Hi Long time reader first time poster. Always been a fan of the style of the Seraphon - they call out to me from the stars. Seeing as the 2 people i regularly play 40k against have started getting into AoS... I took a look at the Zoetic Dials and it seems the stars are right for me to take the plunge. Please bear in mind I play a lot of 8th ed 40k but have only played 1 game of AoS with someone else's models. I am coming at this from the persepective of wanting an army that will be competitive, because my friends will also be trying to build very tough lists. Also, I am much more of a fan of Skinks and Skinks-on-giant-dinos than the Saurians, so the Shadowstrike Starhost is going to be fundamental to my 2000 pt list BUT I am thinking for my 1000 pt "halfway house" I might not use the actual warscroll... Here's what I am thinking. 1000 points Skink Starseer 40 Skinks with Boltspitters and Shields 20 Skinks with Boltspitters and Shields Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek 3 Ripperdactyl 2000 points Slann Starmaster Skink Starseer Engine of the Gods 40 Skinks with Boltspitters and Shields 10 Skinks with Boltspitters and Shields 10 Skinks with Boltspitters and Shields Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek Stegadon with Skystreak Bow 6 Ripperdactyls Shadowstrike Starhost Does that look like it is a good destination to aim for. I really really want to use all three of those leaders - they all look amazing - but I am worried they are too much of a point sink. At 1000 pts if I take the Skink Starpriest instead of the Starseer, I can afford Shadowstrike Starhost warscorll and get the lovely bonuses. But at 2000 pts I want the Starseer... so buying, building and painting the Starpriest seems like a bit of a waste. Maybe I should abandon the Engine of the Gods? By the Gods I love it though! Any thoughts or advice? Thank you
Welcome! I probably wouldn't paly a Starseer in such a small game. A Starpriest will suffice. You can use both together in many lists anyway, and the Starpriest is cheap. Not wasted. For the Stegadon I usually recommend the Skystreak Bow except if you know you are going to face hordes of cheap stuff then the Sunfire Throwers are good. I would also recommend the Bastiladon with the Solar Engine, but that one is easy to swap out. Those lists are both solid though, you could play that way.
Thank you for replying Starseer is in the big list for the dice manipulation which seems to vibe well with the Slann and Engine for getting exactly the results you need on that turn. I agree that it's not optimal in a small list though. I think the Ark Bastiladon looked like you could throw it into the middle of the battle and have it dish out mortals while the skinks do their fire & fade thing around it.... Good to know the two options can be magnetised though. I did mean the Skystreak Bow - thanks. Will edit. The other question is around Skink loadout - are the shields critical to ensure they keep a 6 up save against most things? Also - I don't have a box of skinks to hand - can you actually BUILD 60 of them all with boltspitters and shields? Are there enough parts, or do you need to plan for separate loadouts?
I usually run them with shields since there are quite some units with rend-1 around. It does help. Yes there are enough shields in the box for all 24 Skinks. Technically there aren't enough boltspitters in there, but it is easy to convert some javelins to boltspitters (I just cut off the spears to the right length and paint them a bit so you won't notice unless you look very closely). You need to convert four or six per box IIRC.
The shield is neither here or there considering the save as you would wary fighter out as much as possible, yes you will have enough shields to build 60
Thanks again. Yes, the general plan is of course to make the opponent have target priority problems trying to decide whether to try and kill the rippers or bastiladon or skinks before they run away. I am not averse to doing 10 or 20 of the 60 skinks with a different loadout for variety anyway. Just realised that Skinks come in 24s not 20s... so 3 boxes of skinks actually results in 72 models... I can do 50 with spitters and 20 with javelins. Nice.
AH! Now those are both good ideas.... a much more efficient use of the models So... if you would look again at the 2000 point list as that's my bigger concern... it feels scary to me for some reason. It feels like I am trying to play Herohammer with too many "wow special powaz" HQs and not enough basic stuff to protect them. But is this workable in AoS? Should I maybe abandon one (or both) of the Engine of the Gods or the Starseer and get something to protect the leaders? For example... Slann Starmaster Skink Starpriest Saurus Eternity Warden 40 Skinks 20 Skinks 10 Saurus Guard Bow Stegadon Snakes Bastiladon 6 Ripperdactyls Shadowstrike Starhost. I've got that fear of lost time thing going on... I love the painting aspect but I am slow at it and I don't want to spend weeks building and painting an Engine of the Gods and a Starseer only to go YEP this is no good at all my Slann dies turn 1 every game, I need something completely different!!!
Right well I've bought 2 boxes of Skinks, the Ripperdactyl and a Starpriest. Will add a Bastiladon probably too. Might as well start smallish and build up
Ok look people. It's help time again. Please. Your job is to choose list A ,list B or list C from the below. The Shadowstrike is non-negotiable and I already own it. LIST A - "Thundershadow Quakestrike" The Thunderquake and Shadowstrike Starhosts together, with compromises (e.g. Troglodon) made to fit both in Slann Starmaster Skink Starpriest 40 Skinks 10 Skinks 10 Skinks Troglodon Bastiladon - Solar Engine Stegadon - Skystreak Bow 3 Kroxigor 3 Ripperdactyl Thunderquake Starhost Shadowstrike Starhost LIST B - Eternal Shadows Maybe giving the Slann some defence and having some melee units might be a plan? Slann Starmaster Skink Starpriest Saurus Eternity Warden 40 Skinks 5 Saurus Guard 5 Saurus Guard 5 Saurus Guard Bastiladon - Solar Engine Bastiladon - Solar Engine 3 Ripperdactyl Shadowstrike Starhost Eternal Starhost LIST C - But I Wanted A Starseer! Can't fit him into the other lists so here's one with a Starseer. Slann Starmaster Skink Starseer Skink Starpriest 40 Skinks 20 Skinks 10 Skinks Bastiladon - Solar Engine Stegadon - Skystreak Bow 3 Ripperdactyl 5 Chamelon Skinks Shadowstrike Starhost Votes please
I have played list A (only with Terradons) and it worked rather well against Ironjawz. You are low on wounds though. List B is on my "yet to play" list and I am sure it will work well against Ironjawz for example but suck against Tzeentch or SCE if you don't manage to snipe the units that can cause mortal wounds. List C.... not sure. 5 Chameleons doesn't sound as if they are too useful except if your opponent can be tricked into fearing them more than he should. I might be wrong though.
List A is a list that I am going to have to try out. List B I have tried out to an extent, I just got bastili so I need to add them in List C seems alright, I feel like you could drop the Chameleons for another 20 skinks Over all I like List A.
Thanks. Still undecided how I am going to build this out. The idea of Slann, Starseer, Starpriest, Engine of the Gods is a strong one.. but when playing around with some example EotG rolls - e.g. rolling 4d6 doing a couple of rerolls, pick the best 3 dice... I ended up with the Summoning option a lot... shooting for double speed/attacks, not quite getting there. And it seems like I won't have the points left over in these lists to summon anything. I feel like if you take an Engine you probably need to leave some points for summoning to get the most from it.
I was thinking about having the Slann extra dice with the curse of fate from the starseer would help get some dice.