Editing Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Tomb Kings (section)

=== Lords & Heroes ===

'''Tomb King'''

The good: easy access to the war-engine-wrecking S7, above average T and Ld, and W4. If he does die, the unit responsible must take a Ld test or suffer d6 unsaveable wounds.
The bad: lousy I, no heavy armour option, and the only mount he gets is a standard issue light chariot - not a monster in sight.

The Tomb King is what he is: an expensive, solid, unspectacular fighting general, with a lowkey support ability that lets nearby units move or shoot or fight out of sequence. His chief advantage is actually a subtle bit of build optimisation: taking a Tomb King as your army general moves Chariots from Special into Core, thus reducing your dependence on bog-standard Skeleton infantry and allowing you to go harder on Tomb Guard or Ushabti as your line fighters.

'''Tomb Prince'''

A pocket version of the Tomb King, with the same advantages and disadvantages over comparable heroes from the land of the living (no S7 though, sad face). The Prince's My Will Be Done is shorter ranged, only affecting him and a unit he joins, and he only gets to cast it once. If you take a Prince as your general you're advised to slap him in a unit of heavy cavalry, chariots or Tomb Guard and hope you get his My Will Be Done off, ever. Another, better option is to take a Prince as a Hero choice in a King's army, and have him ride solo on the Chariot of Fire or lead one of the aforementioned units, taking some strain off the King to do all the movement-based incanting.

'''Liche High Priest'''

Brittle even by the standards of wizards (T3 and W3 are not the stuff of legend), but with a credible Ld9 and the best casting power in the army. Can ride a horse, but the ''Cloak of the Dunes'' moves him faster and lets him hide better. Can also ride the Casket of Souls, but owing to the Casket's immobility and the short range of Incantations, this is probably a bit of a waste; it'll tether your essential support caster to an artillery piece, and the rest of the army to him. Keep him mobile and you'll keep your army rolling. Take him instead of a King and you've better Incantations, but fewer good units to Incant upon.

'''Liche Priest'''

As above, so below: an extremely brittle wizard-equivalent who will probably be tagging along with one unit and babysitting them with one Invocation per turn. Makes a better candidate for riding the Casket, as you can park the Casket next to a Screaming Skull Catapult and have this little fella wring an extra shot out of it every turn while the other Priests keep your army going.

They're unspectacular, but in practice they will take up at least two of your character slots in most of your games.

'''Icon Bearer'''

A Tomb Guard 'hero' who looks enviously over at the Wight Lords in the Vampire Counts army. Lagging behind them in terms of Ld, A, weapon options and armour save, the Icon Bearer is only worth bringing along if you're fielding a lot of constructs (they quite like taking two fewer wounds from lost combats) or you're in love with one of the magic banners.

He's the only way you're going to get the ''Icon of Rakaph'' on a Skeleton Warrior unit (see below) but it's better on Tomb Guard; he allows Chariot or Cavalry units to double up and gain the ''Icon of the Sacred Eye'' (a nice to have) plus something else; and he's the only way you'll get two of the banners in at all.

Of those two banners I say this. The ''Banner of the Hidden Dead'' is a gimmick that can't conceal anything worth concealing, so leave the "new units out of the ground!" stuff to the Vampire Counts and stop overpaying for it. The ''Standard of the Sands'' is actually a pretty strong board control option, but it's very very VERY expensive for a one use only item and once you've used it, that Hero slot (which could have contained another Liche Priest who'd be helping out every single turn) is basically dead in the water. Potentially worth a go in 3000 point games, but not when slots are at a premium and every little has to help.