Under the Baking Sun – Part IX

Do you think Battle March will be at AdeptiCon?
– Andrew, Sept. 1, 2026

And we are back! And by “we” I mean me and all these skellies. Why now? Why the return after *check notes* two years of silence? Battle March! That’s why. The Old World has been simmering away for a few years now, and it wasn’t until the release of Battle March that I started to feel that hobby fire begin to burn anew. I always had the goal of a 2k+ army in my mind, but it felt like a struggle to achieve. I wasn’t making progress as fast as I wanted, and the re-basing issue was killing my hobby mojo. And then, Battle March arrived, and folks started getting hyped up for ToW once again. I looked at what I had in progress and realized I was damn close to a viable Battle March force already. I just needed to lock in and push it over the edge.

I snagged a copy of Arcane Journal – The War of Settra’s Fury, and I was hooked again. I actually read the story! It’s awesome! I timed my journey back to The Old World well. The Warhammer Big Autumn Preview was mere weeks after I picked this project back up, and Tomb Kings were front and center with new Chariots, Warriors, and Archers all on display, and my goodness, do they look good. The new Skeleton Warriors have captured the old Tomb Kings artwork in a way I never thought possible. Another announcement was for a new Arcane Journal, The River of Bones, and it’s got Tomb Kings on the cover! Never did I think TKs would have such a spotlight on them in the Warhammer World. For pretty much their entire history, the goings-on in Khemri have been a sideshow. But now in ToW, Settra and his invasion of the Old World are central to the overall narrative. It’s about damn time.

Sprues & Glue

Behold! The massed ranks of the Tomb Kings spread far beyond the sands. Well, far beyond the top of the bookshelf. This is everything I have built and primed. I have more in the collection (Chariots, Tomb Guard, etc.), but those are still on sprue. I plan to pull from what we see in this photo to create a 750pt Battle March list. Once the AdeptiCon Event Preview is published (sometime in December), I’ll know for sure if 750pts is the target. After some consultation with the Tomb King community, here is what I am going with:

  • Characters:
    • Mortuary Priest, General, The Hierophant, Wizard Level 1, Elementalism – 55pts
    • Tomb Prince, Skeleton Chariot, Light Armor, Great Weapon – 129pts
  • Core:
    • x5 Skeleton Horse Archers – 55pts
    • x14 Skeleton Archers – 70pts
    • x19 Skeleton Warriors, Light Armor, Thrusting Spears, Shields, Champ, Standard Bearer – 124pts.
  • Special:
    • x2 Skeleton Chariots – 82pts
    • Tomb Scorpion, Ambushers – 75pts
  • Rare:
    • Necrolith Colossus – 160pts

Is it good? I have no idea. Is it effective? Not sure. Is it legal? Yes. And that’s the important part. At the time of writing, I’ll need to paint a Tomb Prince, the six Chariot Crew, five Skeleton Horse Archers, five Skeleton Warriors with spears, and the Necrolith Colossus (Bone Giant). That is a very manageable list to complete by April (considering other AdeptiCon projects in the pipeline).

Paint Splatter

And now, at long last, I finally painted the first unit of Chariots. Not the crew (they are next), but the three Chariots and a Chariot for a Tomb King or Prince are complete. The Chariots are the main event, but much more has been completed. The overall progress includes:

  • Built, based, and primed x10 Skeleton Horse Archers. These are from Wargames Atlantic (just like my Skeleton Infantry), and I am a big fan of their version of Skeleton Cav as well.
  • Rebased and finished all x20 Skeleton Archers. After an agonizing back-and-forth on what to do about the basing, I just ripped them off their 20mm bases and glued them onto new 25mm squares. I then applied a new layer of Vallejo Dark Earth basing texture and painted up the bases.
  • I rebased all x20 Skeleton Warriors with spears and shields. I need to paint the final five models for the back rank and paint the bases.
  • I rebased all x25 Skeleton Warriors with hand weapons and shields.
  • I built, based, and primed two additional Skeleton Warrior Commands (Champ, Standard, and Musician) to give me options with list building.
  • I tracked down another original metal Tomb King with a great weapon. This one will be the “on foot” version for the Tomb King in a Chariot. I will paint both Tomb King models at the same time using the exact same scheme. Just in case the one in the Chariot gets his royal mount destroyed out from under him, I’ll have the on-foot version to swap out.

And finally, I restored the Campaign Banner my brother Matthew created for a campaign I played in decades ago. I found the banner while helping with some cleaning down in the basement of my parents’ house. Scattered among dusty boxes and long-lost decorations, the banner was somehow still intact. The foam base was destroyed, and the pole was snapped, but the paper banner itself had aged like a fine wine.

Taking place in the summer of 2004 or 2005, I participated in a Warhammer Fantasy map campaign at our local hobby shop – Hobby Town USA Oak Park. The banner depicts the member icons of the mighty Southern Alliance – Tomb Kings (me), Warriors of Chaos (James), and Ogre Kingdoms (Fred). Matthew did all the freehand and even attached some trophies of the enemy forces we fought during the months-long campaign. I added a new banner pole, a new base, and painted up the base to match my current Tomb Kings. This banner will proudly wave whenever and wherever my Tomb Kings take the field.

Stillmania Progress Report

Originally, this Tomb Kings project is an exercise in nostalgia for me. Stillmania, the miniature wargaming doctrine developed by Games Workshop-legend Nigel Stillman, is all about the discipline of sticking to your North Star and never deviating.

I have since adjusted my approach. Below is no longer a fixed 2k Army List. There are too many variables with the Armies of Infamy to lock in a one-size-fits-all Army List. So, instead, my collection will remain static. I’m not acquiring new models; that will not change. But the Army List can and will be adjusted as needed.

Lords:
Settra the Imperishable – Acquired
Tomb King in Chariot (and on foot) – Painting in progress

Heroes:
Mortuary Priest on Foot – Done
Mortuary Priest on Foot – Primed
Mortuary Priest on Foot – Primed
Tomb Prince on Foot – Primed
Tomb Herald on Foot – Primed

Core:
x20 Skeleton Archers – Done
x1 Tomb Swarm – Done
x2 Tomb Swarms – Primed
x20 Skeleton Warriors with full command, spears, shields – Painting in progress
x25 Skeleton Warriors with full command, hand weapons, shields – Primed
x20 Tomb Guard with full command, halberds and shields – Acquired
x3 Skeleton Chariots with champion and standard – Done
– x6 Skeleton Chariot Crew – Painting in progress
x3 Skeleton Chariots with champion and standard – Acquired
– x6 Skeleton Chariot Crew – Acquired

Special:
Tomb Scorpion – Done
Tomb Scorpion – Primed
x3 Ushabti – Primed
x3 Ushabti – Primed
x3 Tomb Guard Chariots – Acquired
– x6 Tomb Guard Chariot Crew – Acquired
x3 Carrion – Primed
x10 Skeleton Horse Archers – Primed

Rare:
Bone Giant – Primed
Bone Giant with Bow – Primed
Screaming Skull Catapult – Primed
Casket of Souls – Primed

A Look Ahead

So what’s next? For now, it’s keep the hobby fire burning and keep painting. Seeing the two units of Skeleton Archers finally fully painted and based on their movement trays has been a long time coming, and I’m thrilled with how they turned out. I want to get the Chariot Crew done next, along with the final rank of Skeleton Warriors with spears – giving me a full 20. Depending on what details we get for the ToW releases, some plans may change, and depending on what the AdeptiCon 2027 schedule looks like, I might have to make a hard pivot to get a legal Battle March Army List put together. But no matter what, I promise to not wait until 2028 to write Under the Baking Sun Part X.

You can read all the updates on News from the Front!

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