Hi, one of the things I pride myself on is being reasonably decent with vampires. I dont think they're nearly as easy as the top tier teams but I think they have an awful lot of potential and are hugely underestimated by most coaches.
I'll start by saying that personally I dont like starting a team with more than 2 vampires and never have more than 4 even in the most advanced team. If that means that this post isnt what you're looking for then stop reading now. I'll basicly explain why I dont take more than that.
Personally I think that you get the most from your vampires when they pick up block and dodge because they improve the offensive potential, make them very hard to knock down as well as saving a bundle of re-rolls. The difference between a blodge vampire and a rookie vampire is enormous. Partly for this reason I'm not a big fan of pro, it dosent really do much for me especially early on. Without pro I'm much more inclined to keep the number of vampires to manageable bloodlust levels. The same goes for all the passive skills, I only really want them after blodge which takes a while to get.
I like all the setups from zero to 2 vampires at the start.... I might consider stretching to 3 in LRB5 but I'd rather have 2 and another re-roll.
Due to the huge difference between skilled and unskilled vampires focus on scoring with the vampires. By all means score with thralls if thats the best way to score but unlike with alot of teams you actually want those vampire superstars to pick up alot of SPPs. I find skilling the vampires up is a bit easier with a maximum of 2 to focus on at a time. Your thralls will either skill up or die. Dont forsake them but they will naturally skill by themselves.... I dont know how but somehow they do it without any kind of special attention.
I know some people have had success by taking more vampires than I'd ever have, actually stretching to a full 6 in a developed team. I cant verify this but I'm fairly sure that they managed this by taking more pro, guard, and DT (I go for tackle as skill 3). I think they then used these vampires alot more conservatively than I could ever bring myself to use them. Try not to move them too often if you can help it, dont set some of them up on certain drives etc. I think that you still need to go for blodge first although I've heard pro can be useful as the first skill for vampires 3 and 4 for hypno gaze purposes.
If that made any sense then good luck and Yay! vampires
Victim of the Colonel's car boot smash. First person to use Glynn's bath.
Update: the Hartlepool family Glynn now has a virgin bath.
Barney is a clever dog.
I've only been asking for this for 3 years or so. 
