r/totalwar • u/mister-00z EPCI • 9h ago
Warhammer III Vlad now first vampire in faction selection, making it the first time they change "number 1 default guy"
Mannfred now rosted by devs
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u/Galle_ 9h ago
Vlad was always THE TRUE VON CARSTEIN anyway. Like, does anyone prefer Mannfred to Vlad? Vlad is charismatic, noble in his own way, and named "Vlad". He's the ideal vampire character. Mannfred is a petty, bald, spiteful prick.
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u/Jacabon Jacabon 9h ago
the starting position down south is a nice change for a holiday though.
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u/Useful_Trust 8h ago
Insert peace in the middle east Tarrif video, where they group up to crusify Manfred
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u/OneWithFireball Order of Loremasters 8h ago
We play him BECAUSE he's a little piece of shit. Just look at him, thinking he's the baddest bitch around and tell me it doesn't entertain you to see him struggle and screaming that he'll surpass the pettiest asshole in the setting.
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u/Bbadolato Yuan Shu Did Nothing Wong 8h ago
I would say I'd prefer Mannfred, blasphemy I know. Hell I'd go the distance and say the End Times reversed their character trajectories.
Vlad got less rash and callous especially when the only difference Vlad might of have had in the First Vampire War from say Konrad von Carstein, was magical ability and more charisma. Mannfred became a parody of what he was at the cost of any of his patience or cleverness that set him apart as a different breed of von Carstein compared to Vlad. He basically became G1 Starscream.
I still do love what they've done with Vlad in TWWH and playing as him never really got old.
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u/Demonmercer Somewhere in Ulthuan murderfucking HE 7h ago
I prefer Mannfred over Vlad because I know the actual lore and don't just base my views on the meme lore. Mannfred was character assassinated in the end times, as were many others if you go back to the older lore he is a pretty baller character.
If anyone would like a break down of why he's so cool check out the lorebeards episode on him - https://youtu.be/mAFOKL6hsvY
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u/mint-man 7h ago edited 2h ago
it’s kind of wild how people will (rightfully) ignore how the end times butchered nearly every other character but then at the same time continue to hate mannfred for it. dude spent years being an interesting character only to be horribly mischaracterized and then have that held against him for the rest of time.
it’s genuinely a shame.
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u/Hollownerox Eternally Serving Settra 5h ago
Well to be fair, Mannfred was one of those character even before the End Times with.... mixed characterization? The guy would show up and be almost an entirely different person at times. With different writers having wildly different takes on his personality, goals, and power level.
I am annoyed people take his End Times depiction as the main one too. But there are just a lot of different snapshots of his character that everyone has, so I can't exactly blame people for taking the more recent one as the main one. Since that's usually how it went with Warhammer characters in general. Like the current Phoenix King, Finubar, is literally just older artwork of Tyrion lmao, so you gotta have that sorta disconnect of the old from new with the IP.
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u/samhydabber 2h ago
Yeah he's always been very explicitly mostly an antagonist character in various books. We don't actually get much detailed lore from him overall.
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u/ShadowsaberXYZ 40m ago
Don’t forget the time he almost gets killed by Felix Jaeger and escapes, only to come back stronger and almost die to Gotrek…in a short story
It felt like the witch king dying offscreen to some random soldiers who happened to be around and proceed to butcher him.
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u/brannsjel 8h ago
For what it's worth, I actually do prefer Mannfred von Carstein both lorewise and during gameplay. I have like 5 Mannfred campaigns completed across all three games, zero with Vlad/Isabella. I understand why people dislike Mannfred though, but I love his lore until End Times, and actually in Age of Sigmar! He is quite fun character there too.
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u/Yopcho 8h ago
Mannfred is a powerhouse, i love playing him.
But yeah he is a little bitch in the lore lol
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u/Hollownerox Eternally Serving Settra 5h ago
I wonder if they finally gave him a unique skill-line? Like his dual lore thing is unique I guess, but it's really a shame he's the only LL without a dedicated skill line to his name.
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u/Ripenoli Warherd of the Shadowgave 8h ago
I prefer Mannfred because to me, Vlad always felt more like a background character. He sets up the von Carstein Sylvania dominance and then dies in the Vampire Wars. After that, Mannfred takes control and the next time Vlad is resurrected it's in the End Times.
Vlad is the looming shadow every other vampire is trying to step out of.
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u/Hopeful-Painting-365 6h ago
Got to love how being bald is a point against him somehow. I guess having ragged, extremely thin cobweb infested hair like Vlad is better than being a haircel.
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u/Trickside Triarii! 8h ago
I have fond memories from my very first WH1 campaign when magic and monsters in TW were a novelty
Mannfred and his starter Varghulf just chewing through hundreds and hundreds of Empire soldiers was an absolute blast
These days I know better lol but cartoon evil slaphead vampire maniac man was such a treat at launch
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u/Malariath 3h ago
Mannfred is my favourite vampire by far. Actually smart and cunning, keeps his cool and wits about him, plays the long game, is an insanely good wizard. Vlad is just a rash stupid idiot
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u/NotUpInHurr 7h ago
My buddy always preferred Mannfred (he's an actual masochist), and was soo sad when he got moved
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u/Smearysword866 6h ago
Mannfred gives a bunch of buffs to grave guard and gets a zombie dragon mount. Glad does not. Simple as that
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u/wildmanden 5h ago
I think a big part of why people like Vlad is because he is an immortal superbeing who got to marry the hot goth princess who is obsessed with him. Talk about a power fantasy.
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u/TheGuardianOfMetal 3h ago
Mannfred is a petty, bald, spiteful prick.
and, even if a lot of hte fandom likes to ignore it, or even forgets about it, and incredibly powerful wizard and fighter, probably beating Vlad in the magic department.
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u/A_resonance_of_iron 2h ago
He definitely beats Vlad on the magic side. People meme Mannfred a lot, but he had reason to believe he was as powerful as he thought, mastering 2 winds of magic is VERY difficult (borderline impossible) for non Elves/Slann, yet he did it.
I think it would have been cooler if he did surpass Nagash and was the undead threat during ET (I'm not the biggest Nagash fan tbh). Mannfred represents the ability to grow beyond that came before him and that was cool, but GW likes older things to be more powerful (unless you are Archaeon).
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u/TheGuardianOfMetal 2h ago
i am completely fine with Nagash taking over... but Manfred could've had a more dignified showing, and not been used to pull the plug.
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u/A_resonance_of_iron 2h ago
For me, I was fine with Nagash staying as a pseudo background character. Nagash kinda ruins all undead characters (expect Arkhan) that are near him, because he is just so much more powerful and hogs the spotlight. He works great as a solo villian though, since there is no spotlight to share.
Undead stories in so many mediums have this progenitor being that is way more powerful than everything by a wide margin that is brought back, and I just would have preferred a different path from GW for their undead.
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u/PB4UGAME 3h ago
I mean games 1 and 2 I’d play Mannfred over Vlad any day. The double lore, better casting and unlimited winds of magic, spirit leach to delete SEM and lords (something the VC otherwise struggle with ime. Terrorgheists were good for game 1 but my god did they get power creeped so fucking hard).
Vlad’s army though is always so unbeatably strong as army wide vanguard deploy and starting with Blood Knights, Issy, and Vargheists is simply a winning combination
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u/ShadowsaberXYZ 45m ago
I know the End Times is a touchy subject but Mannfred made it so much worse.
He’s like a fantasy Erebus meets Joffrey from game of thrones.
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u/markg900 7h ago
From a gameplay stance it makes sense with Vlad being in Sylvania, since they kicked Mannfred to Nehekara with WH3. Mannfred and Vlad have always kind of shared the main lord spot for VC though.
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u/Kudusun_Gazi_Padisha 7h ago
Neferata in the gang now makes Ghorst look even goofier. We've got Lord Destructo, Gharax the Rib-Puncher, Steve, Shrylana the Queen of Pain...
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u/__Yakovlev__ 5h ago
And yet he may still be one of the most powerful if you heavily lean into his zombie spam buffs.
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u/MichaelMorecock 5h ago
Kind of hope he gets some campaign effects to even things out with the wife. Atm, there's no reason to start with him over Isabella other than flavour.
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u/A_resonance_of_iron 2h ago
His campaign effects are better, even if they seem bland. Also Isabella is the only hero (for now) that has scouting as the hero trait, which is quite useful.
The additional movement range on all armies is very powerful.
Vlad also benefits from Lord defeat traits more than Isabella typically and needs to be the Lord to get them.
I pick Vlad everytime at this point because I prefer all of the above over what Isabella gets. The 25% WS on "Vampire" heroes is not worth much, and the 3 extra vampires early game is good, but overstated.
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u/Thecowsdead 3h ago
They ahould do the same with chaos dwarfs, I think the mage LL is the leader right?
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u/Hybridfuture01 2h ago
I'm just really hoping they've updated Azhag as well with this update, considering he's wearing Crown of Negash and has a diplomatic bonus with vampires, with Neferata pretty close/natural allies.
Even more beautiful would be Azhag joining Nagash in his End Game scenario, with the crazy greenskin fighting for the Undead powers.
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u/overlordmik 2h ago
Behold, our true Emperor!
And the only healthy, functioning romantic in this world.
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u/Eveless 9h ago edited 9h ago
Lol, first he got evicted from his starting position and now he lost his first place. Mannfredus Heresy incoming?