Whats The Best Way To Field Tomb Guard

I'm curious to know what the overrall best way to field tomb guard is, as my friend showed me how well 30 skelys is with tomb prince, so i thought how about tomb guard

another point, is it worth giving them the banner of the undying legion, if u want a line breaking unit?

Well, this is what I use in every game from 2k upwards.

Tomb king, Rhamotep, 33 tomb guard, Sotul, Halberds run in a horde formation.

Reason I choose 33, is because with charts the unit is 3x10 then 5 on the back. So hopefully they keep the full 3 rank horde bonus in combat.

Since I have started playing that, 5 games so far 4 games they have massacred everything in combat. Sotul and standard spells just keep them in the game. The only army to kill them was a 9 strong dwarf grudge/cannon/bolt thrower army that had them to 5 models by turn 2.

Be very interested to see everyone else's suggestions with tomb guard. I couldn't be more impressed with them, take them in every game near enough now.

I've ran similar in all my lists, and yeah they murder anything they can reach

It seems I'm really missing out on these guys. I've only tried them once and even though they were successful they just didn't grab my attention. I'll have to revist that idea soon of the Tomb Guard horde with royalty.

I run 40 in horde formation with halberds and full command. This unit is where my Tomb King and Necrotect go. I also use the Standard of the Undying Legion.

This unit crushes almost everything it gets into combat with.

My list is normally a shooting list with numerous archers, two catapults and a Casket so I'm not worried about having to get to my opponent's lines; they're trying to get to me.

My Tomb Guard are the star players in my list.

Recently, I have returned to the TG, and i use a TK, Ramhotep, and 40 with halberds and either BoUL, or Razor standard depending on how i feel, and they beat whatever they get into combat with. (@ 2500) however from taking rammy i also end up taking 6 snakes so they get the rr armor save, and although I've accepted that they will never hit for shat without Lore o Light, they tarpit pretty good and can still whittle down most units.

my 2500 is such

TK, anthrak, silvered steel, DB gem

Lhp, scroll, 4+ ward or something

30 archers, 4 flamin (haaaay) chariots, and 15 horsemen, all stand/mus

40 tg, berds FC/BoUL

6 snakes FC

casket.


Havent been doing too shabby.

I'm no longer a fan of halberds on Tomb Guard. I would much rather have more bodies in the unit or spend the points elsewhere.
In all honesty, I've never been a fan of the 'tect either. Spending 100+ points on a character to get rerolls for just one turn just isn't worth it to me. Everyone knows what he does so he gets targetted first (and with his low initiative and inability to use the TK's/TP's WS, he is easily destroyed by enemy elites. Chaos Warriors, White Lions and a number of other units are more than capable of taking him out before the TG can use his ability. Rhamotep has no save so he's even more problematic.
I know alot of people have had success with a TG horde with halberds, king and 'tect but that unit is so many points...what else is in your army? I greatly prefer having more units over having a deathstar with two characters in it that can't march.
The problem with a Deathmask TK on foot is that most opponents see it coming and prepare accordingly by either setting up a unit with as many ranks as possible or by doing as much damage to the unit before combat (or during combat by focusing their buffs on whatever is fighting the TG).
People also learn to ignore deathstars no matter what army you're playing. Use of diverters and such can keep your king's bodyguard away from combat for the majority of the game.
If you want to run them (and I do too, as I like infantry), field them with sword and board with full command and a TK who is kitted out defensively. 35 of them is a good number.

To add to my previous post, sometimes I include a BSB with either the movement banner or razor banner depending on how killy/quick I want tomb guard to be.

My thoughts to address some other posts on here.

Anubian Emissary,

Spending 100 points on a character just for turn 1 re-rolls isn't worth it, but spending 110 points on ramhotep who gives first turn re-rolls & frenzy, imo most definitely is.

Re rolling hits (usually hitting on 3's thanks to tomb king WS 6) and then str 5 from halberds mean that not much is getting up from a horde formation 30+ strong unit. I've just played dwarves twice and elves twice, and first turn of combat they dished out 20 wounds each time. Factor in some of them killing blow, and you can take on anything really.

If you kit your tomb king up for defensive items and add a herald BSB he won't die very often I find.

The only problem is shooting, but standard spells buffing d3+1 and sotul raising 6+2 I don't find them having any problems as they just keep coming back.

As soon as Rhamotep hits combat, he will die to anything that swings before he does since he has no save of any kind and cannot get the TK's WS buff.

Sword and board, 40 strong with Prince wearing armour of destiny
King is a waist of points, you dont want to match your TG up against super elites with WS5+ anyway. Thats not what they are for, so save those 70 points you spend on +1 WS. (you can almost get 2 princes for the price of a King. Think about it) Rhamotep is a good fit but I never use special characters as im a tourney player. No tech otherwise.
Cursed blades, timewarp, smiting, speed of light all go here! All help to generate 40-50 attacks which means killing blow works great. You have the extra bodies to absorb and hold combat longer, and if you get cursed blades off....
With all those points you save you can get a warsphinx to help the unit. 40 S&B TG + WS > 40 Hb TG

i run em one of 2 ways depending on if i use knights or not my most common is 66 guard halberds FC BotUL King DoE, Tect or rammy if allowed, Herald, and Heirophant

and this is the unit that devastates everything and unless ur unlucky with your characters the unit can even stand up to a purple sun and still have the 4 ranks for res and hoard attacks

Seeing as how I've just recently purchased 40 new halberd TG, I have two questions for people:

1) How do you assure that the 750pts you spend on this unit (with all those characters!) gets into combat? (Our shooting is sooooo not enough to make the enemy come to you.)


2) What do you do to model Ramhotep so that he is distinct enough from a regular Necrotect in appearance?

I'll think about adding these to my army, but until I can answer these questions, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

@Sleboda

Look at your opponent's army before deployment and decide what you want them to kill. Keep deploying chaff, along with everything else until he deploys the target unit you really want dead. (deploy them last if nessisary, as they will undoubtebly be the most important unit in your army.

If you deploy right in his face, theres not a whole lot they can do to avoid you; especially if you are fighting an offensive army like WoC, Ogres, OnG, Bretts, and so on, they dont really have the choice of avoiding you at that point.

Theres nothing in the fluff from what I've seen that makes Ramhotep look explicitly different from a normal necrotect, so I would just go ahead make a cool looking custom necrotect that tickles your fancy.

@Anubian Emissary

Mind you, you dont HAVE to make a necrotect 100+ points, i always field them naked because they will die eventually, and i see no point in giving your enemy free VP's. Not to meniton, once he gives his TG one round of hatred hes essentially already paid for himself in a vital combat against a powerful enemy unit, or if they are put up against anything mediocre then they will without a doubt get massacared in the first round of combat, which is the one that really matters.

Still though, i can understand why you dont like them as its situational on their use depending on the opponents initiative.

Halberds are a MUST on tg, that extra 80 points (should be 40 ) couldn't possibly go towards something more useful. If you're going to field TG, might as well field them right.

=> Got it. So if you are not rolling randomly for scenarios, and you opponent lets you see his list/army before deployment, and you have enough drops after spending all those points on the Deathstar, then you might get to be across from the one unit you hope will come to you (because without him coming to you, you still won't get to him in time to matter). Got it.

Sorry to be negative, while I do appreciate the advice, that's just not a realistic expectation to have going into a game. You can't plan on it.

=> True, nothing says he's different, but gosh darn it, he's a unique dude. When was the last time you saw the actual model for a named character and thought "He just looks sort of like a normal guy to me?" Even if you can name a few, they are few and far between. I feel it's only fair and right to make my Rammy look spiffycooluberneat, which is why I wanted input from others who might have made a cool one.

Honestly, aside from Khalida and Apophas, none of the TK special characters really look that different. Settra especially- if not for the extra horses, he'd just look like another Tomb King.

Sleb: Unless you play with people hiding their armies under a blanket I'm sure you can single out one or two priority targets by giving it a quick glance, besides that isn't Dawn Attack the only scenario where you have no control over your deployement? Yes getting across to a gunline can be tough for us, but otherwise it shouldn't be too hard to get them where you need unless you've got nothing to deal with chaff that might get in your way. I personally think 40 TG is a bit over the top and prefer to go around 30 to save the points, means I'll sometimes run a bit short but I get points for other stuff so it's generally fine.

I have only had this problem once in all my time with my Tomb Guard so this isn't something I'm concerned about.

I run two catapults, Casket and 80 archers(in addition to chariots depending on game size) so I'll have to disagree with you in saying Tomb King shooting isn't enough to make an enemy come to you. If my opponent ever stayed on his side of the battlefield(it's never happened yet in a game) I would have no problem shooting him the whole time.

We play with all the scenarios and randomly roll before each game to decide which one we play.

Why would you have to model him differently? Just use the regular Necrotect model and tell your opponent "This is Ramhotep." I've sometimes used Khatep with the regular Liche Priest model and told my opponent that the Liche Priest was Khatep.

If my opponent has a problem with this I'll end the game right then and there and get another opponent.

Edit- I didn't see your later post after I responded to this one. I have enough drops in my lists that my Tomb Guard get put down when I see where my opponent's strong point will be.

Cheers everyone,
just one more thing, is a king with the destroyer of etnernites overkill in a 30+ guard unit with full command, and the banner of the undying legion? or is worth just using a prince

I would never put a king in my TG unit unless i'm expecting to fights ws 5 elites and even then i probably wouldn't.

You can get a prince + necrotect for the price of a lord. I just don't see the use in TG units.

I like to field my TG like Anubian Emissary says, with sword n board for the extra bodies.

Almost all of my lists carry 2x 30+ TG with a naked prince. They are roughly 500 points each and would be near 600 with halberds.
Don't get me wrong i think halberds are a decent option, but personally i just prefer to have more bodies make it into combat. Now if only they could drop their shield when buying halberds like the Grave Guard do with their GWs.

No such thing as overkill. If you're going deathstar, might as well make sure it sticks

I decided not to kit my TGs with halberds. With their reasonable strength and killer blow I'd rather defend them with shields and the hold the banner of swiftness to bring the tomb king, herald and unit closer to the enemy.

My army can muster between 60-120 shots per turn and combined with two priests is enough to draw the enemy to me.

Once my Tomb Kings are in range they call in reinforcements from entombed units - using the banner of the hidden dead on the herald and I can instantly make challenges to the flanks and rears of enemy units.

And once in combat the tomb king is boosted by the golden sigil blade and protected by armour of destiny, an enchanted shield and the dragon helm for a 2+ save.

batman, mate, I'm sorry to tell you that one character can carry only one piece of magic armor, not the combination you just sketched us.

Sounds like a perfect scenario in a perfect world.

As Krael pointed out, you can't get that, only one magic item of each category per character, and no duplicate items (I think, unless that changed in 8th Edition). However, if you outfit the Tomb King with Armor of Silvered Steel, and the Dragonbane Gem, you get almost the same effect (2+ Armor Save, and 2+ Ward Save against Flaming Attacks), for less points.