Campaign: TK vs Dark Elves mid/late game army comp

[Cleftin Twain]

As title suggests, what mid/late game army comp would you guys suggest using with TKs against Dark Elves?

Would prefer to be able to just use one army but if i have to dual army them down I suppose I can. I think I'm ultimately advancing too slowly as Tomb Kings in general to have more than one *good* army going by mid/late game. But I digress.

[Inardesco]

Ushabti
Lore of Nehekhara (juicy healing)
You will want some fast units in case of shades like the Sepulchre Stalkers or chariots
Against Black Guard/Executioners you can keep them in place with Tomb Guard, but they'll lose against them in the long run so you want to have something that can crash into their rear.
Casket of Souls
Warsphinx, preferably with your lord on it
Ushabti bow to deal with large units
Tomb Prince to deal with their agents

Main issue against Dark Elves is their ranged power, corsairs are trash but their Darkshards (shields) will win pretty much every skimish against your skele archers and the Shades can basically rek any form of cavalry that you send to it. Given that all your constructs are reliant on lots of armour and all DE ranged option aside from corsairs is armour piercing, you dont want them to fire on them.

[Cleftin Twain]

Ok so safe to assume I can just out siege them since the only siege equipment they have is Bolt throwers right? Bowshabti, bone giants, etc? My biggest concern is just dealing with all of their anti large. Black Guard spam is terrifying.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Bad Player AI:

Ok so safe to assume I can just out siege them since the only siege equipment they have is Bolt throwers right? Bowshabti, bone giants, etc? My biggest concern is just dealing with all of their anti large. Black Guard spam is terrifying.

Black Guard are fairly easy to deal with: just shoot them. Bone Giants, Casket of Souls, even Screaming Skull Catapults make blasting them easy.

The hard bit for me are the Darkshards and their construct-annhilating volleys: Caskets deal with them nicely via range and Tomb Scorpions are hard to shoot and can really murder them in melee.

Also, don't underestimate their Cold One Riders, but they're pretty easily dealt with by Tomb Guard w/ Halberds.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Lore of Nehekhara (juicy healing)

I disagree, Death is far better for Dark Elves:
- it has -armor on Soulblight, great for skelly vs Bleakswords fights
- Purple Sun is expensive but very good at murdering otherwise nasty targets (Black Guard, Har Ganeth Executioners), and also very good on throwing on top of a construct in a blob
- can't complain about Spirit Leech spam

[Cleftin Twain]

I'm not sure how to feel about Death magic. With Khalida I got Nehek every time simply because buffing a Casket with +40 reload on top of her buff makes those things just pump out those shots super fast and I feel like the faster Artillery gets those shots out the better off you are since you really want them doing damage before lines clash and they become less useful.

I may need to try Death with another lord though; I just gripe that soulblight only covers one target if I'm not mistaken (may be thinking of another spell in that line) which doesn't seem like a enough. I'm in the same boat with Light, I'm just not sure which is more beneficial on VH difficulty, buffing your troops or debuffing the enemies.

[fmalfeas]

If you manage to unlock it, Shadows can wreak havoc via the Shadow Pit.

Get their melee to blob something, drop a shadow pit, and let it dissolve them. Magical anti-armor stationary vortex ahoy!

[Ben Argo]

Soulblight is AoE, last I checked. my fav spell in the game.

[wrought82]

its tomb kings so the question isnt what is best but how many of the best do you have.
more or less well>necro>war/giant>hiero>halberds/scorpion/ushtabi bow>ushtabi>tomb guard>chariots

and yes if you can only outfit 1 army w high tier you defo need to move faster. use chariots early and a lot, trash infantry as little as you can get away with (altho spears are better vs brettonia cavalry)

[fmalfeas]

If you have a surplus of money but not land, there's another option if you can hold for a while.

Keep popping 5k on the rite to make caskets of souls, and get the TK from...1st dynasty I think? Gives 20% more ammo to his army I believe. Pile in the caskets and a bunch of trash skeletons to keep things off the caskets long enough for them to blow everything to smithereens. Which they'll do because they're insane.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Ruinae Retroque Rursus:

I disagree, Death is far better for Dark Elves:
- it has -armor on Soulblight, great for skelly vs Bleakswords fights
- Purple Sun is expensive but very good at murdering otherwise nasty targets (Black Guard, Har Ganeth Executioners), and also very good on throwing on top of a construct in a blob
- can't complain about Spirit Leech spam

Being able to heal your entire army for 5 WoM is far more useful than dealing damage with an 18 WoM non-overcast spell that goes in random directions every time you cast it.

Next to that, Lore of Nehekhara is more supportive than destructive and is thus more helpful when your constructs are targetted by their AP ranged. Cuz with a 44% damage resistance + healing + additional healing, not much will damage you.