Empire of Dust

The Struggle is Real

Our favorite Egyptian themed undead are in quite a rough spot a few months into fourth edition. I have gotten a number of games under my belt with Empire of Dust and must like Frank Costanza on Festivus I have a lot of problems and you people are gonna hear about them.

First a moment of silence for our beatiful boy the Reanimated Behemoth. This near auto-include from third edition was taken form us too soon. I hold out hopes that he may return in an army book later this edition but that might just be wishful thinking.

On to more serious matters. What is this army about you might ask? How does Empire of Dust play in fourth edition?

The short answer is not well, but let’s dive deeper. Empire of Dust really lacks a good identity or synergies right now. In my games I’ve struggled to be able to grind with them like was possible in third edition. Being an almost completely shambling army, any type of alpha or fast play is out of the question as well. The army also has a lack of real hammers or killing power, especially with the loss of the Lute artefact. Without the Lute you have no access to bane chant. The two builds that seem somewhat viable–and that is really stretching the term viable–are mummy spam and deadeye horde spam.

Before diving more deeply into these two builds let’s do a rundown of the units and the good, the bad, and the ugly of them.

The Good

• Ahmunite Pharaoh on Chariot
  • Let’s get this out of the way the Ahmunite Pharaoh on Chariot is expensive at 240 pts (realistically 260 pts because you are going to put surge on him), but in my opinion he is worth it. Defense 6 is still defense 6, and with 16 nerve, Lifeleech, and Regeneration he takes a concerted effort to kill. The biggest thing though is he makes mummy regiments core. With mummy spam being one of the semi-viable ways to play Empire of Dust right now this is key. On top of this the Pharaoh isn’t a slouch in combat either with 7 attacks on 3+ with Crushing 2 and Thunderous 1. He can be quite helpful in putting through those extra few wounds you need to kill that unit you charged. His height 4 and taking the surge add-on make him a great utility piece as well to get those cheeky flank surge charges off.
• Mummies
  • Mummies are great. They remain largely unchanged from 3rd edition. The cost of troops went up a bit which is sad, but honestly given the way army construction works and also the dearth of other worthwhile units you really want to take them in regiments anyway. While the regiments are pricey at 185 they bring a lot to the table. Mummies have a defense of 5, a nerve of 18+, Fearless, Lifeleech, and a 5+ Regeneration. All of that adds up to a unit that is very hard to chew through. The sticky combat of 4th edition is a boon to mummies. In the battle of attrition mummies almost always win especially with the army’s easy access to drain life and the best drain life unit in the game. What your mummies don’t regen you can just take the wounds from what they are fighting and top them up.
• Soul Snare