Tomb Kings Core Set Review
ToW: Tomb Kings, Legions of Khemri Edition Contents
The Miniatures, from a Painter’s Perspective
Review & Rambling
Hey everyone, Games Workshop kindly sent me the Tomb Kings army box to review ahead of release, and I am here today to talk about it and give you my opinion on its contents. It feels somewhat strange for me to discuss an “older kit brought back” knowing that a lot of people probably still know it better than I do, so please do not hesitate to fire questions my way if I left anything unanswered.
For those who do not know me, I’m Ashelyn Gaming and you can currently find me on Twitter/X, Instagram, Threads and BlueSky. I offer commission painting services and hoping to expand in 2024 to more guides, tutorials and reviews.
If you want to check out how I started painting my own Tomb Kings borrowing Games Workshop’s original scheme, I will post an article about it super soon. It will be announced on my socials as always.
Now, before I start rambling, let’s have a look at the contents of the box.
TLDR: in my opinion, the box is really good value:
1) 1250pts playable army, made of 93 miniatures
2) Everything needed to play including a huge, fleshed out and beautiful rulebook
3) TK in particular are super fun and easy to paint fast for impactful results if willing to drybrush
ToW: Tomb King, Legions of Khemri Edition Contents
The box is massive and weighs a fair amount. It is packed with (a lot of plastic):
A beautiful and massive 352 page rulebook and assembly guide
21 simple six-sided dice, templates, measuring sticks and a quick reference sheet for the game
93 PLASTIC miniatures, which include:
1x High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon, on 100 x 150mm rectangle base
1x Tomb King, on 25mm square base
40x Skeleton Warriors, on 25mm square bases
32x Skeleton Archers, on 25mm square bases
8x Skeleton Horsemen, on 25mm x 50mm rectangle bases
8x Skeleton Horse Archers, on 25mm x 50mm rectangle bases
3x Skeleton Chariots, on 50mm x 100mm rectangle bases
This box is enormous and very generous with how much plastic it contains, and whilst I cannot really speak about its cost versus the cost of the army “back then”, in terms of modern Warhammer content, you have everything you need to build a 1250pts army composed of 93 miniatures and all the data, rules, dice and measuring tools you will need to play. Which sounds amazing to me.
The rulebook is astonishing and filled with more than just rules, including shots of armies representating each of the key Old World factions (I always love an army shot!) and beautiful art.
The Miniatures, from a Painter’s Perspective
The Old Sprues
The old sprues are probably what a lot of people expect. They are neatly organised, and the whole box contains multiple of the exact same sprues. You get familiar with the army quickly, and the need of an assembly guide is definitely lesser compared to the kits I am used to build.
Warbows, headdresses and shields are an “upgrade sprue”, and the skeletons all share the same sprue design (there are 18 copies of the same sprue for the 72 skeletons - 40x skeleton warriors and 32x archers) which contains 4 torsos, 4 pairs of legs, some heads to choose from and weapon options. The uniqueness of each model will be greatly reduced straight out of the box, or though the ball joints will let you at least give some character to your skellies through the stance of their arms and what they are holding.
Each horse sprue contains 2 plain horses, and these two horses will be the same for all the horsemen, horse archers and chariots.
I do not mind the old designs, I find them charming in more ways than one - or though I do have to say that I love the sharpness of modern kits more.
The horses in particular feel a little challenging to clean; the mold lines can be thick (sometimes almost a full mm) and alongside the entire model. Every single verterbrae of the horses has a line running along all of its sides, and I gave up trying to sort all of them out, instead focusing on the main ones.
The work needed to rid every model of every mold line is greater than with a modern kit. I would not be tempted to try to bring an older kit to a painting competition, mostly because I might lose my marbles in the process or trying to remove all imperfections.
However, with such easy kits to assemble and a quick painting scheme, Tomb Kings are shaping up to be my first army; and I am LOVING them.
The New Sprues
The Bone Dragon is the big star of this new box! It has received a lot of criticism for its design, and the way that the High Priest’s throne sits awkwardly on top of the spiked back of the dragon which is a little strange. It feels like the two parts of the kit were made separarely and then meshed together.
I personally will keep everything as is intended, because I still love the design of the whole piece.
However, I would like to point out just how much of a treasure box this dragon seems to be for kitbashers and people who want to tweak it.
It is possible to leave the dragon by itself - the only artifact left by the throne are a couple of wooden supports and rope, which could still fit the Construct and potentially leaves people a way to find a new way to mount the throne or the high priest, and find a separate use for the throne itself (maybe have it carried by skeletons, or another flatter monster).
The wings can be left separate too, and are only made of a handful of pieces. There is only a small rectangular hole you would need to fill, should you decide to leave them off entirely. Even the tail comes in a couple of segments, which I could see be reused on another monster or repositioned on the dragon if so desired.
The only two pieces which would be difficult to modify would potentially be the spine, which is a single long piece that forces the dragon to have his head arched down - I’m sure a lot of people could work with it… not me though. :p The other one is the head, which basically comes with the headdress - the jaws are separate but the top of the head seems pretty much a part of the headdress - this one might be for experienced kitbashers only.
Review & Rambling
I love this box, and I think you do get a lot for it. A playable army, its ruleset and everything you need to actually start a game for £175.00 RRP, whilst expensive, does not sound like the most expensive thing Games Workshop has done. I cannot comment on manufacturing costs as I simply do not know if manufacturing “old models” today costs more, or less, or the same. I can only look at it the way I see it; which is 93 minis totally at 1250pts, ready to play, which sounds amazing to me.
Tomb Kings are shaping up to be my first playable army faster than my Tyranids now (curse me and my silly, complicated schemes), and I am hoping to pick up some Sphinx on release day with my own wallet as well as expending it slowly over time.
A quick google search told me that Games Workshop started using plastic in 1987 and that they fully turned to finecast resin in 2011 for previously metal miniatures.
One of the most obvious thing that jumped at me when inspecting the sprues were the ergonomic differences - the horses especially looked strange, with no “frame” around them at all. These are dated 1993. It was tough for me to tell if the sprues dated 1993 or 2023 were made of the exact same plastic. But just in case you are another hobbyist who started in the last few years, here’s what I can say: they all reacted smoothly and as expected to my Tamiya cement (duh), my Vallejo and Hycote primers (duh). They all shaved smoothly under my crappy hobby knife (duh), and that is all that really mattered to me. Very obvious, I know, but I have dealt with my fair share of various resins and metals through commissions, and did not always have the best of time, so I was very happy to find out that plastic still wins with how pleasant and easy to work with it is.
It seems the scale is off compared to modern Warhammer, it might not be possible to easily mix Old World skelly kits with Age of Sigmar skellies for example.
Looking back at the dates, I did wonder whether these were cast in 1993 and repackaged, cast today but with molds dated 1993 or if molds were remade but kept the original stamp (but I doubt this considering the mould lines). This would not change anything for me or my perception of the box, but I am curious.
As a final little personal note, when Games Workshop announced the re-launch of Tomb Kings and Bretonnia, I was secretely hoping this would mean modern Tomb Kings would be coming with a freshly updated and sharp design. Modern Necrosphinx and Sepulchral Stalkers? Just thinking about it made me want it.
In the end, I am still a teeny tiny bit sad we did not get a fresh redesign (these horses need it more than anyone else), but I also understand the important role and grip that nostalgia has on people and especially Warhammer fans. And I am extremely grateful and happy to have been able to finally experience some older Warhammer myself.