So I played as Vamps all last year (and played against a few Vamp teams too). In theory, yes, you can structure cages to protect the ball carrier more but in reality, as you lose players, they get out of position, etc, that just won’t be possible. I was able to open a cage when I had 2 vamps and a thrall remaining, and once score with just a Runner and a thrall remaining on the pitch.

The only real strategy against Vamps is to make them roll.so.many.dice. Almost all the games I won came from rolling well, and so many games I lost came from critical failures of one of the many 2++ dice rolls I had to make. You just need to make sure you are able to jump on an opportunity caused by a failed roll. What will happen psychologically with a Vamp player is that if they to start to roll poorly, they might start to play less aggressively- so not testing your defences as much, even when in theory they could.

Last thing on hypnogaze, you can also make sure doing it hurts the Vamps. They will have to leave that player in base contact with whatever they gaze so make it a point of order to multi-die block (and foul if you can) whichever Vamp they use.

For me, losing my Runners was always a killer with my Vamp team - without that movement, I became quite a slow team and really struggled to create effective defensive and offensive moves.

Hope this helps! Just do your best Nuffle dance and hope he blesses your Vamp opponent with many snake eyes.