Hey guys just wanted to share this weekends gaming lessons learned.

While I have had the Mortis Engine win two games for me now because it exploded turn 6 killing all of the enemies remaining units and characters I feel that this is a pretty bad one trick pony and will result in it getting magic'd/cannoned/bolted in turn 1 or 2 from now on. So I tried out a combat lord and found that he is the punch I was looking for! (and he can die and its not game over now more importantly!)

Vampire Lord -
-Beguile, Fear Incarnate, Aura of Dark Majesty, QuickBlood, DreadKnight,
-Sword of Anti Heros (new favorite!), Talisman of Protection, Other Tricksters Shard, Dragon Helm, Shield, Heavy Armor, Barded Nightmare

Wight King BSB -
-Shield, Lance, Barded Skele Steed, Screaming Banner

Necromancer -
-Lvl 2 Wiz, Staff of Damnation, Iron Curse Icon

Zombies - Standard, Muso Two units of 40

Ghouls x29 (this is where Necro hides...this usually sets behind GGuard)

Corpse Cart - Balefire

GGuard x40 HWShield Muso, Standard, Banner of the Barrows

Blood Knights x4
-Muso, Standard, Champ, Warbanner

My tactics: Now with the Lord my Blood Knights are under control and with the BSB they can pretty much guarantee they can free reform when they end up out of position due to overrun. In three games the Lord died once because he was hit with Miasma spell: -3 WS so he hit on 4s, then rolled horribly for his hits and ward saves BUT because of all the CR my unit made against the Juggy Lord that killed him the enemy lord lost combat failed stubborn leadership and was cut down like a chump so it was a semi-victory.

My units then suffered crumbles from losing my lord but they were raised back next turn and we went on to a major victory as my bloodknights continued to flank and kill his warrior blocks. (last book losing my lord after two turns of challenge combat like that would have been game over but now I see that I dont have to fear his loss really at all!)

I dont like the new lack of magic I have from dropping the Master Necro for the Vamp Lord so I am considereing dropping the Wight King BSB (as I feel I can still achieve wins in combat and free reforms 95% of the time without him) for a Cursed Book carrying Necromancer lvl2 so that I have two Invoke attempts per turn to keep my main army bulk at full strength.

After a few more games here is the current mutation of the list...

Vampire Lord -
-Beguile, Fear Incarnate, Aura of Dark Majesty, QuickBlood, DreadKnight,
-Sword of Anti Heros (new favorite!), Talisman of Protection, Other Tricksters Shard, Dragon Helm, Shield, Heavy Armor, Barded Nightmare

Wight King BSB -
-Shield, Lance, Barded Skele Steed, Screaming Banner

Necromancer -
-Lvl 2 Wiz, Scroll

Necromancer -
-Lvl 2, Book of Arkhan

Zombies - Standard, Muso Two units of 40

Ghouls x29 (this is where Necro hides...this usually sets behind GGuard)

Spirit Host x1, x1

GGuard x38 HWShield Muso, Standard, Banner of the Barrows

Blood Knights x4
-Muso, Standard, Champ

Dropped the Corpse Cart and the Blood Knights Warbanner because I found I needed another Wiz to get off Invoke to keep the GGuard and Zombies at full strength against heavy bowfire and combat. I will continue to update and document how the changes did. I hate losing the ASF from the Corpse Cart as it made non-ranked enemies hesitate to go into my zombies and GGuard. But I think the ability to have more success with Invoke will be worth it.

Newest evolution of this list...Will be testing it in a three game tournement with lots of Daemons, Ogres, Dark Elf and Chaos Warrior Players.

Lord - Lvl4 HvyArmor, Shield, on Barded Nightmare (1+, 4+\2+)
-Aura, Beguile, DreadKnight, Quickblood
-Sword of Anti-Hero, Dragon Helm, Talisman of Preserve, Other Trickster's Shard

---I am worried about the DreadKnight making me challenge but I have yet to find in 7 games someone who could even inflict a wound on my Lord. What other than a Blood Thirster should I hesitate to get into a challenge with?---

Wight King - BSB Skeletal Steed, Lance
Enchanted Shield, Luckstone, Rod of Flaming Death

---I love this guy! he takes loads of punishment and I have found that on those turns when I have to reform and move for the next charge I love casting magic missles with my lord so I added the Rod of Flaming Death to the king because I LOVE Flamecage for keeping that 50 block of enemy in place until I can flank/rear charge them next turn.---

Necromancer Lvl2, Book of Arkhan

---this guy works with the other Necromancer keeping the Zombies and GGuard raised.---

Necromancer Lvl2, Scroll
---Same as above---

Zombie Horde x44 Muso, Stand (Horde Formation)
Zombie Horde x44 Muso, Stand (Horde Formation)

---These guys are the tarpits for those units you don't want to deal with until later. DO NOT charge the units that are in combat with zombies as the zombies die in droves making it pretty impossible to "win" combat. Just enjoy the few wounds the zombies inflict and maneuver so you can kill the opponents other units and can be set up to charge the enemy when they finally kill off the zombies.
Zombies are like a magnet I dont know why people charge them so much must be the juicy wizards they are protecting in the middle of the formation.---

Crypt Ghouls x26 Ghast

---This is my Necromancer Bunker. I dont want it in combat period. Hopefully my GGuard or Lord can show up to help out before the Necromancers die if it does get charged.---

Grave Guard x30 Muso, Stand, Warbanner? (not sure if Barrows should go with Black Knights or GGuard yet?)

---I was running them in Horde Formation but I think they were more vulnerable to extra attacks being that wide. We will see if this smaller 6 wide unit will work better or worse.--- I love them with the Barrows Banner but we are going to try them with the Warbanner for this tournament.---

Black Knights x8 Barded, Muso, Stand, Champ, Banner of the Barrows?

---This is the unit with my Lord and Wight King BSB. I was using Blood Knights but I found that they died just as easily to shooting and attacks and were crazy hard to raise back while my Lvl 4 Lord can rais back a RANK of 5 with one casting for the Black Knights. They are essentially a Lord Deployment Vehicle so I'm not really worried about the extra wounds I lost by switching them from Blood Knights. (and I don't have to Frenzy Auto Overrun anymore!!!)---

Questions for those who read this...
Please let me know what could possibly threaten my Lord in a challenge. I have yet to take a wound on him in combat in 7 games. (He has only hurt himself and killed a few blood knights from miscasting but thats it.) He usually annihilates any character before they can even swing.

Do I need more units? I feel like I could use some Chaff. I usually have been using 2 single Spirit Hosts as my chaff/starting placements. I could add a unit or two of Dire Wolves by dropping a few Zombies and Ghouls?

Looks good to me,rather expensive to use ghouls as a bunker though.How about switching them for zombies and use the extra points for the chaff you wanted,are your black knights/characters in two ranks of 5?

The usual DE counter to deathstars is the Pendant Lord. It might not kill your lord, but unless you get lucky it might hold your deathstar up long enough for him to win the game.

The usual setup is a Dreadlord with 2+/2+ save against S5, on a Dark Pegasus. He charges your knights, you're forced to challenge and there you go. He's stubborn on Ld 10 and usually have a BSB within 12" from him (but more than 12" from your Sword of Heroes) for rerolls. He has Whip of Agony so your Lord's save is down to 4+/4+, and he's backed up by a lvl 4 to cast debuff Shadow spells on your deathstar. Without debuffs, you need to inflict 12 wounds on average, to get a single wound on him. The Other Trickster's Shard will help you out a bit though.

You could make a case for a kitted out Doombull too.

Awesome! I will be on the lookout for that DE Lord (He will be ldrshp 9 due to Aura of Dark as well as rerolling his wardsaves so he should go down in a turn or three)There should be at least one DE army in the Tourney sunday so I will report back if I face this.

And you are right about the ghoul bunker I am going to drop it for 3 blocks of 20 zombies that will stand in my back ranks and get Invoked! (gonna have to assemble and paint more zombies but I have three unopened boxes so no biggie!)
great ideas to get me thinking guys keep it coming!