Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Tomb Kings (section)

====Generic Characters====

*'''Tomb Kings/Prince:''' Both of these will be looked at together, since they're pretty similar. Tomb Kings are not mandatory (despite the name of the book), but in most cases you will take one as a General. They have high Toughness, a fine number of Wounds, and good Leadership, but (as you might expect) a low number of attacks and a pitiful Initiative. 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 Weapon Skill. This provides a major boost to the survivability of your models in combat and helps with the low average WS of the army. 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. His other special rules are interesting but not particularly important. When the Tomb King (or Prince) dies, his killer takes a few Armour Ignoring hits from '''The Curse.''' Unfortunately, this only activates if you lose the Tomb King, which you don't want to happen. It will make your enemy think twice about setting an elite character-killer on him, though. The Tomb King is also Flammable, being a mummy. This is quite unfortunate, as most enemy heroes ''will'' have Flaming Attacks to deal with Regeneration. Both levels can be taken down in two Flaming Attacks, which makes their high(ish) level of Wounds a moot point (bring Dragonbane Gem or the Dragonhelm and give those flaming attacks the middle finger). Finally, a Tomb King on a chariot can join units of chariots. However, outside of a chariot, the Tomb King is severely limited in equipment options. He cannot take a "regular" mount, he cannot take non-magical heavy armour, and he cannot take non-magical paired weapons. As such, he must invest heavily in magic items, which many other races do not have to do. <S>Friendly reminder to take the Fencer's Blades, as it gives your Tomb King WS10, which with MWBD gives an entire unit WS10.</s> MWBD uses unmodified WS, as written in the book and confirmed in the FAQ. 


*'''Liche Priest/Lich High Priest:''' fairly cheap for a caster yet still on the expensive side of cheap, the Liche priest is a essential component of your army, this is because the army requires one caster to be the hierophant(the loci of necromantic magic that keeps the army from falling apart). 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 severely limit the flexibility of the Liche priests when choosing their spell lores, which is very frustrating when both alternative options, lore of light and lore of death, are both superior(in my opinion) to the lore of Nehekhara. In addition, in keeping with the mass unit buffing theme, the hierophant provides a 6+ regeneration save to every model in the unit he is in, which kind of offsets the penalty if the lich priest croaks, as if that occurs, every unit in the Tomb king army must pass a leadership test, or lose a number of wounds equal to the amount they failed, once every player turn. A bummer, I know right.         


*'''Tomb Herald:''' Cheap combat characters, far cheaper than tomb kings, inferior stat line all round aside from attacks and strength, replacing MWBD and TC for killing blow and bodyguard(more on that later) and the option of carrying the battle standard banner and being mounted(Yayyy). The character is underwhelming, it is simply undeniable, it lacks the unit buffing abilities which makes the tomb king and necrotect so viable, and the combat potential is poor, with low initiative and Weapon skill forcing you to compensate with the use of magic items in order to compete with the faster, stronger hero choices of other races. the option for a banner is wasted as the benefits for the Tomb king army are minor in comparison to other races, even though the cost is identical. and the ability to be mounted is wasted due to a lack in quality of the army's cavalry units. The one niche where the herald really shines, is acting a s a living shield for the Tomb king( I did say he was underwhelming). The bodyguard rule allows the Tomb king player to reallocate one random wound directed at the Tomb king onto the herald per phase before saves are taken, therefore allowing the Tombking to allocate valuable magic item allowance to big swords with which to cut people up without worrying about having his head caved in. 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.     


*'''Necrotect:''' The necrotect is a raw support character with severely limited combat capabilities and a reasonable price tag. 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 animated construct within 12" gains a 6+ regeneration save.