Editing Warhammer Army Project/Tomb Kings (section)

===Lords & Heroes===
'''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.

====Named Characters====
*'''[[Settra the Imperishable]]:''' Sporting a magnificent beard at a godly 545 points. Settra represents the pinnacle of Tomb King's 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). 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 gets the expanded 18" range to Inspiring Presence alongside an 8" bubble to use My Will be Done even when inside a unit. In addition, due to being a Level 2 wizard with Lore of Nehekhara. He can also be the Hierophant if you so desire - not that this is a good idea as you'd want a Liche Priest so you can cast other spells and because you never want to put so many eggs in one basket. Even with his double curse (the second spreading weaker hits but to anyone within 2d6"). In terms of mobility, Settra must be fielded upon The Chariot of the Gods and may never be taken on foot. 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. In melee, Settra shines, however, with a powerful statline of WS7 and five S6 Attacks and T5 with his unmodifiable 4+/4++ save and Magic Resist 1 to protect him, with the added benefit of his Blessed Blade of Ptra ignoring Armour Saves, giving him Flaming Attacks, and a permanent debuff of -1 To Hit in both shooting and close combat should it hit a Character or Monster. 
**Settra rolls the roles of the caster, melee DPS, and support into one package and a mobile one at that. However, all of this does come at a cost; Settra is fragile compared to some armies' special characters, only sporting Heavy Armor and mounted status to provide an Armour Save of 4+ 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. He is an excellent and fluffy general, recommended in bigger games for his Ld and MWBD bubble, along with an ace model.

*'''High [[Queen Khalida]]:''' 300pts. 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 prior incarnations, she is now significantly cheaper at 300 points and arguably better for it. She retains much of her old statline with WS6, BS3, S4, T5, W3, and a LD of 10 now. 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 even to bonk an Elf before it can react, which coupled with her Poisoned Attacks and a restored 4+ regen save makes her a very formidable melee character against basic troops. However, Khalida is best known as the poster child of Tomb King archer lists everywhere. Instead of buffing a single unit with her MWBD, her presence turns the list into a Khalida army, letting every archer and chariot upgrade thier arrows to poisoned arrows, ramping up the unit's damage output. Two other minor notes: Khalida also has Hatred against Vampire Counts and a bound PL5 spell which inflicts 2D6 S4 hits against a unit within 24".
**She makes a good general for archer-heavy lists. Coupled with Sepulchral Stalkers, she'll ensure you have the damage to wipe out a good amount of the opposing force before they reach you. Like any army that can dump points into poison attack upgrades, if your opponents don't tell you they are playing factions like Daemons or a Tomb king mirror match, those +200 points are wasted.
**Alternate opinion: Khalida is overpriced for what she does and doesn't seem to know what she wants to be when she grows up. Five attacks at WS6, I9, S4, with ASF and Poisoned attacks, is a great CC profile... except she only has a hand weapon to use it with, meaning she can't really capitalize on it and will fall to just about anything with decent armour. The changes free her from being trapped with archers, and she can now hang out with tomb guards to make use of that profile, likely only to harass peasants. Worse, she lacks any spellcasting, so you still need to invest more points buying a Priest to be your hierophant, and Khalida will be taking up a big chunk of your points allotment for Lords/Heroes. Given how competitive the Lord slot is in a Tomb Kings army, there are better options available.

*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]:''' 360pts. 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 has only recently returned, hiring his services and armies out like some 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 and knows 6 Spells. Yeah, you know you're spoiled for choices here. The Tomb Blade also works as a localized Restless Dead whenever he makes a kill in close combat, raising one wound of his unit for each 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 the staff of Nagash, an arcane item that can store up to three dispel dice in your opponent's magic phase and convert them to power dice in your magic phase. He also comes with the option to ride a chariot, then upgrades that chariot with the 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.
**An interesting addition to the new armybook is the options Arkhan has for his chariot. On top of the typical scythes, he can also grab extra ponies to ape Settra in every way (though he lacks all the reasons to join a unit of chariots), as well as the ability to cause Terror or Fly. That grants you some serious mobility, though it gimps your choices of movement.

*'''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 with the loremaster of Nehekkara, Khatep is the casting alternative to Arkhan at a similar price of 340 points with the added stipulation of being forced into being the Hierophant. While being forced to use the lore of Nehekhara, he makes up for the limitation by being a Loremaster and boosting both the healing of the Lore Attribute and granting a 5+ regen. 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 will be the Scroll of the Cursing Word, a one-use item that works like a dispel scroll and ends all further casting attempts for one turn on a single wizard if they fail a Toughness test plus D3 automatic unsaveable wounds if they fail it on a 6. If this wasn't clear enough, the item is incredibly unreliable and highly situational if you intend to harm the caster instead of just dispelling. Overall, Khatep can be an acceptable choice; being the mandatory Hierophant frees your other priests to use the Lores of Death and Light and gives you access to all spells. Just keep him in a big unit with a protective buff to get some value from him.

*'''[[King Phar]]:''' Ruler of Mahrak and the closest thing Settra has to a sworn enemy who isn't named Nagash. He already acts as a mini-Settra by being half the Imperishable one's price (250, 305 if you buy the chariot) and serving as the mandatory general, though banning any other Tomb Kings or other characters from joining his army hampers your choices. Lacking any other special rules, his role as a beatstick is a bit more clearly recognized with WS6 and S5/T5. His weapon is a magical one-handed flail that deals d3 wounds and has both a light armour that rerolls all wound rolls against him and a shield that debuffs all models in b2b with him with -1 to hit whenever he makes his parry save.

*'''[[Amanhotep the Intolerant]]:''' Ruler of Zandri who had the misfortune of being robbed multiple times and in response built up a massive tomb ship of his own. He has the basic statline of a TK character with Hatred, dual weapons that grant ASF and +1 to all Combat Resolution, and light armour that gives a 3++ ward when he's on his last wound, but his most remarkable feature is his bombardment. As he lacks any shooting, he can instead use his massive ship to fire an S7 flaming magical blast with a d6" scatter, with misfiring only blocking it for the next turn.

*'''[[Sehenesmet]]:''' 425pts. Vizier of Quatar and master architect. Sehenesmet is a costly mix between Necrotect Liche Priest, and Hierotitan, being a Chunky level 2 monster wizard of Nehekhara with T7, W6, magic resist 2 and having the Necrotect's stone shaper with a 5+ regen. While he has a great weapon that can fire as many magical missiles as he inflicted unsaved wounds in close combat, this is at the cost of becoming I1 and thus beat out by even lizardmen and dwarfs. Instead, use him because he swaps around the entire army allotment chart by making special/rare stone constructs (Monstrous Infantry, Monstrous Cavalry, Monstrous Beasts, or Monster units) core/special while making all other core/special units into special/rare. Sure, this is a costly deal as you can no longer summon shittons of skellies, but you now have a ton of Ushabti and Stalkers to throw around like nobody's business.

*'''[[Prince Tutankhanut]]:''' 210 pts. Prince of Numas who decided to turn his body into solid gold and a total reference to King Tut. He's THE most protected TK with a 3+/4++ save that turns to 2+/3++ when riding a chariot. His weapons are regular Arrows of Asaph bow and an armor-ignoring halberd.
**'''Scythan Warriors:''' The biggest curiosity of Not-Tut is his ability to buy a variant of Horse Archers that lack both Arrows of Asaph and Undead. This means that you have a force of actually usable fast cavalry archers that aren't held down by the undead's general liabilities. Still, with a mediocre Ld score of 7, you must be careful with them and make sure they stay on the archery.

*'''[[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 impossible). He's 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, where he's be whipped out right under the opponent's nose and wrecks a valuable unit and ASF/high Initiative and massive damage. Apophas, on the other hand, can never join units and only has the option to appear using EBTS. However, there is a downside 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 Strider, 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 Pistoliers 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, and deals 2d6 S2 hits to anyone within 2d6" whenever he dies. 
**As you can see, Apophas is less of an assassin character and more of a scout hunter, wizard slayer, and Warmachine hunter. If you take him, use him carefully and only if you have the points to spare. 

*'''[[The Herald Nekaph]]:''' Bodyguard and Herald of Settra the Imperishable. The character is mediocre, as he's got a touch of wasted potential on top of a price hike. Very mediocre statline of WS5 S4 T4 W2 I3 A3 LD8 for a 165 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 for a super-champion. Ideally, he must challenge where he gains a 5++ ward save and has his KB activate on a 5+, while his new weapon doubles any negatives the enemy takes for break tests. 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...until you read the other new stuff. His Vambraces of the Sun make all cc attacks against him take -1 to hit, which is minor, but his biggest gift is the Amulet of Neru, which SHUTS OFF ALL TALISMANS, ENCHANTED, AND ARCANE ITEMS IN B2B. While a far cry from shutting off all magic items, this does give him a reliable means of hunting down wizards and other heroes who rely upon magical items to protect themselves while wearing mundane armour. Why do I call him wasted potential? Because his special rule Herald of Despair, is so good, That 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 roll one additional dice when taking a Leadership test, discarding the lowest result. This does not affect units with Immunity (Psychology). A situational character, take him only if you can spare the points or are playing a fluffy game.

*'''[[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 came to commit ritual suicide, which is when that the "other" necrotect suddenly found himself force-fed the poisoned elixir while Ramhotep made 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 compared to the normal Necrotect (only 60 points). 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. The odds are 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 combat). In addition, a single 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, which is very welcome now that the random assignment bullshit is dead. 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.

====Generic Characters====
*'''Tomb Kings/Princes:''' 170/90pts. Both of these will be looked at together since they're pretty similar. Tomb Kings are not mandatory (despite the book's name), but you will take one as a General in most cases. They have high Toughness, an above-average number of Wounds, and good Leadership (the king is S5), but (as you might expect) a rather sad Initiative of 3. However, he is no melee beatstick; his true purpose lies in his rules, especially '''My Will Be Done.''' Essentially, any non-mount model in his unit gets to use his unmodified Weapon Skill. This rule provides a major boost to your models' survivability in combat and helps with the army's low average WS. Of course, your Tomb King (and Princes) can't be everywhere at once, so you should form a priority list of who should get it. Units that are already fairly decent should probably be on top; Tomb Guards, for instance, benefit immensely from '''MWBD''', whereas the rule is generally a waste on basic Skeleton Warriors. They also inflict a '''''"curse"''''' attack on death, making your enemy think twice about setting an elite character-killer on him. The Tomb King is also Flammable, being a mummy. This is unfortunate, as many things in 9th can grant Flaming Attacks to deal with Regeneration. A character with toughness 5 with 3 to 4 wounds can still be taken down in a flash, making their high(ish) stats moot (bring Dragonbane Gem or the Dragonhelm and give those flaming attacks the middle finger). Finally, the Tomb Kings have several magical goodies to pimp their chariot. He is also limited to only light armour, so he must invest heavily in magic defense items, which many other races do not have to do.

*'''Liche High Priest/Liche Priest:''' 165/65pts. Fairly cheap for a caster, yet still on the expensive side of cheap, the Liche priest is an essential component of your army. This is because the army requires one caster to be the hierophant. Unfortunately, the hierophant must be the wizard with the highest level in the army and must also be taking the lore of Nehekhara; these two factors limit the Liche priests' flexibility when choosing their spell lores. Both of the alternative options, Light and Death, are useful. 
**9th has shifted from a single big lv4 to multiple hero wizards now, with the new ability to pick spell opening up your magic game. Unfortunately, your highest level mages must be the lore of Nehekhara caster. Being locked by wizard level, in a situation you want that ''The Fate of Bjuna'', you have to take two Liche High Priests for 330pts + arcane items. Despite this, High Priest still has uses as a level 4 with channeling staff, which is viable to fuel dice for all your spell plus tomb kings' other magic support tools. 

*'''Tomb Herald:''' 60pts. Cheap combat characters, far cheaper than tomb kings, being merely a tomb guard with better stats(WS4, S4, T4, W2, I3, A3, Tomb Blades), and a Bodyguard (more on that later) with the option of being the BSB and being mounted (Yayyy). The character is underwhelming in combat; It is simply undeniable. Its combat potential is poor, with low initiative and Weapon skill forcing you to compensate with the use of magic items to compete with other races' faster, stronger hero choices. The herald shines in two niches: 
**First: is acting as a living shield for a designated Tomb King. The bodyguard rule allows each phase for the herald to take one wound for their king before saves are taken. Therefore allowing the Tomb King to allocate their valuable magic item allowance to big swords with which to cut people up without worrying about having his head caved in - Unless your King's in a challenge, in which case you just bought a paperweight. Note that the wound is allocated before saves are taken, so if you wish to load the herald up on magic armour and nearly double his cost to mitigate that one wound per phase, no one will frown at you. 
**the second: With the expanse of generic Magic banners and letting your horsemen and chariots march, you can find something good to buff them with, like giving one Chariot or tomb guard unit the Battle Banner, Banner of Might, or a second banner. Alternatively, taking the BANNER OF THE HIDDEN DEAD lets a unit deepstrike or STANDARD OF THE SANDS slow down advancing enemies.

*'''Necrotect:''' 60pts. The redone Undead rule gave this guy a MASSIVE boost in viability. The necrotect comes with Hatred (everything) and provides that special rule to any unit he joins, effectively turning them into dark elves. He packs a little bit of combat potential. At S and T are 4 with two attacks and paired weapons, he might be capable of taking out a few minions. Finally, any stone construct (Monstrous Cavalry, Monstrous Beasts, or Monsters)within 12" gains a 6+ regeneration save, making him a necessity in any statue army.

====Mounts====
*'''Skeletal Steed:''' At last, the Kings and Princes deign themselves fit to ride these simple beasts, and for that, the universe is grateful. This means that your skeleton horsemen can finally be of use in combat. The tradeoff is that your leaders all have terrible protection, and your horses are no exception.
*'''Skeleton Chariot:''' Tomb Kings and Princes only. The classic standby. Though you have the horse now, it's hard not to make use of those chariots whenever you can, especially with their protection.
*'''Khemrian Warsphinx:''' Tomb King only. Killer riding an infantry mulcher. You're wasting My Will Be Done, but the lord with Sword of Bloodshed and Battle can mulch armies.
*'''Tomb Barque:''' Liche High Priest only. Wizard of flying buff chariot. This grants you a rather protected platform from which you can cast important spells and runes.