As far as i can see, those two armies are a very tough nut to crack for us imperials. They have both dragons, very strong mages, an enormous amount of potential wound recovery (especially the necromancer with the book on the mortis engine), a strong melee phase and lots of ethereal units.
unlike dwarves we cannot count on our cannons to be magic, melee is meh (outside of demygryphs) and general shooting is not strong enough to remove entire units in one phase so that they cannot be resurrected.
My current plan is a lot of shooting (2 cannons, 1 steam tank and one outrider unit), and a duo of lvl4 wizards with battle magic, demonology and a ruby ring. At least one Witch hunter (either hating undead for the hatred and the flaming attacks or hating demaon, so that his unit has magic attacks to hit ethereal enemies) and that's it.
Does anyone have any suggestion here? i simply cannot see how an empire army could ever win even against a mid VC one.
Late reply, but as a newly bitten VC-general as well as an old-time Empire General, I'll give some tidbits for whatever its worth:
Vampire Dragons are though, but not nearly as though as say HE or Chaos Dragons. At best they'll have a 4+/4++/5+++ (and be stupid) or a 4+/5++/5+++. The Dragon itself is also the weakest dragon in the game (as should be, since it's a zombie dragon). They're also flammable for what thats worth. Honestly good ol' cannons will probably work. Or just leave it be and aim those cannons at something else, like the...
... Master Necromancer on Mortis Engine. Now *this* is something you want to get rid of if your opponent brings it, even more so if it is his General, which it probably will be.
My go-to build for a Level 4 on Mortis Engine has Scepter, Talisman of Protection and either Ruby Ring or Hand of Dust. What this basically means for you as an Empire-general is that it's a Level 4 on a T5 heavy chariot with a 4+/5++/5+++ and 8 wounds, that raises dead twice per turn (on Ld8, with reroll if the VC BSB is nearby), who gives *all* undead within 18" +1" M and +1 Initiative, and has a 18" Reserve Move bubble when he casts Hellish Vigour.
This is by far the model I'm most catious about losing, not only because he's my General (with all that entails if he dies, crumble crumble) but also because he's by far the biggest force multiplier in my army.
The best part for Empire-players? You don't necessarily have to kill him asap, just charge him with anything (like a Captasus) and lock him in combat, because when he's in combat he can no longer raise dead and most of his spells can't be cast - and The entire thing hits like a wet noodle with D6+2 WS3 S3 attacks, not even a Captasus is afraid of that, heck you might even win combat. Biggest threat in combat is ironically its banshee scream.
Etheral units has always been a bit of a pain for Empire. Luckily most Etheral units are considered "meh" as they require a Cairn Wraith or Tomb Banshee to unlock. Even if he brings them, you do hopefully have at least a level 4 of your own, plus some characters with magical attacks.
Witch Hunters are, as you yourself mentioned, actually useful against Undead, so bringing at least one isn't a bad idea.
Empire shooting isn't that terrible against VC tbh. Yes, our Crossbows or Handguns won't be able to delete that unit of Grave Guard, nor that big unit of Crypt Horrors. But they can kill those small, annoying chaff units of Dire Wolves, Fellbats, Corpse Carts and put a dent in some of his infantry. But as others have already stated, try to finish of a unit before moving on to the next, or chances are it will just be healed.
Honestly, looking trough the VC armylist there aren't that many units that will cause Empire a massive headache (other than spammed Etheral units):
- Zombies, Skeletons or even Ghouls will be in a slog with Empire Infantry that Empire will probably win over time (unless the undead gets raised)
- Crypt Horrors can be pretty dangerous but deal with them the way you would deal with any Monstrous Infantry. Except for their T5 they're surprisingly squishy with just a 6+++.
- Vargheists hit like a train but the VC-player has literally less control over them than his opponent does, thanks to them being (very expensive) frenzied flying skirmishers with Fly(9). Just put something cheap like 5 Archers 15" away from them and laugh as he fail charges.
- Black Knights and small units of Blood Knights hit hard but I'd deal with them the same way I would any other heavy cav: Helblasters and Handguns. Black Knights kind of need character support (just like Empire Knights) because with their 1 WS3 attack the chances of rubber lance-syndrome is high.
- Corpse Carts (with Warped Tintnnabulation) is a support piece I'd try to get rid of before the main clash begins. Not because they're a lvl 1 (who cares), but because Undead within 15" crumble 1 less (stacks with Indomitable) and when raised 1 extra wound is added on 4+. My Corpse Cart literally won me the game in my last game with my VC thank to this. It's only T4 W4 with a 4+, so it's not too hard to take out.
- I wouldn't worry about the Black Coach because it's unlikely you'll face one; it's overpriced garbage (205 pts for a 4W heavy chariot!) and I don't really see the point in it. Shoot it with cannons if it isn't etheral and ignore it if it is.
- Terrorgheists are pretty nasty, but with only a 6+/5+++ they die surprisingly easy. They also only have 4 WS3 S5 attacks + Stomps, so chances are high they will wiff in combat against a unit with static CR. The main danger with them is flying terror causer with Banshee Scream, but with Ld9 from your General it's unlikely to do much, if anything.
- Varghulfs are fast af but are also afraid of even Crossbows and Handgusn with their T5 6+/5+++. They will also die if they go into combat alone against anything with static CR since they only have 5 attacks (including Frenzy) and no stomps and now post FAQ they don't get +1CR for Close order themselves. VC players will probably look at their Varghulfs the same way we look at our small Knight units - it's a support piece to go after fast cav, warmachines and weak units, possibly help out in a combat.
So with all that said, the only things I can't really see Empire deal with (and luckily for us, they are sort of mutually exclusive in that the VC-player can't really bring both) a big unit of Grave Guard with the +1 Regen banner, or a big unit of Blood Knights with the +1 Regen banner, where either unit is accompanied by a Vampire Count (or Ghoul King) and probably a BSB.
We can't really whittle them down fast enough with our shooting, nor can we really beat them in combat unless they're the last unit left in the VC-army and we combo-charge them from every direction at once.
If your opponent brings either of these units, I'd just tro to delay, redirect or feed it something to stop it in its tracks.
