How Did You Start With Tomb Kings?

What I really want to learn is how I myself can start with my new choice but I thought that instead of asking suggestions, I could ask for your personal experience with starting a brabd new Tomb Kings army.
I don't mind if your story takes place in 8th, 7th or 6th edition. What I would like to hear is how you got yourselves motivated for the task, what did you buy first (including colors, tools and of course miniatures), what followed, what models where your favorite and what was the element that made each of you continue collecting the Kings of Khemri.
More or less a description of the Warhammer Hobby from a Tomb King's prespective if at all possible.

Well!

What started me was the Egyptian feel to the whole army, I loved everything about them, they had all aspects of Warfare. From chariots, archers, Spearmen, to Monsters, Artilliery and flying creatures!

My first purchase was a pricy one. A king on chariot, 2 priests, 2 Battalions and a catapult. I remember I was so excited they were all built and under coated within 4 hours and was ready and raring to play!

In a hobby perspective I defently suggest taking a all round approach any buy lists of different things and have a All round army to begin with. That way you can see what units you like\work with your play style and improve your list by learning towards them in list building.

For examples, I swear by my archers and magic, but many others don't.
Others swear by Nek knights I've yet to try them in larger units.

ive started collecting HE when I was 12. i never played a game until i turned up 16. in a meantime my younger brother wanted to start collecting warhammer, so he calls me on the phone I pick up and he says 'rats, HE or skeletons'. I answer 'what skeletons?', 'the egyptian ones', 'yea, sure they are cool, buy one box'. he was 8 years old at the time. he assembled them - god they were funny looking, with morning stars and arrows in their heads, others pickin their noses, slapping other skeletons. he bough another box and gave up soon. I also gave up on HE when the 7th came out (and the silver helms were no longer core; no more HE only cavalry). Ive asked if i can have his 2 boxs of skeletons to start collecting a TK army, and he said sure.

i thought about HE. ive actually only loved the swordmaster models (my fist WHFB unit - love at first sight). the cavalry so-so but they were an epic sight that army.

HE=>TK it was a nice change. no more rubies and fancy elven armour. oh the skeletons, and oh the liche priests. soon I bought a huge bunch of old VC skeletons (which were on sale). and so it began..... 2 years later 7000pts of TK collected. and around 5000pts of VC.

I love the TK. they are a civilized and disciplined nation (similar to HE), they are so easy to paint (the ones who painted HE rubies & eldar wraithlords know what I mean), they were unique (at the time of no miscast incants) and above all they are fun to model, paint, play! what can I say - 99% of my TK models are somewhat converted, and the inspirations and creativity never stops.



playtest with cardboard_bases (write S - skeleton, CH - chariots, CR - carrion). cut the bases for units you find interesting and start playing. after 10 games you will know what is your playstyle and what units work for you.

My dad.

When i was 3 or something, my dad painted Warmaster, I watched him paint, When he was my age, he painted Man O' War, Dark Elves etc. When i was 8, i found them fascinating, played with them, never knew what they were though.

Then came Dreadfleet.

Last year, when we were in a shopping mall, he said 'Let's buy a box and see what changed since Man o' war!' And then when we opened it, read the rulebook, the first ship that caught my eye was the Curse of Zandri, asked him what army that is, and then started painting it, my first Warhammer model was the Curse, loved painting it.

After all the ships, my dad asked me and my brother if we wanted to start an army, so i said, Tomb Kings!

That's basically how i started.

That's exactly the reason I like Tomb Kings. Civilized and not that Evil fluffwise while they don't lack the dreaded look of skeletons and monsters.

Also trust me, I've spent a lot of time painting Tau Crisis Suits and Hammerheads and I too know exactly what you mean.

The way I see it, as I already have an army (40k one of course but I can live with that) I'm going to start slowly and the first thing I'm going to buy are some Tomb Guard as I love the new models (the old ones were great also) and a Liche Priest to be my Hierophant. I've started Tau pretty much the same way as I firstly bought a box of Fire Warriors (My love at first sight models) and an Ethereal... At least with Tomb Kings I get to use the Hierophant (For Tau I've only once used Ethereal and it was for fun).

Ushabties are next for sure (those with great weapons) and with them some skeletons as I have to start playing some time soon also.

I want to hear more. I really approciate the info. I'm starting to really get into the idea of starting building an army from scratch.

As davados said I will test them but I think archers are a certain choice for a Tau player. I don't love shooting that much but I think I can't live without it. I'm useing it since 2008 after all.

I stared with buying the book and a box of chariots. Upon reading the book I proclaimed "I've been using the wrong undead". And I get to participate in thise fabled time called "Shooting". Quite astounding.

Model wise, I went with charios, some characters, some NK and a Sphynx. I think I'm going with chariots and archers for the entirity of my core and statues and warmachines for everything else. Screw that SKelly hoarde crap. And if I ever need to use that, I've got oodles of skellies from my VC army.

I... basically stole the Tomb Kings out from under my boyfriend. I originally played Wood Elves (still do on occasion) and was looking into something new. Having a relatively neutral outlook and being fascinated by the burial rituals of different cultures the Tomb Kings seemed like a perfect fit.

In our small play group we don't really like to duplicate armies. My boyfriend loved the look of many of the new models for the Tomb Kings and had mentioned many times how he was going to pick up a Battalion to start his army. >:3 *devious-ness* After I got off from work one day I traveled to the hobby store nearby that sold Warhammer models and snagged (bought) some Stalkers and base coated them before he knew I even had them.

He was (jokingly) angry with me for several days after he found out but continues to beg me to let him paint them. As a gesture of good will I think I'll let him paint my second War Sphinx (when I get it).

I love the lore, look, and feel of the army and glad I kiped them from my Scaven counterpart!

I don't know what everybody else thinks, but I definately believe that was a pretty cool way to start a new army.
I'm starting to think that I've made the right choice. The more I read about Tomb Kings and the reasons to collect them, that you guys present here, the more I realize how much I like their fluff, look and units.

For me, I had started out in 6th ed. with Wood Elves, and was looking to pick up an army that had a different play style. The woodies were fast, flexible in the movement phase, and played correctly, could be a very intimidating army! But it was easy to play them poorly, too, and it required a fairly steep learning curve to use the correctly.

I love armies that make me think, and the TK was an ideal fit for a second army that played differently than the flexible woodies. You had to think two or three turns ahead to make sure that your characters/casters were in the right spot at the right time to make sure you could get the right incantations off to ensure you would win the key combat that would swing the game in your favor. To a certain extent, TK still relies on that principle. TK rarely win games in the first two or even three turns of the game unless your opponent has an incredible run of bad dice rolls. TK win a majority of their games in turns 4-6, and making sure your key units are in the right spot to do that isn't as easy at it once was, but it's still imperative for a chance at victory.

After I decided on TK as my second army, I won my choice of Battalion boxes at a FLGS tournament. Easy choice, and it was a great starting point! Just needed to add characters for a decent 500-750 point game.

It was about the time 7th edition came out. I had been out of warhammer for a while. This was about the only time in my recent history when i had a little bit of spending money. Someone had some secondhand TK and lizardmen. I hadnt kept up with the game so i didnt know what either army could do. I asked another friend which army i would enjoy given i like using magic in a fantasy setting, and what the general feel of the armies was. He said they were both about equal on that (i dont think id put our magic up there with slann...but i guess magic is important for both armies). Ultimately i picked TK because i figured they:

sounded like they had more options for troops

undead are cooler than dinosaurs (even though i could care less about egyptians, and 100% think that vampire counts undead are cooler (BLASPHEMY i know))

"Theyre necromancers/undead, their magic MUST be stronger than a bunch of braindead lizards!"


At times i have wondered if lizzies would have fit me better. Better magic, their infantry is better (both things that i like), and i lose so often with TK that i think in the years ive been playing i wouldnt need more than both hands to count my victories (im not even sure id need more than one). The best i can usually eke out is a favorable draw. Lately ive started to experiment with lists that include as much ebts as possible, and its been a fun change of pace. I still enjoy my TK, but at times they just feel so limiting (no march, lvl 4 wizard doesnt even get to choose lores available like ogre wizards unless you go crazy and take 2 lvl 4's. (DAMN YOU CRUDDANCE!)

At the beginning of 2011 a new guy started work where I work. He tried getting me into 40K but I wasnt a fan of the models or the "space" theme for that matter. Having played MTG, D&D, Warcraft and Diablo for years I decided to check out the "Fantasy side" of it. I have always had a thing for skeleton warriors and at one time I had a pet scorpion named Leshrac. And who doesnt like a good Liche!? I bought a lot on Bartertown for cheap that had was pretty much a Battalion, BSB, King, Liche, Scorpion, Casket and SSC. Modeled all the skeletons for archers because Sleboda said to (before new book) and painted them all red like the Burning Dead Archers of Diablo 2! Then the new book came out like a month later and I was instantly hooked! Warsphinx, Necrosphinx, Stalkers all amazing models. I had to convert my own Hierotitan and am currently in the process of converting a Colossus. Ive since amassed roughly 8000 points of Tomb Kings (BEFORE upgrades and command) in the last year. Along with 4600 points of Lizardmen and 4000 points of Ogres recently. LM and OK are fun at times, but Tomb Kings hold my heart...

I first started the Tomb Kings years ago and managed to buy all of this for $200 at the time second hand:

1 Tomb King
3 Mounted Liche Priests
3 Liche Priests
36 Heavy horsemen
15 Light Horsemen
50 Skeleton warriors
30 Skeleton Archers
15 Chariots
3 Ushabti
1 Tomb Scorpion
20 Tomb Guard
2 Bone Giants
1 Screaming Skull Catapult

I'd always been interested in Undead in warhammer and love the ancient Egypt feel they have. That's all there is too it.

I used to have an army years ago when they first came out, but they either got broke or lost when I moved, and I never really played Fantasy.

Then last year my friend commissioned me to build and paint him a TK army, and when it was built he moved onto Empire, so I took the Tomb Kings off his hands as payment for the Empire, so I sort of got paid twice.. or something

A freind convinced me about 9 years ago to get back into Warhammer. He had all three elven armies and both human ones. I wanted to start an army, went into the local shop and looked through the army books. The two that then struck me were Tomb Kings and Lizardmen. I liked both of them because they were different. Chaos, ,Beastmen, Skaven, Dwarves, Orcs & Gobbos, and Vampire Counts all seemed to be things that often appear in fantasy literature or games. Aztec based Lizardmen, and Egyptian based Tomb Kings, less so. I was really torn between the two armies, and so just began to collect both. I started playing Lizardmen first, which was probably a good thing. They are a good army to learn with, being very forgiving. Tomb Kings were a challenge for me, but ever so more rewarding to win with.

I started in the 6th edition with:

2 battalions, a king on a chariot & on foot, 2 scorpions, 6 carrion, a priest on a casket, a priest on foot and on horse & a catapult.

Howdy all! New to this forum and this is my first post.

I started with a Lizardmen army back in the last days of 6th edition. My friend used to work for GW, and he finally talked me into playing.

I managed to win an army last year at the Ardboyz semi-finals, and I picked Tomb Kings as my prize. Then they forgot about me for about 6 months. I think I might have gotten a bit more than 3k:

2 Battalion boxes
3 War/Necro kitties
2 Boxes of Chariots
3 boxes of knights/stalkers
2 boxes of skeleton warriors
4 boxes of tomb guard

I like the Egyptian theme, the reliability (no panic tests for me!) and the need for strategic magic. Plus the fact that TK aren't evil per se. I guess I've spent too much time bantering with people about how their army was going to lose because they were evil...

I've moved from my hometown and one of the chances I get each year to see the friend that got me started is Adepticon. He was broke so I bought his tickets and the hotel room, and he is painting my new TK. He painted enough for our planned LM/TK team army plus a bit more, and has the rest in process.

Of course, last minute he had to bail...but he hooked me up with a decent newer player and we managed to go 3-0. So far I like what I see from the Tomb Kings!

I originally bought some TK models during the Storm of Chaos summer. My store was having a league, so one of the guys let me borrow his TK army. I had a blast with it, even though no clue about how to play the army. I then ended later trading off what I did purchase for some chaos models. I stopped playing warhammer for like 5 years.

When I came back, I wanted to play one of the undead armies. Since I like Egyptian theme. I went with TK. I really love the look of the new models, minus the new liche priest. Think he is ugly but what can ya do right?

This go around I bought a battalion box, a box of warriors. Then getting 2 boxes of Necro knights, and going to order some models off crocodile games for my liches.

I never liked the Tomb Kings much, especially their last book so when I bought the new book when it came out I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the look, feel, and style of the army but I never had the time to really get an army started. It was always on my "to do" list however.

Fastforward to now, and I am looking for something different than my main army (I have sold all my other armies, and quit 40K completely), which is Ogres. The other neutral army was an easy choice - fast models to paint, some awesome center pieces, and a gaming style that would be quite different from my fatties

I started last week and have painted 16 archers and am almost done with 3 Stalkers.

I got originally: the book, four pack of cards, a Sphinx, a box with Stalkers, 3 boxes of Skeletons, Casket in metal (finecast really is a gamle with small models), Tomb Herald, Liche Priests, Necrotect (this was perfectly cast for some odd reason), and a box of Tomb Guard.

I intend to get it all as soon as I have painted most of the stuff I have. Tomb Kings will probably be a never ending project just like my Ogres are (closing in on 10K painted) even though they do not have the same conversion possibilities.

I shamelessly plagiarised Bryan Carmichael.

Well, I've yet to play TKs, so I guess you could say I haven't started yet. But here's my story anyway...

I first played WFB back in 4th and 5th editions, during which I 'collected' a number of armies, including Orcs and Goblins, Lizardmen, and Undead (before they were split in two). Truth be told I never managed to make a very large army of anything, not helped by being restricted to plastics only (in the days where plastics were one piece figures, but the alternatives had lead in) for most of that time.

One attraction of undead actually was that they had a good range of plastics, including skeleton infantry, horsemen, and chariots. When the first VC book came out I got that and several boxes of the then new skeletons (the ones that are now TK figures, but with metal command parts) and Empire state troops, with the intention of making some zombies (which didn't work because the skeletons were so much larger than the humans!)

As it happened, I went off to uni and the whole lot got left under the bed pretty much untouched for a decade or so.

I came back to the hobby about a year and a half ago. Initially I told myself that I'd stick to Blood Bowl and Necromunda, and not get sucked in to building armies (which I'd never been too successful at anyway), but it's not so easy finding opponents for specialist games, so soon I got drawn in deeper. It's 40k that seems more popular round here, but I want to wait for 6th edition and CSM before committing to anything, so when one of my new gaming partners said he was going to focus on Fantasy I thought I'd join him.

Had I been starting from a clean slate, I may have gone for Lizardmen or WoC, but knowing I had 60-odd skeletons unmade under my bed inclined me to go for one of the undead armies. The new VC book had just come out, so I was tempted by that (I still think that I might use my army as part of a VC army in future - a skeleton's a skeleton), but ultimately I decided on TKs. I'm not sure why, but that my old skellies turned out to still be the current TK range had something to do with it.

I thought I'd made a considerable saving, having all these skeletons, but I didn't have any TK sprues, so ended up spending a fair amount of money buying bows and quivers (along with some chariots/horsemen) off eBay. And now I just have to assemble and paint it all...

I had a friend who started painting when I was like 10-12. I decided to join him by buying some of my own. So I entered the store and searched for something I liked and found FREAKIN SKELETON HORSEMEN. later on I added some chariots and a bone giant. we only painted the models and had no idea of how to play thus my friend bought like one cool kit from every army but i still stayed with the kings. we then quit and my models got stuck on the shelf.

some time later I decided I was going to start playing on my own so I bought the battalion box, a tomb king and the rule book I started painting until I realised I had none I could play with and so they got on the shelf once more.

Got some other friends but don't actually realise that they play(pretty much have no contact with my old friend by now). They ask me if I would like to start playing and I said that I actually already have som models.

and now one year later we play and paint at least one day every week.

I started with TK when I was at a Games Day event and someone was running introductory WHFB. I used the TK army to play, and found that I liked it, even though I was a 40K player primarily and didn't think much of WHFB at the time. I looked into it more and found that I liked the Egyptian flavor of the army, and especially the incantation system, which I found far superior to random magic generation and the lore system. So I began to build my TK army. Heavy on skellies and chariots.

Needless to say, I am severely unhappy with 8th edition and the new TK book, especially the nerfing of fear, and, even more, the destruction of the incantation system and its replacement by the wreckage that is the conventional and unreliable lore system. My army is "still playable", but unlike Mr. Chesterfield, that just doesn't satisfy.

I started tk early in 6th ed as my second army, found an ebay deal back then.

For 100.00 i was able to get 2 battalions, king, king in chariot, lp+lp on horse, bsb+bsb on horse, and
army book. It wasn't until i was done painting that i started to use them.

Lizardmen seem to be popular here. My history also includes those scaly bastards. When I was 8 or 10 (during the time of... 4th edition? Or something), me and my friends run into Warhammer at our local gaming store where we were to buy dice to D&D/Runequest. I was a total dinosaur maniac at that time, even before the first Jurassic Park, and the Lizardmen caught my eye. Me and my friends spent quite a lot of time fantasizing about playing WH, even build some fortresses and other stuff.

It was really unrealistic, as we didn't have good enough grasp on English language to learn the game from books, nor money to buy the models (probably not even patience to build and paint them). It slowly faded away, but I often checked some models at the gaming store and even flipped through some White Dwarf magazines when I had to kill time at the library. Then, last year, two of my friends announced that they will start playing it. I asked if I can come and try painting with them, and as I did, I found it really enjoyable and was hooked.

Then I started thinking about what army should I choose, and instantly Lizardmen popped into my mind. However, after carefully going through each army it was a decision between Lizardmen, Daemons, Dwarves, Warriors of Chaos and Tomb Kings. Apart from Daemons, I was drawn to these armies because of their ties to ancient cultures. I then dropped the two Chaos armies because I felt they wouldn't be really interesting to paint, and Dwarves because of the models were hard to obtain. The new, awesome models for TK won the game for them and I ordered a battalion box. However, it took so long to arrive, that I went to the local store and bought a king and the paints, so that I could do something. Eventhough it took me over six games to get my first victory and that I now collect Lizardmen too, Tomb Kings have a special place in my heart.

Sorry for the long rant.

I have always loved the undead since i began Warhammer, so they were a natural choice for me. I also love history and the Egyptian feel was perfect. To top it off when i saw the new models my fate was sealed....

Everyone and their interwebs was hating on them
So I'm out to prove them wrong

Campaign successful