# How do you deal with VC when playing TK?



## Atreyu (May 30, 2011)

I play tomb kings and Ive played a game against my friends vc army and something honestly scared me....they are very scary. They are able to march, counter our magic, and are combat oriented. I barely tied with him it was all on the dice by the end. I wanted to know, what tactics are useful to deal with the vampire armies and be able to help deal with their strengths?


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## Ammit Brando (May 25, 2009)

Playing against Tomb Kings is nasty when you run into a good player imo.

I have noticed that Casket of souls works well on picking off VC units that are out of range of the general's leadership.

Shooting works well against us as well due to the fact we have none. So a couple units of archers and/or screaming skull catapults.

Flanking to disrupt works wonders as well


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## Akatsuki13 (May 9, 2010)

Afraid of vampires? And you call yourself a warrior of Nehekhara.

:laugh:

The VC should seem that scary. Ultimately your armies share the same strengths and weaknesses. Yes, they can march because of the abilities of other units within their army but TK can have their troops move again through magic. And they have one weakness the TK don't, the VC Shooting Phase is nonexistent. They can only inflict damage through magic and by marching up to the enemy and hacking at them.

Characters, flanking, sand, shooting and magic, the five things to always keep in mind to win when playing the TK. Characters are pretty obvious. Every TK character (with the exception of Prince Apophas) is geared towards boosting their troops so always carefully chose which ones you're going to take and where within your army you are going to place them. Next is flanking your enemy. Most other armies can either overpower the TK infantry with brute force or drown them overwhelming numbers. One of the best ways to deal with this by hitting them on multiple sides. Boxes of powerful troops suddenly become a lot less terrifying when they are forced to divide their efforts on two fronts rather than grinding through your skeletons in united front. Then there is striking from the sands. I'm a strong advocate of taking at least one unit with 'Entombed Beneath The Sands' as they can create all manner of havoc for the enemy, from being a nuisance (Tomb Swarms) to warmachine and wizard killers (Prince Apophas and everyone else with that rule). And more so against the VC and other TK, as the Scorpions, Knights and Stalkers can savage their vital support units and those wizards hiding in the rear. Next is shooting. Now most will point out that the TK aren't all that special when it comes to shooting but they have several things in their favor. They have a number of units that can shoot or be upgraded to shoot, and none of them can ever suffer a negative (or positive) modifier for shooting. And shooting also ties into flanking as the more enemies within a unit you take down before they can reach your units the better you'll fare in CC. Finally, there is magic. By their very nature, TK are a magical army. They need magic to keep their army together, to replenish their losses (which they suffer more of because of the Unstable rule) and to make their weaker units tougher and stronger. Regardless of what your opponent's magic and wizards, _always_ take a minimum of two Liches (or a Liche and either Settra or Arkhan) to cover your magic. Beyond Liches, both the Hierotitan and the Casket of Souls are great choices to both boost your magic and have some specific magic attackers in your army.

These are basics of using the Tomb Kings effectively. There is more to them but mastering these will give you a strong base to work with.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

Really beating VCs with any army is all about killing the characters. The troops won't go anywhere. 

Its tough to kill vamps but when they fall so does the army, focus on killing the character units with shooting magic flanking and a large infantry block.

The toughest khremi monsters the necrosphinx and the other one do well against them, as long as their not flanked by wraiths or blood knights.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Just be aware that going after characters may not be as easy as you think.

Some VC characters are the rival of Chaos Lords in CC, and Caster-Vampire lords are easily better casters.

You don't really have much that will combat a Grave-star either. Your own Tomb-star is the only counter...

If he know's you're taking a Necrom Sphinx, expect a very very very angry Vampire Lord who's nigh unkillable to be after it. Killing Blow? The VC have a VERY cheap item that ignores Both Killing Blow and Poisoned attacks.


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Orochi said:


> Just be aware that going after characters may not be as easy as you think.
> 
> Some VC characters are the rival of Chaos Lords in CC, and Caster-Vampire lords are easily better casters.


Why do it in combat? TK have access to Lore of Death... It's really not hard to get a hold of two of the three sniper spells even with a level 2 caster. Since you ignore armour with all those attacks, the vampire's only getting a ward save, which he will begin to fail once you force those wounds on him. That''l quite easily take care of CC lords, and caster lords can be taken out in combat by a lot of things.


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## ultor (Dec 6, 2010)

It's quite hard to snipe a vampire lord with death lore:
1) Spirit leach is not very good as lord is LD10
2) The Caress of Laniph is not very effective as 2d6-5 hits with 4+ to wound. (also add ward save to the top.)
3)The Fate of Bjuna also not very effective 2d6-5 hits with 2+ to wound. (also add ward save to the top.) (and T can go up to 6 which means 1 less hit)

Sad thing is the range is quite short for these spells , the opponent will stop at least one of them (if you can roll all three, you still have a chance) and if you can't kill him well he will heal self in his magic phase.

While fighting against VC, TK player can nuke a single unit better then what VC player can do. Concentrate on a single unit at a time and lock the battle with his deathstar as long as you can.


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## Atreyu (May 30, 2011)

> If he know's you're taking a Necrom Sphinx, expect a very very very angry Vampire Lord who's nigh unkillable to be after it. Killing Blow? The VC have a VERY cheap item that ignores Both Killing Blow and Poisoned attacks.


The Necrosphinx is a threat but its not exactly worth paying 225 for that one job.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Neither is it worth giving up Dual Caskets and a Hierotitan for.

Try this for consideration;

Death Mask Tomb King, 2x Casket of Souls. Targetting Ghouls, you're making them take a 2 Ld Tests on a 3D6 at their base Leadership and with no BSB reroll, and then continue to bounce the spells around. You also get +D3 Power Dice to cast spells with.

Also, why Lore of Death? Lore of Light, although you cannot snipe, you can easily put out (at 2.4K) a S7 Banishment (3D6 hits) and a total of 7 Shem's Burning Gaze (2D6 S4 Hits). 

For the Tomb Guard Death Star - a Necrotect, King with Fencers Blades, a Herald, and you've got a WS10 Reroll to hit deathstar, the king with a special *ignore one wound a phase* (so no cannon snipe). Throw in Djaf's and Ptra's Augments, and you've got 2 Attack S5 Tomb Guard with 5+ Killing Blow, WS10, rerolls to hit. Stack on Razor Standard for AP to ignore Grave Guard with shields Armour, and possibly Timewarp (ASF and +1 Attack).

So, in total, with all those stacking on;

You've got 3 Attack ASF S5 Reroll to hit WS10 5+ Killing Blow Tomb Guard. With enough magical support, you can possibly stack on -1 to hit, movement, and healing.


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Vaz said:


> Also, why Lore of Death? Lore of Light, although you cannot snipe, you can easily put out (at 2.4K) a S7 Banishment (3D6 hits) and a total of 7 Shem's Burning Gaze (2D6 S4 Hits).


I'm talking about general methods to pick out a vampire to force crumbling. I fully agree with lore of light in TAC lists (although they have to have Nehekhara on their biggest spellcaster, don't they? Oh well, that's good too!).


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## experiment 626 (Apr 26, 2007)

This was nasty, and caught the few remaining local VC players off guard fairly well;
- King w/chariot, fail, deathmask, helm of discord, dragonbane gem.
- 7 chariots w/banner of eternal flame.
All that S5 flaming impact hit goodness simply decimated the grave guard, then the wight king BSB pooched his Ld test and was munched by the king...

Gravestar's are only scary if you're silly enough to leave your burny attacks at home... T4/5+ saves fall apart without their regen.


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