Engine is much stronger in melee than it was before, both in defense and offense. You can easily stack Save bonuses on it with the Coalesced damage reduction to make it nearly unkillable, and +2 wounds from Thunder Lizard makes it much more difficult to snipe with mortal wounds. It has the exact same damage profile as a regular Stegadon, but it can also take the Sacred Stegadon Helm and use it for all of the Stegadon attacks, which is awesome. You can't re-roll hits or wounds from the old Thunderquake any more, but with the number of command points we generate you can easily get to hitting on 2+ (with reroll 1) and boost your attack numbers up. If all you used the Engine for was summoning Skinks then it has definitely been nerfed, and I'm going to miss the 25" D6 no line of sight sniper shot, but overall it seems to be more useful at everything else.
I bought my EotG from eBay build and painted, but if I had the rest of the parts I would consider unbuilding, magnetising and painting again where needed. I'll maybe do it anyway if I buy another Stegadon, so both are magnetized and they just share components.
I think 5-10 in any list with a Slann is going to be standard competitively, and I just can't see people skipping the Slann (or Kroak) in the new book. Extra CP every turn, 3/4 spells with +1-3/1-2 to cast/dispel, possibly with re-rolls, a decent spell lore, etc... It's not that Guard are a bad unit, just that other things far out-perform them. They're average-ish (or even a bit above average) for their price point, while Saurus Warriors are contesting for best infantry in the game, and knights are also fantastic in coalesced lists where they get 7 attacks because of the 2 jaw profiles and +3 to run and charge. Units of 20+ Skinks with the serpent staff buff from a starpriest in Fangs of Sotek are also extremely good at 60 points per 10.
yep, but it loses the ranged attacks of a regular stegadon. And occupies a hero slot... a thing to consider, given the amount of synergies we need (which are granted by heroes). IMO its power has decreased, in front of a points increase
It also does more damage and is harder to kill and more reliably heals everything around it, so maybe its justified?
mwha, it's become a capable healbot with significant range & the attack option has changed to be more reliable as it now allows you to pick between the short range AoE or the long range nuke. Making it far more likely to actually do something usefull. instead of for example rolling the short range attack when you are far away form enemies. It's got more of a sensible role now. Though yeah, it taking up a hero slot is a massive drawback. Imho, the limits on heroes can be a bit weird depending on the type of army you field.
I hate that EotG have become even less controllable. But I'm not giving up on it yet. He takes hero slot, but also can have artefact and command trait and only one of the two monster skink heroes. I find funny that it is the only unit, that takes artillery slot. Like, who in the right mind might want to take more than 1 of it?
Like SkinkBait said, as stupidly awesome as it may sound, the unit is not the same as the keyword. If that were the case, the only units you wouldn't be able to take as battleline would be kroxigors, dread saurians, and slann starmasters.
They are bascially our auric hearthguard. Just take a couple units of 5 to soak wounds for the Slann.
yeah guard didn't get the love they needed, 2 wounds was a nice start point... but damn did they trail off I feel like someone needs to make a meme with the "not gonna lie they had us in the first half" as we look at the stat line only and then the abilities portion of the guard warscroll lol
If only Eternety Warden had CA to give more attacks or damage to Temlpe Guard and they had sv 3+. They would be GREAT.
if only they had left them the way they were. all they needed to do was standardize the distance on the buff auras (there were like 3 different distances from either a leader or the EW, just make them all 12" and call it good) and give them a second wound, and then bump them to 90 or 100 points each MSU. they already needed the eternal starhost to be good and that got destroyed, so it really wouldn't have mattered.