What to Expect from Tomb Kings

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

Moderators: Layne, The Dread Knights

Post Reply
Hebbish
Slave (off the Altar)
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 11:36 pm
Location: Denver, CO
Contact:

What to Expect from Tomb Kings

Post by Hebbish »

I'm an old DE player who played during 6th and 7th, and a little of 8th. I was then distracted by 40k DE, and didn't play a fantasy game for about a year. I decided to change this by joining a grow league, which is having games played at 1000 pts, 1500 pts and 2000pts. One of the guys is playing the new tomb kings. Since this army was so underpowered before, I hardly ever saw it, and I have no idea what it does.

If you don't mind, I was wondering if we could discuss how an 8th ed tomb King army runs. Are they like the vamps, who rely on raising things from the dead?
User avatar
Aimbob
Warrior
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:04 pm
Location: Netherlands

Post by Aimbob »

I used to play alot vs the old TK. And have played now a few battles against the new TK.

Magic is very different from the old edition. Now they cast like the other armies with PD. If they cast a spell from their lore successfully a unit within x inch regains D3+1 wounds.

They have some relatively cheap spells. Some effective ones, almost all you'd like to dispell. But chances are big the he has a few more PD then you have DD. They can cast 5+ wardsave on unit, this one you need to stop when you'll be comming in with alot of attacks.

Oh no the dreaded sphynx!
Treat sphynx exactly the same as a Giant. Shoot it, a 6 will wound it. Their Giant now has a 5+ Asv (leaving 6 Asv to our rx-bows) and sphynx has none. Bot low I, so hopefully its dead, or around 2 wounds left. You hit first, hopefully it dies before it hits. I kept slowing it with shadow.

bound spell
Watch out for the bound spell from Casket of Souls, this is one of the nastiest spells they have! And it's a rare choice nowadays. DONT FORGET TO BRING A BSB!

flying
Carrion birds are now more effective and can be seen in new TK lists.

Warmachines
Catapult is still used the same as before, S8 D6 wounds under hole of template, your Hydra could be in trouble. Warmachine hunters are less effective, their archers usually stop them.

HINT!
TK don't suffer from to hit penalties when shooting, but if you lower their BS they wil hit on 6+
..__i___........__
...) ) ) ) ) ..r..(°°)
.\OOOOO/..../()\
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aszvet
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:26 pm

Post by Aszvet »

Monsters, Monsters MONSTERS!,

new tomb kings seem to be the trend for the fantasy this time around.

Large blocks of cheap Infanty and MONSTERS!

WARSPHINXE- Fun monster, but don't feer the T8, he is just as hard to wound as the T5 for spears and RxBs. And Witch Elves will eat him for lunch.

TomB Kings magic is the key to army, Kill the Hirophant or what ever he is call and the whole army begins to crumble.
User avatar
Pjeos
Executioner
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:14 am

Post by Pjeos »

Aszvet wrote:Kill the Hirophant or what ever he is call and the whole army begins to crumble.


Actually, this is not that true. Tomb Kings boast a good L in their characters and in most of their troop choices, making them very resitant to the death of the Hierophant.

Also, the only monsters I realy find interesting in their new book are Giants and Hierotitan(? dunno the english name) who are now relatively cheap. Sphinxes are definitely not worth imho.


Byee
User avatar
Dangerous Beans
The Guiding Eye
Posts: 1120
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 9:19 pm
Location: Sat drinking 'soul stealer' cocktails in the city of Vilebrier with Morathi...

Post by Dangerous Beans »

PjEOs - it is called a Hierotitan in our country too - I've only glanced at the book briefly (but really liking the colour illustrations and artwork!), the Hierotitan is the combat one right - not the magic based one?
User avatar
Uriain
Executioner
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:57 am
Location: Alberta Where REAL beef comes from

Post by Uriain »

I have played a game against TK recently. If you have access to spells which lower T, then the sphynx's are not an issue. If you dont.. it becomes a bit harder to kill them, but nothing more then a giant would normally.

Their troops, are surprisingly hitty when they have a prince or King in them.. hitting their troops on 4's is annoying. Hatred someone midigates this for the first round, but if you have a large block of them hit your lines, your in for a grind. (unless you have some big autohitting stuff to work them over)

magic is all around pretty good. Biggest ones (imo) are the ward save, and the extra attacks, closely followed by KB.. Killing Blow on archers with extra shots is just wrong... so wrong.

lastly, I am not personally solid on small units of the stalkers or Necroknights.. friend used both of them (correctly in my mind) and I was able to negate them the entire game.

Another observation I made was that the healing spells dont come into play a lot unless you allow them to get the smaller ones off first you can keep them to D3+1 or 2D3+2 normally.. even with all their extra dice.
Building Hand Eye Co-ordination. . . . One kill at a time.
User avatar
Pjeos
Executioner
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:14 am

Post by Pjeos »

Hi there,

I've had some games against new TKs with my regular opponent (9 years a TK player lol) and here are some thoughts:

-Their magic is still very strong, with a Lvl4 plus the help of a nearby Hierotitan, which work similar to our Dagger (+D3 to all spells cast in 12"), they easily cast spells. The Casket of Souls helps a lot too to get many spells through. This means that healing is still part of their strategy. So far, my opponent focuses all spells on his Tomb Guard unit to grant it buffs and heal it. With only 2 spells per fase going through, he heals his Guard by 2D3+2 and gives them nice buffs like 5+KB, extra attacks or 5+WS (which is just insane). This, paired with the Tomb King WS makes for a nasty, nasty unit. Having some bound spells, like the Hierotitan's, helps burning some DD to get as many Nehekara spells through as possible.

-Tomb Scorpions got a bit "nerfed" but constructs (are they called like that) can be very good tanks agaisnt r&f troops if they're in BSB range (even loosing combat by 2 they will take no wounds). Later, there are 3 spells which affect all their units in 12" to grant them several buffs that can be used to heal back constructs. In my last game, a Giant tarpitted my BG only thanks to healing and Thunderstomp.

-So far, Ive seen a lot of synergies between their units and spells that depend on the range. Hierotitan in 12" of casters boost their casting nicely, at the same time BSB boosts constructs' survability and casters in 12" of constructs can easily heal them back. A Hierotitan in 12" range from the Lvl4 and the BSB can boost the Lvl4 casting by D3 in each spell and can pit MANY things that try to flank the Lvl4's unit, take some wounds and be healed back without many effort. In my opinion, the titan is going to be seen in almost every list.

-There's a magic item whose name I can't remember right now that prevents all enemy units in 6" range from the bearer to use Inspiring presence nor the BSB rerolls. This is just nasty when it's a Tomb King that bears it and sits in a 25 strong Tomb Guard right in the center of the army. It can be VERY disruptive -_-


There must be something else I can't remember of right now, I'll keep playing against TKs and will try to post some more info later on. Maybe I will even update my TK guide x)


Byee
Post Reply