I finaly got my battle tome and I was looking at my favourite units (Saurus Guard and Eternity Warden, yeah boohoo, now move on Ecozh). What suprised me is that the command ability of the Eternity warden is comparable to that of the Old Blood but with a important difference; it is only usable on Saurus Guard. All other stats are comparable to that of an Old Blood (whose ability affects any Saurus unit). So I was really wondering if I am missing something here. Unless you want to use the eternity warden as extra wounds (more expesive than 5 Saurus Guard) I see no competative reason to take this fluffy hero. (note; I really like the fluff, model, so I will use him anyway ).
As far as heroes on foot his damage potential is a lot higher than an oldblood on foot so he could be used in a heavy saurus guard based army instead of saurus oldblood and hes also a great protector of the slann since he has 7 wounds so a nice back up to protect ur slann if ur sarus guard die or get into a fight up the battlefield.
In my opinion, the only reason to take an Eternity Warden over an Oldblood is if all your Saurus units are Saurus Guard. The Eternity Warden should average more damage output and has the added benefit of being extra wounds for your Slann.
One thing to think about, is there any reason to take anymore than 5 guard? You can take 5 saurus knights with many more attacks, or warriors with effectively twice the number of attacks. the obvious answer is to use those points on a carnosaur
I'm using 15 guard in my Kroak Box formation. With Kroak at the front of the formation to take advantage of his anti-swarm attacks bolstering his already considerable damage output. Then 15 guard in units of 5 each for damage pass off and offensive force. Outside of running offensive Slann though I can't think of a reason to have more than a basic 5 man guard squad to defend a caster slann.
10-15 guard gives heros nearby -1 to hit in shooting according to the basic rules. 10 is the bare minimum for it, but the buff is removed easily if one goes down. Which will happen if taking wounds for Slann/Kroak. 15 is 300 points, but 30 wounds, 12 to chew through to remove the -1 to hit. Of course, this is also without considering the amount of Skinks you can get for that, with 5 guard behind to take wounds for the frogs.
Yeah it should be 3 models. I'm not sure if he might be thinking of something from 40k or something, but last I checked it was still a 3 model threshold.
I was under the impression that it was 10 models. My apologies. edit- Why you might ask? Because 10 is the minimum for most basic battleline, and that makes sense to my brain for some reason. 3, does not. Guess I've been playing it wrong for a while. Not that I've had many games where it's mattered.