The Lizardmen can be overpowered when played right. This guide aims to guide you straight to the most overpowered approach so you can purge the world for the Great Plan with ease. Enjoy.

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Total War: Rome II Factions Units Auxiliary Corps Units in Custom Battle Buildings Technologies Household Regions Mercenaries Total War: Rome II: MODs Radious Total War Mod Divide et Impera Total War: Rome II: ICONs BullGod's Unit Icons Normal's Rome IIUnits Icons. The unique stuff is mostly very strong and worth skilling but often it's single skills and no tree. If your lord is a mage you most of the time want yellow to get better magic. For fighters the yellow tree is not that good (the unique yellow skills are still good). The red skill line is always powerful. Settra does not serve; Settra rules. Or at least, he will be giving it a jolly good try on January 23, when he brings his mummified mates to Total War: Warhammer II in the Rise of the Tomb Kings DLC. This is a formal system of studies for all young gentlemen seeking a career and success as senior military officers. While gifted amateurism and the minor gentry's natural leadership and impressive shouting can do wonders at regimental level, for higher level commands a military education is a necessity. There are matters of co-operation between the differen.

Total War: WARHAMMER II. All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews. RESET LORD SKILL TREE Why wont they implement this? I am sick of confederating with other factions and getting their crumby lords with random skill allocation. Why is it so hard to let us play the game WE want to play?

INTRODUCTION

MINMAX EASY MODE FOR CAMPAIGN

The main purpose of my guides is to help all of you reading them avoid the frustrations of wasting time due to ignorance of the ideal. For the Lizardmen, when you factor in siege battles, UPKEEP, Skaven ambushes, enemy doomstacks/range-heavy armies, building choices and province management, I believe my suggestions below provide the ideal baseline to give most players an easy, stress-free campaign:

To avoid spending forever on hero management, the only heroes you really want to recruit (if any at all) are Skink Priests with the Specialist, Wound and Steal Tech skills to boost your research rate; Skink Chiefs for their Replenish, Damage Walls, and Assasinate skills to clear enemy hero spam and help your armies win sieges; and Scar Veterans for their Wound, Assault Units and Assault Garrisons skills and for scouting the map.

Get a Saurus Oldblood with all Saurus Warriors with Shields and 1 siege beast (even a Feral Bastilodon will be fine) so that you do not have to build siege equipment when attacking settlement. If you can afford it, have a 2nd Oldbood with an army of Skink Cohorts (Javelins are better but more upkeep), maybe with another siege beast in this army as well in case you want the 2nd army to be the lead for a bit. Find a settlement or ideally an area with multiple settlements neary to each other, and start sacking it/them over and over, maybe waiting a turn or 2 for it to recover for more money and experience (this is why ideally you find an area with multiple settlements to sack close by). Level up your Olblood(s), starting with the Blue Skill Line. Route Marcher > max Bonded Service with 1 point in Fervent > Draftmaster > Lightning Strike > max Quartermaster > Renowned & Feared. Then proceed down the Yellow Skill Line until you can unlock Blessing of Itzl. Once done, replace this/these lords with fresh Oldbloods and repeat this process.

Build the Beast Lair > Corral-Arena (Stegadons) > Pyramid of Itzl (Ancient Stegadons). You could have 19 Stegadons in an army, or 6-8 Ancient Stegadons with 11-13 Stegadons. If you need more replenishment, you can put 1-2 Skink Chiefs on Stegadons/Ancient Stegadons (and remember you can swap mounts 1 per turn) with maxed Replenish skill in the army to boost replenishment.

You can also go Lord + 18 Ancient Stegadons or Carnosaurs and bring a Skink Chief un-mounted (for lower upkeep while in army) and the Specialist and Damage Walls skills, and have the Skink Chief take down the walls so our army can rush into the settlement and go straight for Victory Point and just kill everything once on the Victory Point.

And if you really feel like you need it, you can support your Dinosaur doomstacks with cheaper stacks of Skinks or Saurus.

Basically, the right Dinosaurs wreck everything and make the campaign a cakewalk as long as you can afford to field enough of those armies to accomplish your goals.

The idea is to only use heroes to Steal Tech, scout and clear enemy heroes, so you don’t need to build many Saurus or Skink buildings so they do not take up slots and you can focus your buildings on making as much money as possible to support your doomstacks. And if you do not want to bother getting Slann, you do not need to build Star Chambers except where they fit in to boost income, and you do not have to waste money on the Rite of Awakening either.

Stegadon vs Ancient Stegadon

Since the game does a terrible job of explaining the difference between these units and what they are for, here you go:

Feral Stegadon is for melee, Stegadons have Ballista mounted on their backs, and Ancient Stegadons have a sort-of arrow gatling gun on their backs and can Fire whilst Moving. All of them are “Siege” units that enable to attack a settlement without building siege equipment because they can all melee the gates open.

The Stegadon is an artillery unit that can also wreck face in melee, it can shoot & destroy towers and walls in sieges as well as hammer units from long range and take down flying monsters as well.

The Ancient Stegadon cannot attack towers or walls, and its range is much shorter than the Stegadon. However, whatever you call its missile platform, it shreds enemy units, and it can shoot while moving. And it still wrecks face in melee.

In this section I might as well further go over why you want to go Stegadons and Ancient Stegadons vs Carnosaurs or Bastilodons. Carnosaurs are much better killers, but they are a bit squishier and are pure melee. Bastilodons have even more armor than Stegadons, but less melee attack, melee defense, and charge bonus, so while they are excellent tarpits, they do not kill much. Stegadons are the sweet middle ground in terms of melee, but with Stegadons and Ancient Stegadons over Feral, you have the addition of brutal ranged damage. Makes Stegadons a no brainer.

UPKEEP IMPORTANCE

Stegadons cost 400 gold upkeep, Solar Engine Bastilodons cost 275 upkeep. Both fulfill the role of long range artillery. Stegadons are better all-around, but also more expensive. You must factor this into your strategy. You can test units out in custom battle to see how they perform.

Skink Chief Hero on Stegadon costs 683-919+ (affected by Supply Lines), Stegadon costs 400.

Hero on Ancient Stegadon costs 683-919 (varies per Supply Lines), Ancient Stegadon costs 487.

It does appear that Hero upkeep is reduced by Quartermaster and Renowned & Feared, I haven’t been able to test Blessing of Itzel yet. However, even if every upkeep reduction applies and let us say you reduce the upkeep by half, you are reducing 800+ upkeep heroes to 400 upkeep versus reducing 400 upkeep Stegadons to 200 upkeep. The difference in price over 19 units in a stack will add up staggeringly fast.

This is why taking advantage of Mazdamundi’s -50% upkeep for Temple Guards, Kroq-Gar’s -50% upkeep for Saurus, and Tik’taq’to’s -50% upkeep for flyers can be so important.

BUILDING CHOICES

Lizardmen have some difficult choices to make regarding buildings. For maximum money, you want the +money building in every settlement, you want the stone tablet building in all the minor settlements (along with the Star Chamber if it does not have a Port or a Trade Resource building) and both the Geomantic Locus and Ziggurat of the Old Ones in your Major Settlements with the Alignmnet of Crafting Commandment active (and a Star Chamber here as well for that extra +5% to income). And of course any Gold or Diamond mines need to be built. Basically as many +money buildings and as many +% income buildings as possible.

However, there are other considerations. You want walls everywhere to defend your precious settlements, which removes a building slot option. You should be building Ziggurats of the Old Ones in all your Major Settlements so recruiting plenty of Skink Priests should not be an issue; however, if you are trying to maximize moeny then Saurus and Skink chain buildings should only be placed in Major Settlements when there are still slots left after all the money building have been built. But if you want lots of Skink Chiefs and Scar Veterans, then you need to have a Tier 4 Saurus building in every Major Settlement and a Tier 3 Skink building in your major and each minor settlement. And if you really want to recruit high level Slann, then you want Star Chambers everywhere until you have at least 10 of them.

Keep all this in mind when considering whether you want to play with Slann or Heroes.

HUMBLE TRAIT

LORDS

SLANN

Slann have some unique requirements and perks that need extra attention. 1) To obtain them you must first unlock the RITE OF AWAKENING, and then use the rite (it costs 1400 gold and refreshes every 10 turns), and then you must select what Lore of Magic type you want your Slann Lord to have (Fire, High, Light, Life). I recommend always choosing Life for “Earth Blood” and “Regrowth” to heal your units, this will be ideal for if you run a full doomstack of Stegadons or Carnosaurs and want to keep them in top fighting shape. Once you win the battle you can group up all the damaged units and have your Slann heal them back to full health so you can fight another battle immediately. Once you choose the Lore of Magic type you want, the Slann lord will be added to your Lord Pool for recruitment.

KEY POINT – Slann Lords have a random trait upon being added to your Lord Pool; Second Generation, Third Generation, or Fourth Generation. You want a Second Generation Slann, because that trait gives -50% Miscast Chance, +50 Unit Exp per Turn, and +40 Winds of Magic Power Reserve!!! Third and Fourth Gen Slann have lower amounts of each of those things.

KEY POINT – Remember that you can save scum to get the Second Generation trait you want. Save before using the rite, use the Rite, see what you got, if not 2nd Gen, then reload save, do a diplomacy action like requesting a treaty or something that you know will fail, then try the Rite again.

Once the Slann is in your Lord Pool, you have not actually recruited them yet, which is a good thing, because here their level can be boosted by STAR CHAMBERS. Each Star Chamber gives +3 Lord Rank and +2 Hero Rank (both factionwide!). So with 10 Star Chambers you could recruit Level 31 Slann! This would allow you to immediately get all the right Blue Skill Line skills as well as all their most important spells so that they are actually useful lords immediately. I recommend being able to recruit them at least at Level 23.

A Life Slann with all the right skills maxed can lead a doomstack of dinosaurs for cheapish (not as good as an Itzel Olblood but oh well) while also healing those dinosaurs with Earth Blood and Regrowth.

Saurus Oldblood

Oldbloods are all-around the best regular Lizardmen Lords because of their Blessing of Quetzl and Blessing of Itzl skills. The challenge is choosing between them. Blessing of Quetzl gives -20% Saurus & Temple Guard upkeep; Blessing of Itzel gives -20% upkeep to beasts – from Terradons and Cold-Ones up to Carnosaurs and Stegadons. Oldbloods also get the Honored Elder skill which gives -5% upkeep to Saurus. So with Quartermaster (-15% upkeep) and Renowned & Feared (-8% upkeep) skills from the Blue Skill Line, an Oldblood could give -48% upkeep to Saurus or -43% upkeep to Beasts.

If going Saurus: Blessing of Quetzl and Honored Elder, and max Proud Warrior skill in the Red Line. Get all the right skills in the Blue Line, then max your Oldblood’s combat line and get him on a Carnosaur.

If going Beasts: Almost the same but choose Blessing of Itzl, and then you have another choice. Are you doing a full stack of Carnosaurs or of Stegadons? If Carnosaurs then max Hunt Leader skill in Red Line; if Stegadons then max Beast Driver. Although honestly Lizardmen Beasts are so ridiculously strong the red skills for them are just overkill.

My Thoughts?: If you watch carefully for opportunities to confederate, you could end up with both Kroq-Gar and Gor-Rok, and I would have them be your Saurus-focused lords, and have any Oldbloods that you are able to level up be preserved to go Itzl to eventually go cheap(er) Stegadon doomstacks.

Kroq-Gar and Gor-Rok

Both these Legendary Lords are considered Saurus, and they get the Blessing and Honored Elder skills as well. Kroq-Gar has -50% upkeep trait for Saurus, which combined with Quetzl and Blue Line and Honored Elder would equal -98% upkeep, and with -10% upkeep tech they are free. I confirmed in my campaign that with only Kroq-Gar’s army on the map they are indeed free; however, despite having -100% reduction to upkeep as the Supply Lines increases, they do increase in upkeep cost, to the point that with 5 armies on the map Kroq-Gar’s “free” Saurus cost 134 upkeep each. But still hugely less expensive than they would be without his reductions. If you do decide to have Kroq-Gar go Saurus, definitely get Proud Warrior from the Red Skill Line.

Gor-Rok has Unique skills that make Saurus even more disgustingly strong, and which combines perfectly with the Proud Warrior skill in the Red Line.

Honestly it makes the most sense for Kroq-Gar and Gor-Rok to build their skills for Saurus, but because just like Saurus Oldbloods they have the ability to choose Blessing of Itzl, you could decide to choose Itzl to go late game Stegadon doomstacks.

Tik’taq’to (Flyboi)

Flyboi has the Blessing skills like the Olbloods, and he makes the choice of which Blessing skill to choose easy. Blessing of Itzl for the reduced costs to his Terradon riders but also to Stegadons and Carnosaurs, etc. With his -50% upkeep trait for Terradons and Ripperdactyls plus -20% upkeep from Blessing of Itzl plus -23% upkeep from Renowned & Feard and maxed Quartermaster, Terradons/Ripperdactyls will be almost free at -93% upkeep. And if the “Prize Hunter” Follower give -10% upkeep to Terradon Riders, you could actually make them free. Which makes him perfect as a reinforcing lord to follow a Saurus or Monster lead army and then fly in to overwhelm the enemy while on the campaign map barely costing anything so you can have another Stegadon/Carnosaur stack somewhere. At the same time, if it becomes time to make a doomstack of Stegadons or Carnosaurs, he is perfectly positioned with the -43% upkeep for monsters from Blessing of Itzl and the Blue Line (-53% upkeep with Prize Hunter follower) to make that doomstack much less expensive just like a “Blessing of Itzl” Saurus Oldblood Lord.

Red Crested Skink Chief (RCSC)

These guys will be more important in Tehenhauin’s campaign, but if playing another other faction, Oldbloods are better in almost every way, EXCEPT, the RCSC Lord has “Spawn-Brothers” skills which gives Heroes embedded with this Lord +10 Melee Attack and +10 Melee Defense. Elsewhere in my guide I will go into whether you should run a Hero Doomstack because of the high upkeep cost of it, but if you really want to run a 19 Scar Veteran on Carnosaur Doomstack, an RCSC Lord with this skill could make that doomstack even more LOL. Otherwise, I do not see much reason to recruit this lord, especially given the time needed to level him up. He has some unique skills that could be beneficial on the campaign map if you could instant-recruit him at the level needed to get the skill, but otherwise, nah. The RCSC Lord does not even have the Blessing skills like Tik’taq’to does, making them not even good for running Stegadon doomstacks later.

KROXIGOR ANCIENT

Generic Nakai. No Mount, No Blessing skills, has higher lord upkeep than other lords, and only buffs Kroxigors (and has to choose between giving them +Melee Attack or +Physical Resistance). May be a beast in combat, I don’t know, I haven’t used these guys yet, and I do not see a reason to at this time.

NAKAI

Has no Blessing skills, so any units or heroes you put in his army will be their most expensive, except Skinks which do not benefit from any Blessings. Nakai is a good lord to put Heroes in (unless Blessing of Itzl affects their upkeep then Oldblood would be ideal) or give him a stack of Skinks and have him be the reinforcing lord to another better stack.

LORDS continued

MAZDAMUNDI

Maz gets -50% Upkeep for Temple Guards, so I recommend giving him Temple Guards. He also goes well with Lord Kroak and 5-6 Skink Priests on Stegadons to boost Winds of Magic for him and Lord Kroak. Or just have him go all Skink Priest on Stegadons, or if you don’t want to bother building a Weapon-crafters’ Commune somewhere, give him Skinks and have him reinforce another lord.

TEHENHAUIN

I don’t know anything about Deus Vult boi here yet, he was killed in my Mazdamundi campaign before I could get to him.

If you can get a Recruitment Province to Tier 5 with the Tier 5 Geomantic Web building, and have another province connected to it with the same Tier 5 Geomantic Web building, your commandments should be boosted to their most effective. This means that the Alignment of War Commandment reduces recruitment costs by -30%. Combined with the “Bonded Service” blue line lord skill, recruitment costs would be -45%. Then you have techs, traits, followers or events to reduce the cost even further.

Without the geomantic web building, the Alignments Commandments are not nearly as effective. See for yourself.

You must build certain buildings to unlock a technology line to research tech in the line. For example you need the Scrying Pool to unlock “Tablet of Order” and “Interpreting the Old One’s Meaning”. Once you have unlocked that tech, you could then demolish the Scrying Pool and continue research along that tech line, but you must keep a structure built until the specific tech that requires it is completed. “Determining the Great Plan” requires a Star Chamber and Weapon-Crafters’ Commune. You can see what the others require for yourself. You want to get a building that unlocks tech built ASAP to start research something even if it is not your first choice, such as building the Skink Foraging Camp in 1 turn which allows you to research “Tablet of Spawning” even though that is not a priority tech.

Tablet of Crafts = Your money line, most importantly “Sequence of Geologic Prospecting” at the end. That final skill will boost your Mines and Quarries’ income by +200%.

Tablet of Monumnets = Primarily for the two +Growth techs, you want to get these early on for the +25 growth.

Tablet of War = Primarily for “Sequence of Marching” for the +10% campaign movement bonus.

Tablet of Order = Techs that reduce Hero Actions costs, very important to get early if you plan to use hero actions a lot.

Tablet of the Saurus = Boosts Saurus combat abilities and -10% upkeep tech in the middle of the tech line.

Tablet of Beasts = Mostly sucks except for the last 2 tech, the boost to your monster combat and the -10% upkeep

Tablet of Spawning = Give +Rank to units, the final tech gives +2 Lord Rank upon recruitment.

Tablet of Skinks = Last on my list to complete unless you love Skinks/Kroxigors and plan to use them and Kroxigors heavily.

Related Posts:

A compilation of the hints, tips strategies, and plots that I have discovered while playing through several games as the Vampire Counts. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are undoubtedly turn-by-turn guides available elsewhere on the internet, but this guide should be helpful for those playing as the Vampire Counts for the first time, especially in the early game.
Other TWW2 Guides:

• Brief Description of Each Faction.
• Lizardmen Guide.
• Skaven Guide.

Acquiring New Territory

Overview

The Vampire Counts (VCs) begin in a bad position; they are stuck between two of the largest race-nations on the Old World map: the Empire (humans) and the Dwarfs (dwarfs). Thankfully, both race-nations have other things to deal with than Western and Eastern Sylvania, your starting position.
Vampires are ageless and immortal, and they can afford to play the long game. Taking territory a bit at a time, and solidifying it behind you, is arguably the best strategy you can use. Vampiric Corruption is a useful tool on the campaign map, as it increases public order and causes attrition among enemies, but it takes many turns to establish, by default.

• VC Suitable Climates are anything human-based, including the Empire and its Provinces, the Border Princes, and the Bretonnian Kingdoms (mostly west).


• VC Unpleasant Climates include other nearby race-nations such as the Dwarfs and Greenskins (mostly east and south). This is another good reason to leave the Dwarfs alone until you can afford it.


• VC Uninhabitable Climates are those uncivilized areas of the map like the Wood Elf kingdoms to the west, and anywhere with too much Chaos Corruption.

Slow & Steady Progress

In the early game, it is unwise to expand too quickly; even though cities are the single biggest source of income for VCs, their armies in the early game are weak, and not well-able to defend newly-seized territory. The cost of new cities, new armies, and public order penalties must be accounted for before new territory is claimed. The first main 'questline' of the VCs is to seize more and more territory, but survival and management of your current domains should take precedence most of the time. It is not worth it to seize a new town like Pfeildorf if it means you lose Castle Drakenhof to an invasion by Dwarfs or Greenskins.
VCs need to take time to restore Public Order in their seized towns; since all of the other nearby race-nations have a diplomatic Aversion to vampires, their cities have stronger public order penalties. A military presence in an occupied town or city will forestall unrest and rebellions, but the military presence needs to occupy that site for many turns before public order is restored and there is a high enough level of Vampiric Corruption to start giving public order bonuses. Having a hero in the army with strong Vampiric Corruption traits can speed this along.

Ruins

An extremely valid strategy for the Vampire Counts is to seize control of towns and cities that were razed by other armies. The trade-off for this is that this can be difficult to accomplish, because in the first place, any army that is powerful enough to raze a city or town is likely your enemy, and will return to raze your new town soon after you found it. In the second place, if you are making friends with your nearby races, the conflicts that result in razed towns will be further away, and you will almost certainly have to travel extensively across uncorrupted terrain to reach the towns (this sort of travel causes attrition in your armies).
The good news is that VCs can take over razed towns fairly cheaply thanks to Raise Dead. A half-stack army can move around the map and defend itself (or flee) long enough to reach a razed site. Then, the Lord of the army can use Raise Dead to summon a number of Zombies and Skeletons to fill out the ranks, reducing the cost of founding a new town on a raised site. After a VC player has researched cost-saving methods (see 'Savings' in the 'Treasury Management' section), this process can be comparatively very cheap, and give the Lord of the founding army a stack of cheap trash troops to defend the new town and keep public order until it can better defend itself.
Even if an enemy returns and attacks your new city, you do not lose as much investment as other races do. Founding new towns on ruins also prevents you from having to go to war with the race-nation that used to occupy that city.

Vampiric Corruption

The campaign map trait of the VCs is Vampiric Corruption, which grows steadily over time. Taking over settlements in a territory, garrisoning armies, and many Hero and Lord traits can increase the rate at which Vampiric Corruption spreads. It is worthwhile to have one hero in an army who has high Vampiric Corruption (part of the blue campaign traits at the bottom of the skill tree for Vampires and Vampire Lords) in order to spread it faster. Taking over a settlement in a territory also gives Vampiric Corruption in a range around that settlement, which means your armies do not suffer attrition in that range.
When VCs take over a new settlement, it will suffer a public order penalty until Vampiric Corruption reaches 50% or higher. At that point, public order should stabilize at around 0, gaining or losing slowly each turn, depending on other factors. VC public order is directly related to the amount of Vampiric Corruption in a territory; the higher the Vampiric Corruption, the higher the public order bonus.
The second effect of Vampiric Corruption is to cause attrition in any non-Undead army. (The only armies Vampiric Corruption attrition does not affect are the Vampire Counts, Vampire Coast, and Bretonnian Vampire Lords). Specific units may also be immune to attrition caused by Vampiric Corruption (such as stronger Greenskin units).

Treasury Management

Overview

Vampire Counts (VCs) benefit from large stockpiles of Dark Magic (hereinafter referred to as 'money'). They have a slight advantage in the early game because the bulks of their armies are cheap trash troops like zombies and skeletons, meaning that they can save up money for larger projects and expenditures.

Gains

Most of the VC gains come from their cities; unlike other race-nations such as the greenskins and Norsca, they do not get any special benefits from raiding and pillaging cities (though heroes can 'specialize' in pillaging if they do it often enough, gaining bonuses to the amount of money harvested).
VC research in the Lahmian tree gives bonuses to several different building chains, such as Repression (small gains of 100-150 monies/turn) and Vampire Crypts and Necromancer Libraries (large gains of 300-500 monies/turn).

Savings

VCs play a long economic game; it takes quite a bit of research and specialization to have a high steady income. A lot of this income is based on reductions in upkeep costs for most of your army troops. All of the research trees eventually have upkeep reduction costs for specific army units, and there are several extremely valuable researches to perform in the early and midgame. Namely, these are 'Master of the Putrid Horde' and 'Defiler of the Ancient Barrows' under the Arkhan tree. These give free, no-cost upkeep to zombies and skeleton units, respectively.

Expenditures

VCs benefit from large stockpiles of Dark Magic (hereinafter referred to as 'money'). They have a slight advantage in the early game because the bulks of their armies are cheap trash troops like zombies and skeletons, meaning that they can save up money for larger projects and expenditures.
Counting things like the additional cost to recruit units with Raise Dead, a VC player will often be forced to choose between upgrading their armies or upgrading their settlements.

• Bribery - It is a very good idea to save up money for diplomatic gifts to give to your surrounding race-nations, such as the Dwarfs and the Empire. Even though these are your two biggest enemies, and crushing them is your long campaign goal, in the beginning it is better to pay them off so they do not declare a two-front war on you. Small gifts can keep them happy enough so that they won't declare war, and medium or large gifts can improve their attitude enough so that they will agree to Non-Aggression Pacts or even Trade Agreements.


• Raising Dead - The major strategic strength of the VCs is their ability to raise large armies on short notice thanks to Raise Dead. Between city-based recruitment and Raise Dead, a VC player can raise a full army of 20 stacks in 3-4 turns, AS LONG AS they have enough money to pay the Raise Dead costs and at least a few turns of upkeep on the new army.


• Building Upgrades & Repairs - Building upgrades for the VCs get expensive fast; it can take several turns to save up enough money to buy a single building in one city or town. It is a good idea to stockpile a great deal of money, and then buy as many building upgrades as you can afford in your most well-defended cities. There is some synergy in VC buildings, meaning that one building will often benefit another building chain somehow. Research in the Lahmian tree also helps a great deal with income from buildings.

Diplomatic Relations

Overview

The Vampire Counts (VCs) have a long history with the other race-nations surrounding them; in the past (and probably the present), they have been aggressive and war-like against the Empire and the Dwarfs, which are your two biggest neighbors. Accordingly, most of the race-nations around you have a Diplomatic Aversion to vampires, setting your starting relationship at a penalty ranging from -15 (Bretonnian Kingdoms) to -50 (Dwarfs), with the average being -30 (almost everybody else, including the Empire).

Allies

The closest allies of any VC nation are other vampire-based Undead race-nations, namely: The Vampire Counts, the Von Carstein Bloodline, Templehof, Mousillon, The Barrow Legion, and the Vampire Coast nations in the New World.
The Problem of Templehof

Your first mission playing as a Vampire Count is to exterminate the Templehof faction; I would advise that you continue this policy until Templehof has only one settlement left. Assault this settlement, but afterwards choose to Subjugate Templehof as your Vassal, instead of exterminating them entirely. Optimally, Templehof will seize an Empire Province territory outside of Western and Eastern Sylvania, which you should pick as your final target to Subjugate them. In this way, Templehof will 1) give you tribute each turn in the form of money, 2) act as a buffer between you and more aggressive Empire Provinces, and 3) eventually become a steadfast trading partner.
A similar policy can be adopted with the Von Carstein Bloodline or the main Vampire Counts faction led by Mannfred, depending on which you have chosen to play.

The Enemy of My Enemy

It is wise for a VC player to choose from the beginning who they will ally with (if anybody), and who they will keep as long-term enemies. This helps control the amount of wars that the VCs are fighting at any given time, and therefore the number of fronts they are fighting on. Even if your chosen allies have a diplomatic Aversion to you, this can eventually be mitigated and overcome.
The safest way for VCs to gain diplomatic relations with their allies is to offer them gifts in the form of money.
Maybe the quickest way to gain diplomatic relations with allies is to send Heroes to attack and harass the enemies of their allies, since this can be done every turn, and the diplomatic bonuses stack with your chosen allies (and the penalties stack with your chosen enemies!). For this purpose, I recommend using Necromancers to 'Steal Technology' from an enemy settlement, as this will give a bonus to your research speed. If you have chosen an enemy far away from Sylvania, then actions such as 'Assault Garrison' are less beneficial to you.

Chaos Invasions

Counter-intuitively (but very much in keeping with the themes of Warhammer), the VCs do not have any special positive relationship with the forces of Norsca or the Chaos Warriors.

Battles

Overview

As a Vampire Count, your weapons are the black arts, guile, and terror.In the early game, a Vampire Counts army will probably have to field twice as many low-level troops as any other army to have a good chance of winning. The starter troops - zombies, skeletons, ghouls - have numbers, but very little else going for them.

General Tactics

No Ranged Units - Perhaps the main weakness of VC armies is their almost complete lack of ranged units, unless the player wants to super-specialize in order to get all of 2 ranged units. That is a maximum for your entire campaign, not per army. The only ranged units VCs ever get are Sylvanian Crossbowmen and Sylvanian Handgunners, both of which are available only through the Von Carstein Bloodline specialization.
But Flying Units! - To make up for the lack of ranged units, VCs have several flying units: Dire Bats, Vargheists, and Terrorgheists. These are extremely useful as mobile troops to strike enemy units from behind, while they are engaged with your main body of slower troops. Keep the flying units out of range until the enemy is otherwise engaged, then use them to disrupt and cause morale damage, or to chase away broken units so that those units do not return to the fight.
Vampire Lords, and Bloodline Lords also have access to flying mounts at level 10 (Hellsteed, a black pegasus) and level 18 (Zombie Dragon, which is everything you need in this game). Vampires access the Hellsteed at level 10.
Keep Your Army Tight - don't spread out too far, or send your units too far away from your main force. Weak units can be picked off, and all VC troops will start to disintegrate if they lose their morale. Even strong units like the Varghulf can be overwhelmed and start to disintegrate if outside your heroes Leadership Auras. If you have incoming reinforcements for your side, try to meet up with them as soon as possible, sending only quick, disposable troops to harass the enemy and slow them down before the main engagement.
Field Several Heroes - The backbone of the army are the Heroes and Lords, which provide a Leadership Aura around them to strengthen the morale of your forces. They are also the only early units capable of withstanding enemy Heroes and Lords. (Zombies, skeletons, and ghouls will get taken to pieces if they don't disintegrate first.)
Keep An Eye on Morale - The TWW2 interesting take on the Undead is that they do have morale, and it is a constant concern for an army commander. Unlike other races, VC troops will not flee when their morale is low or broken; instead, if a VC unit loses its morale (even Heroes and Lords), they will start to take heavy health damage, and the troop can die in a few seconds.

Lords & Heroes

Many VC Lords and Heroes are excellent assassins; Vampire Lords and Vampires both regenerate hitpoints while in melee combat, giving them great staying power.
Wight Kings - Your front-line fighters. Well-armored, with a strong attack and damage, Wight Kings are best used to bolster a weak line, assassinate enemy heroes, and lead charges.
Vampires & Vampire Lords - Both are commander-type units, meaning that they give strong bonuses to the Leadership of your hordes, which is extremely valuable if you field large numbers of weak units like skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. Spread your Vampires throughout your deployment, so that these units are always covered by the leadership aura.
Vampires (the females) lean more towards magic, and can be upgraded to be strong spellcasters, or melee combatants. Vampire Lords (the males) are strong melee combatants and leaders.
Necromancers - Spellcasters, meant to be stationed behind the front line to support with spells such as Invocation of Nehek, Raise Dead, and Wind of Death. The main concern with Necromancers and spellcasting Lords is not to cast too many spells too quickly; save up your Winds of Magic reserves to keep regeneration high, and casts spells only when you need to protect or support expensive units. Keep in mind that you can cast Inovcation of Nehek on Heroes, Lords, and single units such as Varghulfs to heal them to full.
Banshees - Your hero assassins. Quick, deadly, and with a chance to ignore physical (non-magical) damage, Banshees excel as assassins both in battle and on the campaign map. They are not as good in prolonged engagements as units of incorporeal troops are (Cairn Wraiths & Hexwraiths), so save them for decapitating strikes that will demoralize the enemy army.

Specific Units

VC units can be divided into the following categories: weak/strong, slow/fast, easily-broken/army-breakers.
Siege Weapons - Vampire Counts get siege weapons like other race-nations do, and they can also use Crypt Horrors, Varghulfs, and Terrorgeists to destroy city gates quickly.
Dire Wolves & Dire Bats - Harassers; use Dire Wolves and Dire Bats in the same way: to chase down enemies who are fleeing because of Fear or Terror, or use them to attack an embattled enemy unit from behind, and deal even more morale damage. Dire units can keep broken enemies off your back, so that the enemy unit does not regain its morale and return to the fight. The advantage of Dire Bats is that they can fly over a battle, instead of having to go around. DO NOT USE against armored troops with high morale!

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Crypt Horrors - Even though they are few in number (6 in a full unit), Crypt Horrors are very useful because they are probably the first unit you will field that has Armor Piercing attacks.

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Varghulfs - (Varghulves??) With speed, armor-piercing attacks, regeneration, and huge size, varghuls are excellent formation-disruptors and hero-slayers, taking out chunks of powerful units with each attack. They do need support, since they have comparatively low morale, so you can group them with your hero or lord to create an assassination squad, or send them plowing through the enemy ranks while they are engaged with your Skeletal Spearmen or Zombies. Varghulfs also deal great damage to city gates; two Varghulfs can take a gate down in about a minute.

Spellcasting

Use spellcasting (especially Invocation of Nehek) judiciously; like money, VCs benefit from stockpiling their Winds of Magic reserve, to either cast several spells in rapid succession, or make sure they have enough Winds of Magic to cast a spell at the right time.
Every Lord and almost every Hero has Invocation of Nehek, which heals a friendly Undead unit, and can reanimate lost units. Aside from its obvious uses during battle, Invocation of Nehek can be cast after the battle is finished but before you leave the battle screen (assuming you won), to heal and replenish your troops for the next fight (especially if you have another enemy just waiting to pounce on your weakened army).

Fear & Terror

A good part of the battle-play for the VCs is control over morale; just as low morale is a dangerous weakness of your armies, it is also a powerful weapon against your enemies.
Several VC units cause Fear or Terror (ex: Hexwraiths, Terrorgeists), and several Heroes can be upgraded to cause Terror as well (Vampire Lords), so spread them throughout the line of battle and have them attack different units one after another. When a unit routs, send Dire Bats or Dire Wolves to harass them and keep them running away.
The only armies where this tactic is not effective are the fellow Undead armies (who are your closest allies anyway).

Poison

Ghouls, Crypt Horrors, and certain special units have Poison attacks, which slow your enemies and makes them do less physical damage. Spread it around! If you have several units of Ghouls, have them attack several different units of the enemy, inflicting Poison on all of them. Be sure to have a decent unit backing up the ghouls, though, such as Grave Guard, who are better able to soak the lessened damage, and catch up to slowed enemies.

Raise Dead

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Overview

Raise Dead deserves its own section because of the important role it plays in Vampire Count logistics and army recruitment.
Raise Dead is a recruitment option for any Vampire Counts army led by a Lord. When selecting an army, select the golden skeletal hand listed at the bottom of the army unit window. Using Raise Dead allows the VC player to instantly recruit troops into their army, for a slightly greater cost than recruiting the same unit from a settlement.
A VC player can recruit as many troops in one turn as they can afford, and as are available in the Raise Dead window. More and better troops can be Raised at Battle Site Markers.

Battle Site Markers

A golden skeletal hand with a plus symbol (+) on the campaign map is a Battle Site Marker; this means that because a large battle with powerful units was fought in this territory, using Raise Dead will offer better and stronger troops.
Interestingly, Raising Dead at a valuable Battle Site Marker can let the VC player recruit much stronger units than they can recruit from their own cities, long before the recruitment buildings are unlocked. However, these units are both expensive to Raise, and have expensive upkeep (in the hundreds of monies per unit).

Chaos Invasions & How to Avoid Them

Overview

First, you may ask, 'Why should I bother avoiding Chaos invasions? Mostly, they are things that happen to somebody else.'
The answer is, 'Because after they are done with somebodies else, they will come for you.'Chaos and the Vampire Counts (VCs) do not start off at war with one another, which allows the VCs some breathing room before having to confront Chaos - but sooner or later, confront them you will. The confrontation can be postponed for a good long time, until you have the economy and troops to deal with at least 1 Chaos army at a time.

Avoiding Chaos Invasions

The simplest way to avoid Chaos invasions is to never completely seize both Western and Eastern Sylvania. Seizing both territories gives you Mannfred Von Carstein, another faction leader (if you did not start play with him; otherwise it gives you another legendary lord), and starts a countdown to the first Chaos invasion. If you seize both provinces by turn 40 or so, the first Chaos invasion can start anywhere between turn 60 to 100. You may get the occasional warning about 'Chaos is coming', but they should not actually spawn armies for a good long, long time, if ever.

Dealing With Chaos Invasions

As mentioned above, Chaos and VCs do not start off at war, so the initiative is on your side. Chaos will be happy for many turns subjugating Norsca and razing Kislev and the northern provinces of the Empire. All-too-soon, however, they will enter your territory.
Working the viable VC tactic of inhabiting ruins, you can send a cheap army full of zombies and skeletons in the wake of the Chaos hordes, colonizing new settlements. Expect to lose these settlements. Build only light economic infrastructure, and maybe also Vampiric Corruption buildings if you're flush with wealth. Though the economic gains are small, they add up if you colonize a dozen new cities without much further investment. Vampiric Corruption in your new provinces may whittle down Chaos or Norscan armies passing through your territory, though they are 99% likely to Raid their way across the map, preventing attrition. Causing attrition in this way does not seem to impose a negative penalty on your diplomatic relations (like it did in TWW1).

And Then Things Get Worse

As if normal Chaos Lords were not bad enough, if you and the AI manage to defeat or at least delay the first Chaos invasion, the second wave will be named Legendary Chaos Lords such as Archaon the Everchosen and Kholek Suneater. These increase the danger of Chaos armies geometrically, since they also bring along Regiments of Renown and give themselves economic and replenishment bonuses.
At minimum, VCs will need 2 armies to defeat 1 Chaos army if you choose to auto-resolve - including as many armor-piercing units such as Crypt Horrors and Varghulfs as you can. Even then, it is certainly better to manually control the battle and preserve your best units with discrete, effective use and Invocation of Nehek. Chaos units also have high morale and are sometimes immune to Fear and Terror, making their armies almost unbreakable. Having 2 VC armies gives you the chance to surround and more effectively demoralize a single Chaos army. Assassinating their Lords and Heroes is also more difficult, but affects their Leadership just like it does for other armies - then the only issue becomes defeating the naturally-high base leadership of each unit.
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