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

=== Core Units ===

'''Skeleton Warriors''': the kit they come with is all they really need, a simple hand weapon and bow. They're slow, they're brittle, and their combat kit nudges them into distinctly overpriced territory. But if they can start chucking S3 hits out from their first turn - surprisingly accurate ones over time, because they always always always hit on fives - and they never need to march, they can end up performing. There are worse things to use your Core slots on than twenty of these.

If your General is a Tomb King, one unit may wave a magic standard around. Give them the Banner of the Undying Legion for an extra d6 wounds restored every turn and they're not terrible. Some people will argue that they should have swords and boards for the extra pip of armour save, but if you want sword and board infantry in this army, Tomb Guard exist. Spears are fine on a unit that's probably going to be charged anyway, and you shouldn't be wasting Urgency on these unless they're going for a clutch charge.

'''Skeleton Light Horsemen''': exactly the same but six points dearer and riding a horse. Fast Cavalry who can't march or flee are of dubious usefulness but they still benefit from endless reforms and a generous line of sight requirement. They're too expensive to use as throwaway pieces and too slow to make good bait, but they do make excellent wound counters for a mounted Liche Priest (and mounting up a Liche Priest is a good idea given the short range of those Incantations).

'''Skeleton Heavy Horsemen''': The word "heavy" has never been so misapplied, but in this army a 4+ save is not to be sneezed at. Opinion is divided on these. Most players think they're complete crap: the present author thinks they're crap if you treat them like Knights (ie field small units of five or six and use them for flanking), because they're not Knights at all. What they are is twice as fast as regular Skeletons, coming with a better save as standard, and fieldable in a great big block of sixteen. If you were considering a unit of Skeleton infantry to do fighting... bring these instead. They'll cover the ground faster, to the point where you might not need to waste Incantations on them, and their high Unit Strength means they might get lucky and auto-break something, especially if you kit them out with the ''War Banner''.

'''Tomb Swarm''': It's slow, and being Undead it's objectively the worst Swarm in the game, but it chucks out a lot of Poisoned Attacks and has the highly entertaining "It Came From Below" rule that can bring it up in a very unexpected place. Don't drop 250 odd points on a full size one but absolutely spend an odd 100 on two bases to see what happens.

'''Chariots''': These are in here because that's where the book puts them, but remember they're Special unless you have a Tomb King. 

It's easy to fall in love with these. Although they're very brittle, especially against Chaos/Vampire Counts/Lizardmen who can field a fast moving S7 hero who'll one-round a whole unit without blinking, they are insanely fast and maneouverable... manoeverable... that word the present author can't spell. Being Chariots, the major drawback of Undeath doesn't bother them as they can't march anyway. They can carry a 50 point magic standard, and either the ''Mirage Standard'' (protection from being shot at) or ''Icon of the Sacred Eye'' (+1 to hit, very good for useless WS3 "elite" Skeleton crew) serves them well.

However. Do not think that because they're the army's signature unit you have to spam them. They have a giant footprint (the minimum size unit eats up a massive 24 square inches of board) and even with their fast cavalry reforms, they have to put those bases somewhere. Most tables do not have the space for too many of them to operate smoothly, factoring in terrain and inconveniently placed enemy units. One unit per 1000 points is probably enough, and they're at their best with a dedicated Prince or a High Priest nearby to ensure they keep moving.