Some VC brainstorming

Needless to say, I'm really excited about Vampire Counts in January.  I have boxes and boxes of stuff stored away waiting for this day (Jan 14th).  As if I don't have enough stuff already, the new stuff looks amazing.  I think it's time I start brainstorming on what kind of things I'll be taking in my 8th Ed. Vampires army.

First thing's first:  I will be taking a fighty killy lord over a spellcasting one.  There is nothing more boring than a bunker lord sitting behind his units spamming spells.  I want some 6th Ed. Killing Blow, +1S on the charge killer or some 7th Ed. Infinite Hatred + Red Fury.  From the latest rumor mill, it appears that Vamp Lords will be able to hit WS9 by taking the Dreadknight upgrade.  Since we have no idea what else is available, I'm hoping it'll be similar to what 7th Ed has now.  Sadly, I don't think Bloodlines will be back from what I've read so far.

I have no idea how I'm gonna deliver this bad boy yet, but it's either going to be Zombie Dragon, Blood Knights, Black Knights or Grave Guard.  At this moment, I'm leaning towards the Zombie Dragon and Blood Knights.  From the White Dwarf BR, it appears that Blood Knights went down in points, costing ~250 points for 5 of them with Full Command.  Also confirmed is the Banner of Blood Keep, so that's always a good thing to give your dudes ranged insurance.

My supporting heroes will definitely be a BSB and some supporting Necromancer casters.  Depending on how the Vampire Lords are priced with gear, I may or may not take a Master Necro.  Hopefully the magic items stay decent and not overpriced so I can take a bound item or two.

The core of my army will probably be made out of Skeletons and Ghouls.  Even though the Ghouls went up to 10ppm, I'm still going to take them.  A part of me hopes they added some benefits to warrant the price increase, but I can see myself taking a block of 40 in horde formation and a 30-strong skeleton bunker as my necro cage.  If the rumored 5ppm for Skeletons is right, we're looking at 180 points for 30 in Full Command.  Also, Screaming Banner is back so maybe add a War Banner for those Skeletons and call it a day.

What gets interesting is the rest of the army.  Say I want to spend big on the lord, big on the heroes and min core, we're looking at ~1250 spent so far (and that's really way maxed out).  That gives us roughly the same amount of points to play with for the various other things in the army.  What are those things?  You can basically pick 2-3 of these below..

Big block of Grave Guard + Banner of Barrows?
Big block of Blood Knights w/ Banner of Blood Keep?
Big block of Black Knights + Banner of Barrows?
2x Terrorgheists + Lord on Zombie Dragon?
A bunch of Corpse Carts to refresh ASF everywhere?

A supporting unit of Hexwraiths is a must I would think..
For some reason, the Coven Throne and the other thing don't appeal to me...

Depending on what they change about the Grave Guard and Banner of Barrows, I'm leaning towards 2x Terrorgheist + Lord on Zombie Dragon.  Either that, or I'll run the Lord in a large unit of Blood Knights w/ Banner of Blood Keep.  Points willing, I think I'll have enough for a small unit of Hexwraiths just to flank and harass.