I lost an unequipped vc against about 10 indep militia, so they are not that strong unequipped.
But they are immportal and stealthy and flying, hard to pin down with an army... should do well as raiders. Marignon should be able to kill them easily with their starting spell holy pyre.
Ice devils are cool, but there can never be more than 7(?) in the game. There can be endless amounts of vcs.
The rangers have 12 hp, 12 base precision, crossbows have a +2 pre modifier, and stealth. The best missile troop in the game I think. They are better than longbows or marignon crossbows... on the other hand, those have easy access to wind guide / flaming arrows which might compensate.
Late game fun: 100 unequipped vampire counts in friendly dominion with orders to cast blood vengeance, cast soul vortex, attack
I think rangers need to cost more, and there should perhaps be a limit on how many vampire counts can exist at the samt time, like ice devils are limited. Perhaps max 3 at the same time since you wont have several nations competing for them.
Otoh they are not that good later on... so something to lower the early effectiveness might be better. Maybe fewer equipment slots, can anyone think up a thematic reason for this?