Vampire

*Vampires lead the Undead in their search for the magical stones that will give their master the power to conquer the Empire. Although but pale shadows when compared to the dread Vampire Lords, the immortal servants of Vlad are still some of the most powerful creatures who fight in Mordheim. Most of them serve the undying count of Sylvania, but some have found the city to their liking, and have become independent.*

Undead can hire only one Vampire. It will automatically and right away become the Warband's Leader, unless your Necromancer has a particularly high Leadership score (2020/06/25 - need confirmation). If the Necromancer dies, the Vampire becomes the Leader of the Warband, if it isn't already.

\* Defence granted by the Resilient skill

Leader: Leadership Range 6

Enables the recruitment of Dire Wolves (see Creatures)

Immune to Psychology

Immune to Poison

No Pain: (invisible ability) ignores stun effects

Arristocratic: Vampires will not equip items deemed to be beneath them.

* Starting Skills: Unarmed, Weapons Training, Advanced Weapons Training), Resilient, Fearsome.
* Skill Access: Combat Skills (WS up to 8), Shooting Skills (BS up to 8, Thrown Weapons and Bow Training only), Academic Skills (Ld up to 4, Includes Necromancy and Sorcery), Strength Skills (S up to 6 and Resilient up to 3), Speed Skills (I up to 8).
* Starting Equipment: Shirt.
* Equipment Access: Most Helmets, all steel armours and mage robes, all hand to hand weapons, all bows, throwing weapons and Shields, and all items but Garlic.

## Solo Vampire

Vampires can solo the game, it is difficult but the added difficulty can be fun to play.

### Starting Stats

If you want to solo the game with a Vampire the first thing you need is to hire the correct vampire. You need a Vampire with 10 Wounds, Weapon Skill 45, Strength 40+ and Initiative 50+, the rest of the stats either don't change or don't matter to much.

Beware that this can take time. However, you can increase the pace if you Load your Warband once you have checked the Crypt after each battle this gives you two Crypt refreshes per battle. If you Load the warband again the Crypt will remain as per the first load, so don't bother.

### Strategy and initial warband composition

In order to hire a Vampire you need at leach 3 Henchmen (I recommend taking at least 2 high Initiative (35+) Ghouls see reason below).

Vampires and their equipment are expensive. So while you are waiting for the perfect Vampire to come along, I recommend to use the Gold Crowns Strategy (mainly use Map of Mordheim to do University District, Defend the Find, attacker missions). Although they are more expensive it helps to have Ghouls with Sprint to get to all the crates in the map. You should keep at least 4-7 Tomes of Necromancy for your Vampire.

Additionally you should learn Streetwise and Haggle with your Necromancer to look for the Vampire equipment (Visored Helm, Gromril Armour, Necrarch's Robe, Gromril Sword or at least a Falchion, Comet Maul and Imperial Skull Shield, Elven Cloak, Lucky Charm, Rope and Hook) and get it for a little less gold. As with the Vampire in the Crypt the Store can be refreshed twice per battle if you load the warband once you have already checked the Crypt and the Store.

### Development

Since taking Attack Increase, Combat Master, Mighty Blow, greatly increases his warband rating and makes it more difficult to win battles and level up. I recommend to develop them in the following order:

Sprint (been able to move 14 squares per turn is amazing), Armour Training (if you have not bought 1 Gromril Armour while you look for your perfect Vampire, you should keep the necromancer in your warband until you do), Advanced Weapon Master (increases initially increases Parry, and later on the Comet Maul's Strength), Weapon Skill Increase 1 and 2 (is the best defence in Close combat and helps you kill enemies), Strength Increase 1, Wounds Increase 1, Weapon Skill Increase 3 and 4, Strength Increase 2, Wounds Increase 2, Strength Increase 3, Wounds Increase 3, Weapon Skill Increase up to max (8), Resilient 2 and 3, Step Aside (at this point you can change between your Sword and Shield to your Comet Maul), Strongman, Attack Increase 1 and 2, Mighty Blow, Combat Master, Strike to Injure, Strength Increase up to max (6), Quick Reactions,Lightning Reflexes, Initiative Increase up to max (if you are facing high Initiative opponents you should Increase it before this point so you have the initiative in most situations), Unstoppable Charge, Web of Steel, Leadership Increase up to 90+, Necromancy, (all the spells or at least Doom and Life Stealer using Tome of Necromancy), Doom up to max, Life Stealer up to max, and then whatever you want.

Alternately you can learn Necromancy, (all the spells or at least Doom and Life Stealer using Tome of Necromancy), Doom up to max and Life Stealer up to max before learning any additional attacks.

### Equipment

* Initially I equip him as a tank: Visored Helm, Gromril Armour, Sword (Gromril Sword or at least a Falchion) and Shield (Imperial Skull Shield (Gives you Leadership +5 and does not negatively affect your Initiative as Votive Shield does)), Elven Cloak, Lucky Charm, Rope and Hook and Lantern. This configuration warranties the survivability of the Vampire and allows him to wear down opponents.
* After learning Resilient 3 or Step Aside, I equip him as a close combat damage dealer: Same as before but interchanging his Sword and Shield for a Comet Maul.
* And once he has learn the spells you can change his Gromril Armour and Visored Helm with a Necrarch's Robe and a Flat Hat, so you don't impede spell casting.

*Back to Hired Swords*