When you ask someone to list death stars, TG are right there between chosen, savage orcs and ogres. So apparently they're doing something right. A large part of it is the support of magic, characters and the buffer of larger numbers, but is there some merrit in the TG stats as well? Are different uses possible? What uses would you see for a small unit of Tomb Guard?

I'm thinking 15, no halberds(so that's the price of 3 charriots), no command, no character, but still tomb guard. Not an expensive unit, but not one any unit with a character wants to mop up for easy points either, due to the risks of killing blow for instance. Also, you DO need quite some firepower to take out the unit reliably; I feel a chaf unit will simply be grinded down by this low-point-15-TG
also I think this is the cheapest/toughest unit able to deny ranks in a flank, so 15 TG off centre could do that as well maybe?

What units do you think They'd survive? I think 15 WITH halberds(price of 3 knights, less attacks, less armor, more wounds, more healable) would be pretty scary for any monster.

brainstorm please people!

This tactic might work. But it is highly depended on our "desert wind" spell.

So you should have at least 2 mages with our signature nearby. Otherwise they will be to slow to get into a flank.

ive used 21, with halberds, ramhotep and a prince to great success, sprinkle in the Soul or my fave, the razor standard and you can dish out some points.
(7x3ish) Also you're not spending too much so you can still get 4 or so knights out of your special allotment for those sexy 3+ RR knights.

Yeah, is that so, Or could you have a somewhat slower army?
knights or charriots at the outer edges, but otherwise not so fast, so that the TG soimply don't have to stay behind?

I ran 10*2 with halberds the other day. Shredded a front rank of goblin characters then got torn apart by poisoned spears.

Since one of them was a mage, the lord was later finished off by a heirotitan that routed the unit, and they scared off a giant, I guess I got my two cents worth, but it wasn't glorious. Kind of reminded me of dwarf hammerers - die to fast to win a combat, but tend to maul the enemy in the process.

Actually, this is a really good question. I've just recently thought about this myself because of a local tournament coming up with some odd rules. The tournament rules don't allow horde formation and a maximum unit size of 25, among other rules. It's 1200 points, but I've always used TG with Halberds, as they're always the star of my army. They just demolish everything, especially when you get magic working. So I've started plotting out ideas of smaller groups of TG with no characters, just to see what they can dish out on their own. I live about 5 minutes (walking) away from where a group of us play, and there are Daemons of Chaos, Warriors of Chaos, Skaven, Brettonian, Dwarfs, High Elves, Ogres, and Orcs and Goblins. So I'm going to run some different small groups of TG and let you know how it goes.

1200 pts with a unit cap of 25 models no hoards? take 6-8 GW ubi. They will rock face. I can't think of anything that will stand up to them at those points. Maybe swordmasters, but a unit of 4 chariots will crush a unit of swordmasters.

I think 18 TG run 6x3 is probably the best compromise. Whether or not you run Halberds is purely a matter of taste.

Well, here is the whole set of rules. I agree though that Ushabti could easily rip through formations in games like that, but so could our Knights. The rules:

Army comp rules:
- No Lord Choices
- No Horde formation rules
- Unit size maximums - 25 max on regular troops (including core, special and rare choices), 9 max for monstrous infantry, 10 max for cavalry, and 6 max for monstrous cavalry.
- Normal percentage restrictions, but you must have 3 core units
- If you take a BSB with NO magic or special banners, then you may count it under your core points
Game play changes:
-Cavalry can disrupt with one rank.
-Disrupted units are never steadfast.
-Played on a 4' X 4' table.

But these rules are what got me started on thinking about the TG's raw power mainly because I never go without them.

hmm, interesting comp rules.
but in that list (which somehow heavily favours monstrous), I'd be tempted to try disrupting with 2x 3(or 4) necroknights.
also: bsb core? could the event organizer be someone playing a low-leadership heavy monstrous, low steadfast army? This com seems very mean to skaven, and very nice to ogres...


By the way:
deviating from the cheap throwaway-tombguard units, the fatalystic people among you expecting the unit to die fast might consider giving the unit a tect. the tect is cheaper than a prince, but does more for the offensive output in the first round for a unit of 7 wide. if you're not expecting to survive the impact anyway, but want to maximize the mauling of the enemy in the process, he might be your guy!

I thought about that idea with the Necro Knights. I also just want to use them because I'm growing to love the things pretty quick. But the guy who made the rules isn't playing (he has bretonnians though), he's just the judge at the local shop and wants the smaller game to have a variant of units rather than just a few large units. That's the first thought that came to mind, was the Ogres. The guy who played them won second in the last tournament up at the shop, so this will make it more in his favor.

As for the low number TG, I used 15 in a couple matches today, mainly for flanking. They definitely still tore up some units. Even the one time they hit some bloodletters in the front, they still took a good amount down before they got wiped out. I think he only had about 18 left out of 40. So, they're pretty deadly in low numbers still it seems. I used two groups of 15 in one game, and it worked even better. So I think it's a very reliable strategy to take a small group as flankers, or even to go after weaker groups. The small numbers make people underestimate them it seems, making it easier to flank and be ignored by shooting.

With those comp rules Im thinking something like....

6x4 Halberd Tomb Guard with Prince and Necrotect..

6x Necropolis Knights
Sphinx
Sphinx
Sphinx
Sphinx
Sphinx

lol

all kidding aside, with those comp rules it really does benefit the larger models like the sphinx that always do a lot of damage but the enemy sticks around due to steadfast. Maybe consider a monster heavy list with some scouting Skeleton Horse Archers for flank charges to negate steadfast