So the Tomb king book has a total of five entries in the core section. Players choose between two varieties of skeletons, two varieties of cavalry, and the ubiquitous chariots. So I'll go over each core entry and explain what has changed and go over how I see these newly changed units operating on the larger battlefield.
Skeleton Warriors
- Cheaper overall (-4 points base cost)
- +2 Leadership
- Hand Weapon and Shield now standard equipment
- No Magic Standards
- Musician more expensive (+5 points)
Skeleton Archers
- Separate unit entry
- Still cheaper than bowmen in the previous army book (-2 points)
- +2 Leadership
- No Magic Standards
- Musician more expensive (+5 points)
Skeleton Horsemen
- Cheaper (-4 points)
- Standard bearer and champion cheaper (-4 points each)
- Unit gained Vanguard universal special rule
- Light armor is no longer standard (so adjusted price difference is only -2 points)
- Musician more expensive (+5 points)
- No magic standards
Skeleton Horse Archers
- Points remain the same
- Unit gained the Scout universal special rule
- Standard and champion cheaper (-4 points each)
- Musician more expensive (+3 points)
Skeleton Chariots
- Much more expensive (+15 points)
- Always a core choice (no longer need a tomb king to make them core)
- Charioteers are both armed with spear and bow and have +1 Attack each.
- No longer suffer from the Light Chariot rules so they do d6 impact hits
- Still gain rank bonus and rank bonus increases the strength of impact hits
- Standard Bearer and champion much cheaper (-10 points each)
- Can still take a magic banner but the points cost dropped from 50 to 25.
Tomb Swarm
- No longer a Core choice! Now joins the ranks of the special entries
- No longer a 0-1 choice
- Cheaper (-5 points)
- Gains the Skirmishers universal special rule
Analysis
So what we see here are the core unit choices that should form the backbone (no pun intended) of any Tomb king army. Really, with he exception of the Skeleton Horsemen, I see all of these entries as viable and competitive. All of these units fulfill a specific role and they do a good job of performing in that role. Even the maligned skeleton horsemen serve a purpose, albeit a relatively niche purpose.
So for infantry the core choices give us two types of skeletons, warriors and archers. Obviously one is used for melee an the other for ranged attacks. The point cost for both units sits at a very comfortable level and allows both unit types, but especially the melee warriors, to be bought up to a nice suitable horde level while still remaining relatively inexpensive. The warriors really excel at holding up units. Since they count as unbreakable they can really lock units in place for the duration of the battle and makes it much easier to reliably flank charge those locked units by bigger and badder units. Archers really didn't change much from the previous edition other than the point cost. I still would say to avoid banner bearers and champions in archer units but musicians are must buys for the chance at quick reforms. The cost increase for musicians only underscores the increased role this command model plays in the new edition.
Horsemen were much maligned in the old book. We had fast cavalry who couldn't flee and who couldn't march and we had heavy cavalry who maxed out their armor saves at 4+. Neither performed very well at the jobs as detailed by the book and both were greatly overpriced for what you received.
Horsemen in the new book received a few additional boosts and point reductions to make them more appealing to Tomb king generals and I think more people will seriously entertain the idea of using the new cavalry. The addition of vanguard to the ordinary horsemen means they make a decent choice to handling scouts appearing in our backfield or to make up for the Tomb Kings lack of march moves to get them into a suitable position. Horse archers, while still suffering from the inability to flee from a charge or march, the addition of the scout rule makes this unit a fantastic addition for hunting war machines, skirmishers, and other scouts. I can see many players taking the new horse archers in lists as small harassment units an war machine hunters.
Finally, the ever-present chariot now appears as a core choice with no tricks or characters required to keep it readily available. This unit received a hefty price increase but honestly, they are worth the points. A unit of 6 of these things will do 3d6 S5 impact hits on teh charge backed up by 12 WS3 S4 Charioteer attacks and 6 WS2 S3 attacks. They make excellent flanking units. as two ranks of these charging into the flank of an opponent while being held up by a unit of skeleton warriors WILL cause chaos and likely break all but the most steadfast of units (literally). Also, they can take more pot shots while crossing the board since both crew members are also armed with a bow. I prefer taking a cheap magic banner with these chariots as well, nothing fancy but I find the Banner of Swiftness a fun distraction and the Banner of Eternal Flame is also a good buy as flaming attacks are always handy for those nasty Chaos Trolls out there.
Well, that's it for this time around. Next time I'll go over the Special Choices. This section has seen a number of new additions so I'm excited to go over several of the new units like the Sepulchral Stalkers and the War Sphinx. I'll even have photos of some of the models I've assembled to break up the Wall of Text (yay!)
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