8th Edtion Tactica: The Dwarf vs. Tomb Kings Tactics!

Ah, another nerd has started collecting Tomb Kings...

Greetings fellow Dwarf generals, closet elf lovers, and internet trolls of all types! Long over-due is the Tactica article on the 2011 Tomb Kings book and 8th edition Dawi strategy when fighting these bags of dusty old bones. We will discuss over all strengths and weaknesses of the TK army as it currently stands, go through all the units in detail with a focus on the threats they pose to Dawi generals, a look at their cowardly magical abilities, and even some general army lists.

The Tomb Kings are an interesting and varied warhammer army with a presence in all four phases of the game and virtually all troop types. They can have several play styles, from gunline to infantry heavy to even monster-mash styles among others. However, due to design, they will always have a presence in the magical phase and their army can be said to rely heavily on magic.

Army Strengths
Strong magic: Their lore is mainly a buffing lore which heals their troops. They have a number of units that help them cast spells without having to rely on irresistable force to get through Dawi dispel capabilities. Their magic can make them among the fastest armies in the game, heal their troops, and hit way above their weight class. Oh, and they can heal pretty damn well, making wars of attrition favorable to them as you keep bleeding troops and they keep coming back.
Varied troops: They have anything and everything from Cavalry to all types of Monsters.
Reliable: They never fail break tests and ignore leadership-sapping abilities for the most part. No panic, no fear, no break tests. They are dead, they just don't care.
Fear Causing: Although significantly weaker in 8th edtion, having EVERY unit cause fear means most armies will fail checks every game. Fighting with WS1 isn't good for Dawi as we normally rely on our high WS and don't get lots of attacks.
Premier War Machine Hunters: They have multiple units that can literally appear out of no where, bypassing protecting troops and forcing tight castling. Between Entombed Beneath the Sands (EBtS from now on), decent shooting, certain types of magic and scouting/vanguarding cavalry, Dawi War Machines rarely make it to the end of the game, and often die by turn 2 or 3.

Army Weaknesses
Reliant on magic: Take away their magic and they have major issues dealing with their other weaknesses. They must take a caster (called the Heirophant) and if he dies, the army begins to crumble.
Slow: Cannot march. This is huge. This is mitigated by magic and by having lots of units types with 7 or 8" base movement to a certain extent.
Fragile: Most of the army has low armor. Very few units have high toughness. If they can't get lots of healing off they drop pretty quick.
Unskilled: Very low weapon skill and initiative across the board. Without nearby characters they will have trouble passing fast-reform and combat-reform tests.
Unstable: The trade-off for being unbreakable and immune to pyschology is the unstable rule. For every point they lose combat by, they take a wound. That's bad for solo monsters, and bad for units as this roughly doubles the casaulties they take when they lose combat.

Note: We will see that many of these weakness, especially Slow, Fragile and Unskilled, can all be countered by slick spell casting on the TK player. If they get spells off their troops fly around the map, go from laughable to worrisome in close combat, and keep coming back no matter how many you kill! You can probably guess where this tactica will focus on...

Tomb King Units
Note: Threat level goes from lowest to highest; Pathetic, Low, Medium, High, Extreme

ALL UNITS SHARE THESE RULES IN COMMON:
1) Unbreakable, Unstable, Cause Fear
2) May not march
3) Can only 'hold' as a charge reaction
4) All shooters always hit on base BS, ignore modifiers
5) Any unit benefits from the 'My Will Be Done' special rule
6) Constructs (giants, ushabti, knights, stalkers, sphinx, scorpions) have a base 5+ armor and lose 1 less wound from combat resolution
7) EBtS allows a unit to appear from any nominated point on the map in the remaining moves phase (so no charge). Requires scatter/misfire roll.

CORE UNITS
Skeleton Warriors

Where's all the white women at?

Threat Level: Pathetic
Description: These boney fools make up the majority rank and file infantry of the TK kingdoms. At base cost you get a Skeleton with a shield for a meagre 4 points. Granted they aren't the best of troops, barely able to outfight skaven slaves or lizzie skinks but they ARE unbreakable and cause fear. Great Weapon wielding dwarves will punish these guys and cause significant losses due to instability. If your opponent tools them up with armor and spears rejoice, because they barely improve their combat effectiveness while drastically increasing their per model cost. Spears are even better to see...they add 25% to base cost, add a couple extra attacks that are nearly worthless, and remove the parry ability. Score!

You will mostly encounter these guys as small bunkers (easy VP if you can catch them and their character) and deep tar pit units. 40-50 of them are relatively cheap and can last as long as 2-4 combat phases against a Dawi Great Weapon Warrior horde. Hit them hard, drive up the combat resolution, and watch them vanish.

Their main advantage is the cheap cost and parry save (as each parry effectively saves two skeletons) coupled with a unit that will never run. They just struggle to kill Dawi troops, even when buffed up by spells and characters.

Skeleton Archers

Dude, what's wrong with your face?

Threat Level: Low
Description: The primary ranged power of the undead armies. They carry a bow which is fairly insignicant in itself. However, they ALWAYS ignore modifiers. This makes them great at shooting through screens, into terrain and for moving and scooting. Sure a shot that typcially hits and wounds on 5 isn't a big deal, especially since we shrug off 1/3 to 1/2 of those wounds generally, but in mass quantities and with the Smite spell, which doubles their shots, they can lay wounds into Dawi blocks and pick off war machine crew.

Easy prey for rangers and miners. They fold quickly in combat, being Skeletons with no real equipment to speak off, but make decent character bunkers and distraction units. Not worth shooting unless no better targets are available. Don't get into a shooting match with your missile troops as they can be easily healed/buffed (we will see this is one and the same thing) and can win the war of attrition. Hit them in close combat or drop a rock on their heads if you can't shoot anything else better.

Slayers will be concerned a little, as they can be turned into little pink pincushions if not careful. Still, 1 out of 9 shots kills a Dwarf on average, so a unit of 30 will put only 3 wounds on a dwarf unit. Smite can easily double that and 5 or 6 wounds might annoy a unit with little or no armor save and if in small numbers. Fans of 10 Dwarf missile units be warned. Watch your war machines, because even at a rate of one wound per 12 shots they can quickly wipe our war machine crew if a large, smited unit targets them!

Yes, I mention Smite a lot. If a sizeable unit gets Smite cast on it they go from Low to Medium in threat. This also means bigger units benefit more, so small skeleton archer units can safely be ignored even with Smite.

Skeleton Horsemen

They can take our lives, but they will never take out fre...oh wait, never mind, my master is calling.

Threat Level: Pathetic
Description: TK light cavalry. Skeletons on skeleton steeds=laughable combat power. They do have some advantages, namely a mediocre armor save (which means high for TK) that can be made a 4+, spears so they can hurt a little on the charge, and vanguard which without this they would have a hard time to reach combat. So they can move pretty quick off the bat and get in your face.

They will promptly die but might get lucky if they charge a war machine or a small support block. They can probably take out a 5 man miner unit if they run into one but otherwise ignore them. You may not want a unit of 20 of these hitting a flank of a combat, but that's almost 300 points for a unit that even Shield Warriors can beat up on, and will often be out of range of crucial caster support.

Skeleton Horse Archers

Ridin' Dirty, awww yeah

Threat Level: Low
More light cavalry, but these are bow armed and scout rather than vanguard and spears. Still pretty pathetic all things considered, but they fight nearly as well as Horsemen, and can run around shooting things in the butt. As above, they can threaten small support units and war machines, and make a nice distraction that can charge in on something early.

They can be a useful and very annoying unit. Since they don't have to actually get into close combat to kill stuff they can be something you need to clear out lest they tie up a war machine or pick the odd model or two from a unit. Scouting is their strongest point and mobile shooting can add up (see Wood Elf armies) in the long run if left alone. They combine well with EBtS troops and Chariots for 'In Yo Face' tactics.

Their best use is by blocking our Vanguard movements when deployed as scouts, and then after they stymie your Strollaz or Gyrocopter, they then vanguard away themselves!

Shoot them with missile troops and organ guns and drive them off with chaff and support units.

Chariots

Who's driving this thing?

Threat Level: High
Now we're talking. Chariots are very much a glass-cannon unit. They hit hard, but are only about as tough as an Ogre to kill (T4, W3, 5+). You want to avoid getting charge by these if at all possible as without charge bonus' they really are just mass S3 without the benefit of supporting ranks. Let's go into just how hard they can hit.

Each chariot gets D6 impact hits at S4. Each crew gets two attacks with a spear, so on the charge thats four S4 attacks attacks, and two S3 from the horses. Note the crew are 'elite' (try not to snigger) Skeletons, meaing they have WS3 so they hit our elites on a 4+, rather than the normal skeleton 5+.

A unit of 3 chariots on the charge can easily kill 10 Dwarves. That's why they have a high threat. Now if they try to charge GW Horde head on you'll take your losses and then destroy them. If they get a flank hit off, you'll probably fail your reform test but mass S3 attacks are pretty poor at grinding Dwarf infantry down so you'll eventually win. So what's the big deal? Yeah, they can munch small support units, but so can a lot of things in this army book.

The big deal is their movement (they are Swiftstriders as well). Unlike everything else in their book the lack of marching is not a problem...chariots can never march. With their magic they can get in position to do nasty, horrible things to you and end up much faster than any other book's chariots. Also each crew has a bow, so that's two shots per chariot. Still not something to make you cry yourself to sleep at night but when you combine mobility with shooting, you get something that can often choose when and where it hits. Once a unit has been weakened by shooting or magic, or in a combo charge, is where Chariots shine. The ability to throw a lot of damage down on the charge can roll away a weakened Dawi unit, or if it combines with a deep Infantry unit to deny you steadfast they break and run you down on the charge.

If you charge them, they break into little bony pieces. If they charge you properly supported or timed, there's little you can do about it. Typically speaking, you want to reduce these guys to below 4 models if they try to hit a main dawi unit. A 3 chariot unit will still wreck a 10 or 15 strong support block of Dwarfs on it's own so be warned.

Note that each additional rank adds +1 S to the impact hits. Also note they benefit immensely from magic as we'll go into later. A charging unit of chariot with Smite ends up with a D6 S4 Impact hits, 6 WS3 S4 attacks, and 4 WS2 S3 attacks. That's a lot of S4 attacks per model and they benefit from the healing of TK spells immensely as well, better than any other unit. They can take a magic standard as well, up to 25 points. Trim them down with artillery and then finish them off with GW troops who can usually grind them down nicely if they have the numbers to absorb the charge. Remember, chariots suck in protracted fighting.

SPECIAL UNITS
Tomb Guard

I know I dropped my weiner around here somewhere...anyone seen it?

Threat Level: High
Now we are getting into the meat (ok, that doesn't make much sense for skeletons) of the TK army book. These are the true elite troops of the Tomb Kings. They are your basic Grave Guard-style unit. For the uninitiated, thats a WS3 S4 T4 I3 unit with killing blow. Like all other TK units they are fragile, with light armor and a shield. A typical (and in my mind, mandatory against Dwarves) upgrade is to give them halberds. The loss of protection is well worth going to S5 on the unit, killing blow non-withstanding. This costs 13 points per model which compares well with our elite troops.

On their own, thanks to a low Weapon Skill of 3, they aren't that intimidating. Sure, you don't want any characters without Preservation facing off against them, but Dwarves can handle this stateline typically speaking. What makes them rough is the synergy they have with their characters. A King or Prince, thanks to the My Will Be Done (MWBD) special rule (see characters below) makes them WS6 or 5. That not only helps survivability by making it impossible to hit them with our infantry at better than a 4+ but increases their hit rate as well. Now they can go toe to toe with out best units and WIN. They do not need support from the rest of the army. I have had a unit of TG roll over a full GW Warrior horde and break them in one turn of combat several times. There's really nothing else that can do that solo in this army book, so these guys will need to have attention paid to them.

Without character support they are much less effective. They can also take a banner worth up to 50 points. Fight them with Hammerers or Ironbreakers when possible as they are a hard counter to GW Warriors.

Necropolis Knights

Threat Level: High
Another hard hitting unit, if a bit silly looking (snake surfers, are you kidding me?). They are classified as monstrous cavalry with a split statline. The snake itself is WS3 S5 T4 W3 A3 3+ which is pretty decent offensively and has the best armor in the TK list. Note they do have poison and when being attacked use the rider's Weapon Skill as it is higher. The rider is an improved Tomb Guard with WS4 and an extra attack who carries a spear. That's a total of 6 S5 attacks if they charge (3 from the snake, 2 from the rider, and a stomp). Add in poison and killing blow and they are fully capable of dishing out the hurt.

They can also be upgraded to use EBtS which is probably not recommended on larger units due to the cost and risk, but it's a nice little upgrade on smaller units, and very nasty against Dawi. You can't shoot stuff under the ground!

As for most monstrous stuff, you want to weaken them with shooting as much as possible before combat before finishing them with GW troops. Don't ignore their speed either...M7 is still faster than our march and recall that all monstrous beasts have Swiftstride which makes them excellent at running down stumpy little dwarves. They will attempt to attack like chariots by picking on rear and flanks of units. They are best at supporting other units but can, at 5+ models, hold their own for a limited time against a big block. They take up too much space (chariot base) and have only 3 wounds so they cannot deal with protracted combats against S5+ Dawi units. Not a true glass cannon, probably plexi-glass is more accurate thanks to their Ironbreaker-level of armor save. They can really ruin shield Dwarf unit's good time thanks to T4 3+.

Tomb Scorpions

So I was scorpion #3 in the Clash of the Titans remake...the movie stunk but I did bang that dude from Avatar.

Threat Level: Medium
A unit that lost a lot of popularity between 7th and 8th editions. It went up slightly in price, lost a wound, and can no longer charge on the turn it appears thanks to the EBtS rules. So does it suck? Not at all, I'd argue they are the most cost-effective War Machine hunter in the game. Let's take a look:

WS 4, S5, T5, A4, Poison, Killing Blow. Pretty solid statline. Sure it won't take out a unit on it's own, but thanks to being on a smaller base and running solo it is awesome at killing war machines (Crew just don't stand a chance against T5) and assassinating characters. You get one shot to kill it or block it when it appears. Take it out with an Organ Gun as it's harder to hit with a cannon. Irondrakes are also fantastic...fast reform to face them and plaster it with drake guns.

Ushabti

Threat Level: Medium
What a waste. Cruddace really screwed these guys up. Compared to the O&G trolls and OK ogres, they just miss the boat. They aren't horrible, being basically an Ogre with a choice of Extra Hand Weapon, S6 Bow or Great Weapon for 50 points. Any of these builds can lay out some hurt, but even 400 points of these guys are just 24 wounds so they can't really stand up against a large Dawi unit.

Use typical Monstrous Infantry tactics against them (artillery and Great Weapons). Their bows are annoying and potent at S6, but that's still not going to kill War Machines quickly and doesn't have the rate of fire the threaten big blocks. It's good against other armies (cavalry, monsters and such) but less so against us. 4-8 shots hitting on a 5+ just won't do too much, but smited they can put the hurt on, if not cost-effectively.

Great models, poor implementation. As with many things small units die to them, but big units take them on. Still they are one of two units (Tomb Guard being the other) that can fight on their own and with Great Weapons will match our offensive output if not have the wounds to last as long.

Tomb Swarms

Wait, tomb swarms or tomb lobsters?

Threat Level: Pathetic
Annoying EBtS swarms. They do have poison and as such can swamp a war machine easily. Good distraction unit and war machine hunter but poor at blocking or screening as they won't block 50% LOS to give a cover save and are too weak to hold up a block past one turn. Still for the cost they make an ok ambusher and are cheap enough to sacrifice being 40 points for W5 A5. They cannot be taken in solo units however which makes them less useful.

Carrion

What do you mean it's after labor day? "I Swear too much"!

Threat Level: Low
Really punished by the lack of march movement, Fly 10" is hard to get them into combat. They require spell support to do so, which as fliers means they will outdistance them. Consider them to be slower but harder hitting harpies. They still have a solid statline for 24 points with S4 T4 W2 A3. Like many other units that crushes smaller support units, and slaps war machine crew to death so they can't just be ignored but they won't hold up against shooting (they do skirmish) or close combat.

Not great, but not a terrible value. The lack of march does make them significantly weaker than they appear at first glance. Organ guns and Thunderers maul them if there are no better targets. Otherwise beat them away with a charge if possible. Their main role is quickly tying up a war machine by turn 2, which is when the EBtS troops begin appearing so you may see them screen/block vulnerable EBtS units or tie up a war machine until something can come in to kill it off.

Khemrian Warsphinx

Threat Level: Extreme
The new big daddy of the army book. This thing is a nasty monster with 4 Tomb Guard hanging out on the back (it can also be a character mount, which means your cannon engineers will explode in joy on sight). Movement 6 gives it a longer charge range and it has a statline from hell:

WS 4 S5 T8 W5 A4

Note the toughness in bold. It's still easy prey to cannon (so SHOOT IT!) but this means nothing short of a combat character will wound it on higher than a 6+. If it gets in base to base with a Dawi regiment, you have to hope if fluffs it's attacks so you can kill it with combat resolution. The tomb guard crew have the basic statline with spears. So yes, that's 8 S5 attacks on the charge with a D6 S5 stomp attack to back it up. But that is not all. It can trade all four of it's attacks (the four crew are unaffected) for a single Catapult (called Thundercrush) hit at S3(6). It does need to roll to hit so it's less effective against Dwarves than other armies but that's still a ton of hits when it does connect.

It can also be upgrade to have poison (lol) and a S4 breath weapon (not laughable). So 4 crew attacks, a thunderstomp, a breath attack, and a catapult shot that hits half the time. Note only base model attacks benefit from poison. Yes, that can get ugly fast. Thanks to their rediculous toughness they are good at pinning a unit in place and grinding it down. It still works best with support as a bad turn of dice rolling leaves it vulnerable to combat resolution and 5 wounds can go quickly. But if you don't get lucky it can eventually wipe out a Dwarf block!

Countering is very basic. SHOOT IT WITH CANNON. It still gets wounded on a 2+ so don't let it reach your lines if you can avoid it. Tooled up it's near Abomination price levels so it's absolutely meant to die by cannon ball. Not the greatest choice against Dawi (due to vulnerability to cannons and the Thundercrush attack misses half the time) but you will see it often in all-comers lists and a smart TK general will take two Sphinx units for target saturation purposes. Note the crew, since they can attack any model in base contact, will try to Killing Blow assassinate targets of opportunity. Watch out for this!

Sepulchral Stalkers

Snakes...I hate snakes...especially giant halberd-wielding snakes.

Threat Level: High
One of the new, excellent additions to the TK army book. Another EBtS unit and they count as monstrous beasts. They have a tame stateline basically being Halberd wielding Ogres with one less attack. But they are not meant for CC (and you will clobber them in CC with any respectable unit). They are meant for shooting. Normally EBtS troops are exposed for one turn and can't do anything the turn they appear other than move. These guys pop up right next to your warmachines, move out of charge arcs, and then lay down their 1000 yard stare of death. Ok, it's only has a range of 8", but it's their stare that kills...ON THE TURN IT APPEARS. That is the critical part!

Each stalker rolls an artillery dice. Misfires mean the unit takes D3 wounds which can be bad for them if they roll poorly. It is rare for them to kill themselves entirely, so don't count on it. The shots automatically hit, and target Initiative, not Toughness! Sure, they only have a shooting strength of 1, but that means against almost anything in our list they wound on a 5+.

So a basic unit of three will do 1 wound to itself on average, and 5 wounds (that ignore armor!) to the dwarf target. What this means is they EASILY kill war machine crew. Probably more effectively than Scorpions, but these guys are more expensive and have to be taken at least in unit size 3. Being on chariot bases makes them not very maneuverable and easier to nail with artillery. They complement other EBtS troops, not replace them.

These guys melt artillery. Counter fire and try to charge them and understand you are losing a War Machine when they arrive barring exceptional luck or a misfire on the EBtS roll. They are pretty tame in CC (they have two S5 attacks at WS3 with a S4 stomp) but they are hard to pin down to charge. Thank Grungni they are on such huge bases for shooting. Arguably the best anti-Dwarf unit in the book. They are common because there are few armies with no valuable targets. Anything with I2 is fair game for them. Don't let them get behind your troops...combined with bow fire their stare attack can whittle down units faster than you might expect. Kill them quickly before they take out more than one war machine.