I thought the point of this thread is discussing if Eldritch Knight is a good, maybe even equivalent alternative to Battle Master.
At the end of the day, I'd say yes.
Having access to Shield, Magic Missiles, Thunderwave, Darkness and Hold Person is equivalent to (Or even better than) having access to Battle Master's maneuvers.
It's class features kind of suck (War Magic and Eldritch Strike are simply kind of terrible) with Weapon Bond being marginally useful; Protection against several enemies whom like to disarm, ability to use a couple of bond related weapons and some fringe usage in a throw build (I.e. Utilizing a one handed thrown weapon during Act 1 instead of the Returning Pike so you can dual wield and thus benefit from the Duelling fighting style for +2 damage (Yes, Duelling. Since you only have one weapon equipped when the attack calculation takes place) and utilizing the Lightning Jabber in Act 2)
But the spell access is good enough to warrant use. Even more so if you're considering multiclassing, whereby it's a partial caster that has some useful base spells it can learn while you get your 2nd attack (As well as proficiency in all weapons and armour types).
Champion... On the other hand... Is a 3 level dip for a crit build that wants the +1 crit range and Action Surge...
