‘Warhammer: The Old World’ How To Play Tomb Kings Of Khemri
Today take a look at the basics of how to play Warhammer: The Old World’s Tomb Kings of Khemri, the undead menace!
The Tomb Kings of Khemri one of the core armies in Warhammer the Old World. They are an ancient land now filled with the dead. Ruled by undead kings risen from eons of slumber they seek to reclaim lost glories. For players who love unique play styles, large monster and disposable chaff, they are a great army.
So below we will offer some tips on how to play The Tomb Kings of Khemri and get started with the army.
Who are the Tomb Kings ?
The Tomb Kings hail from the ancient land of Nehekhar, now known as the land of the dead. Located to the south of of the Old World, it is one of the older human civilizations around. Long before the rise of Sigmar and the Empire Nehekhar, whose greatest city was Khemri, became obsessed with immortality and overcoming death. This would eventually be their undoing, thanks to the workings of Nagash The First Necromancer, Nehekhar was cursed and its people and civilization destroyed.
In its place rose a land of the undead. The old Kings of many lands, chief among them Settra The Imperishable, rose from the dead and waged war. Now, it is a land ruled by the undead Tomb Kings and their servants.
As you can guess the Tomb Kings are heavily influenced by ancient Egypt. While their original versions pre-date it the current iteration is also pretty heavily influenced by 1999’s The Mummy (with a bit of Indy in there). And let me be fair, there are worse movies to base a faction off of!
Why Play Tomb Kings
Do you like ancient Egypt? The Undead? Massive stone living constructs? Some of the best magic in the game? Then Tomb Kings might just be the army for you. Tomb Kings are an army that plays rather differently from the other core armies. As they are undead you don’t have to worry about them running away ever, making them in some ways a simpler army to run. They also can be a slower army, with a very grind-y fighting style. But they also deliver on the big stuff, with a ton of monsters and hordes of chariots. They tend to be more lightly armored then others, such as Bretonnia, but pack a punch.
Tomb King Strengths
- Undead, they ignore most morale effects and can never run from combat.
- Healing, as undead, every unit and model in the army can be healed.
- Access to some power casters and the ability to boost their magic.
- Some very good big monsters.
- A very reliable army.
Tomb King Weaknesses
- Without using the proper buffs, it’s a very slow army.
- A lot of units rely on having characters to support them to really work.
- A lighter army in general, with poor armor and many units have weaker attacks.
Signature Tomb King Rules
- Nehekharan Undead- The Army is Undead- every unit is unbreakable, immune to psychology and causes fear. However, most units cannot march and you can crumble from combat.
- Arrows of Asaph – shooting units with this rule never apply modifiers to their to hit roll when shooting. This locks most units into always hitting on a 5+, which while not great, is very reliable.
- Khopesh– gives the armies hand weapons with this rule AP -1
- The Hierophant – You must have at least one Liche Priest in the army and one of them must be Hierophant. If they die your army loses it’s regen saves and your units will start to die. It’s bad.
- Arise! – An ability mostly used by casters. It lets you heal wounds to a unit- the unit type, and your lvl, will determine how many are healed.
Tomb Kings- Armies of Infamy
- Nehekharan Royal Host- An army very focused on Tomb Kings as leaders with less casting. It gets stronger chariots and infantry.
- Mortuary Cult – An army very focused on the Liche Priests and constructs. It has access to the best casting in the game, regularly getting a +8 to cast. One of the best armies in the game.
Key Tomb King Units
Here are some of the most important Tomb King Units for you to know about:
Monarchs of Nehekharan 
The Tomb King and Tomb Prince are your main combat characters. While neither rank among the best fighters in the game, they are on the tougher side. They have access to the “My Will Be Done” ability which is a nice buff. They also have access to some good mounts, such as chariots and the ever popular Bone Dragon. A tricked out Tomb King on a Bone Dragon is a real force to reckon with.
Liche Priests
High Priests and Mortuary Priests are your army’s casters. On their own, they aren’t the best casters, with limits spell choices and no built in buffs. However, they still fill a big role. They get the Arise! rule letting them heal units and can also let ambushers (mainly Tomb Scorpions) pop up nearby. As mentioned above, one must be your Hierophant. Combo’ed with some other units, and in particular in a Mortuary Cult list, they can get some mad buffs to casting. You’ll always see at least one in any normal army.
Skeleton Archers
Cheap and with poor stats you’ll still likely see some of these in most armies. Thanks to Arrows of Asaph they always hit on a 5+. Being able to give some units poison actually makes them pretty deadly. Because they are undead they will never run away, and a big block can act as a good tar-pit. They end up being one of the best core choices you can take.
Tomb Guard
Tomb Guard are the heavy infantry of the Tomb Kings. They aren’t amazing, but are at least pretty tough. Combine that with never running away and being able to get healed and they are decent choice with a unit to hold up the enemy and bunker your characters in. You can take one unit as core and its very common to see this.
Necropolis Knights
Not the be confused with Arabian Nights, Necropolis Knights are one of the army’s heavy hitters. This is a unit of monstrous cavalry that puts out a lot of attacks. While they don’t hit as hard as many other heavy cav units, they make up for it in volume and can tear though lighter units with ease.
Tomb Scorpion
The humble Tomb Scorpion isn’t the most powerful monster out there, but it’s one of the most effective. With 4 S5 ap -2 attacks it can hurt things, but what really kicks it up is having both Killing Blow and Monster Slayer. This makes it a potential threat to pretty much any important (non-chariot) model. Stomp Attacks means it can also deal with chaff units and the option to Ambush, buffed by a Priest, mean it can pop up in surprising places. This is a super cost-effective unit.
Necrosphinx 
On the larger side of monster we have the Necrosphinx. This is a big, tough, and hard to kill monster. It also flies making it very fast. It can get on you and kill you quickly. While it’s attacks are pretty deadly they also having Killing Blow and one can have Monster Slayer upping it’s killing power. Fly however is what really makes this a super deadly unit.
Casket of Souls
Straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark we have the casket of souls. This is an immovable support unit. It has the nifty ability to boost the casting of nearby Priests. It also has a couple of nice bound spells to cast- once making your units harder to hit and one with the potential to do a ton of damage.
Sample Tomb Kings of Khemri Army
Tomb Kings of Khemri
++ Characters ++
Tomb King
– General
– Necrolith Bone Dragon
– Ogre Blade
– Paymaster’s Coin
Mortuary Priest
– Level 2 Wizard
– Skeletal Steed
– Ruby Ring of Ruin
– Necromancy
Royal Herald
– Battle Standard Bearer [Mirage Banner]
– On foot
– Amulet Of The Serpent
++ Core Units ++
32 Skeleton Archers
– Master of Arrows (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician
25 Tomb Guard
– Drilled (0-1 per 1000 points)
– Nehekharan Phalanx (0-1 per 1000 points)
– Tomb Captain (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician
3 Skeleton Chariots
– Master Charioteer (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician
11 Skeleton Horse Archers
– Master of Horse (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician
Tips For Playing Tomb Kings
Tomb Kings are both a tricky and forgiving army to play. Without the right combos and buffs, they are a very slow faction that can get out-maneuvered with ease. On the other hand, being undead lets them recover from a lot of mistakes and you don’t have to worry about a whole section of the game. To play them well, you will need to lean into this and build an army that can take advantage of it.
A lot of Tomb Kings armies will be built around taking solid anvil units that you can heal and support to tie down the enemy. They will also use swift hammer units to then pounce on the enemy. Your army can also be very good at not giving up points with units being very hard to wipe out. A unit reduced to one model, might well be back at full strength soon.
Overall it’s an army that relies a lot on combos and mutually supporting units. While it has some very strong units, most of them just don’t hit as hard on their own as the big hitters from other armies. You won’t win a lot of fair fights. It’s the army’s ability to support itself and debuff the enemy that makes it so powerful.
~And remember, Settra does not kneel!
