enemy (if you don't want to lose more valuable units send your Zombies in front) and send your Dire Wolves to take out the enemy missile units. Dire Wolves are extremely fast, there's no chance that the enemy will be able to protect his missile units. In the meantime cast Spirit Leech twice in a row on the enemy Lord - this should take him out, decreasing the enemy morale and practically ending the encounter.
Next turns
After the quest battle is over your Lord should now be at level 5 - use the ability point to unlock the final level of the Undying Horde ability. Afterwards, send your Lord to Eschen to protect the settlement from enemy attacks. Now start a new construction in Castle Drakenhof - Tarnished Gold Shaft. Finally, start a new research (Serve in Life or Death) and recruit a new Lord. Give a number of Zombie units to that Lord (so that your Lord will have 16/20 units) and start recruiting new troops - 2x Crypt Ghouls, 1x Skeleton Warriors and 1x Dire Wolves.
At the beginning of 5th turn start upgrading the main building in Waldenhof and construct Gibbet in Eschen. Afterwards, send both of your Lords at the edge of your territory border, the closest you can towards Castle Templehof. Start recruiting 4 more units with your second Lord (preferably Skeleton Warriors and Crypt Ghouls, provided you have enough resources - if you still have enough you can raise some Zombies from the dead), and send your main Lord to start sieging the Castle Templehof. You don't have any artillery units (and you won't have, as Vampire Counts lack any of those) - start constructing Siege Towers and continue the siege. You can now end the turn. During the next turn just order the second Lord to get close to the castle your first one siege and simply end the turn.
At the beginning of the 7th turn select your main Lord and attack Castle Templehof again. It's advised to use auto-resolve option here as you lack decent units at this moment and breaking through the walls will be frustratingly hard. Auto-resolve will allow you to conquer the capital without much loses. After the encounter ends, send the second Lord to conquer Fort Oberstyre. Doing so will give you another settlement and the Templehof faction will cease to exist. Both of your Lords leveled up - the second Lord should unlock The Restless Dead while the main one Darkling Skies. Now start constructing Forester's Shack in Castle Templehof and end the turn.
When the next turn starts you will be given a reward for completing a quest. Use the gold you've just earned to:
- Upgrade Tarnished Gold Shaft in Castle Drakenhof to Tarnished Gold Mine.
- Upgrade Cemetery in Eschen to Barrow.
- Construct Corpse Pile in Waldenhof.
Now send your main Lord south, towards Schwartzhafen - it will take two turns to reach it. Before you end the turn select a new ability for your second Lord (if he didn't level up yet ignore this sentence) - put a point into Undying Horde.
As soon as the next turn starts order your main Lord to attack Schwartzhafen - you should have no problems conquering it. This will give you full control over the next province (Western Sylvania) and will defeat Schwartzhafen faction. As far as the commandment goes, select Foster Terror for both of your provinces now (growth will be more useful then experience). Your Lord will now be level 7 - select Immortal Horror ability for him. Before you end the turn raze Cemetery in either Schwartzhafen or Fort Oberstyre - you don't need two identical buildings here - and recruit 3 more units for the second Lord.
It should be 10th turn now. Start a new research - Baleful Rituals. Afterwards, send your main Lord to attack The Moot. Your Lord should now be level 8 - select Guile and Glamour ability for him. Afterwards, recruit / raise from dead enough units so that your second Lord has 20/20 army. Add a new construction to the newly conquered province (Charnel Pit) and end the turn.
During the next turn send your main Lord towards Wurtbad - you will need to set his movement method to Raiding to avoid attrition damage. Afterwards, send your second Lord into The Moot to boost the public order - it receives a huge penalty because of lack of corruption. Finally, start upgrading the main building in Castle Templehof and end the turn. The 12th turn is going to be short - use it to send your main Lord closer to Wurtbad and end the turn again.
At the beginning of the 13th turn set the movement method of the second Lord to "March" and send him right next to Wurtbad. Afterwards, attack the capital with your main Lord. Add a number of Siege Towers and press the button to continue siege. Before you end the turn start upgrading the main building in Castle Drakenhof. This turn will also be short - continue your siege, start upgrading Forester's Shack in Castle Tempehof to Ruined Sawmill and end the turn.
Finally, time to siege the capital. Again, you can use the option to auto-resolve this encounter (recommended, as you won't suffer serious casualties but you won't have to waste time to siege it on your own) and quickly conquer it. When you're done, send your second Lord back to The Moot to boost public order and select Foster Terror as the province commandment. Add a point to the Guile and Glamour skill of your Lord. Also, you should be able to upgrade the main building in Wurtbad. Do so and end the turn.
Your previous research should now be completed - select the next one, Blood is Power. Now send your Lord to the next capital - Averheim, located to the south of Wurtbad. As you won't be able to reach it during this turn, position your Lord the closest to it you can. Finally, upgrade the main building in The Moot and end the turn. At the beginning of the next one attack the said capital of the province, add a number of Siege Towers and continue the siege. Upgrade the main building in Schwartzhafen and end the turn. Now start upgrading the main building in Fort Oberstyre and end the turn yet again. Send your second Lord right next to Averheim and order your first Lord to attack the capital. You should now be able to attack and conquer this capital. Don't worry - if your main army suffered casualties they will be replenish during the next 2, 3 turns thanks to the skills you picked for your Lord. Before you end the turn start the construction of Balefire Brazier in Wurtbad.
At the beginning of the 20th turn send your second Lord to conquer Grenzstadt - you will get rid of the Aveland faction and will conquer the 4th province (set the commandment to Foster Terror as always). Now send your main Lord to Wurtbad to stabilize the public order and start constructing Flooded Clay Pit in Grenzstadt. Now end the turn.
Start this turn by upgrading Tarnished Gold Mine in Castle Drakenhof to Balefire Gold Smeltery. As you can't do much without resources and you can't move because of public order problems, you must now end your turn.
What to do next
It should now be either 24th or 25th turn. You have conquered 4 full provinces thus far - Eastern Sylvania, Western Sylvania, Stirland and Aveland. While the first two provinces are stable, both Stirland and Aveland surely have enormous problems with their public order. Before you venture to conquer more provinces, you must first stabilize them. The easiest way to do so is to increase the corruption level, as it's the main source of low public order. You won't be able to do this with your buildings (as those require 3rd level of the main building), so just send one of your Lords to garrison Wurtbad, and the second one to Averheim. This will give a 10 point boost to public order. You just have to spend a number of turns here and the economy will slowly stabilize. It does not mean that you have to waste 20 turns to get to 100 points of public order - you only have to increase vampiric corruption enough so that public order starts rising without the help of your army garrisoned in one of the settlements.
You can use the time your army is immobilized to develop your other two provinces. Your first goal is to upgrade all of the settlements' main buildings to level 3 - this will give you an income boost and will unlock their full potentials. By the time you reach turn 30 most of your settlements should have level 3 of their main buildings, and both capitals should be nearing to level 4 of their buildings.
Additionally, you should try to build Balefire Hearth (or even better, Witch House) in your capital cities. This will increase corruption in your own provinces, as well as in any neighboring. This will in turn allow you to move around those areas without suffering attrition (or raiding through the land and causing unnecessary attention). Those buildings aren't cheap, but they quicker you get them, the better.
You don't have to worry about constructing buildings to recruit more powerful units - you can use the Raise Dead option. Find a place where a large battle took place (like the one you just took part in, for Averheim). You can check where more powerful units can be recruited by hovering over different settlements and capitals. If there's a "hand" icon on the right side of the city name it means that there are powerful units to recruit there. You might stumble upon the most powerful Vampire Count's units - such as the Black Knights! This will allow you to quickly increase the power of your forces - and to focus on constructing economy buildings instead of military ones for the time being.
As soon as you stabilize your economy, send both of your Lords to conquer the Wissenland province. Start by taking Pheildorf, then attack Wissenburg, and afterwards head for the capital of the province. The enemy should stand no chance against your attacks, but if you suffer casualties use the Raise Dead option to replenish your forces and recruit even more powerful units. This will be your fifth province and it should be used primarily for defenses - to protect yourself from armies of Dwarves.
From here you must complete your faction's objectives - you can check them in the introduction chapter. You must conquer all of the factions of the Empire, Dwarfs and Bretonnia. Your first task should be to get rid of the Empire itself, as they are the closest to you and will most likely attack you once your armies set off to attack other factions. When you conquer and secure former provinces of the Empire, you should focus on defeating Bretronnia. Afterwards, the entire western front will be clear and you will only have to defeat Dwarves and their racial factions.
The most important thing to remember - don't even think about attacking multiple factions at once. Almost all other factions (aside from Greenskins and alike) are hostile towards Vampire Counts. Picking your enemies carefully and attacking them at the right time is as important as having a good army. If you make too many enemies at once, you will be attacked from multiple directions. You won't be able to protect your settlements from all those attacks.
When it comes to diplomacy, try to establish friendly relations with Greenskins and all of their offspring. You don't have to defeat them, you have a mutual enemy (Dwarves, as well as The Empire) and you can't capture same settlements so you won't have to fight for them with that faction. Keeping friendly relations with those factions will allow you to divert some of the Dwarves' attention to them, which in turn will allow you to focus on fighting The Empire and Bretonnia.