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Hi all,

If anybody has got any very competitive army lists for Tomb Kings they would like to share i would be very grateful, as i would like to build a army that can potentially be used with great effect.

I'm a relatively inexperienced Tomb Kings player as well, I only started maybe a month and a half ago. But from what I've learned, there are certain units that are just really nasty. Necropolis Knights and really good, when used in conjunction with Chariots. Chariots are almost a must take, regardless of what army style you play. And if you wanna go magic oriented, Casket of Souls. It's nasty. Sorry I can't give you an amazing list, since I'm still trying to find one myself, but I figured I'd let you know some really good things to use.

Give your army book a good read through and try putting something together for us to pick apart. Start with something dont ask us to give you a list from scratch.

 namiel wrote:
Give your army book a good read through and try putting something together for us to pick apart. Start with something dont ask us to give you a list from scratch.

To a new player this can sound counter-productive when they feel that they don't know much about the army, and might also not know much abou the game; but it is the right way to do it.

First up is the fact that there isn't a single "best built" - each player and tactical approach has its own strengths and weaknesses so sometimes you've got to put your own stamp on things (and that might simply be a case of "I like the look of this model more than that model"). Once you've got a structure up and in place people can then start to work with that foundation - suggesting stronger options or alternative options or pointing out potential problems the army might come up against.

I would also suggest searching the forum - look for other peoples army builds; this can give a neat insight into what is "popular" in common use and what is said about those armies. It can give you some idea of where to start with.

I won't write a list for you, but will happily give some pointers and general hints for the army.

First off, every army needs some Core and a General. For Tomb Kings, I would add that you need a Casket. It's not a literal requirement, but it is so cheap, so useful and so vital to the success of the army that I have never heard of an army that didn't use one. In any other army it would be broken, but for Tomb Kings people seem happy to accept it since it provides such a solid support for the rest of your army.

Tomb Kings are slow, severely lacking in combat, and have a lacklustre home Lore with Nehekhara. On the upside, they can spam terrifically cheap and effective Archers, and can boost their magic phases with extra dice and bonus casting rolls. On these points, I think that they really favour taking a shooty list and burying the opponent under 2 turns of concentrated firepower before swooping in with a couple of hard-hitting Knight units. Unstable is going to cost you buckets of Skeleton models every time you lose a fight and the inability to March can leave you on the backfoot when taking the fight to them. It is far more productive to rely on a handful of good hammer units that simply don't lose fights to begin with, nor do they need magical buffs to be good.
Every Augment is coming at the expense of Soulblights, Dessicates, Smiting and Suns, so minimise your reliance on Power Dice by taking units that can fight independently. Many players like to take a big block of Tomb Guard, take a King and Necrotect to support them, throw a Light mage to buff them, and then you are down 1000pts for a unit that cannot even March and has to beg for the enemy to charge them. I simply think that combat is a bad idea for Tomb Kings to invest in; think of them as slow, hordey Wood Elves that don't charge until the enemy is shot to bits.

I'd also give some serious thought to your conversion skills, since the Hierotitan is a fantastic little piece of kit. It's fairly useful as a monster, but then we tack on 2 Bound spells and a buff to all friendly wizards and the thing goes through the roof.

If I were to play an army to win?
- 2 High Priests. One takes Nehekhara, the other Death.
- 25% spent on ~3 units of Light Horsemen, and the rest on Archers.
- 2 chunky blocks of Knights
- 2 Screaming Skull Capapults
- Casket of Souls
- Hierotitan
- Remainder spent on the Special slot. Carrion, Stalkers and Scorpions are all useful.

OK so to summerise this is the list I have currently worked on:

1 x Liche High Priest (Lvl3) = 175

1 x Liche High Priest (Lvl3) = 175

10 Skeleton Horsemen with full command = 150

10 Skeleton Horsemen with full command = 150

10 Skeleton Horsemen with full command = 150

40 Tomb Guard, Full command & Halberds = 550

6 Necropolis Knights with Full Command = 420

Casket of Souls = 135

Screaming Skull Catapult = 90

Total = 1995

Ok, so in the nicest possible way I can say this, it is a bad list. You've spammed up the worst possible Core selection and invested a massive amount of points into a deathstar without taking the upgrades that actually matter.

Horsemen are the worst unit in the army and it is not a close race. 12pts for a fast skeleton is atrocious value and they will accomplish nothing except dropping those banners for enemy VP. You have also taken less than the 500pts needed to fulfil the FOC rules, where 25% of the army must be Core. Quite simply you need a totally different Core allotment; any of the other options would be a far better foundation to the army.
As said, I prefer Archers with a few chaff drops of Mounted Bowmen. Other players enjoy Chariots and 4pt tarpit Skeletons. Take what you like, but don't make it Horsemen.

Secondly, you have invested over 500pts on a unit of Tomb Guard that managed to drop both Hatred and WS5. If you aren't taking the necessary Heroes to buff them, they are dead weight. Consider that they are the same cost as a White Lion and tell me that a WS3, I3, S5 model is on even ground.
I don't like Tomb Guard but even if I were to take them, a Prince and Necrotect/Ramhotep are both vital. You have also neglected to mention which Lores you are taking with your Priests; Tomb Guard like Light magic, so it's something to consider.

I think you've invested far too much into 2 melee blocks without taking any supporting elements to help them out. You have invested nearly 1000pts into 2 unbuffed melee units and I think you are setting yourself up for failure. You don't need both in a game this size, so I would either drop one or reduce the size of both. Use the points to buy a Hierotitan, Necrotect and/or Prince as desired. Finally, rebuild your Core section to focus on units that are better for the army.

Brilliant thanks for your help, from what Ive gathered I have not narrowed down to the following:

Tomb King, Shield, Chariot = 228

Liche Priest level 2 (Light) = 105

Liche Priest level 2 (Nehekhara) = 105

20 archers (FC) = 150

20 archers (FC) = 150

3 chariots (FC) = 195

3 chariots (FC) + TK = 195

6 Necropolis Knights (FC) = 420

Necrolith Collosuss With Great weapon = 180

Casket of Souls = 135

screaming Skull Cata =90

1953

 Jk981 wrote:
Brilliant thanks for your help, from what Ive gathered I have not narrowed down to the following:

Tomb King, Shield, Destroyer of Eternities Chariot = 253

Liche Priest level 2 (Light) = 105

Liche Priest level 2 (Death) = 105

20 archers (FC) = 150

20 archers (FC) = 150

3 chariots (FC) = 195

2 chariots (Mus and Banner) + TK = 150

6 Necropolis Knights (FC) = 420

Necrolith Collosuss With Great weapon = 180

Casket of Souls = 135

screaming Skull Cata =90

Uhh, is this your actual list you want to make? If so, for what points value, and also there are a few things that aren't allowed.

You have to bring minimum 3 chariots in the second unit, and then put the Tomb King with them, and also the Tomb King can't take the Destroyer of Eternities if he's on a mount. You also have to have at LEAST one Liche Priest with the Lore of Nehekhara to be your Heirophant. Plus, for the Tomb King, I'm pretty sure the Destroyer of Eternities (80 pts), the Tomb King (175~ pts), a shield, and a chariot (55 pts) would be around 310ish pts, though I can't remember the cost of a shield.

The War-Kitty can be used to potentially great effect.

The Casket of Souls also, can potentially, be used to great effect.

Sepulchural Stalkers can be used to great effect

So can the Necro Knights.

The Heirotitan can be used to great effect

As can the Tomb Guard.

The interesting thing about all of these units, is they can also implode disasterously and make you regret fielding Khemri.

Here's the trick though, thematically, the army is really fun.

The army that I typically went with was:

1 Heirophant Nehekara
1 Priest, Death or Light, whatever you want.
1 Prince in a chariot

30 Archers
40 Spearmen
40 HW/Sh warriors
5ish chariots


30 Tomb Guard
4 Carrion
War-Kitty
Heiro-Titan
1 Scorpion if I could fit it points wise

Casket of Souls

We played a little bit more than 2k points often between the 2250 and 2750 range.

The important bit is this: You want to have the heirotitan in a place where he's buffing your caster's casting rolls, and you want to totally dominate the magic phase because of the +d3 dice you get The advantage to a stacked Khemri magic phase seems to build slowly and push through around turn 5 or 6 instead of the old way the Tomb Kings used to play, where they broke your back on turn 3 with one sick magic phase.

Also: It seems that 2 buff spells on a single unit seems to be what makes a h2h unit go from bad, to really good. Doesn't matter what the 2 buff sells are, just get 2 on them.

Also Also: Chariot Impacts are positively benefit from Killing Blow... so put killing blow on your chariots and watch units get turned into a fine, red, mist.