VC really need an overhaul update to flesh out the bloodlines more. It would be really cool to have VC campaigns where you can focus on thematic bloodlines specific campaigns
As an old veteran of warhammer fantasy 6th through 8th edition, I will give a bit of background on how the units you highlight on this channel generally performed on tabletop and how much their video game usage and rules align with what they did on tabletop. This Lord changed a lot between the editions. In 6th, you always had to pick one of five Bloodlines for your Lord to belong to. Strigoi was one of them. It was rarely seen, mostly because it had some sever weaknesses (no armour) and because it was partly a mortal army. Most people, who play Vampires, play them, because they want Undead, not Mortals. That was because Ghuls used to be mortal and not undead. In addition to that the army was mostly skirmishers and only Wood Elves and Beastmen could make that work. Thus Strigoi were, alongside Lahmia, relegated to the backrow of the Bloodlines. In 7th the Bloodlines were softened up, allowing one to mix and match abilities. Thus no true Strigoi existed. In 8th the Strigoi became it's own Lord selection. It has some differences to the normal Vampire Lord. Lower Weapon Skill (Melee Attack), lower Leadership but higher Initiative (but at that level it only mattered against Elves). Additionally a Strigoi can't become a good caster, being restricted to Lore of Vampires and Level 1 (level 1 casters are mostly useless) or wear mundane armour. On the flipside they have Hatred (rerolling failed to hit-roles), mid-level Regeneration and Poison (mostly useless on such a unit, you want it on units with many weak attacks). Their only mount option was a Terrorgheist. They also cost ~18% more. So looking at just the bare differences, the Strigoi was more specialised and expensive. Some of the disadvantages could be mitigated (using magic armour, Mortis-Shrines to raise their Regeneration), were already not an issue (lower Weapon Skill but getting Hatred is a worthwhile exchange) or filled in (using a Master Necromancer for casting). Others could not. Having no mount but the Terrorgheist either forced the Strigoi to run with slower infantery, thus wasting their movement value or sit on a huge beast, ballooning their cost and making it impossible in most games to combine them with Master Necromancers. Being forced to use Lore of Vampires while not even being able to raise their Magic Level meant that the trick of making a Master Necromancer into the General (as described under that video) was not an option and thus the Strigoi is basically always the General, thus the main target and weakness. So why use them? Well, thematically it works nicely with Ghuls, Crypt Horrors, Mortis Shrines (less so here) and Terrorgheists. So a crypt-themed army almost requires one. The second reason is restrictions. Most tournaments and local groups used restriction on their games. Some armies can be both too strong and too boring to have a good game with, so there are some common things to restrict or ban. A typical one for Vampires is restricting Terrogheists to 1 per army. Reasonable, it breaks some enemies easily. But if you used a Strigoi, you could mount them and now have two Terrorgheists. Since you had to use a lesser Lord choice, it was seen as a fair trade and often not restricted. So in conclusion: The Strigoi is a very specialised, generally less useful version of the Vampire Lord, that can be nice in a themed army or one focussed on Terrorgheists, but outside of that is rarely the best choice.
@OffToBattle tbf, it also makes sense. Strigoi are half sentient corpse eaters. What else could they ride? A corpse cart, maybe. Though they are also associated with the WHFB equivalent of Sinti and Roma (yes, a bit problematic). So that could at least be a mod idea for the future.
I didn't need one desperately in my current campaign where I took dwarfs seriously, but I ended up vassalizing the Slayer King and teaming up on the Bonerattlerz because er, their lord just cannot stick to a deal, I've noticed..
Its also quite helpful against french cav lords and elite units. especially the shock cav since their stats are rather low when some zombie smug facetanks the charge.
Love recruiting these when they are available with the trait that gives you 4 uses of spirit leech for free. Combining it with the spirit leech you get from your regular skill line and with his anti large on a terrorgheist, you can delete any single entity very quickly.
oooh i didnt know that spirit leech is a free cast i thought its just a "you have it unlocked without spending pibs" thats cool! i also like the one with increased ambush stance since they have some skills for that anyway plus its thematic^^
@GerritTV187 Yep, 4 uses of spirit leech for free, though you can't overcast those, and I don't believe it triggers any magic casting passives. But even with that in mind , it's one of the best default lord traits for vampire counts imo.
THE HUNGER! Fun fact. In the German version the names actually "the thirst / bloodthirsty or something like that. On topic: I wish the strigoy had any type of early mount. Maybe a sprinting form or something like that. But for real at least the 30 armor buff would be nice!
He is a much more strategic Lord than generic Vampire Lord, and has to be used much more carefully and situationally. He has great Melee stats, and with MA of 75, he does not need any bonuses and can destroy any target. His spell kit- Doom and Darkness and Soulblighr, can be used to destroy the enemy blobs, but it requires the presence of your own army. He is primarily designed for character assassination, at least in the early game. After he gains a Terrorgheist mount he becomes a tough, fast, versatile character with a Ton of applications. Before that, you have to deploy him carefully to hide his weaknesses. CA could take the following steps to improve Strigoi Lord 1) Give him 40 armor- makes him less susceptible to absolute trash while retaining his vulnerability to Base Damage 2) Give him an intermediary mount, who can make him more mobile to allow him to pick his engagements and escape from tough spots 3) Give him a personal skill line, where he can get both Life and Damage upgrades to make him truly powerful.
While the Strigoi Bloodline trait isn't mind blowing (Ambush success chance is fine but its up against some real winners) the Strigoi Bloodline Lord is surprisingly good and his trait that gives Ghouls and Crypt Horrors Phys Resist is *Faction Wide* and *Stacks* which is hilarious. Give him a Necromancer and just let him be a can opener.
As I said in the post I really quite like the Strigoi. He's expensive, and there's definitely things he does less well than the standard Vampire Lord, but his strengths really are something to behold. That large splash size means he's a low tier unit blender, and that armor piercing means you don't need to pick those targets. His high stats and poison mean he can shred most characters, and the crypt ghoul summon, while expensive, is less distraction, and more aggressive consumption of an enemy unit. He desperately needs equipment to get that armor up, even getting to 50 makes such a huge deal. His in-and-out of combat regeneration can carry his survival for a while, and makes for one hell of an anchor for small scale battles, or for messy cleanup. He's my go to first Lord recruit whenever I play Counts, which is not only when he's at his best, but helps with his crippling addiction to skill points. I actually rather like the focus of his spell list, too, it compliments him well. He has Nehek for essential functionality, but then isn't really built to sit in a pack of zombies. He wants to be charging lords or monsters, Leeching them, and throwing crypt ghouls at backline, maybe softening them up with his other spells. Diviner is also a MASSIVE boon for Counts. Vampire Counts have access to some incredible magic items, like the Black Perapt or, iirc, Skrabscrath, of something, the weapon with the brath spell, and have a LOT of characters that want slots filled, and the Strigoi can put in some massive efforts to this end. You just really do have to keep him from being shot up.
It's true that Counts are hungry for items. I'll keep THAT one in mind even more now, though I mentioned to others getting shot sucks as Strigoi. Counts generally, but definitely him.
I use Strigoi Bloodline lords as emergency recruits. They are pretty nasty right out of the box. Raise a few chaff units and they can help turn the tide of an otherwise hopeless defense. But I don't get to use them much early on. The faction buffs for the Necrarch and the utility of the Lahmian Queen Bee ability for farming Blood Kisses are too good for me to pass up, even if Necrarchs are worse than regular Vampire lords.
Definitley an "Attack" lord and one that works well as berserker (IE blow up your opponent with so much damage they're either dead or routing before they can slap back); Doom and darkness is a winner here since it stacks with their other leadership penalty and furthers their "berserker" characteristic along with drain soul letting you soften up anemies or murder ones that are escaping. Stack on top of that a pile of ghouls and/or horrors and you have an army that may be very brittle but it will also be indescribably devestating to anything that it comes up against that isn't either heavily entrenched or some Okoii level nonsense like 19 thunderbarges or what the fuck ever; even if you lose the battle you'll likely cripple your opponent in a 1:1 scenario... and as I've said so many times in the past you just aren't going to have too many of those with the Counts since you can field so god damn many crap stacks.
(laughs about Okoii videos and nods) I had a situation a couple of nights ago where Ungrim decided to retake a settlement I'd taken where I had a small army and a single bloodline Strigoi. I... lost, the Strigoi at Rank 1 wasn't going to cut it against the heroes. But I cost him the vast majority of his army and his faction was soon no more. I'm finally reaching the end of the course that absorbed so much of my time like a black hole, so I might actually air some of those battle videos, who knows?
@@OffToBattle Like that's the thing with a lord like this; you can load him up with a pile of ghouls and crypt horrors and whatever makes contact with your enemy is going to do damage whether you win or loose and theirs a good chance you take out his "good shit" on the way out.
In WH2 they were the first bloodline I'd try to max out. The 3rd tier made ALL your armies immune to non-vampiric attrition! Such a shame they took that away. Still, Strigoi's speed and hitting power makes him pretty helpful in the early game, and the buffs he gives to crypt horrors are good.
They destroy infantry and usually are too small to be shot while doing it, sucks to not have some magic without a hero but if you need AP dmg especially early game they are great
Yeah, they could change that somehow. A little. Or I can just slap my Silvered Steel armor on Strigoi in preference to others like I used to do with Cylostra's Damned Paladin...
Strigoi absolutely suck right now. Strigoi are squishy, and feel like they're missing something. CA please, Strigoi need a buff and Vampire Counts badly need an update and new DLC.
true, my own minor buff would be to give the foot-Strigoi stalk, as the strigoi are the hidden shadow courts and are often referred to hide in dark places. It would at least have a better place in multiplayer based on that I think, and it makes them a combination of a crypt horror and a crypt ghoul.
Once they get their health regen shenanigans going, they aren't so bad, they just have to survive long enough to get all that set up. If you don't take the self heal though, yeah, the on foot version is squishy. They should probably bring them in line with the armor buff to crypt ghouls and then give them some base physical resistance. I'd say they also need a little more base damage on foot as well to make the trade offs more worth it.
VC really need an overhaul update to flesh out the bloodlines more. It would be really cool to have VC campaigns where you can focus on thematic bloodlines specific campaigns
Leaning into the bloodlines would be good for all kinds of players.
As an old veteran of warhammer fantasy 6th through 8th edition, I will give a bit of background on how the units you highlight on this channel generally performed on tabletop and how much their video game usage and rules align with what they did on tabletop.
This Lord changed a lot between the editions.
In 6th, you always had to pick one of five Bloodlines for your Lord to belong to. Strigoi was one of them. It was rarely seen, mostly because it had some sever weaknesses (no armour) and because it was partly a mortal army. Most people, who play Vampires, play them, because they want Undead, not Mortals. That was because Ghuls used to be mortal and not undead. In addition to that the army was mostly skirmishers and only Wood Elves and Beastmen could make that work.
Thus Strigoi were, alongside Lahmia, relegated to the backrow of the Bloodlines.
In 7th the Bloodlines were softened up, allowing one to mix and match abilities. Thus no true Strigoi existed.
In 8th the Strigoi became it's own Lord selection. It has some differences to the normal Vampire Lord. Lower Weapon Skill (Melee Attack), lower Leadership but higher Initiative (but at that level it only mattered against Elves). Additionally a Strigoi can't become a good caster, being restricted to Lore of Vampires and Level 1 (level 1 casters are mostly useless) or wear mundane armour. On the flipside they have Hatred (rerolling failed to hit-roles), mid-level Regeneration and Poison (mostly useless on such a unit, you want it on units with many weak attacks). Their only mount option was a Terrorgheist. They also cost ~18% more.
So looking at just the bare differences, the Strigoi was more specialised and expensive. Some of the disadvantages could be mitigated (using magic armour, Mortis-Shrines to raise their Regeneration), were already not an issue (lower Weapon Skill but getting Hatred is a worthwhile exchange) or filled in (using a Master Necromancer for casting).
Others could not. Having no mount but the Terrorgheist either forced the Strigoi to run with slower infantery, thus wasting their movement value or sit on a huge beast, ballooning their cost and making it impossible in most games to combine them with Master Necromancers. Being forced to use Lore of Vampires while not even being able to raise their Magic Level meant that the trick of making a Master Necromancer into the General (as described under that video) was not an option and thus the Strigoi is basically always the General, thus the main target and weakness.
So why use them?
Well, thematically it works nicely with Ghuls, Crypt Horrors, Mortis Shrines (less so here) and Terrorgheists. So a crypt-themed army almost requires one.
The second reason is restrictions. Most tournaments and local groups used restriction on their games. Some armies can be both too strong and too boring to have a good game with, so there are some common things to restrict or ban.
A typical one for Vampires is restricting Terrogheists to 1 per army. Reasonable, it breaks some enemies easily.
But if you used a Strigoi, you could mount them and now have two Terrorgheists. Since you had to use a lesser Lord choice, it was seen as a fair trade and often not restricted.
So in conclusion: The Strigoi is a very specialised, generally less useful version of the Vampire Lord, that can be nice in a themed army or one focussed on Terrorgheists, but outside of that is rarely the best choice.
Very, very interesting how the "one mount option" was indeed a GW thing... and mattered a lot in practice.
@OffToBattle tbf, it also makes sense. Strigoi are half sentient corpse eaters. What else could they ride? A corpse cart, maybe. Though they are also associated with the WHFB equivalent of Sinti and Roma (yes, a bit problematic). So that could at least be a mod idea for the future.
Ah yes, a can opener. Always have couple of those boys hanging around mountains when i play Isabella
I didn't need one desperately in my current campaign where I took dwarfs seriously, but I ended up vassalizing the Slayer King and teaming up on the Bonerattlerz because er, their lord just cannot stick to a deal, I've noticed..
Its also quite helpful against french cav lords and elite units. especially the shock cav since their stats are rather low when some zombie smug facetanks the charge.
Love recruiting these when they are available with the trait that gives you 4 uses of spirit leech for free. Combining it with the spirit leech you get from your regular skill line and with his anti large on a terrorgheist, you can delete any single entity very quickly.
You can do that with some Death casters too but yes, it's lovely. I will say it's a joy to find "Tough" or "Strong" too with such low starting armor.
oooh i didnt know that spirit leech is a free cast i thought its just a "you have it unlocked without spending pibs" thats cool! i also like the one with increased ambush stance since they have some skills for that anyway plus its thematic^^
@GerritTV187 Yep, 4 uses of spirit leech for free, though you can't overcast those, and I don't believe it triggers any magic casting passives. But even with that in mind , it's one of the best default lord traits for vampire counts imo.
Great video, I hope you're getting commision.
The ad revenue has been building up so it's not wasted at all. And it's good practice for my change of careers going on. No worries right now.
@@OffToBattle I mean I hope you're getting a percentage of Strigoi recruitment fees.
THE HUNGER! Fun fact. In the German version the names actually "the thirst / bloodthirsty or something like that. On topic: I wish the strigoy had any type of early mount. Maybe a sprinting form or something like that. But for real at least the 30 armor buff would be nice!
Well, CA could consider it for future updates, we shall see!
Strigoi lords are my favourite vamp lords by far, aesthetic, voice lines, foot speed
The foot speed is worth making good use of... they're comparable to Banshees.
He is a much more strategic Lord than generic Vampire Lord, and has to be used much more carefully and situationally. He has great Melee stats, and with MA of 75, he does not need any bonuses and can destroy any target. His spell kit- Doom and Darkness and Soulblighr, can be used to destroy the enemy blobs, but it requires the presence of your own army. He is primarily designed for character assassination, at least in the early game. After he gains a Terrorgheist mount he becomes a tough, fast, versatile character with a Ton of applications. Before that, you have to deploy him carefully to hide his weaknesses. CA could take the following steps to improve Strigoi Lord
1) Give him 40 armor- makes him less susceptible to absolute trash while retaining his vulnerability to Base Damage
2) Give him an intermediary mount, who can make him more mobile to allow him to pick his engagements and escape from tough spots
3) Give him a personal skill line, where he can get both Life and Damage upgrades to make him truly powerful.
I think all of those would be great. The mount, it might be a Games Workshop thing, but I'd love if they could find something.
While the Strigoi Bloodline trait isn't mind blowing (Ambush success chance is fine but its up against some real winners) the Strigoi Bloodline Lord is surprisingly good and his trait that gives Ghouls and Crypt Horrors Phys Resist is *Faction Wide* and *Stacks* which is hilarious.
Give him a Necromancer and just let him be a can opener.
I really LIKE that 20% ambush chance. I ambush a lot.
@@OffToBattle Oh ya, once you have it you're like "Oh hey, that's actually pretty good"
Just most VC players don't think about it.
As I said in the post
I really quite like the Strigoi. He's expensive, and there's definitely things he does less well than the standard Vampire Lord, but his strengths really are something to behold. That large splash size means he's a low tier unit blender, and that armor piercing means you don't need to pick those targets. His high stats and poison mean he can shred most characters, and the crypt ghoul summon, while expensive, is less distraction, and more aggressive consumption of an enemy unit. He desperately needs equipment to get that armor up, even getting to 50 makes such a huge deal. His in-and-out of combat regeneration can carry his survival for a while, and makes for one hell of an anchor for small scale battles, or for messy cleanup.
He's my go to first Lord recruit whenever I play Counts, which is not only when he's at his best, but helps with his crippling addiction to skill points.
I actually rather like the focus of his spell list, too, it compliments him well. He has Nehek for essential functionality, but then isn't really built to sit in a pack of zombies. He wants to be charging lords or monsters, Leeching them, and throwing crypt ghouls at backline, maybe softening them up with his other spells.
Diviner is also a MASSIVE boon for Counts.
Vampire Counts have access to some incredible magic items, like the Black Perapt or, iirc, Skrabscrath, of something, the weapon with the brath spell, and have a LOT of characters that want slots filled, and the Strigoi can put in some massive efforts to this end.
You just really do have to keep him from being shot up.
It's true that Counts are hungry for items. I'll keep THAT one in mind even more now, though I mentioned to others getting shot sucks as Strigoi. Counts generally, but definitely him.
I use Strigoi Bloodline lords as emergency recruits. They are pretty nasty right out of the box. Raise a few chaff units and they can help turn the tide of an otherwise hopeless defense.
But I don't get to use them much early on. The faction buffs for the Necrarch and the utility of the Lahmian Queen Bee ability for farming Blood Kisses are too good for me to pass up, even if Necrarchs are worse than regular Vampire lords.
Yeah, there's a lot to choose from.
Definitley an "Attack" lord and one that works well as berserker (IE blow up your opponent with so much damage they're either dead or routing before they can slap back); Doom and darkness is a winner here since it stacks with their other leadership penalty and furthers their "berserker" characteristic along with drain soul letting you soften up anemies or murder ones that are escaping.
Stack on top of that a pile of ghouls and/or horrors and you have an army that may be very brittle but it will also be indescribably devestating to anything that it comes up against that isn't either heavily entrenched or some Okoii level nonsense like 19 thunderbarges or what the fuck ever; even if you lose the battle you'll likely cripple your opponent in a 1:1 scenario... and as I've said so many times in the past you just aren't going to have too many of those with the Counts since you can field so god damn many crap stacks.
(laughs about Okoii videos and nods) I had a situation a couple of nights ago where Ungrim decided to retake a settlement I'd taken where I had a small army and a single bloodline Strigoi. I... lost, the Strigoi at Rank 1 wasn't going to cut it against the heroes. But I cost him the vast majority of his army and his faction was soon no more. I'm finally reaching the end of the course that absorbed so much of my time like a black hole, so I might actually air some of those battle videos, who knows?
@@OffToBattle Like that's the thing with a lord like this; you can load him up with a pile of ghouls and crypt horrors and whatever makes contact with your enemy is going to do damage whether you win or loose and theirs a good chance you take out his "good shit" on the way out.
Yes, yes, so beutiful
Lot of good stuff under the hide.
In WH2 they were the first bloodline I'd try to max out. The 3rd tier made ALL your armies immune to non-vampiric attrition! Such a shame they took that away. Still, Strigoi's speed and hitting power makes him pretty helpful in the early game, and the buffs he gives to crypt horrors are good.
Wasn't it the blood dragon lord who gave that? Either way all the lords are fun 😅
Sounds like fun.
@@DackJaniels51111 It could've been - this was quite a while ago. Regardless, none of the bloodlines offer that now, which kinda sucks.
They destroy infantry and usually are too small to be shot while doing it, sucks to not have some magic without a hero but if you need AP dmg especially early game they are great
Well mass damage magic yes. But every single lord having access to that is still relatively new to me for a faction generally.
my favorite vampire lord, a bit sad their bonus aren't that usefull
Diviner is actually crazy for the faction itself.
Odd that they have such bad armor, in the lore they are said to have really tough skin
Yeah, they could change that somehow. A little. Or I can just slap my Silvered Steel armor on Strigoi in preference to others like I used to do with Cylostra's Damned Paladin...
Ask dwarves what their opinion is, 😈
Good, because Vampire Counts don't have infinite ways of dealing with them.
@OffToBattle I usually use him to snipe dwarves lord because of their 120 or more Armor and he can get one or two with heal and buff even at low level
Strigoi absolutely suck right now. Strigoi are squishy, and feel like they're missing something. CA please, Strigoi need a buff and Vampire Counts badly need an update and new DLC.
true, my own minor buff would be to give the foot-Strigoi stalk, as the strigoi are the hidden shadow courts and are often referred to hide in dark places. It would at least have a better place in multiplayer based on that I think, and it makes them a combination of a crypt horror and a crypt ghoul.
@@voodoodummieyou are so correct about stalk.
Once they get their health regen shenanigans going, they aren't so bad, they just have to survive long enough to get all that set up. If you don't take the self heal though, yeah, the on foot version is squishy. They should probably bring them in line with the armor buff to crypt ghouls and then give them some base physical resistance. I'd say they also need a little more base damage on foot as well to make the trade offs more worth it.
I expected that feedback, but we'll see what CA has cooking for that.
Stalk would indeed be very interesting and make things more tactical in multiplayer.