AoS Carnosaurs- the best monster in AoS

Throughout time, about 2 people have asked this question; "What is the best monster in AoS?"

The answer might surprise some, but the answer likely is the saurus oldblood on carnosaur, followed closely by the scar veteran on carno. Why they are so good, and why you should never leave home without one is due to a multitude of reasons, so let's break it down.

First and foremost, we have to consider where we're taking it, and what we're slapping on. For the oldblood, you will almost ALWAYS want to take blade of realities. Flat boost in rend is always appreciated, and going from rend -1 to -2 is a huge difference. For scar veterans, they dont synergize as well with the blade of realities, but they do blow the oldblood out of the water when using the koatl's claw eviscerating blade. When it comes to sub factions, there really is no wrong choice. In starborne, you can easily move them around and drop them at crucial locations, a tried and true method from the old tome. However in Coalesced, carnosaurs go from another semi punchy monster to true nightmares. An extra jaw attack on damage 5 weapons is already a huge boost in damage. coupled with scaly skin means they are shockingly resilient. However we should not stop there as we can do more. Thunder Lizard gives you some durability, but what we're really eyeing is koatl's claw. An increase in accuracy, a great artifact and command trait ties in to make one pain train.

Now we can move on to the fun part, sticking your carnosaur in combat. First and foremost is target priority, focusing down something that is a focal point for the enemy, or something that poses a huge threat to your carno. Move it in, and then charge if you're in Koatl's Claw for that sweet +1 to hit. When in combat, make sure you set the sacred asterism to give you an extra attack. While this is already good on the carnosaur itsef, it truly shines on the rider's weapons. For the oldblood, you can expect 4 attacks going off on a 2+ to hit, 3+ to wound and flat 3 damage (4 against heroes!) at -2 rend. The scar veteran simply increases the likelyhood of the eviscerating blade going off, as 2 mortal wounds is nothing to ignore. Another thing you will want to consider is burning a command point to reroll hits of 1, making your carno all the more accurate and ensuring you land each hit. Using this combo, there is little in AoS that can survive a single round of combat with this doom stack. So far the only things that i have seen come out (and that is with some heavy damage) are bone reaper castles, and the largest of mega-gargants getting exceptionally lucky.

Finally we come to an analysis, why is this so good? While you could argue you're pumping a fair bit into one gimmick, I would say the opposite is true. Given Koatl's Claw and the ability to have so many deathstacks, your opponent is swamped on what to prioritize. There is also the easy fact that we have access to plenty of cp, and artifacts are easy for us to come by. And third, the amount of damage it can output for a little over 200 points is brutal. This combo can easily take out something twice it's value, and the only way to have any hope of survival is to invest an astronomical cost to keep a unit alive, far more than the cost of the buffs on this carnosaur. I would also like to point this out, in a 2k point game, even if it is eventually killled, given scaly skin and the fact that it is a murder machine, your opponent will likely be over investing in trying to kill one model.

With that, I conclude my TedTalk on why carnosaurs are an auto include for seraphon, thank you for your time

 

My favourite recipe:
1) Take an Oldblood on Carnosaur;
2) Take thunder lizard (+2 wounds, +1 attack on jaws);
3) Give him Prime Warbeast (+1 attack on paws and jaws);
4) Take sunclaw templehost (rend on jaws becomes -2);
5) Take blade of realities, giving Fusil to any other hero (Spear becomes rend -2);
6) When you know you are going in combat, use Great Drake asterism on him (+1 attack on all weapons).
bonus) if you chose the realm, chose Ghur, so for 1 CP you can ignore degradation.

Should I even mention, how much carnage it is for mere 230 pts?

Objectively, however, I believe that the best seraphon monster is a thunderquake bastiladon. I will never exchange it for stegadons, unless they are nerfed again. I like the damage of carno, but the damage is not everything. Tactical depth, which bastiladon provides us with, is immesurable.

Model-wise, however, Carno is an absolute winner, unless you count in Dread Saurian.

 

I made a list like that not long ago. I killed Alarielle in turn 1.

For extra synergy, a Slann+Cogs for extra movement and/or Starseer for its spell.

 

It's so tempting to run one big carnosaur in Thunder Lizard. But I think I like Koatl's Claw for the synergies and CP farming trait. Plus, it's kinda funny to see your opponent's surprise that everything is still hitting on 2s even if the Carnosaur is at half health and fighting a -1 to hit unit

 

Will also add to that strategy that if you're not able (or don't want) to run him straight into combat turn 1, trying to have him shoot a 1-wound model out of an enemy infantry unit before charging him into your primary target is awesome, because as long as he's killed a single model he can run and charge for the rest of the game.

 

I really like the engine of the gods with a cloak of feathers. All of the effects are useful, he can do an engine-nado, heal, summon warriors. He certainly slaps in combat as well

 

Is it ever worth it to take two carnos at once? I have built an Old Blood on a carno, but I have the parts for either a scar vet on carno or a skink oracle on trogglodon. I am leaning more towards a saurus heavy list, but since I already have the one carno built (and I have a scar vet on cold one) I'm not sure what to build next out of my start collecting kit.

 

Scarvet and Oldblood have different command abilities and both have their place. Carnosaurs have pretty good damage for their points. You can have scarvet on cold one, if you are tight of points, but if not, carno is preferable. I wouldn't build Trog without Scarvet and Oldblood.

 

Take all this with a grain of salt, as I'm not very good, but I've run two Carnosaurs (one of each) a few times and had some luck with it.

Also it just looks cool to have them both out there.

 

I've used both a couple of times, they do really well when they get to hit first. They're easily our most fragile dinosaur (Troglodon's about the same, but it can heal) and when they're on the table most of the time my opponent loves to focus them. It's generally best to keep them behind a big group of Knights to use their CP to buff the Knights, and then move in to finish off whatever the Knights don't kill.

 

I run mine with a support slann+astrolith bearer+Engine of the gods package. Ive really liked the extra healing and the 6+ dpr from the bearer. Helps keep them going just a little bit longer.