Which creatures from the alternative upgrade options do you choose?

Nevil, stop spamming; this is not the first post of yours with virtually no content. If you continue, you will receive a warning. You could have provided a couple of arguments to prove your point. In my opinion, the upgrades are equivalent, even though alt-vamps lose counterattack, they gain a great ability that, with some probability, disables the enemy stack for a few turns. Statistically, the new vamps are slightly better, with a speed of 1 more, meaning they reach the target immediately without any tactics; the only downside is the large damage range.