In a shock that’s on par with the Skaven reveal, Total War developers Creative Assembly have revealed that the Tomb Kings are coming to Total War: Warhammer II in its first DLC pack. The Egyptian-flavoured undead will release on January 23, and they’ve got a fearsome new trailer to celebrate.
The Tomb Kings were an easy guess, but who else might be coming to Total War: Warhammer II? See the speculation in our race guide.
The trailer shows a foolhardy Dark Elf raiding party plundering a Nehekharan tomb, before being slaughtered by a group of Ushabti (magically animated statues) and a Tomb Scorpion. A full Tomb King army then descends upon the Druchii camp, showing off some of the new units.
We see whole fleets of undead charioteers, flying carrion, and slithering sepulchral stalkers and Necropolis Knights. Naturally it wouldn’t be an Egyptian-themed fantasy army without sphinxes, and the Tomb Kings have two varieties: the warsphinx – which carries a howdah of skeleton infantry – and the Necrosphinx, a winged construct that takes a much more direct approach.
The real highlight, though, is the Hierotitan, which you can see at the end shooting magical lasers from its eyes. Hierotitans never got a model in the tabletop game – most players would convert one out of the older Bone Giant – so it’s very exciting to see them realised at last.
Furthermore, CA tell us that the Tomb Kings will launch withfourLegendary Lords. This is a change of approach from the Beastmen and Wood Elves DLC packs in the original game, which got just two lords and a partial army roster in return for a mini-campaign which most players found underwhelming. CA say they’re responding to that feedback by scrapping the campaign and launching with more Lords and units, which sounds like a good trade to me.
Here’s a brief rundown of the Tomb King Legendary Lords:
- Settra the Imperishable,the main man from the Tomb King book and the ‘default’ Legendary Lord in the same way as Karl Franz is to the Empire. He rules Khemri, Nehekhara’s de factocapital, andrides around in a huge chariot. A ruthless conqueror and rampant megalomaniac in life, he famously told Nagash himself that “Settra does not serve – Settra rules!” thus winning many new fans through badassitude alone.
- Queen Khalida,beloved of the Asp Goddess. Khalida had serious beef with the first vampires, and on the tabletop, gave poisoned attacks to her archers.
- Grand Hierophant Khatep, head of the priests’ cult under Settra, who exiled him when he was resurrected as a gross mummy rather than an eternal youth. Expect Khatep to be your head spellcaster.
- Arkhan the Black,right-hand man to that fellow Nagash I just mentioned. Nagash invented the magic of Necromancy and cast the super-spell that resurrected all of Nehekhara as the aforementioned gross mummies. Since this was very much notwhat chaps like Khatep had led them to expect, Nagash is not popular in Nehekhara. Accordingly, Arkhan’s campaign should be interesting.
Rise of the Tomb Kings launches on January 23, and according toits Steam page, will set you back £13.99 ($18.99). Check back to PCGamesN for the very latest on Total War: Warhammer II’s impending arrivals. Here’s the announcement on the Total War blog.