Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Tomb Kings (section)

====Named Characters====
*NOTE:
Under the current edition of WHFB, Named Characters tend to be overpriced. That being said, the following Named Characters do have certain wargear, or a combination of different wargear that are unique to them, as well as a few Special Rules. You could take another model and emulate one of the Characters from scratch to save you a few points. Just remember, if you really need to field a Named Lord/Hero, you can go right ahead, but be sure you're getting your points worth. 

For Tomb Kings, contrary to most armies, the special characters offer some flavor and options that are not possible to emulate with normal characters. Some even find the army hard-pressed to compete without them.

Tomb Kings, Tomb Princes, Settra the Imperishable, High Queen Khalida, and Arkhan the Black have the "The Curse" special rule. Kings, Princes, and Settra have "My Will Be Done". 

The Curse causes the unit or units that killed the character to take D6 S5 hits as shooting, S4 for Princes. 

My Will Be Done causes non-mount non-character modelsin the same unit to use the royal's WS if higher than their own. 

*'''Settra the Imperishable:''' Sporting a magnificent beard at 475 points, Settra represents the pinnacle of Tomb King special characters, a good thing too as he was the first of the priest kings of Khemri after years of strife between the desert tribes (in other words, the first true Tomb King), and since then his only undefeated enemy was time itself. Supreme leader of all Tomb Kings. 

Settra must be the Army General, no two ways about it, and in addition (due to his one Wizard level) he can also be the Hierophant if you so desire. In terms of mobility, Settra must be fielded upon The Chariot of the Gods and may never be taken on foot (however he may be dismounted should the chariot be destroyed), and the chariot itself possesses a reasonable movement value of 8", four basic Skeletal Steeds (note this makes his base width 4"), a statline with five across, and Flaming and Magical applied to all of its Impact Hits. 
Regarding casting, he's only level one with his only option for a spell lore being the Lore of Nehekhara. 

In melee, Settra shines however, with a powerful statline of WS7 and five S6 Attacks (note, same I3 as any other Tomb King) with the added benefit of his Blessed Blade of Ptra ignoring Armour Saves, giving him Flaming Attacks, and a permanent To Hit for Shooting and Close Combat debuff of -1 should a Character or Monster be hit by it. 

In terms of a support role, his Inspiring Presence has a range of 18" and his My Will Be Done is a 6" bubble thanks to his Crown of Nehekhara that provides WS 7 to all Tomb King units that are not mounts. In addition he also has a Magic Resistance of 1 that is conferred to the unit he is in plus a personal 4+ Ward Save from the Scarab Broach of Usirian.  

Settra rolls the roles of caster, melee DPS and support into one package, and a mobile one at that. All of this does come at a cost however; Settra is fragile compared to some armies special characters, only sporting Light Armor and mounted status to provide an Armour Save of 5+ and the 4+ Ward and Magic Resistance buffing his Ward Save to 3+ against spells. Furthermore, while his T5 will resist some of the S3/4 hits you will take, his large base size will ensure that he will receive a load of those attacks. A good and fluffy general, recommended in larger games for his Ld and MWBD bubble, along with an ace model.

*'''High Queen Khalida:''' Hail to the Queen, baby. Killed by [[Queen Neferata|her cousin, the first vampire]], she prayed to the snake god to be cured and died a paladin. Now she's back as the #2 supreme Tomb King to slaughter vampires and keep leading her people in worship of [[Snek|sneks]]. 

A radical change from her old incarnation, she is now significantly cheaper at 365 points and arguably better for it. She retains much of her old statline with WS6, BS3, S4, T5, W3, and a LD of 10. Unique in the army for being fast with M6, five Attacks, and ASF on top of I9 making her the fastest Tomb King character available and able to even bonk an Elf before it can react, which coupled with her Poisoned Attacks makes her a very formidable melee character against basic troops.  

Her T5 and Light Armor are not enough to protect her against other characters or monsters, especially since she lost Regeneration. 
However Khalida is the posterchild of Tomb King archer lists everywhere, as her MWBD has been altered to grant her BS3 rather then her WS6 to any unit of Archers she joins in addition to granting their Shooting Attacks Poisoned, ramping up the damage output of the unit. 
Two minor notes, Khalida also has Hatred against Vampire Counts and a Enchanted item which inflicts 2D6 S4 hits against a unit within 24" following the rules for Magic Missiles. She makes a good general for archer-heavy lists, but a fragile one so if you take her, keep her in a unit, preferably buffed with some form of protection (like Incantation of Neru).  

*'''Prince Apophas:''' A complete douchebag who [[Malekith|killed the entire royal family and declared himself king, leading to a rebellion against him and a lulzy divine punishment]] of being not allowed to die until he claimed the soul of someone who's soul is equal to his own (something that is impossible). 

A very odd character, he appears to be an assassin except that normally an assassin in Warhammer hides in a unit until the most appropriate time, ready to be whipped out right under the opponent's nose to gank another character with a ludicrous amount of damage items and ASF/high Initiative.  Apophas on the other hand cannot join units, ever, and has the option to appear using EBTS. There is a downside however, as he is unable to Charge on the turn he appears, but can move, which makes the inevitable wall of lead or iron pelted his way a little easier to deal with. 

On the point of moving, Apophas can Fly, has a universal Strider special rule and causes Terror, allowing him to port around the battlefield at will and potentially threaten light units with Terror checks, and if that fails he is certainly capable of dealing with any small units like Dire Wolves or Pistolers in combat. 

That being said, there is not much else he can do but threaten warmachines, as his stats are pretty poor, with WS4 S4 T3 W4 I1 A5. As you can see he isn't going first against anything but Zombies and Steam Tanks, and the T3 excludes him from any combat against elite or large units although he does have a 4+ Regeneration save to at least keep him from being killed by a stray flying rock. 

In addition, he has two special abilities that are quite useful in a pinch, the first being Soul Reaper which allows Apophas to reroll failed rolls To Hit and wound against a character chosen before the game during combat (the character Apophas is there to kill in the first place), and the ability to use a S2 Breath Weapon once per game either in template form or close combat auto 2D6 hits form which also has every unit within 2D6 of Apophas, immediately after he has been slain, take 2D6 hits as shooting. 

As you can see Apophas is less of a assassin character and more of a scout hunter, wizard slayer and warmachine buster.  If you take him, use him carefully and then only if you have the points to spare.           


*'''Ramhotep the Visionary:''' A sneaky little git that circumvented the natural process of being interred in the pyramids he builds by masquerading as another necrotect overseeing the construction until the time comes to commit ritual suicide, it is only then that the "other" necrotect suddenly finds himself force fed the poisoned elixir while Ramhotep makes a hasty escape. A little bit proud and vain, he has become quite pissed seeing his "masterpieces" falling into ruin, or falling into the greedy grasping hands of lesser civilizations. 

Cheap for a named special character at 110 points, but ludicrously expensive in comparison to the normal Necrotect (only 60 points) and whether the increase in cost is worthwhile is up for debate. 

In addition to the normal Necrotect special rules, Ramhotep grants Frenzy to the unit he is with, and while this does increase the initial damage output it will only last until you lose combat, and the odds are simply based on the army that the unit will lose to anything competent in combat no matter how many upgrades the unit has (since he can't join a unit of something that can actually win a combat). 
In addition, a random Animated Construct unit is given the ability to reroll failed Armour saves, which immediately provokes the thought of a unit of Necropolis Knights with their 3+ Armor saves as standard being re-rollable; however, do no forget only one unit and the unit is selected at random so it may just as easily be a single Sphinx instead unless you only have one candidate. It is worth noting that Ramhotep is very fragile at T4 and W2 with only Light Armor for a save. Take him only for a very buffed construct to do the heavy lifting, although the 50 point upgrade for a large unit of Necropolis Knights or maybe an important Sphinx is indeed worth it. 

*'''Arkhan the Black:''' Once one of Nagash's lieutenants during the reign of Nagash until he took a spear to the heart, and has since been resurrected as a Lich upon Nagash's return. As the plan to resurrect Nehekhara didn't work out as planned, Arkhan buggered off for a couple of hundred years, and it is only relatively recently he has returned, hiring his services and armies out like some sort of mercenary corporation to anybody who pays the right price. 

At 360 points, he is a Level 5 Death Wizard that can be your army's Hierophant. 5 Spells with a +5 to Cast/Dispel. The Tomb Blade also works as a localized Restless Dead whenever he makes a kill in close combat, raising one wound of his own unit for every one he causes (make note, he has a reasonable statline for dealing with footsloggers but only has T5 to protect himself). His final piece of equipment(not counting the book) is staff of Nagash, a arcane item that can store up to three dispel dice in your opponents magic phase and converted to power dice in your own magic phase.  Arkhan must take the lore of death, but has the added benefit of having the option to be the Hierophant, as a result, this is the only way to not have the lore of Nehekhara. He also comes with the option to ride a chariot, then the option to upgrade that chariot with he ability to fly and/or take two additional steeds for extra close combat attack output. In conclusion, Arkhan is a solid anti monster and debuff caster, while Tomb blade may be a bit "meh" and the staff of Nagash dependent on the outcome of the magic phase, he also fields a strong statline for personal protection and a superior casting/dispelling bonus above almost all other wizards.  A good wizard but a Glass Cannon.  Keep him away from the front lines or in a big unit.  


*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep:''' The Grand Hierophant during the reign of Settra, Khatep was banished from the kingdom after Settra's resurrection for withholding the secrets of the priests from Settra, and has since been cursed to wander the world in search for a solution to Nagash's curse. A level 4 wizard that has the loremaster of Nehekkara, Khatep is the casting alternative to Arkhan at a similar price of 330 points. while being forced to use the lore of Nehekhara, he makes up for the limitation by having access to all of the spells, allowing him to be a versatile switchblade when it comes to magic, capable of resurrecting troops, increasing movement speed(otherwise known as marching), buffing friendly units with buffs for both offensive and defensive situations(including a situational can opener that allows simple skellies to harm heavily armoured troops), slowing down a opposing unit which also acts as a direct damage spell, debuffing opposing units and to top it off with a ghastly cherry, a AOE damage spell. The crowning jewel of Khatep is certainly his staff, which allows him to reroll all of the dice in a single casting attempt once per turn, allowing risky moves to be pulled with marginally less fear, and unlucky fails or miscasts to have a second chance. A final point would be the scroll of the cursing word, which is a one use item that ends all further casting attempts for one turn on a single wizard if they fail a Toughness test, and D3 automatic unsaveable wounds if they fail it on a 6. In case this wasn't clear enough, the item is incredibly unreliable, and highly situational.  Yet Khatep can be an acceptable choice; he fills the role of a wizard who has to know the lore of Nehekhara, freeing your other priests to use the Lores of Death and Light, and gives you access to all of the spells.  Just keep him in a big unit with a protective buff get some value from him.            


*'''The Herald Nekaph:''' Bodyguard of Settra and herald of Settra.  The character is mediocre, as he's wasted potential.  Very mediocre statline of WS5 S4 T4 W2 I3 A3 LD8 for a 120 point undead combat hero with KB.  The problem is he only has light armour to save him from wounds, immediately discounting any use his Sworn Bodyguard special rule may have as he is so fragile.  He is also is "supposed" to challenge opposing characters as something of a mini assassin.  Ideally, he must challenge where he gains a 5+ ward save and has his KB activate on a 5+, which effectively renders the flail of skulls he uses as his weapon moot.  Yet he will usually endure a barrage of hits from his opponent first, and the aforementioned stats and armour leave him little chance against most enemy equivalents; his only hope lies in the 5+ Ward save.  The flail of skulls, a relic from the past in both fluff and crunch, it essentially acts as a flail which has the multiple wounds (2) special rule.  Why do I call him wasted potential? Because his special rule Herald of Despair is so good, and it is wasted on a character who must challenge, and most likely get himself killed at the first opportunity.  It forces your opponent to take fear tests on 3D6 like the vampire counts banner, discarding the lowest result, which is exactly what Tomb kings need in greater quantities.  A situational character, take him only if you can spare the points or are playing a fluffy game.