I have recently had some success with the following:

200/200

Reanimates [64] 4x3
File Leader [6]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Aggressive Drummer [5]
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Total Unit Cost: 83

Reanimate Archers [45] 3x2
Tempered Steel [3]
Combat Ingenuity [6]
Total Unit Cost: 54

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 33

but with our store championship coming up this weekend I was wondering if there were room for improvement. The 3x2 archer block with CI is nice but I find that I don't put out that much blight due to using the surge for tempered steel. So I am swapping out the CI for rank discipline to keep up consistency after the back rank is gone. I was also thinking of reducing the reanimate block down to a 3x3 and changing around the upgrades (probably file leader, blighted vex bearer, lingering dead) and spending the extra points on upgrading the death knights to 2x2 (gauntlet and MoI).

Thoughts?

Both ways its a very consistent list.

I would split the archers into 2 2x1-s for an extra attack and extra coverage. Your call, if with CI or rank discipline.

Overall, I like this list a lot. I just wonder about Aggresive Drummer on a unit that is designed around a “make them come” mentality. I do suppose it provides some flexibility.

Dont drop Raven if you keep fle leader. Getting melee down to init3 is a big deal for that upgrade (to me)

2 hours ago, Church14 said:

Dont drop Raven if you keep fle leader. Getting melee down to init3 is a big deal for that upgrade (to me)

I would have thought adding lingering dead would make the initiative you attack at irrelevant

11 minutes ago, Qark said:

would have thought adding lingering dead would make the initiative you attack at irrelevant

Not if you attack first and knock off some/all of a back rank or remove threat reducing the amount of damage you recieve.

9 hours ago, Qark said:

I would have thought adding lingering dead would make the initiative you attack at irrelevant

To me, they are a counterintuitive combo, but it is certainly a thing.

File leader allows you to potentially reduce incoming damage and preserve trays by reducing the attackers threat or removing rerolls. Lingering Dead allows for you to preserve trays by letting regeneration sometimes fill the half-empty tray and spill into a completely empty tray. So both function semi-defensively.

They also provide offense together. Lingering Dead allows you to preserve rerolls and preserve the threat on your flank in case you get flank charged after the first damage done to you in a turn. So Lingering Dead (sometimes) keeps the damage done by File Leader higher for longer.

Raven Standard Bearer is a bit funny in that combo as it doesn’t really combo directly. It just kind of acts as a force multiplier. Essentially, I face enough armies with multiple Raven Pennants that allow earlier charges. File leader really wants to have your melee revealed before the charges can start hitting or you don’t get the full effect.

This is all just my take and it can quite possibly be completely wrong

So I basically like the list, but I wonder - does File Leader open you up to being stalled? Reanimates are famously slow, though Aggressive Drummer helps immensely with that, but picture this: a scary unit, say a 3x2 Oathsworn with relevant upgrades, is lined up to charge your Reanimates at such a distance that you can't stop them. So, taking advantage of your File Leader, you dial in the attack, only to find that the Oathsworn reform or rally or something rather than charging into that death trap. Your 83 point unit has lost a precious turn of doing anything.

As I write this, I feel more and more like "yep, that's Runewars!" and if your opponent knows the possibility and YOU know THEY know then maybe you can get that charge after all and and and

2 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

So I basically like the list, but I wonder - does File Leader open you up to being stalled? Reanimates are famously slow, though Aggressive Drummer helps immensely with that, but picture this: a scary unit, say a 3x2 Oathsworn with relevant upgrades, is lined up to charge your Reanimates at such a distance that you can't stop them. So, taking advantage of your File Leader, you dial in the attack, only to find that the Oathsworn reform or rally or something rather than charging into that death trap. Your 83 point unit has lost a precious turn of doing anything.

As I write this, I feel more and more like "yep, that's Runewars!" and if your opponent knows the possibility and YOU know THEY know then maybe you can get that charge after all and and and

I have run file leader and I found that this is the most predictable thing to happen when you are playing against smart players. The reality is that File Leader will only impact 1 round out of the entire game, the round where you reveal ahead of a charge and get a free melee attack. Most players don't swarm a unit that has file leader (from my experience) since they are aware that once engaged, that unit will continue to perform melee attacks until the other unit is dead, so charging into them is giving a free attack away.

If the opponent is smart, they will take smaller faster moves to get in close to the unit and charge when they won't suffer the file leader attack. Because of this, I've used that champion slot for other things, like mistland Saboteur which is amazing for things like moment of inspiration, or the expensive artifacts. Especially with the Reanimates which I don't really feel the free panic token has a very large value, why not go for the skill modifier instead and remove and upgrade card? That will immediately reduce your opponent's overall army score.

4 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

So I basically like the list, but I wonder - does File Leader open you up to being stalled?

Yep. Totally happened to me one game. My Reanimates were in position to stop some Oathsworn from delivering a bomb to my terrain , so at the time, I didn't mind dialing in melee attacks and waiting for his Reanimates to charge me. I literally went 4 rounds facing down his unit of Reanimates with Ardus figure, and nothing happened because I had File Leader, and he didn't dare charge me. I ended up losing, and only then did I realize that I need to get that unit engaged and destroying things for it to pull its weight for how expensive it is.

So store champs was today and I won! 9-2, 10-1, 8-3. I ended up running the changes I suggested in my original post: