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As a long time 40k player turned into an aos fan... I finally got to play my favorite fantasy army, the tomb kings (lizardmen and chaos tie at a close second). I found that tomb kings are very synergistic and powerful in aos. Tomb guard, necrosphynx, ushtabi, serpent riders, etc... lots of fun units.

With the death of the tomb kings, they are still readily available (kits were mage for many years), and their scrolls still hold their own (beautiful thing to see a necrosphynx take out nagash or archaon). What are your mvp units, your must haves, and why?

Here are mine:
Settra - cool mini, massive damage with rending, buffs other death units
Tomb guard - must have core unit, powerful, esp with their banner
Ushtabi - massive damage and tough against models that cause 1 dmg
Necrosphynx - ungodly powerful against monsters... and everything!


There are other great units like the serpent riders (average 8 unsaved wounds a charge), but the above are must haves imho. See, the tomb kings rise from the dust and live on!

I'm new to the army, unfortunately I haven't gotten around to starting yet, although I've wanted to for several years now.

I'd have to say Settra (awesome mini, good-looking rules)
and probably the carrion, just for the mini.

Chariot regiments!

I don't play Tomb Kings, rather Vampire Counts. But the Undead Legion rules allow me to use things like chariots, archers and skeleton horsemen and catapults. It's like a 5th edition army all over again!

So while collecting my army I got my hands on 6 old skeleton chariots and 15 old horsemen. The ones with the cool helmets and breast plates you can add onto them. Plan on using them as Black Knights, while the 6 chariots make a nice big unit of decently priced hard hitters that vamps usually lack.

tomb guard.

Aesthetically? The sphynx - war or necro - is a really impressive model, as are the latter day plastic tomb guard, though they're slightly tainted by being based on the old skeleton models.

Those old skeletons, with their wonky proportions and style compared to the more recent VC skeletons and grave guard, really get in the way of me enjoying most of the tomb kings range. And while I enjoyed the ushabti conceptually, the models never really worked for me.

Major exceptions are Khalida, the casket of souls, and the screaming skull catapult (the engine itself, not so much the crew). All of those models look fantastic.


Mechanically, though? Well, this will be an AoS perspective, as I didn't have much time with Tomb Kings in the past. That said...

The herald is fantastic, being essentially +5 wounds to your favorite Death hero. Hero sniping is a major problem in this game, and bumping, say, a vampire lord from 5 wounds to 10 makes them much more viable as field commanders.

Tomb Kings are also excellent field commanders for skeleton heavy forces, though personally I prefer Krell, or his generic children the black-axe-armed wight kings.

Liche priests are also pretty good, though they do lose out somewhat to necromancers, what with necros having the stronger, more versatile buff spell and having that life-saving look-out-sir ability. Still, the priest's dispel scroll makes them a caster worthy of consideration.

Screaming skull catapults are kind of meh on their own, but back them up with a necrotect and they become an impressive long ranged threat. Two such catapults on a hill or castle battlement with a necrotect standing between them are a very effective anchor for defensive / ranged death armies.

As already mentioned, the necrosphinx is an absolute beast - lightning fast, flight, hits hard (with jaw dropping damage spikes possible against other monsters), crazy durable between wound halving and a built in healing spell, the necrosphinx is Arkhan's favorite pet.

Any of the other statue units - the bone giant, the war sphinx, the ushabti - they're all fantastic themselves, again thanks to wound halving and built in healing spells making them among the most durable heavy units in the game.

Skeletal archers can actually be quite impressive in bulk, especially if you run khalida with them, another unit to contend with.

Necropolis knights are also pretty fearsome.

Skeleton Warriors and Tomb Guard are both fantastic infantry units, being pretty much the same as their skittle and Grave Guard cousins in the Vamp Count line. If anything, the tomb king versions are actually a little bit better, for defensive builds anyway, as tomb shields are slightly better than crypt shields, imo. Neferata in particular loves to cast her signature spell on big blocks of Tomb Guard.


Unfortunately, tomb king chariots, once a defining feature of the tomb kings, and the casket of souls, arguably their best model ever, are both pretty lackluster in age of sigmar. Oh, well, not everything can be a winner.

Overall, the tomb kings are quite impressive and a lot of fun in age of sigmar. It's a shame the line was dropped, but hopefully mantic or some other company steps in with replacements, as these rules are still quite good, and they deserve to see the field.

Ushabtis are so cool. I wish they remade them plastic.

 Haechi wrote:
Ushabtis are so cool. I wish they remade them plastic.

Have you seen reapers metal subs? those are very nice. had to do some conversions to make them archers as well, but they do well. painted them black and stonelike with gold.

The reason I wanted them plastic is for them to be modulable. Metal doesn't offer that =/

 Haechi wrote:
The reason I wanted them plastic is for them to be modulable. Metal doesn't offer that =/

it did take a little more work admittadly,, but I should figure out how to post the pics.

I'd be very interested in how you got them to be archers.

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
I'd be very interested in how you got them to be archers.

I had to get creative with some pliers and warmed the arms up, but managed to get a good enough reset then cut the big skeleton longbows in half, glued it to the holding hand, took some quivvers (cant remember which models i stole them from, chronopia i think) and glued them on.

If you have pics, upload them to something like imgur:

http://www.imgur.com/

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
If you have pics, upload them to something like imgur:

http://www.imgur.com/

not to sound too old, but what the hell is an imgur? i could email a pic or so

Click the link, on the top there's a big blue button that says upload images, and just select them like you would for email. It'll upload them and give you links that you can easily share.

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
Click the link, on the top there's a big blue button that says upload images, and just select them like you would for email. It'll upload them and give you links that you can easily share.

tell you what, I can forward them to your email if you want to post it or pm it to me, that site looks crazy to me.