@Pacey-Milan
Yep a big hit on the sword masters will do a number on me but as they are never more than 2 deep a small template can kill max 8, i think it can be borne as war machines out fail initiative tests and I can always go 1 deep to reduce casualties to 4 per hit. Sword masters also lose less attacks from causalities due to 2A from the front rank. You are also correct that the eagles and cav will be running to to warmachines at full tilt
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@SpellArcher
Spot on with the lore attribute, the banner is -50/-60 when taken with the book and its not worth that many negatives. As for only having one combat unit, you'd be surprised at what spears can do against a soulblighted enemy and with doom and darkness the dragon princes can break units on the charge as being steadfast with -3ld is not great odds. As for the sword masters see below(It went a bit longer than expected). As for the gutstar Ogres dont worry me uncomped as purple sun and pit are too common for them to do well, as for armour I'll take your word on it as I'm still not sure about it.
@On Swordmasters
Yes sword masters are the most vulnerable of our elite infantry but they are also the only ones with multiple attacks. With magic it is very easy to improve the quality of an attack(mindrazor,withering,soulblight,wildform) but there are only 2 spells that I know of to increase the number of attacks(timewarp,smiting) meaning quantity beats quality(and why dark elves are considered better than us). I found that once lions got below 25ish the simply dont have the damage output to kill enough to make a difference while sword masters are still devastating in units of less than 10. Obviously phoenix guard dont kill anything better than our spears and the ward rarely helps them win a combat against more killy foes. I guess in summary my policy is if its dead it cant hurt you.
@Quick-battle rep Vs VC
My army was as above exactly while his was
Killy vamp lord of net listing
lvl 1 necromancer death with cursed book
wight king with MR3
30+ grave guard with greatweapons deployed deep
40 skellies with full command and +1M banner
2x 25ish zombies
40 zombies
10 skellies in conga with a champ
7 wolves with champ
2 bastswarms
2 terrorghiests
Spells AM:0,3,4,6 M:1
Vamp Move,rerolls to wound, invocation, 2d6 s4 Lvl1 death: 0
Deployment
I got my bolt throwers on a hill with the flaming archers between them and swordmasters in front with archmage and bsb. spears and small archer unit with lvl 1 off to the right with the dragon princes, one on either flank and eagles slightly closer to centre. He had most of this blocks in the centre with all the characters in the skelly unit and the lvl1 necro in the scond rank. and the big flying beasts on the outside but within 12" of the general.
Turn 1
I move the sword masters foward long with the draogn princes on the right flank who threaten his wolves. I spirit leech 6 wounds off a leadership 4 terrorghiest but he makes 3/6 regen saves on 6+
. I misfire purple sun but thanks to the banner it does nothing. He flies one beast up the left and screams off 5/6 dragon princes while the centre beast sprints 20" and screams at the small archer unit for no damage. Meanwhile all his blocks push foward and he IFs a bubble move spell to get right up in my face.
Turn 2
The graveguard are facing off against the sword masters and I manage to just angle them so they are out of the arc of the successful terrorghiest. I charge an eagle in the batswarm and throw the other in front the vampire lord and his skelly bus. My spears charge a small zombie unit, while the mage makes a run for it on his own to the right(out of all arcs of sight) and the small archer unit retreats. The dragon princes come around the flank and threaten charges next turn. In the magic phase I double 6 purple sun and the archmage decides to jump down a hole but not before taking a sizable chunk of the vampire army with him.(It literally went across his entire battleline and killed a massive amount) With twelve dice and only plague of rust left, I end the magic phase with more dice than I started. The spears crumble the zombies and reform to face the front of the other much smaller zombie unit and the dogs. The eagle smacks the batswarms around and does max wounds for none in return leaving one swarm on 3 wounds.
In his turn the left terrorghiest who scared 5 dragon princes to death charges a bolt thrower while the other flanks the swordmasters(didnt see this one at all) and the grave guard go in the front(suits me fine). The lord's unit charges the eagle who jumped in their way and the dogs decide they dont fancy the spears and run past while the remnants of the zombie unit block the spears up. The skelatal conga line goes in front of the dragon princes with the champion at the front of course. The magic phase is 8 versus 6 and I let him have the withering on the eagle fighting the swarms for 1 dice(damn book) but he only drops it to t3. He then goes for a bubble van hels(12+) and rolls a 6 on 3 dice which ends the magic phase(I still had a scroll left anyway.). We agree the eagle versus his vampire just dies and the other eagle only does one wound for 1 in return meaning the batswarm survives. The terrorghiest versus the bolt thrower crew does no wounds but I lose combat anyway(charge) and run(and die but he cant overrun due to the new faq) panicking the flaming archer unit who stay on the table. The sword masters butcher the grave guard leaving only 6 to attack back who together with the terrorghiest manage 4 wounds after stomps. Both units explode into dust leaving me to reform to face the exposed flank of his vampire lords unit.(He badly underestimated the damage swordmasters could do and expected to win here or at least hold).
Turn 3
The swordsmaster and bsb go in against the flank of the lords unit while the lone dragon prince that lost most of his unit to the terroghiest, rear charges the beast looking for revenge(he was down top 3 wounds at this stage so if the knight lived the beast died (charge +rear)). the other dragon prince unit charged the conga and the spears charged the zombie unit, while the archers rallied. I dispelled withering during my magic phase and forgot entirely about my shooting phase. In combat the eagle cleared out the batswarms at last and the spears trounced the zombies. The dragon knights killed the champion but the horses fluffed and the skeletons manged to down a knight in response so the knights were stuck. The vampire lord chose to attack the sword masters and only killed 2 thanks to losing his rerolls, the bsb did a wound to the vamp back while on the other end of the combat the sword masters killed the wight king, necromancer and 12 skellies( 17 wounds with 20 attacks!!). the return attacks from the 2 skellies did nothing and the unit crumbled taking the vamp with it. Unfortunately the lone dragon prince died before he could have his vengeance, but pretty much everything crumbled either at the end of the combat phase or at the start of his turn. We called it there. 20-0
I'll post up my analysis of the game tomorrow, all comments and criticisms welcome.