These lists are both designed to take on all comers at a local tournament and to serve as the backbone for 2500 lists. First list Lore of Life Slann Becalming Cogitation Focused Rumination BSB Cupped Hands Skink Priest Lvl 1 Dispel Scroll Engine of the Gods Scar Vet Blade of Chotek L. Armor/Shield Dragonbane Gem 31 Saurus Warriors Full Com Hammer and Anvil of the army 10 Skink skirmishers Harass and cannon fodder for counter charge 10 Skink skirmishers Harass and cannon fodder for counter charge 19 Temple Guard Full Com Banner of Eternal Flame Ironcurse Icon This plus the Slan makes it 20 allowing it to garrison the Watch Tower 3 Salamanders with extra skinks Anti infantry 1998 Pts The army revolves around 3 CC units, the Saurus, TG and Stegadon and for the lore of life to provide buffs to each unit and keep the Stegadon up. 2nd list Lore of Light This list deviates from standard lists a little because I won't have lore of life so I won't be using Templeguard. Slann Focused Rumination Becalming Cogitation Higher State BSB Crown of Command Cupped Hands Skink Priest Engine of the Gods Dispel Scroll Scar Vet GW L. Armor Dragonhelm 30 Saurus Warriors Full Com 24 Saurus Warriors Full Com 10 Skink Skirmishers 5 Chameleon Skinks 3 Salamanders with extra Skinks 1996 Pts. This army focuses on the Lore of Light and throwing big dice at it to buff all my units at once with increased WS, Init, attacks and more. The slann can either float around alone (and due to higher state and Crown should be fine) or he can go into one of the Saurus blocks (again higher state protects him). The reason I chose no Templeguard is when using lore of life you throw a lot more dice at each spell and your chance of multiple miscasts in a game is much higher. I could move the pts around a little and get a Banner of Eternal flame on the Slann and throw him into a saurus block if faced with stiff regen units. So what do you think of each list and the benefits/Disadvantages of each.
Personally, I think the second list is better. Though the EOTG is really not competitive. I'd take a normal ancient steg with blowpipes and use it as a huge shooting platform, and if you save the points from dropping the EOTG, put on a Skink Chief with the Spear giving you 2D6+1 instead of D6+1 impact hits. As you said you want your steg to do some CC damage this might be a slightly more optimal list. Camo Skinks are a real must in tourny lists. Taking out War machines before they destroy your steg or start hammering at your big saurus blocks. Also I tend to like 2 squads of saurus ( I run 20/20) to use in tandem as an alternitive hammer and anvil. It means that even is setup isnt great and your positioning is out then it might not be so bad. Sallys in. Super Cognition, again super. Thats my input anyway. Good luck with it and if i had to pick. I'd choose list 2!
I agree I like the second list as well. THis was really helpful to see because I'm trying to build a 2000 point last as well for a tournament.
I'm working on a tourny list at 2k too. But I'm having trouble with defensive magic. I dropped a skink priest with a scroll for another sally. Still have cupped hands of course I think I should be alright though, we'll see..