Warhammer: Tomb Kings
Gav Thorpe, Alessio Cavatore and others
published by Games Workshop
Price: £10.00

An early line in the introduction is a great starting point for this book; "The spectacle of the Tomb Kings army on the battlefield is…" For this is an army book of the truest sort, it aims at the battle player, and the background is lost rather in the middle. Actually, that is not really doing the book justice, for it's background materials are great. But you are probably just as well (if not better) off picking up a book on ancient Egypt and reading that.

The book starts with sixteen pages of "background material". It explains the roles of many of the units and characters in the army, and the evolution of the Kings hemselves. It has a highly useless map showing the extent of "Alcadizaar the Conqueror's" realm. Unfortunately this shows nothing of the current world boundaries, although a little knowledge will allow you to work out that Tilea is towards the top of the map. Two short stories follow, neither of much more use then a little light entertainment, and an insight into some of the culture. Last in this section is another story, but before that is a revelation for Games Workshop: a current map... with a scale. It took me quite a while with this map and the previous one to actually work out where the whole place was, but again Tilea is just off the top of this map.

We move on and into the army rules, beginning with a summary of all the Undead rules. When playing, you must not forget these, for they are vital to the survival or destruction of your army. Twelve more pages follow giving the background and some information for each of the major troop types in the army. In here you can get some surprising insights into the culture of the Tomb kings as they re-awaken. Four pages of the magic items follows a short double page on the magic of the priests and its uses.

The next eighteen pages contain the stats and rules for the armies of the tomb kings, and are worth little comment in a review.

The next set of sixteen pages is in full colour. It begins and ends with two concept art pictures, one of a king and the other of chariots in action. Between here we have photographs of the studio's miniatures, and a painting guide. The painting guide shows no less then six differing ways of producing a bone-like colour, and seems excessive.

After a few pages on the special characters and their rules, the book is finished off nicely with a mock diary story, the standard tactics section, some banners and a page on the glyphs used by the Nehekharans.

Overall, this is a book for wargamers, and so that is where Games workshop has directed its interests. The background material could be used for a WFRP adventure, but considering that the entire race is dead will pose interesting problems. All their peasants are longs gone, and the armies that remain are little more them savages. There is little role play potential there. The other possible role play might be to play in a time when the race was still alive. As nice as that might be, the information is scarce, and connecting such a storyline to a typical TEW-style one could be problematic.

Obviously needed for anyone who plays the army, this book holds little for anyone else.