2k Tk Debut!, taking on evil gateway-spamming WoC

So last week I finally got to put my collection of used Tomb Kings models to the test! After weeks and weeks of penny pinching and scouring the online world for the best possible deals on used TKs, most of the army was in my hands and the few models still en route could be shamelessly proxied! I took on a WoC list of a friend of mine who is a relatively new player to the game, and he too was very excited to play since he and I had recently converted a Daemon Prince from the CSM daemon prince (Belakor's a wimp!) using Galrauch's wings, green stuff, spiky bits, and, of course, lots of love

Below is my list:

King w/Scorpion Armour, Spear of Antarhak, and Cloak of Dunes
Hierophant w/Jar and scroll
Priest w/steed and Staff of Ravening
Priest w/Collar of Shapesh and accompanied by the Ark of the Covenant

10x archers
(2x) 3x chariots

5x carrion
Scorpio the Scorpion
19x TG w/FC and Icon of Rakaph
18x TG w/Banner of the Undying Legion

My opponent's list was:

JP the DP: lvl4 w/MoT, Tendrils of Tzeentch and Fury of the Blood God Spells: Flickering Fire, Baleful Transmogrification, Call to Glory, and Infernal Gateway

Mad Max (sorceror) lvl2 w/MoT, DoT, Golden Eye, Book of Secrets, and Bloodcurdling Roar Spells: Fireball, Flickering Fire, and Baleful Transmogrification

26x marauders w/LA, shields, FC, MoS
10x marauders w/flails, MoK
(2x) 5x pooches
12x warriors w/shields, FC, warbanner

5x knights w/sb, mus, MoK
3x Drogres
chariot

Terrain was scarce...there was a hill in each deployment zone near the centre of the board and a set of woods on what would be my opponent's left flank closest to his side.

From left to right I deployed as follows: Chariots, TG w/Undying Legion Banner (Hiero and King inside), Casket of Souls, Archers, TG w/Icon and mounted Priest, Carrion slightly behind them, and then finally the second unit of chariots.

My opponent, from my left to right: Chariot, Drogres screened by pooches, MoS marauders, MoK marauders, warriors, pooches, and kuhniguts more or less in front of JP and Mad Max (this was my disc-rider model, the disc converted from some spiky bits and two large round 40k bases glued together, the rider was converted from Truthsayer to have beastman hooves and a metal marauder horseman shield).

Even though I finished deploying long before my opponent, I rolled a 4(5) and he rolled a 6, iand he immediately took the opportunity to take first turn. On my opponent's deployment: if I was paying more attention, I would have steered him away from putting his chariot on his far flank, but as this was a unit he had plonked down after I had finished deploying I had hardly taken notice until well into the first or second turn.

Otherwise, the game could not have been more friendly...when either of us overlooked a particular unit's move or charge we would remind the other, and since he can still count his total games played on only one hand I would give him tactical advice and present the pros and cons of possible actions w/out taking the reins from his hands (probably the worst thing that can be done w/a new player imo).

Opening Moves

My opponent began his first turn by unhesitantly moving up all the units on my left side and then wavering on how he would bring forward his knights (lined up against my right flank) while keeping them from looking at the casket; JP and Mad Max hussled up the board, making a point to avoid oggling the ark. Additionally, my Tomb Scorpion was marked right by the woods so was spurring JP and Max forwards...

Damn was he frightened by the casket! I've always heard about players hoarding up DD to save against the casket and doing all kinds of things to just avoid it, but it was something else to watch a guy fearfully eyeing it throughout the game.

In his magic phase he throws out the first Gateway at my Carrion, which is cast at such a high level but at a unit that has few uses in this game that I don't bother to waste my precious scroll or any DD. Result: 10 Strength 10 hits but only two Carrion killed!

My first turn ever w/TK was pretty cool and gave me a good idea just how intense Incantations can get! I began by flying King Tarr-Pitt into the flank zone of my opponent's big block of MoS marauders and he incanted himself into combat w/them. My chariots moved towards the centre of the board and were helped into combat against the flail-wielding MoK marauders by my Hierophant. On my right flank my Carrion fly out close to the right table edge to bait the Knights out of position and away from my Chariots and TG. Foolishly I brought my mounted Priest out of his TG bodyguard and behind the Chariots in what would be a very amateurish mistake...I obviously wasn't close enough to Incant the Carrion and the Knights had moved so sluggishly that even an Incant on the Chariots would not bring them into combat had I wanted to (and I certainly didn't want to!). So there he sat, out of position and useless while I facepalmed from the magic phase on...

So Turn 1 for the TK ended w/a lone flail-wielding marauder fleeing w/my chariots in hot pursuit, but close enough to the Warriors to march block them the next turn. Naturally, my Tomb King slew a couple marauders and then suffered a wound from combat res.

WoC's second turn is a critical turning point..the battle began with me staring down the barrel of a big, spiky, Gateway-spamming gun and the magical might of the DP was perhaps as intimidating to me as the Casket was to my opponent. That, and I was heavily outnumbered and outclassed...having found a tender point in my opponent's line and having the speed and magical power to exploit it early on had given me a leg up, however, and soon something was to go horribly wrong for my opponent...

The Knights were forced to charge the Carrion, who were easily obliterated...unfortunately the knights did not overrun as far as I would've liked them to, but went far enough that I didn't have to worry about any charges from them next turn. Mad Max cruelly exploited my stupidity by flying up besides the chariots, Transmogrifying a wound off of them, using Tendrils to cast Flickering Fire on one die to no effect, but then Roaring my Priest to death Now in the first turn my opponent had tossed out the Gateway before all other spells, and I had mentioned that personally I would save it for last so that I'd be guaranteed to get some cheap spells out without trouble from the opponent, although I did mention that he ought to save his Tendrils...well, he took only half my advice, and his jaw dropped when he rolled two 6s and two 1s for his Gateway roll, going on to roll two more 6s on the Miscast table...i.e. JP would forget Gateway for the rest of the battle, but would get to cast it w/IF against the TG, smiting 8.

TK Turn 2 and WoC Turn 3
Scorpio fails to arrive. Left flank chariots move into position to incant-charge the Tarr-Pitt'ed marauders but the King’s incants are dispelled. I forget to reform my archers into a line again but still pop some pooches. The chariots on the right flank were in charge range of the hitherto cocky and reckless DP (hehe, not so much a man without yer Gateway now) and caused 2 wounds, suffering 3 wounds for their trouble and tying combat. The Casket went off spectacularly and eliminated all remaining pooches, a whole Drogre, two or three Warriors, and half the Chaos Chariot.

The Drogres and Chariot on my left continued to ignore the marauders' impending doom and advanced closer to the TG, maybe a little too close...the Knights over on my right flank then reform to be able to get a next-turn charge against my Icon TG (mind you, he doesn't know which unit is repping Rakaph) and so Max flies behind them. Magic is pretty much shut down despite a concentrated effort to hurt the TG in case it has the Icon, and in cc the DP wipes out the chariots.

TK3 and WoC4

Scorpio arrives! ...But scatters 6” straight back, exactly 1” shy of successfully charging the wounded DP. The IconTG reform and charge Max using up all 8", and here my opponent needs to decide carefully whether he wants to flee as a response (off the table for certain) to guarantee the TG will still be on the table for the Knights to wipe out, or if he wants to give Mad Max a chance and see if the wily sorceror can hold out a round, risking a pursuit or overrun of the TG off the board to safety. Max fled, which was a good decision imo.

The chariots on my left finally charge the block of marauders and the left flank TG incant-charge the drogres. Slaughter on the left flank…the King's incant doubles the TGs’ attacks against the Drogres to cause an extra wound or two, though in the actual cc phase my Hierophant nearly gets annhilated by a Drogre but comes out 'alive' with 1 wound. The Drogres lose combat, break, and are overrun by the TG, who smash into the now-sandwiched marauders. The bearded fools are slaughtered en mass; the TG and chariots pursue and overrun and the King remains stationary to prepare for another turn of annoyance against the remaining footslogging Warriors. In the centre of the board (since I now had, or rather soon would have, no right flank to speak of) the archers had used two rounds of shooting to scrape a wound off the DP, leaving him clinging to life w/1 wound left.

The Knights do exactly what I expect them to do and demolish the TG, overrunning only a few inches from the archers, who are now locked in combat with an angry but emotionally distraught and forgetful daemon prince. Half of the skeletal soldiers are wiped out. On my left flank the Chaos Chariot finally sees some action by flank charging the TG and, despite inflicting several wounds, only succeeded in tying them up for a round.

TK4 and WoC5

Tarr-Pitt flies over by the Warriors and incants into their rear. The remaining chariot unit flanks the Chaos chariot and, along w/the TG (replenished in the magic phase to full strength) destroys it in cc w/impact hits. However, the chariots get a little ahead of themselves and overrun 16", a mere inch from the table edge and in a rather awkward spot. Scorpio moves closer to the fray, hoping to get some action soon. In the combat involving the DP against the 5 archers, one archer has the opportunity to strike back and rolls to hit...6...rolls to wound...6...and JP the DP, the SoulEater, Chosen of Tzeentch, Nightmare of a Thousand Realities....depressingly passes his Ward Save and crumble-kills the brave and loyal skeletal soldier.

In WoC Turn5 the Knights barrel into the Casket and easily destroy everything, overrunning rather close to the chariots and the TGs. At 1 wound the DP is not very brave and does not fly into a next-turn-charge position against the King, fearing Scorpio's debut in the battle.


Final Turn
Scorpio charges the warriors to aid the King, who was doing a fine job at tarpitting the fiends but not quite coming close to actually defeating them. The Hierophant (last priest on table) tries to incant-charge his TG bodyguard into the knights’ flanks in what would be my final backbreaking maneuever against my WoC opponent alongside the destruction of his Warriors, but the incantation of urgency is dispelled...enter Hieratic Jar…the now successful incant-charge into the knights sees only one behemoth killed but the fully ranked unit of TG managed to beat their foe by 4 points and pursue them off the table. Scorpio and Tarr-Pitt break the Warriors and run them down, leaving only JP, at 1 wound, on the board. At this point, we called it a game.

Solid Victory to the Tomb Kings! (bordering on Minor Victory if my hasty calculations were correct...)

All in all it was a great game and I think a very fine debut for a new army with a really fun playstyle. Like I said, when all the minis had been placed on the table it looked like I was both completely outnumbered but outclassed, but I learned not to underestimate the power of chariots on the charge and the potency of incantations! An early and critical miscast on my opponent's charge obviously helped me out a hell of a lot too, as did his poor placement of his Chariot on the far end of his right flank, but all in all I think the Tomb Kings' debut was excellent and the kind of game that was played gave a lot of opportunity to showcase what the army is capable of. Hope you all enjoyed!

Main lessons learned:

After effectively leaving my mounted priest to the dogs, I realized that my troops' efficiency hinges on the presence of characters and their incantations. While the Chaos Knights undoubtedly would have still done tons of damage, the presence of a priest might have mitigated the damage and allowed me to get the jump on these heathens.

Best TK name EVER.

Nice report there bud, sounds like it was a great game!

Yeah, nice name

..and a nice report too!

Going to have to snaffle king tar-pitt of you. No copy right I assume?

CotD

only on the tarr part and that right is mine
but i gladly give you the right to use it XD