Hi Everyone! I haven't posted in this area for ages! I'm trying to figure out an accurate Xlanhuapec themed list. Why? For funsies. Initial thoughts: I want the Slann's lore to be correct to Xlanhuapec's city culture. I don't remember if it was Xlanhuapec which were big on astronomy and lore of heavens. Anyone? I want to run Chakax, despite the fact that he's a clear handicap. From memory, I thought it was a very skink heavy city. Does anyone have any ideas or references which could help me? Alternatively, I could write an End Times list. That list would be very easy as I would get to field nothing at all.
Xlanhuapec is the City of Mists. They guard a disproprotionately high number of sacred artifacts and rely on misdirection to beat their foes. A Xlanhuapec army would have lots of Chameleon Skinks and probably mostly Skink Skirmishers for Core. It would probably be heavy on characters maxing out on magic items. Chakax would fit I guess, since that is where he is from. Tlaxtlan, the City of the Moon is the city that takes Lore of Heavens really seriously, not Xlanhuapec, though Lore of Heavens would be plenty fitting for the City of Mists. To play to the theme I would recommend a Lore of Shadow or High Magic for your Slann. Given that Chakax seems to work best with Lore of Life, you probably ought to go with High Magic and just load up on Life and Shadow from swaps. Though Chakax can probably stay alive if you judiciously hex his foes. So probably I'm envisioning a big Temple Guard Deathstar and a bunch of things with Skirmish. If you go with Shadow you can get a lot of mileage out of Salamanders (assuming you get Withering).
Oh sweet! Thanks for that, I don't have my book with me so couldn't check. I've actually never run a shadow slann. It might be an interesting time. I'll do a bit of a write up of a list and post it shortly. Thanks mate! OK, here's Mk1: Slann - Lv 4 Shadow, BSB (Skavenpelt) Becalming, Convergence, Eldritch, Presence, Book of Ashur, Egg) Chakax Skink Priest - Lv 1 Heavens, Scroll Skink Priest - Lv 1 Heavens 5x 10 Skirmishers - Leader, Javelins 20 Saurus Warriors - Command, Spears 2x 5 Chameleons 25 Temple Guard - Command, Standard of Discipline Ancient Stegadon - Horns, EotG Footnotes: Heavens priests because of aug/hex theme mentioned by Scalenex saurus warriors because I don't have any more skinks Thoughts?
Looks good, I would go with sword and board Sauri instead of spears, or I would drop enough Skinks to add five Saurus Warriors. In my opinion, spear Sauri really need five or six ranks. They are Initiative one and you lose attacks each time your model count drops below 15. You need a good crumple zone to make spears worthwhile. Other than that, good list. EOTG is a good call with Shadow Slann since you are going with one Lore and Shadow has relatively high casting difficulties. The one thing this list could use is a mobile beat stick. Either an Saurus Oldbaddin or Cowboy. That will synergize with Steed of Shadows if you roll it. If you don't get Steed of Shadows, no biggie. Problem is Saurus characters aren't free. The trade off to pay for one would sting. If you dropped the non-caddy Skink Priest (there are no Shadow magic missiles really so you don't need two vassals) and the Slann has a lot of gear you could probably live without. Channeling Staff would be cheaper than Book of Ashur, and do a similar boost (since the Slann only has four spells). Unfathomable Presence and Harmonic Convergence are probably unnecessarily. Skavenpelt Banner is a bit pricey and could probably be swapped for a cheaper banner. Becalming Cognition and Harmonic Convergence should certainly stay. The probably is a fully tooled up Slann is half the point of the theme, so I'd be reluctant to trim him down too much. EDIT: Maybe for a budget mobile beat stick you can swap a Skink Priest for a flyer mounted Skink Chief. You would barely need to trim down your Slann's gear to pay for that.
I actually started with 25 and only 4 units of squirmishers. I might go back to that. If i'm not taking the EotG then parry saurus are gold. However, the ward bubble sorts that out for me. It also sits nicely between saurus and temple guard giving my TG MR(D3) to add to the 6++ from the engine. That's the problem with Chakax. He is an expensive character beat stick. I could drop the horns and a heavens priest and maybe squeeze one in. But I'd have to go something minimal (l/armour, enchanted shield, sword for the 1+ save) otherwise I'd be scrimping on other things. Maybe I'd drop the skavenpelt banner, but frenzy is so nice! I've rarely had much success with a terrachief other than as an egg escort. Which the Slann does better anyway. I'll see what I can squeeze out of the second skink and banner. Thanks!
Update: Slann - Lv 4 Shadow, BSB (Swiftness) Becalming, Convergence, Eldritch, Presence, Channel Staff, Egg) Chakax Skink Priest - Lv 1 Heavens, Scroll Oldblood - Sword of Strife, Enchanted Shield, Light Armour, Dawnstone 4x 10 Skirmishers - Leader, Javelins 25 Saurus Warriors - Command, Spears 2x 5 Chameleons 25 Temple Guard - Command, Standard of Discipline Ancient Stegadon - EotG EDIT: This is 2500 points. Should probably mention that!