The title says it all. But, actually, I thought more about a couple of EotGs which are very popular these days. With Look out, Sir! and Gryph-Feather Charm being a common choice, sniping characters with Bastiladons/Razardons/Salamanders is not reliable anymore. Not that throwing mortal wounds from Engines but they have descent range, don't need to hit, doesn't suffer from any shooting limitations and d6/2d6 MWs are never a joke. I also do not consider taking two EotGs solely for this purpose - they will do summon/healing/stopping time stuff as soon as they are done. And VI Slann is included for better control, of course, You see, I'm searching for the way to deal with Nighthaunt which saturates the meta (just as I expected) and will avoid ripperdactyls as assassins because I'm building towards Thunderquake. So did anyone have any success with it? Is it worth trying?
It is viable. Although, Lord Kroak is arguably better at doing a very similar thing. If you really need to kill off heroes with mortal wounds then I recommend Endless Spells or Spells of the Realm if you are playing in a Realm of Battle. Versus Nighthaunt specifically, you are better off shooting with Salamanders instead of Razordons. Chameleon Skinks are also decent assassins.
May I ask you why? Sallies are strong tnx to that sweet -2 rend, while nighthaunt's main strenght is to ignore rend. Against such enemies, it's usually safer to drown them under saturation fire. Sure, when the shooting of sallies kicks in, then it's great… but you are looking at a 4+ save unmodifiable, so you cannot really rely on damage done by sallies.
It is mostly because he is going VI Slann. Razordons have too many variable dice generated to get use out of VI. Salamanders are perfect targets for Curse of Fates. You will likely get more total damage, accounting for the lack of rend, from CoF sallies than razordons.
I have been doing exactly what you suggested with double EOTGs since the start of the edition. I am undefeated in about 15 games with Seraphon since then, winning 1 event and going undefeated (but not winning) another. My double EOTGs have been wreaking havoc on enemy characters turn 1, and really putting the enemy's plans to a halt. Just a few examples of what they have done: Killed Idoneth Akhelian King turn 1. Killed Aventis Firestrike turn 1. Killed Lord Celestant on Dracoth turn 1. Took 10 wounds off of Skarbrand turn 1. Of course most of these are taking very lucky rolls with my mortal wounds, but I guess my dice have been hot! I feel like enemies underestimate the EOTGs and are caught out by the 25" range despite me warning them before setup. They always expect me to summon with the EOTGs since the new edition, but I have found that I generally only summon maybe 1 unit per EOTG per game. The rest of the time, I am going for the mortal wound bomb. Combine this with something like Ripperdactyls from a shadowstrike starhost, and you have a potentially lethal first turn alpha strike.
Usually 1.5 or 2k. You could use Kroak. I and many other people don't think that Kroak is worth 450 points after getting nerfed in the new edition. I would rather run a Slann and add another EOTG or more skinks.
Thank you, everyone, for the replies! I have to agree here with @Killer Angel : CoF will be put on EotG most of the time, so no buffing Sally. Thanks, @Justin C ! I'm glad, that someone had success about this strategy, and I like this thing about Engine of Gods - you never know what they are really up to. I don't plan to one shot anything with just EotGs too - taking away main bulk of Wounds would be enough - Slann can finish them off with magic, if needed. If anyone interested, I posted a build I'm aiming for in my thread: http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/prepearing-for-2000-pts-tournament-in-october.21687/ In short, I chose double EotG as snipers because they complement thunderquake well.
That's an important point. For example if you take a look at all the Behemoths many armies bring. At full health they are very scary, but put 4-5 wounds on them and things become a lot more manageable. Good examples from the top of my head: - enemy Stegadon: He looses the -3 rend and a third of his melee attacks if you just manage to put three wounds on him. - Aleguzzler Gargant: Becomes basically harmless once he loses five wounds
My last game was against a Slaanesh army, needless to say I went full on for throwing out mortal wounds on her heroes. By the end of my 3rd hero phase I'd taken out the majority of the heroes and what were left were suitably injured all while only allowing her to get 1 depravity point, needless to say the EotG sniping was great for sniping a few of her characters. Another good target for a EotG snipe is the Frostlord on Thundertusk, have a reasonable chance of bracketing it so it can't do a flat 6 mortal wounds with it's 2+ spear attack, reducing it to D6 instead
I know that EotG can snipe but isn’t it a bit unreliable because you have to roll to see what happens?
It is not perfect. If you have four EotGs and a Slann near them you can be fairly certain you will get one or two results between a 6-9 for long range or 10-13 for area mortal wounds.
With Slann and CoF you will have descent control of EotG results. On average, you need to succeed twice to snipe an average character. The good thing about EotG here, that you will always have a useful result, unless all units in 3" are full wounds or there are no enemies in 10".
Could you share your winning list with us? I am really interested in it, given your impressive 15-0 record
Sure 1500 point list: Allegiance: Seraphon Mortal Realm: Shyish Slann Starmaster (260) - General - Trait: Great Rememberer Engine of the Gods (220) - Artefact: Ethereal Amulet Engine of the Gods (220) Skink Starpriest (80) 20 x Skinks (120) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (60) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (60) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers Dread Saurian (420) Chronomantic Cogs (60) Total: 1500 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 10 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 87 2000 point list: Allegiance: Seraphon Mortal Realm: Shyish Slann Starmaster (260) - General - Trait: Great Rememberer Engine of the Gods (220) - Artefact: Ethereal Amulet Engine of the Gods (220) Skink Starpriest (80) 20 x Skinks (120) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (60) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (60) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers 6 x Ripperdactyl Riders (280) 1 x Razordons (40) Dread Saurian (420) Shadowstrike Starhost (180) Chronomantic Cogs (60) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 108
I mean they are skinks, they aren't going to do much no matter what weapons you give them. I usually just use my small units of skinks to screen my characters and hold objectives. Javelins are theoretically better at short range than blowpipes. If they cause a few wounds in the whole game, then its kind of a bonus. If I was running a unit of 30-40 I would go blowpipes for ranged killing power, but at 10 I dont really care.