In preparation for the Alamo tournament in November, I decided to test a potential TK list.

Lvl4, 4+ward, Nehekara, Scroll, Spells 1-4.
Lvl2, Death, Soulblight, Fate of Bjuna
Lvl2, Death, Caress, Doom
TP, 5+ ward, GW
TP, 5+ ward, GW

3 Chariots, Eternal Flame
5 Horse Archers
5 Horse Archers
34 Skeletons with Spears, FC
30 Archers
6 Necropolis Knights
3 Carrion
SSC
SSC
Casket
Hierotitan

Opponent took Empire
Lvl4 Light, Scroll
BSB, 1+armor save
Warrior Priest
Warrior Priest
General of the Empire, 4+ ward

30 Swordsmen
30 Swordsmen
10 Inner Circle with GW
10 Handgunners
20 Greatswords, Banner of Discipline, 8 Halberdiers
25 Greatswords, 8 Halberdiers
30 Flagellants
Cannon
Hellblaster

He deploys, my left to right, Knights, Cannon, Swordsmen, 20 Greatswords (WP, Gen), 25 Greatswords (WP BSB), Swordsmen (lvl4), Flagellants, Handgunners, Hellblaster. Halberdiers are in front of the Greatswords.

I deploy across, my left to right, Chariots, Archers, Carrion (Titan behind), Spears, Knights, and war machines in the back. The two scouts deploy across from the cannon and Knights so I can at least charge the cannon turn 2.

My plan is to snipe his lvl 4 and hopefully kill his characters so his units are testing on a stubborn 8 with no re-rolls, possibly with DnD in play.

He goes first.

Turn 1a – His knights charge one horse archer. His swordsmen fail to charge the other. Units move forward. Magic forces me to burn a dispel scroll when he rolls a 22 on his Shem’s on my Titan. Cannon misfires and does nothing. He blows up horse archers and reforms.

Turn 1b – My other horse archer charges the Cannon crew. No one advances to avoid getting shot. Magic sees me cast smiting on archers. 6 dice casket on HVG dispelled. Catapult drops a rock and blows up the HVG. Other Catapult drops 10 flagellants. Shooting takes down another 10. Combat – my guys whiff and lose 1 model. Draw combat. Grr… 8 WS2 attacks.

Turn 2a – His Knights charge the rear of my horse archers. He advances with his troops. Magic sees a 9. He Shems my Titan and rolls 11 hits. Dead Titan. Combat sees my horse archers dead. So much for 140 points.

Turn 2b – I charge with my Necropolis Knights into the flagellants. My carrion fail to make its charge into the swordsmen with wizard. Magic sees 11 dice. I throw 6 dice at Fate of Bjuna on his wizard lord. It goes off IF but I roll a 3. No hits. Miscast was a 6 which kills 7 models (yay 6+ regen). Shooting results in perhaps 1 dead greatsword due to 4+ armor save. Catapult direct hits again and blows up the Cannon. Other Catapult direct hits the Greatsword unit and kills 3. That’s 4 direct hits in a row. Inconceivable. Necro Knights slaughter flagellants to a man. Flagellants cause 5 wounds. I overrun into the flank of the swordsmen with lvl4.

Turn 3a – His two halberdier detachments charge my carrion in front and flank. His handgunners hit flank of Necropolis Knights. His knights advance in front of my archers. His swordsmen and greatswords are across from my archers. Magic gets 12 dice for him. 6 dice into Timewarp AOE. I let it through. 6 dice into Speed of Light – I successfully dispel. His combat units with Birona’s puts 3 wounds on my Knights. I kill his lvl4. He holds and turns. My carrion blows up.

Turn 3b – I charge his halberdier with my chariots into his flank. My spearmen charge his other halberdiers. Magic – I cast Killing Blow on my archers to discourage a knight charge. AOE smiting goes off with IF. I lose another 9 skeletons (I healed 2 with Smiting). Shooting results in two misses and no other wounds. Chariots kill halberdiers and overruns into the next halberdiers. That unit explodes. My overrun into the Greatswords fails (rolls a 3). Chariots reform. Necropolis Knights take 2 wounds, bringing them down to 2. They win combat again and handgunners in flank are dead.

Turn 4a - His Knights decide to not mess with KB skeletons. His swordsmen and greatswords charge my chariot. The other greatswords with BSB charges my spears. Magic is dispelled. His swordsmen and my knights fight to a stalemate again. I’m down to 2 Knights. His two units trounce my chariots and overruns into the archers. The spearmen cause 1 wound on the greatswords and my general puts a wound on the BSB. He kills 8 with his swords and WP hatred. I am down to 5 models (+6 wounds, rank, charge, BSB).

Turn 4b – My SSC blows up shooting his knights. Magic – failed to cast AOE Soulblight on 5 dice (rolled a 12). Combat – Knights break swordsmen and run them down. General’s unit dies from crumbling. Archers down to Priest and Prince after WP and Greatswords butcher archers.

Game over.

General thoughts –The Warrior Priest with Greatswords are brutal. WS5 means nothing against hatred (they hit 75%). Killing the Priest is a first priority. However, had it been a tooled Archlector (ward saves and all), I don't think I have a thing on it. Only monsters or unit destroying magic might have worked.

In hindsight, I should’ve taken Purple Sun over Caress. I don’t think that would’ve changed much though. Failure to cast sealed my fate. For a magic dependent army, the first failure to cast means that magic phase is essentially over (loss of power dice and conservation of dispel dice).

Hatred is a major problem for Tomb Kings, whether they are hitting rank and file, chariots, or monsters. This wasn’t the worst list either and my SSCs were on a roll. The Necropolis Knights were fine. However, those S5 flails ultimately caused too many fatal hits. If it weren’t flagellants, it would be greatswords that might be grinding me down.

Would WS10 or ASF make a difference for the Knights against say greatswords? Against that first round of combat, I don’t know due to hatred, barring an outright killing of the Warrior Priest. I imagine a second round of combat would even things up for them.

I think I may try Ramhotep after all. I lose the Hierotitan but I don’t have many choices. However, the Knights become an even bigger target. Separately, if my SSCs didn’t bash in the Hellblaster, I have no answer against it and my Knights would have been slaughtered.

Ugh. Finally, our lore attribute was a joke. I healed 2 skeletons each time.

Thanks for the battle report

TK are highly magical unfortuantley. I've always been curious about trying a horde of lvl 1 light users & heriotitan all taking the fireball spell. Each with the Titan in range needs a 3+ to cast so could be interesting. Also TK with wizard ing hat for accessing lores we normally can't touch may help too. No notes @ casket?

No ushabti?

Hatred hurts for many armies, not just TK

Keep it up, am enjoying your reports

Bugman