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Hello. Not sure if this is the right forum, or if it should be in the Army List section.

My 13 year old son and I are starting to learn WHFB. He picked up a Tomb King boxed set because he likes the models, and I grabbed the Lizardmen. We're still learning the game, but it seems clear that he needs to flesh out his army a bit, and he's struggling with what units will be most effective. He has two Liche Priests (one mounted, one not), and a Tomb Prince already.

In looking through the other forums, it looked like most of the lists posted were for the 6th or earlier rules, so I'm not sure how relevant they are. Since, as a 13 year old he's a bit strapped for cash, I'd like to be able to buy him a few models here and there, but I'm not sure where to start for his army (and I'm still learning my own).

It sounds like Scorpions and the Ushabit are pretty good units. He has three Chariots from the box, but he's not sure how effective they are - in our first play I ended up beating them with my Saurus Warriors, but I think it's because we misunderstood some rules related to the charge.

Any Tomb King Veterans out there that could provide some guidance for a young player?

Lots of charriots can be very overwhleming especially since tk chariots are cheap and you have ALOT of them... You have 2-4 units of chariots and that alot of impact hits and damage your going to cause.

Tomb gaurd are also very good when you have the right banners on them, especially when you continusly bring them back up and you keep a unit distracted with combat for a really long time...

Archers as well as catapults are also nice when you get the free shots off from incantations. Theres many different varieties of things to do with TK but its up to you.

The real problem that I think your son is going to run into is this: The Tomb Kings are a visually impacting army that rely on high speed maneuvers to win, choosing only to fight on the flanks and picking battles that are beneficial to them.

Against a lizardmen army if your son just pushes his units forward and gets into combat, you're going to win 999 times out of 1000. What you can do is take a 15 man unit of lizardmen and charge the front with a unit of 3 chariots, and then work out combat res and see how he does, then charge the flank, and work out the same combat res..

3d3 impact hits at str 4 very first
then all "strikes first" magic weapons and special rule attacks
then all chargers strike (6 horses, 3 spearmen, 3 non spearmen)
then all of the surviving charged models strike back.

Combat res will be wounds for the chariots, the lizardmen will get wounds, plus ranks.
The swing here will be whoever outnumbers.

When the chariots are on the flank, you won't get ranks, and he gets a +1 for being on the flank. That's a 3 point swing that is devastating. Hopefully he'll put 2 and 2 together and he'll see how to beat terribly strong units like your lizardmen.

As for what units to go after, you're dead right that scorpions and ushabti are worth going after.

Also a big unit of Heavy horsemen, in a 5x3 unit would definitely be worth while.

But most importantly have him get what he wants.

pick up a catapult then get whatever he wants

Ubshapti are great
Scorpions are good but not against lizards (they are usually there for killing missile troops but lizards only have ones with poison attacks that crush scorpions if they get to stand and shoot).


tomb kings in general are actually prety tough to learn with.

The best bet is ubshapti (units of 4-5) and catapults. Back this up with flanking chariot units and ranks from a skeleton unit.

Tomb kings also need max chars to actually get their magic to work properly.

As cypher said Tomb Kings are difficult to get the hang of (heck I'm still learning). But once you are familiar with the rules they become less of a hassel to play.

Everything said above is the basic idea of how to start off a solid TK force.

One piece of modeling advice I can give is on the catapults and scorpions. They are a pain to build to say the least, so make sure time is taken to pin the all the vital pieces (I know, I've been there).

Hope this helps!