Which kingdom for Vamp Queen?

[Bonfire]

True she is ridiculously overpriced in vanilla but in cbm she does have a narrow niche. Specifically when you want both an immortal thug and someone to summon national blood summons. eg.

LA Ulm has sanguine heritage for D3B3
A dom 9 VQ with B3D3 only costs 8 points more than a dom 9 B3D3 Lich.

Patala/Bandar Log have summon Dakini for A1B2
A dom 9 VQ with A1D2B2 is 2 points cheaper than a A1D3B2 Lich.
A dom 9 VQ with A1D3B2 is 14 points more expensive than a A1D3B2 Lich.
A dom 9 VQ with A1D3B4 is 18 points cheaper than a A1D3B4 Lich.
You may want to go to B4 to get easy access to blood boosters and summon mandeha.

So in those two cases the cost between a Lich and a VQ are roughly equal and the VQ is cheaper if you go up to blood 4 to get easy access to blood boosters. The VQ also becomes cheaper if you add on other paths either for magic diversity or better combat buffs.

You get higher hit points and protection with the Lich but the VQ gets flying, regeneration, and freespawn vampires which is a fairly even trade off imho.

Now personally I think the value of an immortal thug is questionable at best but if you want an immortal thug with blood access the VQ is not necessarily worse than your other options in cbm.

[Squirrelloid]

well, I highly doubt BL or Patala can afford a dom 9 VQ since they need great scales to afford their castles (BL - 1200g basically everywhere) or top tier mages (450g Nagarishi for Patala).

They're also probably better off taking a Phoenix if they want immortal, although taking a pretender that wants dom9-10 is kind of questionable for them anyway. (Phoenix Dom 9 F1A1B2 is 196pts for Dom + 76pts for B2 + 50 pts for the chassis is vastly cheaper than VQ could hope to be, and you could invest the difference in fire for flaming arrows casting).

I also see no reason LA Ulm would take an immortal thug for a pretender when it'll summon plenty...

[13lackGu4rd]

Bonfire, do your calculations with a Master Lich instead of a Lich, than you'll see the difference... basically a VQ with all that magic will be more in the lab than on the field, so if you insist on an immortal semi rainbow with high dom the Master Lich is the best chassis. moreover, the freespawn vampires is really not something you can rely on, even with dom10. remember that the freespawn ratio depend on the specific province you're in, so unless you're heavily pushing your dominion throughout your empire and your enemies, or your VQ spends all its time in your capital(than why take an immortal thug chassis in the first place...?) your VQ will be in lower dominion provinces which means very few freespawns...

[Bonfire]

Yes I realize the Master Lich is vastly cheaper for the same paths and dominion. You cannot however turn him into a thug. I never claimed the VQ was a wise investment because I don't think she is a wise investment. I merely said that she gets you a specific combination ,an immortal thug with high blood and low death, which is not always cheaper on another chassis.

[KissBlade]

Patala/BL can get away with lots of free scales cause prod/death/heat doesn't do much for them. Also you need the higher dom because you need to spread their heat dominion. Death and Blood provide access to paths they don't have. For LA Ulm, it's both thematic and provides the easy route to a sanguine instructor. It also has more versatility in practice than the lich because it is stealthy, life drain and flight. In fact the lich/master lich is quite overhyped among newer players as a good chassis. =P

With those being said though, mind you in my Patala guide, I thought VQ was a fun suggestion and had actually stated in the same paragraph that the GK (though nerfed now?) was probably a better alternative if you're looking in that route. The Cyclops and Destroyer of Worlds aren't shabby either.

PS. If you play Vanilla. You can probably afford the VQ since scale hits aren't as brutal but VQ is pretty overcosted in Vanilla. =\