having trouble playing with the vampires

[Paleo]

ok im playing on vh vh with the vampire faction, seriously its pretty much impossible .... after 2-3 turns every one of my settlements is under siege ... normally 9 would repel a siege quite easily ... but not when the empire has fire mages -.-

they wipe out half my army on there own !

has anyone got any tips for me ??

thanks

[Sabazios' Follower]

As Sylvania you are always gonna be the target of Empire invasions. Try to build 2-3 stacks of armies that can easily move around and reinforce your main army, let the computer control them, so they get fast into the heat of battle, and let them do the hard job for you. You should aim to do as much damage as possible with your main army while your reinforcments absorb most of the damage, skeletons work perfectly. Oh, and i am sure you're aware that Sylvania generals get command bonuses at night, right?

[Vette]

For you normal game starts after you survive crusade, until then your job is to stay alive. Let 2 Stirland stacks siege you at start, well basicly let any stack with wizards to siege you its easier to deal with them in siege battle. You have 2 castels on the South 1 large city on the North and Nuln right beneeth Blood keap. Build 1 catapult in Blood keap and 1 more in other part of your lands, you now need to watch regions mantioned above and basicly grab any chance you have. When crusade comes you need 2 stacks near Darkenhof, use Manfred give him good army. Destroy crusade stacks 1 by 1 if posible, use night attack to eliminate reinforcaments, if you think you will not be able to hold let them take Darkenhof, but make sure that army is not Stirland or Averland. Other armyes will return home and you will be able to easily retake Darkenhof back. After crusade you can finaly start playing, where will you expand is up to you I usualy go South becouse regions there are week at that point. Income these regions provide pays off more becouse army upkeap needed to defend that area is very low, thus you can have more stacks in the North where you need them. Of course you always need to prepare for more crusades...

[pojansetan]

use a lot of cheapest units as meat shield and use calvary charge to kick their badass

[Ichon]

Night battles don't do much since most of Sylvania army never rout anyway so main advantage is in auto calc or taking armies on 1 by 1. I prefer fighting in the day as cavalry are so important and easier to control during daylight. Skeletons mixed into zombie formations are ideal since zombies can absorb damage while skeletons can dish out damage and neither retreat which ties up alot of empire forces for long enough cavalry to make multiple charges. Vampire cavalry and skull catapults are best for fighting Empire in the early battles in my opinion. Mages and halberdiers were the most difficult for to me as mages even when eliminated quickly make some casualties and veteran halberdiers are just difficult to counter with the early and cheap Sylvania armies.

[Fedual]

I use a cheat-engine to give me 10 million gold, that works to

[Ichon]

Actually just started a new Sylvania campaign and for the first time got Crusade very early. The defense cost made me lose Blood Keep but the positive is all the defenders of Drakenhof are gold chevron now except 1. Necarchs are making huge difference in the sieges so I changed my mind about them. I used to dismiss them before to save money after the early battles but I'll try to keep them this time. I still think the best strategy is to take at least 2 cities on turn 1. I've gotten that battle down to only losing about 300 after the necro trait is applied so it is is not super costly. Then on turn 2 take 1 more city to hold. By turn 3 dwarves are attacking and are easily beaten but I suggest trying to take them in the field so you don't lose production time at Drakenhof before you are siege there every other turn. It is still imperative to kill Empire generals quick otherwise those battles are very expensive if there is no rout. It is only turn 21 and already 26 battles.

[BigHairyMelon]

Take Mordheim (I think its called that), the large rebel settlement northwest of Drakenhof with two warpstone nodes next to it. Take it and keep it, it brings in crazy amounts of money for you and it boosts the income of all the places that it trades with. Only problem is that when it gets seiged your economy gets hit hard. So always have an army close by to defend it.

[dowdpride]

the problem that i always have is that i run out of money. any tips for this?

[Ichon]

the problem that i always have is that i run out of money. any tips for this?

Expand? That is why I used to dump the necarchs which is a help unless you get early crusade. By turn 2 I have +2 cities (let rebels sally on their turn, your armies can reach Mordheim in 2 groups while the general by his lonesome moves north and then recruits some of the free undead mercs to assist laying siege on the 2nd town west of Mordheim). By turn 4 another 2 giving 8 altogether. Going more than that risks your armies needlessly in the early turns. I've always managed to hold Blood Keep except for this time with the early Crusade I forgot to keep building armies there and really did not have the money anyway. With 7-8 regions you have a good base but don't spend too much money building up economy initially. Roads and farms is about it. Also after defeating the first few battles you have to to make an army capable of capturing and sacking cities- spies are also key for this. I usually build a couple watch towers around Drakenhof and send 2-3 spies with the raiding army whose job it is to capture the better imperial cities and sack/raze them. That should bring in several thousands. Don't try to hold those cities- get out as quickly as you can actually and let the Empire rebuild them so when you are finally ready to move in permanently they are recovered. It also makes the battles much easier when you are weakest following the early battles vs the xp'd Empire stacks.