Proposed Race Expansion #6: The Tomb Kings (Plus a Nehekhara Map Rework)

Wyvax#7456

Howdy. Been a while since I did one of these threads, so time to dust off these old bones and talk about the Tomb Kings. As always this is a hypothetical look at what a large expansion styled DLC could bring to a single race. With the Tomb Kings, there isn't a strong unifying theme such as with the Vampires 'bloodlines' or Norsca's 'disparate chaos tribes' as in past suggestions, so no fancy name, rather, each undead pharaoh has their own unique motivations, perfect for the most dynamically neutral (is that even a thing?) race in the setting.

New LLs:
Prince Apophas, the Cursed Scarab Lord


Denied the throne of Numas in the past, the once prince killed everyone ahead of him in line for the throne in a single night, but this did not sit right with the people and they rebelled. Apophas was executed The Mummy style by being devoured alive by scarabs, and the remaining skull inscribed with a magic hieroglyph to curse him for all eternity. Apophas managed to strike a deal with Usirian though, he would roam the earth, ever seeking a soul equal to his own in wickedness to take his place in the netherworld. But no two souls are the same, and he has inadvertently doomed himself to wander as a revenant forever. A skull bedecked in gold fineries, his body is composed of a writhing swarm of scarabs, making him near impossible to slay in battle as he slays his foes with the same bloodied dagger that he murdered his kin with.

As an eternally damned exile, Apophas has possibility to start literally anywhere on the map as he seeks to claim a soul to replace him. The potential for a unique lord hunting mechanic has a precedent in Alith Anar's assassination missions, but can be tailored to better fit the story of the damned prince. Choose a mark, slay them, and reap the bonuses... for a time. Since he is outright claiming the souls of his victims, he could have the unique ability to permanently kill off immortal characters, making him that much more dangerous on the campaign.

Sehenesmet Vizier of Quatar


(A lovely custom miniture, and special rules that were released for him in Warhammer Chronicles (2004))
I'll skip over the lore as it's right there on that image above, but basically Sehenesmet is functionally both a High Liche Priest like Khatep, as well as a lord level Necrotect, all packaged up in the body of a truly monstrous LL akin to Durthu or Kholek. This absolute unit covers all the boxes at once and delivers us something truly new in a TK campaign. As part of his campaign effects, per the lore, Sehen here would get extra recruitment capacity for all construct units as well as better overall constructs, perhaps some unique Legions of Legends specific for him to recruit would be in order.

For his implementation as well as for the betterment of all Nehekhara, I suggest a rework and mild additions to the region is necessary on the campaign map. The region was one of the few negatively affected with the new Immortal Empires map, with the loss of the Ash River and Charnel Valley provinces and consolidation of the space and settlements in the area. So let's take an intermission between LLs to rearrange the region a bit.

In this quick and dirty edit, we see that was once two provinces have been divided up into four, as well as some adjusted rivers and new paths. The Devil's Backbone has lost Karag Orrud, with Mahrak (red dot) becoming the new capital and Granite Massif moving slightly east (yellow dot). A returning province, The Charnel Valley sees Karag Orrud moved northwards deeper into the mountains, the green dot represents a new minor settlement 'The Valley of Kings' and the yellow dot on the province's western edge represents the new location of Quatar, which is Sehenesmet's suggested start. The next province to the west was formed by simply dividing The Land of the Dead in half, forming Ash River with Numas as the capital and the old/current city of Quatar renamed to The Salt Plain, a city from the Eye of the Vortex map. New roads in orange are suggestions, and the new positioning/length of the rivers is to more closely reflect maps of the area, with the southern one (Ash River itself) just curving northward and the new northern one being the Mortis River itself, which in the lore runs all the way from the World's Edge Mountains and in game would form a solid boundary against the Badlands and Skarbrand, currently it's a puny stub stopping at Numas itself. There is certainly more room for a new third settlement in both The Land of the Dead and Ash River IMO, but each would likely need to be sourced from smaller landmarks.

Amanhotep the Intolerant


A member of the infamous Dreadfleet, Amanhotep is the miserly king of the port city of Zandri, and set out on a quest for vengeance against Jaego Roth's pirates for pillaging his city, earning himself a pact with Noctilus in order to act out his revenge. He had all of his dead servants construct an entire necropolis in the mightiest naval ship of the Nehekharan navy, complete with built in Necrolith Collossi, a Necrosphinx prow and a giant solar sapphire, the Jewel of the River Mortis to fry the enemy with Ptra's wrath. For a campaign, Amanhotep can take direct inspiration both from the Dreadfleet campaign as well as Settra's infamous raid on Norsca in the war of Sand and Snow, starting far to the north on his unique ship the Curse of Zandri, with special access to the Vampire Coast shipbuilding horde ability as well as a dual start with Zandri under his control as well. This would likely make his campaign one of the quickest to get going as Books of Nagash would start rolling in sooner while the player is free to strike wherever they like.

Tutankhanut, lord of both the living and dead

(Images above are both of a conversion as well as Mixu's LL mod)
Tutankhanut was a young prince and expert charioteer archer who fell in battle at a young age and was buried in all the royal gold trappings his grieving father could bestow in anticipation of a new golden body in the afterlife. Upon waking, he was furious at the state of his body and had the priesthood devise a set of golden armor to be encased in. Peculiarly for a Tomb King, Tutankhanut's city of Numas has sprouted some semblance of life, and he rules over both the dead as well as the living. Nomadic peoples known as the Scythans believe him to be an avatar of their god and serve under him as both citizens and warriors, eventually being interred as undead when they pass themselves. A campaign focused on both a ranged character as well as utilizing living forces, is wholly unique for the race and would add much to the game.

FLC LL:
King Phar of Mahrak


(Miniture is a conversion)
King Phar of Mahrak is notable for being the one genuine rival to Settra, stubbornly resisting siege after siege and coming out unconquered by the despot of Khemri, both in life and in unlife, proving that the Imperishable isn't so mighty as he claims to be. In battle he fights with the fearsome Flail of Skulls, constructed from the remains of his enemies, including many orcs as he battles from atop a war chariot. A good rival character to our favorite arrogant mummy while not being a puppet for Nagash like Arkhan is.

New LH:
Ramhotep the Visionary

(Artwork is from the TK armybook for a general Necrotect)
The most famous, or perhaps not famous of all Necrotects. Ramhotep the Visionary spent most of his career letting others take the credit for his mighty works, so that he could continue to live on and reach greater heights rather than be mummified alongside each creation. Finally being buried when he constructed the grandest pyramid he ever designed.

Ramhotep seems to be the 8th edition replacement for 6th edition's Sehenesmet, but without magic or being a giant monster himself. Somewhat similar to the dynamic between Gor-Rok and Nakai, though much more extreme. As a result, I suggest implementing him as a LH for the Tomb Kings as a whole. Y'all know how I normally feel about LHs (generally not a fan), but in this particular case I feel it is warranted. He and Sehen would make a dangerous power couple in game for sure. How exactly he would be made truly distinct from standard Necrotects apart from being better over all, I don't know. I'll let CA figure that one out.

New Lord:
High Liche Priest


Generic caster lord for the Tomb Kings. Why we don't have them already is bizarre, but they're perfect to add in here!

New Lord:
Grand Necrotect
This is purely novel on my part and as far as I know does not exist already in the lore. I'm just spitballing ideas here. But what it says on the tin, a lord tier generic Necrotect with a specific skill tree focused on the constructs. I literally just thought this up while typing this section so if it feels sort of random, that's why.

New Hero:
Tomb Herald

Tomb Heralds are the last missing hero type for the TKs army book. To distinguish them from the Tomb Prince which has an anti-large and body guard focus, they should be made into a general line-holder hero, designed to 'inspire' the troops and cement holds instead with buffs.

New Units:
Mummies

An Oldhammer unit from before the Undead army split into the TK and VC. Based both on their past iterations as well as some simple head canon math, I envision these guys as the TK equivalent of the Aspiring Champions, small squads of super elite infantry empowered by magic, curses and their own martial prowess. Since there's hundreds of Tomb Kings that have existed, and thousands of Tomb Princes, it's only logical to conclude that there are tens of thousands or even more lesser sons and nobility. Think the sons of concubines and those so far down the line of succession that they would never rule but are still the sons and nephews of royalty regardless, affording them the proper burial and funery rites that the monarchs receive.

Bastethi

(Art isn't from Warhammer, just the best out there of a cat mummy.)
Mummified, undead big cats, serving both as a bodyguards and hunting companions to their masters in life and death. Reskinned Sabre Tusk packs, easy peasy to implement, cool and an aspect of Egyptian culture that hasn't been explored enough in the setting.

Greater Basthethi
Bigger, scarier mummified pantherines that have been imbued with necromantic powers by the Liche Priests, allowing them to boost the power of Skeleton Warriors fighting nearby and even passively raise them back up again. Basically a Corpse Cart in a Snow Leopard form. Pretty cool idea from the RPG.

Scythan Warriors
The mortal tribesmen that serve Tutankhanut. There's plenty of room here for different ideas and implementation. Different types of infantry and light cavalry and standard recruitment options to allow supplementing the traditional skele-stacks.

Bone Ballista


(Art is from WAR I think, minis are from Warmaster.)
Pretty self explanatory, a cheaper anti-large artillery piece to complement the Screaming Skull Catapults and available long before Bone Giants are in game.

War-Barques

(From the Tomb Kings: Extended mod)
War-Barques were something mentioned in the pages of the most recent army books but never saw the light of day because of the End Times. As a result, they're real but we know very little about them, but from what is written they would likely function a bit like magical chariots do and present the oppurtunity for multiple variants. Such as standard bow equipped crew, upgraded with Ballistas or Ushabti Bows, or even perhaps something more akin to a Mortis Engine or Chaos Warshrine, perhaps a miniature version of the solar ray that the Curse of Zandri has??? Additionally, the ability to truly fly, rather than just hover mere feet over the ground would open up entirely new strategies for TK battles if GW and CA decide to go down that route.

Great Weapon Ushabti

Yeah. IDK what the best way to make these guys different from the standard dual weapon Ushabti is, probably losing the anti infantry ability and gaining a boost to weapon damage and attack overall but at the cost of MD?

Melee Bone Giant

Okay, here me out, I got an idea to make them distinguishable from the Hierotitan. Boosted weapon damage as they have an actual weapon rather than just using the staff or stomping things, and a giant sized shield to go with that massive khopesh. A giant, with a shield. Crazy right, but ranged meta sucks anyway so who cares, it's unique and it would be the general purpose beatstick giant monster, while the Hierotitan has it's role as specialist support and spell monster.

Khemric Titan


The TK's answer to the Dread Saurian, Rogue Idol and Elemental Bear. Able to tackle nearly anything in combat with massive pincers and whipping up sandstorms around itself, it's a true super unit, and on destruction will explode unleashing horrific curses upon all those around it, much like Ikkit's death nuke.

Well that's it. I must confess that I've been stalling on working on this one for a very long time. I'll try not to do so for the next entry in this series. Please leave constructive criticism and your own ideas as well so we may discuss and bring our ideas as a community to CA together.

Sagez#6761

Tomb Kings will always get an instant like from me. Best DLC.

Captain_Rex#1635

I’m a simple man. I see someone advocating TK content. I agree with it.

DarthEnderX-#6513

That's a lotta characters, but yes to all that.

Grba#3181

Would freaking love it,but I doubt it,anyway hope that in W:OW GW introduces couple new minatures for rulers of Nehekhara major cities that aren't present on table top...

Wyvax#7456

DarthEnderX-#6513 said:

That's a lotta characters, but yes to all that.

Yeah, I try to keep to a 4LL formula, plus a FLC that may or may not be part of the race proper. TK would jump up to 9(!) LLs and one LH if such a thing were to ever happen, and honestly, they'd never need to be touched again aside from balance tweaks, which means more time later on for other races.

Beytran70#7597

Love it. Thank god we have the Tomb Kings: Extended mod + Mixu's which adds most of this, but an official version would be great too.

A_Nobody#8442

I would also say maybe one or two characters too many, but I can understand every single character and couldn't decide who gets kicked out.
So from me it's a hundred percent yes.

Pocman#6295

I sincerely hope CA does not add another 4 lls lord pack ever again

Red_Dox#2328

Pocman#6295 said:

I sincerely hope CA does not add another 4 lls lord pack ever again

Man do I have bad news for you after CoC was already rocking the Topseller charts in its preorder state
So while I do believe that will happen again, the question is rather if the quality of future DLCs goes up if there is not a quantity of reskins to do. Not that we have to worry about it for '23. If they don't plan to drop 4 LL packs for Cathay & Kislev, there should not much be happening on that front for the "near" future.

------Red Dox

Ben1990#8909

Sweet, sweet. TK need all the stuff they should have.

I'd go however a bit further into the roster expansion and update it all a bit.

- The part with the Mummies being Aspiring Champion counterparts is fine, but I'd add in that they are both made up of lesser Nehekharan nobles as well as those of the Tomb Guard who performed far beyond the draconic expectations of their Tomb Kings and were awarded full mummification rites instead of the partial ones.
- Add in Giant Carrions in two formats. One being their own unit and as mounts. The unit would be all equivalents to giant eagles but ridden by Tomb Guards and being the equivalent of Royal Hippogryph Knights. Yeah. Royal Carrion Knights. And there is a precedent because back in Oldhammer when both VCs and TKs were one faction of Undead, the Carrions used to be so big they could have riders on them. Could be also nice mounts for lords and heroes and give to certain ones alternatives. Especially to High Liche Priests and Liche Priests to keep them away from meddling melee forces.
- Sky-Boats would be very fun to use since there is nothing against TKs getting those. Would also add in Skyboxes as potential units and mounts. They are literally flying chariots and would be good for Tomb Princes and Kings. Not to mention as a good rival unit for Tzeentch Doomknights.
- Addition of yet another TK hero. In this case I would take the Ushabti Ancient and turn him into one (a less extreme case when compared to the Kroxigor Ancient being turned into a lord). Would be a tanky hero construct with a great weapon and would be all about buffing defensive capabilities of units in the army (especially fellow constructs).
- Agreed on turning Tomb Heralds into actual heroes as they should be. But they should also get some additional skills. Maybe have the effects of how the Tomb Heralds are as ancillaries go to the hero version of the Tomb Heralds. Every and so levels they would unlock more of the ancillary traits and would buff up this way entire armies.
- Bone Giants could come in three variants like they did in their expanded rules (the same you got the pic of Sehenesmet). Sword + Shield, Dual Swords and Great Weapon. They could be cheaper alternatives to the Necrosphinx.
- The Casket of Souls should be made a mount for High Liche Priests. In return Khatep gets something better...like a custom Sky-Boat with a Casket of Souls on it. This would turn him into a flying artillery piece with additional angry skeleton archers pelting the enemies below him.
- The Scythans should have a large roster and this would give Tut and any TK faction that confederates him some staying power like Sylvanian State Troops/Sartossan Pirates and mortal troops give to both vampire factions and daemon factions. Like apart of skirmishing infantry they should also get cavalry and all have superior vigor (justified due to them being used to the desert).

And that's all honestly. Also I kinda don't see Apophas as a LL but more of an LH super assassin considering how his own people treated him after his blatant arse behavior. Though him being capable of killing immortal characters that are not LLs or LHs sounds great.

Tyrant#1234

It would be a dream, but CA seems to have set an arbitary cap on DLC factions at 4 LLs each. None so far have broken that mold, the one exception being Warriors of Chaos since CA never intended them to be a DLC faction but for fans pressuring.

I think they had in their mind to end up with 8 LLs each fore cores and 4 LLs for DLC factions...

Hopefully that changes, WH has so many characters I would hope to see that would exceed those caps.

sykall#1105

Very good list. I like the lords, I like the units you propose, and your map rework.

Indeed IMO TK have a weak low-mid tier rooster and could need more units there, instead of more constructs. So mummies and basteti or barks as support units are something I want for a long time now.

However there is one thing missing:

- The province "Great Mortis Delta" is currently not anywhere near the delta of the river mortis. It buggs me since the drop of the map. Can we please rename this province?

Bluemushroomz#1739

Tomb Kings is at the same time one of the best race packs and in need of content. They are just that cool

#239632

Tyrant#1234 said:

It would be a dream, but CA seems to have set an arbitary cap on DLC factions at 4 LLs each. None so far have broken that mold, the one exception being Warriors of Chaos since CA never intended them to be a DLC faction but for fans pressuring.

I think they had in their mind to end up with 8 LLs each fore cores and 4 LLs for DLC factions...

Hopefully that changes, WH has so many characters I would hope to see that would exceed those caps.

Not only Warriors of Chaos got extra lords and DLC, but you forgot Wood Elves and Beastmen got DLC and extra lords though they do Cap at 4. Still in time I can see FLC content or a DLC pack with Tomb King. Not Vampire Coast though there unique and done.

Kannabyss420#5579

I feel out of all the options you've got here Apophas seems like the most likely candidate for next LL we (hopefully) get for TK's because of the popularity of the Mummy franchise...until Tom Cruise butchered the IP that is.

His model is 10/10, and if he was chosen to be next, I imagine that we'd get tomb scarab swarms at the very least.

AgemoukTKE#2256

Ah, the debate on whether Prince Apophas should be a LL or a LH is one I've heard many times, often by people beseeching me to mod a lord version just for them.

For me he is perfect LH material, and it makes almost no sense at all for him to be a LL.

#153592

Maybe they'll put him on a wheelbarrow too because supposedly his animations are too hard to make...