So, by my calculations, at this morning's exchange rate, getting a Dread Saurian dropped off by my postal carrier would run me a bit more than US $230. (That's about 157 Skinks, I think.) Does anybody here use one? It sure is a beautiful model. I'm not experienced enough to know whether it's worth its points value on the battlefield, but that's only part of why I collect this army. I've never bought anything from Forge World before, but locals really talk up the quality of their sculpts, materials, and casting. Cheers!
There are some fans of the Dread Saurian on this board. Several of them have scratch built one starting with a massive conversion of various toy plastic dinosaurs.
If I ever build one I'll make my own as well. I am not a fan of the sculpt. It looks like a giant scaly rat to me and the spikes are out of proportion. And if I spent that much money I want something I really like. So if you like it: Go for it! You can have lots of fun painting and playing it, that's for sure. There are some quite strong lists possible with it as well.
I'd build my own if I ever hit Seraphon back up again at some point in the future. It's an impressive thing on the table, but actually with a bit of work a custom one can look better.
My own DS arrived last week, and I still have to test it on the battlefield. I've got some ideas for it, though... You need to protect and buff the beast, so a list should involve a Slann with Vast Intellect and a skink starpriest: Mystic shield, Curse of Fate, Starlight and serpent staff, teleport it (he can move with a 5-6 and you can ignore the 1's) and have it charge with the +1 granted by curse of fate and possibly another +1 for the Slaan's constellation. Be sure to have some shooting if the opponent places some screen, and then enjoy the carnage keep in mind that an additional value of the DS is that the enemy will focus on it all the attentions, leaving more room to the rest of your army to go for objectives and similar.
Yeah the maximum buffed DS is quite a beast. IIRC the max buff was: - Slann constellation - Slann's Command ability (people keep forgetting that one because normally it is mediocre, but a FLYING Dread Saurian is just too funny. - Celestial Rites - Curse of Fates - Serpent Staff - Mystic Shield - Starlight and then teleport it to the enemy and attack something
My one was based on a $50 quite realistic and detailed toy from eBay. I scratch built the armour from plastic containers and am in the process of painting! I had a lot of fun designing the armour.
And the Dread Saurian does not have the "SERAPHON" Keyword, or? The Keyword is "CELESTIAL SERAPHON". I think its an error in the Warscroll, it has to be "CELESTIAL, SERAPHON". I suspect it is a comma error.
Haha I didn't even notice! Yeah that's a missing comma. And while we're at it: Skinks don't have the Skink keyword (just Skinks) so technically a Stegadon cannot command them. Also a Slann Starmaster cannot use any Command Trait because he doesn't have the "Slaan" keyword... ...this is embarrassing GW.