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Ok so I've been playing Tomb Kings a while now and I'm enjoying it so far, they're a lot better than I had been led to believe! I do have one point that's been rubbing for a while now though and that's the screaming skull catapults - Are they worth it?

I've seen them regularly put up in all the lists I've read but I just can't see why; I know that you can get 2 shots off a turn if you're lucky, but that just increases the chances of a misfire and if they actually do score a hit, unlikely due to scatter, then the damage output is unimpressive to say the least.

I've used catapults in 6 straight games now, leaving them next to my High Liche Priest on the casket to use his incantations, but they rarely earnt their points back. It's especially grating since I often face the Skaven and watching the equivalent points Warp Lightning cannons tear chunks out of my Giants and Ushabti with ease just makes the catapults seem that much worse.

Am I missing something here? Is there some brilliant use for these war machines that I'm just not getting and if so can someone please let me in on it!

I think their potential is not really due to damage output, but more due to causing panic. Especially against Skaven you would should try to make them take as many panic tests as possible.

You are missing that TK are very bad right now.

Catapults are an all purpose unit now giving you magical flaming attacks. Ever faced down an hellpit abomination? Ever wondered how you are gonne kill it? Repeaded catapults to the head, that is how.

It's not that they're amazing- more that they're a tool to deal with things you'll be hard pressed to take care of otherwise. As Niiai pointed out- you'd rather shell a Hell Pit to death than have to try to kill it with just about anything else...

1 wound, just one wound from an SSC should = a panic test with -1 to their leadership.

You can run off entire battle lines if your opponent rolls even average when facing down skaven.

The trick? It's killing the BSB. He HAS to die. No matter how it happens. Panic tests, suicide prince/king on a chariot with one purpose in life. you name it, it HAS to happen.

Dude, it's 90 points.
You get what you pay for.
A hit (1 in 3), should catch 25 clan rats no problem, and kill ~10 or so.
Do that twice a game, and you're breaking even.

As pointed out above, kill that BSB. Use scorpions, swarms, bone giant... whatever it takes.

Once the BSB is dead, you can start working on the real weakness of skaven, broken units rarely rally.

-Matt

HawaiiMatt wrote:Dude, it's 90 points.
You get what you pay for.
A hit (1 in 3), should catch 25 clan rats no problem, and kill ~10 or so.
Do that twice a game, and you're breaking even.

As pointed out above, kill that BSB. Use scorpions, swarms, bone giant... whatever it takes.

Once the BSB is dead, you can start working on the real weakness of skaven, broken units rarely rally.

-Matt

I guess you're right, for 90 points I shouldn't expect too much, it's possible my bad luck with the dice has tainted my view as well, since in one game alone I had a catapult misfire and explode on it's first shot! Still, for 85 points I get a Scorpion, which in my most recent game destroyed an Empire cannon took out a level 2 Metal wizard and ran down a unit of halberdiers - more than triple it's points back in one game.

Of course in that same game my Giant was instagibbed by his other cannon with it's first shot. I really hate cannons (mostly 'cause I haven't got any)!

Since I got my second catapult (I play OnG) I never play a game without fielding both (plus a doom diver).

Granted, mine they're 20 points less than yours, but the panic test thingie works a charm against anything Ld 7-8 without a bsb nearby.

Now that hordes are the new black, anything that can break large blocks is a must.

GMR wrote:

HawaiiMatt wrote:Dude, it's 90 points.
You get what you pay for.
A hit (1 in 3), should catch 25 clan rats no problem, and kill ~10 or so.
Do that twice a game, and you're breaking even.

As pointed out above, kill that BSB. Use scorpions, swarms, bone giant... whatever it takes.

Once the BSB is dead, you can start working on the real weakness of skaven, broken units rarely rally.

-Matt

I guess you're right, for 90 points I shouldn't expect too much, it's possible my bad luck with the dice has tainted my view as well, since in one game alone I had a catapult misfire and explode on it's first shot! Still, for 85 points I get a Scorpion, which in my most recent game destroyed an Empire cannon took out a level 2 Metal wizard and ran down a unit of halberdiers - more than triple it's points back in one game.

Of course in that same game my Giant was instagibbed by his other cannon with it's first shot. I really hate cannons (mostly 'cause I haven't got any)!

110. the Catapult should NEVER be bought for it's 90 point iteration. Ever.

Ragnar4 wrote:110. the Catapult should NEVER be bought for it's 90 point iteration. Ever.

I rarely read people assert that.

Maybe I should read more about it.

hmm.

Thanks!

Chew on this:

Percentage of passing a test per leadership value

10 91.6%
09 83.3% -10%
08 72.2% -11%
07 58.3% -14%
06 41.6% -16.66666%
05 27.7% -14%
04 16.6% -11%
03 06.6% -10%

When you use the Skulls of the Foe, you see a full shift down from the leaduership value to the next leadership value down. (this is obviously for one test only)

The number on the further test to the right is the difference in percentage points between the test and the test above. As you can see, the swing in percent of time the test is passed is always greater than 10%. Furthermore, the most common leaderships in the game (7, 8, 9) are most grievously affected by the Skulls of the Foe Rule.

As a point of reference. The difference between each side of a 6 sided die occurs 16.666667% of the time. Therefore, Moving a LD of 7 ot a LD of 6 is AS affective as requiring a 6+ to hit when normally it would have been a 5+. THAT'S HUGE!

Your math is a little off, but you are very correct otherwise, so I won't do more than mention it Skulls of the foe are really scary as even with characters in the unit you are usually rolling against a number you don't want to be, over and over :(