Luke here. In the coming weeks I'm going to bring you some reports on my upcoming battles with Tomb Kings. At Brighton Warlords we are currently part way through a WFB league; I played my 3rd game last Monday against Nick and his Wood Elves.
(Games 1 and 2 here: www.tomb-kings.net) My list was:
Arkhan The Black
High Liche Priest, Level 3, Light, Golden Death Mask, Earthing Rod, Dragonbane Gem
Liche Priest, Level 2, Nehekhara, Dispel Scroll, Enkihls Kanopi
Tomb Prince, Armour of Silvered Steel
20 Archers, Banner, Musician
20 Archers, Banner, Musician
20 Archers, Banner, Musician
30 Tomb Guard, Full Command
Casket of Souls
Screaming Skull Catapault, Skulls of the foe
Nick had a great eagle, 3 units of glade guard 10-15 strong, 2 treemen, BSB on warhawk, 2 units of glade riders, a lord, a level 4 on life, a level 2 on athel loren.
For spells, Nick got: dwellers below, throne of vines, regrowth and shield of vines on his level 4. The caster on the Lore of Athel Loren got a charging spell and something to caurse fear I think.
Arkhan got purple sun, fate of bjuna, doom and darkness, soulblight and spirit leech. Level 3 got speed of light, net spell, and shem's burning gaze.
Level 2 got desert wind and smiting.
Terrain was set up like so (ignore my army waiting to be deployed!)
Nick sets up largely on one side, placing a unit of Glade Riders on the opposite corner too. His general is in the unit behind the Treeman and his casters in the unit behind the woods.
Arkhan and level 2 go in the centre block of archers and the level 3 goes in TG. I entomb the Stalkers. I win the roll to go first and moved everything up a few inches so I was within 24"of the treemen. I get eight dice with Casket and channel and Nick gets five with channeling. I try a S6 shems gaze at the left treeman with four dice and it fizzles, leaving Nick able to comfortably dispel the Light of Death from the Casket and a Spirit Leech from Arkhan. Archers try to do damage to the Treeman but it all bounces. I have a crack at the Treeman on my left with my catapault and it hits! Unfortunately I only roll a one with multiple wounds and it loses two due to being flamable.
Nick moves his Treeman forward as they aren't afraid of getting up close and personal. Glade Riders sweep around the sides, Warhawk and Great Eagle hide behind the building in the centre.
In the magic phase Nick gets a comfortable amount of dice and tries Tree Singing on the archers which I let through. I try and stop it the second time with a single D6 but fail. He tries the rest of his dice at Throne of Vines and I dispel it. After the shooting phase the Archers on the right have lost seven of their number, and the Chariots have taken four wounds.
My turn two, the Stalkers misfire and are removed from the game! Undeterred, I move Arkhan out of the archer unit on the left abd into the Tomb Guard. I swift reform and move the two archer blocks forward. If the Treemen dive in I'll likely hold them on my turn and crumble in his, leaving the Treemen open to the TG and Chariots.
Chariots retreat out of range in case the Treeman gets any ideas. The level 2 heads towards the war machines, whilst the unit moves up a bit more. Magic sees 7 vs 2 dice. I try spirit leech again on the Treeman and Nick scrolls it. I try to sneak in Light of Death again but Nick promptly dispels it. I manage to get Desert Wind with the last two dice I have, bringing back 2 wounds on the chariots and 3 wounds on the archers on the right flank. This also means I can push the archers further forward, in an attempt to restrict where the Treeman can threaten.
My arrows do nothing to the Treemen, but I get a 2nd hit with my catapault on the Treeman to the right, this time rolling a 2 for multiple wounds, causing four to the beast.
Nick's turn two and he charges in! Unfortunately I missed that his left Treeman can see the flank of the archers. It's my own fault for not checking it properly and he easily makes the charge, steaming into the side of the unit. The other Treeman charges into the front.
His Great Eagle flies from behind the building and sits in front of my Chariots. He reveals his magic moon stone item and 'teleports' a unit of archers right into the woods behind my archers. I always forget about this item no matter how many times I play Wood Elves and so I just have to accept another mistake by giving him room to appear!
The magic phase sees Nick attempt Throne of Vines but Arkhan puts a stop to his tricks. After confirming that the Casket of Souls is a warmachine (and will thus fail a strength test automatically) he targets it with Dwellers Below. I scroll the thing away, and he moves onto shooting. He takes another 4 wounds off the Chariots, 1 off of the catapault with Glade Riders and 4 archers from the block on the right flank.
The Treemen smoosh the archers in combat, winning by something silly like 14, and crumbling the rest as a result. They can't overrun, so just turn to face the rest of my army.
Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures of the rest of the game :(
My turn 3: I charge my Tomb Guard into the Treeman on the left and they make it in. The Chariots go into the Great Eagle and I try to put my archers on the right flank into the side of the 2nd Treeman. He stands and shoots killing around 9 of them and so I send 3 poor archers to a second doom. Stupid strangle roots. Something else I overlooked. Third silly mistake of the game now, so at this point I just laugh it off.
Magic sees me roll double 2, but as I used a scroll previously I had 3 dispel dice to add to my power pool now. I then get 3 for the casket and 2 channel! 10 vs 2! I throw six dice at purple sun placing the template over the Treeman hoping to send it through both. I get the spell off but misfire! It scatters over the Treeman as well as Arkhan and a couple of TG. The wind has gone from my sails now but at least I'll take a Treeman with Arkahn... Nick rolls his initiative test and passes. Gobsmacked, I roll for Arkhan... and pass! 3 Tomb Guard turn to dust, as it rolls over them and I get another power dice to add to my pool. The template passes over the house and stops an inch behind it. I cast Desert wind again, returning some Chariots and Tomb Guard to life, and move the warmachines away from the Treemen as I'm now not liking the way this game is going! I also wipe out the Glade Riders on the left flank with the Light of Death.
The Treeman kills six Tomb Guard but loses combat. He passes his leadership test though. It's only later on I realise I forgot to attack with my Tomb Prince here!! The Chariots obliterate the Eagle and reform so that their flank is not exposed to the unit in the woods. The 3 skeletons get mauled by the Treeman on the right :(
The Treeman kills six Tomb Guard but loses combat. He passes his leadership test though. It's only later on I realise I forgot to attack with my Tomb Prince here!! The Chariots obliterate the Eagle and reform so that their flank is not exposed to the unit in the woods. The 3 skeletons get mauled by the Treeman on the right :(
Nick's turn 3 charges the 2nd Treemen into my Tomb Guard. He moves the rest of his army up to get better shots. He places his Glade Riders on the right flank behind his archers in the forest. He flies his Warhawk into my backfield. Magic sees him fail to six dice Dwellers Below and he goes straight to shooting. He shoots up the archers on my left some more and the Chariots.
Combat sees the second Treeman in base contact with Arkahn and so he tears him a new one. The Tomb Guard lose four to combat resolution and I have to take leadership tests from losing Arkhan. Everyone passes except my level two who loses both his wounds.
Start of my turn 4 and I lose the Screaming Skull catapault, to the crumbling. I charge my chariots into the archers in the woods. He flees and they bounce through his Glade Riders, who fail their panic test. Even if I tried to redirect into them I cannot catch them due to the charging rules and so instead elect to redirect into the Treeman on the right. Archers on the left flank move to face the Treeman nearest them.
In the magic phase I 6 dice Speed of Light and miscast, losing a 2 wizard levels. Nick stops the Light of Death Spell. In combat I manage to do a wound to the Treeman from impact hits and because of the flaming banner, it takes it's last two wounds. The Tomb Guard win combat against the remaining Treeman and it fails it's break test, getting cut down.
We had to hurry this turn as we ran out of time so Nick charged and killed the casket with his warhawk bsb, rallied his fleeing units and quickly tried to wipe out my archers on the left, but couldn't quite shoot enough to claim points for them. He does however finish off what's left of my Chariots.
After the dust settled it was a convincing victory for Nick. He scored around 1895 VPs to my 1089.
It was a fun game, and Nick was a pleasure to play against, as always. Having said that, the game was full of mistakes on my part and I'm finding Tomb Kings a very difficult army to get to grips with. This list especially gives me so many options in the magic phase; it's giving me a headache! Nick even commented after the game that I seemed very unsure of what to do and it seemed detrimental to my game - I'm not focussing enough on dealing with specific threats. He observed it as me half heartedly casting spells here and there and hoping for the best.
It's a fair comment and I need to have a think about the army list going forward. One thing I am certain of though is that Arkhan is nails. A level 5 death wizard is nothing to be sniffed at and every game I use him in feels like I am abusing something unfair! I just need to practice and work on my list to get the most out of him. I think more of the lore of Nehekhara over Light would help to start with...
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