Editing Warhammer Army Project/Tomb Kings (section)

==Why Play Tomb Kings==
Besides all the bling and skull accessories with options for colors other than red? Or enjoying the idea of an ancient civilization returning from the dead to wreak havoc on their enemies and seek revenge for the decline of their nation? Maybe you're just a fan of the Mummy movies and want to fight on the titular character's side. They're all good reasons.

Furthermore, the customization of freedom is fantastic. For one, almost the entire army is just skeletons. Thus with some greenstuff, bits, and a box of redshirts, you can avoid paying $16 for a generic character or $55 for ten slightly more armored troops than the $40 for 16 core. 

Tomb Kings are a pretty fragile army and unforgiving one as they have sat near the bottom of the power rank totem pole for a while in 8th, with many exceptions and special rules to keep in mind while playing, so it is not recommended for beginners who are just learning the ropes. Like their Egyptian parallel, Tomb kings rely upon light infantry blocks, regiments of archers, and skirmishing light cavalry, with a heavy reliance upon magic for supporting and debuffing (according to myth anyway). Unfortunately, armour is a rare sight in the Tomb King army. Only two units have natural saves greater than 5+, so your troops being numerically superior to your opponents while supporting each other is a recommended position to take. 

A point to note; many other armies take having troops on standby to flank for granted, but flanking is necessary for Tomb King victory as virtually all your units are inferior to their counterparts in other armies. With this in mind, you must be very careful when maneuvering troops and know that battlefield tactics (both yours and your opponents) are crucial to victory or defeat. 

A few points about this army do not apply to other mortals (and sometimes immortal armies). Every unit has these special rules: Unbreakable, Unstable, Fear, and Undead. Undead tells us that every Tomb king unit is reliable - fragile but reliable. A unit will not break and run because of a bad dice roll, so there is little to fear losing combat. However, because of Unstable, a unit will lose the number of Wounds equal to how many resolution points they lost by (if it has lost combat). While not so troubling when it happens to a large block of skeletons, it is a grave concern for Monsters, small elite units, and lone characters after the charge bonus fade. Fear has taken a nerf with it now being a modifier to opponent leadership if you win combat, as primarily a shock and Awe army, increasing the chance that the enemy runs are needed. 

In addition, there are special rules that only apply to Tomb Kings. These are: Animated Constructs, Arrows of Asaph, and Entombed Beneath the Sands (EBTS). Arrows of Asaph apply to every unit in the army with a ranged weapon. It essentially states that the unit will never benefit from bonuses or suffer from penalties when shooting, allowing a unit to move, fire directly into cover, fire though a unit, fire at long range, etc., all without suffering penalties like other armies. EBTS allows the unit to enter play from reserve anywhere on the board (those familiar with [[Warhammer 40k|the 'other' Warhammer]] can think of it like deepstriking) with the ability to Move (but not Charge) on the turn it arrives. However, the downside to this is the high potential for scattering away into terrain since it doesn't arrive precisely where you choose, and the 1 in 6 chance of rolling a misfire on the artillery dice with another 1 in 3 chance of killing off the unit (the other 2 options are not so bad.   

Tomb king units, like Vampire Count units, can reliably resurrect Wounds and models in units from casting buffing (AKA Augment) spells in the Lore of Nehekhara, allowing for many units in the Tomb Kings army to [[Tarpit]] another, pricier unit and still sustain the combat for an extended time as long as they receive magic support.

Like Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings have a leader character. Called the Hierophant, he is the highest Wizard level character who MUST be in the Lore of Nehekhara. Models in his unit have Regeneration (6+), which is excellent, and if he dies, your army starts to Crumble, which means each turn your army takes a Leadership Test unit by unit, taking Wounds by the amount they fail it. Armies Project makes a welcome change in allowing dead Hierophants to be replaced, so long as you have at least one reasonable replacement on the board (i.e., a wizard with spells from the Lore of Nehekara); once you're out of Hierophants, you're on a short time limit to win before the metaphorical Deathstar finishes blowing up. Not fun by any measure. 

The Battle Standard Bearer lets any units within 12 inches take one less Wound of damage from Unstable or Crumble, so keeping the troops near Old Glory is a significant advantage.

tl:dr; Tomb Kings are a jack of all trades but a master of none.