(( Hey Anubis,
I'm feeling lazy, so no story review for you.
1) For your High Priest, I think you can save a few points, and forgo the Dawnstone. I know it lets you re-roll armor saves; however, most things that will smash into the High Priest will either go right through his armor anyway, or penalize it so much that the re-roll is effectively useless. I'd save the points for something else.
2) For your wizard, for me, Light is overused. At least where I am. Everyone, and I mean Everyone, plays Light. And, as such, there is a fairly effective SOP for turning the lights off. You might work better with Shadow and Death, both of which, I feel, fit your theme of Morr-ites more anyway.
2-A) I'm not impressed with 1-use items; especially the Earthing rod. Most of the Miscast effects aren't that bad, and the ones that are, are pretty extreme in their chance to be rolled. As such, I'd save the points and drop it.
2-B) With your Luminark, I see why you are bringing a Light Wizard… more on that in a bit too.
3) For its cost, the Armor of Meteoric Iron is pretty expensive for its low Ward Save effect, and, as such, a YMMV item to me. Don't forget, the Warrior Priest has the option of getting a two-handed weapon, AND a shield. As such, Heavy Armor and Shield give you a 4+ save to get to melee, and still a 5+ save in melee… and a lot cheaper too.
3-A) I use the Armor of Meteoric Iron as well… but I've been moving towards Heavy Armor and a DragonHat as of late, which is cheaper, and still gives you a decent save.
4) Not really impressed with the Witch Hunter. I can see why you include him in your theme… I just find him less than impressive.
4-A) Most players see the Van Horstmann's speculum-swap from a mile away. And, don't forget, they can challenge with a skeleton champion or something too. I'd suggest saving some points, and dropping the speculum. Besides, if I remember correctly, Lore-wise, the speculum was designed by a Light wizard who, as GW has pretty much everyone go, falls to the allure of Chaos-Tzeench.
4-B) Not impressed with the Seed of Rebirth. A number of enemies have Fire, and a 6+ Regen is effectively non-effective. You'd be better off spending your points on the Ironcurse Icon (which I'm also not fond of), as at least then the entire unit gets the effect.
4-B-1) If you want to give your Witch Hunter some protection, the Armor of Destiny and the Armor of Fortune are pricier options… but better.
5) You are going High Risk with your BSB having a Magic Banner over Magic Protection. With how critical his re-roll ability is, most players give him stuff to increase his survivability, over his offensive punch.
5-A) For knights, the Banner of Swiftness is… okay. The real problem is that your BSB is on horseback, and he really should be on foot, hanging out with the Swordsmen or Halberds. If you want to give your BSB a combat banner, the Razor Standard works a lot better… as does the Banner of Flaming Fire (or whatever that one is called). That way, he's making his attacks, and the unit's attacks better.
5-B) Though, I would, instead, suggest the following for your BSB: Full Plate, Shield, Burial Gown of Morr (aka White Wolf Cloak), Pistol. That gives him a 3+ Armor Save, a 5+ Ward Save (2+ against fire), and -1 to be hit in melee. Pretty survivable, for one of our critical LD lynchpins. (And if he's blessed with that Light Spell that gives him WS 10, now some enemy models will need 6s or worse to hit him!) Anyway, with the Pistol, you increase his threat radius by 12", and he is pretty effective with it, with his BS 5.
6) The Ruby Ring of Ruin is better used on your Witch Hunter, where the fireballs generated get Killing Blow.
6-A) With your four attempts to channel already, you really don't need the Channeling Staff. You'd be much better served with a Dispell Scroll
6-B) Fire is one of my favorite spell-sets… but keep in mind that it's Strength is mediocre. A lot of stuff can weather Strength 4 hits. You can slim-cast a lot of its spells though, and it has one of the best enchantments in the game from FLAMING SWORD OF FIRE!
6-B-1) As an aside, Flaming Cage of Fire is a pretty neat Hex too. It can trap a unit, plus do a few, free hits. If you can force a unit to flee that is in the Cage, they'll ALL take auto hits. The hits aren't that strong… but I've used Flaming Cage of Fire, and Windy Gust of Wind pretty well together… though that requires a Red Mage and a Blue Mage… you have White Mage and Red Mage.
7) With Crossbows being move-or-shoot, it does limit their effectiveness extensively. I would suggest another detachment of Archers instead. Archers have effectively the same range as Crossbows (since they skirmish, and can fire-on-the-move), with a modest decrease in attack ability.
7-A) Still, their move-and-fire option opens them up to a lot more avenues of use. If you move the crossbows, you've paid for equipment you're not using... since they're move-and-shoot. Or, if you deploy them poorly, you can lose two to three turns trying to move them into a better position.
7-A-1) If you move the archers, they might not have an optimal shot… but they should always have something they can shoot. And archers screen your artillery much better than Crossbows. And archers make for much better Wizard escort units.
7-B) With the Empire BS3, I'd rather keep the mobility option open, since you'll rarely be hitting stuff anyway.
8) For your small-knights, I'd suggest a champ and banner in addition to the music. The champ adds an attack, without increasing the frontage, and the banner opens up the option for them to take riskier charges of opportunity.
8-A) If you're just getting a small-sized block of knights for a speed-bump / redirect effect, the Rieksknights are better, since they have Strength 4. Stubborn is nice… but more their permanent Strength 4 makes them a tougher speed-bump. If your opponent chooses to ignore the Rieksknights, they can still make a much more effective charge with their Strength 6 lances.
9) To me, Greatweapons on our knights is… almost suicide. 1+ Armor Save, with attacks at initiative if fricking huge. It means you can resist missile fire effectively, and can survive melee pretty well, as most melee units have Strength 4 or better. And, you still get to attack at Strength 4, sometimes Strength 6. 2+ Armor Save will suffer against missile fire, and will sustain potentially crippling casualties before they get a chance to strike. Though, I guess that fits with the Morr-ish death theme.
9-A) Keep in mind that the difference between WS4 and WS3 is… cosmetic more than anything. Most enemy units have WS4 anyway. Those that don't, tend to have such a horde of attacks or models, that they don't care. Quantity has a quality all its own.
9-B) Also, anything Light can do to buff your Greatweapon knights, it can also do to buff your Lance-and-Shield knights. Instead of removing a penalty, you're adding a bonus. I'd rather be adding bonus', instead of removing penalties.
9-C) The Steel Standard is impressive… but expensive. If you want to save some points, swap out the Steel Standard for the Banner of Swiftness. (And then get your BSB some magical protection, as mentioned earlier.)
10) If you are going to bring a Luminark… you might as well go full Light Council, and swap out your Level 2 fire for a Level 2 Light mage. That way, your Luminark-LAYZOBEAM is even stronger.
10-A) For me, though, I like the attack, and the Luminark is a Defensive item. As such, I like the Hurricanum for several reasons. The Hurricanum offers a Power Die, letting it potentially power itself. While in contrast, the Luminark has to leech power from your Power Dice pool. The Hurricanum also gives you +1 to hit in melee. Coupling a bonus to hit in melee, with the Priest's ability to re-roll to-hit rolls in the first turn of melee keeps your knights from being Knights-of-the-Bending-Nerf-Lance, and your Halberds from being Soldiers-Armed-With-Cardboard-Replicas. Not to mention that, if your buff your units to WS10, your units have the potential to be hitting some units on 2s.
11) To me, your Priest abilities need some work.
11-A) Are just his attacks Magical, or the entire unit he is in? While, yes, it does fit that they're trying to hunt demons, deamons, and vampires… it is a huge ability to grant an entire unit magical attacks. Yes, there are a couple of spells which offer the same effect; however, those same spells can be countered. You have to kill the priest, to stop the Magical Weapon effect. (Though... I guess it is similar to how Runepriests grant Armor Penetration to the unit they're with)
11-A-1) If you want to keep the Magical Weapon effect, I would make it specifically for the priest only.
11-A-2) Also, this effect is sort of redundant with your Hand of Morr.
11-B) I'm not fond of new rules that are basically already in the game. Instead of "Fear Not Death", I'd suggest "Immune to Psychology"… though that would require a cost adjustment in the price of your priests.
11-B-1) Or, if you insist on not giving your priests "Immune to Psychology"… use "Grim Resolve" instead. That rule already exists… though it annoys me too, as why not just give the freaking Witch Hunter "Fear". (Again, I'm not fond of new rules that are basically renaming an already existing rule)
11-C) I would just give your priest generic-Hate instead of a specific-Hate. If nothing else, maybe they're tired of people traipsing all over the graveyards, or moving them to build a new suburb or mall or something, or tired of elves being all emo and whiney in graveyards, or tired of orcs having their heavy-nordic-metal concerts in the graveyard, or tired of necromancers always digging up everything, or tired of rats getting into the crypts again, etc, etc, etc. Anyway, normal Priests already have generic-Hate, so the ability easily transfers.
11-D) Presence of Morr seems really strong to me, for a Power Level 3 spell. You can try to 1d6 cast it with decent success. Even the low-level Fireball only generates d6 hits. Especially since it is "every enemy unit in base contact". Judicious placement of the priest can have him cripple multiple enemy units, at little risk to himself. Maybe swap it for "Every enemy model in base-to-base with the priest suffers d3 Strength 4 hits. d6 Strength 4 hits, if the model is Undead or Nehekharan Undead" that way you can cap the number of enemy models effected to about 2 or 3, but still make it potentially damaging to what it does hit.
11-E) For your "Ease the Suffering" the way it is written, I'm interpreting it that all characters w/in 12" gain 1 wound. That's a lot of potential healing! Or, did you mean "Priest, or one character model w/in 12 inches?" Also, does this mean they can go over their max wounds?
Anyway, just some quick thoughts. Also… sorry about my sense of humor in some of my comments. It does take a spot to get used too. Anyway, I hope they help. ))
