Ever since I got into AoS about a year ago I've been playing without a Slann; I don't even own one as a matter of fact. That's mainly due to the background I did for my army, which has them losing their Slann after being summoned into Aqshy (http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/the-guardians-of-cote-de-saur.21372/) . I've had varied amounts of success at my FLGS, ranging from several victories against Stormcast and total defeats against Khorne. With 2.0 coming however I'm keen to see what the changes to Command Abilities can do for a Saurus based list. To a certain extent my list is also dictated by what I have assembled and painted; if it's painted, I field it, no exceptions! Allegiance: Seraphon - Mortal Realm: Aqshy LEADERS Saurus Sunblood (120) - Artefact : Onyx Blade Skink Priest (80) - Priestly Trappings Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (240) - General - Command Trait : Mighty War Leader - Warblade - Artefact : Ignax's Scales Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One (100) Skink Starpriest (80) UNITS 40 x Saurus Warriors (360) -Spears 40 x Saurus Warriors (360) -Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (100) -Spears 15 x Saurus Knights (270) -Lances BEHEMOTHS Troglodon (160) BATTALIONS Sunclaw Starhost (130) TOTAL: 2000/2000 EXTRA COMMAND POINTS: 1 The allegiance to Aqshy is entirely because of my background, which I wrote long before 2.0 was on the horizon. That being said, Aqshy has some artefacts which I think compliment a Saurus list quite well. The Onyx Blade (+1 to wound rolls) on a Sunblood synergises very well with his Ferocious Rage ability, giving all Wound rolls of 5+ D3 dmg. Ignax's Scales (Ignore Mortal Wounds on 4+) gives my Scar Vet on Carnosaur some well needed protection against Mortal Wounds, something that usually spells his doom. My Command Trait gives me an extra Command point at the start of each turn on a 5+. For a list like this, that's invaluable, and would be missed out on if I had a Slann since he would obviously be the General to enable summoning. The Skink Priest with Priestly Trappings has been so pivotal to all my games that I can't imagine leaving home without him. AoE re-rolls to saves and charge rolls has been game-changing when it goes off. The Scar-Vet on Cold One is there to support the Saurus Knights and dump Command Points on his Command Ability for a deadly single-turn attack. Stacked three times, that's 5 Cold One bite attacks per Knight, or 75 from the whole unit. Then the Starpriest comes in too; The Serpent Staff buff means a bunch of those attacks are going to be dealing double damage. Speaking of Command Point dumping, the Scar-Vet on Carnosaur can also do likewise with a big unit of Saurus Warriors that hit combat: use his ability three times on a 40-man unit, and every 6 they roll is 3 extra attacks. That's an extra 80 attacks on a full size unit. The two 40-strong Saurus Warrior units are the big hitters in the army, intended to march up the middle of the field, supported by the Skink Priest and both tie down stuff and mince it up. The clubs vs spears is basically down to what models I have. The 10-man unit sits on an objective or provides some screening support to the front line units. The Troglodon is there for some dispelling support and with its points drop, it's a fairly cheap unit to throw onto a wing and cause some damage. My Trog hasn't exactly been a stellar performer so far when I've been using her, but when she works, she works very well, with her 2 dmg attacks all over the place. The Sunclaw Starhost was the one piece I was debating over, but in the end I think it's worth it. The extra bite attack is always handy, especially on my big units of Warriors. The Rend -1 on their spear/club attacks gives my army some much needed Rend, which it otherwise badly lacks. The extra command point is extremely handy in a Saurus list. And finally the Sunblood is no slouch in close combat, and also has a pretty handy command ability. Anyway, that's my thoughts and plans. Here's hoping it works out! First game is on Saturday.
The list looks pretty nice! Maybe the Troglodon isnt necessary, but the trog is very cheap indeed. I love my Razordorns, so i would pick 4 of them. Maybe you can tell us how the list work!
The Trog would probably be the first thing I'd drop, and it would almost certainly be for 4 Razordons/Salamanders just as you said, since one thing the list is almost entirely without is ranged attacks. One of the reasons I've fared poorly against Khorne is that Bloodthirsters tend to hit my lines at full health and just decimate stuff (another reason why I want to run the Sunclaw, double damage against Chaos Daemons with my Spears/Clubs, take that minions of Chaos!) However, the Troglodon is painted, and like I said, if it's painted, I field it! The fact that Razordons are $50 each down here in Australia also contributes to my lack of them.
Hey, the Trog looks pretty awesome! Respekt!^^ "if it's painted, I field it!" is a good slogan! I just finished my Dread Saurian and today i will play a game with him, yeah!
Trog looks superb. Sunclaw all the way! You have way more saurus warriors than me so would definitely benefit. I won a scaled down game last week as a result of it. I like your list. Think on how it would do if none of the buffs came off and if it still seems ok do it! Searing beams from a bastiladon for 3 damage against chaos daemons would be a cool option, if you rejig a bit....that’d make bloodthirsters think twice!
Leave the trog against khorne but handy against magic armies for his unbinding. Too nice a model not to have on the table.
@Galen and @Dedragon do you 2 have paint blogs? If not get one started I want to see more of your models.
Only got my Knights and Carnosaur finished currently. My rate of progress on them has been... slow to say the least. After 11 years of painting Orks I wanted to take things a bit slower with this army. Thanks for the compliments; I did want to make them look good and I'm very pleased with the results.
That is an awesome Troggy. I like the crisp details a lot. EDIT: I also like those Knights. They look like mine, only better.
So took the list for it's first game today. Game was Starstrike and I got first turn thanks to my Battalion speeding up deployment. The battle would be fought on Hysh, which I would quickly come to regret. My 10-man Warrior unit was deployed on my left flank next to my Troglodon. The centre was the two units of 40 warriors, with the Skink Priest, Starpriest and Sunblood between them. The right flank was the Carnosaur, Scar-Vet on Cold One and the unit of Knights. I was facing my mate's Stormcast list, which was mostly units from the new starter set. Turn 1 was almost exclusively movement. I cast Starlight on the Knights and saved my Command Points. Didn't generate an extra one from my General's trait. Everything marched thanks to drums. My Priest failed to get his prayer off, which would become a common theme. My heroes in the centre claimed the central objective. In his turn he blasted one of the big Warrior units with his Ballista, killing 3. His spells picked off a few more here and there, but overall I was largely intact. By the end of his Turn 1, I'd lost 7 warriors out of one unit and 4 out of the other, and my Priest and Sunblood had lost a wound to Chain Lightning. Turn 2 I won the roll off and things went into overdrive. I cast Starlight on the Knights again and slapped down the Serpent Staff on the 36 surviving Warriors with Spears. My Priest once again failed his prayer, but then I got a 5 on Lords of Space and Time and moved my 36-man Warrior unit into his backline. My Troglodon was in position to support them, whilst my 33-strong Warrior unit was in range of a charge against his General and a Lord Exorcist on a Stormcast disc. My General's Trait gave me an extra Command point, leaving me with 4. My Sunblood used his Command ability on a 10-man Liberator unit whilst the Scar-Vet on Cold One used his ability 3 times on the Knights, who then charged in against the Liberators whilst the Carnosaur smashed into 5 Sequitors. On the rear line the Spear warriors made their charge (on a 4!) and made contract with a unit of Sequitors and Castigators. The Trog came in to support them as well. Combat was brutal. The Knights spat out 4 mortal wounds thanks to their lances, but their Cold Ones did the most work. With 75 attacks in total, by the time they were finished 5 of the Liberators were dead. The remaining three failed to kill any of the Knights, and afterwards all ran thanks to the Bloodroar of the nearby Carnosaur. The Carnosaur himself managed to drag down two Castigators, but suffered 6 wounds back. Two more ran thanks to Bloodroar. In the rear, the Warriors chewed their way through half the Sequitors, whilst also taking out 3 Castigator. The Trog did her best but failed to kill anything. The unit of Saurus with Maces made contact with the Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger and the Lord Exorcist. However the Exorcist was extremely difficult to hurt thanks to a 2+ save on the disc, saving all but 1, and the Lord Arcanum only suffered two wounds. In response, my opponent charged his Knight-Incantor in and detonated all three of her flasks against my spear warriors, slaying 7. His general hacked through a bunch of my Club warriors, bringing them down to below 30. However things still looked good heading into his Turn 2. I was still in control of the central objective and as such was on 3 victory points. His Turn 2 saw his 5-man Evocator squad deep strike in behind my Spear Warriors. His Ballista fired on my Carnosaur, bringing it down to 4 wounds remaining. The Lord Exorcist had a field day against the Warriors and Knights locked in combat with him. His spell makes him roll a dice for each enemy unit with 6. You then add their Bravery and if the result is less than 10, that unit suffered D3 Mortal Wounds. Fine and dandy I thought with my Bravery 10, except the spell halves Bravery if you're Death or Daemon. Disaster! On top of that on a 4+ all Death and Daemon units within 6" take a Mortal Wound each turn. Suddenly my Knights were being whittled down and I couldn't dispel stuff to save my life. Worse was to come though, since we randomly chose Hysh as the Realm we were fighting in. The first Hysh spell has you select an enemy unit with 12", and do D3 Mortal Wounds to them...unless they're Death or Daemon, in which case they take D6! My Spear Warrior unit lost 5 more models this way, dropping them below 30. The only bright point was his Evocators failed their charge. In the combat phase my Knights bounced off the Lord Exorcist whilst the Mace Warriors managed to hack another wound off him, and another 3 off the Lord Arcanum. One more and that damn bird would be down... Turn 3 saw him win the roll off. The good news was that his objective then landed right next to my Saurus Knights, who looked around briefly before being hit yet again by the Exorcist's magic. The Knights were down to 9 models now and the damn Exorcist still had 2 wounds left. At least the Knight Incantor had been dealt with the previous turn by the Spear Warriors, so all they had to worry about was the 5 pumped up Evocators right behind them....oh. The Ballista fired again, this time driving a stake right through the heart of my Carnosaur. My General was down, but the Sunblood roared out and took his place, quelling any fears in the ranks. The Evocators charged in easily, slamming into the rear of my Spear Warriors. They proceeded to make absolute mince-meat of them, slaying 15 between direct attacks and Mortal Wounds after the combat phase. My Troglodon tried to help out, but only managed to deal 2 wounds to one of them. Worse still, in the Battleshock phase my unit of Spear Warriors only had 10 models left, and rolled a 5 for their Battleshock. They turned and fled, leaving the Troglodon alone. The good news was that my Knights were still buffed up from the Command Ability dump and finally managed to drag down the Exorcist. In the centre, the Mace Warriors were down to less than 20, but still couldn't deal the final wound to the Lord Arcanum. My Turn 3 had me try to finish off the Lord Arcanum with a cheeky Arcane Bolt from my Starpriest. I successfully cast, only for his surviving Knight Incantor to automatically dispel it with her dispel scroll. ARRG! On the plus side I got an extra command point from my Sunblood General's trait, and promptly used both to buff up the Knights again with the Scar-Vet on Cold One. My objective also landed...right next to my small 10 man Warrior squad that had been lurking in my backline for just such an occasion. Truly the Old Ones were looking over us this day. Except for the whole huge pile of casualties, but never mind them, all part of the Great Plan I'm sure. Shooting should have been uneventful since the only two units in my army with a shooting attack are the Troglodon and the Skink Priest, but then the Priest raised his staff and managed to wound the Lord Arcanum, who then failed his save! The enemy General was down, all thanks to the little Priest who'd succeeded where a full Saurus Warrior squad had failed. They elected to charge the two remaining Castigators in the centre to atone for their failures, whilst the Knights crashed into the remaining 5-man squad of Castigators on the right flank. My Sunblood charged into the Knight Incantor. Combat was sharp and brutal. My Troglodon managed to drag down two Evocators, but took 6 wounds in response. The Knight Incantor met her end, ripped apart by Saurus jaws, whilst the Knights, suitably driven into a frenzy, tore into the Castigators and brought them all down. The end of the turn saw me in possession of all 3 objectives, and the only units my opponent had left were the Ballista and 3 Evocators. With me ahead 12 victory points to 3, we called the game in my favour. VICTORY! All in all it was a bloody match. At the end of the game, of my two big Saurus Warrior units, one was completely gone and the other had 5 models left. The Knights were still mostly intact, my Carnosaur was gone, and the Troglodon had 6 wounds left. Had the game continued, she surely would have been dragged down by the Evocators, but I would probably have been able to deal with them with the Knights eventually. This was the first game I've had where my Priest failed all game. It's almost tempting to make her the General just so I can use the Prayers twice in case one fails (something I have done before). The Saurus Command trait though was very handy this battle, netting me two extra command points, which really fueled the Cold Ones. Speaking of which, these guys can be downright brutal when buffed up with Command Point dumping. They definitely worked well. Only issue is the wounding on 4+, so if I had a way to squeeze an Oldblood on foot in somewhere, that would probably be something I'd consider. The Sunclaw Starhost was...alright. The rend didn't make a huge difference in the end, due to great rolling on my opponent's part and sheer weight of attacks. My Warrior units did output a lot of damage but once they fell below 30 that dropped off a lot, and once they were below 20 it just felt like all the puff had gone out them. My priest not firing once naturally meant they died a lot more than they might have otherwise. Overall I still liked the Battalion, but it wasn't as impactful as I would have hoped. I feel like there's potentially more than could be done with those points. I'll play some more games with it and see how it goes.
Good report! The fact that you won despite the Realm not being in your favour and the dice not being too much in your favour shows how well your list worked.
Yeah I've posted them a few other places before. Sure! Paint the scales Dryad bark, then drybrush skavenblight dinge, Wash with nuln oil, then drybrush skavenblight dinge again. Drybrush mechanicus standard grey, and finally drybrush dawnstone.