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A lot of Tomb Kings lists revolve around units with the Skeleton tag -- Skeleton Chariots, Necropolis Knights, etc. supported by stacking buffs. One of the buffs you occasionally see people talk about is the Liche Priest's "Righteous Smiting" ability which allows you to generate new attacks with a hit roll of 6+. This ability plays quite nicely with hit buffs from Settra, Tomb King command ability etc.

I wonder though, wouldn't it be better to just take a Necromancer instead and use Vanhel's Danse Macabre to pile in and attack twice straight up? I can see this being absolutely devastating when used on Chariots or Necropolis Knights.

Righteous Smiting has a lower casting value, lasts until your next hero phase instead of just the following combat phase, combos for further effectiveness with the hit roll bonuses being given out, and affects ranged attacks as well as melee.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Righteous Smiting has a lower casting value, lasts until your next hero phase instead of just the following combat phase, combos for further effectiveness with the hit roll bonuses being given out, and affects ranged attacks as well as melee.

Lasting until the next hero phase is rather significant, I'll grant that for sure. Even with +2 to hit though it still will "only" increase your attacks by 50% rather than doubling your attacks (plus the added pile in move). Thus over the course of your turn and your opponent's turn both spells should have similar output, but Vanhel's provides a higher "burst". Shooting though is clearly no contest and you definitely want Righteous Smiting if you are going for a Khalida+Archer type list. Vanhel's has a 72.24% chance of success whereas Righteous Smiting has an 83.35% chance to cast successfully, so we can basically consider that as an extra 11.1% to the expected value. I think we can mathhammer the following conclusions:

1. Righteous Smiting is strictly better for shooting
2. If you get a double turn, Vanhel's is strictly better for melee
3. Righteous Smiting theoretically has a higher EV in melee if you don't get a double turn (because of the difference in cast chance), but it also suffers from the fact that the benefit you receive during the enemy's turn is reduced given that the enemy will be attacking first and will likely damage your unit to some degree, thus reducing the extra attacks you get.
4. Vanhel's damage is front-loaded and will give a greater benefit to units that get a bonus when charging (chariots).
5. Vanhel's also provides a second pile-in which is useful in some situations.

That leads me to believe that Vanhel's has a modest edge in most melee situations, a moderate edge when the second pile-in is significant (I'm thinking about situations where you have a very large unit of skeletons and want to get as many in range as possible), and a large edge when the unit in question has a substantial charge bonus (chariots).

That said, Liche Priest's dispel scroll is fantastic when your enemy is relying on getting a specific spell off at a critical moment. If the enemy has the capability of sniping your caster though, the necromancer ability is very useful.

Vanhel's allows your opponent to retaliate in between your two pile ins, which can be problematic. I agree with you though, that Vanhel's is really good when you get charge bonuses, and when you can make use of the extra 3" given by the second pile in. When I only have one wizard, I usually bring a Liche simply because it's fluffy, but if I have two wizards in my list I always get one each. Their buffs also work really well together, and the rule of 1 makes having one of each nice.

Yeah two wizards would be the real reason to bring a necromancer. The advantage of double-turn vanhels is negated by the disadvantage if your opponent gets a double turn, and is worthless if the target unit fails a charge or if the initial round of attacks is already sufficient to kill off the enemy. Smiting is also front-loaded because it affects shooting, extremely useful for picking off supports before combat even starts. Because of the hit bonuses being handed out smiting is the better option overall; it's more well rounded and more reliable in addition to the combat benefits being equal or greater.