Vampires! The Musical.

[TinkerJohn]

Lots of children out there have important questions about vampires. How do they happen? Where do they happen? Are they dangerous, or adorably soft such as like a kitten?

Well here is a guide to give you some ideas and plans for growing your very first unholy empire of the night!

First of all, Vampires come from Feudalism. Feudalism requires some horseback/trade and Writing/Economy techs to get. Basic Vampires are Strength 5, movement 2, and can feed on population to gain exp. They can also eat a Bloodpet (warrior) as a spell action to gain an additional movement and attack round. Vampires are not Arcane units (no free exp) but they do have access to the Death Sorcery, which gives them a skeleton for each Vampire (benefits from combat promos) and Contagion (a semi decent direct damage nuke that pales in comparison to Flame Strike below)

BUT WAIT THERES MORE!

Going for Feudalism works, but there is another even more dark and diabolical path to Vampirism that I believe pays off more. In addition to the Vampire from Feudalism, Calabim get a Vampire hero from Fanaticism (after Priesthood) that is a basic strength 7 vampire who becomes Immortal if she kills a mortal unit in combat.

THE PLAN
Once you get your basics you go up the religion tree. You get the vampire hero and convert to the Ashen Veil. You build Veil priests en masse, give them the vamp suck, and feed them into summoning/casting monsters. While you tech up your religion tree you ALSO get Brujah and Vampire Lords, two amazing classes that are vampire killing machines.

Religion. Because you're going for a religion to get your Vampire Hero, go with Ashen Veil. Ashen Veil priests are the best priests to have vampirism (basically a free ticket for insane exp) for the following reasons:
Ashen Veil priests have Flame Strike. This can substitute for Siege Weapons while you're on the campaign trail. It gets boosted by Combat 5.
Ashen Veil priests have (debatably) the best summons in the game in Entropy. Furthermore as summoners they benefit from lots of exp to give combat 5 to their summons.
Ashen Veil priests gain faster exp then normal priests with the Entropy sphere because they can defile themselves (divine entropy spell)
Ashen Veil priests with Death even have a neat debuff with their Wraith, who can ennervate a defending stack.

Other Ashen Veil goodies.
Sacrifice the Weak. Cottage Spam. Massive Cities. Vampire Feeding Pens. IT DOES ALL THIS, AND MORE!™

Word of Warning!!!
Diseased Corpses disease their own stack when they attack. This disease is incurable. Do not do as I did, and build them. The disease gets on your vampire demigods and FOR THE REST OF THE GAME every time you check them, there it is, taking off 30% combat strength, MOCKING YOU!!! ARGH!

 

[kenken244]

If you build the Aquae Succelus then you can cure your vampires disease...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Musical???


The Pool of Tears unique feature can cure disease too.

What about adopting a religion that changes your alignment, so you could use the alters of the luonnatar to et your disciples to the level needed for gift vampirism to work on them? Free xp when built is better than gaining it faster, thus AV priests are actually worse candidates for vampirism than priests of the Order, Empyrean (very unthematic, and would have a spell to damage itself), or Runes if you manage to get a few great prophets.

The Order actually fits their theme pretty well, and would be able to heal the disease their vampires contagion can cause. Also, the Calabim should really want to keep the AC low, to keep up the food supply (not that Sacrifice the Weak isn't very good for them too..)

Flame strike? Are you playing the in another language? Fire II Divine is called Ring of Flames, Fire III Divine is Pillar of Fire.


I certainly don't consider Entropy the best summons, not even close. Balors are nice, but not exceptional, and imps are basically useless if you lack the summoning trait. As of the next patch I think that Air summons will probably be the best.

 

[Demus]

nuke, flame strike... i'm guessing DOTA .

besides that, once you get to vampires+ with the calabim, you've usually already won the game. The trick is getting through that early game without getting ripped to shreads by any other civ recognizing your potential. I haven't tried them with the latest changes, but in .23 it was very possible to get your vampire lords and brujahs to 500+ exp each, with 1-2 food towns per unit. Never tried the "vampires gift" on mages/priests though, should be fun!

 

[Mewtarthio]

Is that why Losha Valas is so difficult to kill? It's intended that you'll only get her if you're not following the "traditional" vampire path, so the design team wanted to make sure you don't lose what could be your only "true" vampire?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Ordinary vampires disappointed the hell out of me. I like this idea of saying "screw em" and using Losha Valas to spread vampirism. Though can't you only do that to L6 units?

Anywho, Ashen Veil is never the right choice for anything except Hyborem summoning. Oh, sacrifice the weak for high food cities? Yeah, enjoy pulling that off with any civ when you drive the AC up to 40 by spreading your religion and all of a sudden you have no food producing improvements. For the Calabim, why take that when you could have:
Order for altars, disease curing, and those fire spells you like so much.
Octopus overlords for bloodsucking Hemah, tower of complacency for the high food city your guys feed on, and a strength 8 unit that unlocks alongside Losha (you want this if you're delaying your champion replacement)
Fellowship of leaves for ancient forests and much needed extra health

I can't stress this enough, so again: AV sucks ass if you plan to stick with your starting civ and there are always better options for any situation you can possibly think of. The sensible thing to do with it is found it, bulb your starting savant, then just sit on it to stifle its spread.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Or, in my modmod, found it then feast on its founding city until there is no population left, which razes it to the ground. (I'm also including the Raze city/abandon building modmod in my next version)

 

[Calbrenar]

Ordinary vampires disappointed the hell out of me. I like this idea of saying "screw em" and using Losha Valas to spread vampirism. Though can't you only do that to L6 units?

Anywho, Ashen Veil is never the right choice for anything except Hyborem summoning. Oh, sacrifice the weak for high food cities? Yeah, enjoy pulling that off with any civ when you drive the AC up to 40 by spreading your religion and all of a sudden you have no food producing improvements. For the Calabim, why take that when you could have:
Order for altars, disease curing, and those fire spells you like so much.
Octopus overlords for bloodsucking Hemah, tower of complacency for the high food city your guys feed on, and a strength 8 unit that unlocks alongside Losha (you want this if you're delaying your champion replacement)
Fellowship of leaves for ancient forests and much needed extra health

I can't stress this enough, so again: AV sucks ass if you plan to stick with your starting civ and there are always better options for any situation you can possibly think of. The sensible thing to do with it is found it, bulb your starting savant, then just sit on it to stifle its spread.

I can rebuild lost improvements in about 15 turns normally less if I prepare for it. As far as the hell terrain goes--big deal--one point in life mana and you can block hell terrain for eternity. While I'm not disagreeing that some religions may be better for Calabim then AV -- AV is not as horrible as you make it sound. I love playing as AV without going Hypoborem.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The problem isn't so much losing the improvements, it is downgrading the terrain and losing food resources (more than you are really supposed to if blight still strikes once per player, although I think that has been fixed). There is no way to get those resources back, and to fix the terrain you will need either Druids (requireing neutral alignment--assuming the Calabim can now build them even then, I know they used to have no druid unit) or the Hight Priests of the Leaves.


Of course, AV is still awesome for the vamps if you choose the Consecrated Ground and Compact Enforced options, but that is basically cheating.

 

[Calbrenar]

I wasnt' really commenting on AV with Calabim so much as his "AV is never the right choice if you plan on keeping your starting Civ"

 

[TinkerJohn]

The reason I point to AV as my religion of choice is that, of all the religions, AV benefits the most from having priests with a free meal ticket to max exp. Kilmorph priests just get to be average melee units for example.
Each combat 5 Ashen Veil priest (who grow faster thanks to defile!) has a very powerful direct damage spell and 2 very flexible and powerful summons. The best in the game!

I didn't recommend Kilmorph because Vampiric Kilmorphian priests are not as powerful or versatile as a
exp 100 High Priest of the Veil. Still has some very strong temple buffs and civics. Worth spreading just for the $$$.

I didn't recommend a Vampiric OO path because deep magic cuts off Brujahs or Vampire Lords. Also Vampiric Kraken, as hilarious as it may be, are not that viable.

I didn't recommend Fellowship of Leaves because their priests are terrible, and are food not friends. Also Calibim have small cities and can't spread the forest disease everywhere without cutting into production.

I do recommend Order. Its not only deliciously ironic, but Order priests have a fantastic nuke spell, a superb civic for feasting on your cities and some other small benefits like being able to build an alter for faster priests exp.

One small item of note. If you do go Ashen Veil, the Armageddon is just around the corner. Remember to do your part to keep the counter low!

 

[TinkerJohn]

Use nukes on enemy heroes at the same time to ensure a kill!
Flame strike towers to push your lanes!
Destroy the world tree in the Sentinel base to win!

 

[slowcar]

i tried this strategy yesterday but as it seems i am playing to much tasunke. played on a small inland sea map (deity) and conquered half of it. on my way to research order now. against AI all these strategies are more or less useless as you can simply bash them.

 

[kiaace]

Hell terrain my ass. I timed Genesis just right and bang! The dirt is gone. (1st time i played as hyborem and... did that. Ow.)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Hell terrain my ass. I timed Genesis just right and bang! The dirt is gone. (1st time i played as hyborem and... did that. Ow.)

I don't get it. Reading the code it doesn't appear that Genesis has any effect on hell terrain at all. It only effects snow(usually called ice, but that conflicts with the feature name), tundra, desert, and grass tiles and only in your empire's borders.

 

[kiaace]

no it works... maybe my version is outdated

 

[TinkerJohn]

A solid start to the strategy is to first get Moroi (Axemen) and use armies of them + bronze to support your empire until you get Lorsha and your priests of your chosen flavor.

 

[Sisonpyh]

Giving Vampirism to Rosier the Fallen is always fun.

 

[TinkerJohn]

Vampiric Lorsha and Rosier backed up with priests and Moroi axemen can wage a brutal war of aggression midway through the game. Lorsha's Contagion spell along with the priest summons and skeletons can soften up a city garrison enough for your insanely strong Heroes to attack.

 

[Candidus]

More than Rosier, a vampiric Mardero is probably the strongest unit in the game.