I haven’t played Tomb Kings in quite a while. And although I love the army and built just over 2500pts in 7th edition, their new book has brought my interest back to them. But right now ive been playing greenskins in our group escalation campaign. But I decided to switch from Greenskins to Tomb Kings, for a couple reasons. First, there are 2 other greenskins armies in the campaign, so I thought it would be nice for a little bit of variety to switch it up. Second, I suffer from the rare gamer’s disease of ‘oooh look, something shiny” meaning I get easily distracted and want to do something else. Third, I’ve always loved the Tomb Kings, and I have some cool conversions in my existing army, so thought I could add to it with some new stuff for the new boo. But more importantly, I need to start preparing an army for tournaments this fall, and I can get Tomb Kings done quicker than I can the greenskins, so….

The second rising of Sobetek, Guardian of Akhen-Ra

The golden rays of sunshine broke across the horizon, signally that they had travelled yet another night through this foul land. Sobetek longed for his homeland, to again be under the blistering sun and travelling across the sweeping desert sands just south of Numas, known as the Scarab City. For when he lived, Sobetek held a prominent position as Tomb Guardian, charged with protecting and preserving the sacred Tomb of Akhen-Ra, one of the most powerful Tomb Kings of that time. But, that was very, very long ago… Sobetek was a proud warrior, skilled at fighting with sword and shield. His combat prowess earned him the trusted position of Tomb Guardian, a sacred position and one that Sobetek worked hard to earn. But it was all quickly lost….
Suddenly there were numerous explosions, and Sobetek could see from his vantage point on the hillside that several of the sphinxes were already destroyed! He could see the smoke billowing from the large cannons of the invaders from the north, and they were destroying as many structures as they could with their warmachines. How did they get past all the scouts he wondered, just as he felt something go through his chestplate. He looked down as the blood began to escape from his body, and he looked up to see the human, dressed in purple and grey checked uniform, holding a large barreled weapon at his face, and another puff of smoke emitted from the barrel as Sobetek felt another impact in his abdomen, and fell backwards to the ground. That is his last memory as he quickly died at the doorstep to the tomb…
Sobetek again rubbed the large stone down the length of his tomb blade, preserving the sharpness of the keen blade and get ready for his next battle. That battle would be soon enough, as he heard some of the archer horsemen describing an army just over the next hillside, camped and preparing for battle. This pleased Sobetek, as he hasn’t fought in a very long time…. And rather than protecting a tomb as he did in his past life, he now rides on the back of a massive Khemrian Warsphinx! Another challenge for him and his combat ability, as he must now learn to fight with a spear, and fight while swaying back and forth upon the Sphinx as it stomps upon the foes itself! Sobetec has 3 other Tomb Guard to share the howdah and they must learn to fight in unison if they want to win.
Sobetek knows that the warsphinx is only one unit in this small army. There are several other components that fight together, and right now the army is marching to the north, into the lands of the empire, to seek revenge upon those that invaded their homelands several hundred years ago. The army is currently led by Sitra-Mon, a tomb prince that once led an entire army of charioteers but lost his life in a conquest of the southland jungles. Obviously chariots don’t fare well in rough terrain, and once on foot his army was not effective. But now he seeks to regain his power and lead an entire army back into the jungles to seek his revenge upon the great Slaan mage.
Although this army is led by Sitra-Mon, the real power of the army comes from the High Liche Priest Neferkara. She was once royalty, a high priestess of a Pharaoh, but was put to death because she was accused of sleeping with the Pharaoh, which of course was not true. Now she provides the magic ability to bind the souls of the dead to the corporeal bodies they now occupy. Now, she alone provides this ability, but in order for this army to grow they will require further liche priests. Fortunately she is protected by the Talisman of Protection.
Sitra-Mon leads from the front, riding into battle in his flaming chariot joined by his own bodyguard, a small unit of chariots known as Phorenul, which means The Burn in the ancient language. And since he died in real life, he has found the Armor of Destiny, a magical coat of armor that protects him and has saved his life several times! And perhaps it is this magical armor alone that has allowed him to lead this army.
In addition to the chariots, the core of the army is the large block of skeleton archers, which are used to weaken the enemy before the chariots crash into them. He also employs a small block of archer horsemen to take out any small skirmishing units that try to run around the flanks. Finally, a tandem of sreaming skull catapults are used to soften up the hordes before the combats occur. Combined these shooting units provide the necessary support to eliminate or weaken specific targets before the combats occur.
Neferkara provides the magical support. But one High Liche Priest alone is not enough. Fortunately, Neferkara has also brought a Cakset of Souls that reaches out against the heavily armored target units.
Finally there are the combat units. First is the small unit of carrion that is successfully at hunting enemy war machines and characters. Since armies normally employ more than one war machine, Sitra-Mon also has a tomb scorpion that attacks comes from below and emerges behind the enemy. But the fight is won in the large combats. Sitra-Mon leads the chariots, but the other large unit to win combats is the 6 ushabtis. These form the center of the battleline, and can take on almost any enemy unit. But if there is something even larger than ushabtis, then Sitra-mon unleashes the Khemrian Warsphinx! If the warsphinx can’t win the combat, then the army is lost anyhow….
And thus begins the reign of Tomb Prince Sitra-Mon….

So I have to finish up a few more archers, I think I only have 30 complete. I have the chariots, archer horsemen, carrion, scorpion, casket, 5 ushabtis and skull catapults already done. So just have to finish up a few more skeleton archers, convert the 2 characters, convert an ushabti standard and musician, and buy, build and paint the warsphinx! That will get me to the 1750pt army list im running for our next turn.

So the first unit I bought was the necropolis knights. I really wanted to buy a warsphinx, but someone beat me to the local hobbytown and got the only one they had for the first release. So I took my necropolis knights and got them together to use, and ill use an older model I have as a warsphinx until I can buy the new one and convert it some. So got the necropolis knights put together and primed, now working on their bases before I get started on painting them. My old Tomb Kings army is the turquoise and red color theme. Not sure I want to keep that theme or not. I really like the idea of adding in purple since that was the color of royalty and all that, but not sure I can make that work with everything else I already have. And then I realized I have almost no pictures of my old Tomb Kings army, except for one screaming skull catapult. So I guess ill need to break out the camera and take some of the old stuff just to post the “before” stages of this army. And then I can add pix of all the new stuff to add to it.


So we had our escalation campaign turn the other night, and I get 2 battles this turn--one against empire and one against greenskins! And ill be outnumbered most likely in both battles. We are at 1750pts for this turn, but the empire player has an extra 210 if he wants to use it up, and the greenskin player has 200. I have only 110 extra, to split up for both battles if I want. And I have to use the same 1750pt list for both games, but decided to add a scorpion against the empire, since im guessing he will have a lot of warmachines, engineers with damn pidgeon bombs, and some handgunners. So that scorpion will hopefully be able to help cut down their effectiveness in shooting phase. So here is my 1750pt list:
Core:
30 skeleton archers with full command (just in case I roll random scenario and get blood and glory, I need some banners to make sure my break point is up some. Plus my shooting can thin his ranks or threaten his handgunners hopefully). Joined by hierophant, a level 4 high liche priest with talisman of preservation.
5 archer horsemen with banner. Added the banner for blood and glory, and their purpose for scouting is to threaten the engineers with pidgeon bombs that he loves to play, or else go after war machines. And if needed, they are points that ill just play denial and keep out of range of everything else.
3 chariots with command. I figured these bad boys will be useful against empire and greenskins since they will go after toughness 3 units and hopefully rack up the impact hits. Plus, I put a tomb king on chariot with them to bump up their WS and hopefully survive a little more. The tomb king has armor of destiny just to help keep him alive.
Special
3 carrion, primarily to threaten empire warmachines, but the greenskin player has recently seen the effectiveness of doom diver catapult and rock lobbers, so I can use them against him too
Scorpion against the empire player only since I don’t have enough points to add it in both games
3 necropolis knights with standard and musician. This is my first game using them, and figured that empire and gobbos are both squishy, so they should be effective. And the banner is there for blood and glory scenario.
Warsphinx! I haven’t used it myself, but I played a team game and my team mate used it. And after reading about everyone else having success, I figured this is the one big bad boy that I had to try and use! Plus, I love the model and cant wait to get my hands on it and make my conversion to it!
Rare:
Casket of souls. Im not sold on it yet, so I want to try it out and see how it does. And greenskins and empire are both not the highest of leaderships, so hopefully I can use it to take out their warmachines, or big spiders, or pistoliers….
2 skull catapults. I probably should upgrade them with skull of foes, but figured that both empire and greenskins are rather low leadership, and couldn’t figure out where to shave 60 points….

So not a lot of combat units, but since this is my first real solo game using new book, and at only 1750pts, I took a lot of things that can cause damage to small units, or thin them out until my choice combat units (chariots and warsphinx) hit them, and play denial for the rest of the army to get the win.

So yes, if we roll watchtower scenario, I don’t have a unit I can deploy straight into it, but I didn’t think a unit of 20 skellies is big enough anyhow, so I would just wait and try and move up my skeleton block into the watchtower during my turn. Or if he deploys into the tower, then the screaming skull catapults can hopefully pound the enemy out of there!

So first game is Tues, ill let you know how they do!

Also, the root of your character's name (Sobetek) is sebek, sobek, seker, etc. who is the Egyptian Crocodile deity. Perhaps that can be a patron god for the character or the army in general.

I have always wanted to see a character with mummy shrouds and a grotesque looking crocodile head sown onto his human remains. And a big ass crocodile skeleton stomping around as a tomb scorpion proxy eating enemy troops, their bones seen from inside the rib cage of the skeletal monster.

Hey, thanks, i didnt know that! completely pure luck, but maybe i can take advantage of that and change some of my icons and glyphs to more of a crocodile theme. i actually like the scorpion look, like GW painted on some of the shields, but that is probably over popular right now, so Crocs just might be a cool way to go!

Im not much of a greenstuff sculpture, but i do have the croc ushabti head, so maybe i can use that to make some more, or find something to use for a warsphinx head and such. so thanks, great idea.

(first battle, against Empire)
Revenge against the Empire... it doesn't matter what city they are from, they represent those that raided his home many hundred years ago and stole the wealth and honor of the Kingdom of the then King, Akhen-Ra. Now, Sobetec, once a respected tomb guardian of the resting place of Akhen-Ra, now rides into battle on top of the great Warsphinx. He is ready to seek revenge on any men that stand opposed to him and the warband. And his only motivation is to quickly drive through this small battle and continue into the heart of the lands of the Empire, and seek the remains of Akhen-Ra so they can again serve him!
Tomb Prince Sitra-Mon is mounted in his flaming war chariot, and prepares to lead the Phorenul (which means The Burn in the ancient language) into battle against the men of the Empire. He knew from the skeleton horsemen scouts that they would have some war machines, Sitra-Mon was not happy that the scouts didn't know much more about the army composition of the empire enemy. And now that he sees it, he knows his army is not prepared to fight this type of foe. Therefore, he would need to use his skill as a tactician to overcome the disadvantage of his own army composition. Thus, he begins to carefully plan out how to take deploy and fight this empire warband, and how to ensure a victory so his warband could continue to march into the deeper realms of the Empire. And to do, he had to careful orchestrate the attack, to ensure the right mix of combat at the right moment. There was no reason to fight every unit on the battlefield, all he wanted to do was eliminate the war machines and the shooting, then choose 2 key combats to win. And if he overwhelmed the empire troops in those 2 combats, the rest of their army would flee from the battle, and it would take several days for them to rally and regroup. Meanwhile, his army would already have marched several days further into the heartlands.
Sitra-Mon dispatched his skeleton horsemen scouts to recon the path ahead and try to gain a vantage point prior to the battle. But he was very disappointed in the information they brought back. It seems the small empire warband had holed up in the town of Strickland. This small town had two towers near the city square which would become the main battlefield with specific interest in the large tower (we rolled the watchtower scenario, and had already rolled up on tower as part of normal terrain). In order to break the empire warband, Sitra-Mon recognized his army would have to seize control of the tower. The good news was that the empire army was not occupying the watchtowers yet, so if Sitra-Mon acted quickly, they could gain the initiative and strike before the empire could.
Sitra-Mon gave the battle order so the army could move over into the Valley and into the town of Strickland. And as the first unit came within visual distance, the town immediately sounded the bells to indicate a battle would soon ensue.
Sitra-Mon was successful in acting quickly enough that the empire could not occupy the watchtower immediately. But neither could the Tomb Kings (in game terms, I rolled to occupy the tower, but I did not have any core troops that could occupy it at the start of the game. My chariots obviously can't enter a building, and my archer horde was 30 strong thus too large to start in the tower, and skeleton horsemen was my only other core troop choice). So both armies would deploy and move to gain control of the tower. On the far end of the river was a large Nekharian Sphinx, which was a good omen to Sitra-Mon, and he pointed that out to rally his troops for battle! On the far left of his deployment zone was a large forest, and there was one directly across in the empire zone as well. On the outskirts of town was a magic circle within an old ruined tower, and although it would provide his forces some protection, Sitra-Mon recognized that he needed his troops to advance on the city square tower. But he placed both his skull catapults on either side of the tower so they could gain the magical protection provided by the magic circle. This tower was in the middle of the deployment zone, so it offered a large field of view to each of the catapults. Off across from the river, on the far right side looking at the enemy deployment zone was a Sigmarite Chapel. And at that point he spotted the first of the empire troops coming forth to battle. He saw a massive block of empire swordsmen come out of the chapel and line up directly across the river. Sitra-Mon ordered his horde of skeleton archers and the High Liche Priest Neferkara to deploy across the water from the swordsmen, just to the right of the tower deployment zone so they could either shoot into the tower in the center, and they were partially protected by a river that ran through the middle of the battle field on the right. The empire then deployed another large block of swordsmen to the left, to go straight forward into the large tower in the center of the square. They also had a huge block of halberdiers as detachment unit that was lined up facing the second smaller tower to the left of the center square tower. Sitra-Mon then rolled forward in his chariot with his unit of chariots and came up across from the two towers, in hopes of charging between them into the swordsmen or the halberdiers. Then empire countered by bringing forth a massive block of empire pistoliers near the second tower, assuming they would sweep forward to block of shoot the chariots. So Sitra-Mon brought up his Necropolis Knights directly besides the chariots, so they would have their core combat units together to go towards the towers. The empire then placed a cannon on the far right of the chapel, and a rocket battery to the left of the chapel, so they are lined up across from the skeleton archers. So Sitra-Mon put the small block of carrion on the far right, in hopes they could go after the war machines. Then a black of hand gunners appeared on the far left, across from the chariots. Sitra-Mon brought forth his behemoth of a Warsphinx on the far left, in hopes that it would lure away the hand gunners shots to keep fire away from the fragile chariots. Then came the empire's elite unit, a massive block of empire swordsmen, led by the empire general. The empire battle standard bearer came forward and joined the swordsmen on the left, to be close to the General. And finally, an empire engineer came out of the chapel in behind the rocket battery, and it already started pulling out its boxes of pigeons to prepare for the pigeon bombs! Sitra-Mon finished by putting the skeleton horsemen also on the far right, to go after the war machines. And last, the Casket of Souls, also on the far right to get some protection from the river, but also because there were very few empire troops on the right so hopefully nothing would threaten it, and it offered a clear line of site across the massive battlefield to both towers. Then suddenly, the empire horns blasted, and they advanced....the battle had begun. And the pistoliers on the left shot forward in full gallop and crossed the battlefield (did their vanguard move).
The small block of empire hand gunners in the middle ran forward and garrisoned in the center tower. They were now in a position to shoot out in all directions. Fortunately there were only 10 of them, but still a threat. The swordsmen on the right came forward a little, and swordsmen on the left advanced between the towers. And the great swords in the back of the deployment zone came forward in the middle. The empire didn't employ a wizard, so the warrior priest was the only spell caster, and the Tomb Kings dispel capability kept the priest from casting. During shooting the cannon landed a shot through the skeleton horsemen and into the casket, but the cannonball failed to wound the casket. But it was enough to cause Sitra-Mon to direct attention squarely on the cannon! The rocket battery launched at the archer horde, but overshot a little and only killed 2 skellies. But the real threat was the pistoliers, that again came forward almost across the entire battlefield, and unloaded into Sitra-Mon's unit, killing one chariot outright!
Sitra-Mon ordered the skeleton archer horsemen to charge the cannon. Fortunately their small frontage (only 6 models) fit between the river and the sphinx, so their fast pace allowed them to successfully charge the cannon! And facing the threat of the pistoliers, Sitra-Mon ordered the necropolis knights and the chariots to charge them. They fired upon the necropolis knights, killing one outright, and then fled. Sitra-Mon ordered full pursuit, and the necropolis knights feverishly ran down the pistoliers, with Sitra-Mon and the chariots close behind. Now both units were up around the tower on the left. The archers advanced toward the tower, expecting to shoot at one of several targets. And Sobetec and the 3 other Tomb Guardians riding on the massive warsphinx managed to bring it forward on the far left, coming around the forest and now turning to face the towers. In combat, the carrion destroyed the cannon crew, so they turned and faced to the middle, although the empire engineer and rocket battery were now hidden behind the Sigmarite Chapel, so the carrion would have to move before they could charge another unit. Then High Liche Priest Neferkara summoned the winds of magic to unleash his spells. He cast upon his own archer unit to give them a second shot in the shooting phase, and hexed the swordsmen in between the towers to drop their toughness and strength, making them vulnerable to the catapults. And the casket caused a wound to the rocket battery, but it was still able to fire. The archers fired into the swordsmen on the far right, killing a few but not killing enough to negate any of their rank bonuses yet. Both catapults fired onto the swordsmen in between the towers, killing 8 total, but they still had many more ranks and did not panic from the deaths. And although Sitra-Mon was happy that he had killed the entire 12-man unit of pistoliers, that didn't matter because the empire now had seized control of the tower in the center of the square.
The empire tried to strengthen their position in the tower, as the hand gunners stepped forward and out of the tower, and the empire general and block of great swords moved in to take control of it. This was disheartening to Sitra-Mon, because he knew it would be difficult to get them out. But he knew he could rain flaming skulls upon them from the catapults, as well as many arrows from the archers, supported with spells and the casket of souls. So he made a conscious decision to not charge anything into the tower, and instead concentrate the combats on destroying the empire's other units and focus shooting and magic on the tower. So the necropolis knights charged the hand gunners on the far left, and their stand and shoot killed another one, so only 1 remained to charge. But it was enough to kill 4, but they did not flee. The chariots continued forward around the tower on the left, the carrion flew back across the river to position themselves to charge another target. The archers continued to move closer to the tower, and the warsphinx on the left advanced towards the main tower.
To summarize the next couple turns: necropolis knight killed more handgunners, making it flee, so the knight turned and faced the towers. The chariots circled around the tower to threaten the swordsmen unit, and the warphinx advanced the other side of the tower to threaten the large tower and the back of the swordsmen unit. Finally turn 3 the scorpion emerged, the casket killed the rocket battery. One catapult misfired, the liche priest misfired, so only managed to kill a few of the great swords. But the empire warrior priest again got off his prayer to cause them to be unbreakable (so they don't take any panic tests during my magic phase, and during shooting they are Ld 9 with BSB re-roll). The chariots charge the halberdiers, and do enough to have it flee and get run down.
Turn 4 the scorpion and last necropolis knight charged the engineer killing it. The warsphinx charged the front of the large swordsmen unit between the towers, as the chariots moved around to threaten the back of the swordsmen unit. I forgot to allocate hits to the BSB, so just killed regular swordsmen. Tried the massive attack, missed. Breath weapon only killed 3, so although I won combat, he was steadfast and stayed locked.
Turn 5. Almost the same as previous turn. Can't stop unbreakable, but necropolis knight and scorpion turn to charge swordsmen on the far right.
Turn 6: necropolis knight and scorpion continue to kill swordsmen, but they are steadfast and stay locked in combat. But Chariots slam into back of swordsmen on the left.
Swordsmen on left still fighting the warsphinx to the front, and chariots hit from behind.
In magic, finally managed to kill a few more great swords with casket, and dispel their unbreakable. So during shooting, first catapult kills 2, causes immediate panic, and on leadership 9 test he rolls 10.... But gets a reroll for BSB. And rolls...11. So amazingly, on the very last turn somehow I managed to get the great swords to flee from the tower! So at that point we looked up the rule to determine victory condition for watchtower scenario, and learned that if no one controls the tower, it goes by standard victory points. So we finished the last combat of swordsmen on the left. With 10 still alive, they get one rank bonus and thus steadfast. And again, I forgot to allocate hits on BSB.
So at this point the game ended, and the only unit I lost was the skeleton archer horsemen, which is gladly sacrificed to the swordsmen on the far right just to draw them further away from the tower. And I managed to kill the pistoliers, both blocks of hand gunners, the cannon, the rocket battery, the engineer, and the halberdiers. So I easily won the battle of victory points, which is still absolutely amazing that I got his unit out of the tower at the bottom of turn 6 by failing 2 Ld 9 tests....

Key Points and lessons learned:

- I forgot all about the scorpion until turn 3. And I forgot fear in combats until about turn 5! I don't think it would have made a difference since he was testing on Leadership 9 with a reroll from BSB for most units, but who knows... I need to remember fear!
- dispel remains in play occurs at end of magic phase, so I couldn't drop his unbreakable warrior priest spell until the end and thus couldn't make him take any panic tests during magic phase
- casket did decent overall. Had some good turns, like killing the rocket battery in one turn. But I never got it to bounce to another unit. Adding the D3 power dice was huge and helped me get off at least 1 spell every turn, usually the -1 toughness/-1 strength on the target of the shooting phase. But having Ld 9 with BSB reroll kept him from losing more than he did.
- catapults did pretty good, but primarily due to the units being garrisoned in the watchtower. I didn't upgrade them to skull of foes, and since he was unbreakable most turns, it wouldn't have mattered anyways. But the automatic panic test can be huge against the right units.
- archers didn't do much at all. Even when I had the spell to double shoot, with 30 archers, I still only killed at most 6 models in any one shooting phase.
- Tomb Kings magic spells did OK, not great, but OK. Ill keep trying them to learn how to use them more. My main problem was two of the spells had range of 12", and I kept my archers and liche priest out alone so no targets could benefit from those spells. Warsphinx was not as spectacular as I wanted it to be, even with breath weapon and monster stomp. But I also didn't allocate hits on the BSB like I should have.
- chariot impact hits at d6 are much better! The impact hits alone made me win the combat against the Halberdiers. So I might drop the skellie archers for another block of chariots and try that for a game or two.
- ill have to keep playing necropolis knights to see if they are that good. They took out the pistolier unit, the handgunners, and an engineer, so easily earned their points back. But need to verify if that is normal or just one good game.

(second battle, vs greenskins)
With the recent victory over the first empire warband, Sitra-Mon has directed his small army, the Phorenul, to begin their march into the heart of the empire. He knows this will expose them to attacks from numerous other armies, but to him this is the only way to avenge that which was stricken onto his own kingdom several hundred years ago. And whether it is men, or greenskins, or chaos warriors, Sitra-Mon will continue to wreak havoc unto the lands of the men.
It didn't take long for the next battle. Sitra-Mon's skeleton horsemen scouts returned with news that a mountain pass ahead would save them several days travel so he gave the order to push through. But the scouts did not see or detect the greenskin horde that lived among the pass, but they quickly made their presence known as they started to form a blockade across the expanse of the pass. (We rolled the #3 scenario, battle in the pass). There was a large idol of Mork near the middle of the battlefield, with two small forests on the far side left with a river running up to them. For some strange reason, there was a charnel pit in the near right deployment area. There was a burning wall to the right, and a long fence in the far middle. And as Sitra-Mon completed his assessment of the battlefield, the greenskins began to pour from the rocks and caves in the pass and gather for battle.
First to appear was a small unit of night goblins with spears (20 strong) on the far right. Sitra-Mon knew that night goblins died quickly and usually fled from the battles so he sent his archer unit just to the right of the idol of Mork. Then another block of night goblins appeared next to the first. So he sent the necropolis knights to the far right, so they could quickly slither up the ride side of the pass and engage as quick as they could. He knew the necropolis knights could take on one unit of goblins on their own, but wanted to avoid having multiple units hitting them. Then a third unit of goblins came up, forming a green battle line on the far right. Sitra-Mon knew that the horde would be big enough to span the entire pass, but he wanted to know where some of the key units were before he ordered his catapults into position, so he had to put his own unit of chariots just to the left of the idol of Mork. This meant they were not currently lined up to fight the night goblin units already deployed, but he knew there were many more, and that is when the block of savage orcs appeared on the left. Sitra-Mon then put the war sphinx directly behind the idol of Mork, so it could quickly move left or right as needed. Then another block of night goblins on the right, so now there are 4 blocks of 20 strong, forming quite a barrier. So he ordered the two catapults into place, one on each side of the idol of Mork, and backed up to the charnel pit behind them. Then a large unit of squig herd appeared on the very far left. Sitra-Mon didn't wait for the casket of souls; he placed it directly behind the charnel pit facing forward, since it could see the entire span of the pass and hopefully be able to target multiple units with his Light of death ability. Then the first mangler squig appeared on the left, between the squig herd and the savage orcs. Sitra-Mon threw the carrion out on the far left, anticipating they would be needed to redirect some of the greenskin horde units. Then a second mangler squig almost dead center, just to the right of the savage orcs. Sitra-Mon then took his position among the chariots and sent High Liche Priest Neferkara to the archers on the right. Now he waited for the rest of the greenskins to form up. A fifth block of night goblins completed the green wall, and last was a large block of black orcs, that formed behind the wall of night goblins. A savage orc great shaman joined the savage orcs, and a black orc battle standard bearer and block orc big boss joined the black orcs. This concerned Sitra-Mon as now the inspiring leadership and the BSB span of control covered all five of the night goblin units, which would make them now very difficult to panic and flee. So he sent his archer horsemen to scout up behind the black orc unit, hopefully to harass them and thin them out with their shooting. But before Sitra-Mon could complete his battle plan, the greenskin horde advanced... except for the middle unit of night goblins which appeared to be fighting amongst themselves and thus not moving (failed animosity and squabbled).... so won't go into long drawn out summary, but here are key points:
- His savage orc unit failed animosity on turn 2 and 3, so he didn't get to cast spells those 2 turns, which really hurt him.
- my necropolis knights charged the far right unit of night goblins on turn 2, which triggered 9 fanatics! Not all went at the necros, but 3 did, and killed 2 of the necropolis knights. 3 went at the skellie archers, and 3 toward the war sphinx. But other than killing 2 necropolis knights, only minimal damage. The remaining knight went into the night goblins, won combat, they fled, the necro ran them down.
- the scorpion appeared on turn 3, which triggered 3 more fanatics, and because I was so close to the night goblins, all 3 went into the scorpion killing it instantly.
- his turn 3 a mangler squig managed to get into the chariot unit, killing 1. Then in my turn, the chariots charged the night goblin unit on far left, it released the last 3 fanatics which 1 went into the unit killing 1 chariot. Then I had to complete the charge, landing on top of the last 2 fanatics, that killed the last chariot and the tomb king and his chariot...
- my casket killed both mangler squigs, one on turn 2 and one on turn 3 (just after it managed to roll through the chariots).
- his turn 4 the black orcs, after having killed the last solo necropolis knight, he declared a charge against the warsphix. i managed to win combat because of the monster stop and the thundercrash attack, doing only 1 wound to the BSB which was under the circle of template. Next round of combat, I won again, still didn't kill the BSB, so he stayed steadfast and locked in. 3rd round of combat, which was the bottom of turn 6, I managed to win again, but no steadfast so he fled. But I didn't run him down, so I didn't get the points for the unit of black orcs or the general, but did get the BSB.... and that is what gave me the minor victory by 108 points.

Key Points and lessons learned:
- as much as I played greenskins, I wasn't prepared for the "night goblin wall of fanatics" all 5 of his night goblin units were naked (no command) and had full complement of fanatics (3 in each unit). And on the one turn, it released 12 of them! His next turn, 9 of them died from killing each other or hitting terrain. But they managed to kill 2 necropolis knights, 4 chariots and the tomb king on the turn they were released.
- I remembered the scorpion this time on turn 2, but it was immediately killed by the fanatics that it triggered.
- I still forgot fear on several battles, but he had his general and BSB nearby so it probably wouldn't have mattered.
- Casket did awesome against the mangler squigs, killing both of them when it managed to go off. So it earned its points again, and having the extra d3 power dice again managed to make a big difference.
- catapults didn't do much. The one on the left lasted until turn 5 when it got charged and killed by the night goblin unit, but it still never landed on anything in all 4 rounds of shooting. The one on the left killed a couple things before it misfired and destroyed itself.
- skeleton archer horsemen scouts managed to harass black orcs, and the archer horsemen staying alive managed to win the game for me points wise.
- regular archers were in combat with night goblin unit for 3 rounds of combat before it won, even with remembering fear. So again they didn't really do much of anything. Definitely gonna try and swap them out for more chariots or HW/shield skeletons.
- high liche priest magic was awesome this game. Combined with casket, I managed to get atleast one spell off every turn, including the -1 strength/-1 toughness twice on the black orcs, but then didn't do a single wound from shooting at them with both catapults and archers... but the killing blow on the warsphix and the 5+ wardsave on the chariots did help some.
- chariots died from fanatics and mangler squigs before I ever got to use them...

So, my second win with the Tomb Kings, and both only because of a key event on the bottom of turn 6 to change from losing to the win. So I'm happy that I'm learning the Tomb Kings army a little more under the new rulebook, but I need to change up some of the units that are not doing well. And I need to account for the other scenarios, like watchtower and have something that I can defend with. So I think the archers will go away for a second unit of chariots. And then maybe change special choices to get a big block of tomb guard to hold up some combats. But the catapults and casket will remain for at least a while longer since they have done so well!

Sitra-Mon again gives the order to march forward, leading his Tomb Kings warband further into the Empire wilderness. With his first two wins, he knows they should have been losses and therefore it is time for some tactical changes to his employment and composition. So he confers with High Liche Priest Neferkara and orders him to stretch his span of influence, and summon some other units to come forth and fight under him. And as the army marches forward, he scans the horizon in hopes the reinforcements arrive before the next battle....

The “Burn” or as it is pronounced in the ancient language, the Phorenul, was the name of just the chariot unit that Tomb Prince Sitra-Mon joined as he rode into battle. Over the last few months, his army has grown with the additional of several new units. Therefore, he needs to stay more centrally located within the army in order to lead it and give the necessary directions to change tactics during the battle. Since his chariots normally run forward, he wouldn’t be in a position to effectively manage the battle. Thus he has decided to give up on his chariot mount and instead return to fighting on foot and leading from the middle. Plus, he also wanted to be closer to High Liche Priest Neferkara to help direct how to employ the winds of magic to help the army win.
Although Sitra-Mon won his first two battles, both by a very narrow margin, he has been decimated his last two battles. Both were against a nearby undead army that was apparently trying to recruit more skeletons the easy way! The vampire lord leading the army obviously adapted well to the lack of skeletons in the region, and instead built around a massive ghoul unit with a small zombie unit for support. He also managed to employ 2 of the large and powerful Vargulfs! Those massive beasts were very difficult for Sitra-Mon to deal with, but the most underestimated enemy unit was the ghouls. Since they had a massive number of attacks and poison, they just pounded through the Tomb Kings army in short order. Sitra-Mon quickly realized he couldn’t beat the vampire army, but they followed him and attacked him again. With the second loss, Sitra-Mon had no choice but to expend all their energy to leave the area to avoid another defeat. So now Sitra-Mon finds himself in a strange land, far off course from the plot he had designed to get into the heart of the empire.
“I want them…now” Sitra-Mon commands to High Liche Priest Neferkara. “I want them to travel all night if it takes, but I want them to take 2 prisoners. Drunk if possible, they tend to talk more.” Nekerkara bows his head, gestures with his hands as he sends a mental message to the skeleton horsemen archers. And in a matter of seconds, they take off into the night, in search of the unexpected to take as prisoners.
In less than a few hours, Neferkara enters Sitra-Mons small tent. “They have returned my Lord,” Neferkara speaks with his head, or skull, in the position to show respect to the Tomb Prince. “One is a female, and a large one. She should provide the information you seek. Shall I order them to begin?”
“Yes,” Sitra-Mon whispers, “take their lives if needed, but find out where the gauntlets are.”
“As you command, my Lord.” And Neferkara retreats back out of the tent, and then rushes across the small clearing towards the main encampment area. He still doesn’t understand why Sitra-Mon seeks the fabled gauntlets. They already have enough power in combat, and instead of seeking further combat power, why doesn’t he let me find another Liche Priest to bolster the magical assault! That is the change that the army needs to win and continue into the heart of the Empire. But Neferkara for now must follow the commands of the Tomb Prince, for Sitra-Mon is kept in high regards and is granted powers that other Tomb Princes are not.
“Wait!” Sitra-Mon shouts at Neferkara. “Did the new recruits arrive yet? I need to make the full battle plan for tomorrow.”
“My Lord, not all are here…yet. The tomb guard have still not returned, but they will be here before sunrise.”
“Good, we can’t fight without them tomorrow.”

The scouts reported there are 2 armies in the vicinity. First is very uncommon, an Ogre army. Sitra-Mon has heard of them, but has never seen one, let alone fought against one. This will be a great learning opportunity for him, so he decides to move that direction first. But the other army is also a tomb king army, and the scouts reported that it is not possible to recruit the entire army into his own, and instead they have the same concept in mind. So that means it will be a fight, and the victor can claim control of the leftover army. This entices Sitra-Mon, as it is a quick way to build his army. Perhaps it is better to fight the other Tomb Kings army before the ogres….
Either way, Sitra-Mon must prepare a battle plan. So he takes an inventory of his current warband, and tries to match them against the composition that he scouting skeleton horsemen reported in the enemy camps.
Assuming the tomb guard return by sunrise, Sitra-mon will take his place in that unit, the centerpiece of the battleplan. With the augments from High Liche Priest Neferkara, it should be a formidable unit to form around. In fact he might have Neferkara start there too, to give his regeneration ability to the guard unit just in case it is needed. The skeleton archers hold one side of the deployment area so they can shoot and protect the flank. The large block of chariots cover the other flank and hopefully get around to charge the enemy battleline in the flank. The necropolis knights and the warsphinx go were needed to support the tomb guard. The two catapults and the casket go in the back line so they can support the battle up front. And the horsemen archers are the scouts that ideally go after the enemy warmachines.
Sitra-Mon knows that the batteplan is only as good as the first engagement. It is a starting place, and the battle is won or lost on how quickly he can adapt to the enemy plan and implementation. So although this is his plan for now, it will change as soon as the sun rises, and he sees which army is across the valley. Fighting Ogres and Tomb Kings are two completely different battle plans… Lets hope his own battle plan can adapt quickly enough…