I have 16GB of ram and no battles don't look weird if textures are installed. Last time I checked amount of RAM game was eating it was about 12GB. I had around 6-8 of my HD textures activated that time. Game may eat less or more depending on amount of HD mods you're using.

Regarding the crash you described I had it myself some time ago. See if you ticked unlimited memory on, may be worth a try.

roughly how much extra RAM do you reckon having this whole series of HD units mods activated requires? Essentially ive tried loading my save with them but the game keeps crashing when my save is almost done loading and im not sure if its due to the mods being too demanding or if one of them's conflicting with one of my other mods

also do battles look kinda weird if only one of the factions involved has HD textures?

for some reason i thought the first 2 screenshots were some weird new ork vampire coast guy lmao

I'd recommend you to download and check yourself, on my PC I barely notice it in battles.

What is the cost in FPS of these packs?

gj. although I wish you did the real vamps. xD

many thx for your work <3