[Spector]

Written by: willadams33

Tomb Guard – The Immovable Object

Strengths

-Strength and Toughness 4. Tomb Guard are the toughest infantry unit we have access to, toughness 4 can really make all the difference.

-Magic Weapons. This is great for taking out ethereal creatures like spirit hosts for Vampire Counts or the Green Knight for Bretonnia. It is also useful for negating the saves of Wood Elf Forest Spirit units or Chaos Daemons.

-Killing Blow. Cavalry should rightly fear Tomb Guard. Killing blow is excellent especially if you manage to smite the unit in the magic phase, that’s eleven killing blow attacks per turn assuming you have a Champion in the unit. It is also great for character annihilation. Over two turns, if three Guard are in combat with a character you should average a killing blow.

-4+ Save in Combat. Not much to say here, just makes the unit a little more resilient. The best combat save the majority of units in the Warhammer world can expect.

-Can raise themselves back better than any unit other than skeleton warriors. The D6 rather than D3 to raise these guys back is invaluable, especially if you are in the final turns and you need to get the unit back to over half strength.


Weaknesses

-Basic movement is slow (4). If you come up against a defensive magic setup, you Tomb Guard could be in for a long walk. Without urgency these guys are slow. If this is the case, try to kill enemy wizards with Carrion/Scorpions asap (you should be doing this anyway).

-Expensive. Tomb Guard are 3pts more per model than a normal HW/S skeleton. This doesn’t seem like much on the face of it, but by the time you have a unit of 20 with command and a banner, the unit becomes very expensive and a missile and magic magnet.

-Take up a special slot. This is annoying. The blessing and curse of Tomb Kings is that all our special choices are worth taking. As Carnifexus said, once you have the mandatory two Scorpions in place, that leaves only two slots left at 2k for Tomb Guard, Ushabti, Carrion and another Scorpion. “Choice…The problem is choice.”

-Weak non-Combat armour save. A 5+ save wont keep your guard animated for long against a prolonged ranged assault.


Basic Tactics

-Forward, March! This one is pretty self explanatory really. Use the Tomb Guard as your hammer unit down the centre, getting them into combat as quickly as possible. This tactic normally requires a Price if not a King to be in the unit to help urgency them forward.

-Catapult Partol. If you want to play defensively, there is no better unit that Tomb Guard to sit in front of the hill upon which sits your Catapults and Casket. This is a real, ‘let them come to us’ tactic so beware of being out-manoeuvred by fast armies. It also means that your Tomb Guard may never see combat which means the rest of your army will need to win you the game (more on this later).

-Tar Pit. This is for when you see that Vampire on a Zombie Dragon, that great big Unit of Chaos Knights with a Lord on a demonic steed etc-. Tomb Guard are about the only unit who will stand a hope against these guys in combat, so usually it is better to send them in to stop the unit reeking havoc against the rest of your army, and maybe even win the combat eventually because you can raise back and smite.


The Key to Tomb Guard

If using Tomb Guard, usually it is best to assume that they will get shot and magicked to pieces. It is an unhappy thought I know but it is true. Your opponent isn’t going to want your prize unit destroying half his army. To this end, the key to Tomb Guard is to have a battle plan that accounts for this. The rest of you army need to win you the game. I’m talking Chariots, Scorpions, Bowmen and Ushabti. These are the guys that need to be able to win you the game if either, the Guard are sent on Tar Pit duty, or if you opponent puts all of his long range capabilities into destroying them. Use chariots to get round the flanks and kill enemy wizards asap. Use swarms to take out enemy missile units or even carrion.


Equipment

-The whole 9 yards. This means a unit of at least 19 Tomb Guard with full command, joined by a King with the Destroyer of Eternities and the unit standard holding aloft the Icon of Rakaph. This is a big, very expensive unit and is most suited to the Forward, March! tactic. The Icon means that you effectively have 360 degree LOS for your charges and means that if by bad fortune you get flanked, it should be for no more than a turn. More than this, it means that you can plough straight though the enemies battle line and then, next turn, turn and charge straight away again (probably in the flank) rather than have to spend a movement phase turning around.

-Budgeted. If on catapult patrol, a unit with a standard will be fine, there is no need for even the champion or musician.

-I Raise. A good alternative to the Icon of Rakaph is the Banner of the Undying Legion, giving the unit more staying power and it is another bound spell for the enemy to deal with.


No-No’s

-Getting stuck against Unbreakable units or other ‘raising’ units. The last thing you want is for your big, undead killing machine to get stuck for the entire game by a unit of Flagellants or a block of Undead skeletons, leaving them stuck, flank showing, for the rest of the game.

-Out all alone. Tomb Guard are great, but if you just send them out of your line on their own eventually they will be overwhelmed. Use them with supporting units such as chariots or Ushabti and they will nearly always ‘live’ to tell the tale.


Conclusion

Tomb Guard are our best infantry unit and used correctly, can swing a game with ease. However, if you are simply looking for sponge units to flank the turn after, skeletons are the way forward as they are cheaper and will get the same saving throw. Here in lies the problem for Tomb Guard. Unless you plan to use them aggressively, Skeletons can perform their roles nearly as well, for 75% of their cost.