# Azune's Tomb Kings Tactica



## Lord Azune

Disclaimer: A work in progress.

First thing to understand about the tomb kings is that our army is very specialized. Our Lords and Heroes boost our troops to actual combat capability. Our army is capable of "deep striking" to coin the 40k term.

We have two main units to worry about. Sometimes its the same unit but typically it'll be two distinct heroes/lords. We have a general AND a heirophant we have to protect. The general, obviously important due to being worth 100 extra points towards victory and the heirophant because without a Heirophant, our army quickly crumbles. See, our typical leadership is 5 for footslogging/mounted troops, 7 for chariot, and 8 for monsterous. As the average roll is 7 on 2d6, you will on average lose 2 skeletons per unit every turn after your Heirophant dies.

The heirophant is himself is your highest level wizard which must use the Lore of Nehekhara, though Arkhan the Black can be Heirophant without Lore of Nehek. I'll cover him in my section of Lords.

Legion of Archers. Tomb Kings, despite having a crappy BS and the inability to stand & shoot have arguably the best archers in the game. We hit on a 5+. Nothing can make this worse and we have a special character that can make it better. The gods themselves have blessed our arrows for awesomeness. They have made it so range doesn't matter, moving doesn't matter, cover doesn't matter, spells don't matter. Nothing.

Legions of Chariots. Our heroes and lords on chariots can join chariot units to protect them. This'll be covered more in depth under the mounts & core sections.

Entombed beneath the sands. a unique ability for our army which grants us the ability to cause a reasonably huge threat appear behind the enemy army which forces them to either lose a turn to respond to it or hope they can get far enough away that you can't charge into his rear.

Undead. We're friggen undead. Mostly skeletons, some mummified skeletons and the swarms of the desert. Our whole army causes at least fear, we're unbreakable, and we crumble at the drop of a hat. Meaning unstable. Despite being unstable we can hold it together for a long time due to our magic. We cannot respond to a charge and we can't march. We sit there. Calmly waiting for them to get close enough to attack.


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## Lord Azune

The Lore of Nehekara - Secrets of the Liche Priests
As an army we have access to two basic lores and a unique lore. Our highest level wizard must be of our unique lore. The Lore of Nehekara.

Any other wizard can use Lore of Nehek, Lore of Light, or Lore of Death. Most (I'd say 80% of TK players) swear by combining the Lore of Light and the Lore of Nehek for the buffs you can use. 

Admittedly this isn't a terrible idea as there is only a single spell between the two of them that is, 50% useless to us. Lore of Light #3 - Light of Battle. 

But I get ahead of myself, lets examine the first Lore of the Liche Priests. The Lore of Nehekara. 

Lore attribute: raises d3+1 wounds worth of models of our normal troops. Anything with animated construct only gets 1 wound back and you can't restore wounds to characters.

Our signature spell is Khsar's Incantation of the Desert Wind. It targets all unengaged friendly Nehekaran units within 12". Can be boosted to 24". This spell is our form of March. It allows all units hit to immediately move as if it were the remaining moves sub-phase again. They can only be moved once per turn by this but this is our main method of using our lore attribute since it is fairly easy to cast and hits a wide area. In a typical list, this will be the spell you want to cast every turn and it'll be the spell your opponent will want to dispel.

Spell #1: Djaf's Incantation of Curse Blades. Our first spell is a buff spell with a range of 12", boosted to 24". It gives a unit killing blow or boosts a killing blow/Heroic Killing Blow to activate on a 5+. Do I really need to point out how powerful this is on a horde of spear wielding skeletons?

Spell #2: Neru's Incantation of Protection. Our second spell is another buff spell with a range of 12" and can be boosted to hit all friendly Nehekaran within 12". It gives them a 5+ ward save. Our skeletons and what not have crappy armor saves. Our typical is light armor and a shield if we have any at all. Obviously a ward save can make the difference between failing combat terribly and losing 10 models and getting an actual victory from your tarpit.

Spell #3: Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting. Our Third and final buff spell and thus our final spells that our lore attribute affects is a range of 12" affecting a single unit, boostable to 24" affecting all units. gives +1 attack to the unit(s) and if they're equipped with a bow or great bow, gives them multiple shot(2). Typically you want to give this to your archers more than your charging units. Doubling the amount of shots you can do at 5+ gives you that much better chance to take your opponent down a peg or two before closing into combat.

Spell #4: Usirian's Incantation of Vengence. Our fourth spell is a hex with a range of 18", boostable to 36". The targetted unit suffers a -D3 to its movement and treats all terrain as dangerous, even the open ground they walk upon. I typically reserve this spell for chariots and annoying horde units, given that chariots take a d6 wounds for failed dangerous terrain and in a horde unit, your opponent has to roll dangerous for every model.

Spell #5: Usekhp's Incantation of Desiccation. Our fifth spell is a hex with a range of 24". It causes the target to have -1 str and -1 toughness. It can be boosted to be -d3 str/tough. Given that strength and toughness affect models in an exponential way, the removal of said statistics is equally devastating.

Spell #6: Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm. Our final spell is a magic vortex (blast template) that remains in play. It causes strength 4 hits on anything that falls under it. It's boostable to large template. It suffers from all of the same issues as all magic vortexes and can travel a total of 40" if cast by a level 4 nehekaran liche priest. This is the weakest spell of our Lore. Against most armies, you're better off using the Purple Sun of the Lore of Death. I would typically swap this spell out for your signature given half a chance to.

I personally find that the first four spells of our personal lore to be the most useful given that they apply our Lore attribute. That isn't to say the final three arn't useful I'm just saying that hexes and damages are better used from the Lore of Death (for the most part) and of course Lore of Light is always amusing to use if you get Timewarp or Speed of light. I10 or ASF makes them funny in close combat.

Ratvan was kind enough to share the secrets of the Lore of Death with us.

Lore of Death - The Wind of Shyish

Lore Attribute: Life leeching. For each casualty caused by lore of death spells, roll a D6. On a roll of 5+ you are granted an additional power dice.

Signature Spell: Spirit Leech. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate a model. Caster and Target roll 1D6 and add their unmodified leadership. For each point the caster's result exceeds the targets result it suffers 1 wound with no armour save allowed. The scaled up version has an increased range.

Spell #1: Aspect of the Dreadknight. Unit Buff, 24 " range. Targeted unit causes fear. Caster may decide to make it cause Terror for a higher casting value.

Not as useful for Tomb Kings until you look at the boosted version, a unit of 3 Terror causing Carrion is hilarious (your opponant will be taking Terror tests on his flanking units at 22" when you declare a charge. This is what I tend to use to scare off Ambushing Ungor/Gor as well Peasants ect.)

Spell #2: Caress of Laniph. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate 1 target model. Roll 2D6 and subtract the target's Strength. The result equals the number of hits the target takes, wounding on 4+ and ignoring armour saves. The scaled up version is range 24".

A cheap method of picking off enemy BSBs, heroes or even Lords. Something like this can easily ruin Teclis' day (if you make it in range/successfully sap his DD). The 4+ wounds is quite a gamble, but it's cheap enough that you can snipe that Ring of Hotek or any other model that's causing you some grief. Things like Standard Bearers come to mind.. or anything that's expensive really.

Spell #3: Soulblight. Hex, 24 " range. Targeted unit suffers a -1 strength and toughness. The scaled up version is ALL enemy units within 24". Lasts 1 turn.

Not only does this make the enemy unit susceptible to your attacks but it also makes them less capable of dealing damage. Since this spell has a pretty fair price and good range, it should be cast on any unit that you feel can need a debuff. When in doubt, go crazy and nerf his entire army. This is a very solid debuff and there's almost no circumstance that's holding you back from weakening him.

Spell #4: Doom and Darkness. Hex. Remains in play, 24 " range. Targeted unit suffers -3 Leadership. The scaled up version is 48" range.

Since RIP stays in play and allows you to cast afterwards, all RIP spells have gotten better. Doom and Darkness is one of those spells where you cast as soon as you can and force him to dispel. -3 Leadership is absolutely huge. Fear checks, Terror Checks (Aspect of the Dreadknight anyone?), Panic tests, break tests, the list goes on. This is one of those spells that your opponent will be wise to get rid of if he knows what's good for him. If not instantly dispelled it costs your opponent PD to dispel in his phase, making his pool smaller and keeping our units alive a little longer.

Spell #5: Fate of Bjuna. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate 1 model. Roll 2D6 and substract the target's toughness. The result equals the number of hits the target suffers, wounding on 2+ and ignoring Armour saves. Should the target survive, it suffers stupidity for the rest of the game.

You get this off on Teclis and he's done basically (unless you roll double 1's). This is basically the same as Caress but a hell of a lot deadlier. With this spell, you can essentially pick off 2 key models a turn between Fate and Caress. Stupidity for the rest of the game is also extremely annoying. If he's effected by Doom and Darkness, it'll be quite hysterical when your opponents most powerful Wizard won't be able to get his spells off (assuming he survives).

Spell #6: The Purple Sun of Xereus 
Not really much synergy here, cast it from behind a unit of 10 archers and get some dice back quickly before it hits the enemy.

Synergies



The Obvious choice is Doom and Darkness, cast it on an enemy unit and hit them with SSC (maybe even with Skulls of the Foe) for a panic check at -3(4) Leadership 

Soulblight and Dessication combine nicely for a possible -2 to both Toughness and Strength (if both cast). I find these especially useful to target the unit/s that my Chariots are about to impact.

While we're at it, the above two spells synergise nicely with Fate of Bunja and Carress of Laniph, lowering the strength and toughness to 1-2 you're more then likely going to get 5 hits on average against your target.

Spirit Leech - This is why I typically take a Tomb Prince as his unmodified Leadership is higher then the casters (with the exceptions being the Special Characters) helps a little bit with the WHFB Mind War

(Apart from minor formatting, this is unchanged from Ratvan's post on page 2 of this thread.)


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## Lord Azune

Settra The Imperishable
The King of Tomb Kings. The greatest conqurer of them all. He is one of two Tomb Kings (character subtype) with any magical prowess. He is a level 1 Lore of Nehek wizard. He must be your general if you field him and his inspiring presence is 18". He has a crown, an enchanted item which gives "My will be done" to all friendly Nehek uneaded within 6" of him. Giving all of them a WS of 7. He has a 4+/4++ save with magic resistance 1. His magical blade is blessed by the sun god. Its a flaming sword with the ability of ignoring armor. Any character or monster that suffers a wound suffers a -1 to hit for the remainder of the game. He is mounted on a 4 horse chariot and is quite mobile. He is a very powerful leader and boosts your army to its peak of fighting capability. He causes "The Curse" and is Flamable. 

This guy is our only wizard with a real armor save (apart from giving magic armor to liche priests). This can be further augmented by a tomb herald on a chariot. Basically: you can make it so that he dies when you let him. My personal favorite tactic is to take him and a tomb herald and stick them into a 4x3 block of chariots.This gives them enough frontage for Look out Sir!, good impact hits, and solid survivability to give that WS 7 to everything with in 6", which should include whatever force you're ramming into the side of them if it wasn't the chariots themselves.

I feel I should point out that since he is a level 1 lore of nehek wizard, he can be your heirophant if you're going TKs with less magic. I however in no way endorse this course of action.

Grade = A

High Queen Khalida
Khalida. The weirdest character in our book in my opinion. She has a good initiative, a great BS and always strikes first. Shes like an undead high elf. She's classified as a Tomb King which means all rules affecting them also applies. She cannot be poisoned, causes her and her attached unit to be poisoned and grants her BS of 3 to her unit of skeleton archers. 4+ to hit for a horde block of 40-50 archers? Solid. She also has a bound item spell that contains a magic missile with a range of 24" and causes 2d6 strength 4 hits. She also has a very understandable hatred of vampire counts. In addition she has "The Curse" and Flammable.

Not really a whole lot to say on her, she's useful but only with a huge block of archers. If she granted it to others like Settra and could give it to our Necrolith Colossi and their great bow of the desert, I'd be more impressed.. as it is now, I have to balance my want of her with my want of Settra and Arkhan.

Grade = B

Arkhan The Black

My favorite Lord, if only based off of fluff. The Master of Necromancies right hand man and top apprentice. He is a level 5 death wizard. He is a god of the magic phase. Being a level 5 wizard gives him an advantage and at the end of the enemy magic phase, up to 3 dispel dice can be saved and transfered for use in your next magic phase. You're almost guarneteed to have 12 power dice every turn, possibly more given the Lore of Death attribute. He can be mounted on a 4 horse flying chariot. He can be your armies heirophant. His sword recovers wounds for his unit the same way the Lore of Nehek does. He counts as a Tomb King for purposes of Tomb Heralds and "The Curse".

I've never gotten a round below 12 dice of starting magic between this guy and a casket of souls. If you want to dominate magic, he's your man. His spells are very snipingish given that he's death but aim for the enemy characters and you can never go wrong. If that fails, charge them in a block of chariots like I mentioned for Settra. 4x3 gives you 4d6 str 6 impact hits. So on average you'll see 12 hits with -3 armor saves. That's nothing to sneeze at, given they'll be the hardest your chariots hit in combat.

Grade = A

Grand Heirophant Khatep

Our Nehekaran Lore Master. Hes a level 4 wizard with Lore of Nehek. He must be your Heirophant. He has a staff which allows him to reroll all spells. Even if the result is irresitable force. He also has a one use dispel scroll which causes the caster to take a toughness test. If failed, the enemy wizard cannot cast any more spells that turn and if he fails on a roll of 6, he suffers d3 wounds with no saves allowed. 

Pretty much our top wizard for the stereotypical TK army. Though you better watch out, he's got no armor and no ward save. All hes got is his 6+ regen and whatever protection the unit you can stuff him with gives him.

Grade = A

Tomb King

Tomb kings are flammable Nehekaran undead which cause a curse to be placed on units responsible for their deaths. If its killed in combat, it causes D6 strength 5 hits. If multiple units are responsible, they all suffer the mummies curse. Though thats just a partial bonus, their biggest use is their power called: "MY will be done". Granting their WS to their unit. WS 6. They are equippable with up to 100 points of magic items, able to take a shield and great weapon/flail/spear. They can also be mounted on a Chariot or Warsphinx.

If you're playing without special characters or you've got enough points to stick one of these in a unit to boost it with my will be done, go for it. Its amazing what a unit with actual weapon skill can do.

Grade = A

Liche High Priest

Level 3 wizard, upgradable to level 4. Can be mounted on a skeletal steed and can take magic items up to 100 points. They're mostly described under our magic section.
If you need Lore of Light or are playing without the special characters, this is your man. He can be Heirophant if you need him to. He is also the only Lord type you can put on a skeletal steed and thus include with your horse men or horsemen archers. His main downside is his wizardly failure to stay alive in close combat.

Grade = B


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## Lord Azune

Heroes of the Tomb Kings.

The Herald Nekaph

Our Challenge Champion. All of our Tomb heralds are but he excels at it. In a challenge he gets a 5+ ward save and his killing blow takes effect on a 5+. He also forces the enemy unit in base to base to roll an additional dice when taking a fear test and discarding the lowest. This is made even more powerful by his flail of skulls, the magic weapon that gives him +2 str and multiple wounds (2). He must always challenge when able to and must always accept. Like all our heroes except Apophas and the Liche Priests, he is flammable. He also has sworn bodyguard, which I'll describe as part of the tomb herald section. All in all, he's a very useful unit though I'm not sure if points arn't better spent on a Tomb Herald with actual armor.

Grade = B

Prince Apophas

Hunter-Killer. He arrives using entombed beneath the sands, he flies, and he has a breath weapon that deals Str 2 hits. He is an infantry that causes terror, and he ignores dangerous terrain. Despite his role as a prince, he cannot be a general and cannot join units. Now here is the awesome part. He picks an enemy character and he re-rolls all failed to hit and wound against that character. If he dies, he explodes dealing 2d6 str 2 hits to all units within 2d6" of him. He is pretty much a sacrifical unit unless you can get him into a challenge. He survives in this role with his 4+ regen save and his 6+ armor save.

Grade = B

Ramhotep the Visionary

Necrotect Master. He grants Frenzy to his unit, even if he loses it himself. He also boosts one RANDOM unit of animated constructs in the army to be able to reroll failed armour saves. He has frenzy himself and has a hatred for everything. As a Necrotect, he grants a hatred of all things to his attached unit as well as grants 6+ regen to all animated constructs within 12" of him. He is most useful if the only animated constructs you bring are Necropolis Knights as they have a 3+ armour save. He is fairly fierce in close combat himself though I would never use him to accept a challenge.

Grade = A

Tomb Prince

Like the Tomb King in the Lord section, the prince is flammable and grants his WS of 5 to his unit. Really he is just a weaker version of the King and has a magic item limit of 50 points. In a lower point army, this will be your general.

Grade = A

Tomb Herald

Our Battle standard Bearer. Any Tomb King's right hand man, he issues and accepts challenges on behalf of his king/prince. If you choose to not give him a battle standard, you can give him up to 50 points in magic items. If you're using him to protect a special character tomb king, I'd recommend outfitting him in magic armor. See, tomb heralds have a special power which links them to a single tomb king/prince in your army. If they're in the same unit as their linked model, they can redirect any wound suffered (before saves) to themselves on a 2+ roll. Now, interestingly enough this means it goes against the Tomb King/Princes toughness of 5 rather than the heralds toughness of 4, giving the herald a higher chance of survival. Under utilized in its protective role in my opinion. Most TK lists don't even include one as a battle standard since we don't reroll leadership tests... infact, typically, we don't make them at all.

Grade = A

Liche Priest

Level 1-2 wizard, same as the high priest except 50 points of magic items.

Grade = B

Necrotect

Our Necrotect grants hatred to his unit and 6+ regen to all constructs in 12" just like Ramhotep. They are best in horde and used out of direct close combat if possible. You can never feel bad about spending the points to make a horde of 50 skeletal spearmen reroll misses that first round of combat.

Grade = B


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## Lord Azune

Mounts of the Tomb Kings.

Skeletal Steed

Your average weak steed. Our horsemen as a whole are pretty terrible. You can only gives this to Liche Priests and Tomb Heralds. I'll get into my terrible view of our horseman in the core section when I cover our "heavy cavalry" and our "scouts".

Grade = D

Skeletal Chariots

Chariots, the staple of our armies, are pulled by two of the crappy skeletal steeds. They suck with terrain sure, but the impact hits really save them. The biggest factor is giving them the ability to attach themselves to a standard unit of chariots. Our Heralds, Princes/Kings and two of our special liche priest/kings can all ride chariots. They suffer from not being able to benefit from Necrotects. Gives them a base armor save of 5+. I love giving this mount but then again, I like using one of the two priests that can use it.

Grade = A

Khemrian Warsphinx

Our Warsphinx is typically a special choice with points, they can be gained as hero points or lord points for princes and kings. It counts as a monster with a rider, causes terror and gives it a thundercrush attack. The monster has toughness 8 and 5 wounds. Your general will have a wonderful time surviving on this large target.. till its targeted by every piece of war machine your enemy has. With any luck, the monster dies and your general can join the unit with his herald to save him. You can upgrade the sphinx to give it a breath weapon and a poison attack. Monsters are the best killing machines we can get.

Grade = B


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## Lord Azune

Tomb King core units.

Skeleton Warriors

Ye Ole Warriors. The opinion on them is split. Tarpit them as a disposible pile of crap with nothing but a hand weapon and a shield giving them a 6+ armor 6+ parry. Or give them spears and horde them to get 30 or so attacks in that first round of combat and hopefully get enough kills to do something. Personally, I view Skeleton Warriors as a waste of points. In a lower point game, I'd rather have archers with a heirophant. At least then they get in some kills with their bows before the enemy hits them and arn't that much worse off when they get attacked.

Grade = B

Skeleton Archers

Archers. Our archers as I mentioned before never take a penalty for shooting their bows. They have the same WS, initiative and number of attacks as warriors. Whats their downside? they cost 2 points more and have no shield. They lose out on that mystical 6+ parry save that really won't stop your army from crumbling.

Grade = A

Skeleton Chariots

Staple. Our chariots if they're not mounted by a king/prince/ect as covered above carry 2 charioteers. Both of these skeletons have a hand weapon, a bow, and a mounted spear. Sure only the front rank can attack but each rank increases the strength of the impact hits the chariots give. The starting strength is 4. The standard seems to be 3 ranks, increasing the strength to 7 and reducing armor saves by 3. Personally, I'd run with 4 ranks, getting a -4 to armor. Since impact hits already hit, they thing to focus on is doing damage and wounding. I also say this since chariots fighten people with good reason and they tend to fire upon them with great zeal. It reduces your chance of being reduced below 3 ranks and thus below optimal strength to wound.

Grade = A

Skeleton Horsemen

Our horseman can't march, have a movement of 8 and a vanguard move. Cool, except that they use a mounted spear, a hand weapon and a shield, meaning that if they charged, they don't get their parry save. Sure you can give them armor but its light armor. Their mount confers nothing special so all in all, you've got a low weaponskill which can only be boosted by Settra or magic, a crappy armor save, and they crumble cause they're undead. Unless the enemy sets up like an idiot and ignores them completely, you won't get to charge their flank.

Grade = C

Skeleton Horse Archers

Skeletal Archers are fast cavalry scouts. Which being fast gives them vanguard and free reform. Since we can't march and can only hold in a charge, they don't get feigned flight. Since we don't take penalties to shooting bows, we don't need to have fire on the march. Since they're scouts, they can already be 12" from an enemy, the vanguard move is useless. I honestly feel the same way about them as I do about horsemen, except that since they have bows, they can actually do something their first turn instead of sit there looking like a bunch of idiots.

Grade = B


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## Lord Azune

Tomb King Special Units:

Tomb Guard
These guys... how to say something bad about these guys. I'm kidding. These are wonderful, only thing I have against them is the cost in dollars to get them up to proper unit size. Most folks take these in full up horde formation and use them as our Tarpit. They're actually pretty good at this being S4/T4 and having killing blow. This unit is one of our best to use with a Standard of the Undying Legion. I'd say the arguement for either wargear option is pretty split. Personally for me, I'd rather keep their cost down as much as possible instead of turning it into a deathstar unit.

Wargear Options:
Sword/Board
Halberds

Grade = A

Necropolis Knights
In a word, expensive. These fellas are our most expensive unit but, they have the best save. 3+ armor save in our army. This can of course be improved to allow a reroll of the armor save if you include ramhotep and its your only unit of constructs in the army. Giving them Entombed is regarded by most to be useless. The benefit by far is outweighed by your chance of losing an expensive unit to no enemy fire. Sure, you could land it where you want but the odds are low.

Grade = B

Tomb Scorpion

Fast moving poisoned monster with magic resistance and killing blow. Now this model has entombed but give its size, it's actually the benefit. I've used these to pop up and take care of bolt throwers and the like or disrupt the rank benefit of hordes.

Grade = A

Ushabti
These fellas start with a great weapon, makes them str 6. Personally, I prefer replacing this with a great bow. I'm a big fan of Tomb King magic and shooting with Chariots as our mainstay of close combat death. 30" str 6 bow that hits on a 5 or 6 regardless of moving or shifting for a better shot, I greatly admire them for shooting into high value targets like Chaos Knights.

Grade = C

Tomb Swarm
Much like the scorpion except as a skirmisher/swarm, they are quite wonderful for slamming into things and wrecking them. 5 wounds but likely to lose them all quickly given that its t2. 5 poison attacks per base. Great for killing large monsters or high value targets.

Grade = B

Carrion
One of our fastest moving units. In my opinion, too expensive and too likely to get out of buff range. They'd arrive to fight and the rest of your army will still be rolling up in the next few turns.

Grade = D

Khemrian Warsphinx
Great against your low value targets and heavily armoured. T8 is its protection. I've seen more than my fair share of these die to chameleon skinks and other poisoned shooters however so treat carefully. Apart from its obvious downside and the fact that our spells can only give it back 1 wound per magic phase, I'd use it only as a special choice and never as a mount. Its crew of 4 KB tomb guards is much better than a prince or king could be on it.

Grade = B

Sepulchral Stalkers
These follow the same logic as a Tomb Scorpion but they want to appear at 8" range away from their chosen target. I personally dislike the randomness in their wounding and dislike that its a str 1 attack against init. Thus making it only really useful against dwarves, undead, and lizardmen.

Grade = D


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## Lord Azune

Rare Units of the Tomb King Army:

Necrolith Colossus

Most people gear this guy out for a great weapon and why wouldn't you? He strikes at I1 anyway, and with a great weapon, he's hitting at strength 8. And for every attack that wounds and is unsaved, which at str 8, odds are you're not getting an armour save. You get an additional attack! Now. Lets face it. WS3? Sucks a giant's private parts. Which is why you bring a few of these with Settra and boost that terrible WS to 7. Whose kicking who around now big city?! 

Now lets say you want to include these but you don't want to pay for Settra.. They're still fairly powerful but their biggest boost is gone. I myself, field with with the Bow of the Desert. Sure, BS2. Boohoo.. It's a mobile bolt thrower that can move 6" and fire.

Grade = A

Hierotitan

Dominating that magic phase. Heirotitans give a +d3 to your casting result every time you cast a spell within 12" of them. They also hold two bound spells. Admittedly, you can fry these bound spells because they're equipment based rather than innate like the Casket. Which we'll get to. He's good to take if you need an extra bit of push. Apart from that, he's an easy target and doesn't really strike fear in your enemies (despite having terror).

Grade = C

Necrosphinx

4 s5 Killing Blow attacks, 1 s10 Heroic Killing Blow attack, flying. Lets face it. This is your monster killer. I've slain everything from giants to ancient steggadons with this fella. He's one of my top choices for rare points.

Grade = A

Screaming Skull Catapult

I dislike artillery misfire dice. Nothing makes me scream in anger more than seeing a direct hit come up with a misfire. It's attacks are magical and flaming which is great against undead and what not. Theres no reason not to ever upgrade this to Skulls of the Foe. You always should. -1 leadership and it forces them to take a morale check if it causes even a single casualty. Hit this onto a horde and take it down.

Grade = A

Casket of Souls

Ark of the Covenant. Lets face it, thats what this is. Unleash the souls of damned to eat peoples faces. Run out of magic dice? Drop as many as you can on this innate bound spell. It's a direct damage spell which jumps out and pops folks. They have to take a leadership test and for every point they fail it by, take that many wounds with no armour save. Once that's done, it can jump. 3+ and it jumps to another unit in 6" of the first and does it again.. and again.. and again. Can't target the same unit twice but it can keep jumping till it runs out or fails that 3+.

Oh, added bonus? you get another d3 of power dice to your magic phase. And... Wait! there's more! While it's a war machine, the damage is spell. Ironcurse does diddly crap against it.

Grade = A+


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## Lord Azune

Tomb King common tactics and synergy ideas.

Lets first look at the most basic synergy already covered. 

Tomb King/Price embedded in... any unit. My will be done is pretty much critical for our army to work.

Dominating the magic phase and using our buff spells is also critical to my mind. I don't care if you're speeding forward or gaining a ward save. Every cast gets you back wounds that you need to keep pressing forward.

Your large creatures: Necorsphinx, Necrolith, Warsphinx, and Heirotitan cause Terror. Use it. Attempt to charge a unit who is gonna lay down the hurt, you might be pleasently surprised when they show their rear.

For having BS2, we are great at archery. Shoot whenever you can. Keep distance and let loose the arrows. If we were an army, you lot would be Persia in 300. Turn the sky black with arrows and peg a few people.

I've never seen a TK battle standard bearer become worth his points. Ya know why? Because if you just selected a Tomb Herald that is gonna suck at protecting his king/prince, you just wasted 75+ points in your hero slot. Give him some magic armor and a sword and make him a hero killer in close combat. Heralds are your challenge sponges.

Try to keep your Heirophant and your General seperate, unless you pick one of those whacky special characters like I do. Arkhan the black is our topnotch person. Able to be saved by a herald and still busting up the magic phase like a crazy person. Solid.


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## Lord Azune

Reserved for the Magic Items of the Tomb Kings


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## Aramoro

I don't want to be negative but you're just writing out all the Tomb King rules without any Tactics.


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## Lord Azune

I hear you Aramoro, I'm working on it. Gotta set the stage before the show can begin.


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## Lord Azune

I'll cover magic items later but for now, I'd love comments on the tactica/units opinions.


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## riburn3

Great review and pretty much convinced me to get a nice TK army going. The thought of ridiculous bow spam really appeals to me, especially when it's augmented by their own magic. Also having a few of their monsters on the table just sounds fun.

I personally have only played against TK 2-3 times, and each time I beat them pretty soundly (more because the two opponents went relatively bowless/chariotless and tried to tarpit my Ogres which in turn blew them to bits), but I have always loved the feel of the army (especially since I am a Necron player), and loads of undead bowmen sounds really cool. 

One thing I would say I don't really agree with, is I think Ushabti would be better with great weapons then with bows to augment our relative lack of close combat prowess. For their point cost I would much rather field more archers. Yes a str 6 bow is nice, but you'll only get a few of these to hit each game due to their lack of numbers, and for their price, I think they do more damage with great weapons. That said, from a style standpoint I like them and will probably field them in my army despite what I just said.

Again, great summary.


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## Lord Azune

Thats Riburn, As for the Ushabti with Bows, I honestly feel like a long range high str shot is required in the army, either in the form of Bowabti or our famed Bolt Thrower - Necrolith. Honestly, I'd rather field the Necrolith Colossi but I need to model it before I field it regularly. One or two games of proxying I can get, regularly annoys my sensibilities. As for close combat goodness, I'd rather field tomb guard than GW Ushabti. I can get more tomb guard for cheaper and the tomb guard have killing blow. Think about it


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## Deathypoo

ehhh... 300 points for an average of 2 str. 6 hits a turn? Even if you cast smiting regularly, I think that's a pretty poor return. Not that melee Ushabti are a much better choice. It's a shame, I love the models and I love the feel of the unit... it's just way too expensive for anything it does.

I'm equally unimpressed with a bolt thrower Necrolith... that's the lowest accuracy, highest point cost bolt thrower ever, and if you're not trying to get your Necrolith into CC as fast as you can, than what ARE you doing with him?


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## Lord Azune

I flank him around the side. At least he can try to be useful with the bolt throwing while getting into position. Everyone is all about getting stuck in as soon as possible. Why would you ever want to get stuck in if you can help it? It's way better to run roughshod through their side when they get tarpitted.


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## Ratvan

As a little aside, I have been looking into the Magical Synergies of the Lore of Nehekhara and Lore of Death (as an Arkhan player I'm sure you know a few things here as well)

As you say there are a lot of TK players who choose Lore of Light, the one type of list that springs to mind is S8 Banishment (multiple low level mages combining to up the strength of the Banishment spell) but that's for another post and another player incidently.

So a quick run down of the spells in the Lore of Death and how they synergise with Lore of Nehekhara is as follows.

Lore of Death Spells
Lore of Death - The Wind of Shyish
Lore Attribute: Life leeching. For each casualty caused by lore of death spells, roll a D6. On a roll of 5+ you are granted an additional power dice.

Spirit Leech. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate a model. Caster and Target roll 1D6 and add their unmodified leadership. For each point the caster's result exceeds the targets result it suffers 1 wound with no armour save allowed. The scaled up version has an increased range.

1: Aspect of the Dreadknight. Unit Buff, 24 " range. Targeted unit causes fear. Caster may decide to make it cause Terror for a higher casting value.

Not as useful for Tomb Kings until you look at the boosted version, a unit of 3 Terror causing Carrion is hilarious (your opponant will be taking Terror tests on his flanking units at 22" when you declare a charge. This is what I tend to use to scare off Ambushing Ungor/Gor as well Peasants ect.)

2: Caress of Laniph. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate 1 target model. Roll 2D6 and subtract the target's Strength. The result equals the number of hits the target takes, wounding on 4+ and ignoring armour saves. The scaled up version is range 24".

A cheap method of picking off enemy BSBs, heroes or even Lords. Something like this can easily ruin Teclis' day (if you make it in range/successfully sap his DD). The 4+ wounds is quite a gamble, but it's cheap enough that you can snipe that Ring of Hotek or any other model that's causing you some grief. Things like Standard Bearers come to mind.. or anything that's expensive really.

3: Soulblight. Hex, 24 " range. Targeted unit suffers a -1 strength and toughness. The scaled up version is ALL enemy units within 24". Lasts 1 turn.

Not only does this make the enemy unit susceptible to your attacks but it also makes them less capable of dealing damage. Since this spell has a pretty fair price and good range, it should be cast on any unit that you feel can need a debuff. When in doubt, go crazy and nerf his entire army. This is a very solid debuff and there's almost no circumstance that's holding you back from weakening him.

4: Doom and Darkness. Hex. Remains in play, 24 " range. Targeted unit suffers -3 Leadership. The scaled up version is 48" range.

Since RIP stays in play and allows you to cast afterwards, all RIP spells have gotten better. Doom and Darkness is one of those spells where you cast as soon as you can and force him to dispel. -3 Leadership is absolutely huge. Fear checks, Terror Checks (Aspect of the Dreadknight anyone?), Panic tests, break tests, the list goes on. This is one of those spells that your opponent will be wise to get rid of if he knows what's good for him. If not instantly dispelled it costs your opponent PD to dispel in his phase, making his pool smaller and keeping our units alive a little longer.

5: Fate of Bjuna. Direct damage, 12" range. Nominate 1 model. Roll 2D6 and substract the target's toughness. The result equals the number of hits the target suffers, wounding on 2+ and ignoring Armour saves. Should the target survive, it suffers stupidity for the rest of the game.

You get this off on Teclis and he's done basically (unless you roll double 1's). This is basically the same as Caress but a hell of a lot deadlier. With this spell, you can essentially pick off 2 key models a turn between Fate and Caress. Stupidity for the rest of the game is also extremely annoying. If he's effected by Doom and Darkness, it'll be quite hysterical when your opponents most powerful Wizard won't be able to get his spells off (assuming he survives).

6: The Purple Sun of Xereus 
Not really much synergy here, cast it from behind a unit of 10 archers and get some dice back quickly before it hits the enemy.

Synergies

The Obvious choice is Doom and Darkness, cast it on an enemy unit and hit them with SSC (maybe even with Skulls of the Foe) for a panic check at -3(4) Leadership 

Soulblight and Dessication combine nicely for a possible -2 to both Toughness and Strength (if both cast). I find these especially useful to target the unit/s that my Chariots are about to impact.

While we're at it, the above two spells synergise nicely with Fate of Bunja and Carress of Laniph, lowering the strength and toughness to 1-2 you're more then likely going to get 5 hits on average against your target.

Spirit Leech - This is why I typically take a Tomb Prince as his unmodified Leadership is higher then the casters (with the exceptions being the Special Characters) helps a little bit with the WHFB Mind War


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## olderplayer

Excellent review. Really impressed. Thanks


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## Lord Azune

Wonderful addition to the magic section of the tactica/review Ratvan, I'm going on Haitus for the next few weeks but when I get back if no ones added to it, I'll add the Lore of Light section.


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## Ratvan

No bother I'll have a read of the other parts of the list and see if I can come up with some other tactics for TK generals, so that together we can reclaim what is rightfully ours


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## Lord Azune

Victory to the Black Tower of Khemri!


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## Sethis

I thought an enemy unit could only be under the effects of one hex spell at a time? Or is it that our units can only be under the effect of one augment at a time?


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## olderplayer

Neither. There is no such restriction on augments and hexes in the BRB. You can cast mulitple hexes on an opposing unit or units and multiple augments on your unit or units. In fact, stacking augments is a common tactic for a TK unit. If possible, it is ideal to put righteous smiting (+1 attack), cursed blades (killing blow or boosted killing blow) and protection (5+ ward save) on a unit in combat.


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## Sethis

Oh. I thought I read that somewhere. Oh wait, I'm thinking of Warmahordes... Nevermind.


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## Stephen_Newman

You appear to be missing a roundup of the Lore of Light. Care of I make my suggestions?

Lore of Light (For TK's)

Lore Attribute: EXORCISM-this basically shows how Light magic does not like evil forces. In short any spells which inflict a number of hits add an extra D6 of the target is either a daemon or undead. This affects you since YOU are undead but unless you are planning on shooting your own units this means nothing. Although its always nice to have against other Undead armies or Daemons and at least you know of its damage when facing other Light wizards.

Signature Spell: SHEM'S BURNING GAZE-This is the entry level spell which has a range of 24 inches and inflicts D6 S4 flaming attacks at an enemy unit for a casting value of 5+. Instead this spell can be S6 and have a range of 48 inches which increases the casting value to 15+. This spell is not really much use in most situations although a canny way of using it would be to use it to strip off regen off a unit such as Trolls before you fill it full of arrows from your Archer legions.

1. PHA'S PROTECTION-An augment spell with a range of 24 inches with a casting value of 6+. This causes the target unit to benefit from War Machines to only be able to shoot them on a 4+ and other shooting units get a -1 to hit modifier. Instead this can affect all friendly units within 12 inches for a casting value of 12+. This spell is very useful for a TK force since due to low T values and little armour they are not the best for weathering shooting attacks. Also worth considering, especially in a Khalida led force based off shooting, is combining this with Smiting in a wide area. Not only are you more protected against enemy fire but also you get double shots in return. With Khalidas poisoning rule affecting an archer units shots this can get fun (for us anyways) very quickly.

2. THE SPEED OF LIGHT-Another augment spell with a range of 24 inches but with a casting value of 8+. This gives the target unit I and WS 10 until the casters next magic phase. Instead this can affect all friendly units within 12 inches on a casting value of 16+. This spell can be useful but normally as an area affect bubble to scare opponents into dropping dispel dice early on. If let off then it means you can rely less of Tomb Kings and Princes to boost the basic WS and the improved I value gives you proof against spells such as purple sun etc.

3. LIGHT OF BATTLE-Another augment (lots of these for TK's) with a range of 12 inches with a casting value of 9+. This allows any unit targeted to automatically rally and pass all leadership tests until your next magic phase. Not awfully useful for TK's since we are unbreakable and immune to psychology until you realise that this means you can pass those crumbling tests with ease if you hierophant bites the dust early on. Alternatively this spell comes with a variant that affects all friendly units within 12 inches but with a casting value of 18+.

4. NET OF AMYNTOK-This is a hex with a range of 24 inches and is cast on a 10+. This affects a unit in a weird manner. Any time it wants to move for any reason or cast magic or shoot weapons it must take a S test. If it fails then it does nothing instead and takes D6 S4 hits instead. Not overly useful as a spell since it is a single test and a lot of units have some sort of character with S4 hiding within it. Although with the Exorcism attribute this could be useful against Undead or Daemon armies. If you wish you can increase the range to 48 inches for a new casting value of 13+.

5. BANISHMENT-This is a magic missile with a range of 24 inches and another casting value of 10+. This inflicts 2D6 hits on a target at a S of 4 +the number of other Light wizards in a 12 inch vicinity of the caster. This is a decent little spell to use against units of small annoyance units such as Skirmishers and Fast cav. Although with a large contingent of Light Wizards nearby this can hurt even small heavily armoured units very hard such as Dragon Ogres, Giants etc. Not one of my preferred spells since as a TK player you are not really going to have the huge number of Light Wizards to make this a viable tactic. You may also increase the range to 48 inches for a new casting value of 13+ as well.

6. BIRONA'S TIMEWARP-An augment spell with a range of 12 inches and a casting value of 12+. It gives the target unit double movement, and extra attack and the always strikes first special rule. This spell is awesome for an army that can't march and is very slow! Alternatively for more use try doing the upgraded version where it affects all friendly units in 12 inches for a casting value of 24+. This spell works great with either Vengeance from the Nehekhara Lore to get more KB attacks and also works great with Desert Wind to really get a zippy army that finds itself threatening enemy flanks toute de suit. Also works great with speed of light for I10 and WS 10 fun!

In short the Lore of Light works wonders with the TK Nehekhara lore although my general rule of thumb would be that if the Light Wizard is a basic Liche Priest I would stick with the basic casting values of spells to save power dice get more from the restless dead attribute or if the caster is a High Liche Priest then go crazy with the higher power spells. Although ALWAYS expect Birona's Timewarp to get dispelled or scrolled so play smart by drawing the other dice first.


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