Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The Emerald Dynasty

Total Points (2499)

Lords (470)
Neferhotep The Relentless -Tomb King (170), Dragonbane Gem (5), Ironcurse Icon(5), Sword of Strife(+2Atk)(40), Total (220)
Grand Hierophant Ra'aph -Liche High Priest (175), Lore of Nehekara, Dispel Scroll(25), Cloak of the Dunes(50), Total (250)

Heroes (70)
Imperial Necrotect Osiris -Necrotect (60), Dragonhelm(10), Total (70)

Core (629)
49 Skeleton Bowmen (294), Master of Arrows(10), Standard Bearer(10), Musician(10), Total (324)
5 Chariots (275), Champion(10), Standard Bearer(10), Musician(10), Total (305)

Special (840)
Khemrian Warsphinx (210), Fiery Roar(20), Total (230)
38 Tomb Guard (418), Halberds(76), Standard(10), Musician(10), Total (514)
4 Carrion (Swiftstride due to war beast) (96)

Rare (490)
Screaming Skull Catapult (90)
Screaming Skull Catapult (90)
Hierotitan(175)
Casket of Souls(135)

I would try and maybe get you hierophant a little more survivable, maybe give him the Item in the rulebook which confers a 4+ ward, other than that, its pretty decent

Deraiderspam wrote:I would try and maybe get you hierophant a little more survivable, maybe give him the Item in the rulebook which confers a 4+ ward, other than that, its pretty decent

Agreed. I would use that instead of the cloak.

And always remember the 6+ Regen save the Heiro and his unit gets.

You might want to not post the individual item costs, though- I think Dakka has something against that. Usually the item and the total cost of the unit is enough.

If you're after an optimal tournament list, Tomb Kings and Tomb Guard are far from the way to go unfortunately.

No Tomb King, Tomb Prince instead
No Skeleton Archers, Skeleton Warriors instead
Level up Hierophant to 4, No Cloak

If you field chariots you either want them in 3 for rank or 6 for 2 ranks + disruption.

Envenomed Sting for Warsphinx
No Tomb Gaurd
No Carrion

I do not understand what the poster above me is talking about

Your king looks fine
Hiero needs a ward
Nekky is fine
I would split the archers up into 2-3 units
The rest looks great

Also I used to live in Brea oh so long ago!

If you're using the Tomb Guard as your 'anvil', I'd suggest splitting the Archers into 2 or 3 blocks- more targets, and the ability to split fire, plus being able to get more shots off.

Or, if you have them in that single block, maybe look at Khalida instead of the TK, letting them all hit on 4s.

I do not understand what the poster above me is talking about

Let me explain

Think of the King as being an upgrade to the Tomb Prince getting..

(with the great weapon) 7str instead of 6str. (which will only make a difference against 5+ toughness)
6 wep skill instead of 5 (which will only make a difference against 5+wep skill)
4 wounds instead of 3 (delays the curse, but the +1 wound is one of the truly better parts of the king)
10 leadership instead of 9 (we don't break, but it helps for crumbling)
4 attacks instead of 3
and the curse is str 5 instead of 4

if you find that worth it then yeah get him. I field princes personally.

While Skeleton Archers can deal out small bits of damage I like to use skeleton warriors as a bunker for the priest personally, they also make a pretty good target for augments. Though archers are not a bad choice. Actually on contemplation a think I'll field one group of archers for a bunker for the priest.

The Helm for necrotect isn't actually a bad idea after reviewing it seems nice, I believe I was wrong.

5 Chariots is nice for hitting hordes and making em' bleed but 6 chariots fielded in 2 ranks has 6str impact hits (great for anything with 4+ toughness) and it allows disruption which is a good combination with those lone animated constructs also an extra rank for combat resolution and less surface are for getting hit.

Envenomed Sting is AWESOME FOR ITS PRICE!

Tomb Guard are a nice bunker for priest though if you decide to field skeleton warriors then they will do fine for that. Truthfully they are actually pretty good, I just don't field them personally.

Get the prices of each upgrade/item off of there, quick-quick! Copyright laws and so on.

Grand Hierophant Khatep wrote:

5 Chariots is nice for hitting hordes and making em' bleed but 6 chariots fielded in 2 ranks has 6str impact hits (great for anything with 4+ toughness) and it allows disruption which is a good combination with those lone animated constructs also an extra rank for combat resolution and less surface are for getting hit.

I thought base strength for TK chariots was 4. So you'd need 9 chariots to get to str 6

I find myself at odds with Grand Heirophant Khatep in a few ways. He does paint a decent analysis of the tomb king vs. tomb prince but a few points to make:

1. I agree - get rid of the flying carpet!! It's a terrible idea to send your precious heiro out and about augmenting. He's going to be picked out and slaughtered and as soon as that happens your screaming skulls are dead and the rest will suffer.

2. I disagree that the prince is better - and for the same reason as above. Ld. 10 does make a HUGE difference over Ld. 9 when your heiro dies. If your playing anyone who knows the slightest bit about the Tomb Kings you will be making LoS checks on the heiro the entire game. And WHEN he dies from being picked out by a hero killer or splatted by a cannon you have only your general's inspiring presence to fall back on. If that presence is Ld. 10 you have nothing to worry about.

Granted if it's 9 you don't have much to worry about but if you look at a craps table the odds on 10 still only pay out 2 to 1 meaning even the casino knows 10 turns up more often than not. To put the 2 to 1 odds on 10 in perspective, an 11 pays out (in a one roll odd) 17-1 and 12 pays out 32-1. Even 10 the hard way beats out 11 with odds at 8-1.

If you think I'm daft for mentioning craps odds - think again. Craps is a game which is all about what will be rolled on 2 dice.... I find it helpful when playing WHFB to know the odds of getting certain numbers on 2 dice (like for charging and the sort)

3. Chariot is base str 4. 2 ranks would be Str 5 which is still good against most monsters.

4. I like skeleton archers. Since I don't actually want my mages to get in combat I often march backwards and shoot - augment with desert wind and move backwards or reform and run like a little bitch. That said I think the archers are slightly more effective bunkers as you /dont/ want them in combat.

As far as augmenting archers - let's not forget there is an augment spell which gives them multi-shot (2). Arrows of Asp are great as well! Always hit on 5+ no matter what? I'll take that all day long.

I do have to second breaking that unit down. The most I've ever run was 29 archers and that was too much! I find 19 an optimum number for fire support.

5. Deployments! Tomb Kings are slow - and that is reflected in the fact you will be deploying a lot of units! So keep in mind that fact when you are building your list. Limit your deployments by limiting the number of unque units you will be fielding. Tomb Kings do large block infantry VERY well - with augments.

6. That said Large block tomb guard do not do so well. On paper they are amazing but the reality is killing blow isn't that great on them (their Str. with halberds will eliminate most armor anyway), they suffer from the same painfully low initiative and they are very expensive. You may bring a block of 40 to the table but I'm bringing my 50 Swordsmen... and you may kill a good 20 but all I need to do is kill 11 back to keep steadfast. In a game that's all about steadfast - Tomb Guard are not king.

7. The Heirotitan is not worth his points. He has some decent bound spells (well, shem's.... for taking out regen hydras) but other than that he's not worth what your paying for him. I usually recommend scrapping him for 2 screaming skull catapults.. in this case I suppose you could...

8. HErald BSB is too good! Reroll ALL failed leadership tests including your crumbling. Remember what I said earlier about your heiro dying being a real PITA - Well, give yourself a re-roll on those 17-1 and 32-1 odds and you will likely never fail!. Add a dawnstone and some nice magic armor and you've got one heck of a good model. Find a place for this bad boy and keep him in the middle of the field.

Plus when you do fail your crumble tests you take one ess wound for having hte BSB there....

9.Envenomed Sting is..... well - I can see it's value and for 10 points it might be worth it in the event your war kitty is going aginst their monsters. However, since most times you wil be echewing your regular attacks for thunder crush, it's not wroth it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For More on odds - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/427909.page

I was wrong about hte 10 - it's 11-1 but It's still there. THe 8-1 is casino payout and 2-1 the same but the bet holds after each roll.

Think of the King as being an upgrade to the Tomb Prince getting..

(with the great weapon) 7str instead of 6str. (which will only make a difference against 5+ toughness)
6 wep skill instead of 5 (which will only make a difference against 5+wep skill)
4 wounds instead of 3 (delays the curse, but the +1 wound is one of the truly better parts of the king)
10 leadership instead of 9 (we don't break, but it helps for crumbling)
4 attacks instead of 3
and the curse is str 5 instead of 4

I have to disagree witrh this Prince vs King comparison. Starting at the top:

S7 makes a difference against T4 as many T4 Characters will have a great armour save (Empire and Brets for instance). Whilst most lightly armoured characters are T5! So it really is worth it S5 also allows you to do what the guy has done here and get a blade of + attacks so your Character becomes a unit killer.
WS6 makes adifference against WS6,5 and 2 , and there is actually a fair amount of that out there.
Having an extra wound delays the curse? Youu really take a character fo rthe curse? It is a marginal benefit at best, the extra wound delays the character dying which is of far greater benefit.
LD10 makes a big difference for crumbling tests with a BsB near by that means you have to get double 6 twice and you still only lose ONE guy to crumble!
4 attacks again is a major boost. You're going last most of the time in a challenge so you need to be able to kill your opponent in 1 round because even with 4 wounds you probably won't survive 2 rounds against somehting decent, where as the 4th attack means you have afford to miss once and still have enough hits to kill the character.

I like to tank my Tomb king (armour of silvered steel, talisman of protection and great weapon) he can soak up 2 rounds of combat fairly well and will in general kill his opponent comfortably in 2 rounds of combat, 1 if they don't have a decent ward save.