20 Games with Tomb Kings: Tournament!

Ok, so first things first. My list. The tournament had a 3 colour minimum and this shaped my list, due to the time I had to paint things up and what I already had painted. I also made some last minute changes that in the end I regretted, but this will become more apparent as we move along.

2200pts:
Lords/Heroes:

Tomb King- GOlden Mask, Armour of FOrtune, GW, Shield, Dragonbane

Liche Priest (hiero) Lv 2 Talisman of Preservation
Liche Priest (tk lore) Lv 2 Scroll, Ironcurse

Prince GW, Shield (yes i know the shields are redundant, but I needed sorta WYSIWYG), Armour of Destiny

Herald BSB Flaming Banner (the odd one out, I was sure that we would play a kill the BSB scenario... but we did not... so points wasted)

Core:

41 Skeletons, HW/Sh Full Command

2 x 10 Archers with mus.

3 Chariots mus

5 Light Horse

29 Tomb Guard FC

3 Carrion

Screaming Skull

Colossus with xtra HW

Casket


I was confident that it was an ok list, and I was able to give battle to some very competitive builds. My lack of experience and generalship did show at times, but all this will come with time. After the games and considering my list a few things did become very apparent:
- Small archer units are useless if the enemy shoots at them at all... as soon as they drop below 5 your priests are in danger!... never leave home in a unit of less that 15-20.
- I needed a third "block"... in most games my opponents out blocked me and were able to dictate the pace of the game, having a second horde of skellies would have given me more field control, this is reflected in my 2500pt list.
- I missed my level 4! 2 level 2's were great... but to reliably get off any of the un-boosted spells I was having to roll 3 dice. With a lv4 you can get away with 2 dice, increasing the number of spells to cast.
- Casket was awesome, every... single... game!
- Horse archers were awesome!... need to take 10 so that they can hold their own in the backfield.
- Tomb Guard need the BoUL!... they tend to get into combats away from the spell bubbles. Sometimes you just need some dedicated raising on them, during the tournament this would have helped a lot against a few of my opponents!

Anyway this is just a tidbit to get you going. And here is an army picture, the display board is not mine, just something that I used for the day because mine is not finished yet.




Cheers!

20 Games with Tomb Kings vs Goblins

[I]The skaven horde had been vanquished. The legion did not stay still for long, not needing the sustenance or rest like a mortal force they were a swift and relentless machine. The liche priests had informed the king of a Goblin lord that had stolen one of the sacred scrolls of the Tomb of Ankhara.
The legion was advancing into the mountains. As the legion advanced in the night the goblin drums bellowed in the deep.[/I]

So, had yet another game this one was saturday night, and happened from about 12-3 am... so we were getting through the game and not really worrying about pictures and stuff, as such I will keep it short and sweet. So, I played the same O&G general in the 2nd game of my prologue series. This rematch saw him not forgetting most of his models and he was now ready to take me on, being more knowledgeable about his army and the capabilities of mine.

His list:
Black Ork Warboss
Lv 4 Night Gobbo Shaman
Gob lord with a GW and 2+ AS?

Gob hero BSB
Lv 2 NG shaman

40 Goblin Spears
20 Goblin Archers
15 Spider Riders FC
25? Black Orks FC

4 Stone Trolls

Anyway, his list had some hard hitters and he seemed confident.
We played the "Battle for the pass" mission. This was the list I took:
HLP lv 4, cloak and endurance

Prince Glitterman
Prince MightSword

39 Skeleton Warriors FC
10 Archers Mus
3 Chariots

20 TG, FC BOUL

SSC
Casket

So, I deployed my TG facing his Nigh gobbo block (no fanatics...?) My horde vs his black orks.
The chariots against the gobbo bows.

I got turn 1 and moved the skellies up and angled them to present the black ork flank if charged, I had taken the number 6 spell on my hiero and was hoping to get it off on the gobbo unit... lo and behold there are 2 ways that this spell can go wrong, if you miscast, and then if you roll problems on the distance to multiply... I found this out the hard way as I got the spell off, and then rolled problems! and my HLP blew up 8 archers... From then on the game went down hill for my opponent... his trolls were on the far far flank... and the game happened on the other side of the battle field. The chariots ran down the 20 gobbos + lv 2 with ease. The TG were the men of the match taking on the black orks, the goblins and the spider riders... THat WS 5 on them has been awesome over, and over and over again.

Anyway:

Tactical review:
- I did not like the fact that the skullstorm will kill a lot of my models with a miscast (explosion) and then if I get problems then on that as well... too many ifs. Once again I failed to take the movement spell and regretted it... Note to self, always take the movement spell!
- I did not like the 10 Archers... 20 seems to be a minimum for me.
- The BOUL was gimikky, yes, it is very nice and has a good chance to res stuff back but, it does not get a bonus from a level caster and if you rely on it the enemy will dispel it unless you roll a crazy number of dice at it... then again, it pays for itself with one average roll... so.
- I am finding that being agressive with the TK works well, gives my opponent less time to think, entices them to charge in and make mistakes and then hopefully war of attrition. THe faster it can start the better, because my stuff comes back. :D

[I] A dim red glow emanated from the scroll of Hexing. It seemed the goblins had attempted to break the seals of protection and binding to reach the knowledge inside. The High Liche Priest slowly bent down to retrieve it from the small slimy goblin fingers that clutched it tightly. What could have passed for a smile left the Priests face; it was only a matter of time now.[/I]
-----------

And yet again another game this week! First game against the High Elves, it was only at 2000pts against a new general, but I did take pictures. In this game I got to see the potential damage of a unit of 3 chariots, as it wrecked face.

Cheers! - Stay tuned.

Da Wulf Boyz

"There are no wolves on Fenris..."

Or so the now famous quote goes. However there are some here...well not really wolves but Da Wulf Boyz version of them.

This will be a small update for some small additions to the army.

Here I present my Counts as Fenrisian Wolves. Or as Da Wulf Boyz call dem...Da Attack Squigs!

You can run Fenrisian Wolves in packs in the Space Wolf Codex as well as use them as a wargear upgrade for models like your Wolf Lord. I don't have enough to run a pack yet but I have enough to be pack mates to my Lord on Thunderwolf.

20 Games with Tomb Kings: Game 1.5 Batrep

Fellow travelers of the blistering desert. I have swindled for too long and it is time for the battle report (almost a week late, sorry). 2K points of the Legion faced off against 2K of vermin tide.

[I]After taking the watchtower in the north reports of a tide of vermin sacking sacred shrines and tombs reached the ears of the tomb King. Without a word a detachment of the full army advanced to engage the horde, the aim to break their determination and send them scurrying back to their stinking holes.[/I]

So, mission Blood and Glory. His fortitude was 5, general, BSB 2 units of clanrats, mine was 5 as well, Skelly horde, tomb guard, chariots and general.
We also agreed to continue to play even if the army broke (this is in line with a few tournaments in the area, than count the fortitude objective as "primary" and then count up VP's as usual for secondary objective).

His list was something like this:

Lv 4 Grey Seer Feedback Scroll

BSB
PlagueMonk (lv 2)
Engineer- Doom missile

50 Slaves FC
50 Slaves FC
49 Clanrats, HW, Sh FC - Wind Mortar
49 Clanrats, HW, Sh FC - Flamer team

6 Gutter Runners poison slings, ambush upgrade?

DoomWheel
Hellpit

My list:

40 Skellies and Glittering Prince

30 Tomb Guard (BoUL) and King with Deathmask

3 Chariots with flaming banner

15 archers as bunker

5 Horse Archers

HLP with cloak and ward

Casket
Catapult
Colossus

So, I will keep it short and sweet, to illustrate my deployment:

DoomWheel-Slaves-Clanrats-Clanrats-Slaves-HPA

No mans land
Horse Archers (scouted)
Horde Skellies-BG-Tomb Guard
------------------------Archers Chariots
Catapult Casket

He got first turn, and moved up aggressively. Magic did nothing (he did not get skitterleap although he did get cracks call)

My line moved up, the chariots put one wound on the HPA with their flaming arrows :D.

His second turn saw the Poison mortar hit the skeleton horde and kill 10 or 11 of them. I dispelled cracks call... thank goodness (my colossus was scared, very scared)
My second turn I charged the slaves on the far corner with the TG and he held... the colossus also charged in and he held as well. The engineer in the slave unit then stand and shot with his rocket... and killed about 16 tomb guard! He landed the rocked bang on target.. nasty.
Then in my magic I banner of undying legion back 8 tomb guard :D. And the entire slave unit was eliminated. The casket zapped the doomwheel and took 4 or 5 wounds off it. (it had one left) The TG reformed to face the HPA and the giant faced the clanrats in the center.

His turn, the HPA charged the TG. The seer left his unit and cracks called my colossus into the ground, the wind mortar killed itself and the doomwheel finally got a hold of the horse archers and wiped them out. The other clanrats and slaves manouvered around a dangerous hill in the center. (see pic in below post). The HPA then epically failed in close combat... this was the definate turning point in the game as it failed each and every save... and allowed my TG to face off against some clanrats.

The skeleton horde charged the clanrats in the center and so did the TG and failed to run them down but did win combat. Then in his following turn the last unit of clanrats charged into the skellies, he death frenzied them and wiped the skeletons in one round of combat ! ( I had taken quite number of casualties and he rolled very hot). Then the TG ran in and wiped out the unit that had BSB in it. And the catapult had fired at the slaves on the far left and killed one, and forced them to panic.
His gutter runners had shown up and died when the casket exploded.

Then I had to go home... So we called it a game, the Tomb Kings were in a very strong position and won the game!

So, now onto the mandatory tactics and review section:

Once again the horde skellies were fantastic.
Death Mask is king(and found on a king, imagine that!)
Must take secondary caster with scroll, sometimes you have to stop a big spell!
Casket and HLP are mainstays always I would drop the king before I drop my LV 4.
Chariots with flaming banner, good.
The colossus is still the odd man out, he should really be a hierotitan, I promise I will play him soon.

Anyway Cheers!

[I]The King looked up from his last kill to see the enemy verming fleeing. Their determination and resolve broken, their squeals of terror and pain. The King recalled the smells of battle and for a short moment thought of better times. "Enough recollections" he thought "It is time to move on". As one, the legion halted; the battle had been won and their never ending journey would continue.[/I]


And on another note for you eager readers I have played yet another side quest. 1500pts against the Orks and the Goblins! Stay tuned for a short report coming soon as I failed to take pictures, but I have a few tactical fruits to give out.

Cheers!

Da Wulf Boyz

Hey guys, again it has been a while. I have been plugging away at these guys as I go but rather then show you every single troop model I finish off I wanted to stick to showcasing stuff you haven't seen. So showing you another Wulf Boy Grey Hunter doesn't impress much.

So the next few projects you will probably see here are my Razorback which you'll see today and then my Rune Priest and Wolf Priest models will probably follow.

So getting on to it, here is Da Wulf Boyz Razorback or as I think I will call it Da Wulf Boyz Lazor-buggie.

So I'll talk you through each shot and some of the things I did to make this project diffrent then the Rhino but in some respects the same.



So in this first side shot we can see I again added the wheels in. However this time I used the smaller Trukk wheels on the front and the larger ones on the back, this dipped the front end down a bit which I thought looked cool. Again, cutting the Rhino model up to get the wheels in there isn't a fun task and I cringe each time I hack that much plastic out of one of these model kits. The end result looks great I think but I always worry I'll mess something up. I kept the theme from the Rhino by adding a few Ork glyphs on the sides as well the red and black pattern on the front and back matches the pattern on the shoulder pads of the squad that will ride in the Razorback. You can also see from this side the head of the Ork driver peeking out of the one hatch.



On this side I took a huge risk that I am very happy paid off rather then ruining the whole model. I actually hacked off the whole back exhaust pipe of the Rhino model. Now if you look at the Rhino model you'll note that this will leave a big hole in the side of it. So using plastic card and the whole exhaust pipe from the trukk I fit it to the side so it looks like an Ork Mek has replaced the Rhino exhaust with a new one and patched the Rhino up with some sheet steal. I added some little rivits to give it a more realistic look.



So from the front you can better see the Ork driver. As well you are able to see that this time I left both the Rhino headlights off but added a Space Marine Searchlight and Ork Trukk light on top so it can still have the 'Searchlight' wargear if I want it. I also again put the Stikkbomb launcha on the top to represent the Smoke Launchers. I also chopped up a Trukk side plate to create the added windshield to the front of this. As well where the lights would go I again added more Ork glyphs. As well I was able to kit bash the standard Razorback prow with the more Orky Trukk prow.



On the back I kept to the theme started by my Rhino conversion, I added another shield on the back to make it look like it is a clan or squad sign. Each shield is diffrent so it has that feel to it, being on the back (main) door.



The top view gives you a better feel for the look of the Lascannon turret on the top.



This shot is mainly to just show that the turret is an actual working turret that I am able to turn 360 degrees as well as if I need to I can even take it out if I want to represent a 'weapon destroyed' result.



And lastly a close up shot of the gunner just for show.

20 Games with Tomb Kings: Game 1.5 Pic

Although not a specific part of the journey a hero will always have side-quests... this time a 2K point game against a Skaven horde!
His List:
Lv 4 Grey Seer Feedback Scroll

BSB
PlagueMonk (lv 2)
Engineer- Doom missile

50 Slaves FC
50 Slaves FC
49 Clanrats, HW, Sh FC
49 Clanrats, HW, Sh FC

6 Gutter Runners poison slings

DoomWheel
Hellpit

Pic from the game, battlereport will be up soon. This picture was taken beggining of the skaven turn 2, my Tomb Guard and King with the giant had just eliminated a unit of slaves and faced off against the hellpit with the giant facing the grey seers unit (the giant ended up falling through a crack in the earths surface... and the TG then killed the hellpit)




Cheers!

20 Games with Tomb Kings: Game 1 Batrep

So, Game 1 in the series:

Win vs Warriors of Chaos 2200pts.
His list was not an ultra competitive list this is what he took:
Khorne lord on Jugger
3 units of 15 Tzeench warriors FC
2 Level 2's one with tzeench, one with death. Infernal Puppet (I did not like this thing).
4 units of Hounds, 5 strong
5 Khorne Knights (maybe chosen?)
Hellcannon

And now to the list that I have written up for the Journey of 20 games:

Tomb King, Golden Death Mask, Sword of Might, Dragonhelm, Shield, Seed of Rebirth

High Liche Priest- Level 4, Hierophant, Cloak of the dunes, talisman of preservation.

Tomb Prince- Glittering Scales, HW, Shield, Dragonbane Gem

Liche Priest lv 1, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon

40 Skeleton warriors, FC

20 Archers, Mus, Champ

3 Chariots, Mus, Standard, Banner of Flame

5 Horse Archers

23 Tomb Guard, BoUL, FC

3 Carrion

Colossus (really the concept should have this as a Hierotitan, but I want to make a model for it, same points cost)

1 SSC

Casket of souls!

Anyway some pics and the general overview of the game:
Deployment:


Tomb King Turn one:
- King and Guard charge into building. The 20 archers take out one unit of hounds on the far left, and cause panic on the 15 warriors beside them... who fail and run off the table taking the level 2 wizard with the scroll off the table :o.


WoC turn 1:
- He moves the hounds about to block lanes of advance, splits his lord from the knights as he is not getting a LOS roll from the catapult and he needs the knights to get into the midle. The hellcannon does 3 wounds on the giant.


TK Turn 2:
- The King and Guard assault the building once again, the unit inside fails their terror test, because they are in a building they count as having failed their fear test. The carrion fly in front of the jugger lord to direct him away from the battle (as frenzied units must overrun). The giant charges the hounds in front of him, they fail terror and run, magically I move the giant into a better position for next turn, he gains a wound back. My prince and skellies charged into more hounds right in front of them and killed them in cc, making sure they withheld pursuit so that the knights only had a front charge. My HLP irresitibles a boosted smiting spell, giving everyone with 24" more shots and attacks. He miscasts and rolls an 8, not bad, but the enemy wizard used the puppet to up the value to a 10... this meant that now my wizard would loose 2 levels of magic and 2 spells (including the one I had just cast)... nasty.

TK turn 2 cont:
The King and TGuard storm the building, the enemy fled and the they took possession of the tower.


WoC Turn 2:
- The lord charged the carrion, murdered them and overran over towards the far right of the table away from the actual fight. The knights charged into the skelly block and killed about 13 with crumble loosing none in return. The hellcannon took a wound off a chariot after scattering off the giant. Other units rallied.

TK Turn 3:
- The giant charged the far unit in the backfield with the other sorceror they failed terror and ran... he redirected against the closer unit together with the chariots, they passed and held their ground. The casket of souls used a lot of dice and zapped the jugger lord... for one dead jugger lord :o. The skelly combat was again stagnant, shooting saw some wounds off the hellcannon, and the giant and chariots smashed the unit of warriors and ran them down.


And lo and behold... the game was called. The time was up but the Tomb Kings were in firm control of the tower!

Tactical Review:
- My opponent was not running a super hard list and he is relatively new to fantasy so there were a lot of mistakes on his part, such as putting his general out on a flank. The hounds were more of a hamper than a bonus as they were easily shot down buy asp arrows and dealt with quickly in cc. The combat for the tower was quite something, the King with his Sword of Might turned the tide both times, one to tie the combat, the other to win it. The death mask was really nice and would have meant that even if his general was near the unit they would have suffered the same fate! I like it.
- The unit of 20 archers is a nice bunker for the HLP and provides a decent "just in case" unit. Although it seems that most armies are built around 3 larger blocks of fighters and then 1 supporting block. There was another TK player with a unit of 40 TG (no BOUL).
- I liked having the level 1 caster... he is nice and giving him the movement spell was not bad, luckily i rolled dobles for my HLP and was able to pick the ones I wanted.
- His army did not really have any shooting, and so I was unable to really see how my units did against them (especially the smaller units like carrion and the horse archers).
- The casket was awesome, and actually bounced this time.
- He got super unlucky with the first turn run away unit of warriors...

Anyway. On to game 2! (there is talk about changing the point value of the LGS league nights to 2500pts, more standard point value for tournaments IIRC?... so If this happens I will continue the synergy of this list, but I will have 300 more points to spend! yay for a better ward on my HLP :P.

Cheers!

20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica pt 3

So, games 3 and 4 of the Prologue series, and a discussion of the set list that I will be running for the 20 games:

Game 3 Was against Orks and Goblins:
His list;
Black Ork Special Character with about 30 black orks.
Large unit of double choppa orks (25?) BSB in here as well
40 or 50 Night gobbos with nets and fanatics with a NG lv 4 Shaman
10 arrer boyz.
2 units of 3 wolf chariots (str 5? wow)
1 Aracknoc spider

My list had changed a bit from my previous game and now included muscitians where needed, no ushabti a bone giant and a a prince instead of a king as well as LV 4 and that was it for magic. Cloak of dunes and ward for the hiero.

HLP Lv4 Hierophant. Cloak, Earthing Rod, Opal Amulet - 300pts

Prince Glittering Scales, DB Gem and HW, SH- 132pts

Prince Armour of Fortune and GW- 139pts

6 Horse Archers

50 HW/Sh Skellies with FC

20 Bows with FC

10 Bows with Mus

3 Chariots, Banner, Eternal Flame

23 Tomb Guard - FC, BoUL

2 Swarms

Colossus extra HW

2 x SSC

Casket

Total - 2200pts

So, mission saw dawn attack once again, this time he was heavy on my right with big spider, hero black ork bunker, chariots and gobbos in the center and the small unit of archers (that did not to anything all game so I wont mention them again) on the left field.

All in all I was doing very well starting turn 3, my BG had eliminated a unit of chariots and had then moved into contact with the Black orks, stalling them... the horse archers got in the way of the big spider to prevent it from getting involved int he middle of the battle, the chariots and HW/sh skellies had broken the unit of orks in the middle and then held up the gobbos with the shaman... it all came down to the shaman casting his big spell bosted, irresistibly and killing 15 of the tomb guard that were about to fight the big spider, and about 30 of the skeletons... neutering any advantage that I had until then, the spider stomped all over the remnants of the tomb guard and then ate the rest of my army... one unit of wolf chariots had busted through my line by hitting the 10 man archer unit and going into the backfield to take out my casket and both catapults over the course of the game.

What a great turn around. The hierophant was alive thanks to the cloak of dunes, but I did not have much else as the last of the skeletons crumbled due to combat resolution.

So things that I noted from this game:
- Need to have a dispel scroll in my army... it would not have helped against any double sixes, but just in case it would prevent something like this from happening again.
- I was happy with the performance of my army in general... the swarms never showed up and the 10 man archer unit was not needed or useful in this game. Both catapults were good but they failed to wound the big spider.. over and over and over again...

So, on to game 4 that happened right after this game. Played the same Lizard player that I had faced in game 2, except this time he took the tried and true Lore of Life for his Slaan.

We played blood and glory. He deployed slaan centraly flanked by both saurus squads, steg on one side within 12 of all block for the ward save... and skinks on one side and sallies and skinks on my right... here i scouted the fast cav to force his skinks away of the sallies from the main battle. I went first and just advanced as fast as I could up the table. Firing at skinks I killed 7 form the unit on my right and the SSC opened up on the steg but failed to kill it.

He advanced and dwellers my 40 skellies, I had deployed my hiero on the far right with the 20 man archer unit to prevent becalming at least for a little bit. With the cloak he was later able to move closer to buff my main units.... so the battle raged on, my TG smashed into the saurus warriors on my right of the slaan and made them run, I was unable to run them down... the skellies tied up the slaan TG unit and the BG charged into the other unit of saurus on the left... the catapults smashed the steg and killed it to prevent it from helping the saurus against the colossus. The scouting cav took care of the skinks in my turn and on my third turn saw a boosted smiting go off ( even with becalming on my hiero) that saw my 20 archers become 40, the scout cav come back to full strength and hence the salamanders pack was reduced to one salamander...

We had to call the game due to time but it had been going very well for me. A few things that I noticed:

- the colossus was awesome but I think the list would benefit more from a hierotitan, a lv 4 is hard to stop (with the casket bonus) and +d3 to his power of spells would mean a lot more.

- still missing the dispel scroll, a secondary caster for more support across the board... sometimes the movement spell would be awesome but people know this and they shut it down, having a second chance at it would be great!

Anyway, here ends the Prologue series, I have written up my list and will now begin this journey.

So, just came back from my latest game, Game 1 of the Journey... we dusty foot legions taking the great watchtower that leads to the passage to the north. Held by the barbarian warriors clad in steel and writhed in magical energies of chaos. (for those not into the narrative, played a game watchtower scenario against warriors of chaos, he started the game in the tower) And this time... have pictures. I hope to have it up later tonight.

Rules'n WIP- Pics Kings

So, the colossus rules have changed from the last book quite a lot. They are tougher (t6 now) but they have also taken a hit on their armour save (5+ rather than a 3+). This is mitigated by the overall point cut the old Giant was 220pts (wow) and the new one with the same load out is about 50pts cheaper. There are a few options for the colossus and one of them is a GW... although already at str 6 not a primary option, as for the extra HW an extra attack will always come in handy (no pun intended, hehe), the last option is the large Bow, this is effectively a bolt thrower that hits on an unmodified 5+ and it is not super cheap but its not out of this world expensive either. I will be working on a conversion for a giant with a huge bow, what is not to like about that? At least he can have a few turns of potentially doing something until he hits combat and when he does, he still has the assault rule and only one less attack. Oh well.
On another note here is the colossus with the extra work I did for him yesterday:
Cheers!

Skari

Tomb Kings - WIP

Here are a few pictures of the Tomb Kings that I have been working on today. The Liche priest o foot and below him the Colossus (previously bone giant) with double hand weapon. C&C welcome. :D




Cheers!

Skari

20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica pt 2

On to the second game of my Epilogue series:

2200pts vs Lizardmen.
His list was:
Slaan (all the good stuff) Lore of Light
20-30 Guard
2 units of 24 warriors, one with spears.
2 units of skirmishing blowpipe skinks
Steg engine of gods, skink priest.
unit of 3 salamanders.

It is a very hefty list, and a tried and true contender for 8th edition.

My list had changed and this is what I took:

Casquet- Always take the casquet...
unit of 5 Ushabti
3 Chariots
30 Tomb Guard with King
HLP
LP (death)
Prince
Light horse (bunker for HLP)
16 Archers
10 Archers
50 HW/Sh Skeletons
Skullypult

- The mission was dawn attack. And from the begginging I was on an off foot... 6 of my units all ended up on my left flank... the
casket, the skeletons, the tomb guard, the ushabti, unit of archers, the chariots and the HLP's bunker.

So, I was unable to finish this game but here is the list of things that I learned:
-Musicians are fantastic... and needed. I had so much stuff crammed in that flank and no music...so my chariots and ushabti were out of pisition in respect to the rest of his army... If you want to get out of a tight spot, use the horns!
- Large skeleton unit with the prince was amazing once again.
- The ushabti died, easily and it is hard to bring them back.
- The casket was really nice.
- The position I was put into at the start of the game really stunk.
- I felt like I did not need the secondary caster... although he did roll up purple sun the damned becalming was really preventing me from doing it effectively.

So, back to the drawing board, but I can see a pattern emerging. Skelly block + prince = awesome.

20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica Series

So, with the new book in my hands and a few games under my belt I have decided to go on a quest hoping to find the key to success with the new army book in 8th edition. I shall be taking you on a journey for 20 games at 2200pts I shall be reporting on the battles played with general comments on the outcome and performance of my army. It is widely accepted that at -least- 20 games with a certain army against a plethora of opponents will give you insight as to the ebb and flow of an army list. And hence I seek the wisdom of the priests and hope that you can join me on this quest. So, I ask you to gain inspiration from these tales of battle as well as offering your insight to the path ahead. At the end of these 20 games we shall have a better understanding of the Tomb Kings legions and how to use them with tactical and strategical efficiency in game.

Epilogue:
I shall discuss my preliminary games that I have had with the Kings army and what I have learned from these games. This will give us the basic core for what we are looking for in a 2200pt army.
I have had 4 games at this point value, and and 2 games at the 1500pt value, but this is not about the skirmish sized games, this is the tale of great battles.
vs Empire:
My opponents list consisted of about 1500pts sunk into one unit, this unit was a huge unit of empire knights (40) + 3 characters (BSB, Karl Franz and Priest). 3 Great Cannon a Mortar and a Steam Tank. The army I ran was a basic list that was similar to my other lists, just with a few perks from the new book since I had no idea about the new book and had made the list in the few minutes that I had had the book in my hands.
King with Tomb Guard. HLP lv 4, Lp lv2, big skeleton block with tomb prince, casquet of souls, one screaming skull, 10 Light horse, 2 units of 20 bowmen and a Colossus. I had really spent on the characters and did not have too many supporting units.

Things that I learned from this defeat:
- The Skeleton horde I had actually survived quite a while against the huge death star. The prince needed something to keep him alive for longer in combat. I got too carried away and charged the tomb guard into the front of the horde of horsemen thinking that the skellies would loose soon, but I would have had time to flank the horde and in the long run that would have been better.
- I had taken WAY too many spell levels and bound items. Ruby Ring, Casquet, level 4, Level 2, Banner of Undying Legion... even with the casquet bonus I was finding it hard to use all the tools at my disposal.
- The bone giant died to mass cannon fire... so he did not have too good of a showing, the screaming skull did 6 wounds onto the steam tank turn 1... that was really nice. Maybe wanted to get a second one for anti monster shooting?
- The casquet was nice, but my opponent kept enough dice arround to always dispel it... Talking about magic... we totally played the Lore of Nehek all wrong, and were treating the augment spells as RIP spells... so during his magic phase he was dispelling them and I was loosing the bonuses that I had (KB, extra attack, ward.. etc)... Never again!
- The light horse... awesome. As soon as I saw that they had scout I was drawn to them... I always liked them before (as bunkers for my LP) but scout and cheaper makes them even better... the 10 took out all the warmachines. Totally worth it they had to stay in some shape or form.

This was the first game that I had had with the new book and the lessons that I learned I took back to the drawing table. For my second game I faced off against a lizardmen player. In my next post I shall explore the changes that I had made to the list and the situations that I found myself in during the game.

Keep posted for more content.