Lords:
Vampire Lord- Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, The Flayed Hauberk, Wristbands of Blackgold, Helm of Commandment, Black Periapt
Cost: 400 points
+++ take forbidden lore in place of dark acolyte & buy the Lv3 upgrade... a few more pts yes, but overall it makes your lord rediculously effective! now you can either automatically get every vampire spell, or else swap out your vamp lore for the one that best suits your opponent's weaknesses! (ie: lore of death vs elves will end their misserable, pointy-eared existance!)
i also second the idea of slapping your lord onto a hellsteed for the added movement... it won't add to your armour save however, since you're stuck at the save the hauberk provides.+++
Heroes:
Vampire – Dread Knight, Infinite Hatred, Blood Drinker
Cost: 190 points
+++ i'd swap out dread knight for avatar of death... mounted vamps should never join black knight units, since it just gimps the knights to no end... (i mean, think about it; heavy cav that charges through all terrain/objects? yes please!!!)
by taking avatar you can get him a great weapon for S7 - enought to auto-kill chariots. give him an enchanted shield + book of arkhan for his magic item alotment and suddenly you've got a fairly solid, all 'rounder of a vamp!
against really fighty stuff, turtle with your shield for a total 2+ save in combat, otherwise, pull out that great weapon, use the book and have at it!+++
Vampire – Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Tomb Blade
Cost: 170 points
+++ the tomb blade's abilities don't stack w/LotD so it's kind of a pointless item in practice... besides, you need armour on your support vamp!!! even if it's just the nightshroud, it will still give him the drop on anything trying to assassinate him!+++
Wight King – BSB, Sword of Kings, Riding skeletal steed with barding
Cost: 145 points
+++ for some laguhs, try this set-up; lance, BSB, the accursed armour, gem of blood. hit him with your lord's helm of commandment to counter the armour's effects and suddenly you've got a T6/3W hero!!!O.O i don't think any other army can get a T6 hero without the aid of spells like 'bear's anger' acutally, so it's rather funny to see the look on your opponent's face when even a S6 character need's 4's to hurt your BSB!
the gem just adds insult to injury since the first wound that does get through is very likely going to kill your enemy instead of wounding your wight king...+++
Core Units:
15 Skeleton Warriors
Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer: Banner of the Endless Nightmare.
Cost: 165 points
15 Skeleton Warriors
Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer: Banner of the Endless Nightmare.
Cost: 165 points
+++ as pointed out, you can't take multiples of the same magic item... (dispel scrolls & power stones aside, everything else is unique)
i'd acutally go for banners like the banner of the dead legion, war banner, icon of vengeance or hellfire banners first over the endless nightmare... 4 ranks is decent, but it takes alot of casting to get those added ranks, plus, outnumber is more important in the end. i'd rather only have to raise upto say 24-28 skellies and then sit back counting as US48-56!!!+++
Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone
Cost: 100 points
+++ go for balefire instead... loadstone never makes up for it's pts in the end. balefire is just so much more usefull since it can really gimp even magic heavy armies!+++
10 Crypt Ghouls
Cost: 80 points
+++ you need more than 10... otherwise, i'd simply swap this to 10 basic skellies since you can at least bump them up in number!
ghouls are purely offensive since they lack strong static combat res... get them upto 21 strong and run them 7-wide to max out your base-to-base contact & attacks.
however, with your pts already so tight, i'd just take 10 more skellies instead and use LotD to buff the unit.+++
5 Dire Wolves
Cost: 40 points
5 Dire Wolves
Cost: 40 points
+++ make them into 1 unit of 7 w/doom wolf to act as a doggie dragon trap... otherwise lose them since the doggies really do suck at everything else!
fell bats are better screeners/war machine hunters since they have more wounds, can fly and skirmish to boot!+++
Special Units:
5 Black Knights
Barding, Musician, Standard Bearer: Warbanner
Cost: 189 points
+++ make it 6 unless you're going to put the wight king into the unit... also, give these guys the royal banner to protect against rubber lance syndrom.+++
20 Grave Guard
Seneschal, Standard Bearer: Royal Standard of Strigos
Cost: 299 points
+++ if you want a magic banner, then give them the barrows banner so they can at least hit more reliably! remember; just like all other undead infantry, grave win by attrition. don't expect them to plow through stuff on the charge like other hammer units... instead, hese guys will likely have to grind down the enemy over 2-3 rounds. (unless you can flank the unit they charge with something other than zombies/doggies!)
to this end, the +1 to-hit every round is far better than re-rolls for just 1 round!+++
Total: 1983 points