1. Block enemies with a swarm of deckhands.
2. Nuke them both with a Queen Bess.
3. Have a 2 units of deck gunners, when upgraded, they kill most of the large units with two salvos.
4. Send depth guard to kill the staggerers.
5. ???
6. Profit.

The key is the deck gunners.
VC artillery lacks firepower obviously (compared to other range focused factions), except for the Queen Bess that just melts anything, so don't rely too much on it.

But yes, many Vampirate units feel lackluster tbh.

so which ones are better? deckgunners with "Shieldbreaker" ability or gunnery mob with hand cannons and "Stagger Shot" ability?

Use their other units. Mournghouls and Syreens are disgustingly good now. I play a ton of cylostra and unlike vanilla they aren't a 'spam arty and win' faction, esp vs lizardmen (high phys resist) and elves (everything having shields).

Both situations you listed are countered by syreens (magic damage) and mournghouls (extreme anti-infantry). You can also utilize their monster units and high number of heroes as well. Takes some getting used to though.

Definitely Deck Gunners.
Hand Cannons can be powerful in certain situations but still it doesn't compensate for the extremely short range and clunkiness that comes from it.

Btw, Mournghouls Hunters are beasts.

imo it feels like VC lacks also anti-large units, esp when you have to fight elves (Loremasters took most of Lustria and are beating dark elves butts lol), most of their armies have like 2-4 dragons who just fly behind my lines and wreak havoc.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Dizzy Bat:

Use their other units. Mournghouls and Syreens are disgustingly good now. I play a ton of cylostra and unlike vanilla they aren't a 'spam arty and win' faction, esp vs lizardmen (high phys resist) and elves (everything having shields).

Both situations you listed are countered by syreens (magic damage) and mournghouls (extreme anti-infantry). You can also utilize their monster units and high number of heroes as well. Takes some getting used to though.

Yeah i was trying to utilize everything, i am aware syreens and mounghouls are good, i am just dissapointed that all the other monsters aka those crabs, leviatan, and husk seem completly useles. Especially leviatan is dissapointing, i though he was equivalent to dinos. I suppose i shoudl play them without army caps, cos i think mounghoul and syreens both and not core units, and if i use them as infantry then i don't have points for my backline.

Lizardmen go through any kind of frontline you can scramble together as VCoast. Except maybe for syreens but they cannot hit anything with that abysmal MA of theirs and they melt when hit by spells.

What works for me is just the lord, 2 stagger shot dudes (the tier 3 gunnery mobs with big guns - I'm really not good with VCoast naming conventions) and the rest filled with the basic riflemen. Optional: A lore of the deeps caster, Queen Bess, a couple grenadiers and crab riders thrown in. Also optional: Swap a few riflemen for deck gunners when you can recruit them. I have no frontline because it's useless.

Arrange the riflemen in a checkerboard formation, place one stagger shot dude on each flank facing out. Put EVERYONE on guard mode and disable skirmish mode as well. Whoever gets attacked stays their ground while the ones that have a clean line of sight shoots the attacker, the rest keeps shooting at whatever they have a LoS for. The big gun dudes on the flanks will stop any charge dead on its tracks, the flankers won't even be able to get into melee let alone get a clean charge in. Prioritize any big dino (watch out for those ancient salamanders!) or flyer they bring, focus fire with the rifles and they will get deleted in one volley or two. Don't break formation for whatever reason, let those riflemen who get engaged stay engaged and shoot into the attackers' flanks with the rest. Your sky-high damage is your only saving grace and everyone's gotta be shooting 24/7.

The optional crab riders will stagger and slow the enemy frontline's approach and tie them up when they engage while the attackers get gunned down in seconds by your riflemen. Depth caster is handy for summons and anti-blob spells. Queen Bess is Queen Bess.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Winger:

Lizardmen go through any kind of frontline you can scramble together as VCoast. Except maybe for syreens but they cannot hit anything with that abysmal MA of theirs and they melt when hit by spells.

What works for me is just the lord, 2 stagger shot dudes (the tier 3 gunnery mobs with big guns - I'm really not good with VCoast naming conventions) and the rest filled with the basic riflemen. Optional: A lore of the deeps caster, Queen Bess, a couple grenadiers and crab riders thrown in. Also optional: Swap a few riflemen for deck gunners when you can recruit them. I have no frontline because it's useless.

Arrange the riflemen in a checkerboard formation, place one stagger shot dude on each flank facing out. Put EVERYONE on guard mode and disable skirmish mode as well. Whoever gets attacked stays their ground while the ones that have a clean line of sight shoots the attacker, the rest keeps shooting at whatever they have a LoS for. The big gun dudes on the flanks will stop any charge dead on its tracks, the flankers won't even be able to get into melee let alone get a clean charge in. Prioritize any big dino (watch out for those ancient salamanders!) or flyer they bring, focus fire with the rifles and they will get deleted in one volley or two. Don't break formation for whatever reason, let those riflemen who get engaged stay engaged and shoot into the attackers' flanks with the rest. Your sky-high damage is your only saving grace and everyone's gotta be shooting 24/7.

The optional crab riders will stagger and slow the enemy frontline's approach and tie them up when they engage while the attackers get gunned down in seconds by your riflemen. Depth caster is handy for summons and anti-blob spells. Queen Bess is Queen Bess.

thank you for you massive help, I see now that my main fail was trying to use chevron formation as if i was a dwarf or empire.

If you're playing Luthor just grab the Sword of Khaine and you can solo Lustria in its entirety

But yeah VC mortars are complete garbage in SFO and Carronades are only good for sniping towers. Rush Necrofix and shooty crabs with Luthor

HI, I'm wondering if you have any trouble with post battle rouge armies, primarily the pirate fleets. On my current playthrough I just crash to desktop after winning vs the ork pirates and selecting post battle loot.