Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Tomb Kings

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Why Play Tomb Kings

Tomb Kings are a pretty fragile army, so they're mostly played by pros. So, basically, if you hate the Vampire Count players that spam Ghouls or Ethereal Wraiths and Hexwraiths that you can only kill with magical weapons, then Tomb Kings are the army for you. They have terrible armor, but they make up for it with sheer numbers and relatively powerful magic. Tomb Kings are generally more difficult to play, and, as such, usually appeal to sophisticated players.

But if that doesn't sound fun, why play Tomb Kings? Simple: motherfucking sphinxes, units armies of chariots, animated Anubis statues, and the goddamn Ark of the Covenant (yes, really). You get masses of cheap, Unbreakable infantry, backed up by hard hitting, tough-as-nails, Unbreakable animated constructs. In case it wasn't obvious, they have some pretty sweet models too. While the majority of the Tomb Kings army is pretty fragile, you can run giant hordes of them, and, being undead, they return to the battlefield every turn. Their racial lore, Nehekhara, has a lore attribute, Restless Dead, that resurrects 1d3+1 wounds worth of models every time an augment spell is cast on pretty much any unit in the army. Oh, and 4 of the 7 spells in the lore of Nehekhara are augments.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

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.

• Settra the Imperishable: He with the magnificent beard, Settra rides the most pimped out chariot in the Warhammer World. It's even called "The Chariot of the Gods". His chariot and his weapon all have magical, flaming attacks, and even if you survive Settra's beard any character or monster hit by Settra's 4 strength 6, weapon skill 7 attacks suffers -1 on its to-hit rolls (shooting and close combat) for the rest of the game. He's also got a 4+ ward save and magic resistance to keep him alive. But none of this is why you'd want to take Settra - not even the beard. No, Settra has a beefed up version of "My Will be Done" where every friendly Nehekharan Undead unit within 6" of him (including any unit he's joined) get to use his WS of 7. Those 5 point skeletons are a lot more fucking scary when they're WS7. However be wary as there is no option of taking him on foot, and as he has lost the cannonball eating chest plate of golden magnificence, the only other option is to roll out with a unit of chariots, but because of Settra's poorly thought out base, the unit packs a 8' front making wheeling awkward.

Unfortunately for Setty, 475 points going into a melee lord with a minor bubble augment ability overshadows the effectiveness of an otherwise iconic and frankly fun character. Oh and just to spin the ball a little bit he's a level 1 wizard with the lore of Nehekhara .

• High Queen Khalida: Bitch still manages to be sexy after being dead a few thousand years. So that's something going for her. Other than that, she's a not too shabby close combat hero (WS6 and I9 with poisoned attacks) with a semi-decent buff to your archers. Make that an amazing buff. The standard rule Skeleton Archers have means they always use unmodified BS. Kalida raises that BS. The guys who used to hit everything 1/3 of the time? Now they hit half. And are Poison. Khalida with a unit of around 100 Archers (remember, cheap) slaughters everything. However at 365 points to buff a single unit of archers(don forget not all of them can shoot even if the unit is in two ranks of fifty, depending upon the location of the target of course) however if your opponent emits enough derp and you get a smiting off, you might as well point at any unit in range and have your opponent do the honours.

• Prince Apophas: As a hero, he sucks. As an assassin hunting down lone mages or war machine crews he's a beast. Average stats, with a str 2 breath weapon and 4 attacks makes a war machine crew go bye-bye, and his reroll to hit and to wound rolls against an enemy character nominated when he arrives on the table means he can raep most wizards. However like most units that have EBtS he must sit around for a turn before being eligible to charge so it can go either way with Apophas' feeble toughness.

• Ramhotep the Visionary: Like the Necrotect below, but even more Raeg filled, and even better at making unstoppable stomping statuary. Also known to combine with a tomb king and a reasonably large unit of tomb guard packing halberds to form the ultimate steam roll, something along those lines.

• Arkhan the Black: A Level 5 Death Wizard that can be your army's Heirophant. And not wimply little Book of Ashur Level 5. Gets 5 Spells Level 5. Rides a pretty cool chariot that flies, and has a sword called the "Tomb Blade of Arkhan". Also wields a badass staff that lets him store magic energy in the enemy magic phase. And he is the only way to avoid the steaming pile of crap that is the lore of Nehekhara, plus being a solid anti monster and a strong debuff caster, Arkhan is a solid choice for a hierophant with a boost to toughness, and a reasonable support unit for the skeletons.

• Grand Heirophant Khatep: The Heirophant of all of Khemri, and wielder of another badass staff, which, it has been determined, lets you cast spells with what amounts to a 98% success rate. Any spell. Including counting Miscast/Irrisistible Force as failure.

• The Herald Nekaph: Also known as the Herald of Despair, or Settra's personal "You're not important enough to meet in person, but I want to tell you to fuck off anyways" dude.

Generic Characters

• NOTE:

While the Named Characters are judged by their Generic counterpart, Generic Characters are examined based on their role of your army.

• Tomb Kings/Prince: On foot, or riding a pimped out chariot, these guys are your generals and about the top tier or your combat characters. They have the "My Will Be Done" rule - a definite contender for the coolest name for a game rule evar - that lets the unit they're with use their unmodified weapon skill (6 for the Tomb Kings, 5 for the Princes). They can also fuck you up even after you kill them with their dying curse. With their decent stats and the fact that they will be in a unit using their "My Will Be Done", you don't even need to load them up with magic weapons.

• Liche Priest: Tomb King mages. Unlike other armies, where you need a mage or two, Tomb Kings /must/ have one of these. And you want more. Crappy stats, but the buffs they can hand out to your units and their bringing your dead warriors back makes them all worthwhile. One of them must be your army's Heirophant. He's the dude that keeps everyone up and walking. He dies and your army crumbles and you are beyond fucked.

• Tomb Herald: Bodyguard characters. Can take wounds for the Tomb King/Prince they're guarding. Nothing special about them other than they can be your armies Battle Standard Bearer, and that makes you need one. You can probably find better ways to spend your points than getting two or more though.

• Necrotect: Oh yes... these guys are good. They're the guys who make all those cool walking statues, and they can protect them in battle too. Because they are righteously pissed at the fact that people keep breaking the shit they build, they give any unit they join Hatred. They also give any animated constructs unit (all your cool statues) within 12" 6+ regen.

Core Units

• Skeleton Warriors: Yup, basic, cheap ass infantry. Some of the crappiest stats in the game for basic infantry, but they are unbreakable and can be buffed to godly levels by having a Tomb King join them and the right combination of augments. Field them in hordes. Then field hordes of hordes. Bitches are only 5 points a shot with spears.

• Skeleton Archers: Basic, cheap, crappy archers. One saving grace - they never count bonuses or penalties for shooting. So you always hit on a 5+. Not so great you say? Fuck yeah it is - shoot at long range at a single character in cover and see what you need to hit with any other army. In fact, you can really use this to your advantage; a lot of other players will probably put guys in cover, thinking that it'll help them. Your guys may not hit much, but it will be a nasty surprise when it turns out that your opponent's careful positioning was useless.

• Skeleton Horsemen: Useless fuckers. Trying to fill the role of heavy cavalry with no lances, no armour and no barding. Don't waste your time.
  • An alternative view: These things can be very worthwhile but have to be used carefully. They are fast and the cavalry spear gives them +1 strength on the charge so use them for flank charges or charging in conjunction with your chariots to add a little extra punch. Don't ever try using them as heavy cavalry, they're too light for that. Just treat them as warriors who move quickly.

• Skeleton Horse Archers: Fast cav, scouts, never counting bonuses or penalties to hit for shooting? Yup, this is what you want horsemen to be doing in your Tomb Kings army. Excellent harassers.

• Skeleton Chariots: Yup, they're core. Units of motherfucking chariots are core. You can build your entire army around these things. They even come with bows and the standard Tomb Kings special rules for archers. A full rank is only 3 chariots, and you get to add your rank bonus to the strength of your impact hits. Any character mounted in a chariot can join the unit too. If they can even make room for Settra's beard. If you're still not sold consider this - 6 chariots is 330 points. That's 3d6 Strength 5 impact hits, plus 12 attacks from the steeds, and another 1224 from the crew (except it's 6 from the steed and 12 frm the crew cause u dont get supporting attacks). Yeah, there's 2 Crewmen, and each have 2 attacks. On average, that's 10-15 Empire Spearmen or equivalents dead on the charge. Your chariots don't hold up so well in extended combat, but pick the right target and you can just ride right over the motherfuckers. Squish. You want chariots in your army. You need them. And it is one of the things that makes the tomb Kings unique so you can justify it like that if the pure killing power isn't enough. Oh, on a side note, both the crewmen are packing spears and bows, while driving the chariot at the same time, that's right Shiva's coming to town.

Special Units

• Tomb Guard: Solid heavy infantry with killing blow. Can take halberds. Unlike skeletons, these guys have semi-decent stats. Fairly cheap too. Worth taking.

• Necropolis Knights: Giant animated stone cobras with elite troops riding them. Riders have killing blow, snakes have poisoned attacks. And they can pop up anywhere on the battlefield if you buy a 5 point upgrade. Good, but pricey. And very, very cool. The first of your Animated Constructs. Now this is what Tomb kings are talking about. Packing the best unmodified save in the entire tomb king book(3+) three S5 poisoned attacks from the Necroserpent, two S4 killing blow spears from the Knight, and a stomp to boot, these gits sing praise to the glory of ages past for 65 measly points. As either a line breaker or flanker, the necropolis knights are your friends.

• Tomb Scorpion: A giant stone scorpion serving as the mobile tomb of a dead liche priest. Which is pretty awesome. It also has magic resistance, killing blow, poison and can appear anywhere on the battlefield. Good for hunting war machines or small units or archers behind enemy lines. Two problems, though: There's a chance they die even trying to get on the field, and they can't charge the turn they enter play, so the enemy has a full turn to deal with them. Still, they're relatively durable and cheap, so they're probably still worth taking. No they are not. Tomb scorpions where hit hard in the new book, a drop to the wounds (W3)and a turn picking sand out of its carapace will ensure 85 points being stomped back into the sand by any competent commander who has ordnance on standby or even another unit waiting on the flanks.

• Ushabti: One of the best units in the Special section. Ushabti are giant Anubis statues that can wield great weapons or strength 6 great bows. And, yes, they have the usual Tomb Kings archery rule. They have pretty solid stats, with T4 and 3 wounds. Remember, they're Animated Constructs, so they have a 5+ save. They can also get a 6+ Regeneration save if they're within 12" of a Nectrotect, which makes them that much hardier (don't rely on that save, though). They can dish out the pain and take it too. And, of course, they are giant statues with fucking huge weapons. How cool is that? On the contrary, Ushabti aren't worth the base they stand on let alone the 300 pts for a reasonable unit, whatever combat potential is overshadowed by tomb guard. Starting off, the animated construct rule drops the number of wounds healed by the restless dead lore attribute to one PER MAGIC PHASE, that's right with the same armour save and toughness, ushabti are even more feeble than tomb guard. point for point, ushabti are 16.67 points in comparison to the 11 points of tomb guard, the additional hand weapons make each attack 12.5 points to the tomb guard 11, the great weapons are always strikes last resulting in your expensive unit being hacked to half its size before it gets a chance to attack, and great bows have a one in three chance of hitting something for a single S6 hit. the only redeeming feature is the S4 stomp but that suffers from ASL like the great weapons.
  • A note on the great bows: They probably aren't worth taking, unless you have a few hundred points left over. Sure, they hit hard--if they hit. Ushabti, like the Skeleton Archers, have a piss-poor BS of 2. That's fine for the Skeleton Archers, because they get so many shots on any given turn. However, you'll rarely have many Ushabti in your army, so you can't rely on volume to overwhelm the enemy. Sure, it's unmodifiable, thanks to that Arrows of Asaph rule (as previously mentioned). You could use this to fire as you advance, but then you're giving up the pretty big benefit of +2 Strength from the great weapons, which can swing a combat (and Ushabti have poor I anyways, so there's no reason not to take the great weapons). At that point, as expensive as the Ushabti are, you might as well just put more points into Skeleton Warrior or Tomb Guard units.

• Swarm: Eh. It's a swarm. Poisoned attacks and still has the Nehekharan Undead trait so you can top em up.

• Carrion: Flyers, decent stats. War machine hunters. Undead vultures are pretty cool though. While the stats have been bumped up, ALL Tomb king flyers are suffering the aftermath of 8th edition, dropping the rate of movement by HALF without magic support.

• Khermrian Warsphinx: Sexy, sexy beast. The first of two sphinx choices. This one has a howdah packed with Tomb Guard. It looks cool, and has the stats and rules to back up its looks. You can start with T8 and 5 wounds, and go on to its poisoned attacks upgrade and its breath weapon upgrade. It has thunderstomp, and can exchange it's attacks for placing the small blast template anywhere toughing its base - anyone under the template gets a S3 hit. Except the poor bastard under the central hole. He cops a S9 hit with D3 wounds. Squish. You can also have your Tomb King riding one of these however there is very little point as he replaces the 4 tomb guard crew and loses out on the my will be done.

• Sepulchural Stalkers: D&D Nagas. Half man, half snake. All magically animated statue. Apart from their ability to appear anywhere and their decent stats, these guys have a ranged gaze attack that turns you to sand. This strength 1 attack ignores armour and doesn't need to roll to hit. Instead, you're rolling an artillery dice for each stalker gazing and adding the together for the number of automatic hits. And to top it off, those hits are rolled against your initiative, not your toughness. Good at killing small tough units, low-initiative units, war machines, and monsters.

In a one shot, glass cannon manoeuvre, these are a curve ball but nothing more, and are certainly not reliable with a random number of shots generated(potential to kill yourself on a misfire) and EBtS being EBtS.

Rare Units

• Necrolith Colossus: Nothing special really, it's not a bad choice, but then again it's not a great one ether, really a relatively cheap monster for someone who wants to go a tad bit into the deep end in terms of monster hordes. The unstoppable assault is only barley usable but it just hasn't made it out of the realm of gimmicks, the additional hand weapon and great weapon are solid choices, however for twenty points, the bow of the great desert will more often than not miss, in addition to distracting you from the important job of wading in and beating people down.

• Hierotitan: Another support unit. Losing an attack and the combat gimmick, the hierotitan is more suited for a defensive play style. The bound items help a little in a desperate situations and the D3 bonus to casting to all wizards in 12' also helps .

• Necrosphinx: The second sphinx in the list. Oh boy, is this thing nice. Whereas the Warsphinx is primarily geared towards killing infantry, the Necrosphinx is purpose built for killing big shit. It can fly, it has killing blow, it's pretty damn durable at toughness 8, it causes terror, and it can be upgraded to have poisoned attacks. Plus you get one attack at S10 with Heroic Killing Blow. It's cheap at 225 points; at least, it's certainly cheaper than the things it will be killing. And you know you want to see the look on your opponents face when you chop the head off his thousand point all-killy dragon with one shot. With the all the new large kits GW is bringing out, I'd call the Necrosphinx vital. Let's be real, in comparison between the two, the WS gets an extra four S4 hits and an boost to initiative when the inevitable purple sun hits, while the NS (for 15pts more) can "fly" (yay 4 more inches and swift stride) and packs one extra attack at S10, killing blow is situational and HKB is a one in six chance. It is advisable to observe the style of armies you normally see in your hobby area and build the sphinxes appropriately to match.

• Screaming Skull Catapult: Tomb Kings stone thrower. Only it doesn't throw stones. No, this bitch throws the skulls of your enemy back at them after magically enchanting them to scream and explode. Bitching. Its attacks are magical, flaming and cause panic tests in the enemy after even one casualty. The Skulls of the Foe upgrade tacks a -1 penalty onto the panic test. Yeah, you can keep your cannons. Don't forget, the chances of the shot smacking into dead land are quite high, so expect to gamble with shots frequently.

• Casket of Souls: This is the Ark of the Covenant straight out of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Never seen the movie? Go, watch it now. You're not allowed back on this website till you've finished watching it. The casket not only looks like the Ark, it melts faces exactly the same way. It's a bound spell with a 4 foot range, and the target takes a leadership test on 3d6 adding all the results together. Every point they fail by is an automatic wound with no armour saves. Even better - on a 3+ you get to do it again to a unit within 6" of the target. And you can keep doing that to targets within 6" of the last target as long as you can roll 3+ whether you cause any casualties or not. Roll well and you can melt half the faces in the opposing army in one shot. It also gives you D3 extra power dice in you magic phase, and will explode if destroyed. For the mighty killing power and magical boost this toy brings to your army, it should be in every damn game you play. Leaving it at home is just fucking stupid. it also eats cannonballs, trust me this will make empire players rage.

Building Your Army

Army Composition

Now that you're ready to march to war with the Undead Kings of Ages Past, it's time to think about which of the Undead Kings (or Queens) you're marching with. One of the biggest selling points of Tomb Kings is how well the army can do in a multitude of different configurations. There's no "Set" list (just a "Settra" one) that is deemed the best- they all have merits, and one or the other might work better for you based on your local meta and playstyle.

• The Unending Horde: Pretty simple, really. Skeletons. Lots and lots of Skeletons. Multiple units of 100+, big blocks of Spearmen and Tomb Guard, backed up by the Banner of the Undying Legion and Nehekharan Augments and Light Magic Buffs, invariably with Tomb Kings or Tomb Princes leading the way with My Will Be Done. Turn those cheapo Skittles into killing machines, and keep coming back for more even when the enemy outmatches you. There's a couple of variants on the Horde, as well.

• • Khalida/Archer Spam: What it says on the canned ham. Instead of footslogging Warriors, take Archers, and pincushion the enemy to death. With Khalida, that's a lot more arrows hitting the target, and Poison is just the icing on the cake.

• • TombStar: The Tomb Guard deathstar. Usually consists of a blinged out Tomb King, Necrotect, and Battle Standard Bearer Tomb Herald at the forefront of a massive block of Tomb Guard. It will kill anything it touches. The trick is getting it into combat.

• And the Tomb Kings Rode to War: Chariots. Oh Ancient Gods, Chariots. Also known as the more evocative "Bone Train", this army features units of 3 to 6 strong Chariots running everything over front and center, often supported by Settra or Arkhan.

• Action Figure Tomb Kings: This list essentially boils down to "How many Animated Constructs can we get in the list?" and features blocks of Ushabti, Necrolith Colossi, Heirotitans, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necropolis Knights as the main damage dealers. If you have an army like this and don't bring at least one Necrotect, you're more hollow in the head than a Screaming Skull.

• Snakes!: Utilizing one or two 6 strong units of Necropolis Knights backed up by Light magic. Is shown to deadly effect in multiple Tourneys.

• TombKittens: Tomb Kings can fit 7, 8 or even more Toughness 8 Sphinxes in a list, with 3 Warsphinxes, 2 Necrosphinxes, and both Kings and Princes riding the giant stone cats. Sure, you'll lose 1 a turn to an opponent with a cannon- but you have more Cats than the game has Turns (except if you are able to field that many cats your opponent can (and will) field more than 1 cannon (expect 3min against any army which can have cannon's).

• Entombed: Similar to a Spess Mahrine Drop-pod list, but from the other direction, and, you know, actually cool. Uses naturally Entombing units, as well as the Banner of the Hidden Dead to ensure that almost all your army emerges wherever the hell you want it to on the board.

Those are just a few of the more 'thematic' lists out there- many more feature a hybrid of these, or unique strategies alltogether. Again, the beauty of Tomb Kings (aside from Khalida) is the versatility of the army.

Magic Items

Tomb King magic items- a checklist of the ups and downs. Destroyer of eternities aimed at giving footsloggers a fighting chance against monsters, and no longer a great weapon what more can you want. Well actually do with a little extra points to spend on something to, well... keep that 270 point lord alive. With little access to armour and no mount, 20 points is very little to spend on protection, especially since glittering scales are 25 points, a tomb herald can potentially take some of the fire but it can only soak one wound per turn. Other than that the tomb king can wallop away with a one handed S7 sword that dices monsters for lunch.

Blade of Antarhak A defensive magic weapon, this expensive god send can keep a flimsy tomb king alive for those vital few turns at the cost of a potential strength boost, useful when gearing a Tank King.

Golden Death Mask of Kharnut Word on the street is this pricy trinket is a game winner however I have yet to see its value in game, give it a spin, experiment. Cloak of the dunes It wouldn't be so bad if you could join flying units and perhaps move more than 10' a turn, the flyby damage is nothing more than a gimmick due to the low number of low strength hits which are only really useful against light units, which you should be avoiding with solo characters in the first place. Neferra's Scrolls of Mighty Incantations

An instacast item for 50 points which is only really effective on high level lich priests, however a higher level also increases the chance of a miscast. Enkhil's Kanopi Not a bad curveball for 25 points but highly situational.

Standard of the Undying Legion Expensive and a competent commander will never let it go(which means it's ridiculously useful)

Banner of the Hidden Dead

I have to take a tomb herald BSB for this which is already useless, this is just a side order of bollocks, 90 points to make a single unit EBtS (while potentially useful for chariot flank charges, not worth 90 points) and a re-roll for all units within 12' is a unreliable, one shot gang bang, with the only viable units to come up for flanking being the pricy Necro knights, which I'd rather not risk getting a misfire.