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[umiman]

Based on my experience of being in a desert right now in Dubai, I can say with absolute certainty that the best way to use Tomb Kings magic is to spam cheap ones constantly for neverending heals.

[Mech#4]

Creative Assembly might need to increase the healing effect a bit because, even with around 8 casts after combat, I wasn't seeing much more than 1-3 units resurrected. Certainly none on bigger units like Ushabti or Chariots.


Edit: Looking about a bit more, the last skill in the Tomb King lord's red skill tree, "Resurrect", seems to heal a much larger amount of health for all units within 55m. It's also reusable which would make it very nice during longer battles.

I have to mention that the Lore of Nehekhara buffs are very good. Casting "Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades" and "Neru's Incantation of Protection" on a Necrosphinx I was able to cut through 2 other Necrosphinx's as well as a Hierotitan. The archer buff "Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting" is also very nice against constucts with it's increase to armour piercing.

[umiman]

Fucking hell, you'd think making money would come easier to a group of peoples who spent their entire lives and unlives burying gold and wealth with them.

TK need gold for everything and they have so little of it. It's unnerving.

[Teneb]

Fucking hell, you'd think making money would come easier to a group of peoples who spent their entire lives and unlives burying gold and wealth with them.

TK need gold for everything and they have so little of it. It's unnerving.

Their tombs did get looted by pretty much everyone.

Also: have Settra embark and listen. "Settra surfs!"

[dennislp3]

Also note they are terrible at spending money in logical ways.

One technology you can research in the last dynasty I believe is "xxxxxx's lost gold" and the description is how they found a large amount of gold...and then proceeded to layer statues with the gold.

[umiman]

Also note they are terrible at spending money in logical ways.

One technology you can research in the last dynasty I believe is "xxxxxx's lost gold" and the description is how they found a large amount of gold...and then proceeded to layer statues with the gold.

Heh, that makes sense then.

---------------

I'm having a lot of fun with Arkhan right now in Mortal Empires.

It's... surprisingly difficult considering how you're limited in the troops you want, so you always have to use something that isn't optimized. Which honestly I think is the way the games should be anyway. I could imagine if I could just build whatever I want this campaign would be a steamroll to easy victory, but I constantly have no money, no jars, no spare agents, etc. etc. It's fun.

Though I will say I haven't bothered using any of Arkhan's undead units past the beginning. This is because he doesn't get any upgrades towards them, so their utility drops once you get upgrades to all your other units. Before that point they're really useful though, especially the dogs. I haven't been able to afford Hexwraiths but that should be a power jump.

What I have noticed is that because of the TK's free army thing, after you unlock your 3rd (or honestly late into your second army) army, you basically skyrocket to the top of the power chart. So no one dares to declare war on you. This is completely misleading since my armies are just garbage skellies as I haven't built a single high tier unit building despite having conquered Khemri and retaken my Black Tower. Seriously, the best unit I can manually recruit are chariots.

I tell you, fighting a Necrosphinx and three units of Ubshanti with just skelly spears is quite amusing. By amusing I mean horrendously terrifying. Thank Ptra skelly archers are actually good.

If I were to give a tip to anyone thinking of starting a VH Tomb King run, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend getting the red line skill tree for all your lords at the start. You desperately need to buff your skellies or every battle will become a desperate uphill climb.

Also maybe consider using your first 5k gold to activate the rite that gives you the free artillery unit. It's expensive as balls, but that arty is god tier and buffs your magic pool by a huge amount.

[Il Palazzo]

If I were to give a tip to anyone thinking of starting a VH Tomb King run, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend getting the red line skill tree for all your lords at the start.

That's true of every race and lord.

[umiman]

If I were to give a tip to anyone thinking of starting a VH Tomb King run, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend getting the red line skill tree for all your lords at the start.

That's true of every race and lord.

Not necessarily. You absolutely don't need it for Lizardmen for example and you're better off going up the yellow line for when your Saurus unlocks his Carnosaur. Same for Chaos, who basically completely skip over the entire first-half of the tech tree to focus on elite, late-game units. Where all their lords are basically one-man armies.

There are also lords like Teclis where going red line early instead of magic is... questionable. Hybrid lords like Vlad and his bald son as well.

Not to say that you couldn't play Teclis and completely ignore magic. But it'd be a very odd decision on your part. And it's not like High Elf units are so trashcan they're useless unless you buff them, which is what is happening with Tomb King skellies, who happen to have the same stats as the worst unit in the game. Bretonnian peasants. Hell, they actually have less leadership than Bretonnian peasants, which is grounds for saying they're worse than the worst unit in the game.

The red line buffs give them 18 armour and 40% extra melee defense so they at least become Empire swordsmen level and not complete garbage. And it's not like you can decide not to use skellies.

[Il Palazzo]

Sure, you don't always need them, and you can sometimes go for more fun or flashy ones. But I've found it to be always a better choice, utility-wise. Fully upgraded red skills allow your low-level units to hold their own against high-level enemy units, which means that instead of having to fill your ranks with expensive higher-tier ones you can just raise another army full of skeletons or orcs or whatever cheap militia is most responsive to upgrades.
With two armies, your lords are spending less time moving between whatever needs to be dealt with, and more time fighting. This in turn means that in no time you'll have enough experience to start filling those other skill trees too.

If I need a mage or a combatant, I just embed a hero and upgrade their stats accordingly.

[Mech#4]

I would usually go into the red line if I'm not going to be using the lord for dueling such as Queek or Grimgor.

As for Tomb Kings; after uniting all the lands south of the Badlands (Except the dwarf gold expedition) I've begun heading north but I've hit a bit of a snag. The Wood Elves have expanded quite a bit and I've been having big problems actually fighting them. They out shoot me, my infantry's too slow, my constructs are big targets and my chariots are too brittle. So far I think I'm going to have to rely on Nehekhara Horsemen to chase them all down as armies of skirmishes and fast cavalry are requiring me to face each of their armies with 2 of my own. It's painful.

[Tack]

Yeah... red line...

Also my Settra has a charge bonus of +180

[Teneb]

I've only been playing with Settra so far, but I agree that you need the red line. I've taken to using Settra as a support unit much like a classic total war general. Helps that he's got a huge leadership bubble that can get even bigger.

TK skeleton archers are pretty trash, too (and I used them against savage orcs, who have no armour at all). Have to rely on chariot micro to keep going until I can get any mid-game unit.

[umiman]

I would usually go into the red line if I'm not going to be using the lord for dueling such as Queek or Grimgor.

As for Tomb Kings; after uniting all the lands south of the Badlands (Except the dwarf gold expedition) I've begun heading north but I've hit a bit of a snag. The Wood Elves have expanded quite a bit and I've been having big problems actually fighting them. They out shoot me, my infantry's too slow, my constructs are big targets and my chariots are too brittle. So far I think I'm going to have to rely on Nehekhara Horsemen to chase them all down as armies of skirmishes and fast cavalry are requiring me to face each of their armies with 2 of my own. It's painful.

After many centuries of suffering under the yoke of Wood Elf tyranny, I have been able to devise a universal strategy that works for every race and faction against this blight against the world.

It's the final solution.

1. Wood Elf recruitment, income, and power all are based only in Athel Loren. It doesn't matter how many outposts they have, everything is based on Athel Loren.
2. Trying to invade Athel Loren while the elves are actually in there is suicide.
3. What you need to do is let the elves do their crazy "conquer the whole world" phase that they do after they confederate themselves.
4. Then while their 4 or 5 stacks are out conquering say... Norsca, you sweep in with two fullstacks of as much arty and heavy armour troops you can get.
5. This is because they are weighted really heavily in autoresolve.
6. Then you burn the undefended Athel Loren to the ground.
7. GG NO RE no more Wood Elf problem.

Also they're pretty trash at sieging you, so as long as you sit behind your walls you should be relatively okay. Just know they'll snipe all your units defending the walls.

-------------

I swear fighting against the AI as Wood Elves is the worst. Their micro is insane with that faction. It's not that they're impossible to beat, but rather every fight takes so long and you lose so many units. It's a true battle of attrition.

If you actually want to fight them mano-a-mano, then from my experience cavalry is not the answer (unless it's like dogs or Beastmen or something, which are hyperspeed fast). If cavalry was the answer then Bretonnia would have a super easy time against WE. On the contrary they are awful against them.

I found the best answer is to fight them with ranged units. Yes, it sounds patently stupid, but the only thing the AI can't do with Wood Elf micro is it doesn't know how to focus fire its units. So I found the best way to actually fight them is to group as many ranged units as I can spare and snipe all their ranged, while having my melee troops hold off theirs. No need to chase them all over the map.

[Mech#4]

Hnn, my sense of honour dictates that I must beat them in the field rather than cut their forest down while they're not home. If I'm to beat them, I must do so properly otherwise my victory could be brought into question. Good advice though, thanks. I will take it into consideration.

[umiman]

Hnn, my sense of honour dictates that I must beat them in the field rather than cut their forest down while they're not home. If I'm to beat them, I must do so properly otherwise my victory could be brought into question. Good advice though, thanks. I will take it into consideration.

Well, the reason Beastmen are amazing at slaughtering them is because they're all super fast and super killy in huge numbers. Also their boars.

So if you're super fast, you should do well.

I don't think any TK unit fits that requirement though so... good luck and let us know if you come across any new tactics against them. I'd certainly want to know. I hate those assholes.