Tutorial Seraphon Overview (updated to AoS 3.0)

So, here we are.

Seraphons are dead, long live Seraphons. The old battletome has gone down in flames, and the new battletome arises from its ashes, with entire new ways to wage the war.

the goal is to have a general overview of the army, especially helpful for beginners so, in this thread i will analyze everything. the following posts (with handy links) will cover:

1 - Seraphon abilities (with differences between starborne and coalesced armies / subfactions)

2 - stats and roles of heroes (with command traits)

3 - synergies table

4 - stats and roles for units (battlelines)

5 - stats and roles for units (artillery, behemoths, everything else)

6 - magic (seraphon spells)

7 - magic (Endless spells)

8 - magic (artefacts)

9 - Battalions

10 - Tips & tactics: Starborne

11 - Tips & tactics: Coalesced

12 - Powerful builds & tricks (realshaper engine included)

It has also been developed an analysis of the current Season of War.

Season 1 (2022-2023): Gallet

It will be a long work in progress, so expect to see changes through my posts.

A special thanks goes to everyone that is helping me through this; i will name @Canas, @Nart, @Erta Wanderer … and all of you who contributed to this overview, even by pointing out a single error made by me during the process. Thanks guys.

WARNING
​

The thread has been updated to the new 3.0 AoS editions (i hope nothing escaped me).
If new FAQ / Errata will change something, i will try to correct things on the run.

 

SERAPHON ABILITIES
(updated to november 2022)​

a Seraphon army, will have always the following abilities.

Contemplations of the Ancient One:
at the end of your hero phase, 1 Slann can swap a Lore spell with another one. This will let you tailor your magic against your opponent.

Sacred Asterisms:
start hero phase, you choose a constellation to be active (useful to plan tactics)

• Great Drake: pick a hero, +1 attack to melee weapons. Situational but useful to buff that oldblood on carno when you want your next target to die
• Hunter's Steed: +1 run and charge for friendly Seraphon. The most general one, always useful
• Sage's Staff: pick a single Seraphon Wizard, he gains +1 casting and dispelling during your turn or +1 unbinding during enemy's. Buff your main caster for magical war dominance and nice tricks.

Bound Endless Spells
Endless spells cast by Seraphons are bonded to the model that summoned them and cannot be controlled by someone else. A model cannot be bonded to more than one endless spell at the same time. This is solid, as it gives your magical phase much more reliability.



then, you must choose. Your army must be Starborne OR Coalesced

STARBORNE Seraphon​

a Starborne Seraphon army, will have the following additional abilities.

Lords of Space and Time (LoSaT)
1/turn, at the end of the move phase you can teleport a seraphon unit anywhere on the battlefield., that appears at more than 9” from enemy units. That unit can shoot and charge.
LoSaT is one of the main reason you want to play Starborne.

Unfeeling.
all units are considered to have bravery 10.

Celestial Conjuration (aka “summoning”)
you can avoid to cast one or more spells, to accumulate Conjuration points (CCP), that can be used to summon units on the battlefield. Those point can be increased furtherly.
Basically:
begin of hero phase: 1d3 pts if Slann or Starseer is general
1d3 pts if you have an Astrolith Bearer
if a Slann or oracle gives up to cast his first spell, gain further d3 for each uncast spell.
You can gain in this way only ONE d3 from each wizard (FAQ april 2020)
at the end of the move phase, summon one unit. The CCP cost goes from 6 (10 skinks) up to 30 (stegadon w skink chief).
The points gains are unreliable, and cannot be farmed with the same efficacy we were used in the past. A list summons-based requires at least 3 sources to generate points and, in any case, it's almost an unfeasible strategy: think to it more as the chance to call a couple of additional units during the game to act as screen or objective holder.

A Starborne army, CAN choose (for free) to pick one of the following 2 sub-factions, with the relative abilities:

Starborne Dracothion's Tail

Appear on Command:
for each unit you have on the battlefield, you can set one in reserve. At the end of the move phase, you can call on the battlefield one or more units from the reserve, setting them within 18" from a Slann and more than 9" from enemy's units.
mandatory Command trait for slann
Ancient Knowledge: knows 1 extra spell and can reroll 1 cast/dispel/unbind each hero phase.

Starborne Fangs of Sotek

First to battle:
add 3" to move to skinks units, in the first round of battle.
additional Command ability
allows a skinks or chameleon skinks unit that has been charged (FAQ april 2020), to shoot at the end of your opponent’s charge phase and then (on a 4+) move away, thus denying the charge.
mandatory Command trait for saurus
Old and Grizzled: on a 3+, gain an extra CP.
(please note that this is mandatory only if your general is a Saurus. If it's something different, you can pick the trait you want. The same applies to all sub-factions)

COALESCED Seraphon​

a Coalesced Seraphon army, will have the following additional abilities.

Predatory Fighters:
+1 attack of jaw weapons. A much needed bost in damage for saurus and Dinos. It’s one of the many multipliers we’ll have at disposal

Scaly Skin:
-1 damage inflicted (minimum 1) for each successful attack against a Coalesced unit with the keyword/s: Saurus, Kroxigor or Monster. You lose bravery 10, but this is a huge boost to survavibility, it works wonders to protect your monsters and also your troops. It doesn't apply to MWs caused by attacks (Designer's commentary april 2020-august 2021). Basically, it can be either borderline useless or super powerful, depending on the opponent.

Cold-Blooded:
Your units Ignore Bravery modifiers. Your bravery is low, but at least you won’t suffer from abilities that stack negative bonuses upon the target. It’s a really small ability, but hey.

Primeval Domain:
I f a terrain feature is partially or wholly within your territory, it gains also Mystical and Deadly features. Mystical works only for coalesced, Deadly works for everything else. Borderline useless, but when you remember it then deadly can do a little something.


A Coalesced army, CAN choose (for free) to pick one of the following 2 sub-factions, with the relative abilities:

Coalesced Koatl's Claw

Savagery incarnate:
add +1 to hit rolls made by Saurus after a charge.
additional Command ability
pick a saurus unit within 24" from a saurus hero at the beginning of the combat phase. That unit is considered to have completed a charge for the use of Savagery Incarnate.
mandatory Command trait for saurus
Dominant predator: when the general spend a CP, it's given back on a 4+.

Coalesced Thunder Lizard

Beasts of war
Add 2 to the wounds to each Thunder-Lizard Behemoth.
additional Command ability
pick a Bastiladon or a EotG unit within 24" from a hero at the end of the shooting phase. That unit can shoot / use the engine again.
mandatory Command trait for hero on behemoths
Prime Warbeast: add 1 attack to all mount's weapons of the General.

_____________________________________


Basically, Starborne is an army that’s similar to “old” seraphon, relying on movement, summoning and battlefield control, but alas in a weaker way than what we were used to.

Coalasced is a melee army, much more resilient and with more hitting power (more on line with the current AoS armies), but gives away our old habit of master of battlefield control via movement shenanigans.

_____________________________________

last, but not least…

Realmshaper Engine​

This pyramid is the terrain that ALL seraphon armies can field for free.
It’s set up after territories are determined (at more than 3" from objectives and other terrains), so it could end in your opponent territory. However, it won’t do any particular good to said opponent.
It can be garrisoned by anyone (up to 15 models), but if you place in it a friendly seraphon wizard or priest, you can use its (very good) special ability, delivering d3 Mortal wounds to all enemy units that are within 3” from a terrain. It works on a 2+ if the target terrain is within 18” from the Realmshaper, on a 4+ if between 18” and 36”, on a 6+ if at more than 36”.

 

units analysis
(updated to november 2022)


HEROES – NO MOUNTS
​

“SERAPHON” HEROES


Slann
285 pts.
7 wounds, save 4+
Our classic general, comes with a lot of nice, passive bonuses:
Each turn, can generate up to 2 Command Points for free (roll to dices, gain a CP on a 4+).
got a +1 to cast and unbind, can cast 3 spells and 3 unbind attempts.
For casting, he got Arcane Vassal (can cast through a skink wizard / oracle within 12”)
For unbind, he can attempt to unbind enemy spells anywhere on the battlefield.
its signature spell is Comet’s call (casting 7): d3 Mortal wounds to d3 units anywhere on the battlefield. A casting of 10+ affect d6 units. It’s a huge spells, and (given that the 10+ can be modified by bonuses to cast), it can let you do something nasty.
Plus, the guy got a strong command ability, giving fly to nearby Seraphon unit AND +1 on roll saves vs shooting.
Downsides: the current points cost is excessive, as he's basically a caster and a support with no combat abilities and poor staying power, that more often than not requires a points tax of Saurus Guards to stay alive... but many seraphon armie live and die by their slann, so we must live with it


Lord Kroak
450 pts.
Being one of the strongest magical being ever, he's rightfully powerful (even if he pales in comparison to beings as Teclis and even some unnamed Soulblight or CoS wizards).
is basically a souped up Slann (with even the same command ability), which comes with a lot of bonuses for those additional 165 pts.
18 wounds, save 4+ but at the end of each phase he suffers wounds, you roll 3d6+number of wounds: on 20+ Kroak dies, otherwise he's totally healed.
Each turn, can generate up to THREE Command Points.
got a +2 to cast and unbind, can cast and unbind 4 spells (unbinding anywhere on the battlefield).
two signature spells: Comet’s call (the same as the Slann) and Celestial deliverance (damages up to 3 units within 10”, can be cast multiple times with an increasing difficulty).



SKINKS HEROES

Skink Priest:
120 pts.
with 4 wounds and save 5+ he’s squishy, but got an exceptionally useful ability that works on units with the skink keyword: on a 3+ , target unit can run and still shoot / charge, AND +1 on save rolls. Mandatory on a bastiladon with laser or a charging StegaChief, but immensely useful on, well, everything.
Command ability: pick a unit with the skink keyword, add +1 to hit rolls for attacks made by that unit.
If you bring skinks on the table, you MUST have a priest... more so because with the keyword priest, he'll have also the "universal prayer scripture" (enhancement - AoS 3.0 Core Rules).
Downsides: massively overcosted, you are paying 30 pts / wound with a 5+ save. Greatly useful, but any opponent with half a brain and access to shooting, will kill the guy in T1, so be careful.


Skink Starpriest:
130 pts.
Squishy as a priest (only 1 more wound), but he’s also a wizard.
can give you an additional command point on a 5+.
Another exceptionally useful ability: pick a unit with the seraphon keyword: unmodified “to wound” rolls of 6, inflict an additional mortal wounds.
The signature spell is Blazing Starlight: pick an enemy unit and it must subtract 1 from “to hit” rolls. can be situationally strong.
The Starpriest venom can be truly useful, but given its cost you need to plan your list to exploit the MW chance (for example, play hordes, or buffed models that can deliver a lot of attacks, like a stegadon which is more likely to get into combat without being "decreased in number")


Skink Starseer
145 pts.
Squishy as a starpriest and even slower, but he’s exceptionally useful.
can give you an additional command point on a 4+.
His ability lets you pick a unit with the seraphon keyword and you can roll 3d6 for the charge. This alone is huge and justifies his inclusion in a list.
The signature spell is Control Fate and lets you pick a unit: if it’s enemy, subtract 1 from saves; it it’s friendly, add 1 to saves.
Exceptionally strong, it’s another “must have” for any kind of army, that lets you do some insane combo.



SAURUS HEROES


Saurus Astrolith bearer.
155 pts
it gives +1 to cast and additional range of 6” to spells. Yes, you can totally stuck him near Lord Kroak to trigger comet's bonus on a 7 (6 with Sage's staff), and have a 16” celestial deliverance bubble that starts from an arcane vassal. Plus, it will increase also the casting range of Endless Spells (Core rules, update 27-08-2021)
But its most useful ability is Revifying energies: gives FNP 6+ to any friendly seraphon unit within 12”, and it triggers AFTER ward saves (Core rules, update 27-08-2021, 14.3 Wards)
it also gives 1d3 CCP if you play Starborne.
You should always try to save a place for a AB, especially in a melee army, as its defensive bubble can stack with many other defensive options we have.
Downsides: mandatory if you want to play heavy magic with Kroak, it means you'll have more than 600 points dedicated to only castings.


Saurus Eternity Warden.
125 pts.
the hero for Saurus Guards.
With a 3+ save he’s got a decent defense; can act also as bodyguards for your Slann (in the same way any saurus guard can); his command ability adds +1 to “to hit” rolls made by a unit of saurus guards. This one is a niche hero, and I'm being generous.


Saurus Oldblood.
120 pts.
Saurus hero with a solid Command Ability (“Wrath of the Seraphons”, +1 to hit rolls) works on any saurus unit. It's a cheap buffer.


Saurus Sunblood.
125 pts
Our first really dedicated melee guy, that hits hard and stacks nasty effects on nat. rolls of 6s, both on to hit and to wound. His command ability adds +1 to “to wound” rolls by a target saurus unit. It's our only source of bonus to wound, so he's pretty useful and with 6 melee attacks, he's a great candidate for an artefact weapon.

HEROES – WITH MOUNTS​

SKINKS HEROES


Ripperdactyls Chief.
80 pts.
5 wounds, save 5+, move 12
his command ability gives +1 attacks to all melee weapons of a rippers unit.
Ripperdactyls have been nerfed, so… maybe to buff a maxed unit?
anyway, despite the way it's written on the warscroll, it's an ability that cannot be stacked (FAQ april 2020), so rippers are still a suboptimal unit, to say the least.


Terradon Chief.
80 pts.
Squishier than anything, a hero with 5 wounds and save 6+. imposes a -1 to be hit to melee weapons used by non flyiers (so don’t count on it).
However, he’s got a 16 move and, oh boy… the Command Ability buffs the Deadly Cargo attacks of terradons (MWs on a 2+, instead of 4+). It’s so strong that you can build a bombers list on it. See details in the description of the “Terradon riders” unit


Skink oracle on troglodon.
250 pts.
he’s a sort of weak slann disguised as skink, on a dinosaur.
Like a Slann he’s got a +1 to cast and unbind; unbinds within the whole battlefield, can cast just 1 spell which is Comet’s call (see Slann for details).
But the little guy sits on a dinosaur that is a passable monster: 12 wounds with a 4+ save (that can regenerate d3 each round), with ranged attacks and melee attacks. Almost all with no rend, but we’re still talking about a tenth of attacks, all dealing multiple wounds. Nice but still overpriced, despite the keyword monster, that lets it use the sweet "Monster Rampage" actions (AoS 3.0 Core Rules).


Engine of the Gods.
285 pts.
Once a mandatory unit, now it's just a useful one.
It’s basically a Stegadon (see that unit for details) with a slightly better melee profile (+2 wounds).
Loses the powerful ranged attacks of the stegadon, to gain the engine… but the random effects of the engine are underwhelming, unless stars aligned. So, kinda meh unless very lucky circumstances happen.
It can be more useful in a coalesced army, being the only source to summon something on the battlefield.
If you bring one, you can also focus on healing: EoTG + endless lifeswarm + healing spell = 3D3 wounds.
(FAQ april 2020: the hero is the priest: the crew is part of the stegadon, which is the mount)
(Errata august 2021: it gains the keyword priest, so you have free access to the very useful "universal prayer scriptures"


Stegadon with Skink Chief.
305 pts.
Mandatory for Coalesced Thunder Lizard army.
It’s basically a Stegadon (see that unit for details) with a command ability that affects a skink unit within 24”, increasing by 1 the number of attacks for all melee weapons. Usually you’ll want to target a stegadon.
Seriously, this guys can bring some serious cheese to the table: a stegadon hero belonging to Coalesced thunder lizard, which is also the General and uses its command ability on itself, buffed also by the command ability of a skink priest… it’s able to deliver 20 melee attacks hitting at 2+.
And it's a monster, so Monster Rampage actions!



SAURUS HEROES


Scar-Veteran on Cold One.
110 pts.
a saurian hero with 7 wounds, save 4+ and move 8. A cheap commander for knights.
Command ability is saurian savagery: elect a saurus unit, on a nat. 6 on “to hit”, it counts as 2 scored hits. Even more than the oldblood afoot, this is another great, cheap buffer.


Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur.
215 pts.
12 wounds, 4+ save
The Scar-Vet comes with 3 different melee weapon, with different profiles (with the celestite warspear being probably the best one, given the special rules attached to it).
The Carnosaur is a nice monster, not exceptional but nice (and requires support to perform / survive); once was a monster hunter, now is a horde hunter, increasing its “to hit” for the massive jaws when the target has a wound characteristic of 7-.
Command ability is saurian savagery: same as scarvet on CO (and same ability cannot affect the same unit twice).
You usually want a coalesced carno, to enjoy the additional jaws attack and the damage reduction.


Oldblood on Carnosaur.
250 pts
the carnosaur got the same profile of the one with a scar-vet rider.
The differences are in the oldblood, which can bring a more powerful weapon and, most of all, in the Commmand Ability Wrath of the Seraphons: (same as Oldblood afoot: select a saurus unit, +1 on to hit rolls).
If you can afford the 35 additional points the oldblood is, indeed, a heavy hitter.

COMMAND TRAITS​

One of your heroes will be your general, and will have a Command Trait

Slann Command traits
1. each hero phase you can repeat 1 roll to cast/dispel/unbind. The best trait for your Slann
2. you know one extra spell of the seraphon Lore. You can already pick each round the spell you want.
3. start hero phase, on a 4+ gain a command point. Not bad but you have other ways to collect CPs

Saurus Command traits
1. Re-roll 1s to hit. The best trait for your melee dude
2. Re-roll 1s to saves. very nice combined with Mystic Shield.
3. start hero phase, on a 4+ gain a command point. Not bad but you have other ways to collect CPs

Skink Command traits
1. +1 to cast if a wizard. Gains the command ability of the skink priest without need to spend CPs on it if not a wizard. Nice on a stegadon chief, as it's basically a second All Out attacks.
2. +1 to move, +1 to saves. You can give save 3+ to EotG of Stegadon chief without employing additional resourcesd.
3. start combat phase, on a 4+ inflict 1 MW to a enemy hero within 3". ahahah. no.

 

THE SYNERGIES
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)​

Seraphon work on synergies granted by heroes and army abilities. But heroes are costly, so when you choose them, it’s always better to optimize your picks to obtain the most you can out of them, to support the strategy you have in mind (alpha strike with flyers, dino carnage, delivering mortal wounds, melee block…). Plus, many abilities are command abilities, so if you plan to use them, you also must plan to have a reliable source of additional command points.

These tables are a handy quick reference to see what kind of buffs you can apply to units and understand how many bonuses you can stack. Of course “seraphon” keyword applies to both skink and saurus.

Usually I would firstly review the units, but in this case I think it’s better to immediately see the bonuses, so when I will review the units, I can already give a hint to what they could do if you want to max them or build a list around a particular unit, given the already listed possible bonuses.

The following tables will include bonuses granted only by:
- Armies abilities / subfactions;
- heroes' abilities /command abilities;
- Spells

Command traits are not included

 

units analysis
(updated to november 2022)


BATTLELINES​

Saurus warriors
105 pts for 10; max 30 saurus
1 wound, save 4+, move 5, only 2 attacks (1 weapon, 1 jaws)
These guys are not a bad unit, especially when you consider the ability “ordered cohort”, that let them deliver an additional attack with celestite weapon when the unit has 15+ models; of course, they are there to be fielded in great numbers (to avoid the loss of ordered cohort), to suffer losses, and to win by attrition. They also can reroll charges, which is always handy.
But it's when properly buffed that they become impressive: coalesced Koatl’s claw warriors gain +1 jaws attacks and scaly skin for added durability, so your block delivers 2+2 attacks per model.
Supported by a Sunblood and an oldblood, on charge they’re going to hit/wound at 2+/2+ (weapons) and 3+/3+ (jaws).
Further support can come from a skink starseer (save 3+ and 3d6 charge), scar-veteran (additional attacks on 6s to hit), skink starpriest (MWs on 6s to wound), emerald lifeswarm (rise!).
Plenty of possibilities, it’s just a matter of how many points you wanna spend to support them.
Downsides: GW doesn't love saurus, especially saurus on foot. They can be passable, but they probably are our worst battleline choice.


Saurus knights
110 pts for 5 (max 15)
2 wound, save 4+, move 8, 5 attacks (2 celestite weapon, 1 knight jaw, 2 Cold Ones jaws)
These guys are solid hitters, really dangerous on charge, as they DOUBLE the damage dealt by their celestite lances on charge (which you can re-roll, btw).
Even taking them outside the firelance battalion, a coalesced Koatl’s claw unit is impressive, gaining +1 jaws attacks on charge and a +1 bonus to hit. That alone lets them do SEVEN attacks each (2 weapons, 2 jaws, 3 CO jaws), hitting on 2+/4+.
Support them with something quick, as an oldblood on Carno and a Scar-Vet on CO, to double the attacks on a nat. 6 to hit. As for warriors, both skink Starseer and Starpriest are excellent buffer for them: the first one for increased save and because you WANT to charge (3d6 FTW) and the second one because when a unit of 10 delivers 70 attacks, the chance of MW on 6s “to wound” is a consistent threat.
Plenty of possibilities, you could just use a scar-vet and a starpriest: no bonuses to hit, but 10 knights deals 70 attacks that doubles on 6s “to hit” and deal MWs on 6s “to wound”… we are probably talking about a tenth MW, plus normal saves. Here comes the pain scaly train!
I would always avoid units of more than 10 knight, because you will miss too many attacks.


Saurus guards
115 pts for 5 (max 15)
2 wound, save 4+, move 5, 3 attacks (2 celestite weapon, 1 jaw)
It’s the same exact reasoning made for warriors: support from heroes is the key.
looking at warriors, these guys have some advantage: they are less numerous (so it’s more probable you won’t lose attacks when in combat) and are less susceptible to battleshock. However they deliver a lesser number of attacks.
Their main use is a 5-sauri unit, to soak wounds for your Slann / Kroak... however, you could try a full 15 guards unit to soak damage AND form a solid combat block around your advancing Kroak.


Skinks
75 pts for 10 (max 30)
1 wound, save 6+ (5+ if equipped with starbuckler), move 8, 1 ranged attack, 1 melee attack, all of them with pitiful profile (to hit goes from 5+ fo 4+).
It’s our cheapest battleline, and they gain 1 attack if a unit contains more than 15 models.
They probably will be used in 2 varieties:
10-skinks unit: fast and good objective grabbers and cheap disposable screen. Don't expect nothing more from them.
30-skinks unit, with boltspitters: buff them with a Skink Priest (taking them to a respectable 4+ save and increasing their 60 shots to a “to hit 4+”) and a skink Starpriest (triggering 1 MW for each 6 “to wound”)
with that configuration, on average you will roll 30 “to wounds”, delivering 5 MW.
If you really like skinks army, go full-route on them; Starborne Fangs of Sotek can move 11” in the first round, buff them with a Priest, a Starpriest, a Starseer and a Stegadon chief; use Hunter’s steed and a command point to have them run for a grand total of 18”; shoot to weaken the target with mortal wounds, then charge 3d6+1 and each skink will also do THREE attacks in melee, for further mortal wounds for each 6s.

 

units analysis
(updated to november 2022)


ARTILLERY - BEHEMOTH​

Engine of the Gods
285 pts
I cannot tell why this is an artillery (and our only one, btw) but hey.
12 wound, save 4+, move 8 (full health)
it has been discussed in the “hero” section. Here I will add that there’s little reason to take more than one, and take that one only in case you are bringing some other big dino that could enjoy the healing effect. With AoS 3.0 it has been improved tnx to the additional rules for monsters and priest prayers (given that now, due to august 2021 FAQ, the EotG has gained the keyword priest)

BEHEMOTHS​

Bastiladon
165 pts (ark of Sotek)
250 pts (solar engine)
10 wound, save 1+ (full health), move 5
weird monster: at full health, it can be damaged only by MWs or you rolling 1s to save (designer's commentary april 2020 says that rend cannot lower the save to less than 1+). great target for healing effects, can really be tanky, but beware of MWs.
It comes in 2 profiles (with a notable points difference, which is amply justified):
Solar engine: shooting 24”, at full health its 9 shots, BUT at 4+ to hit, which is horrible. Its usefulness increases greatly (especially against chaos daemons) in a coalesced thunder lizard list, where can shoot TWICE.
Ark of sotek: melee, 18 attacks, for each 6 to hit unmodified it deals 1 MW. Unless you’re very lucky, it’s terribad. However, 165 is very cheap and could be used in Starborne armies where you can teleport it in places where you need to tank something.


Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur.
Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur.
been discussed in the “hero” section. the mounts have the same profile, the differences are in the points (with the scarvet being 35 pts cheaper) and in the heroes (different command abilities, the oldblood got a ranged attack and can deal more melee damage). Both carnos excel in hunting enemy troops.
To choose between them... the scarvet seems the winner here, but it really depends on a number of things (artefacts, your troops composition, command abilities of the other heroes).
Anyway, you want to buff them. If you pick a weapon as the sword of judgement to have a monster hunter, then give it to the ScarVet and try to buff to hit (Great Drake, command trait from an oldblood and Koatl’s claw subfaction, triggering d6 mortal wounds on each 4+ on 7 attacks).
If you pick an Oldblood, you can increase the Carno’s attacks and search for blobs of infantry (oldblood command ability + coalesced thunder lizard + Great Drake= 6 jaws attacks hitting on 2+)


Skink oracle on troglodon.
250 pts.
Already discussed in the hero section, it eats a behemoth and a hero slot. Nice but still overpriced.


Stegadon
270 pts
I won’t talk about stegageddon, I wan’t talk about stegageddon… who cares STEGADON STAMPEDE, HELL YEAH!!! 8 walking behemoths to rule them all!!!
now, let’s be serious.
10 wound, save 4+ (gains +1 save vs a single unit in melee of no more than 5 models), move 8 (full health)
in close combat, it’s a nasty boy: at full health, it delivers 12 attacks, all of them at rend -1 and many with multiple damage, chance of mortal wounds when it charges (d3 on a 3+)
It comes in 2 profiles, with different shooting weapons:
Skystreak bow: 24”, 3 attacks, 3 damage each (on average only one will do something, but range 24” is nice)
Sunfire throwers: roll a number of dices for any enemy model within 8”, for each 5+ deals 1 MW. great horde cleaner!
Of course you’ll want to buff it, and you have a large number of ways to do it, even in a very cheap way:
Starborne + hunter’s steed + Starseer ability: teleport it and charge at 3d6+1
Coalesced Koatl’s claw + stegadon chief: damage reduction, 17 attacks hitting on 2+
Coalesced thunder lizard + stegadon chief: damage reduction, 12 wounds 17 attacks hitting on 3+
and so on…

OTHER UNITS​

Chameleon skinks
115 pts for 5
1 wound, save 6+, move 8
when within 1" from a terrain, gain a 4+ Ward, and they can be set in ambush, setting them anywhere on the battlefield at the end of the move phase, at more than 9” from enemy units. They can also disappear and reappear later.
A unit of 5 shoots 10 darts, 3+/4+ no rend, 1 dam. They do a MW on a 6 to hit, but it’s kinda unreliable.
not a great unit, but in a coalesced army that lacks LoSaT, at least they give some additional battlefield control.


Kroxigor
150 pts for 3
4 wound, save 4+, move 8
armed with jaws (1 attack that on a unmodified 6 inflicts a MW) and drakebite maul (4 attacks, 4+/3+ -1 rend 2dmg), 1 every 3 can have a Moon Hammer (stronger against hordes). Gain +1 to hit if nearby a skink unit
Let’s consider only the Maul.
that 4+ on to hit is pitiful, but the only way to increase it is via skink babysitting.
Let’ try to pick a unit of 6 Coalesced Kroxigor. 300 pts.
24 wounds, 24 mauls attacks, 12 jaws. Stick a Starpriest with them (babysit and poison ability) and those 36 attacks will hit at 3+ on charge, dealing on average 4 MWs. Plus the standard damage.
All in all, if properly buffed, they can do something good. IMO always pick also a MoonHammer.


Razordon Hunting Pack
&
Salamander hunting pack
they both share many similarities:
each hunting pack is formed by a beast and 3 handlers (max unit it’s 3 hunting packs: so, max in a unit it’s 12 models)
each beast got 3 wounds, while the handlers only one; this means that a hunting pack got 6 wounds.
The handlers don’t give any kind of bonus or ability, they act basically as ablative wounds and puny meleer.
now, the differences:

RAZORDON
a hunting pack costs 105 pts;
missile weapon 18”, 2d6 hits (3+/4+, no rend, 1 dam)
melee: 3 attacks, 3+/3+ rend -2, 1 dam.
if charged, can resist and shoot automatically, but shooting only a d6 (which is basically a weak "unleash hell" for free).
Now, a maxed unit with 2 razor costs 190 pts and shoots an average of 14 spikes; only 5 will wound, with no rend (unless you want to waste on them an All Out Attack).
If you buff them with a skink priest, things will improve a little.
they are far more dangerous in melee (-2 and 2 dam is solid), but their cost is too high

SALAMANDERS
a hunting pack costs a crazy amount of 140 pts.
missile weap. 12” (but with move 8”, it’s not that bad)… 4 hits 3+/3+ rend -2, d3 dam. with a chance for direct MWs on nat 6s (it burns!).
melee: 3 attacks, 3+/3+, -2 rend, d3 dam.
obviously, the possible buffs you could apply to razordons, work also for sallies.
Sallies are a great target for the command ability "Unleash hell", but beware the nerf, as now works only within 6"

Conclusion:
sometime, when you ask “it’s better the unit X or the unit Y?”, the answer is “it depends”. Not in this case. Burn Baby Burn. Despite the points difference, sallies are just too good.
Starborne sallies are great, because with bravery 10 you will be much less vulnerable to battleshock due to the loss of handlers. It's much more a problem for Coalesced ones, but remember that you can also pick the handlers as fleeing models (if there's someone still alive); or just use the skink spell to avoid battleshock.


Ripperdactyls riders
85 pts
3 wounds, save 5+, move 12”
They took a hard nerf , but let’s see what are they now.
they’ve got 1 spear attack and 3 jaws attacks at 4+/3+. no rend, 1 dam
At the beginning of the combat, you can “mark” a unit, rerolling all yaws “to hit” on it (once per battle). The yaws, come with a built-in multiplier (for each nat. 6, you score 2 hits).
it’s clear that the number of attack is pitiful, especially given the “no rend”. Can they be optimized?
Alas, no... a ripper chief can use its command ability to give additional attacks to all melee weapons of a ripper unit, so each ripper will deliver 6 (2+4) attacks. 7 attacks (2+5) for Coalesced.
21 for a 3 models unit, 42 attacks for a 170 pts reinforced unit.
Marking a unit, you'll have:
12 spears attacks, 4 will wound
30 jaws attacks rerollable, more or less 21-22 will wound.
the winter FA 2021 discounted their cost, but we are stilll looking at : once per battle, 26 saves with no rend, employing 250 pts and if everything goes smooth. Slightly better if you are using a Purple Sun, for that -1 to saves.


Terradons riders
105 pts
3 wounds, save 6+, move 16”
2 different shooting weapons (pick sunleech bolas), 4 jaws attack by the terradon, and the once-per-battle ability “Deadly cargo” (when you pass across on an enemy unit, with any kind of move, roll a die for each terradon, and on a 4+ delivers d3 MWs)
Their personal buffer is the terradon chief, that let them release the deadly cargo on a 2+.
Don’t even think to play terradons without a chief.
the main utility granted by these guys is the dealing of lots of MWs, then try to do something more with shooting and possibly also CC.
To deliver the Cargo, you need move, so Fangs of Sotek is good, but anyway you can have a huge mobility even with coalesced: hunter’s steed, skink priest and a CP will give them a 16+7+2d6+1” (average 31”!) move/charge. And a maxed unit of 6 terradons will be able to deal around 5d3 MWs, followed by around 21 bolas attacks and 24 (or 30) melee attacks. the potential damage is solid, but 6 terradons + chief are 290 pts, so pick your target carefully.

FORGEWORLD MODELS​

Dread Saurian
545 pts.
(monstrous arcanum august 2021)

The King of the jungle is back.
35 wounds, save 4+, move 10 (full health)
This one is brutal. or better, it would be if its cost wouldn't be so staggeringly high, and if it could count on some decent rend.
Its damage profile is good but not terrifying, even at full health (a grand total of 10 attacks, but the 4 most damaging ones, the jaws and the tail, are just 4+ to hit). A VLoZD is scarier.
However, it has some nice abilities: on a 2+ it inflicts MWs on charge (and can use also Monsters actions), got a variable (6+ or 4+) chance to ignore spells’ effects, imposes a -1 to bravery and when it dies can inflict other MWs.
Its base is HUGE and it simply cannot be ignored, so the enemy must employ resources to deal with it. And 35 wounds are not a joke. This is its main utility: it’s the king of Distraction Carnifex, and it lets you do things with the rest of your army while the opponent struggles to bring it down.
if you really want to squeeze the most out of it, buff your big beast with defensive buffs: a skink starseer will be able to give it a 3+ save, and a Starpriest can give it also a -1 to be hit.
In a Starborne faction you can easily exploit the superior move of your army to take control of the battlefield, and you can place the Dread Saurian wherever it hurts the most thanks to LoSaT.
in a Coalesced faction, just push it forward: an additional jaw attack is powerful and, most of all, it gains damage reduction, which means it will be a real nightmare to kill it. With Thunderlizard it will even have 37 wounds.

 

MAGIC – SERAPHON LORE
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)​

Seraphon lore is divided into 2 cathegories:
we have Slann spells and Skinks spells, plus the “unique” spells

Unique spells​

Celestial Deliverance
(Lord Kroak)
casting value 7+
Can be cast up to 3 times, with increasing casting value: 7+, 8+, 9+.
Pick 3 units within 10”, each one on a 2+ suffers d3 MWs (3 MWs if chaos daemon).
Kroak got the rule Arcane Vassal, so stuck an astrolith bearer near him, use the Sage’s staff constellation, and you’ll cast the spell with a +4, in a 16” range from a vassal (or Kroak himself).


Comet’s call
(Lord Kroak, Slann, Oracle on Troglodon)
Casting value 7+.
Pick d3 units on the whole battlefield; each one suffers d3 MWs. on a casting roll 10+, pick d6 units. Pretty potent, as you don’t even need LoS and you can target heroes.
It’s not a unmodified roll, so grab as many bonuses to cast you can, and drop d6 comets


Control Fate
(Skink Starseer)
Casting value 7+.
Pick an enemy unit within 18”, subtract 1 from its save rolls.
OR
Pick a friendly enemy unit within 18”, add 1 to its save rolls.
Pretty potent. Brutal when you wanna see dead a tough target (because there's a whole world of difference when you can force a -1 to saves, when you have a Carnosaurs that deals 5 wounds with a single hit), Vital when you wanna increase the resistance of a key unit (a horde of 30 saurus warriors, a Bastiladon, a Dread Saurian). Never underestimate this. Never.


Blazing Starlight
(Skink Starpriest)
Casting value 6+.
Pick a enemy unit within 18”, subtract 1 from its To hit rolls.
It stacks nicely with buffs and debuffs available to our army. Use in combo with control fate for maximum power.

Slann spells​

Each Slann (Kroak included) knows one of these. Thanks to the rule “Contemplations of the Ancient One”, 1 Slann can swap a Lore spell with another one, but only at the end of your hero phase

Celestial Apotheosis
casting value 5+,
Pick a friendly unit within 18”, heal 1 wound. on a 10+ heal d3. (secondary effect: give -1 to bravery to nearby enemy).
It’s another spell that can be triggered in its empowered version by modified rolls, so it’s not bad at all and can be played in combo with other healing effects to ensure your dinos will stay alive. I would rank this as second / third best Slann spell.


Walk between Realms
casting value 6+,
Pick a friendly unit within 18”, that unit can fly.
If only the command ability of the Slann wouldn’t be very similar… never take this one, especially at the beginning of the battle.


Mystical Unforging
casting value 7+
pick a enemy hero with an artefact within 12”. d3 MW and a 1/3 chance to break the carried artefact by said hero.
it helps you in killing a weak hero in a key position, but alas it works only on heroes that actually carry an artefact.
EDIT: Once it was a situational spell... but with the current state of the game, with high wounds heroes equipped with Amulet of Destiny or other impressive defensive items, this one can be very powerful, if only for its deterrent power.


Celestial equilibrium
casting value 7+
add +1 to cast, dispel and unbind for all friendly wizards (but not the caster).
Kinda meh, the Slann loses a spell without even enjoying the bonus.
I would consider it only if you’re planning a magical bombardment, with a list that includes also Kroak and another wizard.


Stellar Tempest
casting value 8+
Pick an enemy unit within 24”; roll a die for each model in the target unit, 1 MW for each 5+.
finally a serious anti horde, with some nice MW spam, that can easily target the opponent since turn one even if you go first. One of the best spell we have, there’s really no contest. This should always be included in your list.


Drain magic
casting value 9+
Dispel all not-bonded endless spells within 24”. Pick it when you face a heavy magic army that uses them (possibly more than 2).

Skinks spells​

No “Contemplations of the Ancient One” for skinks, so be careful with your choices

Celestial Harmony
casting value 5+
Pick a friendly unit within 18”, that unit is immune to battleshock tests. On a roll of 10+, it affects all friendly units within 18”
If you run Coalesced, you know you want this one. BUT skinks spells are good, and you could always use a CP to avoid losses due to low bravery.


Hand of Glory
casting value 6+
Pick a friendly unit within 18”, that unit can re-roll all 1s to hit until your next hero phase.
It’s almost the only way we have to re-roll 1s. It’s a must have for any kind of army (Starborne or Coalesced).


Extend Astromatrix
casting value 6+
Pick a basic terrain element (damned, arcane, inspiring…) within 18; “good” effects apply only to Seraphon, while “bad” ones affects only enemies. Of course, if you know you are facing an army that uses magic, it could be good to negate a +1 to cast… but it’s situational at best.


Fiery convocation
casting value 7+
Pick a enemy unit within 18”; up til your next hero phase, roll a dice at the end of each phase: on a 6+, inflict d3 MWs.
Weird spell: basically (not counting double turns) you are going to roll 12 dices (6 in your turn and 6 in the opponent’s), hoping to score as many 6s you can. it’s 2d3 on average, but I wouldn’t count too much on statistic on this. Excellent for lucky players.


Bind Endless Spell
casting value 7+
Pick a Endless Spell within 1”; up til your next hero phase, it’s a bound spell.
Basically, it lets you mess with opponent’s endless spells, which could be truly nice, but it’s another situational spell.


Tide of Serpents
casting value 8+
Pick an enemy unit within 12”; roll a die for each model in the target unit, 1 MW for each 5+.
it’s basically as “stellar tempest”, but with lower range. Its additional value is that you can cast TWO anti-horde spell (leaving aside endless spells).


____________________________________________________


As you can see, our spells covers basically 2 different aspects: direct damage OR buff / debuffs, plus some weird situational utility.
Keep in mind that, especially with skinks, you will always find yourself in some difficulty: being them able to cast just one spell, you will need to take hard decisions.
It’s up to you to decide what kind of power you want to develope: Slanns are better equipped with damage and healing spells, while skinks excel in buffs / debuffs.
An army with Slann or Kroak could push for a magical barrage, while a Thunder Lizard could immensely enjoy a “protective” magical phase.
It’s always good, anyway, to have something for everything.

 

MAGIC – ENDLESS SPELLS
(updated to november 2022)​

With AoS 3.0 the mechanics of Endless Spell have changed and so, also our old ability "bound endless spells" works in a different way

As general rule, when an Endless Spell is cast it is under the control of the Wizard who cast it, and remains that way until either the wizard dies, the wizard casts a second spell (they can only ever maintain control of one but they can choose which) or the spell moves more than 30″ from the caster.
Endless Spells not under control are "wild" and can be controlled by a enemy wizard

Our rewamped ability “Bound Endless Spells”, basically tells that a bonded endless spells is always under the control of the seraphon wizard, even if it moves away more than 30". There's no points cost difference between endless spells and bounded endless spells

Please note 2 things:
1 - Predatory Spells in AoS 2.0 were moved at the top of the round, and now they are moved in both players Hero phases. That means double the damage for us, and no range restrictions.
2 - anything that increases the casting range of spells, it increases also the casting range of Endless Spells (Core rules, update 27-08-2021).

Combine 1+2 and bound spells, and you can threaten the other corner of the battlefield.

now, the spells. As you will see, there are some spells that are truly powerful, some other ones are situational, and then there is the garbage.


Aethervoid pendulum
70 pts
casting value 5+, predatory spell
8"+8" move, on a 2+ it deals d3 MW to units moved over and where it ends. Once set, it can move only in one direction, so no swing back and forth. If the opponent clumps many units together you can be lucky and hit quite a few, but that's not a great spell.


Balewind Vortex
no more available in matched play.


Burning head
20 pts
casting value 7+, predatory spell
8"+8" move. On a 2+, d3 MWs to any units within 3" from it (that means that if it ends near a garrisonable terrain, it deals damage to every unit inside the terrain). Then you automatically remove the head from the battlefield.
well, it's not bad for 20 pts, and if it happens that you are able to hit multiple targets, then it will repay itself pretty quickly. A very solid list filler when you have 20 points to spare.


Chronomantic Cogs
70 pts.
casting value 6+, range 6"; it gives "a" or "b"
a: reroll charges for units wholly within 12"
b: reroll castings for every wizard within 12".
the b version is hugely useful. But you need to don't move away from it and it's not cheap at all.


Emerald lifeswarm
60 pts
casting value 6+, predatory spell
range 6", move 8"
heals d3 wounds / raises dead models to a unit within 1"
This is a nice spell. If you want to play a resilient coalesced army, with damage reduction and healing, this spell can be impressive, especially in a Thunder Lizard subfactions with an EotG and the Slann healing spells, for a potential of 3d3 heal to your buffed dinosaurs, and anyway useful to bring back the slain models of your hordes.
Being a predatory spell, you will heal in every hero phase.


Geminids of Uhl-Gysh
40 pts
casting value 6+, predatory spell
range 9"+8" move. two different models, each one inflicts (on a 2+) 1 MW on each unit passed through or within 1" at the end and blocks all command abilities for the damaged units, both being issued and received, 'til the next combat phase. It’s a top-tier spell, as you negate things as Redeploy and Unleash hell.


Horrorghast
40 pts
casting value 5+, predatory spell
range 12" + move 8".
Units within 12" cannot receive commands in the battleshock phase and if a test is failed d3 additional models flee. Situational, and you really need to plan carefully around this. But you certainly can select an area you are going to devastate with shooting and charging (double basti + stegadon chief?) and enjoy the carnage.


Lauchon the soulseeker
50 pts
casting value 6+, predatory spell
range 6" + move 18".
Cast the spell, remove a wizard wholly within 3" from it, move the spell, place said wizard within 3" from it and more than 9" from enemy, move the wizard. Well, it can be funny, your troglodon can charge anything everywhere. Or you could move a starpriest and use him as arcane vessel for Kroak


Malevolent maelstrom
50 pts
casting value 5+, predatory spell
range 6" + move 8".
Needlessly complicated, with a highly doubious utility and a excessive cost. Trust me and don't take it.


Prismatic palisade
40 pts
casting value 5+, range 6"
Units within 6" cannot shoot. It will rarely do anything.


Purple sun
90 pts
casting value 8+, predatory spell
8"+8" move.
When it stops, roll a dice for all units within 1": on a 1, kill a model (if less than 9 wounds) or inflict d6 + 6 MWs if more than 9 wounds.
It's potentially scary, but the real goodness comes from the other ability: subtract 1 from saves to units within 6". Laserdons love this.
It's costly but all in all a scary and powerful spell.


Quicksilver swords
60 pts
casting value 6+, predatory spell
6"+8" move. Fly over a unit and roll 12 dices for it; the spell inflicts MW for each 6+.... those MWs cannot be negated by saves.
Err... bypassing ward is great, but the damage is negligible.


Ravenak’s gnashing jaws
60 pts
casting value 6+, predatory spell
8"+3d6" move. fly over a unit and if you roll a 2+, you inflict to said unit a number of MWs equal to the difference between the unit's move and what you've rolled.
(example: you rolled a 11, you pass over saurus warriors, you inflict 6 MWs). Situational


Shards of Valagharr
50 pts
casting value 5+, predatory spell
range 18" + move 12".
This spell is pretty good, as it comes with many goodies: firstly, it has a solid range (18”), secondly, its move is a sort of teleport, basically threatening a bubble of 24” and thirdly, it hampers movement, halving the move characteristic and stopping teleport shenanigans.

​

Soulscream bridge
80 pts
casting value 6+
range 24" + move 12".
Remove a unit within 6" of the first part of the spell and set it within 6" from the second part, at more than 9" from the enemy. The unit cannot move.
There are some available tricks you can do with this one:
deep strike your oldblood on Carno to charge on 8+ with hunter's steed;
in a starborne - fang of sotek army you could move 1 unit of sallies and LoSaT another one, to concentrate those 16 blasts;
again in Starborne: Mystic shield on a Dread Saurian (or control fate the target to worsen its save, if in range), move with the bridge a Starseer, LoSaT your Dread saurian, charge the target with a rerollable 3d6.


Soulsnare shakles
50
casting value 7+
range 8"
nice denial zone, units within 6" cannot run nor charge, and can suffer MWs.
The effect is huge, but it's not a predatory spell. But it definitely can be of some use as when it kicks in is crazy powerful.


Suffocating gravetide
40
casting value 6+, predatory spell
8"+8" move. Roll a die for each model in a unit it passes over and deals a MW on a 6
A nice horde killer, less strong than our "stellar tempest", however its utility is that, being a predatoy spell, it will act also in your opponent's turn.


Umbral spellportal
80 pts
casting value 5+, range 18"
you can cast through it only one spell each turn OR move one endless spell through it.
We are not Nagash with Hand of Dust.

 

ARTEFACTS OF POWER
(updated to november 2022)​

You get one artefact for free.
IN 2.0, you could take another one for each battalion... in 3.0 things are slightly different: faction battalions are no mere in matched play and you must pick the core battalions.
There are 6 core battalions, and only 2 of them can give you access to additional artefacts: warlord and Command Entourage.
As prerequisite for each one of those battalions is to field 3 heroes... so, to have 2 additional artefacts you should field 6 heroes.
It can be done but more often than note, you will have at most 1 additional artefact. Given that when you pick a subfaction, the first artefact is mandatory and is the one tied to that subfaction, it's clear that there's a big competition for the additional artefact slot, so let's see what do we have at disposal (some artefacts are so good that you will want a battalion).


There are the generic Core artefacts, then we have Slann, Skinks and Saurus artefact (for a grand total of 16), plus the mandatory “unique” ones available to sub-factions.

Core (universal) artefacts​

Amulet of destiny
the bearer has a ward 6+ (nerfed with the winter FAQ 2021). It's not great, but obviously must be used on heroes with a good amount of wounds, as a carnosaur in a TL list.

Vial of manticore venom.
pick one melee weapon of the bearer, add +1 to wound rolls. There are better things around.

Arcane tome.
the bearer becomes a wizard or casts an additional spell if already a wizard. Now i have the image in an all saurus list, of this oldblood on Carno that casts mystic shield on himself... or arcane bolt, in combo with stomp to deal 2d3 MWs on charge... or lauchon, and charge what you need to kill. Definitely fun.

Seeds of rebirth.
Re-roll recovery rolls for the bearer. The least useful of all universal artefacts.

Slann artefacts​

Zoetic dial
secretly record a certain battle round. at the beginning of that round, heal all wounds taken and reroll all saves. Nah.

Light of Dracothion
once per battle, you can unbind / dispel automatically 1 spell within 15”. Nice to shut down that nasty spell cast with a roll of 11, but it’s so situational I would never pick this one.

Prism of Amintok
Once per battle, pick an enemy unit within 12” and deal from 1 to d6 MWs. Move on.

Itxi Grubs
during EACH hero phase (so yeah, also during your opponent’s) heal 1 wound and can reroll 1 cast / one unbind attempt. This one is solid; it replicates the “rerolling” command trait but also with double healing.

Plaque of dominion
in your hero phase pick a enemy hero within 12”; up til your next one he fights at the end of the fight phase and suffers -1 to cast/dispel/unbind. It can be strong, especially if you plan to move your slann to the frontline, surrounded by warriors / guards. 12” range is pretty limited, though.

Throne of the last Gods
+4 to move and +1 to wounds. More move is nice, but I’m not impressed.

Saurus artefacts​

Blade of realities
pick 1 melee weapon, add -1 to rend and 1 to dam (this one if you target a enemy hero). Nothing exceptional, but can be good on a Sunblood or on a ScarVet on Carno.

Sigils of the Prime Hunter
you can deal additional MWs on a unit you’re in melee with. Another nice item, but not a “must-have”

Bloodrage pendant
+1 to number of attacks if the number of wounds taken is equal or superior to the wounds characteristic. it’s no good.

Skink artefacts​

Incandescent rectrices
When the bearer dies roll a dice. 1-3 it dies, 4-6 it heals all wounds and cancel every remaining wounds allocated to it. I’m not a fan of random effects, but I could gladly take a chance for a double digit Stegadon chief or a EotG.

Cloak of feathers
-1 to hit the bearer, +4 to move and can fly. Stop dreaming, here’s your flying hard-to-hit stegadon with 12” move.

Sacred stegadon helm
Add 1 to save rolls (always) AND 1 to damage made by bearer (only during the charge). Now, the additional dam doesn’t apply to mount’s weapon so it’s not that great by itself, but if you combine the +1 save with the buffs granted by a skink priest or Starpriest, to have save 2+ is trivial.

Sub-faction artefacts​

when you pick a sub-faction (basically always), the first artefact MUST be the one of the subfaction

Starborne - Dracothion’s tail
Godbeast pendant: the artefact got the same exact effect of “incandescent rectrices”, which is cool by itself…. but this one it’s not tied to the skink keyword. Very good.

Starborne - Fangs of Sotek
Serpent God dagger: pick one weapon of the bearer. If you wound an enemy model and that model doesn’t die, roll a die. On a 5+ you kill that model. This can be brutal and game changing… the downsides are that it will happen just once in a while, you cannot plan a tactic on it and your hero will have a target painted on its back.
It’s better to give it to a hero with high mobility, that can actually chase optimal targets.

Coalesced - Koatl’s claw
Eviscerating blade: Pick one weapon of the bearer. For each 6 “to hit” unmodified, you deal 2 additional MWs. Give it to a Sunblood or to a ScarVet on Carno with blade or spear.

Coalesced - Thunder Lizard
Fusil of conflagration: in the shooting phase, you’ve got a 50% chance to inflict MWs to a enemy unit within 12” (from d3 up to d6), breaking the item on a roll of 1. On average, we’re talking about 6-8 MWs in a whole game.
Not that great, but given that you must take it, at least don’t give it to something you want to keep in the rearlines.

Artefacts of the Realms​

in 3.0 the only realm that is actually available is Ghur, and there are no realm artefacts attached to it. Realms artefacts were a thing in 2.0, now this section is no more so i'll put it in spoiler tag just to don't delete it, as who knows?

Spoiler: once there were realms artefacts

You can declare that your army comes from a Realm. At that point, you have access to that Realm’s artefacts (you can find them in the Malign Sorcery book).
Each realm got 12 artefacts (6 weapons and 6 relics) and there are 7 realms, so… I’m NOT going to list all of them, I will pick only a couple of notable artefacts for each realm.


Ghyran
Ghyrstrike: Pick a melee weapon to be: +1 to hit and wound. Give it to a sunblood and watch him rage
Greenglade Flask: Once per battle, in your hero phase, heal D6 wounds.

Ghur
Amberglaive. Pick one melee weapon. Add 1 to hit rolls and 1" to range (up to 3"). Hit your enemies while staying behind that warriors screen.
Gryph-feather Charm. -1 to hits targeting the bearer, and +1" to movement. Powerful and worth some serious consideration.

Chamon
Rune Blade. Pick one melee weapon. It has a Rend of -3. Are you thinking to a ScarVet (on Carno) celestite warspear? me too.
Hydroxskin Cloak. Grants fly. After the bearer moves, pick a unit that the bearer passes across and roll a die. On a 3+, they take D3 mortal wounds. Fly is good and MWs are good.

Aqshy
Thermalrider Cloak. +4" Movement and can fly. Do you remember the skink-only artefact “Cloak of Feather”? Congratulations, now you have also a flying 14" move carnosaur. Have fun.
Ignax's Scales. Negate mortal wounds on a 4+.

Shyish
Ethereal Amulet. Makes the hero immune to save modifiers. Give it to a Sunblood, cast Mystic shield and have a melee dude with save 3+ immune to rend and rerolling 1s.
Ragged Cloak. Once per battle during the opponent's shooting phase: bearer cannot be chosen as the target of an attack until the phase is over. Sometime it can save your life.

Ulgu
Hard to choose, I will name 3 items
Sword of Judgement. Pick one melee weapon. If the hit roll for this weapon against a HERO or MONSTER is 6+ (modifiable), that attack does D6 mortal wounds and the attack sequence ends. This weapon is probably one of the most powerful ones in the Malign Sorcery book.
Spellmirror. If a friendly unit within 6" is affected by a spell, roll a die. On a 5+, they aren't affected. On a 1, the mirror breaks
Doppelganger Cloak. Once per battle, the bearer cannot be chosen as the target of an attack with melee weapons unless the bearer has made attacks earlier in that phase.

Hysh
Aetherquartz Brooch. Each time you spend a command point, you get it back on a 5+. We spend A LOT of command points. Amazing item, ATM one of the best we can pick.
Mirrored Cuirass. Negate mortal wounds on a 5+. On a 6+, pick an enemy unit within 6"; that unit suffers 1 mortal wound. Not that great.

​

 

BATTALIONS​

WARNING: with AoS 3.0, our Faction Battalions are no more legal in matched play.
You can, however, still use them in different games (narrative, mutual agreement between players and so on), and for thise reason i will not erase this part.


Battalions are a vital part of an army, but not a mandatory one, you can play with no battalions at all… this would let you save points (as each battalion comes with a cost) but you won’t have the bonuses granted by said battalion.

Each battalion gives basically 3 things:
- a certain kind of bonus to the units that are part of it
- an additional command point (that alone is worth 50 pts and we need all the CPs we can)
- an additional artefact for your army (given that when you take a subfaction, your first artefact is mandatory, you NEED a battalion to take an artefact of your choice… for example, the Cloak of Feathers or Eeterquartz Brooch)

the downsides are:
- Battalions are COSTLY (around 150 pts on average… to have 2 battalions will eat 15% of your points in a 2000 army. You could field Lord Kroak)
- the choice is limited and some units don’t have a dedicated battalion (poor Saurus Guards…)

Given the cost of Battalions, you don’t want to field them at minimum cost.
Both Starborne and Coalesced armies got 4+1 battalions - the names are identical, but the granted bonuses are different.

Starborne armies​

Sunclaw
Cost: 160 pts
Units: 1 Saurus Oldblood / Saurus Sunblood; 3 units of Saurus Warriors
Bonus: additional -1 to rend to celestite weapons

The battalion is pretty good, your saurus horde will have spears with rend -1, and clubs will have a terrifying rend -2. Remember that this bonus applies also to the weapon of your hero.
It’s melee focused, so one-trick pony, but it’s pretty easily to optimize your army.
Example with Dracothion’s tail: The saurus Oldblood can be on Carnosaur (which will be an excellent bearer of the artefact that 50% doesn’t let him die): move forward your Oldblood, drop a 40 Sauri unit in charge range, charge at 6+ rerollable (Cogs + Hunter’s steed) with your unit and fight with the bonuses granted by the command ability of the Oldblood. In the meantime, LoSaT something to increase the pressure on your opponent.


Firelance
Cost: 160 pts
Units: 1 Saurus ScarVeteran (it can be on CO or on Carno); 3 units of Saurus Knights
Bonus: 1 Mortal Wound on each unmodified roll of 6 on “to wound” for celestite weapons (it applies also to the weapon of the ScarVet)

The battalion is pretty good, as it turns your charging dudes into a potential death machine.
Example with Dracothion’s tail: move forward your ScarVet, drop a 10 Sauri unit in charge range; charge at 6+ rerollable (Cogs + Hunter’s steed) with your unit and fight with the bonuses granted by the command ability of the ScarVet. The spears alone are 23 attacks, and on average 4 of them will generate 2 hits, then you will deal double of the wounds, threatening MWs.
In the following round, LoSaT the unit away and charge with a second unit, maybe buffed also by a Starpriest, to enjoy double MWs on each 6.


Shadowstrike
Cost: 170 pts
Units: 1 Skink Starpriest OR Priest; 1 unit of Terradons OR Ripperdactyls; 2 Units of Skinks / Chama Skinks
Bonus: you can set up units in reserve, and set up this unit at the end of the move phase, anywhere on the battlefield, at more than 9” from enemy.

I’m torned about this battalion. With Dracothion’s Tail you already can call units from reserve… yes, Shadowstrike don’t have the limitation of “must be set within 18” from the Slann”, but LoSaT exists.
With Fangs of Sotek, the units placed in reserve with Shadowstrike won’t enjoy the +3” to move bonus. And for alpha strikes, you WANT to have terradons (or rippers) on the battlefield since the start of turn 1. At least, it includes skinks (a battleline you are going to pick anyway)
So, is it good? yes, more battlefield control is always good and flyiers / skinks blob appearing from nowhere are a threat. Is it worth 170 pts? I don’t think so.
Anyway, you can still drop you terradons and have a reliable charge, but you need cogs and Hunter's steed.


Thunderquake
Cost: 130 pts
Units: 1 EotG OR Stegadon Chief; 3 unit of Kroxigor OR Hunting pack; 2 Bastiladons / Stagadons
Bonus: in your hero phase heal 1 wound to each unit. d3 if within a friendly Slann.

A pretty nice battalion, and also the cheapest one (which is compensated by the fact that the units are costly).
The healing buffs should work better if a kroxigor unit is included (only because in the case of hunting packs, you are going to sacrifice skinks handlers as ablative wounds, and those cannot be healed back), but anyway you want it for the big dinos.
Starborne dinos don’t have the additional wounds granted by Coalesced Thunderlizard, but the battalion works nicely nonetheless.
Healing is always good (you can stack many other healing tricks to keep healthy your big guys: EotG + emerald lifeswarm + celestial apotheosis, for a potential of 4d3 healed wounds) and with Fangs of Sotek you can place your Dinocastle at the center of the board since turn 1.
With Dracothion’s Tail it’s even funnier: place the whole battalion in reserve, LoSaT your Slann wherever you want and drop the dinos around him (that should definitely give the enemy something to think about). And the DT artefact can keep alive and kicking your main dinosaur. Love it.


Eternal Starhost
Cost: 200 pts
Units: 6 battalions plus many other units
Bonus: d3 additional CPs / round.
Usable only in narrative, apocalypse battles with something in the order of 5000 pts per army. Move on.

Coalesced armies​

Sunclaw
Cost: 140 pts
Units: 1 Saurus Oldblood / Saurus Sunblood; 3 units of Saurus Warriors
Bonus: additional -1 to rend to jaws weapons.

The battalion is really strong. The bonus to jaws is less appealing than the one to weapons (granted by the Starborne version), as weapons’ profile is 4+/3+, while jaws are stuck with 5+/4+, but nonetheless it can give a couple of significant boosts:
1 - Coalesced warriors always got 2 jaws attacks (without the need to be more than 14) and Koatl’s Claw hits with jaws at 4+
2 - the bonus works for every unit. The Carnosaur’s jaws of your Oldblood will hit 4 times (at 3+) with rend -2
Of course, this battalion MUST be played with Koatl’s Claw.


Firelance
Cost: 160 pts
Units: 1 Saurus ScarVeteran (it can be on CO or on Carno); 3 units of Saurus Knights
Bonus: +3 to run and charge if wholly within the ScarVet.

Another battalion made to be played as Koatl’s Claw.
+3 to charge is massive, combine it with Hunter’s steed and a Skink Starseer and you will charge 3d6 + 4”. rerollable. On average, you will threaten a 24” bubble.
a 10 knights unit on charge will deliver 70 attacks (rerolling 1s with the spell Hand of Glory), being an excellent target for the Comm. Ab. of the Scarvet (meaning on average 13-14 additional hits). If you squeeze in also a starpriest, the amount of Mortal Wounds on 6s to wound is going to be something.
Your ScarVet can be on Cold One (cheap version) or on Carno. If the latter, when you’ll kill a model, you’re going to run and charge with +3, basically adding 6” to your total move.


Shadowstrike
Cost: 150 pts
Units: 1 Skink Starpriest OR Priest; 1 unit of Terradons OR Ripperdactyls; 2 Units of Skinks / Chama Skinks
Bonus: pick a enemy unit visible to the Priest / Starpriest, add +1 to hit that unit.

No Deep Strike for poor coalesced… if you want some “teleport” to grab distant objectives, you need to insert one unit of those chameleon skinks.
It’s a battalion that works generally with coalesced (no matter the sub-faction), picking the bonus to jaws attacks to Ripperdactyls and the damage reduction.
Select your target, each unbuffed ripper will deliver 4 tearing jaws attacks at 3+ rerollable; buff your rippers with 1-2 command abilities by the ripperchief / stagadon chief, buff them with the Starpriest’ Staff and they should be able to do something.
Coalesced Terradons won’t enjoy particularly Shadowstrike: their main utility is the dropping of MWs, and this is unaffected by the Battalion. Of course, you could use the bonus for the following “standard” attacks.
If you field shadowstrike, you should pick a large unit of 40 skinks with boltspitters: buff them with a Skink Starseer (and a skink Starpriest plus Hand of Glory): we’re talking about 80 shots hitting at 4+, rerolling 1s, triggering 1 MW for each 6 “to wound”. if the Priest Star-stone Staff kicks in, your skinks can also run and have a save 4+.
So yes, a shadowstrike with 6-9 rippers, 40 skinks and 5 chama skinks, would be very powerful. Just protect your squishy heroes.


Thunderquake
Cost: 150 pts
Units: 1 EotG OR Stegadon Chief; 1 unit of Kroxigor OR Hunting pack; 2 Bastiladons / Stegadons
Bonus: in your hero phase choose: the units can be swift (run and still shoot / charge), OR savage (add 1 to the number of melee attacks).

The only battalion that costs more than the starborne version. You know you want to play a Thunderlizard Thunderquake, there’s really no reason to play this battalion with a different sub-faction.
Commander choice:
EotG: support it with emerald lifeswarm and celestial apotheosis, for a potential of 3d3 healing to your guys (which already have damage reduction and 2 additional wounds)
Stegadon Chief as General, buffed also by the command ability of a skink priest… it’s able to deliver 21 melee attacks hitting at 2+.
Generic dinosaurs:
Bastiladon with laser is not that great, but thunderlizard can shoot twice, and swift ones can compensate their awful 5” move.
Stegadon: try to always bring one armed with Sunfire thrower. if you already have a chief with it, go for the Bow.
“lesser” additional unit…
Kroxigor enjoy immensely Thunderquake: each savage kroxy can deliver 5 Maul and 3 jaws attacks.
Savage Salamanders in melee are vicious too (5 burning jaws rend -2 d3 dam? yes please).
Leave home the razordons.


Eternal Starhost
see what’s already being said for Starborne. it’s for Apocalypse.

 

TIPS & TACTICS – STARBORNE
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)​

Premise: Keep in mind that this won’t be a specific guide on all the possible tactics and strategies, I’m not pretending this will cover all the bases, but I’m going to give you just some hint on what you should look when building a Starborne army and planning a tactic.
I’m certain you will be able to exploit the possibilities granted by Starborne, coming up with synergies and builds that here are not mentioned, this is just a friendly intro.

Starborne is an army that relies on:
- a movement / deployment which is usually stronger than your opponent’s (LoSaT / ability to call units from reserve). Always keep in mind that LoSaT gives you the most when you teleport big buffed units.
- increased resistance to battleshock (Bravery 10 means that you often don’t need to spend precious CPs to avoid your lizards running away as puny warmbloods)
- the ability to call reinforcements with Celestial Conjuration (albeit you cannot plan a tactic on it, as those reinforcements usually will be limited to a couple of small units in a whole game).
- the ability to force your opponent to play cautiously (both with Dracothion’sTail and Fangs of Sotek)

As you will see, all Starborne armies favor finesse and smart play, while still being able to deliver concentrated, powerful blows

Starborne Units​

If we look at the bonuses granted by Starborne and Coalesced, it’s pretty clear that some units, while being always a good pick, work better in a certain kind of army.

Starborne LOVE:

Skinks
Large blocks of skinks as battleline work greatly in Starborne, as they don’t gain great bonuses from Coalesced, while they enjoy many of the goodies granted by Starborne.
For example, in the hero phase, a skink priest and a skink starpriest (thanks to Ability, command ability and Hand of Glory spell) will be able to buff a unit, which you can LoSaT wherever you need to deliver 60 shots at 4+ rerolling 1s, triggering mortal wounds on each 6+ to wound.
Skinks in a Fangs of Sotek subfaction get also an additional move and the ability to shoot and run away if charged.
Basically, you will rarely go wrong if you pick skinks in Starborne.

Slann:
Don’t get me wrong: our fav. frog is always a great pick, in any kind of army, but in Starborne they truly shine.
1 – they can help you in summoning units. Not that great but still useful when you know you can spare a spell
2 – in a Dracothion’s Tail he knows 1 extra spell and can re-roll one cast/dispel/unbind in each hero phase, which is powerful

Salamanders
Salamanders are a great unit in any kind of Seraphon army; Starborne salamanders only lose the additional bite attack given by coalesced, but they gain:
1 – resistance to battleshock: handlers work as ablative wounds, and having bravery 10 (instead of their horrible 5) is exceptionally useful to minimize the risk of having your precious sallies run away
2 – a reinforced unit of sallies can be buffed in the hero phase (for example 3+ save with a skink priest and 2+ vs shooting with a Slann), and LoSaT where you need, landing those sweet 8 shooting Attacks

Terradon riders
Terradons is a solid unit that gains nothing from coalesced (scaly skin won’t save your dudes), while can gain nice bonuses from Starborne armies: they rely on move and Fangs of Sotek increases their movement in the first round, making them a great threat since turn 1, forcing your opponent to set-up cautiously.


As a general suggestion, any Starborne army should always include no less than a couple of these units.


OTHER notable UNITS

Skink Priest
Starborne or Coalesced make no difference for the guy, but many skink-based units love Starborne and the Priest will buff ‘em all. It's basically mandatory.

Skink Starpriest / Starseer
Powerfull buffs to all Seraphon, one of them should be always included.

Saurus warriors / knights
They both works in Coalesced and in Starborne, but coalesced usually gives them the most.

Kroxigors / Bastiladon / Stegadon
Coalesced gives more to these units than starborne: Kroxigors jaws are buffed, bastiladons and Stegadons enjoy the scaly skin and the additional wounds with thunderlizard.
With the loss of the faction battalions, there's no more thunderquake; a pity for starborne, it was nice to have healing synergies for a potential of 4d3 healed wounds/turn.

Dread Saurian
you can buff the beast and LoSaT it. Have fun.

Dracothion’s Tail​

DT comes with 2 very strong abilities:
Appear on Command: (for each unit you have on the battlefield, you can set another one in reserve. At the end of the move phase, you can call on the battlefield one or more units from the reserve, setting them within 18" from a Slann and more than 9" from enemy's units.)
Command trait for slann (knows 1 extra spell and can reroll 1 cast/dispel/unbind each hero phase

It’s pretty clear that a DT list should be planned to optimize these goodies.

A Slann / Lord Kroak is mandatory, and you need to exploit the superior placing of units granted by Appear on Command, keeping in mind 3 simple things:
1) - if you call units from reserve, the best ones are those that can already act at their full potential when they arrive on the battlefield: for example, Salamanders can immediately shoot (even if they won’t be buffed)
2 – be ready to have buffs for charge when you plan to call units that must physically assault the target (hunter’s steed, Skink Starseer)
3 – force your opponent to play in a cautious way. 2/3 full units of Sallies or a Dread Saurian that can appear everywhere will almost surely result in a defensive set-up.

Remember also that you can adopt different styles, for example:
- call units one by one, each time going for the soft spot
- go all in (imagine LoSaT your Slann and drop around half of your army on the weakest side of your opponent’s army)

Fangs of Sotek​

FoS comes with 2 very strong abilities:
First to battle: add 3" to move to skinks units, in the first round of battle. It favors alpha strikes without being reliant on teleport.
additional Command ability: allows a skinks or chameleon skinks unit that has been charged, to shoot at the end of your opponent’s charge phase and possibly (on a 4+) move away, thus denying the charge.

First to battle works on every units with the skink keyword, so it’s good on terradons, Stegadons, Salamanders… even if it works only in the first turn, it’s exceptionally powerful, as it will force your opponent to set-up in a defensive position, thus leaving you more room to move and grab key points with LoSaT on lesser units (be them objectives or particular terrains). let’s see:
Terradons? with move 19” (and further buffs) it’s trivial to land the deadly cargo by turn 1
salamanders? buff them with a priest and hunter’s steed: threat a 30” range hitting on 2+
30 Skinks buffed by a starpriest venom, a priest and hunter’s steed: threat a 34” range!

the Command Ability will put fear into your opponent, especially when that big blob of skinks has been buffed by serpent staff: no one is going to charge your front rank of skinks without thinking twice… your opponent will almost always try to deal with them with shooting (and it’s not that hard to have them save on a 5+ and negate rend) or something else, thus forcing him to adapt his play to your will.

 

TIPS & TACTICS – COALESCED
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)​

Premise: as already said for Starborne, this will just be a friendly intro, not a specific guide on all the possible tactics and strategies. I’m going to give you just some hint on what you should look when building a Coalesced army and planning a tactic: it’s up to you the task to discover the possibilities granted by Coalesced, coming up with synergies and builds that here are not mentioned.


Coalesced is an army that relies on:
- physical brawl. the general abilities of coalesced buffs toughness and number of attacks of many of your units.
- aggressive play

Coalesced weakness:
- no LoSaT or deep strike
- low bravery and immunity to modifiers (positive and negative)

Coalesced is a fun army, that doesn’t require much thinking: advance, use flyers and shooting to kill support heroes, buff your main troops and smash.
(well, that's not completely true: you must play tactically to overcome your lack of shenanigans move, but it requires less planning than starborne)

Coalesced Units​

If we look at the bonuses granted by Starborne and Coalesced, it’s pretty clear that some units, while being always a good pick, work better in a certain kind of army.

Coalesced LOVE:

Saurus knights
One of the most buffed unit, as predatory fighters ability gives them TWO additional attacks for each model. They excel in Koatl’s Claw (with the +1 on to hit) and are an excellent target for the Hand of Glory spell, Serpent’s staff and Scarvet Command Ability. If you manage to target a enemy also with the curse prayer, that would be the icing on the cake.

Saurus warriors:
When played in horde, for them are valid the same considerations already said for the Knights: only one additional attack, but quantity has a quality of its own.

Skink Starpriest
the majority of coalesced armies will rely of a massive number of attacks. The Serpent’s staff is one of the most useful ability we can count on. Plus, the Starpriest grants a spell which is always nice.

Big Dinosaurs
Dinos are often a target for multiwounds attack, and scaly skin help them staying alive; that said:
Carnosaurs just love Coalasced, for the additional jaw attack… and they work greatly both in Koatl’s Claw (+1 to hit on charge) and Thunder Lizard (additional wounds).
Bastiladons with solar beam are made for Thunder Lizard and double shooting.
EotG: it’s the only way coalesced have to summon reinforcements to the battlefield, which is nice. Plus, the summoned saurus warriors are buffed by coalesced predatory fighters.

As a general suggestion, any Coalesced army should always include no less than 2-3 of these units.

OTHER notable UNITS

Slann / Lord Kroak:
I would never leave home without one of these, as they are amazingly strong and also our main source for bound endless spells, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see all-sauri lists without our beloved frogs.

Salamanders
Salamanders are a great unit and coalesced salamanders are truly scary also in melee.
Remember that they have only bravery 5 and so, while handlers work as ablative wounds, they trigger losses by battleshock tests. If you run a full block, be sure to have CPs to avoid battleshock, otherwise you could run minimum sized units (single sallies).

Kroxigors
A solid unit to be fielded, where each Kroxy will be able to deal 6 attacks.

Ripperdactyls riders
I’m listing them only because many players own them in numbers.
RR is a poor unit, but at least they gain the additional attack, and with the support of a single CP each of them delivers 5 yaws attacks, so a 160 pts unit does 30+7 attacks. Nothing impressive but I suppose is something?

Skinks
situational, but if you meet the right opponent, skink units with scaly skin are cheap and very durable.

Chameleon skinks
all in all a weak unit, but they give Coalesced the only way to deep strike a unit, so 115 pts for the chance to grab a distant objective could be worth the price.

Dread Saurian
In Thunderlizard you have a 37 wounds monster with scaly skin and additional jaw attack. just throw it in the middle of the enemy and force your opponent to deal with your king of distraction carnifex.

Koatl’s Claw​

KC comes with 2 very strong abilities:
Savagery incarnate: +1 to hit rolls for saurus after a charge
Additional command ability : triggers Savagery incarnate even if the sauri didn’t charged.

It’s pretty clear that a DT list is made to swarm the battlefield with saurus warriors / knights / heroes, and do it in a pretty brutal way.

1 - Common builds will include a solid core of Sunclaw or Firelance Battalion, with saurus blocks supported by heroes, often mounted on carnosaurs. Buff your hordes with skink starpriest (Hand of Glory + Serpent’s staff), the command ability of a Sunblood / Oldblood and possibly also a ScarVet, and drown the enemy under loads of dices and MWs. Give the mandatory sub-faction’s artefact to the Sunblood or the ScarVet.

2 - The downside is that your nice block of warriors is painfully slow (a problem that knights don’t have), so you will be easily the target of charges / shooting… to soften it, an alternative is to focus on defensive design: babysit your horde with a Slann and possibly a Starseer, to have a horde with save 2+/3+ rerolling 1s, then slap an Astrolith bearer for FNP 6+ and raise the dead with emerald swarm.

3 – ATM, the most solid way to run koatl's claw, is to use saurus knights as battleline.

Thunder Lizard​

Last but least, the subfaction for our dinosaurs!
Beast of war: add 2 to the wounds of each behemoth.
additional Command ability: shoot twice with a Bastiladon or activate twice the EotG.
Command trait: add 1 attack to the general’s mount’s weapons (all of them, so the more the better)

Of course TL is designed to field big dinosaurs (Stegadons are even battleline!) and to have a general with a behemoth as mount… Don’t even think to play a TL list with less than 2-3 dinosaurs.
This is the sub-faction that lets you play Stegageddon, but leaving aside such funny but impractical list, it’s a really solid faction.
keep in mind that the mandatory artefact of the TL subfaction is suboptimal at best, so you want at least a battalion to pick the nice ones. Let’s see how you can play it.

1 – pick a Stegadon chief (highly offensive) or EotG (defensive) and then choose any combination between bastiladon / stegadon, complete it with a Slann and some kroxigors / salamanders, then keep at hand something to buff / protect / raise your walking castle of doom (astrolith bearer, emerald lifeswarm). fill the rest of the army with mobile units (saurus knights!).

2 – pick an Oldblood / ScarVet as general: congratulations, you have a 14 wounds carnosaur with 3 forelimbs and 5 jaws attacks, hitting respectively on 2+/3+. Stuck on it a nice artefact (eviscerating blade, or arcane tome) and you’ll hit like a ton of bricks.
Then support you block of saurus warriors with some buffed shooting (laserdons or similar) or field a Dread Saurian for maximum carnage

3 – weird experiments are possible: for example, concentrate on multiple EotG and go for a summoning warriors route.




All in all, we can say that all Coalesced armies favor a brutal and aggressive playstyle, being able to deliver massive blows, with an unparalled violence if confronted to Starborne (or old seraphon, for what matters). Ideally, you force the enemy to defend from you.
However, you must still be careful, as coalesced armies are “slow” (you lack teleports and deep strikes), so you must keep at hand some fast unit to be able to don’t lose battlefield control.
Coalesced armies (as also Starborne ones for what matters, but they can mitigate the issue somehow), are also hungry for CPs and need multiple heroes in key roles to work properly. For example, in a KC list you could want a Slann, a skink Starpriest, a Starseer, a oldblood, a ScarVet, an astrolith bearer… these are already 6 heroes, and with a couple of Endless spells they are gonna eat half of your army points.
You will be forced to take hard choices, because you cannot have everything and, even then, a certain amount of your key heroes will be single squishy models, favorite target by enemy’s “snipers”. Given that we are an army that works on synergies, the loss of a couple of irreplaceable heroes could mean the crumbling of our tactics.

 

POWERFUL BUILDS & TRICKS
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)​

Ok, this won’t be a real “tutorial”, but I think that I could some suggestion on how to exploit single models or a block of a certain unit, to have a strong centerpiece for your army. Nothing new for the members of this community but still helpful for beginners that would like to field something that hurts.
I won’t do theme-based lists (this is @LizardWizard’s job), but I will also give some suggestion on units’ choice to develop a particular tactic.
At the same time, I will also give some hint on tricks (and mind tricks) you could employ to surprise the unwary opponent.
As always, I’m not going to cover all the bases, you are free to experiment, do some mathammer and discover by yourself the various possibilities.

This is a post that can and will see continuous adds-on, as we will discover new cool things.

up til now we have:
stegadon
carnosaur
kroxigor
terradons
skinks
saurus knights
Starborne sallies
slann / kroak
suggestions to keep your dudes alive
suggestions about Realmshaper Engine



The Horned King: Stegadon Chief

This is the most powerful single build available to stegadon (and probably to seraphon)
Basic stegadon got (at full profile):
10 wounds, move 8, save 4+
missile weapons: you can choose between skystreak bow (24” – 3 attacks 3+ /3+ / -1 /3dmg) or Sunfire throwers (1 attack / roll a dice for models in a target unit within 8”, deal MWs on each 5+)
basically, long ranged or anti melee
Melee weapons: 4 different weapons, ALL hitting on 3+/3+/rend -1: 3 meteoric warspear (branded by the chief, 1dmg), 2 massive horns (4 dmg), 2 jaws (2 dmg), 5 crushing stomps (2 dmg). a grand total of 12 meee attacks.
a very respectable statline.
1st step - use the Coalesced faction:+1 attack to jaws weapon: you go to 13 melee attacks.
2nd step - pick thunder lizard subfaction and make the stegadon chief your general with 12 wounds: tnx to the command trait you gain +1 attacks to ALL the weapons of the mount (crew is counted as mount); so:
shooting: 5 javelins by skinks and then 4 Bow or 2 dices rolling for the sunfire thrower (the profile of ST is “attacks = 1; so it turns into “attacks = 2).
melee: Having 4 melee weapons, 3 of them of the mount, you gain 3 attacks for a updated total of 16 Attacks
3th step: start of hero phase: select the Great Drake, add +1 attacks to all hero melee weapons (4): The updated total of you melee attacks is now 20.
4th step: use your command ability on yourself and add 1 attacks to each melee weapon... The final total is 24 melee attacks: 5 warspear +5 horns +6 jaws +8 stomps
5th step: with coalesced, 1/ battle you can use the mount trait beastmaster. +1 attacks to mount's melee weapons: now it's 27 melee attacks: 5 warspear +6 horns +7 jaws +9 stomps
6th step: give your general a cool artefact (for example, Cloak of feathers: -1 to be hit, +4 to move and fly).
There, this is an auto-sufficient build, and it can be improved with a minimal support.
For example, give to it a Sacred Stegadon’s helm for save 3+, stick near it a single puny skink priest and now your stegadon with 3+ save is impervious to rend -1, can run, shoot and charge and all his attacks now hit at 2+.
Or give it a ward save 5+.


The Jaws King: Hero on Carnosaur

Too many variables here. I will try to examine some of the ones that (IMO) are the most effective (and less reliant on external support – I will basically consider only a Starseer, but a Sunblood is great for a carno).
The carnosaur at its full profile got:
2 forelimbs: 3+ / 3+ / - / 2 dmg
3 jaws: 4+ / 3+ / -1 / 5 dmg (these are the big damages you’re looking for). the 4+ to hit becomes a 3+ when targeting models with 7 or less wounds characteristic.
the heroes got:
ScarVet: 6 attacks 3+ / 3+ / - / 1 dmg
Oldblood: 3 attacks: 3+ / 3+ / -1 / 3 dmg. on each 6s to hit it doubles the hits.
IMO some heroes works better in some subfaction then in different ones.

Starborne, Dracothion’s tail.
Place in reserve an Oldblood, with Godbeast pendant.
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use a Starseer to give a -1 to saves to the target unit (for the sake of simplicity, from now on i will treat the -1 to save as the equivalent of an additional -1 rend), call from reserve the Oldblood and place it within the range of the Starseer’s Staff. Your fav. target will be an elite or something with wounds characteristic equal or less than 7.
Charge 3d6 with the carnosaur and activate its command ability for a +1 to hit.
Now you ALL your attacks hit on 2+: 4 spears (rend -2, doubling the attacks for each nat. 6); 3 forelimbs (rend -1), 4 jaws (rend -2), dealing multiple damage with all of them. and when the enemy will kill your oldblood, on a 4+ it comes back at full health.
(side note: with heroic action Their Finest Hour, LoSaT the guy and have your oldblood wound with everything at 2+, saving at 3+)

Coalesced, Koatl’s Claw.
ScarVet, with the Eviscerating blade artefact.
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use the Starseer as described above.
Charge and activate its command ability to double the hits on each nat. 6.
tnx to KC savagery incarnate you gain a +1 to hit, so now you have:
7 spear (rend -1) that on each 6 deal 2 MWs
3 forelimbs (rend -1)
5 jaws (rend -2)
ALL your attacks hit on 2+, and each nat. 6s will generate 2 hits.
and yeah, use Their Finest Hour to wound at 2+ with everything.

Coalesced, Thunderlizard.
Oldblood with command trait Prime Warbeast for +1 attacks; give it something to help keep it alive (Amulet of destiny).
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use the starseer as described above.
Charge and activate the command ability for a +1 to hit.
Now you ALL your multiple-damage attacks hit on 2+:
5 spears (rend -2, doubling the attacks for each nat. 6);
4 forelimbs (rend -1),
6 jaws (rend -2)


The Kroxigor Avalanche

This is related to the Horned King, as it gives its best with a similar set-up.
Kroxigors are heavy hitters. save 4+, 4 wounds, move 8”, they are sufficiently though and fast; each one got 4 Maul attacks and yaws attacks, all of them with rend -1, hitting at 4+ (3+ if nearby a skink unit).
The maul deals 2 dmg, the jaws 1 dmg (with additional MWs for each nat. 6+ on HIT rolls)
For the sake of simplicity I will consider only the maul, but each unit should have also at least a moonhammer:
simplest build: 6 kroxi, 1 Skink Starpriest (430 pts).
1st step - use the Coalesced faction:+1 attack to jaws weapon. The total of melee attacks for each kroxigor is now 6: 4 maul + 2 jaws. 24 + 12 for the whole unit.
3rd step – have your Starpriest babysit them, to give them +1 to hit, serpent’s staff and magical support (for example: hand of glory).
now your unit will have:
24 maul attacks hitting on 3+, rerolling 1s, dealing 2 dmg for each unsaved successful hit
12 jaws attacks, hitting on 3+
plus an average of 6-7 additional MWs.


The Lustrian Bombers

6 terradons + 1 terradon chief (310 pts) + 1 / 2 additional heroes
the idea is to reliably deliver your deadly cargo on the intended target, rolling 6 dices and dealing d3 mortal wounds for each 2+; 6 terradons will deal on average 5 d3 (around 10 MWs), plus the rest of the attacks.
Terradon got move 16” and (other than the deadly cargo) each one got also d6 attacks with the sunleech bolas and 4 attacks with the razor jaws.
Starborne Fang of Sotek gives them +3” in the first turn, Coalesced gives them additional jaws attaks.
A skink priest makes them run and shoot / charge, and +1 to hit, a starseer could make them charge 3d6. But let’s consider the priest.
use hunter’s steed (+1 to run and charge), skink priest and a CP to have them run 6” and suddenly you have:
move 16” (or 19”) +7” for the increased run.
Shoot with the sunleech bolas (average 22 attacks, hitting at 3+).
Charge 2d6+1” (total average 31”/34”!).
Deliver the cargo and enter melee (24 melee attacks hitting on 3+... 30, if you're using coalesced).
Sounds good, right?
Now, imagine you are also using a skink starpriest and the serpent’s staff: all your attacks now deal MWs for each nat. 6S to wound. The number of shooting + melee attacks is on average 46, hitting on 3+; on average, it means 5 / 6 mortal wounds, for a grand total (including the deadly cargo) of 15-16 MWs, plus the normal damage.


The Poisoned Skinks Cloud

30 Skinks + 1 skink Starpriest + 1 Skink priest (225 + 210 pts)
30-skinks unit (with boltspitters to hit at 16” and shield) will do 60 attacks: the priest will take them to a respectable 5+ save even against rend -1, and “to hit 4+”; nat. 6s to wound will deal MWs tnx to the Starpriest and cast Hands of Glory to reroll 1s.
On average you will roll 33 “to wounds”, delivering 5/6 MW (plus normal damage).
Play them as Starborne Fangs of Sotek and the enemy will be terrified by the prospect of charging them, because they will do mortal wounds again AND the charge will fail 50%.


Yippee ki-yay! the Saurus Cowboys

10 knights (220 pts) a ScarVet and a Starpriest
Each knight in a coalesced Koatl’s claw gains an additional jaws attack (they have 2) and a +1 bonus to hit. That alone lets them do seven attacks each (2 lances at 3+, 2 knight jaws at 4+, 3 CO jaws at 2+), threatening double damage with the lances. A grand total of 71 attacks, rerolling 1s (Hand of Glory from the Starpriest).
Support them with a Scar-Vet, doubling the attacks on a nat. 6 to hit (14 additional attacks on average).
And all those attacks will deal MWs on 6s “to wound”… we are talking about more than 10 MWs, plus normal saves (alas, with no rend).
Granted, not all of them will attack due to rule of coherency, but it's still a respectable thraeat. And if you're ready to pay the price by losing some model, you can attack with all of them to delete a nasty target.


Now you see me… Starborne salamanders

A full unit of 2 salamanders is among the best targets for LoSaT.
Make practice and learn how to use them as a rapier that hits like a claymore.
pick your target, buff the sallies with hand of glory to reroll 1s, move the sallies at blast range (positioning them outside of serious retaliation). If you have previously buffed also their save with a skink priest, you can also go for a charge.
In the following round move them on the other side of the battlefield and repeat the process… in the meantime you could provide some other buff.
Basically buff them, move them, blast & chomp, rinse & repeat. Practice the tactic… sometime it won’t work but more often than not you will obtain solid results and you will force your opponent to play your game.


The MWs’ Storm - Kroak
One of the best tricks available to Seraphon armies is the ability to deal a large amount of MWs tnx to various abilities that interact with the shooting / fight phase (Serpent’s staff on top of them), or simply by the unit itself (hello Salamanders).
So, it’s sufficiently trivial to build a list focused on dealing MWs… but obviously it needs also the most classic support of MWs source: magic.
Kroak + Astrolith bearer: 580 pts.
Lord Kroak got a +2 to cast, the AB gives additional 6” and another +1, stuck the bonus of Sage’s staff on Kroak for a +4 to cast; use an arcane vassal to increase up to 12” the range of spells (remember that range increases work also on endless spell).

Lord Kroak.
1,2,3 - cast 3 times Celestial deliverance (range 16” from the vassal) with increasing casting value: 7+, 8+, 9+. You have a +4 to cast it.
4 – cast comet’s call. with a 4+ you will succeed on a roll of 3+; on a 6+ you will hit d6 targets.
Lord Kroak alone is going to deal an average of 10-11 d3 MWs, basically 20-22 MWs in a single round of casting. Sounds pretty good.
Of course, variations are possible (you may need life-saving spells, or stellar tempest or spells as Purple Sun for a more focussed firestorm), but you get the idea.
...and with the endless spell Lauchon the soulseeker, you can do it in T1!


Hard as a Rock

You have a melee general and you wanna keep it alive? use artefacts and spells and stack their effect for maximum protection.
Spells: Control Fate (Starseer: +1 to saves); mystic shield (+1 on saves), Slann C.A. (+1 saves vs shooting), Blazing starlight (Starpriest: gives to a enemy unit -1 to hit)
Abilities: Priest staff (+1 to saves, skink only)
Artefacts: Stegadon helm (+1 saves, skink only), cloak of feathers (-1 to be hit and fly, skink only), Gryph-feather Charm (-1 to be hit)
as you can see, by combinations of items and spells, it’s trivial to have a hero with saves 3+, ignoring some rend, and with -1 to be hit


Life always wins

Wanna play war of attrition? Heal your dudes!
the Emerald Swarm endless spell is your friend: not only it heals 1d3 but it also raises dead models so it’s extremely useful to increase the durability of your saurus horde.
The Astrolith Bearer irradiates a 12” bubble of 6+ FNP (feel no pain – ignore wounds / mortal wounds on a 6+).
EotG: can heal d3 wounds to each seraphon unit within 12”
Slann spell – celestial apotheosis: heal 1 or d3 wounds
Heroic recovery: heal up to d3 wounds to a hero.
Prayer: Heal - d3 wounds to a model
To keep hordes alive, favor Emerald lifeswarm and 6+ FNP.
For big dinosaurs everything’s good, and you could heal 3d3-4d3 wounds to a single model


Realmshaper Engine - placement tips

not something you can optimize, but it’s useful to know how you can employ our terrain.
Any Realmshaper Engine must be set in your territory, more than 3" from any objectives and other terrain features.
You must garrison the terrain with a seraphon wizard or priest if you want to use its effect. (a unit can be set up as a garrison at the start of a battle if the terrain feature is wholly within the unit’s deployment zone. Alternatively, a unit can garrison a terrain feature instead of making a normal move if all of its models are within 6" of the terrain feature, and there are no enemy models already garrisoning it. this also means that you cannot LoSaT into it)


Given that you can place the RE at more than 3" from an obj, you can set it in your deployment zone to garrison it immediately, and control the obj with your garrisoned unit/s
And yeah, you could garrison it with your slann, and keep the saurus guards not garrisoned, but hidden behind it, to negate LoS to them and grant total safety to your main dude.

 

I have preemptively liked all your post @Killer Angel, your overviews are always great!

 

fixed! tnx.