Tomb Kings pics and info

[Andrew]

Also, it comes out in May obviously.

flameon.co.uk/index.php?option=com_agora&task=viewtopic&pid=45068&Itemid=59#p45068

I like 'em mostly I guess.

The Necro Knight musician looks like he's takin' a crap on the snake's head though...or something...

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

Thank you for posting this Andrew! I definitely like these.

[equinox]

Thanks, now I can't get the image of that skeleton dropping pigeon points on the cobra monsters head.

[Andrew]

Yep. Hey, it's not my fault the skellie be squattin'!

[Rios]

The sphinx's look badass, not too much on the snakes though

[Andrew]

Also, their armybook got hard covered at $37.25. That sucks again! Stop with the hardcovers, nobody wants them!

Anyway, it's all up for preorder now:
www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat440004a&rootCatGameStyle=wh

[Andrew]

Taken from GW:

Tomb Kings army in Warhammer is an impressive sight, massed ranks of skeletons, immense stone monsters and legions of chariots. It is an army that causes Fear, that will never break from combat and can even replace models that have been lost. The army is incredible flexible, allowing for an entire force mounted in chariots or riding on statues, you can do a massed horde with rank upon rank of Skeletons and Skeleton Archers, an army of monsters or a mixture of all the above.

The bulk of the Tomb Kings army will be made of Skeleton Warriors and Archers. These more than make up for their Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill 2 by causing Fear, being Unbreakable and, due to the Lore of Nehekhara, easily replenishable during the game. They are also incredibly cheap, at a cost of only 4 points per Skeleton.

The partially mummified Tomb Guard are the elite infantry of the army. A Toughness and Strength of 4 coupled with the Killing Blow rule and the option to take halberds ensure they are a foe to be feared.

The chariot legions of the Tomb Kings have ever been a formidable sight. They can field an entire army on chariots, each of which will deliver D6 Impact Hits on the charge. When ranked up, chariots can add +1 Strength for every rank in the unit. Which means a unit of six Skeleton Chariots (in two ranks of three) will inflict 3D6 Strength 5 Impact Hits on the charge!

Necropolis Knights stand upon the hoods of their stone Necroserpent mounts. These are tough Monstrous Cavalry units with 5 Attacks each, three of which are Poisoned Attacks and the remaining two have Killing Blow. What's more, as Monstrous Cavalry they can stomp, and have a 3+ save, should the enemy actually land a blow.

The Khemrian Warsphinx is a massive monster made of stone, jade, marble or any other rock-hard substance. When animated, it is a terrifying thing to face, its Toughness means all but the strongest attacks will struggle to wound the creature and its special Thundercrush attack can lay waste to even horde units in a single round of combat.

A Tomb Kings army is led by the mummified Tomb Kings themselves and supported by the Liche Priests. A Tomb King can be mounted in a chariot or even on a Khemrian Warsphinx. You can also field him on foot where his special 'My Will Be Done' rule means that every other model in the unit he is accompanied by will share his WS of 6.

Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings is jam-packed full of new units and exciting new monsters, all of which have their own battlefield advantages and merits. I mean, you can raise an entire army of Undead charioteers if you wanted to, led by a Tomb King on a Chariot. Or how about a legion of Skeleton Warriors that march silently towards the enemy, back them into a corner and methodically chop them to death? You can actually field a vast number of Animated Constructs in the army too - potentially 4 Warsphinxes and a Necrosphinx in a 2,000-point army (they're the living statues that will terrify the pants off your opponent and make them run home to their mummy).

On the topic of Animated Constructs, there are now two new units for the Tomb Kings, immortalised in one superb plastic kit: the Necrosphinx and the Khemrian Warsphinx. These two colossal creatures are both phenomenally powerful and almost completely indestructible: there aren't many creatures out there that have a toughness of 8 (yes, you read that correctly - 8). Whether you choose to stomp your foes into paste with the Warsphinx or annihilate enemy monsters with the Necrosphinx, these two are a must-have addition to the army. Hell, I want to get them and I don't even have a Tomb Kings army (yet).

[Andrew]

What's really striking about these two monsters is how different they are to all the other big beasties in Warhammer. They're both Toughness 8 (I know I mentioned that yesterday, but I still haven't quite got over the shock of it), which is the highest toughness in the whole game. This means that your typical monster-killing weapons like bolt throwers will only wound on a roll of a 6, which means you're either going to need more of them or different tactics.

If you know the Warhammer rulebook inside-out like I do (though my battle tactics would indicate otherwise), then you'll know that you can always wound on a roll of a 6, no-matter your strength. While this may seem like good news, the Necrosphinx and the Warsphinx do have 5 wounds each and, let's be frank, no-one will want to charge either of them in the hope of killing them in combat. I'll explain why:

The Khemrian Warsphinx is effectively an infantry masher. It is accompanied by four Tomb Guard riding in the Howdah, all of which have the Killing Blow Special Rule. The Warsphinx itself has four attacks at Strength 5, which is more than enough to splatter bits of lightly armoured troops all over the battlefield. However, it can exchange all its attacks for one Thundercrush Attack. As you've probably guessed, this will be very painful for the unlucky troops standing in front of the Warsphinx. If the attack hits, you get to place a small template over the unit, roll loads of dice to wound them all and then do a small celebratory ritual while your opponent takes off a couple of ranks of models. And then you can Thunderstomp them, just for good measure. Against infantry on a 20mm base you can potentially kill 31 models (that's 21 under the template, 6 from the Thunderstomp and four from the crew). Oh, I nearly forgot, it also causes Terror, just in case it wasn't scary enough.

The Necrosphinx is the monster masher1 of the Tomb Kings army. It has the Killing Blow rule and the Decapitating Strike rule. This means that one of its attacks every turn is at Strength 10 with Heroic Killing Blow. This gives the Necrosphinx a good chance of killing enemy monsters outright with a single sweep of his blade (and his blades are big). If worst comes to worst and he doesn't kill the monster, you'll be safe in the knowledge that he will have given it a good kicking anyway. Few monsters will survive two turns against the Necrosphinx and even fewer will have the strength to retaliate. If the enemy doesn't have any monsters then, as mentioned earlier, they'll probably have big guns instead. The Necrosphinx can fly, so dealing with pesky cannons hiding at the back of the battlefield won't be too hard for it either.

[liberatedobject]

Now I feel dirty for ever wanting to play Tomb Kings.

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

YES! Now I am definitely pumped over this release. Lots of character to the army. Thanks for the info Andrew!

[Rios]

They were always one of the nicer looking armies with cool rules, I'm glad they got the update they needed

[Sean S]

Well looks like it is 40k Season for me..... Super hero armies is what theyre comming out with now... TO 40k i go... Comeon Bretonians

[Andrew]

Behold! I have returned from the land of knowledge and sand! Here's what I have learned. Anyway, these are 100% accurate.

Special Rules
- Never ever march for any reason.
- Always need a Hierophant (wizard of the highest level in army), and if he dies, standard Ld crumbles.
- On that note, Core choices are generally Ld 5, Special and Rare are 8, characters are 7-10.
- Beneath the sand units come up in Remaining Moves part.
- The Curse: Killer of Tomb King suffers D6 S5 hits, Tomb Prince is D6 S4. All units involved in his death suffer.
- King's "My Will Be Done:" King gives WS6 to unit he has joined, whether on foot, mounted, etc. Doesn't affect mounts.


Characters
Lords
*Settra the Imperishable - His MWBD is 6" bubble instead of only his unit.
*Khalida - gives BS3 and Poison shots to bowmen units she joins...otherwise is ASF with I9 poison attacks. (365 points)
*Arkhan the Black
*Grand Hierophant Khatep
Tomb King
Liche High Priest

Heroes
*The Herald Nekaph
*Prince Apophas
*Ramhotep the Visionary
Tomb Prince
Liche Priest
Tomb Herald - All heralds are oathed to a single king or whatever; when oathed person takes wound, on a 2+ it's bounced to the herald; Stats are mostly 4's and 3's.

Core
Skeleton Warriors
Skeleton Bowmen
Skeleton Horsemen
Skeleton Horse Archers
Chariots -

Special
Tomb Guard -
Tomb Swarms
Tomb Scorpions (killing blow, MR(1), Poison Attacks
Carrion
Ushtabi - S4 and GW stock. May swap GW for AHW or Great Bow (S6, 30:, volley fire) for free (only one option may be taken) (also hot models)
Sepulcheral Stalkers - WS3. Transmogrifying gaze can target any model/unit (i think you can pick out characters) within 8". Model suffers 1 artillery dice worth for each stalker in the unit (mmm, 60 hits....), S1, roll vs Initiative, no armor save
Necropolis Knights
Warsphinx - thundercrush works against infantry, warbeasts, and swarms.

Rare
Necrosphinx - 1 more attack than warsphinx
Casket of Souls - T10, 3 wounds, bound level 5, 48", unit takes Ld test on 3D6, suffers wounds equal to the difference, no armor save; on a 3+ bounces to next unit within 6". This continues until eith er you roll a 1-2 or there are no other units in range. Units can only be hit once.
Screaming Skull Catapult - magical flaming attacks, causes panic for single wound.
Necrolith Colossus (bone giant) - Unstoppable assault: for every wound that goes unsaved, gets an extra attack; these extra attacks can produce yet more extra attacks, etc.
Hieortitan - bone giant priest. has Shem's Burning Gaze (light) and Spirit Leech (death)

Magic Items
Destroyer of Entities - +2S, heroic killing blow, sweep attack auto-hits all models in BTB
Blade of Antarhak - each wound caused regains a wound in unit or him; if full, he gains regeneration
Cloak of Dunes - fly, if flying over enemy unit they suffer 2D6 S2 hits, can be used repeatedly, and hit every unit flown over each turn.
Golden Death Mask - causes terror; enemy unit within 6" cannot use General's Ld
Scrolls of Mighty Incantation - One use; gain dice to use on this spell equal to caster level; these are not power dice.
Enkhil's kanopi - bound level 3; dispel all Remains in Play spells on a 2+ each; gain D3 power dice for each successfully removed
Standard of the Undying Legion - bound level 5 - augment that regens D6 +2 skellies (so also regens D3+1 due to lore)
Banner of Hidden Dead - pick one unit over 150 points; it gains entombed beneath the sands, if the marker is placed within 12" of the banner, may reroll scatter and artillery dice.


On another note, Nicole likes the look of them so much she's going to pick them up as her second Fantasy army. Yay I get TK too!

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

Glad to see they lowered the points of the core troops.

[Andrew]

I gots the skinny on all the special characters. Interestingly, their unit type is different than
normal (but based very similarly to the Grey Knights codex; a very good design shift btw). Say for an infantry dude it will be "Unit type: Infantry (special character Tomb Prince (or High Liche Priest etc)). Bascially, exceedingly clearwhat he/she is.

Next, no characters modify the basic Core/Special/Rare layout; everything stays where it starts.

Now, onto the dudes themselves. I have all the stat-lines written on my sheet here, but I think that may just be a bit much right?

LORDS
Settra the Imperishable
Special Rules
- level 1 wizard (lore of Nehekhara)
- the Curse, Flammable, Inspiring Presence is 18"
Magic Items
- Crown of Nehekhara: MWBD is a 6" bubble instead of only the unit he's joined.
- Chariot of the Gods: Has magical flaming attacks, 4+ armor save
- Scarab Brooch of Usirian: 4+ ward save, MR (1)
- Blessed Blade of Ptra: Magical flaming attacks, ignores armor, any model wounded but not killed suffers -1 on its to-hit (shooting or cc) rolls for the rest of the game.

High Queen Khaliph
Special Rules
- ASF, the Curse, Flammable, Hatred (VC), Poison Attacks
- Incarnation of the Asp Goddess - Poison doesn't affect her and needs to roll to wound normally
- Blessing of the Asp - Gives bowmen she joins BS 3 and poisoned shots
Magic Items
The Venom Staff: bound lvl 5 - magic missile 24", 2D6 S4 hits

Arkhan the Black
Special Rules
- level 4 wizard, lore of Death (even if he's the hierophant)
- Flammable
Magic Items
- Tomb blade of Arkhan - each wound caused regains a wound in his unit as per Resurrecting
- Staff of Nagash - at the end of opponent's magic phase, can store up to 3 dispel dice; these are converted to power dice in the next friendly magic phase
- Liber Mortis - as long as he has the Liber, he's Level 5
Unit Options
- Can take a chariot, upgrade to 4 horses, upgrade to Fly

Grand Hierophant Khatep
Special Rules
level 4 wizard, Loremaster (Nehekhara)
- if taken, he must be the hierophant
Magic Items
- The Liches Staff: after rolling power dice to cast a spell, may choose to reroll all (not some, all) the dice (even if IF was cast the first time)
- Scroll of the Cursing Word: One use. Use when enemy wizard casts a spell. That wizard must take a Toughness test; if failed he cannot cast any more spells that turn; if failed on a 6, sufferes D3 wounds with no armor save


HEROES
The Herald Nekaph
Special Rules
- Flammable, Killing Blow, Sworn bodyguard (as per normal Heralds)
- Settra's Champion - must issue/accept challenges; in a challenge he gains a 5+ ward and Killing Blow is a 5+
- Herald of Despair - enemy units in BTB must take Fear checks on 3D6 and discard the lowest die
Magic Items
- Flail of Skulls: Flail; Multiple wound (2)

u]Prince Aphophas[/u] (the guy made of scarabs)
Special Rules
- Entombed beneath the sand, Fly, Regeneration, Strider, Terror
- Desert Revenant - cannot join units or be the general
- Scarab Prince - S2 Breath weapon, and when he dies all enemy units within 2D6" take 2D6 S2 hits
- Soul Reaper - when he hits the table, nominate one enemy character; he rerolls to-hit and to-wound against that character

Ramhotep the Visionary
Special Rules
- Flammable, Frenzy, Hatred, Stone Shaper, Wrath of the Creator (the last two are same as Necrotect)
- Frantic Fervor - confers Frenzy onto unit he's joined
- Master Artisan - randomly select one Animated Contruct unit; that unit may reroll all failed armor saves this game

[RARE CHOICE GAMES]

Glad to see my Khalida model will be getting some use again also. Thanks again Andrew.