So you've decided to try out the blood sucking masters of the undead? In many ways they are quite simple to use if you think like a megalomanic necromancer with illusions of grandeur. ;)
Although, some of the tactics and strategies you'll have to adopt might not be that appearant at first.

In this guide I'll be going through the basics of this faction from both a general perspective, but also from the perspective of someone just starting out that might have some trouble deciding what to do next.

What Legendary Lord should you pick, and why?
What are you supposed to build to get both armies and a sustainable economy?
What are all their units for, and how should I use them?
How should I use their lords and heroes?
What should I do with their spells?

I will also write down my own reflections on what I believe will change, what is bugged and what is just plainly stupid.

If people appreciate it I will keep on updating it as well.

I'll start off by writing down some general and starting tips you might appreciate:


Starting income and the Gold Mine:

Okay, look at Drakenhoff. You NEED to build the gold mine in that settlement. It will be the base foundation of your income for some time. Other than that, you might notice that the only other real income building you have is the Gibbet. This is where the magic comes into play: Check what your main settlements main building gives you. Yes, it gives you a hefty bonus to all income from the whole region, and ½ of that as an additional bonus to the income of all neighbouring regions. This is where your first income's main bulk will come from. Later on in the campaign, you might consider tearing it down for a Vampiric Crypt or a Library.


Additional Armies

When it comes to armies; take it slow. Your initial income is limited, your army upkeep is going to be your bane until you've managed a stable strong economy. Stick to one army or two armies until you really need a second proper invansion force. Your army compositions are very special, and demands special attention which I will mention further down. Don't even bother getting a third army before you've built up at least both Eastern and Western Sylvania. If you're worried about being attacked, or playing on one of the harder difficulties, get a second army with only cheap Raise Dead units. The Upkeep cost is your initial greatest enemy.


Attrition and Stance Dancing

Your armies are going to take attrition damage as soon as you enter an area where the vampiric taint isn't strong enough. While this damage isn't that horrible for one or two turns, it's going to annoy you in the long run. Use the Raid stance to remove the attrition damage. This is all well and good in the short run. Do note that you will have much less movement points and any battles started while in the stance will start with some rather annoying unit penalties. Also, be careful not to end your turn inside your own territory while in raid stance, you will recieve a VERY high public order penalty.
Make sure to use your Channeling stance to alleviate this as much as possible. Channeling will both help you replenish forces quicker, and give you a small boost in availible spell points.


Opening moves

You have dwarves to the east, that will either be eaten up in a confederacy, or eaten up by one of the Greenskin tribes. You can leave them be for now, you have no decent way to stop them from recollonizing a razed Karak – for the moment any way. To the north you have humans that might even trade with you – for now. To the west and south you have other vampire factions. One that wants you dead, and one that wants to hide behind you. You should kill both the Templehoff and the Schwartzhafn eventually since there is no confederacy for vampires, and you need full regions to build the buildings required for a good enough supply of Dark Magic.

Okay, now for some strategical advice. As for your neighbours. Don't even bother with trade with your vampiric neighbours. Rather kill them off early, because the human factions will kill them off sooner or later any way. The first part of the game and first quest will naturally guide you to conquer Eastern Sylvania. Do that before you attack Castle Templehof.
You need full regions to get an economy running, and if you start sieging Templehof before you've got a full region, you will be running dry soon. You might really want a second army of simple trash to chase away any of their harassing armies while you're sieging, to not lose any of your cities in Eastern Sylvania again.
After that it is up to you which direction to go. West and north will lead you straight into conflict with The Empire and the factions it will soon devour – not to mention Chaos when they start to corrupt their way down towards you.
South gives you some other possibilites, if you want to fight the Border Princes instead and postpone a fight with the Empire itself. You are literally just picking what fight to postpone for now. I've found it easier to start off killing going west and north-west for starters. Killing off soon-to-be empire factions before they consolidate into the Empire. I usually ignore Ostermark for now, because they don't usually provoke you, and they work as a buffer for when Chaos comes.


Vampiric Corruption:

You need to build the Balefire-chain buildings in every region. The question is not if, it is when. In Eastern Sylvania, don't one in Drakenhof, and you'll thank me later. You won't notice it at first, but you will run into a wall unless you start thinking about vampiric corruption early. The only two ways for you to manage it is by either building a high level Balefire to spread corruption to neighbouring regions. Or park heroes there temporarily.


The Necromancer isn't BAD

Look at your necromancers, both Lord and Hero. He has three to four particular abilities that makes him a super powerful support unit.
To get the most out of him, initially, get Master of the Dead and Curse of Undeath quickly.
Master of the Dead is simply a healing aura for undead. Curse of Undeath is a passive ability that triggers every time your necromancer uses any spell. It heals and resurrects units every time he uses Any spell. Including and Especially Incantation of Nehek. Use those 3 abilites in tandem to AoE heal large amounts of hitpoints. Slap on a Danse Macabre straight after to heal even more and push the enemies back!

Cause Fear and Cause Terror

Cause Fear and Cause Terror are some really nifty abilities you'll have great use of while fighting especially humans and orcs. They will heavily impact their morality, and you might cause some early routs. Cause Fear is like a general blanket feature for your armies, while Cause Terror is more like a scalpel that simply cuts away another chunk of Leadership when you charge in with any unit that has it. It will not spontanously suddenly cause a rout from nowhere, it a depleted unit will get an additional chunk of its leadership eaten up.

Mannfred von Carstein

This vampire lord is a powerful general. He can develop into pretty much everything except for a duelist – although his hefty base stats will make him quite powerful when pitted against lords and heroes anyway. He can become a very tanky spell caster, but as for my own suggestion, I'd start out by focusing on either his battle skills as a vampire by getting The Hunger and increasing his stats, or getting his Campaign skills and rush towards Lightning Strike.
He does start out with access to both Vampiric and Death magic, which is powerful, but might be superflous. Spirit Leech is a powerful tool against other heroes without any point investment, which is pretty neat. A free Invocation of Nehek works as a decent self-heal or an emergency heal for your starting Varghulf. More on the spells later on in the guide.
As for unique faction buffs, he gives you a very neglible movement buff of +5%, and a -10% in upkeep cost for Grave Guards and Black Knights. The second one gets a bit useful when in mid to late game, since you're going to have a bunch of Grave Guards in most of your armies by then.
Von Carsteins starting units include a Varghulf, which in itself is a compelling argument for picking Carstein as your starting lord. You'll get more Fel Bats and Crypt Ghouls soon enough, and you might lose them very quickly anyway since they are both kinda expendable.
The Varghuld will annihilate anything the other factions can and will throw at you early game. I've had von Carstein and the Varghulf taking on a whole army by themselves. It will heal itself over time, and if it only faces zombies, they will not be able to out-damage its regeneration. Just watch out for spearmen, and use Incantation of Nehek on it and it's ready to go again.


Heinrich Kemmler

I really love Kemmler, but he's Bad with a capital B compared to your other choises. Just like a normal necromancer, he's squishy and hence a worthless fighter. Even though he gets a quest item that makes you want him in melee, you have no safe way to sustain him there.
He is essentially just a necromancer that thinks highter of himself, which makes him a standard spellcasting and support Lord, BUT with the disadvantage that he can never get a mount.
As for his spells, they are nothing unique, but just as useful as they are on the other lords and heroes. But as for a starting advantage, they are neglible since you will receive a free hero very quickly with the exact same spellbook.
He will get a nice personal skill that increases research across the board in general, but that will be availible to you by just getting him later on in the campaign.
His unique buffs are neglible in general to be honest. He lowers the price for Raise dead and lowers the upkeep for Necromancer heroes. Both of which are very cheap to begin with.
Kemmlers starting units are worse than all other choises you have. The units themselves are quite good, but only when used in combination or with certain strategies. The Dire Wolves are expendable, and you'll most likely have more by turn 2 or 4. I'd suggest keeping the Cairn Wraiths as a guard unit for Kemmler, and use the Hexwraiths for hammer and anvil. But make sure they never get stuck in melee. Their etherealness is their boon and bane. They are actually very bad against starting units, because their main weakness is when fighting numerous weaker foes. They are potent units mid to late game. But as long as your enemies only have cheap armies, you are just as likely to have your hex and cairnwraiths killed off.


Vlad von Carstein

The best VC lord in the game, maybe even best Lord as he is. His stats are super powerful as is, so he's a good candidate for Campaign Skills, and rushing towards Lightning Strike. He does not get a mount which reduces his use in actual battle as a proper lord. But he brings a lot of other things to the table. It's a waste getting more spells for him, and it's a toss up between making him more powerful through character skills and battle skills after the campaign ones.
Just like Mannfred, he brings a neglible movement buff across the map. And his second ability is tied to himself only, and that is a Vanguard deployment for every unit in his army. This is not as useful as it might seem in a Campaign, since your enemies will tend to instantly recognize where you're hiding what anyway.
Another reason to get him is his personal ability to always be able to initiate a siege instantly. He gets no wait time, and he himself can actually beat down gates of settlements if he is inclined to.
He will also get a very powerful experience ability that slowly will give all of your units in all armies veterancy. A very powerful tool, and one of the main reasons to pick Vlad.
Bats, Blood Knights, Vargheist
As for his starting units, the bats are expendable, but the Blood Knights is the best Cav unit in the game. You'll prefferably keep these througout your whole campaign. Super powerful and robust. They will kill all opposition to your initial campaign. The Vargheists are nice and only helps Vlad with sieges even more early on. Slap them onto a wall where there are no spearmen nearby and you can safely climb that wall with your other units.

Helman Ghorst

Another Nercromancer lord, but this one does get a mount. Get the standard Master of the Dead and The Curse of Undeath quickly to make him into a powerhouse support unit.
In essence, he's a clone of Kemmler, but better, in every way.
He gets addional research, additional buffs to necromancer heroes, and can reduce Raise Dead cost. The main difference is that he does get a mount that makes him more robust, and gives him a Corpse Cart and all buffs that comes with it.
On top of that, he gets a unique spell instead of Raise Dead. He gets to raise Grave Guards instead, which is a beast of it's own. And if you over channel it, you get a friggin Wight King. Get this spell on level 2, and you'll destroy everything early game.
An additinal thing Helman brings is a blanket replenishment buff that will speed your campaign along. It's nothing game defining, but you'll save some turns from waiting from replenishing. He also gets a personal skill that causes all of his units to cause poison attacks. It removes combat effectiveness, and makes especially your expendable units even more appealing.
As for his starting units, it's nothing bad, but nothing amazing either. The corpse cart can soon be created elsewhere, but it does help out your zombies and skeletons early on.


What Lord shoud you pick?:
(Remember, you'll get all other lords throughout your campaign anyway. Just not their campaign defining traits.)

It's a toss up between both of the Von Carsteins. I'd go for Vlad, since you can unlock Mannfred before turn 10 anyway.
I'd only go for any of the Necromancers if you really want to and wants an additional challenge.

Build Order and Selection:

Let's use Eastern Sylvania as a foundation here.
Here is a summary of what I suggest you build and in which order, and below a more thorough explanation that you can then use to decide what to build in other regions.

• Drakenhof: Gold Mine, Binding Circle, Armoury, Last two are up to you.
  
• Eschen: Cemetary, Boneyard, Balefire, Last one is up to you.
  
• Waldenhof: Forest, Repression, Last one is up to you.

Just like in any Total War game, you need to plan ahead when it comes to buildings. There are some buildings you simply have to build, the only question is in which order. Your minor settlements can only build up to level 3 buildings, so some buildings are wasteful to build there – or at least temporary.
You have three military buildings, which two of them has a maximum of level 3 (Forest and Cemetary). You want them in Eschen and Waldenhof, one in each. This is so you can maximize Drakenhof, because that's where you will have to make some hard choices.

• You need the gold mine first, there is no question about that.
  
• The second building is the Binding Circle to get access to all of your units in one strong region.
  
• The third should be the Armoury to unlock all of its units.
  
• For the last buildings you will end up with a Vampire Lair and a Necromancy building. You will go for both for a substantial economy boost. But both are insanely expensive and requires a fully upgraded settlement. Before you can build one, feel free to slap down a Balefire or Boneyard.

As for Eschen and Waldenhof, after you've built the Cemetary and the Forest there, you have very few options. Two of them should be the Repression and the Boneyard for the additional Dark Magic and growth. Growth may not look that important, but you really need to push your main settlement buildings quickly. Since both your unit generation and economy is tied to those buildings.
Make sure to get at least one Balefire in your region. If you built it in Drakenhof, fine, but you'll tear that down eventually, and move it to either Eschen or Waldenhof. Even later into the game, you MIGHT want to tear it down as well, if you've already conquered enough around you that you don't feel threatened in any way by declining Corruption.
I'd skip the Orchard, since you generally won't get a lot from trade anyway. My suggestion is to throw in a Garrison in Waldenhof to at least get a decent chance of defending if the north comes for you, unless that's where you've decided to conquer first.

As for other regions. Make sure to check if they have specialty chains availible. The the Dark Lair or like Altdorfs College. Otherwise, get Balefire, Repression, Charnel and Garrisons in your conquered regions.

I'll start by a brief explanation on each unit. After that I'll give you some tactics and combinations. Although, what you have to understand early on is that the Vampire Counts rely on having at least a few stacks of expendable units in their armies. You will be far into the end game when you can sustain an army with only your power house units. You will have to rely on making sure to use your cheapest units in such a way that your more expensive ones performs even better.

Infantry:

Zombies
This unit is utter trash, and it is perfect for what you will use it for. Zombies have the worst stats in the game. Do not expect them to kill anything 1 on 1 except other zombies. What makes the zombie useful and great for you is its mass of hp. It has more hitpoints than most other starting tier units, which in turn makes it into a great sponge. This is literally the first unit that you will use to utilize the unique aspect of the Vampire Counts armies. They use lots of expendable screening units to eat your enemies arrows, bullets and charge, and then lock them down – and then crush them with help of more competent units from the flanks. Expect to lose most of your expendables in a battle where you won't win overwhelmingly. As soon as the battle is over, make sure to merge your surviving zombies (ctrl-m), and use Raise Dead to get them back.

Skeleton Warriors
Not much better than your Zombies, later on in your campaign you might wish to use these instead of the zombies since they can actually cause casualties on other units (And outright destroy most other infantry if you use Danse Macabre on them) and they are shielded, which in this case makes them acceptable as a cheap main line unit when facing arrow fire. They are a bit more expensive and not as easy to raise from the dead though so in an extended campaign, you might revert to zombies eventually. In the early game you'll use these as you flanking force to your main line of zombies.

Skeleton Spearmen
These are not so much expendable as you other skeletons. Much like in other TW games, these spearmen serve as a cheap detergent towards large enemies. Their stats are pretty much on par with the skeleton warriors, but with the additional charge defense (negate any charge bonus) and additional 66% additional damage versus any large enemy. (This is pretty much equal to the damage that a Grave Guard will do to any unit, but the difference is that the Grave Guard won't have Charge Defense and 30 less bodies in the unit – and the spearman gives you all this for exactly half the price.

Crypt Ghouls
This is you bread and butter meatgrinder. They are superior to the Skeleton Warriors in every way as a flanking unit. They do equal damage to your expensive Grave Guards with the additional bonus of poisoning the enemy. The poison is hard to actually give a rating since it gives the enemies you use it on a whole bunch of % penalties to damage, movement speed and stamina. The better the unit you manage to charge unopposed with these monsters the better they are.
They are wet paper as a main line unit though. They can not take being charged, they can not take being fired upon, simply put you need to protect them and make sure they get to charge something, preferably in the rear. It should be noted that these bastards are very quick on their feet, actually, quicker than most other infantry in the game. Except for: Forsaken, Slayers and the Cairn Wraiths.

Grave Guard
Now we are getting somewhere. These are extremely heavily armored and have a superior block chance against arrows and bullets. They are pretty much straight out better than any other infantry unit we've looked at so far in every way. Except that their functionality is matched by their price. You need to beat a pretty big army to get to raise these. For an end game army this is your main line. They are not expendable and their killing power is actually respectable. If you toss a Danse Macabre on these, they can pretty much kill any other infantry unit one on one. Note that they are even better against infantry due to them having the anti-infantry buff, which increases their damage to even higher than the Crypt Ghouls versus other infantry units.

Grave Guard with Great Weapon
Be careful here and give this unit some extra consideration depending on what you are fighting. They do cost substantially more in upkeep than the ordinary Grave Guard while in turn doing 26 points of armor piecing damage. What this means is that the Grave Guard here will negate some of the armor of heavily armored units. But against unarmored units, this version of the Grave Guard does less damage. Its other stats are comparable to the standard Grave Guard in every other way, except that the standard version is shielded. From your perspective, this means that this is a given unit to at least mix up in your army versus dwarves since ALL of their units are armored, and you will be struggling against that. But against other armies where you can expect only a handful of armored units, this is a very expensive niche unit that you could perhaps either ignore or just get one or two of.

Cairn Wraiths
Now we are talking end game units. Compared to Rome 2, these are your Oathsworn or Swordmasters. Ironically enough their greatest weakness are weak units. They have 0 armor, but always reduce the damage they take by 75%. This literally means that the better the unit they fight, the better they are. They can be bogged down by a whole bunch of weak units and picked off though, so be careful about that. The Cairn Wraiths are your alternative for armor piercing. They actually do slightly better than the Grave Guards with Great Weapons. Another selling point for these ghosts is their speed. They are by far the fastest infantry unit in the game, which should help with positioning immensly. But remember, toss them on something strong, and keep them away from numbers.
(A side note for Cause Terror is that it is currently a bit hard to rate since we have not had any information released about it. Cause Terror so far is extremely inconsistent and unrealiable. During my last round of testing, I had a hexwraith crumble versus two Empire Swordsmen. No terror what so ever.)

Cavalry:

Black Knights
These guys stats are comparable to the Grave Guard from the get go, they are actually even cheaper. This isn't even considering that it has more than double the charge bonus and speed that's actually quite good for what this unit is. Important to note is that its speed is slower than every missile cavalry in the game. But it is faster than every shock cavalry in here, as well as faster than most other cavalry with a few notable exceptions: Chaos Chariot, Demigryphs, any mounted goblins and obviously all of Brettonias cavalry. Like I said, the stats are comparable to Grave Guards, but it has only half the unit size, as well as a bronze shield (30% block chance). This means that these bastards are literally made for rear charges or dealing with other non-shock- non-missile- cavalry.

Black Knights with Lances
Here comes The cavalry. Literally. Give an applau for this game's third fastest shock cavalry, only beaten by Brettonia, by 2 points of speed. On top of that we have a hefty bonus to armor, damage and charge. The little up and down arrows on its character sheet doesn't mention that it is shielded, but its stat block has a bronze shield next to its armor value which I currently take as that these horsemen do block arrows just as well as the standard Black Knights, but with the addition of 30 more armor. As with any shock cavalry this unit is made for charging. If you didn't know, how charging works is that the Charge bonus is added onto both the Melee Attack and Weapon Strength for a few seconds after a successful charge was made. In this case it means that its attack and gets boosted to 66 (without any research done) and it's damage to 100. This means that you can charge anything into the front (except spearmen, never charge them), and you will still crush them into a pulp. If you can manage a Danse Macabre on top of this, say goodbye to any non-hero/lord or single monstrous unit in a single charge.

Hexwraiths
Now this is a bit of a mixed bag, just like its cousin the Cairn Wraith, but not as much comparable to the Noble Horse as the Cairn Wraiths is to the Oathsworn. If you're after something that charges ♥♥♥♥ and gets things done, go for the Black Knights, this dude has his uses, but it's not that. He has the same exceptional armor piercing and ethereal attributes as his infantry cousin, with an additional feature in Vanguard deployment (something that I wished worked better against the AI than it does). Remember the weakness of the Cairn Wraith, use it against numbers and it will go down before paying for itself. The ethereal attribute is powerful, but it does mean that even the weakest of weapons does palpable damage. This is the fastest non-missile cavalry in the game, which sadly enough still means it cannot act as a skirmisher detergent. But what it can do is act as a shock cavalry detergent due to ethereal. Other than that it can only perform the same roles as the normal version of the Black Knight – with a bit less in charge bonus even. So only bring these if you face an army with a powerful shock cavalry component, otherwise they are both over priced and over qualified.
(A side note for Cause Terror is that it is currently a bit hard to rate since we have not had any information released about it. Cause Terror so far is extremely inconsistent and unrealiable. During my last round of testing, I had a hexwraith crumble versus two Empire Swordsmen. No terror what so ever.)


War Machine:

Black Coach
More information is coming. Doing extensive testing at the moment. There are a lot of inconsistensies at the moment with this unit. It's supposed to act as a chariot from earlier TW games with some decent self buffs. It has a higher charge bonus than shock cavalry which puts it on 100 weapon attack but after a lot of testing something doesn't appear to work like I expected. Reading the stats I believed that the Coach would just be all about plowing through enemy lines and doing insane amounts of damage.
I have now finished several more tests. Ranging from having no support to a lot of it. One with nothing but a Black Coach versus 2 Swordsmen. The Swordsmen won. The Coach managed to get a nice charge in and most of one of the units flew away, but no casualties was sustained. The Coach had no way of pulling through the Swordsmen. During every charge it simply got stuck and took horrendous amounts of damage. When using support for the Coach, it started to get kills. It kept on reach charging some simple Swordsmen being held up by Skeleton Warriors. The skeletons did more damage than the Coach. And yes, I was using both of the buffs as well, during several fights.
As of now I cannot recommend using this unit at all since its main niche is done better by other units for the same or better price. The deciding faction could have been the Causes Terror, but just like with all the other terror units, it's also not implemented in a working or reliable way.
(A side note for Cause Terror is that it is currently a bit hard to rate since we have not had any information released about it. Cause Terror so far is extremely inconsistent and unrealiable. During my last round of testing, I had a hexwraith crumble versus two Empire Swordsmen. No terror what so ever.)

Monsters:

Fell Bats
These little love birds are some of my favorite units in this game, and their use is quite unique. Heads up, you either want a couple of these, or none. The keyword on these dudes are that they are expendable. See them as a gun with one single bullet in them. Against ranged units, they will chew through them easily. Against unguarded wizard lords and heroes they are going to wound them pretty badly. They really shine in sieges too. Before the towers start picking them off, throw them onto the ranged units on the walls and watch your undead horde approach the wall unassailed (well.. You will still be peppered by the towers). You can do the same versus cavalry (especially missile cavalry) too to slow them down or occupy them, but expect to lose your bats quickly. They are quite easy to heal with Incantation of Nehek. If you're in the beginning of the game and only fighting other vampires, you could just throw them onto a unit you wish to occupy for a while, other bats or onto the lord if it's a necromancer.
(Currently any fliers are slightly bugged and might get into a state where the game thinks that they are still on the wall, and several of your spells won't be able to affect them. Only until the end of the battle though!)

Dire Wolves
I love these guys. It doesn't say that they are expendable, but you should expect that they are. A bit too expensive to throw away at something it won't kill, but they are the fastest thing on the ground in the game. If you want me to compare them to another unit from older TW games, these are the typical Light Cavalry. They can't kill any melee infantry, but they can do rear charges in a pinch. Their main uses: They will eat straight through missile infantry, look out if they are armored though. They can bog own expensive cavalry units. They can chase down and munch a bit on missile cavalry. They can scout for you – on some maps an expendable vanguard scout isn't something to sneer at. Their last real use isn't something you'll see use from in the campaign straight off. They are the best chasers in the game. If something is routing but hasn't shattered yet, or if you want to make sure nothing survives and runs away – Sic these on them. The reason you won't see any use of this in the beginning is because you'll be facing vampires, and all undead units die when they rout, duh. ;) In difference to our lovely Fell Bats though, these are close to worthless in an offensive siege battle if you didn't think of that yourself yet. Foot note, these guys are quick, they can actually dodge arrow fire if you micro them. If they get hit by skirmishers though, they go down extremely quickly.

Crypt Horrors
Okay now we are looking at your Crypt Ghouls big brother, the improved version of your meatgrinder. I must say that it does that pretty well to an extent too. It's mass is great, so it's going to wreck any infantry lines it charges. It has the same poison as its little brother, which means that the more valuable the target, the better payoff. He also has regeneration, so don't be afraid to actually pull him out of a fight and let him take a breather. On top of everything, this guy has what his brother didn't – armor piercing. He's going to kill most things as long as he attacks them in the rear or flank while they are occupied. His armor and defense will make him bad for frontal charges though, so keep him safe. What are the trade offs? He has an innate weakness to fire, and he is considered large. Which means he is extra vulnerable to spears. And on top of that due to the unit size every casualty hurts a lot. (He dies from just looking at Slayers, so be careful) Also, his little brother can get up on walls, he can not. Pretty imporant in sieges.

Vargheists
Imagine if the Fell Bats actually could fight too. That's what these are. They are no-where as fast, but still, they can give chase to all cavalry and their stats are actually pretty dangerous. I do not know how to rate their Frenzy attribute yet, but I promise these guys will pay for themselves easily. Their melee stats are comparable to the Crypt Terror, minus the poison and minus the armor piercing damage. But they are substantially easier to maneuvre into a nice rear or flank charge. They have barely any armor at all, so arrows will kill them quickly. They can dodge arrows if you micro them though. Do not sic them on missile cavalry! They can get to them eventually, but they will take too much damage from it first. Personally, I recommend trying to get these as soon as possible in the campaign. Before a siege, get 4 of these and make them attack either ranged units or non-spear units on the wall, and those units will be dead in a little while. Be careful around spears though. If you need to, retreat them and heal them up with your necromancer.
(Currently any fliers are slightly bugged and might get into a state where the game thinks that they are still on the wall, and several of your spells won't be able to affect them. Only until the end of the battle though!)

Varghulf
This unit is such a power house. Compare it to elephants from Rome 2. You can have it rush whatever and it will destroy it. It doesn't matter if its a smaller monstrous unit or a bunch of elite infantry. It's going to run into it and rip it to pieces. Just make sure not to let him get surrounded by spearmen or other anti-large units. He can even tear down gates for you almost as quickly as it takes your ram to even reach the gate itself. When I said he was like elephants, it's actually true since it has a glaring weakness as well. It has extremely low leadership and for best use don't let it charge in alone. Even better, make sure to get a hero or lord next to him for a leadership boost. He is a bit special since he is undead and a single monster unit. This means that if his leadership gets low, he will start to crumble. In this case it actually means he will start to hurt himself. If you ever see his hp drop quickly, it's probably due to his crumbling instead of another unit actually hurting him.
He is very easy to heal and buff, and you'll see the results instantly. From a campaign point of view. I've managed to push through whole armies of zombies and skeletons with only the starting Varghulf and von Carstein.

Terrorgheist
Okay, she is the biggest and meanest thing in the Vampire roster. Her role is pretty clearly defined. This is the ultimate monster killer. She does a very respectable 70 base damage, 230 armor piercing damage, and on top of that an additional 40 versus large. (Not to mention a charge bonus worthy of shock cavalry) She does lack in both attack and defense which in this case means that it wouldn't really be optimal to let her be your main line charger. She could do that brilliantly, but her smaller friend the Varghulf would do it better, and for 2/3 of the price.
No other single monster unit has such a huge bonus versus other monsters, which really makes her shine versus them in particular.
She is almost unfair to bring to sieges. Just like the Vargheists, she can harass units on the wall. You will see her wings flap people down from it! Warning, same sucky leadership as the Varghulf. So make sure to keep a necromancer nearby!
As for campaign advice, I'd say it doesn't really matter. You will get her during mid to late game and you will probably by then know the best way to use her yourself. :)

(Currently any fliers are slightly bugged and might get into a state where the game thinks that they are still on the wall, and several of your spells won't be able to affect them. Only until the end of the battle though!)
(A side note for Cause Terror is that it is currently a bit hard to rate since we have not had any information released about it. Cause Terror so far is extremely inconsistent and unrealiable. During my last round of testing, I had a hexwraith crumble versus two Empire Swordsmen. No terror what so ever.)

Lords

Vampire Lord
A poor man's Mannfred von Carstein. He doesn't have the Death domain which really hurts his capability in dealing with other heroes and lords. He is an exceptional unit-killer though. How to use him would be determined on what you're facing and what arme you have him in. He can do allright as a unit killer by himself. He starts out with Incantation of Nehek, and try to get The Hunger as soon as possible and he will be very self-sustained. After that it's a question of what to buff. I'd recommend either filling out his character skill and then choose between battle or campaign skills. I feel as if the Master Necromancer can fill out the Battle skills a bit better due to his already supportive nature though.
At the moment Grave Ward is skippable since its bonus is neglible. Another side note, if you want to use him in sieges do not put him on a horse too early. He can wreck walls by himself, but if you gave him a ground mount, he'll have to play nice and wait until the gates are down. Although when he finally recieves a flying mount, he owns those walls. If you give him a zombie dragon, he'll wreck pretty much everything anyway.

Master Necromancer
This guy is a worse version of Kemmler. Though this is nothing to sniff at. If we are not considering quest rewards, their possibility as a support lord are pretty much equal. So until you get Chaos Tomb Blade or Skull Staff, they are equal in this role. I'll go through the spell list further down so I won't get into that now. But I will tell you that what makes the Necromancer an appealing buffer is the combination of Master of the Dead and The Curse of Undeath. This means any unit near him will be healed for a substantial amount, on top of being healed if he uses a spell - which in this case could be another healing spell. This can actually counter crumbling if push comes to shove. I'd recommend getting a mount for this fellow as soon as possible as you want him to be maneuverable and keep him outside of melee. A flying mount will help him snipe heroes with Gaze of Nagash or lay waste to infantry with Wind of Death more easily. Since he is already a natural support lord, I'd recommend giving him at least some battle skills to increase his leadership bonuses.

Summary:
To be fair. Vampire Lords can almost fill the both these roles for you. They have access to the same spellbook as the Master Necromancer, but with the addition of being able to be unit killers by themselves and they get some self sustaining vampire skills. Lords will only support half as well though, but they can do it. From a campaign perspective the Vampire Lord is slightly better since they cost as much. In multiplayer there is a price difference between them which makes the Necromancer itself a bit more worthwhile. Also, Vampire Lords in end game can use Zombie Dragon mounts which is a distinct advantage over the Necromancer.

As it stands, I really think they should give the Master Necromancer some additional niche uses.


Heroes

Your heroes have 3 very important purposes. Firstly, all of them are combat monsters in their own right. Secondly, you need them to counter other heroes on the map if you want even an inkling of a chance to win. Thirdly, they are your second source of corruption.
All of your heroes can perform specific roles in combat, and you will have to find a decent balance for how many to bring into battle and when. I'll give some pointers further down on the specific entries.
The way the game currently works, the AI will spam you with their heroes during midgame, and it will ruin you if you are not prepared to deal with them. Every hero that your enemies has in your lands will hurt you double over. Both by removing your beautiful vampiric taint, but also by destroying your stuff. All of your heroes can assassinate, but your Banshee is simply made for it.
All of your heroes can spread Vampiric Corruption. This is a more passive use for your heroes, but it could be quite necessary. If you've built the Balefire buildings in your settlements you will not have to rely on them as heavily. If you haven't they are your only source of corruption and you military conquest will be stunted. An important foot note is that heroes will spread corruption even while embedded in your army!

Necromancer
In a way, this is the worst hero of your roster, but I still love him. Looking at his combat capabilities, he is as technically as good a support hero as your Master version. Make sure to get Master of the Dead and The Curse of Undeath as soon as possible. I do not understand why they cannot get flying mounts. That is just weird and should be a considered a change in the future.
After getting those 2 skills, you can either go for a full battle mage build, or just put points in his campaign skills.

Vampire
This is a bit of a hybrid hero for you. It is your only source of the Death spellbook except for Mannfred himself. Spirit Leech in its current condition is the best hero and lord killer in the game. I except this to be patched soon though. On top of that, the vampires base stats makes her a competent unit killer with decent self sustain in the Vampire skills. She is more fragile than the Wight King and the Vampire Lord though, but she makes up for that with her Death spells. If you want her to be able to capture walls in a siege, be careful when you give her a mount.
She will be point starved though since you have 3 trees you really want to put points into. Two important functions outside of her actual battle skills is her ability to increase unit replenishment by a huge margin, and to increase growth by a lot in local provinces.

Wight King
This one is worth definitely worth you hurrying getting the final building in the Binding Circle-chain. He is you combat monster hero. He's got no spells at all, but he does have some pretty devastating cooldown abilities. Just set him to charge into your enemies and watch them die in front of him. On top of that he has the fortune to be the hero with the Training ability, which gives your units veterancy for free. Slap him into your army, and watch your troops become the best versions of what they could be. You pretty much have two choices to go with him. As long as he lives, he will do both eventually. But just start out by focusing on either campaign skills or his character skills. Just like with the Vampire Lord and the Vampire, you might want to skip giving him a mount if you want him to climb walls!

Banshee
This one is your hero killer, both in and out of battle. She has the duelist attribute which in this case means, even though she's got great stats, she won't do that nasty splash damage your other heroes does in melee. Try to sneak her around the enemy lines to get her into combat with a lord you want dead. If not in a duel with a lord or hero, get her out of there.
Outside of battle, she has an insane chance of killing of heroes. This in combination with your heroes ability to spread corruption means you want the max amout of these heroes quickly. Give them guard duty where you are being assualted by other heroes, and bring them to the region you will conquer next to clean it of heroes and give you an initial boost of corruption!
You will eventually get her Campaign skill to increase her Assassinate chances, since that boost is very substantial.

Unique Abilities: Vampire Lords and Master Necromancers essentially share their skill trees, with the exception that the vampire has access to the vampiric abilities character skills as well.
Both of them have access to one unique skill that that the other one can not get as well.
Vampire Lords can on level 25 get a Zombie Dragon, which essentially turns your lord into a Terrorgheist with better stats and spells.
Necromancers on the other hand gets the Master of the Dead ability which is a passive aoe heal they can access on level 4. This ability is not comparable to a zombie dragon mount, but it is an essential part of what makes a Master Necromancer a good support general. I will mention that a normal Necromancer will get the same abilities and do just as well.
Grave Ward in its current condition is not worth a skill point in my estimation. Either your lord can take a whole bunch of arrows, or you have failed to position him.

Vampiric Abilities: Your Vampire Lords are already powerful unit killers. This tree makes them even more powerful. You might actually want to get more than the bare bones in this tree if you want to make it into the best unit killer it can be. I'll rate the abilities from best to worst.
Tier 1

• Devastating Charge: His charge bonus is decent to begin with, but with 3 points here he is on par with shock cavalry, and that's before he even gets a mount. It's just too good not to get.
  
• Dark Knight: He is already heavily armored, but get three points in here and anything will be having a hard time dealing damage to him at all.
  
• Beguile: Your Vampire Lords melee defence is good, especially in the beginning of the campaign. Things will be having an even harder time hitting him with this. Stack it with it's brother in tier 2.
  
• Quickblood: The boost to Melee Attack is good, but the thing is, it's already very high, especially if you manage to get a charge. Diminishing returns. You'll need to throw him at something extremely powerful for this to even show you a difference.

Tier 2

• Supernatural Horror: Okay, you know what I've said about Cause Terror so far in my guide. It's too unreliable and possibly not even working as intended. Or if it is, it's simply too RNG based. BUT, in this case, it's a 1 point investment, and you do actually spontanously cause stuff to rout.. Sometimes.
  
• Master Strike: Just like with Dark Knight, this is a question of stacking odds in your favour. You'll see a substantial bonus with even just one point here.
  
• Curse of the Revenant: The extra hitpoints gained here is very significant. Even one point in here will let him take one additional punch to the face from another lord which is not bad.
  
• Blade Shield: If you bothered to get Beguile, get this one as well, and stack goodies upon goodies. What this essentially translates to is survivability against hordes. You will already deal with most things quite easily, but too many attacks, even weak ones, might eventually get through. That's where melee defense comes in.

Vampiric Lore Spellbook: Both of your lords get access to the spellbook with Vampiric Lore spells. As of now, I see no reason why to get an improved version of any of them and literally waste a skill point. The cooldown reduction is not worth it - and if your strategy is based around spamming spells, you're better off just getting one more necromancer in your army. If you want your lord to be a spellcaster, just put one point into everything.

Battle Skills: All of the skills here are usuable and are a bit dependant on what you bring in your army. Some are great in the beginning of the game and become obsolete later on, while other abilities work the other way around. I'll simply rate all the abilities from best to worst.
Tier 1
Dark Pact: Pure gold for an attacking general. Put 3 points in here directly if he is.
Aura of Dark Majesty: Also a great ability for both kinds of lords. The size increase is Huge with 3 points. Consider this your one point sink for reaching the next tier.
The Unliving Host: This gives the units you should be spamming in your starting armies a very substantial offensive bonus. It will lose its value later on when you progress and leave these units behind. But for a general with only a cheap army - this is a very good choice.
Creatures of the Night: It really is a good ability. The boost to Attack is substantial, it is simply not as substantial as its alternatives.
Tier 2
Waking Dead: Consider this the later-game version of The Unliving Host. Getting both on the same general could be a bit of a waste. I'd probably use this as a one point sink unless you put three points here.
Dread Knights: This includes 3 of you mid to end game units and gives them all a very substantial boost. Your Hexwraiths charge sucks, so this makes them even more powerful. Not to mention that your already potent Shock Cavalry just became even more so.
Flying Horrors: Both the Vargheist and Terrorgheist are already very powerful, but this ability works wonders along side their base stats.
Evil Souls: Since this only boosts 2 units, even though they are your endgame units, it's still a bit worse than the other alternatives. Like I mentioned earlier, a charge boost to the Hexwraiths is quite powerful. This is something to consider for you most elite armies if you are relying on a mainline of Cairn Wraiths.

Campaign Skills: Some abilities here are worth one point at least, while some are completely optional depending on your playstyle. Same as before, from best to worst.
Tier 1

• Undying Horde: Ideally most of your casualties will come from your expendable units that you can raise immediately afterwards anyway. You can go either 1 point or 3 points here, and it will still benefit you.
  
• Darkling Skies: You want this on any army you plan on using in other factions territories. You need to go 3 points here or none. There will be times you are forced to take the attrition damage.
  
• Children of the Night: Either go for 2 or 3 point investment here. The initial recruitment cost for heroes is managable as it is. 3 points into this one should mainly be considered if your creating a defensive general and needs to spam assasination on heroes.
  
• Ancient Cunning: Completely optional. If you enjoy setting up ambushes, which I must add is entirely based on the mercy of the AI and some pretty brutal RNG, invest in this. If you don't bother with it, skip it.

Tier 2

• Lightning Strike: A 1 point wonder. This games version of Night battles. This means you can attack armies or settlements with other stacks of armies around it, and you can cherry-pick which one to fight, and prevent any reinforcements. I always get this one on any offensive lord. I would move this down to third place if it wasn't for the night battle function though.
  
• Guile and Glamour: Your heroes always brings additional corruption, with this your lords can do so as well. Anywhere from 1 to 3 points is a good investment here on a offensive general.
  
• Necrarch: The bonus to growth is quite substantial and will help you rush the regions main buildings. I'd go for 3 points on a defensive general, maybe 1 point on an offensive that you plan on sticking in settlements afterwards for a while.
  
• Eternal Warden: As the game looks now, I rarely run into a situation where the AI decides to out-siege me. One point investment is ok for a defensive general though. The siege-attrition is neglible considering how high the base damage for siege attrition currently is.

As for the Vampiric Lore Spells and the Vampiric Character Abilities, check what I've written about the Lords skills there. They are identical in both purpose and practice. I will write a comment about every talent, and not rate them in any way like with the lords. These depend too much on your own playstyle.

Necromancer
The necromancer has Master of the Dead, just like his lord equivalent, always invest in it. Get a mount for him as well as soon as possible. You want to get him to safety, and you don't want him on a wall. This is perhaps the only hero where Grave Ward would be an ok investment, but just barely. Let's look at his
Campaign Skills:

• Prime Mover: Just one point in here early is very powerful. Your planning ability is actually worthwhile to take advantage of when you are about to build something expensive.
  
• Spoiler: Skip this for now. The AI will cheat and it will not impact it the same way it would impact you.
  
• Adept: Personally, I never use the Assualt function of my heroes. I find this a bit of a waste of money. It is skippable unless you use it.
  
• Advisor: This one is probably the one you want 3 points in. 15% additional income is very good from one hero.
  
• Storm of Magic: Same as with Spoiler. The AI cheats and it will spit out stacks of armies and lords at you even though you might have ruined their respective buildings.
  
• Zzapp!: This one is worth getting as soon as possible. Necromancers won't be your main assassins, but when the AI will start to spam heroes at you, you're going to need to spam assassinate back.
  
• Magic Detection: I guess it's a novelty thing to invest into, but there are better things to get here. I've never had a shortage of items to equip without this.
  
• Counsellor: I think the bonus is a bit too low, but if you're stuggling finding somewhere to throw a point, this is your go to.
  
• Aide: By mid to late game you want 3 points in this. You might lose the Necromancer to assassination anyway, but at least with this one you have a good chance of killing the other hero first.
  
• Advocate: I'm inclined o believe that this won't function well against the AI either. And, it's penalty is waaaaaaaaaaay too low. Definately skippable.
  
• Hardy: By end-game you'll be happy you picked this up.

Banshee
As for the banshees unique skills, get Ghostly Howl early and skip Grave Ward. It's just a question about point economy.
Character Skills

• Bloody Blade: Cannot avoid getting it. Her damage is low, but armor piercing, so that's nice.
  
• Gutter Fighter: Too bad that the bonus is so small, but you want it. Her base attack is low, and you want to use her against units that have very high defense.
  
• Elusive: She can already shrug of most hits due to being Ethereal so this one is a bit less desirable.
  
• Precise: This one is worth investing into. Her base damage is still very low.
  
• Fleet-Footed: A skill of convenience. She is already faster than any infantry in the game, but slower than most cavalry. She will not be able to catch up with anything interesting even with 3 points.
  
• Stalker: Complete meh. Too bad you have to take it.
  
• Opportunist: This one is less desirable than its alternatives. We like giving her more attack, but Counter-Striker gives as much, while Opportunist only gives it during a charge.
  
• Counter-Striker: Get it. No brainer. She needs it.
  
• Survivalist: This one is also a decent investment. My personal 1-point investment here.
  
• Cornered Rat: Very meh. Barely interesting only if you consistently manage to penetrate her deep into enemy lines.
  
• Slippery: Way better alternative to Fleet-Footed for maneuverability. Still, more of a convenience thing.

Campaign Skills

• Spy: Even if you want her to be a battle assassin, get at least this one. It will help you against other heroes a lot.
  
• Assassin: Get 3 points in here. No question about it. This is what she was made for.
  
• Harassment: Skip it. Even with 3 points, the bonus is extremely neglible.
  
• Inspector: Definately worth at least 1 point. Invest more and get more Dark Magic.
  
• Despoiler: Skip it. The AI cheats and this will not impact it the same way it would a player.
  
• Infiltrator: This is an okay bonus I guess. Nothing spectacular. You own sieges as it is anyway.
  
• Watcher: I'm unsure if this only guards against actions against the army itself or its general or other attached heroes. I cannot actually find that out as of now. If it is the first, this is kind of okay, if it is the latter, it is better. But never get this if you haven't already picked up Bodyguard.
  
• Misdirector: I never use the Block deployment, and personally, I feel the bonus is too low even if I did.
  
• Propagandist: This is worth at least a one point investment to increase the corruption in the world.
  
• Bodyguard: You want this. By the time you reach mid to endgame, this is going to save your game.
  
• Hardy: Hardy: By end-game you'll be happy you picked this up.

Vampire
When it comes to mounts you need to consider her role in your army. If you want her to fight in sieges, you want her to stay away from mounts until you can get her a Hellsteed. If you make her into a caster, then by all means, get that horsie as quick as you can. The Hunger is too good to not pick up, so place that point the first thing you do. Even if you want her as a caster, you will eventually get her into a desperate situation. As with most other heroes, do not get Grave Ward, it's a wasted point compared to its other alternatives.
Character Skills

• Safeguard: If you want her in battle, you will want to pickup this one, even if she's a caster.
  
• Impassioned: She really needs that additional defense since her base value is very low. It will help her clean out basic tier units of all factions with ease.
  
• Wild-Eyed: This one is pretty meh for her since she actually has a pretty high base.
  
• Conviction: Also pretty meh. Her base is very high.
  
• Soothsaying: This is actually pretty good, both for a caster version and a fighter. If nothing else it's a good one point investment.
  
• Immortal Will: An self cast incantation of Nehek on a longer cooldown. Get asap.
  
• Tenacity: Definately worth considering. Even as a single or two point investment.
  
• Augury: This one is pretty powerful, especially if you got Soothsaying. Consider 3 points even.
  
• Inviolable: If you put 3 points here, she's pretty much the tankiest thing in the game. Due to her low defense stat, this is very desirable for a fighter version.
  
• Fervour: If the bonus was as high as the Vampire Lords version, this would be awesome, alas, it is not. The most skippable skill on this tier.
  
• Dark Benediction: If you've bothered to go this deep down in the tree, get it. If you have Soothsaying and Augury though, this makes her even better at that.
  
• Death Lore Spellbook
  
• Just like with any other spell at the moment, the improved versions are a waste of points. Stay away from them. If you want her as a caster, just get 1 point in everything asap.

Campaign Skills

• Expansionist: This is actually worthwhile to use when you need to rush a regions main building. Yes, even if she's a caster or whatever.
  
• Dissenter: Ignore this. The AI cheats and will not suffer from this the same way you would.
  
• Restorer: This is pretty decent if you put 3 points into it. Lower than that and it's a bit of a waste.
  
• Influential: Get it quick and early. You need the corruption!
  
• Bastion: The attrition damage is too high for this to be worthwhile under any circumstances.
  
• Hardy: Get it and be happy.
  
• Replenisher: If she's a battle hero, and you use her in an offensive army, get this one. You are going to take attrition damage some times whatever you do.
  
• Debilitator: I'd skip this one personally. I've never managed to get anything decent out of Demoralize on anything other than Easy.
  
• Despoiler: Skip it. The AI cheats, and it will not affect it the same way it affects you.
  
• Provider: Very meh to be honest. If you don't agree, please comment why. ;)
  
• Accuser: It's on itself a pretty sad final skill, but you really want those assassinate boosts. Because you are going to need them.

Wight King
If you want him as a fighter, you are actually better off getting most of the skills in this tree, not just the barebones. Just like with the other fighter heroes, make sure you only get him a mount if you are sure you don't want him to help you out in sieges. It is actually a decent choice to not get him a mount at all. Heroic Killing Blow is pretty awesome, get it. Grave Ward is still pretty useless to be honest.

Character Skills

• Blade Master: He has very bad base attack, so increase it when you can.
  
• Devastating Charge: Just like with the Vampire Lord, this is a worthwhile investment. Giving him shock cavalry like charge bonuses.
  
• Thick-Skinned: Due to his low attack, he's going to be in fights for a long time, and he does not have The Hunger, he needs this. Get three points here.
  
• Hard to Hit: This bonus is extremely large. Due to the lack of The Hunger, this is Very recommended.
  
• Deadly Blade: Like mentioned before, his base attack sucks, you need this eventually.
  
• Foe-Seeker: A generally nice cooldown buff.
  
• Wound-Maker: This is one of the least good choices you have here. His base is insane as is, and the bonus is kinda low.
  
• Scarred Veteran: Since he lacks The Hunger, he could really use this. Combine it with his armour, potential melee defense, and he can survive most things.
  
• Indomitable: Also a pretty lame choice to be honest. His leadership is pretty elite as it is.
  
• Blade Shield: A copy of Hard to Hit. Which means, you'll have the games highest melee defense with it. This makes him the ultimate unit-killer.
  
• Deadly Onslaught: Almost a copy of Foe-Seeker, but being able to chain them together is pretty decent.

Campaign Skills

• Martial: Insignificant bonus really. The only time Public Order should be a real issue is if you messed up your Corruption.
  
• Patrol Ambusher: Slightly better than most other actions towards armies. This can really ease fights by a lot. Compare it to a poisoner from Rome 2.
  
• Authoritarian: In the games current condition this is skippable. You lack any other significant way to instantaneously lower Public Order like a Spy in earlier Total War. I do not understand how they could have missed that. I can acknowledge that I might have missed something though.
  
• Defender: The AI will almost never out-siege you as it is right now. So this is a bit lackluster.
  
• Inspirational: Very good if you manage to get the hero near you when you recruit.
  
• Champion: The bonus is a bit low, but you will like the possibility to know out other heroes.
  
• Exemplar: I've generally frown upon the technologies that gives something like this. But now we are talking about skill points which is definitely worth spending for this. It's very convenient and practical if you already picked up Inspirational.
  
• Barracks Raider: I've disliked this ever since it's appearance in Rome 2. It simply cannot compare to Patrol Ambusher.
  
• Drill Master: This is, for me, one of the main reason to go into Campaign Skills for the Wight King. You'll get to stack veterancy on your armies quickly with this without having to battle. Very powerful, especially if you stack it with Inspirational and Exemplar.
  
• Steadfast: Now this is actually worthwhile. Even if your enemies won't try to out-siege you, you'll actually have to rely on this eventually. Pretty powerful.
  
• Hardy: Get it and be happy.

Vampiric Lore
You have plenty of units that can equip these spells. What it boils down it is that you only have a finite amount of winds of magic. From a campaigns point of view, you should get all of the spells eventually. But your priority of their use still works just like in MP. From a MP point of view, there are some spells you want to hand pick for the lords or heroes purpose.

Multiplayer:
You have both lords and heroes that can equip spells from this Lore. But you will want to milk out as many points you can by dropping spells you won't use. Every lord or hero that can should have Invocation of Nehek. The current itteration of Raise Dead is also too good and cheap not to pick up.
After those two, it really boils down to what your goal is with the spellcaster. Usually dropping Gaze of Nagash and Curse of Years is a pretty safe bet. If you have a flying lord and you want to bother with positioning a Wind of Death might be worth it. It's going to drain most of your winds of magic though, so if you miss that was not just a failed spell, but it will cost you essentially the rest of the matches spellcasting. Danse Macabre is worthwhile to bring on a supporting lord if youre bringing a lot of skeletons or zombies. The payout will be less noticable on more elite units, but turning your chaff into proper tier 1 units is easily worth it.

Invocation of Nehek: Quick and dirty self heal in the form of a heal over time. Overcharge it for an AoE effect. A tip is to throw overchanneled when you can include the necromancer himself in the AoE as well, since that would cancel the potential damag of miscast. You always get the improved version because you cannot put points in the Vampiric spellbook otherwise.

Vanhel's Danse Macabre:
An awesome super buff. This could be a bread and butter skill for you, especially early on as soon as you either put points into your Legendary lord or get your free necromancer. Pretty much every early unit is a good target for this spell. Overchannel for an AoE effect. Drop it on your main line or your flank force of skeletons. It gives you a huge boost to speed and melee attack. So either you can turn trash like zombies, skeleton warriors or skeleton spearmen into real competent units – or you can use it on already competent units to turn them into super killers. In the beginning of the campaign, you can use this on your own zombies to give them the ability to actually hurt other zombies and skeletons. Another use to consider is the speed buff. Give this to any of your cav or fast monster units, and you can chase down missile cav and kill them quickly!

Gaze of Nagash:
Be careful here. Just like with other magic missile attacks, this one will hit things in front of your target – it will most likely hit things behind it as well. If you have a clear shot at a monstrous unit with few or a single member – or a lord, take it. An overchanneled version does more damage. A direct hit to an enemy lord consistently did between 10-20% damage. But a very important note here is that the spell has a hard time actually hitting its target. It gets easier if you are on a wall though, or if you can fire from a flying mount. It does instant damage in contrast to Spirit Leech, which in turn always hits. If you don't have a hero with Spirit Leech nearby use this one instead. Its usuable in melee and will actually have a pretty high hit chance then.
I wouldn't get this one for Mannfred in the beginning unless you for some reason have decided to rush to get Wind of Death early for him. There are heroes that can get this easier and perform just as well with it. You do want it quickly as Kemmler though, since this way he sucks a bit less. This is your main hero/lord killer for the first 10 turns if you started out as Kemmler.

Curse of Years:
Very good AoE debuff. Turns most of your potential melee targets frankly worthless. When fighting other vampire counts, you can expect your zombies to actually hold their own against mid to late tier units for the duration. A pro tip would be to toss this onto any Crypt Ghouls or Crypt Horros the AI throws at you in the beginning. It's a bit of a waste to use it on Zombies and Skeleton Warriors. It could be useful to toss it onto a unit of spearmen though if you are afraid that they might harm some of your more important monstrous units. A secondary use is it's speed debuff. You already have plenty of ways to chase down stuff, but against certain cavalry or missile cavalry this is quite good. You won't get this to early though, and might have already wiped out the other Vampire Counts when you unlock it on Kemmler or your first Necromancer. Against all other factions, their main line is a good target. Combine it with an overchanneled Danse Macabre and see their main line fall to your inferior troops. Foot note, it's a bit of a waste to toss it onto an enemy hero at the moment. Their attack values are either so low it won't matter, or so high the reduction won't be worth the winds of magic you spent.

Raise Dead:
Since the release of the wood elves, this spells have recieved a complete overhaul. Here is a pretty nasty spell that you should include as an integral strategy in your campaign. Every caster is limited to 7 casts of this per battle, which means if you have 2 necromancers, you'll be able to cast it 14 times per battle. (Do note that this is not true for the variants Ghorst and Strigoi Ghoul king recieves, they still only have two shots of the spell).
What it does is simply put summon a new fresh unit of zombies where ever you place it. The unit will slowly have it's hp tick down slowly, and it will eventually die. As of now, you can still use Ivocation of Nehek to keep it up for a bit longer. This makes it possible to summon units straight into an enemy unit, negating any charge bonuses they might want, or preventing any ranged units to fire. It does have a little bit of range, so you can actually quickly use this spell to create a rear charge for an additional leadership penalty. If you have a terror unit nearby this could instant route weaker units.
If you overchannel it will summon a unit of Skeleton Warriors instead.
This spell is essential for beating skirmishers. Especially Wood Elves. Just summon a pack of zombies into their archers. They won't die from it, but they won't be able to fire!

Wind of Death:
The unit killer of the Vampiric Lore spellbook. As of the latest patch this is no longer a vortex spell but a Wind spell. Truth to be told, it always was since it never acted like any of the other vortex spells. What this means is that it's trajectory is preditable, but do not target an enemy directly. Where you place it is simply its origin point. Do not target an enemy directly. You will miss them almost completely then. This spell can kill hundreds if well placed in a matter of a few seconds. What you need to do is imagine the spell being a skill shot from any MOBA game. Where you target is the place where the wind will appear, and it will after tha violently shoot straight from there, along the direction from your character, and thrash everything that it passes. The spell disappears quickly. Aim it at infantry first, since it will shred their formation completely. Large enemies are immune to the pushing effect but will still take heavy damage.
This one has one very appearant use. When your main line of sponges clashes with your enemies. If you can move your mage up to the side, you can actually aim quite accurately and peel the enemy formations off our own units and shred them. This spell require very specific placements of units. And if you can only hit one or two units, the cost is not worth it. Never overchannel it. Your winds of magic is too precious for wasting any more on this, albeit powerful spell.

Death Lore

Spirit Leech:
This is currently the best hero killer in the game. 2-3 casts can kill any hero. Overchannel it to get some additional range. It does work on big monstrous creatures in a pinch too. The damage itself is a dot, so you'll have to survive for a while before your enemy drops. There is not much else to say about the spell. Expect a nerf to it soon though.

Doom and Darkness:
Many of the Death Lore spells deals with leadership penalties. People used to play the Suebi and/or Warcry generals might feel at home here. This spell gives a single unit a substantial penalty to leadershi for a very long time. Make sure to check you enemies current leadership in the statblock to the left before even considering using this spell. It is very expensive and completely worthless unless you cause a route. It might cause crumbling versus undead which is nice though. Make sure you put the enemy unit in the negative zone of leadership with this spell! Overchannel it to turn it into a very dangerous AoE. Very good if you want to rout or crumble crappy main line units quickly!

Soulblight:
The brother to Doom and Darkness. A small debuff AoE that reduces both leadership, armor and damage percentages. Which essentially means that this spell is wasted on crappy units. Save it for competent units. And even then the leadership penalty is very lackluster unless you are already winning. Its duration is way too low to justify the low penalties for my taste. You pretty much must overchannel it if you want ot use it – problem then is its insane cost. To be frank, you are better off relying on your ghoul poison for debuff effects like this.

Aspect of the Dreadknight:
This is a hard spell to rate at the moment since half of what it does is cause terror, which in its current incarnation is unreliable, crappy and/or bugged. It can cause a unit this unit is fighting to randomly rout. If it could be controlled more it would be awesome. Especially considering its measily cost. But alas, a lot of experimentation both in my own campaigns and in custom battles were extremely inconclusive. The leadership bonus is actually quite nice though. You will get into situations were you see that your units are cumbling slowly and even though you put your necromancers next to it, their hp is ticking down. This is a possible answer. An emergency boost to either reduce the cumble damage or prevent crumbling completely. That is how I view the spell in its current condition anyway. A potential random rout is ofc better than nothing. But for me, it is just messy and weird.

The Fate of Bjuna:
Spirit Leech's big brother. It is still a single target spell, but it does heavy damage to units with lots of members the same way Spirit Leech does with few members. The damage is okay, it's still a DoT effect but it will always hit. It's cost is a bit high, but depending on your situation it might be worth it. It will not outright kill a single unit, but expect it to remove between 1/3 and 2/3 of the units hitpoints.

The Purple Sun of Xereus:
This spell is very hard to rely on. You will hit the target you target with it. At least very briefly. It lasts for a little while but moves away in a random direction. You can extent the duration by A LOT by overchanneling, but seriously. It is not worth its extremely overpriced cost. The Winds of Death is way more reliable if you want to bring devastation to the battlefield with spells. Stay away from this one. Due to how little reserve units the AI uses I cannot see a use for this spell in the campaign. In multiplayer though were players keep reserves, especially large battle versions, I guess you can drop this one down on them and pray. But personally – I think there are better options. Even though the damage is awesome and it destroys formation. (Just like Wind of Death.. But random and expensive)

I'll start out by only mentioning how to build your starting army with your Legendary Lord in mind. The later compositions are based around other units than the Additional Starting Units you get from you Legendary Lord, and the Lord itself. If you want to use the same composition for your Legendary Lords army, use a little imagination. :)

Starting Out

Your first armies are going to face off against other VC armies, so we have to keep that in mind from the start.

First you're going to have either Kemmler or Mannfred. They monsters in their own right. Kemmler will be extremely pathetic the first few fights though. Both of your generals can use either Incantation of Nehek, which you should use liberally, especially on your Additional Starting Units. If you face an army with a lord, make sure to throw Spirit Leech on him with Mannfred. It's an easy win.

Your armies are generally going to be composed of your Additional Starting Units, and a ♥♥♥♥ ton of Zombies, Skeleton Warriors and a few Skeleton Spearmen. It's not really important to fill in your army with anything else just yet. Just use Raise Dead before and after every battle to keep yourself stocked. If you can Raise Dead but your army is full already, merge damaged units by selecting them and pressing Ctrl+M.

General instructions:
Create a main line of zombies. Make them clash with as many of your enemy's units as possible. They suck, and they will barely get any kills at all, but that is not their purpose. What you want want to do after that is circle around with Skeleton Warriors and flank/rear charge with them. They aren't especially good as flankers, but they are the best you have currently. Generally, save your spearmen for any special units. They can easily deal with any Dire Wolves or Bats. Also, look out for any Crypt Ghouls or Crypt Horrors. Either try to catch their charge on the spearmen due to their Charge Defense trait, or catch them with a zombie and flank with the spearmen.

If you're playing Mannfred: Keep your Varghulf away from spears. It can kill everything else. If it ever starts to take damage it's because it's crumbling, move Mannfred to it and heal it. Also, don't let it be charged by Crypt creatures, but feel free to charge them back if they are locked down already. The Bats are pretty meh right now, throw them into a flank that's already crumbling. Crypt Ghouls are actually a quite convenient unit to start with. Never charge them into a front line. Always charge with them, and make sure they charge into a flank. It'll rip through any low-mid tier unit if it can flank unopposed.

If you're playing as Kemmler: Both of your Wraith units sucks in the beginning. They are awesome units, but only when your enemies starts to bring deadly units against you. They are monsters against armored units with smaller unit sizes (*cough*dwarves*cough*. Their biggest weakness is that they will always take damage, but it will always be reduced. This essentially means, your Hexwraiths can be swamped and VERY easily killed by Skeletons or even Zombies if you are not careful. Personally, I'd keep the Cairn Wraiths as a body guard unit for Kemmler, so he can be a bit closer to the fight and heal/support where it's needed (to save this unit for when you will face some nastier foes). The main use you can get out of the Hexwraiths now is a bit of scouting, maybe help an already crumbling flank fall. Or let it catch a unit of Dire Wolves, since they essentially negates their high charge bonus with their Etherealness. They DO have terror, but like I've mentioned several times, terror in its current incarnation is completely unreliable and random. When it procs its pure gold, but you won't get it to proc in any reliable way. Save it for later though.

Example: Lord, 1st additional starting unit, 2nd additional starting unit, 3rd additional starting unit, 2 Skeleton Spearmen, 8 Zombies, 6 Skeleton Warriors.

Early Game
By this time you have to consider what opposition you're going to face next on top of, or instead of, the Vampire Counts. Empire factions are a given, even if you go north or south we take that into consideration. So the main question is if you're going to face Dwarves or Orcs since they will require different approaches.
I will assume you've unlocked at least the first or second level of all your unit recruitment buildings. As for my examples, let's assume this is your second army. For the second army, if you have Mannfred, get a Master Necromancer. If you have Kemmler, get a Vampire Lord, and transfer your first free Necromancer hero to the Vampire Lord.

General instructions:
You will continue to have a main line of Zombies since they are so expendable. You can even see Skeletons as such, but they are harder to replenish after each fight. Keep your Skeleton Spearmen at your flanks, ready to intercept any nasty suprises. By now, you want to stop flanking with Skeleton Warriors and go for Crypt Ghouls instead. It's what they are made for. A very basic setup with room for exchangeable parts would look like this:

Example: Vampire Lord, Necromancer, 4 Zombies, 2 Skeleton Warriors, 2 Skeleton Spearmen, 4 Crypt Ghouls.



This is a decent base for something you can sustain and replenish very quickly. The last six slots can be fitted dependant on your need and current financial situation. I'll give you some suggestions for different situations a bit further down.

Magic usage:
By this time you should have your Legendary Lord, one necromancer and an additional lord. Your store of magical prowess is limited but I'll still point out what you should think about. The reason I suggest getting a Master Necromancer if you started out with Mannfred is easy. You want at least one lord or hero in every army that can bring Master of the Dead to the table. Mannfred cannot get it, so he should get the first hero. While Kemmler can get Master of the Dead himself.
Make sure to use Master of the Dead, Curse of Undeath and Incantation of Nehek efficiently. You can refuel your army mid-fight if you do. (Check my general tips in the introduction of the guide for a walkthrough how these abilities works together.)
The other spell to consider from the Vampiric Lore is Danse Macabre. Overchannel it for an AoE buff. It turns your zombie main line into competent killers against unarmored enemies. It gives you additional Melee attack, which increases the hit chance of your unit. Which means that any unit is actually a good target for this spell depending on what it is fighting. Raise Dead is another early spell you can have by now. Try to only use it to summon Skeletons to rear charge an already engaged enemy for a nice win. Your use of Mannfreds spells isn't really important yet outside of Spirit Leech on Lords and Heroes.

Vs. Siege.
As Vampire Counts, you OWN sieges. It's your thing. Fell Bats makes them easy, Vargheists makes them a joke. Make sure to move them off the wall if they get too wounded and let your necromancer heal them. (NOTE. There is a bug in the game currently where flying units that has been on top of a wall Might still be considered on the wall even though they have left it. This makes it impossible to heal it.) The strategy here is applicable against any faction really. Don't bring mounts on your lords, and don't bring Dire Wolves or Crypt Horros. It's an unneccessary cash-drain.
Instead, bring 2-4 Fell Bats, if you have access, get 2 Vargheists. Finally try to get some more Skeleton Warriors compared to Zombies, since you will not be able to fight the same way as you would on an open field with flanking.
Attack any ranged units with your Fell Bats and Vargheists immediately. They can actually hurt normal infantry as well, since they won't get any support on a wall. Use Skeleton Warriors on the Siege Weapons. They can handle being first into combat, especially since they will be considered as flanking if they get into something that is locked into combat with you fliers. The Vargheists can destroy most things that can get up on a wall that is not a spearman.



Vs. Greenskin
Super easy to deal with. They do have access to a ♥♥♥♥ ton of both missile cav and archers in general, but you can actually kill them with only Fell Bats. Dire Wovles actually shine here as well since they can chase down the cav. Against the orcs infantry, your standard tactics works fine. Get two more spears to deal with any wolf cav that gets past your main line. Get 2 Dire Wolves as well to deal with either their archers and cav. I have run into an early greenskin army that actually brought a giant, but it died against my 2 Skeleton Spearmen.



Vs. Dwarf
These are essentiall the most annoying to choose to fight against at this stage of the game. You'll have to rush to get access to Crypt Horrors. Get two of those at least, and a bunch of Fell Bats, if you can afford it, throw in a Vargheist in there as well.
You'll have to consider two dangers against the dwarves. Their armor and that they have dangerous ranged units. Ranged units are hard countered by your Fell Bats and Vargheists. Problem is, they will actually kill your Fell Bats in melee, but they can occupy them so you can get into melee with an intact main line and undamaged Crypt Horrors. Your only killing power will be from your Crypt Horrors though. You will have an easier time if you're using your Additional Starting Units here though. Both the Varghulf and Hexwraiths are perfect for hurting these ugly beardpeople.



Vs. Vampire
This one should actually be kinda simple by now. They won't get anything on the field you cannot deal with really. The only dangers you can expect from the other vampire factions by now is at its height a single Crypt Horror or Vargheist. Something one or two spearmen can handle by themselves. But just to make sure, add two more. Add 3 Fell Bats as well to be able to take out any Master Necromancer quickly. Do not charge them into a Vampire Lord though. Otherwise use them to take out other Bats, or sacrifice them one at a time by occupying something deadlier than a Skeleton Warrior. Or toss them into an already crumbling flank.



Vs. Empire
Almost as easy as orcs. Here we can mix it up even more, and there is no need to get anything fancy quickly. Get another spearman just in case they bring Reiksguard or more cav. Bring 3 Fell Bats to deal with their archers and gunners. Gunners take priority since they can kill your lord quickly. One single Fell Bat can also destroy unguarded artillery weapons, no sweat. You need the Dire Wolves mostly for chasing down units so that they shatter. Because they tend to come back repeatedly.

I got asked to add a section of my suggestions and thoughts of what technologies to research first.
I'll start out by discussing the high lights of the different trees. With this I mean specific technologies you might want to aim for and then simply switch to another tree. There is no gain what so ever in filling out one tree fully first one at at time. Some of the technologies are simply not worth the points because of different reasons.

The Book of Arkhan
This tree is perhaps unexpectedly actually the most imortant one for you from an army building perspective. What ever part of the game you are at, this tree will still give you bonuses to something you need. Something you need to keep in mind though is quantity. Before researching their tier 3 technologies, make sure you actually have a reliable supply and plan to field Black Knights and Grave Guards.

Tier 1

• Bond of Bones: Actually a worthwhile tech to get early. The recruitment cost for these are already extremely cheap, but for the start of the game, you are going to field a lot of them.
  
• Distribute Grave Gift: This one is actually important. What ever part of the game you're at, you are going to field Skeletal Spearmen to some degree. Giving them additional toughness is pure gold.
  
• Defiler of the Ancient Barrows: This is more of an optional technology. The upkeep and damage bonus is nothing to laugh at. If you want to use Skeleton Warriors instead of Zombies for your expendable main line, this is a tiny bit more important – but it is still a bit of a luxury.

Tier 2

• Risen Champions: This nets you +2 to Leadership, Melee Attack and Melee Defense. Here is why I mentioned quantity earlier. This bonus is not substantial if you only field a couple of skeletal and zombie units. But you won't. You're going to field a whole bunch. Note that this gives Spearmen and Grave Guards the bonus too, so it will give you an advantage though out the game.
  
• Raise Newly Dead: This tech is pure convenience. It improves your zombies a bit which in certain circumstances is great. If your enemies are using their basic units as a main line still, this is awesome. But as soon as they are starting to include higher tiered units you're not going to notice it. Even with the bonus, they are still way worse than any other unit in the game – think quantity though.
  
• Master of the Putrid Horde: Now we are talking. This tech is pure gold for at least the first half of the game. After that it turns to silver since you will still field generals with spam-units. They are already cheap, true. But the price reduction is quite palpable. The speed buff is convenient, but if you actually had need for it, you're doing something wrong. Their goal is to lock down main line units, they shouldn't need to maneuver that much to fulfill their role.

Tier 3

• Risen Standard Bearers: Since this is also a general blanket bonus to all of your skeletal units, it's not worthless. The bonus is small, but there have been several garrison battles where my skeletons would have crumbled if not for this. Although, if not for the other techs in this tree, I wouldn't have gone for this one compared to your alternatives.
  
• Unearth Cursed Wightblades: Actually a quite powerful buff to your mid to endgame units. By the time you field these units reliably in quantity, this buff if very nice to have. But it is definitely not something to bother with before that.
  
• Dread Animator: This is a pure end-game tech. It's very very powerful, but before you've upgraded all of your expendables to non-expendable grave guards, this is not worth the investment Yet. You will want to get this during your campaign though.

Liber Necronomica
This whole tree is pretty much just filled with optional luxuary goods, except for three technologies. Personally, this tree is something I put off filling, but those three technologies I mentioned are worth spending points into. Sure, you will field Crypt monsters and Wraiths, and they are important to your armies. But you will not field them in the same quantities as the units in The Book of Arkhan.

Tier 1

• Incantations of Ushoran: Slightly more bang for your buck for your Crypt creatures. Since you will be getting both an upkeep and recruitment cost redution here in one tech it's actually worth something. But think quantity here as well. Unless you're fielding 4-6 Crypt units in your army, this is a minimal buff at best.

Tier 2

• Cannibalistic Rituals: The buff is not bad per say. The speed is what's really important here since the hard part of dealing with your Crypt creatures is to get them behind enemy lines. The damage buff is pretty high, but the thing is: If you're using these bastards right, you won't need it. They are your meat grinder and will destroy anything any way.
  
• Soulbinder: Now we're talking. This one is actually better than it's predecessor, BUT only when you're fielding a whole bunch of these. It's an end-game tech for sure, and will allow you to field either more armies or simply better ones. But if you can't field them reliably, skip it for now.
  
• Infuse the Tireless Hordes: Now this here is pure gold. If you wanted to unlock Liber Necromomica first, this is one of the reasons why. Don't even think of getting any of the other techs in this tree if this one is unlocked. 10% campaign movement range is very big.

Tier 3

• Strigoi Legacy: Just like with Risen Champions, this is a minimal bonus at best. Purely mathematically, a bit worse since you won't field them in the same numbers. It's a tiny nice bonus of convenience, but nothing else. I'd really skip it for now.
  
• Unliving Siege Engines: The second must have talents in this tree. You are already great at taking sieges, but sometimes you might actually want to starve them out. On top of that 10 extra leadership is very substantial if you are for example relying on garrison forces to protect yourself.
  
• Nightmarish Reaping: 15% weapon damage is huge for these guys since that's what they are made for. If you are finally relying on a bunc of these in your armies, get it.

Tier 4

• Enshrine Ancient Lords: This. This is the very reason you started putting points into this tree. All of the bonuses it gives you are pure gold. The attrition you suffer is the single biggest thing containing your conquest of the world. Having to rely on simply using Raid stance trying to get everywhere is a pain in the ass. If you've listened to me and build enough Balefire buildings, this bonus will not be as pronounced, but it still is. You will always take at least one turn of attrition when taking down a settlement that is not completely filthy with your corruption. A general -5% price on any unit raised with Raise Dead is also a very nice cost reduction in general.
  
• Spirit Shackles: Completely worthless from a campaign point of perspective. It's positioned way to high in the tree for such a mediocre bonus. This will probably be one of the last techs you ever get in the campaign.

De Noirot's Blasphemous Bestiary
I'll be frank. I wished I liked this tree more than I do. I really love the Vampire Counts monster units. But to be honest. The bonuses you get here are not really important for any phase of the game. They are a neat little bonus, but they can't really compare to any other tree in any way.

Tier 1

• Corruptor of the Forests: I'll give this tree a bone and say that this first tech is at least worth considering since it bunches up both the Bats and the Wolves. You are going to field at least 4-5 of these in your first armies, so the price reduction will at least save you some. Get it early if you're going to get it at all.

Tier 2

• Master of the Swarm: A nice convenience tool. It will help your bats occupy more dangerous units a short while longer, and maybe do some hitpoint damage. But remember, the Fel Bats are expendable, it this talent will not change that. If they occupy something tough, or simply kill a ranged unit, their mission is done.
  
• Leader of the Pack: Weapon Strength bonus is meh. The speed is interesting though. This unit is already the fastest ground unit in the game by a few points. This talent will let it eat those pesky goblin missile cavalry Quicker though. Talent of convenience if there ever was one. ;)

Tier 3

• Invoke Animalistic Hunger: A bit lack luster to be honest, but might be worth an investment if you really like using those Vargheists outside of sieges. Their speed is plenty to keep up with most things except those pesky goblin missile cavalry. Since the Vargheists is not as expendable as the bats, the melee defense bonus is not worthless. But still, if you are using them right, it shouldn't really matter.
  
• Beastmaster: I really wished I liked this technology, but I don't. It's way too lackluster. We all love our Varghulf and Vargheists, yes, but we're not going to field that many of them. The 10% price reduction is simply too small to be worth this kind of investment.

Tier 4

• Blood Hunts: Same as my opinion of the other experience technologies. In this case it's a tiny tiny tiny bit better though - since your Terrorgheist and Varghulfs main weakness is their low leadership. But I mean it, it's a tiny tiny bonus. Nothing else.
  
• Fresh Prey Supply: Not worth the investment. The damage buff will not be noticable. The Varghulf will annihilate anything it can, and it won't with what it cannot. Some might argue that the armor is decent for protecting it against arrows, but I'm rather more inclined to say that you shoul have dealt with the arrows before he starts taking damage from them. That's what the Fell Bats are for.

Tier 5

• Fueled by Fear: Everything in this talent except for the charge bonus is worthless. Just like with the Varghulf, anything that the Terrorgheist already can defeat easily, it will still defeat it easily. But with 20% more charge bonus, that's interesting. It already has the equivalent charge bonus of a shock cavalry unit. So this makes it very deadly to something you choose to initially charge. Although, this one is deadly to Anything at any time anyway.

The Lahmian Book of Blood
Okay, the “boring” tree now, but it is simply put the best one. Most of the techs in here are extremely worthwhile. There are some exceptions though. Personally, I suggest starting out with this tree.

Tier 1

• Serve in Life or in Death: Increase in income and additional growth? Did I tell you that those two factors are, like, the most important thing in any of your regions? Get it quickly. It's pure gold.

Tier 2

• Blood is Power: Oh my, a clone of the tier 1 talent, but better? You guessed it. Get it asap. Growth and Dark Magic is simply put that imortant for you.
  
• Baleful Rituals: This one is decent, it will help you fill out corruption in regions you already control. Compare it to this. This frees up you from parking two newly created heroes in your region for the same effect.

Tier 3

• Hexensnacht Sacrifices: It's decent. I would get it later though, since leveling up low level banshees and Wight Kings are easy. They are already decent at what you want them to do from the get go.
  
• Spread Vampire Covens: Pure gold. Get it. Now. This helps you spread corruption to your neighbours, and that is one of the most imporant things you want as a Vampire Count.

Tier 4

• Infiltrate Noble Houses: Entirely skippable. You can of course try to force some trade deals or non-agression pacts due to this, but that's all temporary.
  
• Blasphemous Disciples: Slightly better than its Banshee/Wight King counter part. These guys can't really perform their roles without at least 2 or 3 points spent into their trees, which makes this a convenient tech.

Tier 5

• Vampiric Revivification: As of now. Do not get this. Skip it. The Black Coach is not worth getting into your army until CA manages to get Cause Terror to work, and gives the Black Coach a better pull through mechanic like a proper chariot should have.
  
• Decipher Nehekhara Manuscripts: This is a rather hefty bonus to income. You will want to build at least one of these or Vampire Crypt in every main settlement.

Tier 6

• Puppet Master: If this was placed half way down the tree, I'd say it's gold. But considering that you'll be way into your campaign by the time you get this, it's a strong silver technology. The leadership is neglible, but the hero action cost and recruitment cost is actually worthwhile throughout the rest of your game.
  
• Incantations of Nagash: A clone of Decipher Nehekhara Manuscripts but for the Vampire Crypts. Get it for a nice boost to income!

Summary
Personally, I suggest with always starting out with The Lahmian Book of Blood. At least for the Growth and income technologies. After that one or two talents in either the Beast tree or Skeleton tree is definitely worth it. But after you've buffed your initial troops a bit, go back to the TLBoB-tree. You really want to get Spread Vampire Covens kinda early.
After that you can go back and buff the units you have now. Personally, I'd get the two first in both Beast and Skeletal tree, then fill out the Skeletal tree a bit more. By that time it would be worth it to throw some points into Liber Necronomica, but only for the campaign movement speed.

I hope this gives you some insight in what to expect from these technologies and in which order to get them. A lot depends on what kind of armies you want to build for yourself as well. Is your beastial part of the armies bigger than I suggest, then getting all the basic technologies for them is worthwhile.

I'm still writing this part, but I've finished the guide for Mannfreds first quest battle. Many seem to have a problem getting to it though.

Sword of Unhly Power

To actually get to the Sword of Unholy Power, there is a pretty annoying pre-quest which will have you send a Banshee down south and use its deploy function. Directly after that you unlock the battle. It is not adviced to move your army there though. Simply collect enough Dark Magic to use the Teleport fuction that you can select on the Quest screen. Make sure you've got a full army when doing this, and not just your starting units. I advice you to bring some Crypt creatures, Dire Wolves and Fell Bats. Vargheists will make the battle a breeze. I assume you still have your Varghulf, he will be decent here as well, but make sure not to throw him into the spears uphill. That's a sure way to lose him.

This is what you will face:

• Main army: 4 Shamans, 1 Savage orc, 4 goblin spearmen, 3 night goblin archers, 2 doom divers
  
• Left army: 1 boss, 2 black orcs, 4 spearmen, 3 goblin archers
  
• Right army: 1 boss, 5 goblin wolf riders

To the north you have a big orc army overseen by several shamans. They have a lot of spearmen so do not throw in your vargheists or varghulf in there. Their spearmen are pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥, so you're better off just amassing your main line towards them.
The main issue here though is that a few seconds into the battle, you will have two armies spawn to your left and right.
The one to the left is the biggest threat, but you shouldn't do anything about it yet.
If you brought Dire Wolves, Fell Bats or Vargheists throw them onto the right army! They will only bring 5 units of Goblin Wolf Riders. If you have Vargheists they can deal with a whole bunch of them. When the Wolf Riders are occupied and can't charge, toss a couple of spearmen or your meatgrinder at them. (Skeleton Spearmen, Crypt Ghouls or Crypt Horrors). I routed them consistenly very easily.
Now, your main line should have clashed on the hill with their main line. Make sure to keep a necromancer close by to heal them and make sure they won't crumble. Your goal is to clean up that fight quickly. If you have a banshee, throw it at the wizards. If you have a melee version of Mannfred, throw him at the wizards as well. Any necromancers can either focus on Incantation of Nehek to heal, or use Danse Macabre to kill the enemies quicker. Depending on your current Winds of Magic, and if the enemies are all locked down: Use an over channeled Raise Dead behind their lines and rear charge.
Any troops you used to kill the Wolf Riders with should simply maneuvre around and rear charge the army on the hill.

You should have destroyed them before the third army have reached the mid-field of the battle. Twice I had that force rout due to numbers lost before they got further than that. If they do not route, reestablish your mainline at the top slope of the hill. Heal them up as best you can. Move your flankers slightly back and to the sides and prepare to grind them like any other foe. Look out for the Black Orcs they bring. If you still have your Varghulf, plow it into them. ;)