Which do I prefer?
Vlad hands down.
Which is best?
Mannfred.
I don't think he should be however, Vlad was much better in combat as was Konrad over Mannfred but not only does he have no armour even though he wears it, his abilities are not that good, his weapon does not really match up to his fluff one, he revives in battle just the once as there is no rule saying multi, his ring's rule is once only with him getting a special ward save, he is over priced and he has little magic.
Take in mind GW have given Mannfred the hero a entire lore when Vlad could block out the sun and control elements, not to mention that Vlad had books wrote by Negash which Mannfred had to travel through the land of the dead to learn to read and use yet Vlad could use them.
So going from this Vlad is worse than him when he knows more than him, all the counts die stupidly easy even though they could of won without much effort, poor GW writing so that the empire fights on as always.
I mean come on, in the rule Mannfred has the same stats as Vlad, a special weapon you can not buy with points, armour, a extra 2 wounds and +2 artefacts of death while being cheaper! :swear: