Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Tomb Kings
 This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it |
Why Play Tomb Kings
Tomb kings are a mostly fragile army and mostly played by pro players.So in point if you hate the fags that spam ghouls or those whatchamecollums that you can only kill with fucking magic weapons in the vc army, then Tomb Kings are for you. They have terrible armor but make up for it in sence of shear numbers and magic,tomb kings ushaly appeal to safisticated players.
Why play Tomb Kings? Motherfucking sphinxes, units of chariots, anubis statues and the goddamn Ark of the Covenant (yes, really). You get masses of cheap unbreakable infantry backed up by hard hitting, tough as nails, ubreakable animated statues. Some pretty sweet models too. While the majority of the Tomb Kings army is pretty fragile, they tend to be cheap and they get back up. The Restless Dead lore resurrects 1d3+1 wounds worth of models evey time an augment spell is cast on a unit with the Nehehkaran Undead special rule (i.e every unit in the whole fucking army). Oh, and 4 of the 7 spells in the lore of Nehekhara are augments.
Unit Analysis
Lords & Heroes
Named Characters
Settra the Imperishable - He with the magnificent beard, Settra rides the most pimped out chariot in the Warhammer World. It's even called "The Chariot of the Gods". His chariot and his weapon all have magical, flaming attacks, and even if you survive Settra's beard and character or monster hit by Settra's 4 strenght 6, weapon skill 7 attacks suffers -1 on it's to hit rolls (shooting and close combat) for the rest of the game. He's also got a 4+ ward save and magic resistance to keep him alive. but none of this is why you'd want to take Settra - not even the beard. No, Settra has a beefed up version of "My Will be Done" where every friendly Nehekharan Undead unit within 6" of him (including any unit he's joined) get to use his WS of 7. Those 5 point skeletons are a lot more fucking scary when they're WS7.
High Queen Khalida - Bitch still manages to be sexy after being dead a few thousand years. So that's something going for her. Other than that, she's a not too shabby close combat hero (WS 6and I9 with poisoned attacks) with a semi-decent buff to your archers.
Apophas - As a hero, he sucks. As an assassin hunting down lone mages or war machine crews he's a beast. Average stats, with a str 2 breath weapon and 4 attacks makes a war machine crew go bye-bye, and his reroll to hit and to wound rolls against an enemy character nominated when he arrives on the table means he can raep most wizards.
Generic Characters
Tomb Kings/Princes - On foot, or riding a pimped out chariot, these guys are your generals and about the top tier or your combat characters. They have the "My Will Be Done" rule - a definite contender for the coolest name for a game rule evar - that lets the unit they're with use their unmodified weapon skill (6 for the Tomb Kings, 5 for the Princes). They can also fuck you up even after you kill them with their dying curse. With their decent stats and the fact that they will be in a unit using their "My Will Be Done", you don't even need to load them up with magic weapons.
Liche Priests - Tomb King mages. Unlike other armies, where you need a mage or two, Tomb Kings /must/ have one of these. And you want more. Crappy stats, but the buffs they can hand out to your units and their bringing your dead warriors back makes them all worthwhile. One of them must be your armies Heirophant. He's the dude that keeps everyone up and walking. He dies and your army crumbles and you are beyond fucked.
Tomb Heralds - Bodyguard characters. Can take wounds for the Tomb King/Prince they're guarding. Nothing special about them other than they can be your armies Battle Standard Bearer, and that makes you need one. You can probably find better ways to spend your points than getting two or more though.
Necrotects - Oh yes... these guys are good. They're the guys who make all those cool walking statues, and they can protect them in battle too. Because they are righteously pissed at the fact that people keep breaking the shit they build, they give any unit they join Hatred. They also give any animated constructs unit (all your cool statues) within 12" 6+ regen.
Core Units
Skeleton Warriors - Yup, basic, cheap as infantry. Some of the crapiest stats in the game for basic infantry, but they are unbreakable and can be buffed to godly levels by having a Tomb King join them and the right combination of augments. Field them in hordes. Then field hordes of hordes. Bitches are only 5 points a shot with spears.
Skeleton Archers - Basic, cheap, crappy archers. One saving grace - they never count bonuses or penalties for shooting. So you always hit on a 5+. Not so great you say? Fuck yeah it is - shoot at long range at a single character in cover and see what you need to hit with any other army.
Skeleton Horsemen - Useless fuckers. Trying to fill the role of heavy cavalry with no lances, no armour and no barding. don't waste your time
Skeleton Horse Archers - Fast cav, scouts, never counting bonuses or penalties to hit for shooting? Yup, this is what you want horsemen to be doing in your Tomb Kings army. Excellent harassers.
Skeleton Chariots - Yup, they're core. Units of motherfucking chariots are core. You can build your entire army around these things. They even come with bows and the standard Tomb Kings special rules for archers. A full rank is only 3 chariots, and you get to add your rank bonus to the strength of your impact hits. Any character mounted in a chariot can join the unit too. They can even make room for Settra's beard. If you're still not sold consider this - 6 chariots is 330 points. That's 3d6 Strength 5 impact hits, plus 6 attacks from the steeds, and another 6 from the crew. On average, that's 10-15 Empire Spearmen or equivalents dead on the charge. Your chariots don't hold up so well in extended combat, but pick the right target and you can just ride right over the motherfuckers. Squish. You want chariots in your army. You need them. And it is one of the things that makes the tomb Kings unique so you can justify it like that if the pure killing power isn't enough.
Special Units
Tomb Guard - Solid heavy infanty with killing blow. Can take halberds. Unlike skeletons, these guys have semi-decent stats. Fairly cheap too. Worth taking.
Necropolis Knights - Giant animated stone cobras with elite troops riding them. Riders have killing blow, snakes have poisoned attacks. And they can pop up anywhere on the battlefield if you buy a 5 point upgrade. Good, but pricey. And very, very cool. The first of your Animated Constructs
Tomb Scorpion - A giant stone scorpion serving as the mobile tomb of a dead liche priest. Wich is pretty awesome. It also has magic resistance, killing blow, poison and can appear anywhere on the battlefield. Good for hunting war machines or small units or archers behing enemy lines.
Ushabti - One of the best units in the special units. Giant anubis statues with strength 6 great bows or great weapons. And, yes, they have the usual Tomb Kings archery rule. Solid stats with T4 and 3 wounds. They can dish out the pain, and take it too. And of course, giant statues with fucking huge weapons.
Swarm - Eh. It's a swarm. Poisoned attacks and still has the Nehekharan Undead trait so you can top em up.
Carrion - Flyers, decent stats. War machine hunters. Undead vultures are pretty cool though.
Khermrian Warsphinx - Sexy, sexy beast. The first of two sphinx choices. This one has a howdah packed with Tomb Guard. It looks cool, and has the stats and rules to back up its looks. You can start with T8 and 5 wounds, and go on to its poisoned attacks upgrade and its breath weapon upgrade. It has thunderstomp, and can exchange it's attacks for plaing the small blast template anywhere toughing its base - anyone under the template gets a S3 hit. Except the poor bastard under the central hole. He cops a S9 hit with D3 wounds. Squish. You can also have your Tomb King riding one of these.
Sepulchural Stalkers - D&D Nagas. Half man, half snake. All magically animated statue. Apart from their ability to appear anywhere and their decent stats, these guys have a ranged gaze attack that turns you to sand. This strength 1 attack ignores armour and doesn't need to roll to hit. Instead, you're rolling an artillery dice for each stalker gazing and adding the together for the number of automatic hits. And to top it off, those hits are rolled against your initiative, not your tough.ness
Rare Units
Necrolith Colossus -
Hierotitan -
Necrosphinx - The second sphinx in the list. Oh boy is this good. While the Warsphinx is geared towards killing infantry, the Necrosphinx is purpose built for killing the big shit. It can fly, has killing blow, toughness 8, causes terror and can be upgraded to have poisoned attacks. And you get one attck at S10 with heroic killing blow. It's cheap at 225 points. Certainly cheaper than the things it will be killing. And you know you want to see the look on your opponents face when you chop the head off his thousand point all-killy dragon with one shot. With the all the new large kits GW is bringing out, I'd call the necrosphinx vital.