Tomb Kings vs SCE 1250 points

[jimmyrut]

Ahoy fellow dusty crusaders!

It's been a long long time since I posted a battle report (2015!), alas my skills are rusty, and secondly, I'm only just starting out in AOS so forgive me as this report will certainly not be near the 8th edition quality that I was once producing but give me a few games and I'm sure I'll return to the former glory that once was.

Without further ado.

I was running:

Tomb King - Master of the Dark Arts, Tomb Blade (didn't realise how bad the nerf to this was!)
Necrotect
2 x 20 Skeleton Legionnaires 
6 Necropolis Knights
6 Ushabti

Opponent was running:

Lord-Celestant On Dracoth (both had detonation things causing mortal wounds upon death and Obsidian Blade I think)
2 x 5 Liberators
2 x 2 Concussors

Playing against Isaac yesterday was fantastic. Firstly, I've never played against Stormcast Eternals so when I started reading his warscrolls it seemed like he had an answer for everything. Great armour saves, the ability to do consistent mortal wounds, and good combat abilities. We rolled up the new scenario 'Duality of Death' which pitched us to capture and hold two objectives with heroes gaining points with each turn that went by. This posed a slight problem for Isaac as he only had a single hero, however he had speed on his side. Although I had two heroes, they were both foot slogging all the way and immediately I was fighting an uphill battle. I had one relatively fast moving units, where as Isaac had 4

Deployment:

Early Turns

Despite my Michaelangelo type of illustrations, I still feel it necessary to explain what happened. Isaac's Concussers wandered up the flank farting out a few mortal wounds on my poor victimised Necropolis Knights. One unit successfully charged and killed a snake. Cue the Icon Bearer and said snake re-appeared in my hero phase much to Isaac's disgust. The King slaps down his command ability onto the snakes whilst the rest of my force shuffles forward with a block of skeletons charging the unit of Concussors next to the objective on tar pit duty. For the next few turns they do a wound or two here and there but mostly excelled in their duty.

Isaac's forces on the opposite flank however eventually charged my Ushabti sticking them in place. They took 2 casualties before the Necropolis Knights could swoop in like the heroes they are and save the unit from certain destruction.

My Tomb King pinged a casualty from the Concussors unit tied up with the Skeleton block with Arcane Bolt, ensuring that the fight was a little more in my favour. Despite this, I still went on to lose 16 skeletons but was lucky enough to roll high on with the Icon Bearer and lap around the lone Concussor.

Late Game

The Lord-Celestant bolted through the building to grab the other objective but now that I had less problems to deal with my confidence was starting to build. The remaining unit of Liberators charged the Ushabti but were also in range of the Necropolis Knights and were dealt with violently. This allowed the snakes movement to be augmented with the Necrotect allowing them to charge the Lord-Celestant removing the enemy hero from play. Although we called the game at this point, the Ushabti would have supported the remaining skeletons, the King got into range of the objective and would have sealed the game.

Although I'd talked myself into this being a terrible match up for me, I had the tools to deal with Isaac's force. Going forward however I am interested to drop a unit of Skeletons and taking Chariots instead for some more speed and they're probably just as good at tar pitting enemy units. This will mean I have to really pay attention to the positioning of heroes in my army and not let them get too exposed to counter attacks.

That's it folks, thanks for reading!

[themortalgod]

Yeah, unfortunately, the Tomb Blade took a bit of a beating. My goto now is cursed book, its not as good a tomb blade was but its still not horrible. 

I think we are unfortunately in a situation where necro knights were just too heavily nerfed to be worth fielding anymore. Though, on the flipside Ushabti feel to me like the new hotness. You were up against a relatively elite force but Ushabti with mystic shield and the necrotect's help are virtually invincible against a lot of units.

Personally, I'd have advocated running your knights and ushabti in smaller units for a game this small, gives you more options that way. 6 necro knights is a lot of pts for a single unit. Though if you had a Liche Priest their damage potential is still ridiculous. 

 

[jimmyrut]

Indeed the Cursed Book seems like the way to go although I think my play style would prevent it from getting much use until the 'Exalted King in chariot' appears in a 2k list.

Whilst I don't entirely agree with Necro Knights being nerfed to the point of not being fielded, I certainly do think it has bought the Ushabti out of the shadows a little, just a shame they're missing a keyword. Going forward with a Ushabti block, I think the inclusion of a Tomb Herald would be incredibly annoying for the opponent. I've got another few test games tomorrow so am thinking about dropping one of the skeleton blocks, adding Chariots and then swapping out the Ushabti for a Warsphinx purely because of the synergy with the Tomb Kings command ability as opposed to it not effecting the Ushabti.

Still a few options to play with now and as a returning player who only had a handful of games with the previous rulings I don't feel the nerfs too much.

Thanks for the reply however!

[themortalgod]

Yeah, though I'm actually considering experimenting with the cloak of mists and shadows on my exalted king, it offers an interesting tactical option to jump out of combat which could put my opponent in a bad position. For example, bait a charge from a ton of units with my king, then go poof and leave combat leaving all the units stranded and vulnerable. It also gets him out of combat so he can do another charge which is where his damage really can get impressive. Risky gambit though, ring is also pretty decent now which might become important vs shooty armies.

It is a real bummer that GW didn't feel models with the reanimant keyword deserved most of the buffs, Otherwise, I think Ushabti armies could be really strong, especially if Khalida could buff the shooty ones. My main issue with the Necro Knight nerf was that I never felt they were OP to begin with, the problem was when stacking several very specific buffs on them. Which means if those buffs aren't present the nerf really hurt. I sort of feel the same about sphynxes. 

Gh2 nerfed pretty much everything so when looking at it on that level it wasn't too too bad. I don't think TKs will see top tables anymore but are certainly totally playable in casual. And ironically, they are easily the most complete Death faction right now.