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I've been entertaining the idea of idea of a construct army with tomb kings. In other words, an army that makes extensive use of constructs.
Of course, it may never happen, due to monetary and time constraints, but I was wondering, is it possible to make a strong army like this, and how would one go about it?

EDIT : Added a question mark to the topic question to avoid confusion...sorry it's late.

I'm actually building up something similar. For 3k games, I could theoretically have something like 5 Warsphinxes (one for a king, one for a prince and 3 specials) and 2 necrosphinxes. And that whole mess still has points for a couple of big chunks of skeletons and various support units.

As far as viability, I doubt it is hardcore tournament viable, but I think it would do pretty well in terms of target saturation. I would make sure everything operates in pairs or groups, to maximize the damage output and thunderstomps.

curran12 wrote:I'm actually building up something similar. For 3k games, I could theoretically have something like 5 Warsphinxes (one for a king, one for a prince and 3 specials) and 2 necrosphinxes. And that whole mess still has points for a couple of big chunks of skeletons and various support units.

As far as viability, I doubt it is hardcore tournament viable, but I think it would do pretty well in terms of target saturation. I would make sure everything operates in pairs or groups, to maximize the damage output and thunderstomps.

Oh nice! That is a lot of T8 to play with.
I'm interested in things like Stalkers and Necro-knights though. Are they worth it?

And would necrotects be a good addition? They seem to be a logical choice for a construct army.

There are no Core constructs, so at least 25% is going to be non construct.

But I'd take a large variety of specials to give you more adaptability. Unfortunately you have to use Entombed Beneath Sands. So either your army is going to hinge largely around jumping out in close proximity to your enemy, which is luck-based. Or you're going to need to use overcosted Ushabti and/or warsphinx.

I just looked at Necropolis Knights and they're a lot better than I remember. Just don't take the Entombed rule. For 65 points you're getting 5(6) attacks, 2 KB, 3 poison and 3+ armor and high movement and good LD. They are really good, actually. Unfortunately, Necrotects can't keep up with them as they are too fast.

Rares there is a lot of good stuff like Colossus, sphinx and even hierotitan.

I think Knights are the most viable against the most targets. For core you should probably grab just archers to support troops. Alternately you could go charriots and have a super high speed TK army. But it would be so high speed none of your heroes could keep up unless you gave them a mount as well.

What's wrong with beneath the sands? It seems to be a fairly nice ability.
Afterall, the unit does have the chance to appear anywhere on the battlefield, allowing for some fairly nasty ambushes.

I do agree though with taking a variety of constructs for adaptability, and with the archer core. I was thinking of placing the priests in an archer bunker anyway.
Pity about the necrotect though.

What about spear or HW/S skellies? Are they decent as core?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Oh nice! That is a lot of T8 to play with.
I'm interested in things like Stalkers and Necro-knights though. Are they worth it?

And would necrotects be a good addition? They seem to be a logical choice for a construct army.

I like Stalkers some, with their shooting nastiness. As far as the Entombed rule, I'd say try it for Stalkers, because they can start doing damage right away. Since they "deep strike" in on the Remaining Moves phase, you'd not be able to do any damage with Knights, and you give your opponent a chance to counter them, especially if you scatter poorly. Stalkers, on the other hand can pop up and immediately start dusting fools.

As far as Necrotects, they might be worth it. I'm not planning on using any simply because I'm crunched for points, and I want more Liche Priests to cast the signature spell and keep my kitties on the move and topped off from any incidental damage they take en route to the stomping.

And yeah, I like my idea of a kitty army, aka AT-AT Tomb Kings. I actually am thinking, conversion wise, of putting the upper bodies of Stalkers in the howdah for the Special choice Warsphinxes instead of Tomb Guard.

A tomb kings army won last years Throne of Skulls.

As I understand it, it was a large block of archers with a special character that I believe gave them poison attacks. This unit was protected by constructs.

Essentially anything that withstood the archery was engaged by the constructs until there was nothing left.

marielle wrote:A tomb kings army won last years Throne of Skulls.

As I understand it, it was a large block of archers with a special character that I believe gave them poison attacks. This unit was protected by constructs.

Essentially anything that withstood the archery was engaged by the constructs until there was nothing left.

Yeah, 89 archers, 30-wide w/ Khalida (poison and 1 extra BS).

I think constructs are really effective. But a core still needs to be filled. I would reccomend a block of archers with a hierophant, a unit of horse archers or two with other supportive mages if you want to keep a fast construct army going. Also a chariot block with a king is pretty solid as well.

Well, I would have to get the battalion anyway since its a good deal. So HW/S and Melee Horsemen aren't worth it I take it?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Well, I would have to get the battalion anyway since its a good deal. So HW/S and Melee Horsemen aren't worth it I take it?

All depends on what you wanna do.

I'm gonna have a block or two of HW/S warriors to act as tarpits/anvils. For a heavy construct army (like my kitty list) I need some bodies.

The big thing is that you're gonna want to have a couple of Liche Priests spread out, just to keep the healing and movement spells going.

I tend to think Melee horseman are the only unit in the book I could never even justify. Not that there is anything wrong with them. The lack or horse/snake mounts for the fighty characters are the issue just as much as the lack of chariot/snake/kitty mount options for the priests are lacking.

Horsemen are actually a decent bunker for your Liche in a construct-heavy list. 4+ AS is the second best in the army and they have the speed to keep up with just about any constructs you can field. Also works great for a Death Liche wanting to get into position for a Purple Sun or Death-sniping.

Chariots would be even better at filling out the mandatory core, I suppose, but a Liche can't join them.

Warbrucey wrote:Horsemen are actually a decent bunker for your Liche in a construct-heavy list. 4+ AS is the second best in the army and they have the speed to keep up with just about any constructs you can field. Also works great for a Death Liche wanting to get into position for a Purple Sun or Death-sniping.

Chariots would be even better at filling out the mandatory core, I suppose, but a Liche can't join them.

Melee horsemen or Archer Horsemen though? I for one would not want to stick my priests anywhere near combat.
I do agree though that placing a lych on a horse would be a good idea, since you can quickly buff the army where needed.

I've ran my lvl2 on horse behind my chariot block, with archers. my lvl 2 is usually light and I've not hesitated to put them in the flank a few times to what the chariots are fighting and bubble bironas/speed of battle/phas

Oh yeah, lore of light is awesome for low ini armies.
Is lore of death any good?

If you're interested in knights here is a nice read:

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Khemri/index.php?showtopic=11070

Rampotep gives a unit of constructs the ability to reroll their armor save. 3+ rerollable with a 6++ regen is pretty good. The downside to them is only the knights, not the mounts, can give supporting attacks.

Don't neglect the other constucts, hierotitan is just awesome if only for the +d3 to caster rolls and low casting value on 2 bound spells. I think 1 necrosphinx is probably going to be enough. For core 1-2 blocks of archers are nice to bunker mages, horsemen especially archer horsemen make great redirectors I would try and fit in at least 2, if you still need more core but don't want infantry then go with chariots. I would fear skaven and any other army that can force a lot of Initiative test or die spells.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Oh yeah, lore of light is awesome for low ini armies.
Is lore of death any good?

I've only used the sig spell on the hierotitan with my kings, however I think it could be useful.

Would it be a good idea to use musicians? I don't see how they are useful on an undead army.

Well swift reforming on archers still let's them shoot, so good idea there. It breaks ties for combat troops so my chariots have them. I don't run warriors or TG but i likely would as well.

Don't they have terrible leadership though? Or is that circumvented by having a character in there?

And will I need a Herald? And does the herald have to be in the same unit as the tomb king/priest?

I usually have my hierophant in my archer block so they are ok.

I've not used a herald yet, but they do need to be in the same unit as the general.

Ah really? Damn, that's annoying.

Do you have to have a prince/king as the general, or can I just make my hierophant the general? Or a necrotect?
And then have an Army Standard?

Herald does not have to be in the same unit- that's only in order to use his Bodyguard rule.

And honestly, though a lot of people poopoo it, I think the first list posted, with the 7 Sphinxes, would be amazing. Fill your Core with Horse Archers or regular Archers (or even Chariots), grab a Necrotect if you can, and march upon your foe, laughing as they try to take down that much Toughness 8.

Contructs work great. Keep a BSB nearby and the -2 crumble really pays off. IME, it's when the monsters wiff that they crumble to death, so reducing crumble is key.

I was thinking of doing an ice-age dead army, using tomb kings.
Core would be chariots (using skeleton mammoths for chariots), and lots of big dead wolly monsters for constructs. Problem with that is that it's a ton of work for the specials and rares, and not a terribly effective army.

-Matt