Subscribe to download
Cela's Better Bloodlines

Vampiric Bloodlines felt uninspired and outdated to me, so this is my personal take on the bloodlines. This mod aims to make unlocking the bloodlines both powerful and exciting, and breathe new air into your Vampire Counts campaigns!
Additionally, each bloodline now comes with a powerful trait, making them feel more like semi-legendary lords. It may be a bit overtuned since I ported this from my personal overhaul mod, which I have not (yet) released.
Below are the list of changes and my intentions.

Strigoi

Tier 1: +20% speed and +20 charge bonus for all vampire characters, +5 Vampiric Corruption (all provinces), +2 Crypt Ghoul cap for raise dead
Tier 2: 20% Physical resistance for all vampire characters, +20% replenishment for all vampire characters
Tier 3: 20% weapon strength for all vampire characters, bound ability to summon a unit of crypt ghouls (all lords), +2 crypt horror cap for raise dead

Strigoi Bloodline Lords (not the generic ones) give significant buffs to Crypt Ghouls and Crypt Horrors and have access to the tunneling stance.

Dev note: This line emphasizes your faction giving into the feral vampire nature of the strigoi, strengthening all vampiric characters (lords and heroes) personally. Tunneling stance for the lords felt loreful since they prefer to dwell underground, and gives VC players a nice tool to fight off the dawi.

Von Carstein

Tier 1: +30 Diplomacy with Vampire Factions, +2 Lord recruit rank, access to sylvanian crossbowmen
Tier 2: ambush success chance +15%, +2 raise dead cap for vargheists
Tier 3: +10 MA during ambushes (all armies), -25% chance of being detected while in ambush stance, access to sylvanian handgunners, +2 raise dead cap for varghulfs

Von Carstein lords have access to the stalk stance, allowing them to ambush offensively. They now give buffs to bats, vargheists and varghulf, embodying their "master of beasts and men" credo.

Dev note: The von Carsteins are known as the most ambitious and proud of the vampires, able to unite the houses under one banner. They are also cunning strategists, in the Vampire Counts faction trailer from TW:WH1 we saw Mannfred ambushing an Imperial force. I thought this was more interesting than bland campaign effects. I wanted the strigoi line to buff vampires so moved the ambush stuff here and made it more spicy.

Blood Dragon

Tier 1: Character experience +25%, unit experience per turn +300
Tier 2: -35% vigour loss reduction (all armies). Leadership aura effect +10, leadership aura size +100%
Tier 3: Attribute: Vanguard deployment (all armies), 20% campaign movement replenishment after winning a battle, 2 blood knights cap for raise dead

Blood Dragon Lords have the glorious charge attribute, their armies have vanguard and gain 15% movement speed after winning a battle, cavalry have 20% increased weapon damage. They also have a 15% increased chance of wounding aggressors.

Dev note: Blood Dragons are the most martial of all vampires, constantly improving their craft. I moved character experience from Lahmia to them to represent that. They also give more Xp to units as 100 per turn is honestly a joke. Armies buffed by this line will be able to fight much longer, getting tired slower and are much less prone to crumbling.

Lahmia

Tier 1: +15% hero success chance, +150% campaign vision for characters, 20% campaign movement for agents
Tier 2: Offsets aversion with Empire, Kislev and Cathay, Bretonnia, +100% income from trade, faction's pronvinces you trade with are visible
Tier 3: +Diplomacy with Empire, Kislev and Cathay, Bretonnia, +2 capacity for all hero types

Lahmian lords can unlock vampire heroes anywhere and give +2 to vampire capacity. They gain the charmed contact effect (reducing melee attack) and hero actions in their province cost 50% less gold. Also increase growth, as they charm mortals into their realm.

Dev note: The Lahmian Sisterhood are manipulators, enthralling human empires with spies and agents every court. The diplomacy bonuses first offset all aversion you would normally have with major human factions, on tier 3 it gives you +30 relations with all major human factions. This allows you to set up trades or fight wars with them on your own turns.
Having an army of banshees next to your Lahmian lord blocking armies and assassinating characters is quite powerful as well.

Necrarch

Tier 1: Cooldown for all spells -10% (all characters), +20% spellcasting range (all characters)
Tier 2: Winds of magic reserve +50 (all armies), Winds of magic per turn +10 (all armies)
Tier 3: +100 research points, -15% cooldown to all spells (all characters)

Necrarch lords give magic attacks to all units in their armies, have 15% increased spellcasting range, the ability "Master of the Black arts" and wind of death as a free bound spell.

Dev note: Possibly the most powerful of the bloodlines, the Necrarch bloodline unlocks your full spellcasting potential. It effectively doubles research speed but VC research is quite slow. The lord itself is a true casting powerhouse and now finally has access to the best spell from the lore of vampires, wind of death. To be honest AI told me this spell was associated with them but I couldnt find any reference for it. I decided to stick with it either way. Magic attacks for their army also makes them the lord of choice when facing daemons.

The legendary vampires had their traits improved to be on par with the new bloodline traits.

---

Compatability: This mod datacores the effects_bundles_to_effects_junctions_tables, which is one of the most commonly datacored entries for overhauls (means they are incompatible).

Leave feedback below and check out my "Cela's Dark Elves Names of Power Rework" mod! https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3343678839