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so I have played a bout with a few lists and I am happy with what I have come up with. As I started collecting my vamps before the new book I only have three boxes to buy to complete this army.

Ghoul king (lore of Vamps); Curse of Revenant, Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incanate, Skabscrath, Other Tricksters Shard, Dragonbane gem (445)

Necromancer (lore of Vamps); Lvl2, Corpscart, Unholy Loadstone, Book of Arkhan (245)

40 Ghouls (400)

5 Dire Wolves; Doom Wolf (50)

5 Dire Wolves; Doom Wolf (50)

30 grave Guard; FC, Banner of Barrows (410)

Terrorghesit (225)

Varghulf (175)

Cart sits behind main battleline of Ghouls and Grave Guard, Book of Arkhan is to guarantee VDM and loadstone as the reroll will come in handy with low level wizards, Ghoul King sits with Grave Guard, should survive to hit combat with regen, ward v flaming and LoS.

Terrorgheist and Varghulf wlll target warmachines.

Dire Wolves to fill out core and deployment drops.

C&C welcome

Thats a lot of points plowed in to the ghouls and grave guard. I would also like to see more casters besides the ghoul king and a lvl2 necro.

As it is, the necro will be forced to IoN, VDM or HV himself to pass the ASF of the cart on to the units withing 6". Tbh i see it as a waste of a spell and more importantly, 120pts wasted on a corpse cart which could instead be 2 more lvl1s to increase either your spell pool or the amount of IoN you can drop a turn to recover lost guys.

At least this way you have more chance of getting off IoN to restore the grave guard and wont have to spam spells at the corpse cart for ASF which people will be saving dice to dispel each time.

I'd also drop 1 unit of wolves to upgrade the varghulf to a 2nd terrorgeist. The extra movement, ranged ability and added threat will do 10 times what the varghulf or the wolves would. It also draws fire from the grave guard.

I would also look at maybe getting the ghouls up to 50 to meet core requirements. As mentioned the terrorgeists can cover flanks along with ranged spells if you roll them.

I would go with...

Ghoul King - Red Fury, Skabscrath, OTS, dragonbane Gem (saves 50pts - The Ld tests aren't important when his unit will hit on 3's and the extra wound seems excessive. This uses his initiative to full effect giving him a potential 14 attacks on the charge ensuring you should win combat)
Necro - Lv1, Book (the Lv2 isn't essential plus it saves 35pts for other stuff)
Necro - Lv1
Necro - Lv1
(The extra wizards increases your chance of getting VDM for the 2nd time which you can use on the higher level to affect all units rather than just the one that BoA does).

50 Ghouls (meets core, allows 10x5 for more attacks, harder to wipe out)

30 grave guard + FC + BoB (would like more but that's not essential with the multiple necro)

Terrorgeist
Terrorgeist

this gives you 2 less deployment drops (not a massive issue), 2 extra casters (major bonus, forces people to economise dispel dice, bigger safety net should general die), 3 howl attacks, 2 of which fly, a really solid block of ghouls that wont need IoN each turn and lastly, 25pts spare so you can get a scroll or whatever you want.

I did think about the multiple Lvl 1s but with no bunker they will find themselves in combat and would be easy VP for the opponent, The idea behind the Fear Incarnate and Aura on the ghoul king is that if a unit does fail the fear role then my GG will be hitting on twos, the extra wound is to increase the effect of the scream from Skabscrath and to keep him alive a little longer.

Still as with any new army practice makes perfect so will probably try out both lists at some point

you can drop 2 necro in the ghould and 1 in the GG and obviously move in and out of the unit if you see fit.

Hitting on 2s is nice but with BSB and the like i can't see it going off more than once or twice a game without use of lore of shadows to further dump the LD making it much more reliable.

The extra 1 wound from the scream is 5pts more than the potential 7 extra S5 attacks which count towards combat res. Its basically getting a random number of extra attacks each combat phase (pot. 7 per combat phase on the charge, 13 pet turn) vs 5 points for an extra howl wound each shooting phase. assuming you are in combat for 3 turns, 6 combat pahses, and in howl range for 3 shooting phases, the 5 points and 3 wounds over a game is nothing compared to the potential extra 37 attacks assuming you only charged once.

A combat-based lord would benefit more from the extra attacks in a whole game rather than 3 extra wounds.

I have to question the setup of the ghouls. You lose a lot of attacks because the supporting attacks are limited. Maybe splitting them into two units of 21, or using three units of 20.

Just a thought. It always drives me nuts to lose those attacks in the subsequent ranks.

-Jim

10x5 = 3 ranks of attacks with enough ablative wounds to make combat at full efficiency without needing to be IoN'ed. Yes you get 2 ranks not doing much but when you are against higher initiative or gun lines, they will be needed to stay at full strength. also, having the extra few will increase your chances of preventing them being stubborn for break tests.

If you had 2x 21 guys then the minute you take hits you lose attacks and get into the area where they need to soak up power dice to maintain effectiveness preventing you doing VDM or other spells if you want them. 3x20 guys will be 3x10 guys or worse by time it hits combat unless you use IoN a lot where as 1x 50 will be 1x30 by time it hits combat and you still get all your power dice.

Don't get me wrong, this is purely personal preference as i can't see the point in having units of 20 when you can no longer increase the unit size beyond starting. It's a bit "Eggs in one basket" but then, i don't like my eggs broken before i use them

Why the terrorgiest over the vargulf?
The varg is cheaper, more attacks, vampiric, and regen 4+.
The only trade off is 1 less T, W, and no scream.

People like the scream. makes up for the attacks.

Yeah the scream is far more useful than the extra attacks. The varg will not win combat on its tod so it's redundant really.

Just a quick thought for your ghoul king: if you want to maximize his damage i would take red fury because really the extra wound does make is scream 1 better but red fury would almost always make up for that. If you like that extra wound for the defensive bonus then by all means stick with that but in my opinion red fury is better for offense when combined with skabscrath.