# Building Efficient Tomb King Characters and Armies



## Shadow Hawk (Apr 26, 2009)

Now, I'm not a skilled Tomb King player but I am quite good at reckoning things in my head. So I decided to make a guide for building Tomb King characters. This guide may also work for other armies too.

*Characters*
I was recently listening to something that said Warhammer Fantasy characters are better designed to do one thing, rather than many others. 'Better to be a master of one trade than a jack of all of them.'
I have seen many builds where the Tomb King especially has been built as a jack of all trades. Combat/Defensive, or Defensive/Anti Magic etc. These could work, but most of the time they don't. So, what makes a good character? Well, a consistent theme and choices that work together. A good combat King would look something like this:

Tomb King
Spear of Antarhak
Golden Ankhra
Cloak of the Dunes
Light Armour
Shield

The light armour and shield aren't necessary, but add that bit of extra protection and it's only 6 points more.
So, what we have is a Character that causes fear with a 5+/4+ save that can regenerate wounds by killing people and pursue 3D6. Killy? Yes. The only problem is his lack of SCR.
Causing fear and being able to pursue 3D6 is always a good thing, making them run if they lose then running after them 3D6 instead of the regular D6. You're pretty much guaranteed to catch them. 
The Spear of Antarhak is good. You could walk into a combat with 2 wounds and come back out with 4. If by some insane luck you strike against someone at the same time and you die, but manage to get 4 wounds you will come back alive. You could call this guy more of an endurance killer. It is good because the combos work well, but it is not totally focussed on one thing.

Tomb King
Destroyer of Eternities
Cloak of the Dunes

This is a purer combat King. His weapon is much greater and more likely to kill people but he is vunrable, with no armour save at all. The cloak of dunes could be substituted for the Collar of Shapesh and put in a unit of Tomb Guard, instead of a champion. This means everyone still has killing blow but the King gets a 4+ 'Look out, Sir' roll that can be used in combat. 

Chariot Builds are mostly used in Tomb King armies, because of their abilities to have chariot units. Here is an example of a chariot build:

Tomb King
Chariot
Golden Eye of Rah-Nutt
Icon of Rulership
Flail of Skulls

We also put him in a unit of usually 3/4 Chariots. In bigger games, maybe a unit of 5/6 or in huge games, why not 11/12? These are really just bunkers but the unit of 12 can be particularly nasty, especially because of their 36 wounds, unit strength of 38 and potential 84 attacks. This is very expensive though and would at minimum cost 785 pts. So you can see why the standard is usually 3 chariot unit. Tomb King/Princes on chariots seem to be quite competitive.

I'm not really gonna cover Tomb Princes unless someone requests, then I'll do it, I just don't really think they're very important (Unless of course you're playing less than 2000 points, where it necessary). They don't have much flexibility seeing as they can only take 50 points of magic items. It is probably best to just give them a great weapon and Armour of the Ages or Scorpion Armour.

Liche Priests are necessary. In every Tomb King army you must take one Tomb King/Prince to be the general, and one Liche Priest/Liche High Priest. So how to configure? Well, like the Tomb King, there are many different ways.

Liche Priest
Hieratic Jar
Brooch of the Great Desert

Not much. That's pretty much all he can take. I can't see any difference between the dispel scroll and brooch, but the brooch is an enchanted item. I decided to take that on 'cause it sounds cool. You could just take the dispel scroll, it just does the same.

Liche High Priest
Skeletal Steed
Staff of Mastery
Golden Ankhra

Hell, if I'm spending over 200 points on one model, I'm maxing it out. Not a very good combo, but ya can't get much anyways. Focussed around magic and defense. It just boosts magic and helps the expensive guy not die. Put him in a unit of Heavy Horsemen (Possibly the worst unit in the game) and ride him around town.

There isn't much you can do to make a good magic priest that won't die on the first turn.

There is the Casket of Souls, the big daddy. Expensive and takes up a rare slot. I'm not sure if you can still take magic items, so I'll go over what might go well later.
The Casket of Souls is feared for some reason I don't quite know why. The Light of Death is good, but I'm sure it'll be the first thing people try to dispel. Spirit Souls is certainly handy, but I'm not sure on it. The casket itself will be the target of many warmachines in the first roung, It won't last very long. I wouldn't take it, but I haven't fielded it so I don't know what it's like in practice. If anyone would like to give me a heads up, thanks.

So that pretty much concludes the Character section, I won't mention the named characters. 



*Army*
Having a coherent army is just as important as having a good general. Everything has to go well together, play the army to it's strengths. I'm trying not to make this into a review of each unit but how the army should work well together.
Khalida's arrows as I like to call it, is one of the most competitive armies of the Tomb Kings. It relies on massed archers with some other backup units, usually with bows as well. You pay a few points extra per model and all arrows become poisoned. Usually in these lists there are hundreds of arrows. Take a few Liche Priests and cast righteous smiting on your units most in need or ones most likely to do some necessary damage. You could probably get 200 archers in 2500 and still have room for other units.
Chariot armies are fairly competitive. They usually consist of one Tomb King on chariot and the rest of the army is large units of chariots backed up by a SSC or something else. Fast and furious and hard hitting. The whole army works together well and is fairly scary. Settra can be substituted for both the Tomb King and any Liche Priests, making the army huge and ridiculously expensive but amazing. His version of 'My Will Be Done!' is amazing for all chariot armies.
Combat heavy armies are rarely seen, maybe because of the TK's crappy combat skill. A Melee King and lots of shield+spear Skellies with some Tomb Guard. Carrion and Tomb Scorpions might find their way into there too.

In the end, different combinations work well. It's really just about getting the right balance. Write out say, a pure melee list and play it a few times, keeping a complete record of the game. Play against different armies each time and see where the list and you went wrong. Make some changes and play again. Keep repeating this until you get a great list that works well consistently against many armies and various play styles. Don't be afraid to set yourself challenges. Can I wipe out a 1500 point army with a 1000 point army? You will eventually become a better gamer and write better army lists.

I'm not saying everything on here works. It should just be a starting point for you to develop your own armies.

Any questions/requests/corrections/opinions just ask! I will be glad to help. I hope this was an insightful read and there might be more soon :grin:.


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## matty570 (Jun 14, 2007)

Nice post, one thing I would point out is that since you need to keep your hierophant alive should look at gear that helps, a friend of mine who plays TK never has his phant without cloak of the dunes to keep him out of trouble. Bear in mind that most of the TK spells dont need line of sight you can keep him in/behind cover and still get the full effect from spells. Can be very handy indeed.

TK wise he has always taken him light on points but with one or 2 magic items, I think he usually upgrades the chariot some how and gives him the flail. He is purely used for warmachine, skirmisher, fast cavalry hunting.

I think his preists are usually kept low on points as well, one with 2 scrolls and one with a staff that does dx something hits on the unit.

Just an observation from playing him. Personally, when it comes to character builds there are some items/combinations that are better than others, however, just go with how you'd like to theme it.

For example I take the popemobile in my empire army taking AOMI and the mace of helstrum whereas most people rave about the combination of using the mirror.


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## Tha Tall One (Aug 16, 2008)

Very good post, I'll be picking up my TK's again when then are redone. 

But I believe the Liche High Priest cannot take the Shield of Ptra, as Liche Priests (and all wizards for that matter*) may not wear any armour.
(* there are of course exceptions to this rule, ie Chaos Sorcerer.)


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## Mitchy (Apr 19, 2009)

i gotta give this link to my buddy, he just started playing Tomb Kings, and this thread would be really helpful

+rep


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## Tombking (Jan 5, 2010)

Nice post, good to see a new take on TK characters (for me anyway)

Have to say that the army hierophant be it Liche or high Liche should have the cloak of the dunes - you cant use its fly move to charge into combat (see cloak rules) so its primarily used to manoeuvre your primary caster into effective range of the TK's short range incantations. 

the only time I play a tomb king on foot is to give him the destroyer of eternity’s, in my mind the best magic item in the game  and stuff him in with a bunch of skeles. tomb guard can hold there own in combat and need the help less. 

I like to use a tomb prince with great wep or flail in the same manner for combat resolution boost for skeles - they are also amazing in a game of siege.

When planning a tomb king army you have to take into consideration the strict casting order. bound items - my will be done then incantations. it makes your magic phase predictable and this can play to your advantage in several ways. 

always have Banner of the undying legion if you can - I put this on a threatening unit like chariots, its so much better to gain a chariot back than d6 crumbly skellies and it meant you opponent will want to dispel it when he realises. Well as this is always cast first he’s gota either let your indestructible chariot unit eat his flanks or waste at least 3 dispel dice to get rid of it . This frees up the rest of the magic phase for your Liche priests to dominate the game. 

Secondly and this being the point, always if you can take hieratic jar for your flying hierophant. your opponent will get used to your casting cycle through the game and this is an ace up your sleeve when he’s not expecting it. 

I could go on all day – hope this helps
Sol


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## Shadow Hawk (Apr 26, 2009)

I don't like DoE at all. 70 points for a great weapon with killing blow? No thanks.
Cloak of Dunes on Liche Priests are very helpful, I can't believe I didn't include that.
Banner of the Undying Legion is awesome, especially for huge squads of maxed out Skellies or Tomb Guard, I never use it on chariots because of the chariots 3 wounds so if you want to raise a full one you need a 5 or 6 and you can't raise any more than one. Also, Skellies get 2D6 wounds back, so potentially 12. 1 chariot costs 40 points base, 12 skellies costs 96 points base. Only 1 dispel dice is needed to dispel Banner of the Undying Legion, it has a power level of 3, which is pretty bad. But I agree, it is pretty awesome.

I might do some more Tomb King tactics, working my way through each unit. Look out for them!


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## Tombking (Jan 5, 2010)

invocation of summoning only res max 6 skellies but you roll 2d6 an take the highest? I have to agree i always used to place undying legion on skelies but im usualy close enought to cast it anyway as tks units tend to stick together as they aint to fast. Puting it on chariots negates the range factor and a charriot is awesome as aposed to 1D6 skelies - if it were 2D6 it would be another matter  

DoE is pricy but it auto hits twice on each adjacent modle (max 3 usualy) wit st7 and killing blow plus hits charriots and mounts as well as ther charactor so any chariot dies on a 4+ wit two dice and you auto hit monsters and characters wit st7! Its awesome choppy death to all  and lets you snipe in squads as it hits in base to base not randomised i love it soooo much 

tombking tactica would be good ill join you on that one


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