So, as a part of my 20 Games, Journey to perfection (Main Blog Found Here:http://tomb-kings.net/index.php?showtopic=7838&st=125)
Anyway, I believe that sharing a tactical blerb on the different units that I have used will be useful for you, the aspirant Tomb King to take and use in your own games wherever it may be that you are.
I have played over 35 games with the current book since before it hit the shelves and although this does by no means make me an "expert" I would say that its not that bad :P. Although I have all this experience it is not at a hardcore tournament level. I have only gone to one tournament with my Tomb Kings and was quickly placed out of the running. But I do hope to make the next one and put into practice what I have learned since then.
So, without further rambling here is the tactical article. I will be focusing on the regular non special character lord choices that are available to the Khemrian Legions: the Tomb King and the High Liche Priest. Both these characters are very similar to their counterparts in the other races (fighty character and spellcaster).
I will begin with the High Liche Priest:
A tomb king army must include a Hierophant. This is the highest level caster that knows the Lore of Nehekhara. What better than a Level 3(upgreadable to a level4) character? The nehekaran lore is quite useful to the army as a whole, the buffs really make the skeletons scary and the hexes also make the skeletons scary or neuter enemy scary units. Having 4 spells is usually not bad. In my recent lists (from 1500-2500) I usually just run the one High Liche Priest with level 4. Thats it.
Gear: If I give the hierophant gear it is usually an earthing rod, and thats it. The more I play the more I found that sometimes you really just want to boost a spell, and darn the consequences the earthing rod means that you are a lot less likely to loose your main caster (and start crumbling) due to a warp rift. It also mitigated the potential damage done by a WoC army with a puppet.
But why no more? No ward save? - I used to run with the 4+ ward... but TBH the Hierophant will usually die to something that allows no save... like a purple sun, or a dwellers below, or a pit of shades. If your opponent wants your hierophant to die he just have to try and no ammount of ward save is going to help. The 6+ regen to the unit and the hiero can sometimes really come in handy.
Mounts: I am a bog fan of keeping things cheap. I do not like putting the HLP on a steed (or on a carpet or cloak) I find this makes the unit that he is with a lot slower and not as useful. The best bunker that I have found for the HLP is a unit of 20-30 skeleton bowmen with a musician and a champion (to save the hiero from a nasty character once in a while) the unit is usually enough to take some punishment and not as dangerous as to warrant too much of the enemies attention.
Crumble: When the hierophant dies, the army will begin to crumble. This is by no means the end... I have won many a game while crumbling. Many Tomb King units that usually operate far from the magic bubble or general bubble have half decent leadership and therefore will not crumble as badly. So hunker down, and play on!
The Tomb King:
The Tomb King is a good general and fighty character for any army. They pass their WS to the unit that they are with, making Tomb Guard, Skeletons and even chariots WS6! Not too shabby.
Gear: The best item given to a King in my experience is the Golden Deathmask, some decent armour (with a ward) and a Dragonbane gem or ironcurse icon. Because he is in the thick of it that Death Mask can really cause an enemy battle line to crumble very quickly, especially skaven!
I have also tinkered with a Destroyer of Eternities king, but I don't really have enough experience to talk in depth about it.
Basically gear wise you want effective, useful and resilient (as long as the King is around units can use his Leadership for swift reforms and when the hierophant dies then for crumbling.
Mounts: I like having the king on foot and in the thick of the battle line. He is a sturdy character with 4 W and T5. The chariot will usually be beaten from under him and the warsphynx is cannon bait and he can't use his special weapon skill ability while on it.
The Curse!: Rember the curse. When your King dies they will automatically hit what ever killed them with D6 s5 hits. Just roll to wound. If you get lucky you might just kill the character that killed you or damage all the units involved in a combat that you crumbled from. But remember to not forget... the curse!
Anyway. I hope you all found this interesting. There will be other articles on the various units within the TK book as well as a discussion of the items within the book and those common items as well as how they interact with the TK book.
Good Reading!
Cheers
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