Arise and Reclaim Your Empires: A LO Tomb Kings Tactica

[Esco Thomson]

Mind if I write an article on my favorite hero?

The Icon Bearer

[Phoenix]

Go for it. How come hes your favourite?

On a separate note, ive just realised i havent really done a lot since i announced id do the Prince and Skellies. Sorry, work loads have picked up a lot again

[Esco Thomson]

Icon Bearer
Herald to the mighty Tomb Kings, only his most trusted and powerful champion was given the privelage of carrying his personal icon to battle. These great warriors set out to dispense justice in the King's name to all who oppose his rule.

Composition
An Icon Bearer is a Hero unit choice in a Tomb Kings Army.

The Good:
The Icon bearer is the lowest point cost hero available to Tomb Kings players; and unlike some armies hero choices, he does not have to pay extra points to become the armies Battle Standard Bearer. He comes standard equipped with a tomb blade, granting him magical attacks, as well as killing blow. Seventh edition now allows a stackable +1 combat resolution along with a normal standard, and he offers a small degree of damage control to combats lost within 12''.

The Bad:
Stranded somewhere in the middle of hero level characters, statistics wise, the Icon Bearer doesn't really lean towards offense or defense. He needs to be properly equipped in order to attempt either.

The Ugly:
In an army literally motivated by incantations, the Icon Bearer has none to bring to the table.

Applications:

The obvious reason to include an Icon Bearer in your forces is to allow use of one of the two otherwise unobtainable magic banners: The Standard of the Sands, and the Banner of the Hidden Dead. I recommend steering clear of both, as I find not only are they horribly cost ineffective, but rather non influential to the game’s outcome. The more subtle logic to the Icon Bearer lies within his suite of rules he brings to the table.

In combat the Icon Bearer is a pseudo-wound. One guaranteed hit and wound, no saves. Netting you that all important +1 combat resolution really matters when relying on fear to break foes. I know that we have all had those days when our characters just can not seem to hit anything. Those times in which the Icon Bearer causes a wound, or lands a decisive killing blow, are just icing on the cake.

The Icon Bearer does not keep his roles strictly to dishing out combat resolution though. He also serves as the armies Chief Medical Officer. No one wants to lose combats, but it happens, and when it does, we lose more wounds. With every unit able to be healed in our list, stemming the amount of wounds lost is a god send. This ability itself expands to stack along with the existing rules for the Undead Constructs. Allowing any constructs within range to suffer two less wounds when losing a combat. This does allow your constructs to remain in combat for extended periods of time, and grants the freedom of charging otherwise “off limits” blocks of troops.

Builds

This is my personal build, rarely do I play a game without this:

Icon Bearer, Skeletal Steed, Armor of the Ages, Vambraces of the Sun. Multi purpose support character, all for 123 points. I place him in my block of Tomb Guard, and they can take on the world. His equipment helps him to survive to continually reap the benefits of his abilities.

This is more risky, but can be effective:

Icon Bearer, Chariot, Chariot of Fire, Icon of Rulership. Maneuverable, hard hitting flanker. Obviously a bit risky of a tactic, but it certainly has its merits. For 157 points it certainly can make up its worth on a single charge.


This needs some finishing touches on the latter half of text, but I wanted to drop it off here to see if the format is goign to be acceptable. If so, I will try to finish it up shortly.

[willadams33]

Tomb Kings Chariots - Deep Impact


Overview -

Tomb Kings light chariots are core choices if you have a Tomb King as your general and a special choice if you have a Tomb Prince as your general. Chariots count as light cavalry can be formed into units of three or more and have a unit strength of three. They fulful a vital role in a Khemri army of providing natural manoverability, rather than relying purely on magic to get the charge off.

Strengths -

Fast
Tomb King Chariots have a basic movement of 8" and are no slower than other chariots as no chariots are allowed to march. If you charge a unit of Chariots using urgancy in the magic phase they have an effective charge range of 24".

Toughness
At toughness four and three wounds and a 5+ save, Chariots are more survivable than some units in the Tomb Kings army; combined with the ability to raise wounds back to the chariot unit.

Impact
Tomb Kings have rubbish Weapon Skill on the whole, so having some strength 4 attacks which don't need to role to hit is really useful. Also, in the post 'High Elves all strike first age" it is good to have units in plentiful supply that can still kill those pointy-eared annoyances before they ruin our day.

Economy
With your basic unit of three chariots coming in at 120pts, they can fulfil the role of sacrifical lambs, table quarter takers and great flanking units for the minimum of points.

Core with a Tomb King
This is part of the reason a Tomb King (in my oppinion) is better than a Liche High Priest. With so many great units veying for special slots, it helps that chariots aren't there too!

Weaknesses -

Lack of true power
Except against skirmishers, missile units (as long as they don't get destroyed by 'stand and shoot' and other enemy light cavelry, Khemri Chariots cannot realistically take on fully ranked up units in the front unless you put a Prince or King in with them with a few magic items. However, this is not what they were designed for. Their speed makes them well suited to a flanking role, and for taking out skirmishers shuch as wood elf dryads or dark elf dark riders.

Toughness four
Yes toughness four can be good, and is most of the time, but one good volley from a unit of handgunners or a decent magic missile will send a small unit of chariots packing.

No Look out Sir for Characters
A Tomb King in a chariot is pretty hard, except that he needs five chariots around him to get 'look out sir' and avoid randomisation of BS missile fire. This is a problem as a unit of the minmum 5 chariots inorder to solve this problem is not only a big points sink but also very unmanoverable. Also, after all those points being spent only one chariot would need to be killed to undo all that protective work. This is a problem most khemri players learn to live with, it doesn't make it any better though.

Strength 7
The death of chariots. If running a chariot army it is imperitive to neutralise all S7+ foes asap and make sure that your chariots don't get into combat with any strength 7 beasties. Again this is something that Khemri players have to live with, but with a good army there is no reason why warmachines should still be around to hurt you after turn 2, and your chariots then should be agile enough to avoid things like Kroxigor.

Tactics -

Flanking
Keep at least one unit within 16 inches of your big infantry units so that when they get locked in combat your chariots are there to fly into the flank and take the enemy ranks away, give +1 to combat resolution for the flank charge and help outnumber.

Sacrifice
As has been said, a unit of three chariots is fairly cheap, so if there is a big unit of Khorne knights whose charge needs to be diverted, the chariots may have to bear the brunt.

Champions and tar pits
I have started using champions in my Chariot unit now for a simple reason. Against things like dragons and other ridden monsters, if your champion issues the challenge, then the opponent will have to accept. Yes you will almost certainatly take the maximum 5 wounds but in a unit of four chariots, you will still outnumber and therefore lose combat by say, 3 if you get one wound back. You then proceed to raise the champioin back and repeat the process, brillient!

Interception
Chariots are great at taking out big threts early in the game like enemy fast cav. and more importantly fliers aiming for your war machines.

4 Across
Although a little less manoverable, if you want to insure that you clear the enemy front rank with impact hits with a charge from a chariot unit (I am thinking specifically of High Elves here), you need four chariots make sure.

The big daddy unit
I am talking about a King in a chariot with a chariot of fire, collar and flail of the skulls with at least three chariots with the Banner of the Undying Legion or the Icon of the Sacred Eye. This unit will take down most things in the game. However, the strength 7 thing is an issue, which may mean having to hide the unit for the first two turns whilst your carrion, scorpions and swarms clear away the enemy cannons.

Comclusion -

Chariots are cheap for what they do, fast and can count as core. They are usually not capable of taking on units single-handed but few units in the Khemri army are. They are best used in conjunction with other units, or simply to divert the attention of unwanted enemys. Moreover, their natural speed and striking before anything else is reason enough to take them in the first place!

[Esco Thomson]

Originally Posted by willadams33

The big daddy unit
I am talking about a King in a chariot with a chariot of fire, collar and flail of the skulls with at least three chariots with the Banner of the Undying Legion. This unit will take down most things in the game. However, the strength 7 thing is an issue, which may mean having to hide the unit for the first two turns whilst your carrion, scorpions and swarms clear away the enemy cannons.

It's just my observation, but in my practices this unit always performs better with the Icon of the Sacred Eye. This is what allows you to really run through anything in the game.

[willadams33]

Good point, edit made!

[Spector]

Sorry for the long time between updates folks, but my old laptop decided to fry itself. Have got another one now, so I'll be updating the Tactica soon .

[willadams33]

Hey guys, how are we doing on the tactica, I submitted the chariot one a while ago and will get the horsemen and ICFB done asap,

Will

[timk1111]

EDIT: Ignore please. Ive come to my senses...

[Spector]

I think the big lull in the tactics writing has been due to a lot of us having a good amount of RL things going on. I know this has been the case for me. People are still encouraged to contribute, and I'll make it more of a point to make sure everything stays updated.