These rules are designed to be used alongside the Old World: Conquest rules.
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AN EMPIRE OF DUST
Across the arid deserts of Nehekhara, vast legions of skeletal warriors rise from beneath the baking sands to slaughter those who trespass into their domain. It is a lifeless realm of endless dunes, stained red from the blood of savages and barbarians. This is the Land of the Dead, where mummified kings are cursed to rule in perpetual unlife. But it was not always thus.
There was a time when the ancient kingdom of Nehekhara stood as a crown of human civilisation; a golden age when its cities shone with majestic splendour, its armies conquered entire nations and its kings ruled as gods among men. But this realm was razed millennia ago by the treacherous sorcery of the reviled Nagash: in a stroke, the living perished and the dead rose from their tombs.
Death is no barrier to glory for the Tomb Kings however. In unlife, they will see the empire of Nehekhara restored to greatness!
CANOPIC JARS
Canopic Jars are a unique resource for the Tomb Kings. Ancient containers filled with arcane energy, Canopic Jars can be collected through Quests and as post-battle loot. To give an extra narrative feel to your campaigns, replace the word gold in the aftermath sequence with Canopic Jars.
INCANTATIONS OF PRESERVATION
Each Tomb King unit when recruited to the roster is considered to have a strong ‘Soul Bind‘, as your campaign progresses this may decrease to a point where the Liche Priests are no longer able to bind souls to the corporeal forms of the unit anymore and they turn to dust.
Rather than following the aftermath sequence for injuries and casualties in section 8.2 you must instead roll on that table below taking into account the modifications listed:
- +1 If the unit survived the battle
- +1 If your General survived the battle
- +1 for each Liche Priest in your army roster
- -3 if the unit was destroyed in battle
This rule attempts to replicate the incantations that Liche Priests perform to maintain their or their Lords army.
| 2D6 Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 2 | The unit is lost to the sands of Time as it’s binding is tethered to the Liche Priests of your army. Remove the unit from your Order of Battle. |
| 3-4 | The unit’s link to your Liche Priests is weakened following the battle. Decrease it’s Soul Bind level. If this results in ‘No Bind’ the unit is lost to the sands of time and you must remove it from your order of battle. |
| 5-9 | The unit maintains it’s current bind level. |
| 10-11 | The link to your Liche Priests is strengthened and this unit gains a level of binding. |
| 12 | The unit has a ‘Strong Soul Bind’ to your army’s Liche Priests, in addition it gains D6 renown. |
Tomb King units are always deemed to be full strength regardless of their binding level and do not suffere casualties from battle to battle like other Old World factions.
BINDING STRENGTH
- No Bind – The unit has lost it’s bind to your Liche Priests and they are unble to keep the souls bound to the units skeletons. Turning to dust, the unit is lost to the Earth. Remove the unit from your army roster.
- Weak Bind – The unit is on the verge of turning to dust.
- Effective Bind – The Liche Priests still have a good bond with this unit.
- Strong Bind – The bind between this unit and your Liche Priests is at its strongest.
HEROIC UPGRADES
During your Conquest campaign, you may be able to pick heroic upgrades for your CHARACTERS. A heroic upgrade replaces one type of character with another, more powerful one and represents them becoming a mighty champion in your army. You can pick a heroic upgrade in step 7 of the aftermath sequence. To do so, consult the table below and pick 1 of the eligible options. Each heroic upgrade lists the character entry the CHARACTER will be upgraded to, which unit entry is required, the amount of renown points that CHARACTER must have, and the amount of gold you must spend. Once you have picked a heroic upgrade, replace your CHARACTER’s warscroll on your order of battle with the new one chosen. You can only pick 1 heroic upgrade in each aftermath sequence. If the new unit entry is a type that is limited on your order of battle – for example, if it is a MONSTER – you will need to have increased your order of battle limits to accommodate it before it can be upgraded.
| Unit Entry | Replaced With | Renown Required | Gold Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomb Prince | Tomb King | 30 | 3 |
| Mortuary Priest | High Priest | 15 | 3 |
LICHE PRIESTS WIZARD LEVELS AND UPGRADES
Mortuary Priests would still require a Wizards Tower to reach wizard level 2, and an Arcane Nexus to become level 3 and a High Priest. High Priests would still require an upgraded Arcane Nexus to become a level 4 wizard.
RENOWN, SPELLS AND MAGIC ITEMS
When you pick a heroic upgrade for a CHARACTER, they keep their renown points and any spells or magic items that they are still eligible for. If your CHARACTER had any spells or magic items that they are no longer eligible for, they lose them.
QUESTS
QUEST: Quash the Rebels
Mortal defiance is a difficult thing to break, pernicious as it is. Still, it never hurts to remind the living of their place every now and then.
At the end of each Conquest battle, add 1 quest point to the progress section of your quest log if you won a minor victory and add 3 quest points if you won a major victory.
Once you have gained 6 or more quest points, you can fight Conquest battles using the ‘Defend the Temple’ battleplan. If you win a major victory when using that battleplan, you complete this quest. The rewards of completing this quest are listed in the battleplan.
QUEST: DREAD MARK
In battle, hunt down the pretender and extinguish their soul.
You complete this quest if you slay an enemy General in battle.
Once you slay the General, you will receive an additional 10 Canopic Jars.
QUEST: UNDYING LEGIONS
Tomb Kings think little of expending their minions en masse. Occasionally, however, some of these resurrected regiments will attain their own notoriety.
At the end of a Conquest battle, you complete this quest if you won a major victory.
When you complete this quest, in the next Conquest battle you fight against an opponent using a Conquest army, before deployment, you can give each friendly SKELETON WARRIORS and SKELETON ARCHERS unit 1 veteran ability that can only be used in that battle.
QUEST: MASS GRAVES
A Liche Priest who can secure a Necropolis has access to nearly limitless reserves of soldiery.
At the end of a Conquest battle, you complete this quest if you won a major victory, and the model picked to be your general was not slain.
When you complete this quest, in the next Conquest battle you fight against an opponent using a Conquest army, at the end of your movement phase, you can summon 1 unit of 20 SKEKETON WARRIORS or 20 SKELETON ARCHERS and add it to your army. That unit must be set up wholly within 12″ of a friendly LICHE PRIEST and more than 3″ from all enemy units.
VETERAN ABILITIES
Hatred of the Living: These warriors have a deep loathing of all living creatures.
This unit can use this veteran ability once per battle at the start of the combat phase. Until the end of that phase, add 1 to the attack characteristic for models in this unit.
Immortal Legionaries: It is nigh impossible to extinguish the souls of these warriors.
This unit can use this veteran ability once per battle at the start of the combat phase. Until the end of that phase, this unit has a ward of 5+.
Bludgeoning Goliaths: These monstrous shock troops can smash aside even the most hardy defence.
USHABTI unit, SEPULCHRAL KNIGHTS unit or NECROPOLIS STALKERS unit only. This unit can use this veteran ability once per battle at the start of the combat phase. Until the end of that phase, improve the armour penetration characteristic of this unit’s weapons by 1.
March of a Thousand Corpses: Just as the living dare to hope that the last of these Skeletons have fallen, they stagger to their feet once more.
TOMB GUARD, SKELETON WARRIORS, SKELETON ARCHERS and SKELETON SKIRMISHERS only. This unit can use this veteran ability once per battle, at the end of the movement phase. You can return any number of slain models to this unit.
BATTLEPLAN: DEFEND THE TEMPLE
QUEST BATTLEPLAN This battleplan is used with the Old World: Conquest battlepack. You can use this battleplan if one player is using a Tomb Kings of Khemri army, has embarked on the ‘Quash the Rebels’ quest, and has earned 6 or more quest points.
THE ARMIES The player on the ‘Quash the Rebels’ quest is the Tomb Kings player and their opponent is the rebel. The Tomb Kings player must use a Tomb Kings army.
TERRAIN Place terrain as described on page 268 of the core rules. The Tomb King player has a suitable piece of terrain to represent their Temple in the center of their territory.
DEPLOYMENT Both players set up their units as shown on the map below and more than 9″ away from the centre of the battlefield. Players deploy their armies using the alternating units method, as described on page 285 of the core rules.
FIRST TURN The rebels takes the first turn in the first battle round.
HATEFUL DESPERATION For this battle the Rebels are Immune to Psychology.
TEARING DOWN THE TEMPLE
Units in the rebel’s army treat the Temple as an enemy model and can attack it with melee weapons (it is not affected by spells). The Temple is considered to have a Toughness characteristic of 8, Wounds characteristic of 20 and a Save characteristic of 3+.
A unit in the rebel’s army cannot target the Temple if that unit is within 3″ of any units in the Tomb Kings of Khemri player’s army. Once the number of wounds allocated to the Temple equals its Wounds characteristic, it is destroyed and removed from play.
GAME LENGTH The battle will last for six rounds, until one side concedes, or until the time limit agreed by the players is reached, as described on page 286 of the core rules.
GLORIOUS VICTORY If the Temple is destroyed, the rebel wins a major victory.
If the Temple has not been destroyed and there are no units in the rebel’s army within 3″ of it at the end of the battle, the Tomb Kings of Khemri player wins a major victory.
If neither player has won a major victory, each player scores a number of victory points equal to the combined Wounds characteristics of all friendly models within 6″ of the Temple. The player with the most victory points wins a minor victory. If neither player has the most victory points, the battle is a draw.
CONQUEST REWARDS If the Tomb Kings of Khemri player wins a major victory, they complete the ‘Quash the Rebels’ quest, gain 10 Canopic Jars (Gold) and can make 2 exploration rolls in step 6 of the aftermath sequence of that battle instead of 1.
TERRITORIES
61-62 OUTPOST OF THE LIVING
The mortals who have settled are a useful source of intelligence – once they have been broken to your will.
You receive 3 extra Canopic Jars (Gold) in step 1 of the aftermath sequence.
63-64 CURSED RUINS
You have discovered a nexus of death magic, the perfect site on which to found a new fortress.
You can never have more than 1 territory of this type. Add 1 to the number of territories your stronghold can control, the number of barracks it can have and the number of outposts it can establish.
65-66 NECROPOLIS FOUNDATIONS
Your Spymasters have found an ideal site upon which the core of a new necropolis could be erected. A foothold in this region will see your Empire grow at an accelerated rate.
You can never have more than 1 territory of this type. This territory has no effect until it is upgraded.
[Upgrade 15G] Fortress: Each time you win a major victory in a Conquest battle, you receive 1 extra Canopic Jar (Gold) in step 1 of the aftermath sequence for each friendly Tomb Kings of Khemri unit that survived the battle.
