So I was looking through the site and I noticed that people seem to focus very much on 1 or 2 Old Blood builds. Having played in a large number of 5k+ games I've had to do a few different Old Blood builds and these are some of the most effective, hopefully this will be useful: Anti infantry: Old Blood, Sword of Bloodshed, Steggie Helm, shield, Cold One He's averaging about 12 attacks (10 S5, 2S4), plus D3 impact hits. 1+ save and 6+ parry means he's reasonably survivable and he'll murder light infantry. Anti- Hero: Fencers Blades, Glittering scales, dawnstone, the other tircksters shard, cold one WS10 with -1 to hit means he's reasonably survivable and extremely irritating for elite infantry, dawnstone keeps him alive against other heros and other tricksters shard means wardsaves aren't as effective as they could be. Anti 'Big Bad': Piranha blade, armour of destiny, Cold One Sometimes you're going to run into a hero that just outclasses you (damn you end times!), your best hope is just to get damn lucky and multi wound weapons are your best hope. The 4+ ward and 1+ keeps you alive to at least get one decent punch in. The flying carpet: Arabyan carpet, Steggie Helm, biting blade, light armour, shield Hilarious against infantry heavy armies, zip behind and just sit there, less fun against archer heavy armies where they turn around and transform you into a pincushion. That said you still have to fail a fair few 1+saves, just don't try it against Wood Elves. D3 impact hits at -3AS is very annoying for most opponents and backline units/ mages rarely have decent saves anyway. Tarpit: Sword of Strife, Tricksters helm, seed of rebirth??, light armour, shield, cold one, Sword of strife is to help with combat res, you'll need to up your killing potential. It's essentially about 2.3 more attacks. At T5 you're not the easiest to hurt, particularly for light infantry and making them re-roll their wounds is painful for them. Seed of regen is for the lucky six+ for stand and shoot but your 1+armour save should hold you in good stead. Carnies... I want to love carnies, I really do but basically the best tricks with them involve terror, flank charges or Vanguard tricks with Te'kko. There are I'm afraid not many good builds I've discovered, really the only thing I would say is the steggie helm is worth taking for T6 on your lord and the D3 impact hits. The trouble is its a magnet for cannon fire so you'd have to take the 45pt talisman ward save as well. I might do a separate article on Skink Chiefs and Old Bloods if this goes down well.
I find the best tarpit oldblood is, coldone, steg helm, crown of command, Dawn stone, light armour and halberd. He isnt going anywhere and still packs a punch. Without the crown its too risky. Your first example wouldnt get the 6++ as he is mounted so doesnt get a parry, but all the builds are pretty good and have there uses
Crown of Command is a neat trick and I can't believe I forgot that since I'm using that on Sunday! That said as a rule I (generally) prefer the killing potential on combat res simply because it forces your opponent to divert even more resources into doing something about your Old Blood as he's eroding troops faster as well as holding them up. If its a cheap horde unit however CoC is definitely the way to go since he won't care much about casualties. Do you know I never knew you couldn't get a parry save mounted, cheers for that!