Vampire (Shadows)

Vampire (Shadows) is a Vampire Counts melee + spellcaster hero.. In amongst the fighting, a Vampire is a danger to her enemies, a vicious warrior and uncompromisingly cruel.

Description
Vampires are the true masters of Undeath. Despite their curse, Vampires retain all of their devious intelligence, and hence all of their ambition and desire. This makes them very dangerous indeed, for they can continue to grow and learn, spending eternity perfecting their skills and honing their diabolical plans and schemes. A Vampire is ultimately a selfish creature who retains many of the traits and drives she possessed when mortal. Whilst the crudest of their kind exist only to feed, some lust after temporal power and conquest of the living. The Necrarchs strive to attain unparalleled necromantic skills, whereas Lahmnians possess immense wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. The greatest curse of Queen Neferata's legacy is that Vampires cannot live on normal food and drink, but must imbibe fresh blood for sustenance. For the youngest Vampires, this unnatural thirst is very strong. At this stage, they are often rash and easily caught and killed by Witch Hunters and other dedicated enemies of the night. Though most learn how to survive on less and less fresh blood until they need to feed only every few years, some never overcome their primal hunting instincts.

Abilities

 * Dark Benediction
 * Immortal Will
 * The Hunger

Items

 * Scroll of Leeching
 * Sword of Anti-Heroes

Mounts

 * Barded Nightmare
 * Hellsteed

Spells

 * Lore of Shadows

Strategy
A spell caster that is actually quite good in melee, though it will take an investment in her combat skills to make her a serious duelist in campaign.

The Vampire's abilities offer a good amount of personal sustainability as well as boost to the leadership of nearby units (on top of the natural Encourage aura). Combined with their solid melee stats, they can easily be allowed to fight in the front line or engage in combat with friendly units nearby. Bolstering their leadership and healing when taking too much damage. Then add the utility of the spells the vampire can bring, the mount options as well, and you have a incredibly well rounded unit