‘Warhammer: The Old World’- The Unbeatable List – 2025 Nottingham GT

Take a look at the recent 2025 Nottingham GT winning list for Warhammer: The Old World, and why it works.

The other weekend saw the 2025 Nottingham GT take place. Held in (you’ll never guess it) Nottingham, UK this is a midsized 2 day event. Something like 30 people registered.  It had some light comp (only 2 Grand Cathay Lanterns) and did not use the Renegades pack. When the dust had settled on five epic rounds of The Old World, only one list had won all five rounds. Andy Oakham and his Tomb Kings Nehekharan Royal Hosts clinched the win. A big congrats to Andy and all the other great players. Today lets dig into Andy’s list and see why it works.

The List – Nehekharan Royal Hosts

Characters -983 pts

Tomb King -244 pts
(Great weapon, Heavy armour, Arise!, Level 1 Wizard, General, On foot, Charmed Shield, Arch-Lightning Rod)

Royal Herald -190 pts
(Hand weapon, Light armour, Battle Standard Bearer [Banner of the Desert Winds], On foot, Destroyer of Eternities)

Royal Herald -101 pts
(Great weapon, Light armour, Shield, On foot, Warding Splint)

Royal Herald -149 pts
(Great weapon, Light armour, Skeleton Chariot, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman of Protection)

Mortuary Priest -90 pts
(Hand weapon, Wizard [Level 1 Wizard], On foot, Spelleater Axe, Illusion)

Mortuary Priest -55 pts
(Hand weapon, Wizard [Level 1 Wizard], On foot, Illusion)

Mortuary Priest -55 pts
(Hand weapon, Wizard [Level 1 Wizard], On foot, Illusion)

Tomb Prince -99 pts
(Great weapon, Light armour, On foot, Charmed Shield)

Core Units-916 pts

1 Skeleton Chariots -41 pts
(Hand weapons, Cavalry spears, Warbows)

Skeleton Infantry Cohort -455 pts
(Hand weapons (both), Thrusting spears (Warriors), Warbows (Archers), Light armour (both), Shields (Warriors), 60x Royal Host Archers, Nehekharan Phalanx, Master of Arms (champion) [Amulet of the Serpent], Standard bearer [Icon of the Sacred Eye], Musician)

Skeleton Infantry Cohort -420 pts
(Hand weapons (both), Thrusting spears (Warriors), Warbows (Archers), Light armour (both), Shields (Warriors), 60x Royal Host Archers, Nehekharan Phalanx, Master of Arms (champion) [Burning Blade + Obsidian Lodestone], Standard bearer [Mirage Banner], Musician)

Special Units -100 pts

10 Skeleton Skirmishers –50 pts
(Hand weapons, Warbows, Ambushers)

10 Skeleton Skirmishers –50 pts
(Hand weapons, Warbows, Ambushers)

How The List Works

It’s nice to see a Tomb King list that isn’t crazy magic heavy or just the monster mash. In some ways this is a bit of a throw back to the pre 1.5 FAQ lists we sometimes saw. Andy’s got a strong list, but its not super subtle. The bulk of the list is built around two massive blocks of infantry. These are both 70 model units with 10 spearmen and 60 archers. In them go a decent number of characters to provide them a lot of support. The basic strategy here seems to be just to push forward with them claim objectives and grind down the enemy. One of the blocks is built to be a little more offensive, while the other sits back a bit more and shoots.

The key here is that these blocks are extremely hard to kill. They’ve got good static res, are huge and have to be killed to a skeleton. In addition the army will keep bringing them back for as long as they can. So just chipping away at the units won’t do much. To make them even harder to kill, you’ve got several wizards with Illusion, that I assume are going to be casting Glittering Robes on the unit for a -1 to be hit (while one of the blocks already has a -1 to be hit from range). The blocks also have some MR to protect them.

The army also has a couple of small ambushers for some tricks, and a tiny chariot unit, with a possibly  attached character to a do a little hunting. None of these give up very many points and unless you can crack one of the massive blocks you just aren’t going to score much vs this list. On the flip side the list is very good at scoring secondary objectives It’s not the most kill-y list, but it doesn’t have to kill a ton to win off of objectives and not giving up points. It’s also rocking a slim 4 drops, so have a great chance of going first.

The Characters in Detail

With nearly half the list in characters we can take a bit of a closer look at them as they are pretty important. The Tomb King, while the most expensive of them, is built more for support than combat. He can raise skeletons and shut down flying for a turn. He’s also got a few defensive buffs. I can’t be certain, but I suspect he normally stays out of the units, hiding be hind them to avoid combat and just buff/raise.

Next up are two foot Heralds. These seem to go into the units to provide a bit of extra oompf. One of them is the BSB helps make one of the units (I’m guessing the more fight-y one) a bit more mobile, while also being able to land a few extra hits. The other is a bit tank-y and can be used to hold off things in a pinch. You also have the chariot herald. He’s pretty tank-y as well, and can try to sneak around and hunt light enemy targets without giving up too many points.

Three Mortuary Priests add a bit of spell support. These are built it seems to be cheap and defensive. One provided some MR to a unit. The others are just barebones. All are lvl 1s, so good mostly for dispels.  As they all have illusion, I’m guessing their main other role is casting Glittering Robes to make the units much harder to kill. This is something I’ve had a ton of success with myself and it’s solid.

Lastly we’ve got a cheap Tomb Prince. He seems to be there to just add a little more punch to a unit. Other than that I’m not 100% sure if there is any other use for him.

Anyway, that’s the list! Congrats again to Andy and all the players. Great job!

Let us know what you think of the list, down in the comments! 

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.

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