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Tomb Kings: Battle Tactics

The legions of the dead are vast, but they are also frail, Skeleton Warriors and spearmen are best suited to holding back the mortals, not cutting them down, so don’t rely on them to do any heavy lifting.

The legions of the dead are vast, but they are also frail, Skeleton Warriors and spearmen are best suited to holding back the mortals, not cutting them down, so don’t rely on them to do any heavy lifting. Death will never be wasted, when a warrior falls, their soul will be passed into the Realm of Souls, where it will benefit and heal those still fighting, and ultimately summoning ferocious Ushabti to the field of battle, an elite monstrous infantry.

Tomb Kings have a wide range of large units, putting these units against their specialist area will benefit you greatly in battle, putting one of these units in the wrong place could lose you the battle, knowing which units to sacrifice and which to protect will serve you very well.

Your army is split in to two halves, constructs and undead, be careful, certain spells and abilities are tied to one of these types. You can ascertain the unit type by looking for the ‘Constuct’ or ‘Undead’ ability on the unit card

In battle keep your eye on the Real of Souls bar at the top of the screen, as you take losses it’ll trigger increasingly powerful map-wide healing effects. Once the third stage of the Realm of Souls is reached, it will unlock an army ability which summons a unit of powerful Ushabti

It’s important to consider careful when and where to summon your Ushabti, it may well be worth waiting to summon them on a weak flank, or on top of an unguarded unit of archers further back.

‘The Restless Dead’ - The Lore of Nehekhara’s passive ability - triggers map-wide healing/resurrection whilst spells are being cast, when used in conjunction with the Realm of Souls it can result in substantial amounts of healing.

With such magical prowess it may be worth investing in both the Hierotitan and the Casket of Souls, both are powerful units in their own right, but also come with abilities which increase your Winds of Magic pool and regeneration.

Skeleton Warriors/Spearmen are free and have a substantial missile block chance, use them to not only feed the Realm of Souls but also to soak up missile fire that would otherwise target your precious elite units

The infantry of the Tomb Kings are comparatively less armoured than other factions, use them to shield your armoured constructs from the enemies armour piercing attacks

The Tomb Scorpion’s charge attack is able to burrow under smaller units, use this to charge missile units behind the melee infantry

The chariots of the Tomb Kings come in much larger unit sizes than that of other races, use their weight and numbers to punch through infantry – avoiding braced spear infantry of course!

Khatep is the Lore of Nehekhara’s most powerful caster, but combining him with a Lore of Light Liche Priest will allow you to pin the enemies, ripe for Khatep’s two potential vortexes

Alone, a unit of Skeleton Archers isn’t much of a threat, but when combined with High Queen Khalida’s buff and the debuffs of the ‘Chosen of the Gods’ and the ‘Blessed Legion of Phakth’ regiments of renown they can do real damage to even armoured & shielded units

Tomb King infantry are often outclassed in a straight fight, but when they fight near their Tomb King they will fight all the harder due to the passive ‘My Will be Done’ ability

Always remember to keep your Necrotect hero nearby your ‘Construct’ units, this will increase their combat stats and give you the ability to heal them.

Similar to the Vampire Counts, losing your lord can be devastating, to help avoid this try keeping a Tomb Prince near your lord who will reduce incoming physical damage with his Guardian ability

Settra’s Chariot of the Gods is the most powerful chariot available, but, like all chariots risks becoming trapped in dense formations of infantry. To prevent this, remember that the ‘Wrath of Ptra’ ability is able to blast a path through infantry

When reduced to half health Tomb King Lords and Heroes have access to a variety of powerful ‘curses’, meaning that even a wounded Tomb King character is dangerous.

Consider what the opponent is likely to field, if you’re expecting infantry bring a Warsphinx, if you’re expecting other monsters or cavalry bring the Necrosphinx

Sepulchral Stalkers are a formidable defensive unit, with charge defence vs large and a disruptive short ranged missile attack they’re well able to fend off any cavalry charge


Though large, both the Tomb Scorpion and Sepulchral Stalkers are able to tunnel in to a vanguard position before the battle begins, deploying them ahead will allow them to support one another against the majority of threats they’ll face

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Tomb Kings: Legendary Lords

Learn about the four Legendary Lords at your disposal when playing as the Tomb Kings.

Settra the Imperishable is the greatest of all of the Tomb Kings. In life, Settra saw the rise to greatness of Nehekhara, and has been awoken to find it all in ruins. His goal is to restore his great empire. Settra is the easiest King to start off with, with strong faction effects for growth and public order. He also starts with Tomb Guards equipped with halberds and a Khemrian Warsphinx.

Grand Hierophant Khatep was once the religious head of the mortuary cult. Khatep refused death but time has taken its toll on him, after being banished by Settra, Khatep would only be able to return when the mortuary cult could fulfil their promise to restore the golden age of the Nehekhara. Khatep is one of the hardest Kings to start off with, being banished far from the rest of the Tomb Kings and surrounded by enemies, support is hard to come by. Khatep starts with a Hierotitan and Carrions, with much stronger enemies nearby. The Exiles can live comfortably within the mountains, while also gaining canopic jars each turn without the need for character traits, they also have diplomatic issues with the Dark Elves that are their neighbors, but they can be rounded up with the movement bonus in all armies.

High Queen Khalida, was once a much loved and respected queen, struck down in her prime. Khalida has risen again to protect her home lands against the corruption of the vampires. Poison is one of Khalidas key weapons, as it courses through her. Khalida starts with a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers and Necropilis Knights. Khalida is joined by her famed archer legions with their bonus 20% ammunition throughout all of her armies. Khalida was greatly respected throughout all of the Nehekhara and as such she gains +20 to all diplomatic relations with all Tomb Kings.

Arkhan the Black was once a lieutenant of Nagash, greatly aiding the great necromancer in his rise to power. Arkhan is one of the hardest characters to play as he starts with an under developed settlement and strong enemies (Dwarfs) all around. Arkhan adopts vampiric units to his roster, enabling him to recruit some of the foulest beasts to his armies. He also has strong ties to the Vampire Counts with a +20 to diplomacy with them, and a -50 to all Tomb Kings. Arkhan also has a +10 magical reserve for all of his armies. Vampiric corruption does not affect the public order of his settlements and he starts with units of Crypt Ghouls and a Tomb Scorpion.

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Tomb Kings: Campaign Tactics

The Tomb kings have risen, and are set to restore the ancient Kingdom of Nehekhara which has been decaying for centuries, carved up by foreign invaders, and now plunged into war once again as each Tomb King to fight for dominance.

The Tomb kings have risen, and are set to restore the ancient Kingdom of Nehekhara which has been decaying for centuries, carved up by foreign invaders, and now plunged into war once again as each Tomb King to fight for dominance.

Books of Nagash
The books of Nagash are powerful tomes containing the secret spells of Nagash, the first necromancer. They’ve become scattered throughout the world, and are sought by the Tomb Kings to claim control of the Black Pyramid of Nagash, part of the victory conditions in the Eye of the Vortex campaign.

The books are in the possession of other factions, some held within settlements and some held by Rogue Armies. All of them must be defeated or conquered to take possession of the book.

TIP: Rogue Armies carrying the Books of Nagash wont declare war on you. Make use of this time to watch where they patrol and bolster up your forces, as they’ll likely prove a tough fight with experience troops in their ranks.

In either campaign (Eye of the Vortex or Mortal Empires) 8 of the 9 books can be collected, with one being already held by Arkhan the Black which cant be taken from him. Each book offers a different bonus when they’re collected, from increasing unit capacity, to bonuses to trade and income. Take the time at the start of each campaign to see where the books are and what each book offers, as the effects they carry are randomized at the start of each campaign and each Tomb Kings Legendary Lord will have books in different parts of the world to collect.

Day of Awakening
Tomb Kings have a unique recruitment process, raising legions of the dead takes a lot of power, but it is free. There are restrictions to the amount of higher level units that you can recruit. To begin Tomb kings can recruit two limitless units, Skeleton warriors, and spearmen.

To recruit higher level unit’s and increase the capacity, you’ll need to construct specific buildings to unlock the unit and grant you an initial capacity. The more of these buildings you have the larger your capacity will become.

Now if you should lose a settlement containing these buildings, your capacity for that unit will be reduced. Your armies will be unaffected, but you may find that you have now exceeded the current units capacity.

TIP: You may find it more advantageous to disband wounded units without much experience and recruit a fresh unit of the same type within a couple of turns, rather than waiting for the wounded unit to replenish itself which can often take much longer.

 

Dynasties
Tomb Kings have a limitation with the number of armies that they can field at one time, and must awaken more Tomb Kings to command further armies. To do this they will spend time looking into their past, to discover long lost dynasties, their army traditions, and former Kings.

Having discovered one of the six major Nehekharan dynasties, you will be awarded with a new army slot, standard Tomb King Lords can be recruited straight away like any other faction, but a more powerful Lord, of the dynasty you have just researched can be recruited instead, by researching the top slot of that dynasty. Make use of the Canopic Jars you have been earning in the campaign to unlock this more powerful commander for your new army.

Take note though that once a Dynasty has been researched, the time is will take to research your next Dynasty will be greatly increased. The time spent on researching these dynasties can be improved by capturing additional settlements, with major settlements providing larger research boosts, over minor settlements.

TIP: Try capturing iconic Warhammer capital settlements (Khemri, Atldorf, Lothern, etc..) to gain much larger research boosts when playing as Tomb Kings.

Additionally, further benefits can be had within the Dynasties panel from unlocking Tomb Heralds which improve the quality of units within your Lords army, announcing both military and civic decrees to enhance your kingdoms infrastructure and Heroes which can be unlock and the capacity of them you can field via Gold or Canopic Jars.

Mortuary Cult and Canopic Jars
Throughout the campaign you will gather canopic jars from winning battles, taking settlements and engaging with dilemmas. These can then be used, along with tradable items, and gold, within the Mortuary Cult to craft magical items, that can be equipped to your Lords and Heroes.

TIP: Trade Resources can be secured either through military conquest in capturing a region and constructing a trade resource building within it or by the agreement of a trade agreement with a faction which already has access to the trade resource.

They can also be used to awaken Legions of Legend, elite units with specialist abilities and attributes to bolster your ranks and strengthen your armies, or to craft a new Dynasty, allowing you to field an additional army within the campaign.

TIP: To find a trade resource location quickly, left-click on the trade resource icon from the crafting recipe to have the game show you the closest location of that trade resource to your factions capital.

Rites
The tomb kings also come with their own rites to help them along the way, which provide a wide variety of benefits, using these at the right time can make a huge difference down the line, giving you bonuses to create stronger armies from the start, help with colonizing ruins, summon sandstorms to cause attrition to invading armies, and spur growth within your regions.

TIP: Try using the Great Incantation of Ptra on ruins of a major settlement if one is available, it will produce a far greater return on your investment for performing this Rite.

Buildings
The Tomb Kings economy can certainly play out quite differently to other races, with only basic infrastructure buildings on offer to aid growth and your treasury.

TIP: Make use of the cheap income buildings throughout your regions to provide a constant cash injection however small it may seem to start with.

More enticing military buildings can be used to bolster forces in the early game, but it can quickly stifle growth and development, thus preventing you from getting to the later, and far stronger, units in the roster.

TIP: If you’re after the higher tier units then focus on depth rather than breadth with your faction capital. It can be tempting to upgrade your minor settlements main building, but keep the growth back in reserve to quickly get your capital to level 5 and have the option of constructing the buildings that go with it.

Victory Conditions
For victory in the Eye of the Vortex campaign you’ll need to secure 5 of books of Nagash, gain ownership of the Black Pyramid and win the campaigns epic final or meet the domination victory conditions, which focus you on destroying a number of the main factions in this campaign.

Victory in the Mortal Empires campaign is somewhat different with the focus being much more on securing your local lands and then expanding out into the world to conquer your biggest rivals. The Books of Nagash still feature here in this campaign, but are not a part of your victory requirements.

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