Fighting Undead (Guide)

Undead Ability List

 VAMPIRE, THRALL, ZOMBIE | IMMUNITY: POISON | Immune to Poison effects.

Fighting the Undead (in particular the Vampire) is a challenge for any new warband/player. While nothing ensures complete success within the City of the Damned, following some general strategy will prevent heaps of heartache.

Vampires can render Henchmen useless. Henchmen start with 3 OP and, if Terrorized, will have no remaining OP (can't even disengage or switch weapons but can still Flee). Heroes start with 5 OP and, if Terrorized, will have 2 OP left (can only attack once). This can make the Vampire extremely strong for those who don't know how to build towards them and take them down.

In addition, Fear causes warriors to miss charges and attacks giving the enemy a decent buff in close combat and Poison Immunity can render some strategies useless and nerf some mutations.

Every warband should be built from the start with the idea that you will be facing the Undead (in particular the Vampire) because you eventually will.

## ***Ideal Build***

When facing a Vampire with a new warband, you want your Heroes to have 2-Handed weapons (if possible). This gives the normal strength of 2 swings with your Hero and, if Terrorized, still will get the first (most damaging) swing against the Vampire.

Henchmen are generally stronger with ranged weapons against a Vampire, being able to attack every turn unless engaged. If that is not an option, the normal advice of a 2-Handed weapon is the strongest way to deal with a Vampire (more details below).

### **Melee Weapons and Initiative**

When looking at the proper Weapons to give your warriors, you must always keep in mind the Initiative Ladder and who is going to go first. This may require some investment in Alertness in order to mediate weapons with drawback. Either way, manipulate your Initiative Ladder (with equipment and/or Alertness) to your advantage. Also, you want your melee group close to each other in the Initiative Ladder to lessen the risk of a Vampire going in between your set-up.

It is possible, if you encounter Vampires with high dodge/parry, that you may want to arrange the warrior who will go first with a Dual Wield set-up designed to cut through dodge/parry (dagger/dagger or dagger/axe) and allow others to attack later after the dodge/parry is gone.

There is a high chance the Vampire will have armour so the majority of your melee should cut through armour. A Great Flail (also Fighting Claws) cuts through armour with no real drawback. However, if the first warrior to go will take away a dodge/parry with no drawback, a Great Axe (adds to enemy dodge) has a bit more damage.

These are, of course, not the only options and may not be possible in your warband. The point is to set up your melee warriors close to each other in the Initiative Ladder and take away any dodge/parry with the first warrior while cutting through armour with the entire group (whenever possible).

### **Ranged Weapons**

Setting up new Henchmen with almost any ranged weapon is a very good way to deal damage to Vampires every turn without being Terrorized. If it is not possible to do with your Henchmen, it may pay to have a Hero with a ranged weapon for reliable damage every turn.

### **Leadership, Abilities and Equipment**

Increasing your chances at passing Fear/Terror tests will help fighting the Undead immensely over time. Starting off, begin by collecting Pendants and wearing them while increasing Leadership whenever possible. This will help with improving overall warband survival.

Abilities such as the Active Leadership skill Courage (any Leader) and Captain's Speech (Smuggler), Passive Leadership skill Absolute Faith (Sisters, Wolf Priest) as well as some Spells (Sisters, Warrior Priest, Wolf Priest, Eshin Sorcerer) go a long way to help against Fear/Terror. If having problems fighting Undead, these types of abilities should be looked at as the first to obtain.

In addition, all Impressive warriors are immune to fear/terror. Witch Hunters, Cult of the Possessed and Undead warbands also have other units that are immune to fear/terror. The Wolf-Priest of Ulric has a large buff against fear/terror as well.

Using Consumables can help individuals that have not acquired enough leadership/abilities to deal with Fear/Terror on their own. Bugman's Ale (Fear/Terror/All Alone), Mad Cap Mushrooms (Fear) and Poultice (Critical Hit/Fear combination) can be taken into missions and dropped off at the cart if not facing the Undead.

### **Runes and Marks**

Using Enchantments that you Find can further solidify weaknesses a warband has against the Undead. The applicable Enchantments are show below. Note that these are shown for specific purpose for strategy against the Undead (see below) for a newly leveling warband, not for build theory.

* Weapons
* Armour
* Head Slot
* Shields

 Various Enchantments

 Rune/Mark of Courage

 Rune/Mark of Heroism
 Rune/Mark of Tenacity

#### Notes

1. ↑ For ranged, 2-Handed and Paired weapons the cost and effect percentages are shown. The cost and effect percentages are halved (any rounding is down) for 1-Handed (melee) weapons.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Only gained as a Reputation Bonus or already on a item.
3. ↑ Only gained as a Story Mission Reward or already on a item.

## ***Strategy***

Whenever there is a Vampire on the board, be very aware of where/when he might show up. Vampires are fast and can turn up out of nowhere while your warband is out of position. Therefore, be careful of over-extending yourself into terrain the Vampire can suddenly appear from. It can often happen that you take advantage of a lone enemy and while attacking them, the Vampire appears and starts taking your warriors out one-by-one.

### **Charging the Vampire**

The ideal situation is a Vampire standing alone in the middle of your group with no OP left for counter-attacks. This can happen if he charged (or you drew him out of Ambush with) one of your Henchmen. The Henchmen might be a goner but you can take advantage of the situation by charging with your Heroes and shooting into the combat.

If you charge him with 3-5 warriors, the Terror doesn't affect the charges since the OP was already spent on the charge before Terror can kick in. Charges do a heap of damage so a few charges that connect will weaken the Vampire greatly. Charge in such a way to allow the most amount of warriors to engage the Vampire at once (see below).

Be careful of charging with too many Henchmen since they cannot swing in subsequent rounds and cannot disengage (if Terrorized). The best option for a Henchman who is taking up precious room for others to attack is to Flee. If a Henchmen passes the Terror test, it may be prudent to disengage on the next round if it allows others to charge.

Obviously, the ideal situation doesn't always occur and you may have to make the best of a bad situation. Sometimes it may be best to cut your losses, sacrifice a Henchman and regroup in a more open area, giving time for your warband to recover from Terror and be able to charge again.

### **Setting Up an Ambush**

Setting up an ambush against a Vampire entails using protected ranged warriors in Overwatch stance. The protection depends on the circumstances. For example, the AI goes after Henchmen (weaker) warriors so one can be used to lure the Vampire into melee with the ranged warriors protected (somewhat) by being elevated on a different level.

The ideal protection comes from covering the Vampires advance (on the ranged troops) by a warrior in Ambush. This prevents the Vampire from reaching the ranged warriors. Of course, if there is more than one enemy that can advance on the position, there needs to be an equal amount of warriors in Ambush so the Vampire can't get through.

The more Overwatch stances that target the Vampire (delay may be in order to skip other enemies), the better to affect the Vampire with the "end movement" mechanic. For example, every time the Vampire gets shot with Overwatch the SP is finalized so 3 Overwatch shots effectively takes 3 SP from the Vampire, potentially stopping the Vampire from reaching the ambush area.

### **Effective Melee with Henchmen**

A starting (non-ranged) Henchman is cut and dried, since it should have the most damaging weapon (a 2-Handed, if possible) and should charge a Vampire possibly Fleeing in later turns to make room for other (or subsequent) charges. Since Terror takes away 3 OP, the Henchmen can either attack or not.

When a Henchman reaches 4 OP, things become a little more complicated. The normal strategy is to switch the 2-Handed weapon with a 1-Handed weapon to maximize overall damage. Against a Vampire, however, it is prudent to use the secondary weapon slot to your advantage. Carrying a 2-Handed weapon in the secondary slot gives the possibility of switching to it if facing an Undead Warband.

With 4 OP, a Henchman can also be Terrorized and still switch weapons, allowing the Henchman to switch to a 1-Handed weapon and shield. Even if you are building the Henchman for Dodge, it is prudent to carry a shield at this point for a possible Parry/Counter-Attack against a Vampire. This is the only attack possibility a Terrorized Henchman with 4 OP has (barring skills). It also allows a Henchman that charged with a 2-Handed weapon and passed the Terror test to switch weapons and keep 1 OP for possible counter-attack on the turn after it charges.

When a Henchman reaches 5 OP, the normal strategy of using 2-Handed weapons for maximum damage still applies to Vampires since the Henchman will be able to attack even if Terrorized. A 1-Handed weapon build should still carry a 2-Handed weapon in the secondary slot for charging the Vampire unless the skills selected can compensate for the -3 OP that Terror does.

The bottom line is to pay attention to what your Henchman can and can't do with full OP (passing Terror tests) and -3 OP (failing Terror tests) and plan accordingly.

## ***Dealing With Fear***

Dealing with Fear is much the same as Terror except any skills/spells/actions that subtract from "chance to hit" (most notably Charging and Open Wounds) can add up with Fear to render attacks virtually useless. Make sure a warrior has a good chance to pass Fear before Charging, otherwise walking up to attack is prudent.

If a warrior receives a critical hit (or more than one), Fear becomes amplified if failed. A Poultice can eliminate the "Open Wounds" debuff(s), taking away the additive negative effects (directly increasing the chance to hit), especially when testing against Fear. A warrior with multiple "Open Wounds" from crits needs a Poultice or should stay away from Fear causing enemies.

## ***Immunity to Poison***

Be aware that any "dead" enemies (Vampire, Thralls and Zombies) are immune to poison and poison strategies as well as debuffs from Mutations will not work against them. It is prudent to use these types of strategy against the Dreg, Necromancer and Ghoul enemies and have a back up strategy against "dead" enemies.