A Swordmage - What to do?

[MuinainenKoski]

I've been toying around with the idea of swordmage in my mind, mostly 'cos I like the concept of it. I was thinking of a bard but somehow all the singing and telling stories stuff of the class doesn't interest me that much. I've been trying to find some sort of melee+arcane split which would be atleast somewhat viable (not expecting to make the best dps out there etc.)

I'll explain a little of my goal:

An Elf (Long traditions with swordmages lore wise) using two-handed style (since single weapon is not viable at all) -> falcion (elf enhancements). Wearing either cloth or mithril chain shirt with elf enhancements for reduced spellfailure.

So far I've thought of two possible routes in building my character:

Fighter 8 / Wizard 12 (or 11 with one level of something... what?):

Pros:
- Decent spell output (maybe slap a firewall/unresistable autohit force spells)
- Tensers for no BAB gimping
- Fair amount of high level buffs (Can even save the Wizards/Bards mana for something else)
Cons:
- Dependant on tenser for melee / unable to cast during
- Loss of fighter levels, unable to pick Kensai II

OR

Fighter 12 / Wizard 8

Pros:
- Kensai II for improved melee output
- Sufficient self buffs (displacement, stoneskin, haste)
- High amounts of feats from fighter levels
- Lots of weapon enhancements from fighter line
Cons:
- Low spelldamage output (should I care? does under lvl 18~ wizard do any damage to begin with?)
- Loss of BAB from Wizard levels (Though Kensai II gives the same amount of +hit and extra 4 damage)
- Complete uselessness of save based spells

Both builds start with stat allocation somewhat like this:

32 Points:
STR: 16
DEX: 16
CON: 12
INT: 14
WIS: 8
CHA: 8

With 4 points to spend: Where? Assuming +2 tomes are doable (eventually)

I don't have any experience in the endgame thus I'd like to have some advice in the following problems:

- Do these builds gimp me completely?
- Does the spelldamage matter at all on either one of the builds?
- How much does the loss of heavy armor hurt (assuming I have decent amount of dex)
- Any alternate splash if I take one less level as wizard on either build only OR should I go for sorc instead (enough spells to choose from to be viable?)
- Should I start these builds with wizard or fighter levels? Or splash? (On 12F/8W I was thinking of 1 Wiz + 12 F + rest W, 12 W + 8 F on the 8F/12W one?)

[Spells]
LVL1:
- Mage Armor
- Shield
- Nightshield?
- Expedicious
+ 1 what?
LVL2:
- Blur
- Invis
- False Life
+ 1 What?
LVL3:
- Displacement
- Haste
- Rage?
+ Others, what?
LVL4:
- Stoneskin
- Firewall?
LVL5:
- Teleport
- Protection From Elements
+ others, what?
LVL6:
- Tenser
+ Others, what?