managed to finish off the cult of sotek campaign - took 300 turns. it was fun enough but their playstyle is a bit too simplistic for me.
started a new campaign as vampire counts, am at turn 100 and having more fun due to the greater variety of units and you have to adapt your playstyle significantly in comparison to dwarfs and lizards. very little trade comes in and there are little things you need to learn.
Public order becomes a real problem that you need to actively manage.
it was a rough 70 odd turns, I was getting hurt from all sides and then Helman Ghorst turned up to bolster my offence, once i had levelled the guy up he turned into one man massacre machine laying waste to everything and anything.
....and wow, raising the dead, what an ability to have. Murder my entire army? no problem, in two turns I will be back with a full 20 unit army and full HP to kick your teeth in.
I have to say that I am really happy with the state of the game going into part 3, there is such a rich roster of heros and armies to choose from, you can't go wrong.
I am going to leave 'Da Boyz and Chaos play-throughs until last because I expect there will be significant changes and upgrades for the final Chaos focused chapter. Including possibly - the Chaos Dwarves ?