Warhammer Army Project/Tomb Kings

This article needs rules updates. Upgrade plz.

Tomb Kings: Warhammer Army Project, 9th Edition Tactica

Created by Mathias Eliasson, this project was a homebrew attempt at giving many of the units, nations, and factions that never got Armybooks of their own (and those left behind and never got one in 8th Edition) such a thing.

It should also be noted that Eliasson is constantly updating his work, so don't expect this page to stay current forever. If anyone wishes to actually update this page and the items that need it, later on, go ahead.

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 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.

Notable Changes from 8e

Pros

• Pharaohs can actually ride horses
• Ushabti are better supported by spells, cheaper and more flexible.
• Being classified as Animated Constructs actually gives you quite a few immunities to otherwise dangerous spells and powers.
• have unbearable archers that ignore hit penalties, and many are also fast movers.
• Edition wide addition of multiple shots on bows is a boon for an army that doesn't suffer a -1 from it.
• You can now finally replace your Hierophant with a backup if the first one happens to catch a stone-thrower shot to the face. This requires having a second eligible model (a wizard using the Lore of Nehekara), but the Lore works well enough for the army that the redundancy is worth it in larger games.
• Ch, MI, MC, and MB now recover D3 Wounds instead of 1.
• Khalida turns your whole army into an Asaph army instead of a single unit.

Cons

• While archers gained multiple shots, they also gained a 50% price hike
• With the new roll-to-hit table, your WS2 troops will get blended by WS5 or higher and only hit on 5+'s.
• Asinine changes to General selection forces a High Lich Priest to lead your army even if you bring along a higher leadership Tomb Prince.
• The Restless Dead got better, but that was to compensate for the removal of most of the overcast aura spell feature that made Undead factions so overpowereing.

Special Rules

• Undead: Undead is now a type of Animated Construct, with all the statues also made of dead people. Alongside all the immunities they have, they also cause Fear and have Unstable. All Undead are still incapable of marching unless joined by a model with My Will Be Done or Sworn Bodyguard. Keeping a BSB within 12" of one can reduce the wounds suffered by Unstable/Hierophant's Death by 1.
  • As a faction focused on speed and flanks, not marching can sometimes be a problem. Your only way to mitigate this is with spells or by attaching a model with MWBD and/or SB (aka Tomb Kings and their Heralds).
  • This change lets lore of Nehekhara repair Ushabti and Necrosphinxes, but you remain vulnerable to anything that affects the Undead.
• Hierophant: Same as before, your most potent Nehekaran Lore wizard must become your Hierophant. They give an attached unit a 6+ regen, but if they die, the entire army must test Ld every turn or die unless you can find another Hierophant.
• My Will Be Done!: A necessity for your forces, this rule is what makes Tomb Princes and Kings (as well as Settra, Phar, Amanhotep, and Tutankhanut) indispensable. This rule allows the character's unit to use their WS and is vital in making your skellies viable in combat and must never be ignored.
  • There are two exceptions to this rule: Mounts (who shouldn't be your primary source of damage anyhow) and Tomb Heralds (who tend to have a WS just as good, if not better, than your HQ).
• Arrows of Asaph: No penalties for shooting bows. Ever. Now you have no excuse not to run with bows. Queen Khalida approves.
• Entombed Beneath the Sands: It's essentially Ambushers except it's in the Remaining Moves sub-phase with scatter and a risk for a mishap (1-2 dead, 3-4 try again next turn, 5-6 random placement). If under an enemy, you get to engage it in their front arc as if you charged.

Equipment

• Tomb Blades: Weapons of all Tomb guard of all kinds and Heralds. Condenses the rule that they have Killing blow and Magical attacks.

Treasures from the Necropolis

Weapons

• Blade of Antarhak: 50pts. 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.

• Destroyer of Eternities: 40pts. Tomb King on foot only. the Greats Aim is to give you a fighting chance against monsters, what more could you want? Well, we could actually do with a few extra points to spend on something too, well... keep that 270 point lord alive. With little access to armor, having 60 points left isn't much to spend on protection, especially since the glittering scales are 25 points. A tomb herald can potentially take some of the fire but he 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.

Armour

• Scorpion Armour: 40pts. While this is no stronger than the default light armour available, this is your means of keeping a unit hanging as long as possible, minimizing all wounds suffered when factoring Combat Resolution.

Talisman

• Collar of Shapesh: 25pts. This lets you shove unsaved wounds the wearer suffers onto other models in the unit. This means that you can turn that whole unit of skeleton warriors into a wall of ablative wounds, though you must make sure that the unit keeps itself together.

Enchanted Items

• Golden Death Mask of Kharnut: 50pts. The Deathmask is quite an expensive item for what it does, making it take up all of a Herald or Prince's allotment and half for a Lord. This item is vital for breaking through an opponent line and into his rear, as it prevents a unit from using the general's "Inspiring presence" and the BSB's "Hold your Ground", thus rendering a unit horrifically vulnerable to failing a LD test and subsequently run down. It is because of this, the Deathmask is a favored item to equip a Tomb King mounted on a chariot, who can ensure that the unit of chariots he is leading will break and run down any unit they charge.

• Cloak of the Dunes: 35pts. Infantry character on foot only. Flying(10). 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.
  • 9ths change to which tomb kings units can march, means a Prince or Herald can fly 20", though how to make that useful still needs theory crafting.
  • grants greater mobility to a lich priest than a skeleton horse and less restrictive than an ARABYAN CARPET.

Arcane Item

• Neferra's Scrolls of Mighty Incantations: 30pts. An insta-cast item which is only really effective on high-level liche priests, however, a higher level also increases the chance of a miscast. If you need something to happen so badly that it's worth causing your liche priest to combust, chances are it's a one-trick pony and shouldn't be considered in the first place.
• Enkhil's Kanopi: 15pts. Not a bad curveball for being cheap, a bound spell that can likely dispell all other 'remains in play' spell and gain D3 power dice for each. It's situational but 'remains in play' spells have become more common in 9th. This will Desentives players to pick up those spells in the first place, especially punishing heroes with the lore of Shadows.

Magic Standard

• Banner of the Hidden Dead: 60pts. A little bit tricky since you're sending a unit to EBTS, but thankfully this permits a nominated unit and any other EBTS gets to re-roll theirs scatters. However, this demands that the standard bearer be alive, as killing them kills the unit you nominated as well.
• Standard of the Undying Legion: 30pts. Bound Spell (PL 5) that raises D6+2 Dead models. Pricey and a competent opponent will throw Dipsell dice to never let it activate (which means it's ridiculously useful). Putting it on a Tomb Guard unit is a good choice, even if it only accomplishing drain enemy Dispel dice, but NECROPOLIS KNIGHTS and Skeleton Chariots can also take it, raising 1 to 2 dead expensive models.

Expansion Magic Items

Weapons

• The Blade of Mourning: 35pts. This weapon requires that you keep an advantage. If an enemy unit suffers a wound from this weapon and loses the combat, the Ld penalty for that break test is doubled.
• Blade of Setep: 30pts. Ignore armour and magic armors negate the first hit before breaking. HOLY SHIT, THIS IS A TOP DUELIST WEAPON!!
• Serpent Staff: 5pts. Wizards only. The staff grants Poisoned attacks and rerolls failed wounds, but you honestly shouldn't be throwing priests in combat to begin with.

Talesmans

• Amulet of Pha-Stah: 30pts. All magic Armor and talismans in base contact are negated. As with the Blade of Setep, this is incredible.
• Blue Khepra: 20pts. immune to all effects of enemy spells.

Arcane Items

• Staff of Ravening: 35pts. A PL3 bound spell, it's a Flock of Doom (Missile 18" that inflicts 3D6 S2 hits). Decent enough for chopping up mobs.
• Staff of Mastery: 15pts. Grants +1 to casting for the lore of Light spell. Which is all you could ask for.
• Hieratic Jar: 15pts. This item can be used once per game to add +d3 power die to your magic phase.

Enchanted Items

• Brooch of the Great Desert: 25pts. one use, grant cast, and unit MR(5) for the turn. Getting a +5 to dispell and a 2++ ward if the enemy targets the litchs or its unit.
• Crown of Kings: 25pts. Tomb King only. This turns MWBD into a 6" aura, making it incredible for coordinating your lines.
• Chariot of Fire: 20pts. Chariot only. This magical chariot deals 2d6 Magical Flaming Impact hits.
• Icon of Rulership: 20pts. Chariot only. This grants +1 to Combat Resolution.

Magic Standards

• Standard of the Sands: 60pts. You can trigger this once per game during the enemy's movement phase. All enemy units within 36" can't march for the turn and suffer -1 to rallying checks.
• Icon of Rakaph: 50pts. Tomb Guard or Tomb Herald on foot only. This unit may make Swift Reform at the start of their Movement phase and then move normally, which helps keep a unit on the offensive.
• Icon of the Sacred Eye: 40pts. Provides reroll to hit roll in the first round of combat, which also applies to Steeds. It's better Hatred for chariots and Necropolis Knight.
• Mirage Standard: 40pts. This forces all ranged attacks against the bearer's unit to reroll to hit.
• Standard of the Cursing Word: 25pts. An enemy unit in base contact with the bearer's unit must pass a leadership test or take D6 Armor ignoring wounds. The good news is that this is also active each turn.

Magic

Lore of Nehekara

Lore Attribute: The Restless Dead: Allows you to regenerate D6+1 wounds worth of models to a unit that successfully receives one of your augments. Any Ch, MI, MC, MB only recover D3 Wounds, and Monsters will only get one wound back per magic phase. That being said, it's basically the only way to survive in a game. Keep spamming augments on your Tomb Guard or whatever else, and you can win any war of attrition.

• Signature Spell: Khsar's Incantation of the Desert Wind: (5/10) This Spell is Tomb King's version of marching. It allows one friendly Undead units within 24" (all within 12" if boosted) to take a free extra move. You can't charge, but it is still useful, especially if you have many slow-foot soldiers.

1. Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades: (7/10) Augment. 18/36" that grants killing blow to a unit OR if the unit already has KB then it works on 5's and 6's. Fun Fact: if you cast this on chariots, their impact hits get KB, and that can get STUPID. This Spell is usually only ok, but it's handy if you're playing against many knights or other heavy armor units.
2. Neru's Incantation of Protection: (9/12) Augment. 18/36" Gives a unit a 5+ ward save. This is the best way to protect those poor bastard sphinxes with only a 5+ armor save and really everything else in your army. Combined with the lore attribute, this can draw out combat.
3. Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting: (9/12) Augment. 18/36" Gives a unit 1 extra attack per model (including mounts) and also multiple shots (+1) for the non-Warmachine ranged units. The Spell works on mounts, each rider of a sphinx, etc., and can dish out some pain. People claim that a unit of Bowshabti with this can become very powerful, but I have never seen it. This boosted Spell has the largest bubble range at 12". Yes, that means every friendly unit within 12" of your priest gets bonus attacks and models back. It works with the Necrolith Colossus' Giant Bow, making it potentially useful (it hits on 5's, but being able to shoot twice can help mitigate that, and if you hit both times, that can put the hurt on enemy monsters).
4. Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance: (10/13) Hex. 18/36" Subtracts D3" of movement from an enemy unit and forces them to take dangerous terrain tests even on open ground. Occasionally very useful, but usually not so great. In theory, this is good on footslogging hordes because if you use it with archer spam, that 200 blocks of zombies - now M1. However, this is more of an inconvenience on a mounted army, and a gunline/archer army won't give any fucks.
5. Usekhp's Incantation of Desiccation: (11/22) 24" Subtracts 1 from an enemy unit's strength and toughness. This Spell can mess up your opponent hard. Watch the Ogre player's face when he finds out your halberd tomb guard is hitting on 3's (with prince/king) and wounding on 2's against their ironguts. This Spell can be boosted to subtract d3 from S and T, but -1 is usually enough to do the trick since you will seriously risk a miscast if you boost this one.
6. Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm: (15/25) Generic Str 5 magical vortex . Not worth it. Buffs are better.

Unit Analysis

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 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 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 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.

Core Units

Made of those poor skeletons that were buried just to justify a bigger tomb. Warriors and Archers are here to fill a quota of cheap walls and bow platforms. Horsemen and Chariots are the proper damage dealer of the core roster.

• Skeleton Warriors: These guys are your basic infantry. And yes, they absolutely suck as much as their statline would suggest. Luckily, they're also among the cheapest infantry in the entire game, along with being Unbreakable and can heal with the Lore of Nehekhara. On the other hand, these guys really, really fear Unstable since they don't get too much benefit from Steadfast, and they almost definitely won't win combat, meaning they'll just crumble away. Don't even think about giving them spears, either: you add 25% to their cost for a few more pathetic attacks. It's always better to load up on more bodies. Also, don't bother putting a Tomb King or Prince in the unit; My Will Be Done will not help them. The only reasonable way to use them is to field them in large blocks. Then field hordes of blocks. Generally speaking, they aren't as good as Archers or Chariots, but they will give you a numerical advantage (albeit a partially-negated one).

• Skeleton Archers: You get the basic package, the same statline as your skeleton warriors including the BS of 2 (hitting on 5+) for double the price (like wtf?). However they benefit from the Arrows of Asaph special rule, meaning they will not suffer negative modifiers when shooting (and they need it! Being BS2 is already low enough without the modifiers they might get e.g move and fire, using the new Multi-shot on bows, cover bonus, Balistist skill Hexes), allowing the unit to fire into cover, fire on the move, fire under the effects of spells, etc. which is quite helpful in placing strain upon an opponent who is looking to shelter units away from a ranged barrage.

• Tomb Swarms: Like the Tomb Scorpion, the scarab swarms are not necessarily a combat unit, as their price makes buying many a liability. They do offer more utility to an army that fields them, as they possess the EBTS special rule, which means they too can pop up behind the opponent's line to cause mischief, as well as poison and Undead. They are typically favored over scorpions to kill warmachines, as they are significantly cheaper to field en masse and are less likely to die to a point-blank cannon shot. Finally, Tomb Swarms possess the poisoned attacks, combined with their 8 attacks and wounds, which opens up possibilities for nibbling at lightly armored monsters. This interaction is because, with their S and T of 1, most infantry will already be wounding the swarm on twos. Being so weak actualy puts the high strength of the monster to waste when hitting swarms, while the swarms will hit back on 5s. Do not reliably expect to kill monsters with Tomb swarms but don't immediately dismiss the thought.

• Skeleton Horsemen: Skeleton warriors on a horse. Still borderline useless, but with new impact hits and the additional I bonus on the charge, you'll at least cause some guaranteed hits on the charge now. Take light armour and field in units of 10.
  • Since Kings and Princes can now ride skele-ponies, this makes taking a unit of them less of an outright embarrassment, thanks to MWBD. With a Tomb Prince's WS5 and Tomb Herald grabbing a banner, you can create a powerful, cheap Deathstar hammer in smaller games.

• Skeleton Horse Archers: A more suitable cavalry unit, horse archers replace the shield and spear for a bow at 1 additional point, in addition to also possessing the Arrows of Asaph. Like on foot, horse archers never count bonuses or penalties when rolling to hit, which is quite helpful when they're BS2. Unfortunately, they only carry standard bows, which renders their damage output pitifully low hence they are generally used to redirect charges and hunt for warmachines.

• Skeleton Chariots: Chariots have been and will be, the mainstay of many Tomb king armies, and for excellent reason. They are widely considered the shock troops of the Tomb King army. They pack a plethora of small bonuses to aid in their role: Mobile Missile platform and Powerful chargers. Chariots are toughness 4 basic, the crewmen are WS 3 and have 2 attacks each (2 crewmen per chariot and also carrying spears, javelins, and bows). The only issue with the unit is the high cost. At 48 points each, a unit of chariots is a valuable and expensive asset that must be committed carefully. It must be stressed that it is always to your advantage if you charge chariots in the flank against a unit that has lost steadfast, rather than charging chariots directly into the front of a unit. Make sure the unit you charge will be crippled by casualties by impact hits and tidy up whatever is left with the crew attacks. Hopefully, they don't have enough for a meaningful counterattack, reducing the damage returned to the chariots and potentially routing and running down the unit. Charging a horde of chaos warriors head-on is never a good idea, even if you attach a Tomb King on a chariot.

Special Units

Like the vampire Counts, has the units you wished were core, like the Tomb Guard. Also introducing the Ceramics powered by Spooky Necromance.

• Tomb Guard: The elite infantry choice of the Tomb king army book, and a clear step above skeletons, with a higher WS, S, T, I and LD in addition to also possessing Tomb Blades and light armour as standard. This huge boost is reflected in the increase to points cost, standing at 10 points each, a unit of tomb guard usually is a big points sink. Typically a tomb guard unit is the center of attention when it comes to buffing units with a tomb king/necrotect/augment spells etc., and rightly so for such buffs are not wasted, especially when the unit can be given halberds to boost their strength to 5 to increase their damage output further, but do note that this costs an additional point, making the unit very expensive.

• Necropolis Knights: Boy o' boy, these guys went from being bottom-tier monstrous cav to the best in the game. While, Mournfang, Demigryphs, and Bloodcrushers all got price hikes along with other nerfs, these Necropolis baddies are sitting pretty with a 15pt price reduction. While only losing shields in the deal, they can buy back for 2pts. Riders have two attacks with spears and killing blows, while the mounts have poisoned attacks at S5 (which is very deadly in 9th). This unit will munch anything it gets in the flanks of. And risk killing characters, heavy cavalry, and monsters. Probably one of the strongest special choices in 9th and even with the other choice's buffs still among the best.

• Sepulchral Stalkers: Another unit designed to enter the board through EBTS. However, rather than acting as a flanker, the stalkers possess a unique offensive ability more suited for hunting heavy armor and monsters. Each stalker fire 3 S4 Armour ignoring, Killing blow shots, and using the opponents' initiative rather than their toughness to wound. This allows many monsters and heavy infantry to be wounded on 5s and even 4s with no chance of their armor saving them. Obviously, this ability is very handy for dealing with monsters, but do not forget that EBTS does not prevent you from shooting, thus allowing you to deliver the unit anywhere and set them upon anything, allowing for greater freedom of choice when using the unit. If you so wish it is possible to have your stalkers engage in close combat, and as long as the unit in question is light/facing the other way and engaged/ or half-dead, and still come out on top with a fairly healthy profile with Ws3 S4 T4 W3 I3 A3 and halberds, they cannot survive in a general brawl all by themselves, no, but it is perfectly acceptable to deliver a rear charge in order to break an enemy unit.

• Tomb Scorpion: 75pts. The Tomb scorpion has lost the crown for EBTS king and has unfortunately been relegated to a distraction role. The issue with the tomb scorpion lies in the high points cost to wounds ratio and an unreliable system to deliver several scorpions in one place to threaten the rear of a unit, a problem necropolis knights have solved by being able to field a large number in a single unit. As a result, scorpions are best used to menace warmachines or force an opponent to redirect one of his units to clear the lone monstrous beast running around behind his lines. It does not matter what unit charges the rear of another unit, and the combat bonus is still the same. That being said, the scorpion is perfectly capable of surviving one round of combat in the rear of most units with a toughness of 5 and 3 wounds, and it may even cause a few casualties itself as it possesses Ws4 S5 I3 A4 with poisoned and killing blow. Oh, and as a side point, it also has magic resistance 1, carried over from the previous edition.

• Ushabti: Monstrous infantry constructs with dual hand weapons, now T5. In 8th, the Ushabti were wholly overshadowed by the new Necropolis Knight. They still are here, but you can argue their use is grinding low T and low S hordes. 8pts cheaper, for losing a little armour and gaining a point of toughness and the "privilege" of buying great weapons or polearms. Can swap for S5 Longbows for free, making them mobile and defensive missile platforms. Furthermore, they gained the option to pay 3ppm for one of five aspects: killing blow, strength bonus (1), +1 movement, re-rolls 1 to hit, or MR(2). Currently can be kitted out to fill niches, but generally, a unit of 3/4 Necropolis Knights would serve you better.

• Carrion: Your destruction birds. They Still move fast at Fly(9) but compared to other flyers that can march, this could have been downgraded to 5" movement and not be an animated construct. Despite this, they have scout, so they will be close to their targets to make up for them being so slow for their role. Besides that, carrion has a fairly decent statline for their cost in points at Ws3 S4 T4 W2 A2 I2 for 20 points. However, it should be noted that carrions don't possess armor, so they should not be expected to engage with combat units and come out unscathed. Instead, it is advisable to use them to clean Warmachine hunters and light cavalry that slip past your lines or harass a ranged unit that is a little too close to the front.

• Bastethi: In case you were ever wondering if there was a Khemrian equivalent to Bastet, the cat-headed Egyptian Goddess, you have these mummified kitties as proof. They're a bit confused in use, as they possess Vanguard and ASF as well as a statline that's a step up from the average wolf or warhound, but are also level 2 wizard unit like Pink horrors and sisters of the thorn. They know only two spells, Cursed Blades and Righteous Smiting. Bastethi is used to support your flanking force, providing buff magic and a mobile medic if you can't spare a priest to ride with them.

• Ammuts: 52pts. Your other new warbeasts. These are crocodiles fused to hippos fused to lions. These things are clearly meant for combat, though with a 6+ natural armour in exchange for a price that's over twice the Bastethi and the loss of the Undead rule. Their Killing Blow lets them recover lost wounds, and with rerolls to wound Destruction Armies, they're a good way to fill in an assault list if you want something other than more bones.

• Screaming Skull Catapult: 100/120pts. The primary "conventional" artillery of the Tomb King army. The screaming skull catapult brings vital ranged unit crushing ability coupled with the potential to deliver a high strength package to any monster anywhere on the field, all for the price of 100 points. In terms of damage output, the screaming skull catapult is identical to any other normal stone thrower, with the same small template, same strength 4, and the same strength 10 under the hole with D6 wound multiplier. However, the hits also have the Flaming Attacks for dealing with treemen, in addition to its pinnacle selling point, the ability to force a morale check on any unit which has taken at least one casualty exactly as though they have been reduced by 25%, this is obviously an effective combo with doom and darkness, allowing you to force a vital unit into retreat, or better, off the board. Instead of using spells to reduce the opponent's leadership, you can upgrade the catapult to inflict a -1 leadership penalty on any unit taking a morale check from the catapult.

• Bone Thrower: 35pts. At last, you have another war machine to add to your inventory: A bolt thrower that shoots sharpened bones at people. At only 35 points, this does open you up to a much cheaper option for a static gunline so you can load up on skellies for mobbing.

• Tomb Barques of Usirian: 125pts. A brand-new unit gives you the equivalent of a hovering Corpse Cart and an expensive mount for your priests. It's a flying chariot with 5+/6++ save, and its ability to immediately deal 2d6 S2 hits in b2b and 5 crewmen with spears+bows give it a bit to protect itself, but it should never be in the front lines. Its role is to boost other units with one of three powers (give itself Ethereal, enemies within 12" reroll all 6s to hit in cc, or friendly wizards within 6" gain Loremaster) each turn. Unlike other contemporaries, these are not locked from doing consecutive buffs, allowing you to spam spells with your priests or blunting big combat. Partner up with the Casket to make your wizards even better.

Rare Units

The National monuments given life, the rule of cool demands you have one big boy.

• Khermrian Warsphinx: 225pts. A fancy unit to the Nehekharan army, keeping in line with the monster craze that's been running through GW head office. Immediately obvious, the warsphinx is designed to soak up elite units and other monsters that pose a threat to your lines. With a statline of Ws4 S5 T8 W6 A4 I1, you can see anything short of a shaggoth with a great weapon is going to need a 6 to wound, and if mass light attacks do manage to accumulate enough 6s to pose worry, a 5+ armor save should stop some of them. In addition, the warsphinx comes with a howdah carrying 4 Tomb Guard with Tomb Blade Spears. It should be noted that these Tomb guards are immune to damage and are treated like riders on a cavalry model, so when an initiative test is forced upon the sphinx, you will take it the highest(I3 of the Tomb guard) of the combined profile. The warsphinx also has a unique attack (only against units smaller than monstrous infantry) in the form of the Thunder Crush, which essentially trades all of your sphinx's normal attacks for one attack that, if it hits, acts as a direct impact from a stone thrower, allowing you to place the small blast template anywhere touching but not overlapping the sphinx. Everybody under the center takes a strength 9 hit with multiple wounds(D3), and everybody under the template takes a strength 3 hit. Obviously, this is very useful for taking huge chunks out of hordes and picking out a character, but you must gamble with your damage output due to the WS 4 of the sphinx. It is possible to upgrade the warsphinx to have poisoned attacks and/or a S4 flaming breath weapon on a final point.

• Necrosphinx: 250pts. Advertised as a monster killer, the necrosphinx is one of the few units currently in existence that carries a natural attack with heroic killing blow special rule, giving it the potential to wipe almost any monster out on a lucky dice roll at a modest price of 250 points. An important point to note is the statline, being a variant of the warsphinx, has a toughness of 8, allowing it to remain locked in combat with almost any monster without much fear of losing. This is coupled with 5 attacks and strength 5 to clean up almost anything currently present. A note on the HKB, every turn, you must nominate one attack before rolling to hit to strike at strength 10 and have the HKB special rule. This is obviously your primary source of damage against other monsters(it should be stressed that this is only one attack with 50% of hitting most things with a Ws higher than 3). At the same time, against infantry-sized models, you also possess Killing Blow on your normal attacks. In addition, the necrosphinx fly(7) is awesome. It may also be upgraded to have poison attacks in the event of more monster killing.

• Necrolith Colossus: 200pts. The renamed and reimaged bone giant. The colossus is an incredibly cheap monster in relation to its statline, with a multitude of weapon options that allow you to tailor its role in your army. Coming in at 200 points, the colossus sports a basic statline of Ws3 Bs2 S6 T7 W6 I1 A5. As you can see, it has sacrificed Weapon skill, toughness, and armour for a cheaper, cost-effective monster yet can still unleash a flurry of attacks. The weapon options add more with more attacks and parry taking two-hand weapons or maximize strength by taking a great weapon. Be a better cheap infantry blender or a discount Necrosphinx. You could instead take the Bow of the Desert, which gives the colossus a mobile bolt thrower with all of the basic bolt thrower stats (S6, rank pierce, D3 wounds). This choice is designed for defensive lists who still wish to take a sturdy offensive unit, and it would not be so bad if the colossus wasn't BS 2. With the presence of the Bone Thrower, you can safely ignore this option. Ultimately, I would advise selecting the close-combat weapon option that would best suit the target of your colossus. Finally, we have the defining trait of this monster, and quite an entertaining one at that, as when the colossus charges and engages in combat, every successful unsaved wound caused in that one combat round grants an additional attack, allowing for a vast quantity of wounds to stack up if you are particularly lucky. A colossus can break an engaged unit by smashing into its flank with this ability. However, the sheer amount of wounds churned out; holding one next to a tarpit is advised until you can get an opponent's unit locked into combat. Give this model WS 10 with the spell from the lore of light and watch as he crushes through rank-and-file troops like they're made of butter. He'll pump out so many attacks that will hit because of the WS10 that his special ability will keep allowing you to attack over and over until you reach your attack cap. Throw in Bjona's Timewarp as well and watch enemy units evaporate at base contact.

• Hierotitan: 205pts. A magical support variant of the colossus with an identical statline aside from -1 attack, the Hierotitan, while being passable in close combat, its strength lies in the two bound spells it carries and its passive buff to wizards. It has Shem's burning gaze (PL3) and spirit leech (PL4), which you should use now bound spells are not crap. Hierotitan should drain a few wounds from a monster heading towards your lines. In addition, the Hierotitan makes an excellent support unit for any unit containing a Liche Priest. Place a caster in a skeleton spearman unit and put a Hierotitan on the flank. Not only does this make the unit a more significant threat, but the additional +D3 to cast for your wizard is a big bonus. Also, if you can fit a Casket into your list, a devastating combination makes for a nasty magic phase - when done with an Lv4 priest. Playtested shows you get an advantage to your magic phase 80% of the time and gives the occasional +7 to casting attempts.

• Casket of Souls: 135pts. Powerful rare choice, and reasonable for the points cost. This is most effective in static armies and can provide a major magic boost (making it attractive in a TK army). The Casket net D3 more magic dice each turn, and its bound spell can be nasty, making an enemy unit take a leadership test on 3D6. They then take wounds equal to how much they fail by; on a 3+ it bounces to another unit with 6". Just ensure that it is aimed at an enemy with friends that aren't stuck in. For the points value, it may even edge out the Screaming Skull, but the Screaming Skull doesn't risk blowing up your army when it dies.

• Khemric Titan: 320pts. Mathias decided that the Tomb Kings would need something more than just more giants in the pursuit of a legit giant. Instead, they got...the mother of all beetles. Like the Hierotitan, it possesses a list of bound spells (A PL5 magic missile that's a magical S6 bolt thrower, a PL3 penalty to hit and charge, and a PL3 wound recovery to keep it trucking), but the thing isn't meant to be hanging around. It's meant to rush forth and use its various types of murderizing implements (rolled like a giant would) and die gloriously, throwing 2d6 S2 hits to all idiots within 6".

Regiments of Renown

You do get a sizable number of options despite being an undead faction and most are suspicious of you.

With changes to unstable, Tomb Kings appreciate any living line unit that doesn't quickly disintegrate when they lose a fight.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

Tomb Kings are a high model count army - not quite as extreme as Skaven or Orcs and Goblins, but probably the next tier down. With official GW models now long out of print, this makes them a challenging army to collect if you don't feel like selling your kidneys to buy overpriced secondhand minis off of eBay.

Fortunately, there are no shortage of third parties that have stepped in with Tomb Kings-compliant miniatures, and if you happen to have a 3D printer you are not short on options. Some alternative Tomb Kings model lines include:

• Lubart Miniatures (models and shapefiles)
• Txarli Factory (shapefiles only; printed versions available through third party vendors on Etsy and eBay)
• Lost Kingdom Miniatures (shapefiles only; printed versions available through third party vendors on Etsy and eBay)
• Mantic Games (models only)

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 most significant selling points of Tomb Kings is how well the army can do in many 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. Skeletons. Lots and lots of Skeletons. Multiple units of 50+, 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 are a couple of variants on the Horde, as well. You will need a good deal of magic support with TK hordes as you will need to keep up your numbers and buffs.
  • Another approach with this is using many small skeleton warriors units. No one will break in combat, it gives you an advantage in the deployment phase, and it's so damn annoying for your opponent. I used this approach several times, and my opponents were always doubting which small unit of warriors to charge. Flank charges were my easiest and best friend. Throw in some warsphinxes between the small units and your opponent doubts as hell. Steadfast is lost on TK hordes, so you might as well give it a try.

• 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. Try spell 3 of LoN.

• TombStar: The Tomb Guard deathstar. It usually consists of a blinged-out Tomb King, Necrotect, and Battle Standard Bearer Tomb Herald at the forefront of a massive Tomb Guard block. It will kill anything it touches. The trick is getting it into combat. Do not try this against elves/VC or any other magic-heavy army, as they will drop everything they have on it, and crumbling is bad.

• 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, Hierotitans, 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. If Lead by Sehenesmet, you can even cut out the skeletons to make a list more in common with the Ogre Kingdoms.

• Why Did It Have To Be Snakes!: Utilizing one or two 6 strong Necropolis Knights units backed up by Light magic. It is shown to have a deadly effect on multiple Tourneys.

• TombKittens: 9th has nerfed how many you can take and the Spinx mount being exclusive to Kings only. In a standard 2500pts list, you can fit a mounded tomb King, Warsphinx, and NecroSphinx in a list. Sure, you'll lose 1 a turn to an opponent with a cannon- but you have more Cats than the game has Turned (except if you can field that many cats your opponent can (and will) field more than 1 cannon (expect 3min against an army which can have cannons).

• Entombed: Similar to a Specs Marine 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 altogether. Again, the beauty of Tomb Kings (aside from Khalida) is the versatility of the army.

Magic

Tomb Kings have access to three lores: Nehekara, Light, and Death. Since you're required to take at least one priest with the lore of Nehekara (specifically your highest level wizard [in case of a tie, you can have one be another lore]), use Light and Death depending on the opponent. Lore of Death is helpful for extra power dice and character sniping. You can use the spell to make your skeleton warriors cause terror, for example, if they were versing Ogres. Purple Sun of Xerus is a hit-or-miss power. If it ends up among your troops, their usually low initiative will see it backfire horribly. Lore of Light is a better choice. Speed of Light is excellent, especially on Sphinxes, as they go from Initiative 1 to 10, and it makes their Thundercrush/Decaptiating Strike more likely to hit them before they hit you. Bjona's Timewarp is great as it gives you ASF, an extra attack, double movement, off-setting your inability to march, and your low initiatives (unless you are versing elves). For example, use Lore of Death against Orcs and Goblins, Lore of Light against Vampire Counts, or Warriors of Chaos.

Tactics

See army composition for some builds. Otherwise, you want to keep your casters and general alive as you will suffer hugely from losing either of them (crumbling is bad). Beyond that, you will enjoy plenty of fodder to soak up hits from magic and warmachines, as well as giving you some ware to put your heroes. Protect your Hierophant by giving them at least a Ward save. Also, please keep them in a unit unless you have no choice.

Take what advantages you can. Some Tomb Kings units can be devastating when augmented, though un-augmented Tomb Kings are a mid-to-lower tier army. A few of your advantages over other armies include units of chariots, EBTS units (when they work), and the ability to ignore negative modifiers when shooting. For the Lore of Nehekhara, focus on the augmenting spells to heal your troops.

Like vampire counts, you will need some solid numbers unless you are fielding a lot of constructs. Also, units should be big enough to soak at least one round of lost combat and still be effective; otherwise, a good-sized unit of knights or a fast-moving block of heavy troops can ruin your day very quickly. Remember, you are undead; you are unbreakable and scary. Use that mercilessly against your enemy.

Playstyle

In order to make up for the lack of constitution of the standard undead, the army must contain a liche priest, who can regenerate units. Unfortunately, it is the liche priest who keeps the army alive. All friendly undead units must pass a leadership test or die each turn if killed. Due to the standard leadership of most skeletons being terrible, they'll drop like flies. Just be strategic where you place your Hierophant, and this won't be a concern, or give him a 4+ 45 point ward save.

In this army, many defensive units exist. Archers almost always always almost always hit on a roll of a 5 or a 6 (with Khalida they do also on 4s). A Casket of Souls, which is just a super-powered box (think the Ark of the Covenant as depicted in "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" if you haven't seen it, get off this site right now and go watch it, don't come back until you see its face-melting capabilities) that can annihilate units that come into its range and line of sight on top of that it spreads to another target within 6inches, and if you miscast this bitch nothing happens other than it goes off, I usually throw 5 or 6 dice on dis bad boy to get a miscast. Usually, people throw all their dispel dice at this baby raper. The army also contains a catapult capable of firing skulls. For tanks, the army has undead constructs, which are usually just whatever random shit a liche priest could find and put together in the shape of a giant, a man-eating scorpion, or an animal-headed god. They also get a sphinx(fuck yeah) you must mean the god damn WARSPHINX MOTHER FUCKER, YES THIS THING IS A BULLET MAGNET, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER CAUSE ITS TOUGHNESS 8, give this bad boy righteous smiting. You get 8 attacks with its crew, give it cursed blades, and its thundercrush will smush even chaos warriors with their bullshit saves. If that's not enough for you, it can have poised claws and breath fire.

So apparently, someone deleted the epic strategies provided by a fellow anon, so I am here to present to you the finest aged cheese that our enemies may faint at its stench.

We will start with our beloved CORE.

Chariots, oh yes, how we can have chariots for our core, these death machines with wheels can shoot arrows when they aren't busy running shit over. They got 2 of the most brutal horses as well as 2 guys with whips and spears riding them (the lashes aren't as much for the horses as much as whooping the enemies ass) with your D6 impact hits, 2 horse and 2 crewmen attacks *2 attacks per crewman* you get 6 attacks per chariot, 3 chariots and that's 18, give these mother fuckers righteous smiting. Now you're at 30, let's say you wanna run shit over even faster than throw cursed blades on them, and their impact hits gain killing blow. AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF, THEY WILL REBUILD THEMSELVES, YES THAT'S RIGHT, they are not monstrous, so they get the full D6+1 wound from their lore

• PS They get +1 str on a charge, but impact hits don't*

THE CHARIOT TRAIN 10 chariots 1 tomb king on a chariot 1 tomb herald on a chariot *Banner of the undying legion* Welcome to the pain train

Archers, well, not much to say about these guys. I only know a couple of good uses for them, run them in a squad of 20 get some shots off, the enemy gets close, reform into 5x4 ranks, use them to flank the side of your enemy as they charge your warriors. and NEVER take light armor, its a waste of points, a champion is a waste too and so is a banner, only the musician is worth it. lets say you wanna cheese them up a bit, get a squad of 40-50 and throw in our beloved High Queen Khalida, not only is this bitch the bane of your enemy's heroes, but now this unit of 50 archers became the squad that will blacken the sun and rain poisoned death upon your enemies, YES THEY BECOME POISONED, you give these mother fuckers some righteous smiting and your looking at 70 shots from a squad of 50, enough shots to kill anything with multiple wounds or whittle down some ogres or w/e, now i know what your thinking, what if they get into close combat, well i have a suggestion that no one else uses because they are fucking stupid, the banner of the hidden dead, while it may only go up to 150 points of your core, you can get a unit of 30 skeletons to pop out and defend what ever is coming your way, you can put them in a horde formation to block multiple enemies, or you can put them in ranks to win a combat, either way your enemy will see to the destruction of death archers, so you gotta take this, and they wont see it coming, throw in some necropolis knights and tomb scorpions to hit the flank and your back on the offensive, be sure to make your unit the maximum 12inches away, that way, in case they die on the initial charge, your opponent has to get very lucky to make his overrun into the archers, allowing for another deadly salvo of arrows to watch your opponent ragequit.

Skeleton horse archers can be fun to harass your opponents. It is doubtful they get charged when playing right and will piss off your fellow dwarf player when all his cannons died in turn 2. I personally don't like them, but they serve their purpose.

ok, now we can move on to fun stuff, our special units.

TOMB GUARD DEATH STAR: Oh man, how I love these guys. Are you tired of getting butthurt by chaos warriors? Well, here is your god damn unit, get a monster-sized unit of these bad boys and watch them killing blow the shit out of the enemy. I wouldn't recommend halberds unless you expect anything immune to killing blow. Grab necrotect or your best friend Ramhotep the Pissed Off. He will make sure they get the job done right, one crack of his whip and BAM your unit has frenzy and hatred, rerolling all their missed extra attacks, but say you wanna fucking hit ALL THE TIME, give em a tomb king or prince and then watch as your enemy fades away turn after turn, give them righteous smiting and cursed blades. You'll be sure to win combat against any infantry unit because on god damn 5+ you'll be hitting your killing blows.

MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES ON THESE MOTHERFUCKING PLAINS, two other Allstar units the Tomb Kings gain are the Necropolis Knights (called either MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES or Snake Surfers) and the Sephrucal Stalkers. The former are Tomb Guards mounted on animated cobra statues that are very venomous, and the latter are undead, half-men half-snake golems whose gaze turns you to sand. Necropolis Knights can be taken in at least three units and can be deployed via Entombed Beneath The Sands to bring their multiple poisoned and killing blow attacks to bear. With a 3+ armor save, they boast the best natural armor save available to the Tomb Kings.

External Links

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