Our flying units are terradons and ripperdactyls. Especially with shadowstrike starhost, rippers are so good they hurt (in many senses). In the end, Rippers tend to be better than Terradons, almost in the same way the best option for Basti is (9 times on 10) the solar beam. But can we do something really funny with terradons? Of course yes. They can inflict mortal wounds, but they're not reliable on it, and they can do some damage with the burst effect of sunleech bolas, but again, it's random and, in both cases, you need to be dangerously near the enemy. So, how could we reliably do something good with them? Here's the idea. Pick Shadowstrike starhost, with terradons. Pick a skink chief as general. Pick a Starseer. Field also a unit of rippers. Dont set up the terradons "hidden in the clouds". This is important, because they will be on the battlefield and so can be targeted by abilities in the hero phase. In your hero phase, you will place the bloat toad near the target unit (let's say at 4"-5" distance), and the terradons will be affected by the chief's command ability and Starseer's curse of fate. Fly forward the terradons, exactly where there is the toad... the rippers will remain in a safe position in the rear. Sunleech bolas usually hit on a 4+, but they'll have a +1 tnx to the skink chief, and you'll re-roll 1s tnx to formation. You'll miss only on a 2, and given that you have curse of fate, all your attacks will be a guaranteed hit. 3 terradons? 3d6 "to wound" rolls (re-rolling 1s). And don't forget re-rolls from Cosmic herald! After shooting, don't charge with them. Why? because the enemy will have to choose... If he charges them, he will probably kill them, BUT he will place himself exactly upon the toad. And your rippers are waiting. Knowing how much rippers + toad are deadly, your opponent will probably bypass the terradons (thus losing some movement). In your turn, terradons (buffed again in the same way), will move over the target unit, releasing the boulders (hitting on a 3, tnx to curse of fate), and then will use again the sunleech bolas, exactly as in the first turn, with almost automatic hits. At that point, you could even charge the weakened unit.
That's awesome! Shame I would need a Skink chief though. I'm scared to use them knowing that they aren't "official" and eventually I will find somewhere I can't use it and have my army fall apart :L
it's not a thing that I would bring to tournament, but FAQ explicitly affirm that warscolls for discontinued models are mantained, so, unless specifically stated otherwise, the chief is usable. You shouldn't have problems at all in friendly games. I'm gonna try it, in an almost only skink army (with just some kroxy as Guards for the Starseer)
That was awesome! But if you set up the Ripperdactyl in the cloud, can't you just put the bloat toad wherever you want the moment you put them onto the field during your hero phase? So that with the onto the clouds ability you can take out any unit you want on the field of battle?
You only get to place the toad in your first hero phase sadly (one per ripper unit you have in your main list, regardless of if it's in the clouds or not). Not when you move the rippers out of the clouds