Von Carstein


 * Not to be confused with Mannfred von Carstein, a legendary lord for Sylvania.

Von Carstein is a playable sub-faction of Vampire Counts introduced in Total War: Warhammer. It is led by Vlad or Isabella von Carstein and can be found in Sylvania, in the southeastern parts of the Empire.

The Vampire Counts are a collection of immortal vampires and twisted human necromancers. Using dark magic, they raise the dead and summon creatures of the night to march upon the lands of the living, seeking to dominate the world. Their armies consist of hordes of Zombies and Skeletons, backed up by ethereal ghosts and huge bat-like monsters. Vampire Counts units never rout or break; but they also have no ranged units.

How they play
A summary of Von Carstein gameplay:


 * Beloved in Death: Vlad and Isabella get bonuses when reinforcing one another, representing their bond.
 * Mausoleum of the Mad Count: A special landmark building which allows early recruitment of Vampire heroes.
 * Units: Large, varied roster featuring hordes of expendable undead infantry backed up by ethereal units and bat-like monsters. All lords are spellcasters.
 * Regiments of Renown: These are unique, more-powerful versions of regular Vampire Counts units.
 * Binding and Crumbling: In battle, units never rout. Rather, they will crumble into dust if losing badly.
 * Raise Dead: In campaign, units can be instantly recruited anywhere by raising the dead. Large battle sites provide more and better units to raise.
 * Vampiric Corruption: In campaign, vampires spread their influence, harming other factions. However, they take attrition in areas with low vampiric corruption.

Background
"Life is a cancer, but I have the cure - death everlasting…”"

Long ago, Queen Neferata stole the secrets of eternal life from Nagash. The elixir she created was flawed, bestowing immortality but at great cost. And so the Vampires were created and they have been a plague upon the living ever since.

Millennia later and the darkling figure of Vlad von Carstein arrived in Sylvania - a backwater region within the Stirland province of the Empire. Soon the whole of Sylvania's destitute nobility was in his thrall; the von Carstein bloodline was born. For years, the Vampire Counts of Sylvania kept their Undying existence a deathly secret. The region’s pathetic peasants and the neighbouring lords had their suspicions but nothing was proven until Vlad revealed himself in full lifeless glory at the head of an Undead host. His desire was nothing more than the throne of the Empire.

Vlad was slain at the Siege of Altdorf, the Undead army withered and his Vampire sires fled back to Sylvania, which was known to be a cursed land, tainted by perpetual death for evermore. Whilst Vlad’s bid for a vast Undead Empire failed, he did start a pattern that would repeat itself several times over the coming centuries. A von Carstein would take the reins of power within Sylvania and inevitably strike out against the living at the head of an Unliving army – power-hungry Necromancers, Zombie hordes, ranks of Skeletons, tomb-skulking Crypt Ghouls and bestial Varghulfs are just some of the nightmares a Vampire Lord can summon to his indomitable will.

Vlad may have been the first of the von Carstein line, but Mannfred was equally feared - he also came close to despoiling the Empire, being finally brought to bay at Hel Fenn and slain. But what is no longer living is never easy to kill; both Vlad and Mannfred have risen again. The dead have never rested easily in Sylvania and now they lurch from their graves, summoned to Unlife by the Midnight Aristocracy as each prepares to challenge mankind once more. Both believe they are the rightful, Eternal Emperor; the usurper, Karl Franz, will learn this at great cost - and all the living will pay tribute to the von Carsteins’ Unholy Majesty!

In battle
Von Carstein use the Vampire Counts unit roster and play largely the same. They have access to the same Regiments of Renown.

In campaign
Von Carstein is a normal non-horde faction which controls settlements and provinces. They largely play the same as the main Vampire Counts faction, with the following exceptions:

Legendary Lord choices

 * Vlad von Carstein
 * Isabella von Carstein - Isabella was released as free content, but must be manually downloaded from Steam in order to play.

Mausoleum of the Mad Count
The Mausoleum of the Mad Count is a special landmark building available to the Von Carstein faction, which can be built in Castle Drakenhof. It allows recruitment of Vampire heroes much earlier than would otherwise be possible.

Victory Conditions
These are actually quite different from the Vampire Counts main faction. The player no longer needs to defeat the forces of Chaos, nor defeat the Dwarfs for the long campaign objective. Instead the aim is to unite with the main Vampire Counts faction, and in the long campaign to unite with Mousillon and defeat the Bretonnia sub-factions Bordeleaux and Carcassonne


 * Short Campaign
 * Maintain control of 15 provinces, either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies.
 * Destroy the following faction(s):
 * The Empire
 * Control the following 1 settlement, either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies:
 * Castle Drakenhof
 * Long Campaign
 * Maintain control of 20 provinces, either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies.
 * Destroy the following faction(s):
 * The Empire, Bretonnia, Bordeleaux, Carcassonne
 * Control the following 2 settlements, either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies:
 * Castle Drakenhof, Mousillon

Known Issues

 * Isabella von Carstein has a bug in multiplayer where she receives Throgg's Wintertooth Crown payload mission rather than the Blood Chalice of Bathori payload mission. This is due to a developer error where Isabella's Blood Chalice of Bathori questline is mistakenly scripted to proceed with Throgg's Wintertooth Crown quest instead of her own. As this mission can only be completed by Throgg, Isabella is unable to complete the mission to obtain the Blood Chalice and receives no rewards.
 * A mod that fixes this error can be found here.

Trivia

 * They were introduced in a free content update in February 2017, alongside Bretonnia.