Doublepost!
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So I did give the VC a go. You know, the real OG VC. VC numero uno.
Also did it on Steel Faith VH because why not. I kinda like some of the things it does, though I wish I could use Cataph's magic in it alongside some other things.
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I tried to use Teneb's suggestions but unfortunately Steel Faith kinda makes it impossible as you literally start with a budget deficit. I tried starting with both Vlad and Isabella but ended up bankrupt in 2 turns. I didn't really want to disband the blood knights either.
So, since I basically was on a timer due to having like -400 monies per turn, I had to work with what I had. Since Steel Faith also buffs up defensive garrisons quite a bit (especially capitals), I had to kinda go somewhere else instead.
So began my blitz to just declare war and conquer as much holdings as I could to resolve this budget problem. Took the halflings first. I thought it would be easy, but the increased garrisons actually hurts quite a bit. Then some random town to the left of that. Then another one to the bottom. Still not enough money. Kept fighting and fighting cause if I stopped I'd basically lose in like 3 turns. I'd conquer provincial capitals with Vlad, some bats, 2 vargheists, and some blood knights. Not easy considering those garrisons are around 2000 men.
By turn 20 or so Vlad was level 18. He basically gained one level per turn.
So now I turned my attention back towards the other undead factions that I completely ignored until now. They were also allied to each other for some reason. So I slaughtered Templehof and now it was just Manny the Manlet remaining.
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This one was interesting. Manny had four fullstack armies despite only having his starting city. However, other than the LLs and the Vargulf, they were all skeletons and zombies. That was it. It was like.... 7000 units of zombies and skeletons all clumped together in a big deathball. What's a guy to do in that situation? YOLO.
So there's Vlad with about 1000 troops. Those include the same now gold chevron blood knights, two vargheists, and some bats. The rest were zombies and the RoR Grave Guard. Versus 7 times their number alongside Manny, Kemmler, Ghorst, and some random shitter. The only thing Vlad has going for him? He's level 18 and the other lords are max level 3. Manny is only level 2.
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It was glorious. One of the most entertaining battles I've had in TWW. Just an endless horde of zombies coming from all sides due to the AI's predilection of constantly flanking you. Me desperately trying to kill the lords all hanging around in the rear with my blood knights and vargheists while Vlad and my zombie front line try to hold against a neverending wave.
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Things I've noticed about Steel Faith for VC units:
1. Vargheists are really, really strong in Steel Faith. The modder reduced the unit sizes by 2/3 and buffed their stats up to compensate. This is a common theme for many of the supposedly rare troops according to the lore so I'm okay with it. He also gave them significantly increased regeneration, which makes them flying Vargulfs more or less.
2. Blood knights also received the same treatment. There's much less of them, which I'm okay with as it never made sense how there were like 60 of them in a unit when they were supposed to be elite vampires. Their regeneration is ridiculous too now.
3. Holy shit are the regular units slow. Zombies and skeletons move soooooo slowly. It's why I was sieging cities with just Vlad, blood knights, the bats, and vargheists. Everything else took too long to get anywhere.