So after having gone trough many scrolls I have come to think that our temple guard is one of the best infantry units in the game, throw in a hero, chukka if possible and u probably got the most efficient infantry. They will have 3 attacks on 3+, 3+ each 1 attack at 5+, 4+ 3+ safe can be summoned Any call on any infantry unit that goes toe to toe with this guys?
I don't really want to take 3 units of saurus unless you are playing big games, just get the temple guard, chakax and a slan, then get the skink formation, that's a good one hehehehehehe. Throw in bastiladon and razordons and a couple other things such as stegadon
Why would you take Temple Guard when you can just take Old Bloods? Oh you have a unit of 10 Temple Guard? I have 10 units of 1 Old Bloods. More/Better attacks, way more wounds per model. Technically immune to Battleshock. More flexible movement because they don't need to keep within 1" of each other. Damage from ranged attacks are capped at a single Old Blood's wounds. More drops in deployment, so you can be more reactionary as you deploy them. Downside? Can't "fall in" if 3" away from an enemy... but if you are clustering them together in a "pseudo unit" then you'll still have a bunch of them that can fall in.
Why take Old Bloods when you can take 8 slan, 1 chakax and 1 unit of Temple guard, and just cast 8 temple guard summons, 8 arcane bolts and 8 shields a turn? which will net you a total of something like 30-35 templeguard a turn, plus shields and wounds on the oldbloods? Well, because most of us are going to play with some sort of comp system or something that balances thing, and templeguard, while more comped that regular Saurus, should be available to take. My idea was to compare temple guard to other 1 Wound units in the game and many of the 2 wound units (yea chose are better than temple guard but they are a 2 wound unit)
Temple Guard are very sick. In all of my AoS games they have impressed me. In addition to Chakax try to the BSB in there and planted in range. It boggles the mind.
Yeah, TG are top-tier and they may be overpowered... but at the same time, that might be okay. If they are overpowered, it's not by much while by themselves. Their power-ups require other units (as mentioned above), but these other units are all fairly easy to isolate and kill if you can work around the TG. Temple Guard are scary in the Saurus Host battalion but, again, if you limit wounds, that battalion will suck up a *lot* of wounds. I did some testing, but I think I'll still do more: For what it's worth, I did roll a block of 30 vanilla Saurus w/ Spears against 40 vanilla TG. Though the Saurus were horribly outclassed and outnumbered, they killed 17 TG (maybe one or two more, I think?) before all dying horrible, horrible deaths. 40 Saurus may have put this combat close to a draw, due to 10 extra models and +1 attack for all of the models until falling under 30. In the first round of combat, the TG only killed 3 Saurus -- the manner by which they charged the TG made the difference, which definitely favored the Saurus (or any charging unit). If the TG charged, then there would be no contest whatsoever. I'll have more about that in an upcoming tactics article that I may or may not write by this weekend - after all, I'm STILL editing my Alaska pics AND I haven't finished that bat rep. x_x Ironically, all of this is due to playing AoS.
I also had some AoS games with the Temple guard. I had them with Chakax ( was too strong not to do that ). He gives them +1 attacks and +1 on their saves. I had also a battle standard and a lot of skinkpriests around. Which makes their 3+ save rerollable . In addition to that I had them also buffed by the Slaan which gave them a 2+ Rerollable while ignoring rending -1. In the end they did grind 30 zombies, 60 skeletons , 30 Chaos warriors and the god damned Nagash himself and finally could stop him summon any more stuff.
I can't figure a single reason to bring saurus when we have temple guard in our pockets. Sure you can bring a horde of saurus and they almost match TG one-for-one, but then you pretty much guarantee you will be giving away sudden death. Am I missing something here ???
The Saurus Host Battalion makes Saurus incredibly good. As long as they're used properly, fielded with spears, and taken in large numbers, they're a lot closer to TG's power level than they appear to be on paper. When their numbers fall to ~20 or fewer, TG are superior, yes... but that 2" range still keeps them viable, in my opinion. Without a battalion, TG appear to be far superior.
If you are worried about giving away Sudden Death then yes you will always take Temple Guard over anything else. I'm not convinced that in our current state Sudden Death is something we need to worry about unless you don't take Slann. And if you aren't taking Slann odds are pretty good that you'll be focusing on elite fighters anyway. And this is all ignoring fluff considerations.
My saurus unit led by Gor Rok matched a unit of sigvalds chaos warriors punch for punch to the bitter end. If not for some poor rolling they would have taken them, also my opponent did a great job or surrounding Gor Rok and cutting him off from the main battle. I don't think a unit of temple guard would have faired any better. Both models have their own strengths. For the guy who said take all old bloods, most games I play we set a limit on heroes. Like 3 per game. So that plan would put you fairly undermanned. Just like in the old edition you didn't technically have to have a point limit, but we all used one, you don't have to limit heroes scrolls, but so far it seems wise.
A Magnificient Seven scenario like back in 6th edition seems like it could be pretty fun. In addition to making everyone unbreakable (ignore battleshock) just make it so every character can use their command ability.
@Carrp - How many old bloods do you own (painted to the standard if the rest if you're army)? How many Temple Guard?
30 Saurus, 15 TG and 2 OBs. But like I said, old bloods have the hero keyword, which we set a limit on in any game I've played so far.
Ah, sorry. I misunderstood. My fault. I thought you were suggesting taking all old bloods, which I was trying to imply is impractical for most people.
Am I the only one who finds the wording on the "Sworn Guardians" ability to be ambiguous? I thought the extra bravery and save bonus applied to the nearby heroes and was designed with Lord Kroak in mind.
I think that Saurus Warriors with spears are better in terms of aggression, because you can summon them faster, they get bonuses in groups, their spears let more attacks in, and they don't get bonuses from having characters nearby so they can be marched towards the enemy with a much greater freedom because you don't have to worry about covering your characters. Good for aggressive players. But this is about Temple Guard, and I'm a defensive player and always have been. And Temple Guard are the single best defensive unit in the game. I now always set up a defensive line, somewhere with terrain that makes for a good defensive spot, like a chokepoint. Then I let the enemy come to me. With a hero nearby, they get a 3+ save with rend resistance, add an Arcane Shield (which I never do because that's a bit too unfair, but you can) and it's 2+ with rend resistance. You could even throw a Priestly Rites on there, though I think the Shield/Rites combo is best used on a Bastiladon instead. Though if you have two wizards and two priests, you could do both. Enemies who don't take out the heroes first will be totally unable to break the Temple Guard units, and due to my defensive line, only flying units, reinforcements, or Stormcast units are able to make it past my Temple Guard to get to my heroes in the first place. Naturally, unless the enemy can manage that, I have an insane advantage. I don't know about ranged armies because, for some reason, nobody in my local area plays them any more so it's all melee armies with some ranged units sprinkled in for support. But I do have a game with a GW employee scheduled where he'll be trying out a gunline army against me so I'll find out soon enough.
Is there any reason to take a different 1 wound troop over these guys? I usually have played with a wound cap. This means if I have 20 Temple Guard vs. 20 skinks, they "cost" the same, but the Guard are significantly better. I have 40 to 50 skinks but all I find I'm using out of that are my 10 chameleons and the priest(s).