Undead Warband: What skills do YOU get your Vampire

Hey everyone!
Our gaming group has played around 5 matches each player and are moving forwards power vise. Unfortunately I haven't managed to roll a skill for my Vampire yet, but was lucky to get yet another attack last level-up.
I have a lot of different ideas of which skills to get him. I'm thinking of getting expert swordsman as the first skill now that I have 3 attacks on the profile, and he's already in heavy armor and shield
After that I'm thinking of takin mighty blow so he'll have rerolls when charging with str 5.

Another idea is to go two-handed with strongman (3x str 6) and then lightening reflexes...

I can't decide which options to choose..

What do you guys think and which skills do you guys usually get for your Vampire?

Thanks in advance!

I would go with Sprint, 18" on your Vampire means he will be getting around. Resilient would be my second choice.

Hmmm, interesting choices. A great balance between offensive and defensive skills..

Anyone else has some great ideas of which skills to take, or has experience with other combinations?

My first for HTH heroes is Step Aside, 99% of the time!

It is better than armour.

Did you just roll a crit? No armour save you say? This is where Step Aside shines.

Resilient is good also. Often my #2 choice.

Sprint on a Vampire in not a choice of mine early on in the campign.

Because...with sprint he is out there by himself! No one close to give support.

He is already faster than everyone (2-legged) and the quickest way to get him killed is to run him off and let him get ganged up on while the rest of his warband is far away.

In our campaign, we have changed the crit rule to the following:

Crit table:
1-2 : Two wounds with armorsave
3-4: Two wounds + 1 to injury role -1 AS
5-6: Two wounds + 2 to injury role -2 AS

And shields yield +2 AS in close combat, and bucklers +1 AS. So step aside could do wonders indeed!

I see the argument with resilient, which is extremely helpful since the vamp has toughness 4 as basis. I might go defensive, but the only problem is, that I'm drooling for the 3x str 6 hits

I'm just worried that this will lead the vamp more fragile when charged... thats why I think lightening reflexes could be nice

Yes, I've come to the same conclusion with the sprint, but if you implement acrobat with sprint, it could be insanely death from any buildings... the vampire misslie

Thanks for the input so far!

I would not go with Sprint - he is already faster than the rest of his warband. Vampires are nasty, but can be effectively dogpiled when they wander too far from their support.

Sometimes I go defensive, and sometimes offensive. If you are playing that the heavy armor + shield combination slows a model down, then shifting to Strongman + great weapon effectively speeds him back up again. WIth his WS and three attacks, giving him Str 6 will indeed be very effective. I think I like that better than Expert Swordsmen, in this case. Also, if armor is fairly common in your campaign, Str 6 will largely negate it.

Yes, I though so my self - it'll be strongman with lightening reflexes then. I might get a gromil two-handed sword for him then

Afterwards it'll be defensive skills I think

Since he is always going to be mixing it up in melee, i would go defensive first to try and ensure his survival.
Step Aside would be my number one choice i think.

In this case, I think the old saying that "A strong offense is a good defense" is true. The vampire will charge more often than not, and with a high weapon skill and three Strength 6 attacks he is going to put most things down when he charges them.