Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Tomb Kings.

Why Play the Tomb Kings

• Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
• You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
• Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
• Do you wish to be SERVED!?

Pros

• Constructs: The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

• Ranged: You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, skeleton archers + horse archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

• Undead: You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least fear, and many cause terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

• Mobility: Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the wood elves or beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

• Realm of Souls: Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game realm of souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

• Badass Soundtrack: Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up I do not serve and City of Kings on YouTube and be blown away.

Cons

• Poor Infantry: You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

• Lack of Flying: All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

• Subpar Healing: You got some options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with vampire healing or anyone who brings the lore of life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

• Flammable: If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

• DLC Faction: While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Chaos Warriors) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.

Legendary Lords and Subfactions

• Settra the Imperishable (Khemri): The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.

Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

• High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras): The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

• Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek): Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

• Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash): The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

Units

Generic Lords

• Tomb King: The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

Heroes

• Tomb Prince: Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

• Liche Priest: Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

• Necrotect: Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

Infantry Units

• Skeleton Warriors: Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

• Skeleton Spearmen: These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
  • King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (ROR): Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

• Nehekhara Warriors: Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
  • Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL): Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

• Tomb Guard: Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
  • The Khepra Guard (ROR): A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

• Tomb Guard (Halberds): Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

Missile Infantry

• Skeleton Archers: Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
  • Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR): Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

Cavalry

• Skeleton Horsemen: Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

• Skeleton Horsemen Archers: Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

• Nehekhara Horsemen: Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
  • Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL): Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

• Necropolis Knights: Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
  • Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL): As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

• Necropolis Knights (Halberds): Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

Chariots

• Skeleton Chariot: The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

• Skeleton Archer Chariot: See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

Construct Infantry

• Ushabti: Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

• Ushabti (Great Bow): Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
  • Chosen of the Gods: (ROR) Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

• Sepulchral Stalkers: Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
  • Eyes of the Desert (ROR): Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

War Beast

• Carrion: Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
  • The Flock of Djaf: (LoL) An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

Monstrous Constructs

• Tomb Scorpion: This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

• Khemrian Warsphinx: The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

• Necrosphinx: THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

• • The Sphinx of Usekph (ROR): turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flameattacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like high elf phoenixes.

• Hierotitan: An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a priority artillery target for your enemy.

• Bone Giant: Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

Artillery

• Screaming Skull Catapult: Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple stone skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
• Casket of Souls: An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

Multiplayer Strategies

The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

Faction Counterplay

A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

• Beastmen - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

• Bretonnia - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

• Chaos Dwarfs: Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

• Grand Cathay -

• Dark Elves - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

• Dwarfs - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

• Empire - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

• Greenskins - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

• High Elves - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

• Kislev -

• Khorne - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

• Lizardmen - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

• Norsca - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

• Nurgle - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

• Ogre Kingdoms -

• Skaven - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

• Slaanesh -

• Tomb Kings - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, they are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

• Tzeentch - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

• Vampire Coast - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

• Vampire Counts - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

• Daemons of Chaos -

• Warriors of Chaos - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

• Wood Elves - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

Campaign strategies

General tips

• Global Recruitment will win you games: The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

• Always build a resource building if you can: The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

• Trade deals are your friends: Let's not mince words, your economy is shit, and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

• An army full of trash units is better than no army: You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

• Slow and steady win the race : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are nasty if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

• Keep your starting construct: While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a long time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

Specific campaigns advices

Settra

• Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
• Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
• The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
• You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
• If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

Khatep

• The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
• (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
• (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
• (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

Khalida

• (Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

Arkhan

• See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
• (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians fast or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
• Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and incredibly useful if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

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