Saurus Knights are bound to be getting the same treatment that every other cavalry unit in the game seems to get. Celestite clubs - 3/3+/3+/-/1 Celestite lance - 2/4+/3+/-/1 Cold one - 2/3+/4+/-1/1 Add two to rend and one to damage for Lance's if they charged/some variant of the existing blazing lances rule. The other buff I hope our Saurus get is a better bite attack across the board. 1/3+/3+/-/1 seems fair - we ought to bite just as well or even better than Ogors, and that's the same profile they have. To be honest I would be pretty happy if Knights got an offensive profile like that, even if our saves and wound count stayed the same.
making the bights have the same profile as ogres would make our bight way better as we have 2.5 times the models. i like it
I would just hope for the Dread Saurian to become a lot more effective. It definitely should have a lot more basic hit points and ought to buff all surrounding Seraphon units some more.
Sprues and Brews and posted a new article on the upcoming battletome, just discussing what they would like to see. Might be of interest to some https://spruesandbrews.com/2020/02/...e-what-wed-like-to-see-in-the-new-battletome/
Here is my pipe dream/baseless prediction: Stardrake shields reduce the rend characteristic by one instead of ignoring -1.
With the trend of GW simplifying/streamlining warscrolls and rend increasing across many recently updated profiles, I can see this as a very likely outcome.
This combined with saves improving, would give us a buff to Sauras for sure. 4+ save and a shield that reduces rend would mean generally we would always have a save. Sunblood just shrugs off rend, lol.
I would be happy with either a 4+ save or flat rate rend reduction, but I doubt both would be the case. If I were to choose, shields reducing rend would be more beneficial. Their offense is great, especially in 30+ units but they need a bit more defense so they don't die in droves. Keep the point cost for 10 around ~100. Here's a few of my hopeful predictions I have been thinking of: Saurus Guard - as much as I love these guys, they just don't cut it at the moment and are always my opponents first target for anything that can deal mortal wounds.. which is usually a lot. They should have 2 wounds each and a 5+ save on mortal wounds. Their 'sworn guardians' ability for +1 to save is great but I'd like a change from the additional 'add 2 to bravery' the ability offers. Instead a +1 attacks on shield/bite or something. Or a start of combat damage ability when enemy units charge the guard. Saurus Knights - I am in happy agreement with everything stated previously, but I would like to see them add +1"/+2" to their movement - they're rather slow for cavalry, and their hero counterpart (scarvet on cold-one) is sonic in comparison. Troglodon - What a sad warscroll for such an amazing sculpt. I'm hoping for a wizard tag and ability it to cast+unbind one spell - it doesn't need a unique spell, just the option of giving a big dino that moves 10" the opportunity to take a spell from the seraphon spell lore list would be sweet. Get rid of his d3 attacks for noxious spit and just make it 2 attacks; it should be a bit more reliable and it's not like this attack is meant to dish out the damage. If the spit does a wound on a unit, targeted unit gets -1 to hits in combat and your Troglodon's venomous bite does -1 rend to that unit until your next hero phase. Now your opponent should think twice about ignoring this beautiful beast. LoSaT/Slann- Not much to add here with whats been said in this thread. I just think the Great Remember trait should be a static battle trait if your list has a Slann in it and then make the Slann's command traits modest in comparison to Saurus or Skink, if they even go that route with the new book.
Here is a prediction; of the temple does summoning, we might see some massive buffs to Slann casting, hopefully to the level where a lord of change sees one and proceeds to shit their pants. for my personal favorite battleline saurus knights, I believe they will end up looking a lot like chaos knights but potentially more powerful, as cold one bites still are decent and will probably remain similar to their current attack profile
I'm hoping all saurus get the ogor treatment and go 3+ to hit and 3+ to wound also on their bites. Knights could go a couple of ways I think. Either - 1rend and extra damage on the charge or like black knights +1 to wound on charge. Would like the blazing lance to be on 6s to hit do a mortal wound going to a 5s in a battalion
My predictions: The Battletome and Pyramid: Sub-Allegiance that grants rerolling 1s to saves or other such modest defensive buffs to Saurus in a completely-within radius of a hero as a mandatory command trait. A wound after-save is much needed to let Saurus do their grindy attrition thing, but I think they'll be careful with giving that to us too easily, since we can summon and teleport at will. A super-Battalion that encourages taking Saurus Battalions (Perhaps a modified Dracothion's tail). Continued focus on Skink dominance. Skink-heavy lists (Thunderquake or Shadowstrike style) will continue be strong, while Saurus lists will make a resurgence in casual play due to said allegiance styles. The pyramid will offer a modest mortal wound save. We sorely lack this, and an inert scenery piece sitting in the back will help us a little without affecting the faction niche too much. This would mean even more heavy reliance on castling shooty lists though Summoning and/or teleporting mechanics that work with the pyramid. Putting on my Skinkstradamus Hat: I doubt we're getting new sculpts any time soon, but if /when we do, I'm thinking it'll be brand new unit entries, and they will be skink related: 1) A new skink hero! Although we have plenty of back line support skinks, this one will be a shooty one! I can see it fighting on foot with a bow, or on a Terradon mount like Tiq Taq To! Anyway, he'll buff skinks somehow, and want to fight at a distance. 2) Skink Cavalry riding ground mounts! Why? We have slow melee cav now, so ranged skirmishing cav might be a nice option. Skinks riding beasts just look good, as we all know. Now, do they let them ride raptors too, and update the look of Saurus Knights while they're at it? Or do they give them a new breed of dinosaur, such as a dilophosaurus, (known as the little guy that spit poison in Jurassic Park)? I think GW finds their skinks riding large dinos aesthetics to be very successful, and will want to lean into that even more as the faction's identity. While us lizard fans hope for updated Saurus, I think GW, ever looking to maximize profits, is more likely to invest in what is already successful, and add to that range. Then again, some times GW circles around to updating stuff they haven't touched in a long time. It has happened, but so rarely (for AOS) that I would not bet on it.
For this to be possible, the Slann would need a steep cost increase along the line of what kroak costs right now. I would be happy camper if they did this AND buffed the shit out of kroak + pts increase to 800+ pts
I doubt Slann will lose their summoning. Yes the Seraphon are coalescing, but I doubt they'll get rid of summoning altogether, and I think the'll be encouraging us to combo the Slann with the Pyramid for summoning. So it's still the Slann's magic, but using one or both of the configurations of the Pyramid.
Kroak would then end up being a trap, unless he could cast as many spells as Nagash and had lots of in built modifiers to cast and dispel. I do agree that the Slann should be as strong or stronger than a LoC, but I don't believe it should be in the casting department. I want them to punish Chaos Spell slingers, and be able to manipulate their magic easily. You want to use the LoC dice ability to match your highest? Fine. Doubles on spell casting makes Chaos Daemon Wizards take D3 mortal wounds. Was it greater than 9 unmodified? Make that a total of 2D3. Bonuses to dispelling or unbinding are sorely missing from our army, despite being one of the greatest magic using forces.
Kroak already is a trap. No reason to take him over a slann, 170 pts more expensive for an additional spell and being unable to get great rememberer.
That depends heavily on your build. He's great as a MW battery while your general Slann sits and just creates units. Match that along side an engine and you have an expensive, but scary, core.
We can't ally a Hurricanum last I recall. But, that's a fair point. He definitely will see point or ability adjustments.
If they could bring back some stuff from the old world that would be awesome, and in the realm of possibility. Stuff like cold blooded and predatory fighters would be epic, and probably game changing