Tomb Kings

A race of Ancient Egyptian skeleton-mummies found in Warhammer Fantasy. Their troops are damn shitty, but this is balanced since there's a ton of them and they have powerful and strong magic. They are mostly an army for expert players. They also can field more Chariots than any other army in the game and possess archers who automatically hit on a 5+.

The Story

The Tomb Kings of Nehekara were once a prosperous people, with priests possessing the ability to extend their lives to the point of being something like bog mummies. The story goes that Settra, as badass as he was, was forced to contend with the fact that he couldn't live forever (call him a wuss, but he put his goddamn mind to it.) As a result, his personal priests set to work doing their own fancy magic (though it can be argued it was little more than a form of necromancy), and through that they put various incantations on their dead pharaohs. Even though the spells didn't work to revive the already dead or extend a non-priest's life beyond 300 or so, after some necromancer bastard named Nagash that just wouldn't die killed just about every living thing in the kingdom, he eventually failed at raising the undead as mindless servants. And that's because the King of Nehekhara--and possibly one of the last human beings in those parts--was given a badass sword by some Skaven and he slew the bastard. As a result, the corpses of Nehekhara kept their free-will, and as a result is one of the undead races that not only isn't evil, but isn't terribly cliche. One of only a few good, original ideas to come out of GW.

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. If killed, each turn all friendly undead units must pass a leadership test or die. Due to the standard leadership of most skeletons being terrible, they'll drop like flies.

In this army, many defensive units exist. Archers almost always always hit on a roll of a 5 or a 6. A Casket of Souls, which is just super powered box (think the Ark of the Covenant as depicted in "Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark") that can annihilate units that come into its range and line of sight. 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).

Heroes

The Bob Marley of Warhammer

There are some cool heroes in the Tomb Kings army:

-Settra the Imperishable: Settra is like an undead spellcasting Chuck Norris. He's got a weapon skill of 7 and a strength of 6 and eats lesser characters for breakfast. He also has the best beard in the whole Warhammer Realm, this alone making him worth his points. Some claim that Settra is in fact a rastaman, judging by both the length of his beard and the amount of spells he can dish out each turn. He is also made out of an intense amount of cheese. He was nerfed in the more recent edition, but in return you can use him in a 2000pt army.

-High Queen Khalida: First off, Khalida is by far the hottest undead woman out there. She got into a badass cat-fight with this vampire chick. Khalida lost, badly, but because she could please the snake (the Asp Goddess) she was granted freedom from becoming a vampire. She also got a badass codpiece, and initiative 9, and the unit she joins gains poisoned attack. She used to be even better, but they cut her point cost and regeneration ability. All in all though, with the models costing half the points, it's bearable.

-Prince Apophas:-- He was an evil asshole, so he was put into a crypt to be eaten by beetles. He made a deal with a god though, and now he can fly and barf insects on people. He's a super-powerful warmachine killer. Beyond that, he's not entirely worth it when you consider all the heroes you can choose from. He is also completely legally distinct from a similarly named character in an Egyptian themed sci-fi tv show, as well as from the lead character from the mummy.

-Rahmhotep the Visionary:-- In return for building monuments, the ancient architects would be sacrificed so their ideas couldn't be shared to other kings, so the man got his fellow builders wasted and then he'd disguise himself as them and go around building monuments. Yeah, how many people can say they escaped sacrifice several times and walk around like nothing was new.

Song

A miniature named Settra found a secret out this year, that he could avoid death and make his people rule the world, and now some sorcerer named Nagash tries to get him day and night, but Settra has four thousand points to protect his very life. He has the Tomb Kings: from 1525 B.C. He has the Tomb Kings: protection on a roll of 3! He has the Tomb Kings: they're hanging out by the Black Gulf. He has the Tomb Kings: Araby they will soon Engulf. He has the Tomb Kings: from 1525 B.C. He has the Tomb Kings: protection on a Roll of 3. He has the Tomb Kings: they're hanging by the Badland's Gate. He has the Tomb Kings: they will enslave the world today, the Nehekharan way. They're Tooooooomb Kiiiiiings Alive!

See Also

• Tactics/Tomb Kings
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3vhpk7DhZM Tomb Kings themesong
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ7BOeCpkY&feature=player_embedded#! Tomb Kings better themesong
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icwd9HYIuq8&feature=player_embedded#! A rather more serious themesong, done by Egyptian Death Metal band Nile.