# Tomb King Heavy Horsemen



## Tor_Anloc (Mar 14, 2012)

So I was reading through articles on Tomb Kings and notice that very very few players include Horsemen (those that include mounted skele's tend to use Horse Archers) while I do not want a undead Bretonnian force I do like the idea of a largish unit (14) plus a cheap character such as a Herald with the Mask off Eeee! to get some terrifying charges off. 

I like the idea of my heavy horse causing terror plus there is the chance of the enemy being WS1 if they fail the fear test (if I remember to make them take it) considering re rolls and leadership bubbles this may not always work. 

I was also considering a Light Priest for WS10, I10 horsemen on the charge which could cause havoc if I roll well and correctly select my target unit

What are your thoughts on this heretics?


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

My main problem with this is your inability to march. Your Vanguard move will take you out of buff range and you can only move 8 inches a turn after that. Your 14 Skeletal Horsemen with Light Armour, FC and a Tomb Herald with the Terrifying Mask of EEEE(whose the only character than can join them really other than a Liche Priest) costs 328 points. Which for a unit of 1A WS 2 guys is kinda weak, when you consider 250pts would buy you 5 Blood Knights which would vaporise your unit in a turn. 

I've been trying to work out how to use these guys for a friend of mine who plays Tomb Kings and I think it's tough. Tomb Kings is a very self supporting army of buff and bubbles, riding out of the bubble is rarely good. I'm not saying they don't have a use, but I think they are hard to use well, I suggest just trying them out for a few games.


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## Lord Azune (Nov 12, 2011)

The only way to truly include them is with Settra to boost their WS above suckage. That way you can flank to the side, have Settra charge straight in and have the horsies sweep across from the flank.
The light priest is a good idea but you're spending 2d6 magic dice (at minimum) for the hope to make them worthwhile. On top of that, if you're spending more than a level 1 liche priest on it, you're basically sacrificing a wizard and thus all the points you put into that. The unit is subpar for what its points are, which is why no one really uses them. If we could give them better armor, maybe they'd be worth something. Or if you were to cast a boosted Neru's Incant of Prot.


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## Akatsuki13 (May 9, 2010)

It all depends on the kind of army you wish to field. Some TK army types favor the use of Horsemen, others do not. I myself favor a Hammer and Sickle type army where I have a use for Horsemen on the flank of my army with my chariots. You see with my army I divide it into two groups, the Sickle which is entirely chariots and Horsemen with a mounted Liche for buffs and heals (and in larger army lists a chariot Prince) while the Hammer consists of all my other units, infantry, constructs and warmachines. The Sickle is deployed in a line off to the side of the Hammer and they advance together into the enemy. Once I begin to reach the enemy the Sickle swings around into the enemy's side while the Hammer grinds into them head on. In particular I try to either pin Hordes or heavyhitters on two sides or to divide their forces in the face of my Hammer and Sickle so they can't bring everything to bear against one first.


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## Skari (Dec 20, 2011)

I personally feel like that can work. They are decent at flanking infantry formations to negate ranks by disruption. Of course its all about picking your targets... I really like this sort of unit to hunt down pesky light troops and then mop up towards the main line. Buffing them is always a very important part of the game... Another way to use them would be as redirecters, small cheap units of 5 of them work great to vanguard up and get into position to die. (again) hehe.


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## Lord Azune (Nov 12, 2011)

I'm not big on sacrificial units unless they actually hold the enemy up for more than a turn, a small unit of 5 is unlikely to live past the initial assault and thus wind up doing.... nothing but provide the enemy with points.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Units of 5 horsemen to vanguard forwards and die are surely the horse archers rather then the heavy horse


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Ratvan said:


> Units of 5 horsemen to vanguard forwards and die are surely the horse archers rather then the heavy horse


Horse Archers don't have Vanguard


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Do the 'normal' horsemen have vanguard?


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Ratvan said:


> Do the 'normal' horsemen have vanguard?


Yes, Skeletal Horsemen have Vanguard, even if you give them Light Armour. Horse Archers have Fast Cav and Scouts.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I'll have to have a word with my opponant in that case


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Ratvan said:


> I'll have to have a word with my opponant in that case


Ignore me I'm a spaz. Of course the Horse Archers have Vanguard as they are Fast Cavalry but I never think they do as they have Scouts and you can't Vanguard within 12" on an enemy. It's just more worthwhile to Vangaurd move the Horsemen.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I'll put it down to you having an off day, good job I didn't leave a voicemail could have been slightly embarressing


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## misfratz (Feb 9, 2012)

Aramoro said:


> Your 14 Skeletal Horsemen with Light Armour, FC and a Tomb Herald with the Terrifying Mask of EEEE(whose the only character than can join them really other than a Liche Priest) costs 328 points. Which for a unit of 1A WS 2 guys is kinda weak, when you consider 250pts would buy you 5 Blood Knights which would vaporise your unit in a turn.


More pertinently, I think you can get almost 6 Tomb King Chariots for the same cost as 14 Horsemen + Tomb Herald + Mask.

I know which I'd be more worried about facing when I was playing against Tomb Kings.

I'd have thought that, regretfully, Horsemen would be more useful in minimum sized units. They're not particularly threatening, and they can't shoot arrows like the horse archers, but if you do want to charge something with them then the bonus from the spears at least gives you a chance of it not being entirely pointless. And five of them is pretty cheap.


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