Tomb Kings confirmed for May

[Disciple of Nagash]

Well my new TK book arrived in the post this morning. Just thought I would give you my feedback:

Background: In general pretty good. There is the normal "insert army here" is very powerful and will one day conquer the world, but that's in every army book. But it is reasonable fluff, except for one HUGE HUGE kick in the face, which I was not very happy about. According to the new book Nagash hasn't been resurrected the second time round, and Arkhan is looking for his artefacts to resurrect him. I'm a little miffed (read: very pissed off) by this, but I am choosing to interpret this as the fact that they don't know he is secretly awake in Nagashizzar, and that Arkhan is doing his bidding.

The rest of the background is quite nice, gives a good feel for the anger the TK feel and how they work.

Army wise.....I think they are an excellent balanced army. They of course have some options which seem to be no-brainers (Necrosphink is something we need to be very afraid of), but I think that all their options have some utility. Even things like the Horsemen are cheap enough and have a Vanguard rule could be used well.

Their characters are very useful to their troops, especially with My Will Be Done. The only one character as see as pretty pointless is the Necrotect - I can't seem him being chosen over the other more useful Heroes.

Their magic lore is reasonably potent but NOT overpowered.

Overall the new TK book is excellent (apart from the Nagash issue :swear: ), balanced and not over powered. It will not make TK a powerhouse, but mid-higher tier army that will do very well with someone who knows how to use them right. The only one issue I don't like is that the book does seem rather "simplified". There is very little customisation for your characters, as we have with ours, no powers etc. Just the generic lord choices and a handful of magic items.

I would hope that VC get some of the same treatment on the future, barring the simplification on the character side of things.

 

[Mr Saturday]

Wow, that's a pretty major change to the fluff. Not happy with that.

So, is the deathmask as supermegazord awesome as I've been hearing?

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

It's very potent yes, as it goes not allow enemy units within 6" to use their general's leadership or the BSB re-rolls.......hmmm very interesting as that is one power we have for the Bloodline armies developed last year, maybe GW are spying on us!

However it has limited use on VC.

 

[Bravo_10]

Wow, that Deathmask would be DEVASTATING against Skaven. Seeing their whole army reduced to LD7 or less would bring a smile to my face.

But like DoN said, if you're fighting other undead like the Vampire Counts, it's going to be borderline useless and definitely not worth its points. I'd probably take it anyway though, as you never know when some crafty Vampire is gonna try and free-reform his Skeletons.

 

[Danceman]

Healing is inconsequensial and the attribute should have been a proper spell. Skullstorm could have been removed at it is hilariously bad for its casting value.
I hate the new lore, thanks for removing the only spell which made us competitive in the movement phase, indeed, we're slower than dwarfs now. A few good augments isn't going to hide this fact.

I am very dissapointed and a few monsters isn't going to change that. Not sure yet but I think this is the final nail in the coffin for me or just look elsewhere cause the more I read the less I feel this is the army I once knew and loved. What is left is nothing more than VC light. Take everything VC got and give it light armour and throw in some monsters and hope they don't notice and remove their healing capabilities so they'll have to buy units of 50+(nice one, marketing).

I am usually more optimstic when it comes to new releases but I am not seeing it and believe I _WANT_ to see it.

Beautiful models though, that's something I guess.

 

[Anubis]

Wow, that's a pretty major change to the fluff. Not happy with that.

So, is the deathmask as supermegazord awesome as I've been hearing?

I find it quite humorous that a number of TK players are all whining about how the mask is terrible as you can't combine it the talisman of preservation!

Overall, I'd say that it's pretty much the 'must have' item from the tomb king items. There's only a bare minimum of armies who won't be seriously effected by it, but a number of armies can get utterly screw-over by it;
- Skaven. (have fun with max Ld7 boyz!)
- Orcs & Gobbos (suddenly gobbos especially don't like fear)
- Empire (non-warrior priest units are generally in trouble)
- Bretonnia (very amusing as they could be losing that blessing pretty quickly!)
- Elves of all flavours could suddenly feel less confident as their Ld8 core could become less reliable... It at least adds that little bit of doubt to mess with the elf player's mind and could make them do something a bit foolish?!

I think you'll the mask either bunkered in a large unit, or else on a chariot lord for the added protection he'll get.
And even without a 4++, a 3+/5++ is still possible for any mask-wearing king, and when combined with his rather buff statline, he'll still be a pain to remove...

I could actually see that the vocal minority will whine loud enough that some tournaments may outright ban the mask down the road. (skaven - i'm looking at you guys!)
It's definately the tomb kings 'best' magic item, and I expect it to become a staple in the near future at the very least.

Cheers!

 

[Danceman]

T5 with low AS is overrated, we should know that as VC players. Especially when you do not have a IoN to heal it up. This is why "we're whining". No save and unstable hurts. Spear of Antarakh(or whatever it is called) is likely to the weapon of choice along as much of a tanking setup as possible. That is what TK units need. Resilience. Otherwise they'll jus crumble, lose ranks and get ground down. Who cares about leadership when you're the one losing the combats?

The mask is situational and does not deserve the attention. If TK would have some kind of chaos knight/chosen unit then I might see where they are coming from but other than this I really cannot see what all the hoo-ha is about.

 

[Arkhan]

I rather like it a lot. Have much more versatile core choices then VC, the fact that other units get to use Tomb Kings/Princes WS if they join it makes skeletons suddenly awesome (that and they are cheaper then VC skellies) and I was annoyed by VC's lack of shooting.

 

[Zanos]

I know I'm the guy that generally finds this stuff but, I have a bit of a favor to ask. Anyone that has the Tomb Kings book, could you possibly do us all a favor and...share it?

 

[TMS]

Oi, Zanos, mate..
[mod]No asking for illegal copyrighted material, please.[/mod]

 

[Zanos]

Shhhh, it's completely legal, the voices in my head told me.

 

[Lynks]

Why dont you just go to a local store and read it there? Even non-GW suppliers get the black box after all, and its post release so they should definately have a copy

 

[Zanos]

I've read into it a little bit, but I feel like if I really spent some time with it at the store I'd be kind of cheating a bit. I don't know, I'm weird, I'll probably just persuade my parents into buying it for me, lol.