Well the first things I want to point you towards are these:

- almost all the Tomb King units cause fear.
- Unbreakable (instead they lose wounds equall to the difference in SCR if they lose SCR)
- Chariot heavy
- No bonus or penalty's for shooting.
- no marching

It has been a while ago when I last faced Tomb Kings, so it could be that some of these rules have changed. But the Tomb Kings are pretty strong in Close combat because of all the chariots and the unbreakable special rule. Shooting isnt really their thing. And fast moving isnt really Tomb Kingish as well. So my advice would be, lots of dryads to counter all the fear. And lots of shooters and fast cav. If you are able to take out the hierophant (one of the liche priests) then the Tomb King army will slowly fade to dust (every unit must take a LD test and will lose the amount of models equall to the difference between their LD and the throw > so they need 7's throw 9 and will lose 2 models).



But if you look at those points, the

 

As a tomb king player, a Noble with Hunter's Talon and Pageant of Shrikes scares the heck out of me. It can take out my Casket of Souls, my Hierophant, or really any Priest sitting well, anywhere.

Also, never underestimate their movement. They can have an extra turn of movement in the magic phase, as well as shooting. This means that their chariots can move 8" and then charge another 16 in the magic phase. The same thing goes for flyers and so if he has any big dead birds laying around, Be careful what you deploy in front of them.

On the shooting subject. Their catapults can shoot twice a turn, as well as their archers. This means that a twenty man skeleton unit can put out 40 shots a turn. They always hit on 5+'s so waywatchers/anythingoutintheopen will pretty much die if they shoot at them.

As for magic, they never fail to get a spell off. All of their spells are treated like bound spells and each character besides the BSB can cast a spell or two. I talk up my Casket a lot so that people will dispel it. It goes off on a power level of 2D6 and effects each enemy unit it can see. If I were you, I'd try to move some trees in front of it. You want to dispel his movement and healing spells, not the casket.

Also, watch out for Scorpions. For around 80 points, I can get a S5 T5 A4 W4 killing blow poisoned M7 monster that can come onto the board where ever it wants. A good TK player will take two of them.

Basically takeout to casters first. Go for the Hierophant then Casket dude, and then the guy probably hanging out with the catapult crew. A Hail of Doom Arrow will put a nice dent in a block of skellies or chariots. Wardancers eat skeletons for breakfast. Don't underestimate their shooting and don't underestimate their movement. They will wipe the floor with you in magic, and they can stick around in combat. Just concentrate on one unit at a time, and you'll do fine.

Good Luck
-Tk

 

As a TK player whose faced woodelves as well, I'll 2nd all that Temujin Khan has said. TK can be fast and even without magic heavy lists, with a king leading the way, can field alot of chariots and so still get to you quickly. Since chariots move as fast cav. they can reform w/o losing move and thus quickly face any threat. THat being said, a TK army can do quite well w/o chariots.

Be careful of bringing flammable units since the TK catapults are both flaming and magic. Any wounds caused cause panic and possibly at a -1 with the Skulls of the Foe upgrade.
Pay close attention to how your opponent runs his magic phase since TK must be painfully strict in their casting order. I've often baited an opponent with incants cast by a priest or a king that I didn't care about causing my foe to waste his dispel dice.

Watch out for a TK on foot as he often has the 'Destroyer of Eternities.' Each model in base contact will take two auto hits. It is a great weapon with killing blow. Tomb guard and scorpions also have killing blow.

If you can avoid his cheap blocks of skellies, do so since they can be a tarpit. As Temujin suggested, the hierophant should be your target, although most half-decent TK players are going to keep him safe. Some of those great eagles or spells that don't need LOS might do the trick for cornering it.

 

thx for all the gr8 help ppl.whats best level 4 mage or highborn?

 

Whichever one can bring alot of dispel ability? Remember though, that a clever TK will not depend only on his magic, but have a solid plan B. Their movements should be very methodical.

 

Against TK, magic defense is key. Take a lord level spellweaver and give her the Wand of the Wych Elm and some supporting wizards for dispel dice. TK will single dice a lot of their spells for summoning, the wand will let you re-roll any failed dispel attempts, forcing your opponent to use more dice on less spells or risk getting less spells off.

For character setup I would recommend:
Spell Weaver with wand of the wych elm and a scroll
Spell singer with 2xscrolls
Branch wraith with lvl1 and cluster of radients
Sniper noble (Hunter's Talon and Pageant of Shrikes)

Will give you 7dispel dice with re-rolls and 3 scrolls.

It is very important to kill a unit completely or they will re-summon guys to replace them.

 

tbeckett,

I think you might be thinking of Vampire Counts. Tomb Kings can't decide how much dice they use for what. Tomb Princes have one spell at LvL D6, Kings have 2 Lvl D6 spells, Liche Priests have 1 Lvl 2D6 spell, and Liche High Priests have 2 lvl 3D6 spells.

For 2250 points I usually take a King, a Prince, and two Priests, along with a casket. That's pretty typical of any Tomb Kings player, which is about 9 power dice between four spells and a the Casket of Souls. I'd personally ignore the Casket and try and dispel moving and healing spells. You don't have to worry about his catapult going off more then once each turn as it won't be too effective against Wood Elves.

I'd also check out Vaul's battle reports. They're very well don't and will give you an idea on how Tomb Kings play. I'd got with at least a standard Alter Noble in your list. The Hail of Doom can take out some Carrion and then he can put a nice dent in some chariots in close combat. Actually, an Alter Highborn with the Bow of Loren sounds good right about now as well.

 

Yea I always get the two's magic phases mixed up. but the idea is still the same, they rely on magic fairly heavily, so if you can shut that down you will have a much better chance of succeeding.

 

i whas thinking a Highborn whit alter : great w. bow of loren and hail of doom arrows. and 2 level 2 and a branchwraith whit cluster of rediants.

 

b"h
Usually I would take a spell weaver (with wand of wych elm and a dispel scroll) and either 3 spellsingers or 2 spellsinger and a branchwraith level 1 with cluster of radiants (one of the spellsingers have the deepwood spherer and adispel scroll and the others 2 dispel scrolls). It is either 8 dispel dice with 4 dispel scroll or 7 dispel dice with 6 dispel scrolls (and reroll failed dispels anyway). Then I would put my army in a big forest and move the forest toward the enemy (I take 2 treeman so it is 2 bound spells and 4 castings of tree singing), becouse that way the catapult and the casket of soul don't have line of sight (and his chariots can't go in without taking a lot of damage becouse it is difficult terrain).

 

i played tomb kings last night i used a very combat list to go in and take out his characters so no more magic my list was a 2250 list with a

lord no dragon w/ gw, Sh
oaken armour
stone of crystall mere

Alter noble
Hoth
Hoda
GW,SH,LA

Spell singer
x 2 scrolls

2 x GG- 11
GG - 10
Dryads x 10
Wardancers x 7 singer

Wardancers x 9 singer

2x tree man


my alter and dragon went straight for his genral and heroiphant
and took them both out in turn 2/3 then the rest of my army took out his i used my scrool on movement spells and dice on the movement spells stay as best out of line of sight from his casket in wood and combat all i lost victory points wise was my dryads and my alter noble ( which flee cos of out number by fear caseing enemy after killing the genral) then got shot in the back)
and half points for my lord i kill all of his army in the bottom of turn 4 bar his casket

 

b"h
Well done
Sometimes tomb king players don't defend their general well enough from dragons. Though there are some who know how to do that properly. Not that it would matter too much as long as you manage to evade his casket.

 

dude if you really want to make a mess of his tobekings take orion stick him in a unit of 5 wild riders with a wild rider noble with moonstone of hidden ways pop him up in a forest behind enemy lines and watch your enemies jaw drop as you beat his army up for the wrest of the army take dryads some treekin and a treeman pop in a couple of scroll cadys x 2 scrolls each and wardancers dont forget these dudes hehe dont waist your time with shooting just beat him up quickly

 

here is what i mean

orion
noble, wild rider kin, spear, LA, elven steed,moosnstone of hidden ways 161pts
spellsinger lvl1, x 2 scrolls 140pts
spellsinger lvl1, x 2 scrolls 140pts
core
9 dryads 108pts
8 dryads 96pts
8 dryads 96pts
8 dryads 96pts
5 wild riders, FC, 166pts ( orion and wild rider noble goes here )
special
4 treekin 260pts
7 wardancers, 126pts
rare
treeman 285pts
total 2249 orion gives 2 extra dispel dice so 6 in total and 4 scrolls, orion has a mean bow and cant be killing blowed whole army is immune to psychology wich is what your looking for when playing TK, use your speed to your advantage the dragon riding dude is a good idea but as someone said earlier a good TK player will look to protect against that the dragon is pradictable with orion and his moonstone weilding noble its all about serprise he will not expect orions unit to turn up on his end of the table in the blink of an eye