Warband 1
The king of the dead
warriors of the dead w/ shield x4
warriors of the dead w/ spear x5
warrior of the dead w/ banner and shield

Warband 2
Angbor the fearless
warriors of the dead w/ shield x5
warriors of the dead w/ spear x5

In all its 500pts on the nose.

So what do you guys think? Is this something that could be at least a little competitive at this points range? Its mostly just a pet project for fun but I hate to play games where one side can just walk over the other since they aren't much fun.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Competitive with the army of the dead its dificult.
They are good mainly for 3 reason.
- high defence
- terror
- blades of the dead (not all enemies got high courage as standart except elves, so normally the role inverts, the armies with less "material defence" are often the ones who are harder to kill by undead ghostly warriors...

Competitive will depends pretty much how you will play with them along in the field, you might make em interesting to say at least and you sure did well picking up Angbor for a character unusually high with Will Points and some Might to back up your army.

Still that army lack on 3 things however that both make em durable and flexible.
- Might points
- Shooting
- Skilled warriors (this is probably the 2nd most relevant after Might).

Since its a F3 army based, you need those might points so bad to back up the lack of warrior´s skill.
Although I find the spear usefull... not sure to what point can it be effective.. I got a reason for questioning this.

for one each warrior its normally the cost of 2 enemy warriors and at some times 3x ou even 4, so unless the terrain offers you a limited gap that can actually make shield wall effective, most of the times you´re gonna be so badly overwhelmed that you will hardly find necessary the use of the spear.

for this matter my suggestion would be actually all shields, since you got so lil barely over 20 models, at least make em extremely hard to crack (combined with a lack of melee prowess) even elven shooting will struggle so bad to crack these guys not to mention S4 models which is considered an annoying threat for armies out there).

With all shields you will act a bit like hunter orcs, surround your oponent rather than fighting 2 ranks deep, diference is that its more likely for you help your warriors to spread your force and being able to engage and hold several choke points.

if you just had 5points extr for Forlong instead of Angbor though...

I had not thought about the spears like that but you are probable right about it. I will switch them over to only have two or three in a warband so I can use the terrain if it helps but not bank on it. I suppose I could also drop two dead from Angbor's band send a quartet of clansmen to add a little fighting prowess in their place. But that seems like it would break the them a little.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

The problems of the fiefdoms is that the´re all expensive elite standart warrior.
you have to measure well the amount of warriors you take per warband and to whom the warbands are made of.

THe clansman can be interesting if you´re taking Angbor as he counts as a banner for em, making them highly effective in combat. They also have high courage, downside its the Defence which is poor.

Axeman are a bit better on defence and can actually offer a bit more tactical flexibility to your force. I would suggest taking these as like you mentioned, it gives you some choice to take the terrain in your advantage...either two handed like the clansmen or spear in case it need be and none of those models are wasted no matter the situation..

As someone who concerns themselves with the lore for army construction I feel I am unable to use anything other then clansmen alongside the dead. More so for an army that is not intended for tournaments. Plus the clansmen are exactly half the price of a warrior of the dead, with a piece of gear, so the points don't need to shift to bring a few in.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

If you concern about the themed, you could fit in some vale root archers as the vale is just outside erech...