Hello everyone, I would like to hear your imput on what you believe is the best way to run a tomb king, including all the gear you take for one as well as the units you've put him with that have had the most promising results.

I think a better way to rephrase the question is:

What is the best way to run a Tomb King in the following situations:

a. Tomb King on Chariot

b. Tomb King on foot with skeletons

c. Tomb King on foot with Tomb Guard

d. Tomb King on War Sphinx.

The answers will swing wildly with each one.

For me, I've long abandoned TK on Chariot mostly because I'm not afraid of my TK dying but rather getting dismounted, and there's nothing I can do about it. There have been several builds where he takes a weapon giving him +2 attacks and a save of sorts.

For TK on foot with skeletons, I take a conventional 4+ ward save and some number of attacks. There are heavy defense, heavy offense, something in the middle builds.

The Fencer's Blade, 4+ ward, Other Trickster's Shard is very convenient, although you don't convey WS10 to your troops. It provides a nice balance.

Heavy defense would be: Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, 5+ ward. You run the risk of flaming attacks but you still have a ward and anything less than WS5 hits you on 6s.

Anyway, if you want a magic weapon, you'd probably want to go between fencer's blades for +1A, WS10 at 35, or Sword of Might at 20 for +1S. The Blade of Antarhak is a mediocre weapon IMO because you typically forego a ward save when you take it (other than anti-flaming gear), thus increasing the odds of dying to the odd Killing Blow or Flammable attack since your King has average initiative.

I've only run the Tomb King in a chariot and in Tomb Guard.

On the chariot he gets the 5+ ward armour and the Death Mask. The goal here is to break flanking units.

The main point of putting him in tomb guard is giving them WS6, and so I try to kit him out to survive, since we know he's not great offensively in any case. In this case I like the Glittering Scales, Fencer Blades, & Talisman of Endurance, or the Glittering Scales, Talisman of Preservation, & First Strike Sword (to prevent rerolls on the king from opposing first strike)

So what do you think would be best with a Sphinx?

Also, can Kings take the Cloak of the Dunes? It'd be pretty terrifying having a Flying King zipping around.

Best thing to take with a king on a sphinx is no sphinx :)

Seriously, its a massive waste of points.

I always go defensive on my king unless i put him in a chariot. You pay a lot for MWBD; no sense in making it easy to remove.

I'm a fan of:
Glittering scales
Blade of Antarak
Dragonbane Gem
Potion of Speed
Shield.

Keeps him alive for a while and its pretty cheap comparatively.

I'm a fan of the monster killing king,

Destroyer of Eternities
Seed of Rebirth
Dragonhelm
Shield

Slaps and laughs away monsters, Might die easier than you would expect however.

Sure - I've seen this put to use to win a fairly large tournament, actually. Not by me, but by a much better player :)

I advocate the combo: blade of antarhak, dragonhelm, potion of strength (and shield).

Intresting to hear everyones imput on the matter :) however, im still not sold on using DoE on a king, just seems like way too many points for what it offers.

Now regarding the sphinx as a mount, yes we all know its crud (pun intended) BUT, lets just say for whatever reason you had to take a king on a sphinx, how would you kit him out?

I've actually been finding a use for the tomb king on war kitty recently.

My general thinking has been some defensive kit, preferably that boosts his armour save to 3+ (remember any suit of armour that happens to be heavy is a bonus for us, and +2/3 strength on the sword to give him some high strength attacks. If you're not using the light buffs it's probably as well to give him a great weapon and serious armour - helm of rerolling to wound seems useful, but he does also lose the shield this way.

Most recently I gave him +2 strength, enchanted shield and a healing potion, on the assumption that if I could keep him out of the way of things killing him in one round this would be pretty handy. Only 85 points too - you can fit in the dragonbane gem / 6+ ward if you like.

If you are running a lord on foot with the destroyer of eternities, a potion of speed seems almost mandatory - he's a first strike weapon :)

Keen to find out any more experience with the King/Prince on the Warpuss. I know it certainly isn't the best way to utilise the king/prince however it looks cool so with that in mind I'm going to give it a go eventually.

On the King in chariots, the mask is the sure winner here but regardless of what kit you give him a canny opponent will just knock his chariot out from underneath him upsetting the unit. :(

shows you how often I use it, but isnt the DOE still 100 pts? so no potion of speed?

DoE is 80 points now

I used it a bit with the old book. at 80 pts I may play with it a bit

The old Destroyer wasn't 100 points, I thought it was 75 (for Collar of Shapesh goodness) but it's been so long since I've cracked that book open I very well could be wrong.

I'm a strong believer in the Blade of Antarhak on a King on foot and I swear by the Sword of Bloodshed on any mounted King. I'd be extremely leery of mounting a King on a Warsphinx although I have considered a Prince on one with the Armor of Destiny and a Great Weapon. I haven't gotten around to running it yet as I face way too many armies capable of instajibbing the mount either with a cannon shot or an I-test-or-die spell. I cannot deny the aesthetic appeal of fielding a royal on a sphinx, however.

I really think if you're going to run an offensive foot mounted King, like with DoE, you might want to consider a non-BSB Herald to run along side him to eat a couple of wounds.

What about the obsidian blade on a mounted king? 1+ AS is problematic for TK, espcially if it can't be killing blow'd.

Fencers blades for the WS 10, and +1 attack.
Tricksters helm for rerolling wounds and high save
Then a combination of any of the following depending on the mood I am in...
Seed of rebirth, other tricksters, potion of speed and dragon bane gem.


I actually find that unless you are up against a chaos lord or a vampire, he can hold his own very well.


Tomb prince is the difficult choice, I have never found a set up I have really liked for a prince.

Tomb King
- Hat of Wizardry
- Chariot pulled by giant desert gerbils
- Great Weapon shaped like an Oar (It is an oar)

...or just the hat... *shrugs* he's mad @__.

I love the DoE i place him in with the TG with the Heiro and a necro and herald. with that lil deathstar monsters and all ogres fear that king

I like teaming my King with a herald firstly, both on foot btw. I equip my King with the doe, the other trickster shard and the charmed shield.

+2 str, hkb, and ignoring the first hit you suffer on a 2+ combined with the herald means you go striaght for the biggest, best target and take it out easily :) For added protection getting their or fighting the said target give the herald armor of destiny meaning anything you redirect to the herald, the herald will have a 50% of taking it on the chin :)

Ward save Karl Franz? re-roll that killing blow please ;)

tomb king
- destroyer of eternities
- the other tricksters shard
- dragonbane gem

in a combination with a necrotect so he can rroll that 4A HKB in order to kill a bloodthirster/treeman/mournfangs/other pain in the bone monster. cast on a djef and you got yourself one reliable lord. its basically kill the character/monster before it kills you. dragonbane gem is there for those pesky flaming banners :angry:

If i FEEL really cocky i put a HLP & a herald with a 4+ ward & enchanted shield to protect the king (6+ regen & 2+ save that can be saved on a 4+ ward). first rank herald + king, second rank necrotect + HLP. if i got the spare points i put on a helm of discord on a necrotect & a death mask on HLP. if he (the enemy char) fails that Ld test he will be facing 7autohits KB + many more if i get Djef casted.

but again thats a lot of points ~750 pts of characters in one unit. insted i could get two warsphinxs. that is a way to think when building a list.

insted of king + necrotect I get a S8 colossus + catapult + carrion.

I really want to field a single-model king. Let's take that as a given. what will be important?

in terms of offense, I'm affraid that getting a Great weapon is simply the best option we have. for those 6 points, our king brings a -4 armor save penalty (makes the obsidian blade look a bit expensive), and having 4 str7 attacks also seems more effective than having 7 str 5 attacks (so if you're not charging slaves on your own, the sword of bloodshed won't be it either). the sword of antharak doesn't seem the answer either, as a single kings enemy will mostly be crumble anyway.

that said, we can focus on defense and movement. Movement gives two real options: a chariot and the cloack of the dunes. the advantage of the charriot is that is doesn't come out of your magic item treasury, AND the impact hits might help on the first turn. On the other hand, the cloack provides you very important protection against all template fire: firstly, your less easy to hit (chariot would be cannon fodder), secondly, you can grab bigger and lesser LoS from infantry along the way. you also gain 2 inch in movement and greater flexibility in that you can now walk through walls (and harrassment units).

So if you ask me, we have 50 points left for other stuff. you could go waste in on defense, a 4+ wardsave, for instance, but you could also buy some utility and trust your 5T 4W to shrug of arrows and buy you enough time in combat. So I say, as this guy will be a gamble no matter what you do, get the other tricksters shard and the helm of discord!

King
-GW
-Cloack of the dunes
-Other tricksters shard
-Helm of discord
-dragonbane gem.

edit:
and otherwise, just get the damn chariot and put on that wizard hat! don't forget that you're a wizard with nekharran undead, and therefore are supported by the hierotitan!

I have been doing fine with the

blade of anthrak,
Armor of silvered steel
Dragonbane gem

And for my princes If I take em, I remove the blade and replace with a great weapon.

Had been toying around with a solo herald chariot with the asf and other tricksters shard.

does KB transfer to magic weapons? I guess it does, right? would you consider then the ws 10 sword? give syou an extr attack and all that, and possibly more hits.

yeah. isnt one of the swords added speed and an xtra attack? i know its not the I10 sword, thats gold sigil. Cant think right now at school but yeah the idea is to have 3A fast, and hope for a kb

WS10 is a no brainer for a tomb herald. 4A KB WS10 + you can put a tricksters shard in there to be ubber_killy against enemy lords.

IF you take a herald to go fight things, then yes, the WS10 sword is ok.

My question is why you would want to?

4A at S4 will probably get you 2-3 hits, which means that a little less than half the time you will roll a single six for KB. You are unlikely to wound with the other hits.

So, you through a ton of points at an incredibly fragile model who is likely to die before he gets to roll his attacks, and even if he lives he's got a less than a 50% chance to do his job.

No thanks.

I would never go after ghoul kings and such, more after wizard lords with wards (ha it rhymes :) ). and of course a cast of djef or 5+ ward is crucial. you might write something like this 'you highly depend on magic.........' but yes I do.

you speak the truth, sleb. i second thought that - double the points and you get a necrosphinx - a real assassination machine! also a cannon magnet

Its a risk with a reward. Face it, our bsb is going to die quickly anyways (whichever way you use him/look at him) so why not try to get some utility out of him if you use one, and its not like our hero choices are hotly contested slots at high points unlike rare, where you wont fit a spinx with your hierotitan, casket and dbl pults.

I don't know, put him on a charriot. Avoid ws 5, and no matter what, he'll fend of most attacks he receives when he barrels into some bunker, and impact hits will keep crumble to a minimum (and what crumbles, you put into the chariots wounds first, so I think you actually will get a second chance. in that sense the ASF sword (or ini 10) arn't that bad an idea, as surviving one round of combat is is doable and then acertains a second try.