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Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings

Year:

2003

Nationality:

USA

Designer:

Alessio Cavatore, Graham McNeill, Space McQuirk, Anthony Reynolds, Gavin Thorpe

Artists:

John Blanche, Alex Boyd, Paul Dainton, David Gallagher

Publisher:

Games Workshop Ltd.

Number of Players:

2

Genre:

Fantasy, Adventure

Other websites:

Videos by players :

Summary of the game
Army book for the Warhammer Fantasy game, complement to the 6th edition. This book explains how the Tomb Kings armies work. Besides describing the game dynamics and units for this war game, it describes the history of the region of Nehekhara, the origin of Nagash, his history as king of Khemintri, his expulsion and the relationship between the kings of Nehekhara and him. It is also told how Nagash's curse corrupted the whole country and the river that runs through it and awakened its inhabitants as undead as well as the ancient embalmed kings. This book tells how the awakened kings are organized, their history and their evolution.
Armies of the Tomb Kings on the battlefield (Scanned from the book by the author)
Military units of the army of the Tomb Kings (Scanned from the book by the author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
Warhammer Armies: Tomb Kings is a supplement for the 6th edition war game Warhammer Fantasy. This book analyses and describes the Tomb Kings faction, presenting their origin in the legendary lands of Nehekhara (an idealisation of Egypt). This faction is constituted by undead, mainly skeletons and mummies, whose origins can be traced back to an ancient Egyptian-inspired, death-obsessed civilisation that was cursed by one of its priest kings, Nagash.

Since the reign of the priest-king Settra, the kings of Nehekhara sought to preserve their bodies and to have their priests investigate how, in the future, they could be resurrected and attain eternal life. These priests developed mummification rites, made pyramids and necropolises to store their riches, etc. Centuries later, the priest Nagash, in his obsession with power and immortality, killed his brother, the king of Khemri, and dedicated his life to studying black magic, perverting the magical studies of his civilisation. Nagash created necromancy and, in his fight against the other priest-kings of Nehekhara, he cursed the fertile lands of the country by poisoning and killing the population and accidentally resurrecting all the buried and embalmed dead from the pyramids and necropolises.

The resurrected ancient kings and their retinues are the sole survivors of this new Nehekhara, henceforth known as the Land of the Dead. These mummified kings fight each other and anyone who enters their domain, while also seeking to expand their kingdoms.

Furthermore, the game describes in detail how the armies of the Tomb Kings are built. The main basis is skeleton infantry and archery units, with ancient Egyptian clothing, weapons, and beads. The use of light cavalry regiments, and especially chariots, add similarity to the armies of the Pharaohs. All armies must have a general, either a funerary king or a funerary prince, who are mummified skeletons wearing Egyptian headdresses (nemes, double crowns...) and carrying khepesh, flails, and sometimes the nehaha and heka (staff and buckler typical of the pharaohs). Another fundamental element of these armies are the funeral priests, who keep the rising dead troops alive by means of chanting. In addition to them, there are special units linked to Egyptian mythology and folklore, such as swarms of wasps, snakes, and scorpions, monstrous scorpion golems, vultures, and the Ushabties. The latter are statues that come magically to life, usually looking like giant skeletons with the heads of Anubis or falcons.

All these elements are complemented by Egyptian decorations, such as hieroglyphics, hieratic vases, canopic vases, snake-shaped staffs, beetle-shaped amulets, etc.

Furthermore, the book contains a list of the royal dynasties of the Tomb Kings, as well as the history of their main heroes, such as Settra the Imperishable, King Phar, Prince Tutankhanut, or Queen Khalida Neferher.

Author: Víctor Sánchez Domínguez

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