I have a small local tournament coming up soon and I fancied trying something a bit different to my usual kind of list. Of very important note is that the tournament organisers are basically using the GW warrior’s code thing for the restrictions. As a result of this bound monsters can be taken as special choices. Therefore, it is my intention to try and fit two carnosaurs and a Slann into my army. My list as it stands at the moment is: Slann of High Magic, BSB, standard of discipline, dispel scroll, focus of mystery and soul of stone Scar Vet, cold one, gw, dragonhelm and dawnstone 24 Saurus, w/ banner and muso 2 x 11 Cohorts, w/ 1 krox, banner and muso 2 x 10 Skirmishers, javelins 2 x Carnosaur (the bound monster variety) 2 x 3 Rippers 2 x Ancient Stegadon, sharpened horns 1 x Salamander, w/ snack This all clocks in slightly under 2400. My main questions which I was hoping you guys could help me with are as follows: - Two bound carnosaurs and a cowboy vs. a scarnosaur and a bound carnosaur. An armour of destiny scarnosaur (with no upgrades on the carno!) clocks in at almost exactly the same price as a bound carnosaur and the cowboy listed above. As nice as a rider would be, for the extra leadership, bit more killing power and the possibility of upgrading the carno, I can’t help but feel I would be better off with the cowboy. - Slann build. I’m not sure whether or not it might be better to simply drop all the extra gubbins and roll with a death or shadow slann with a scroll as it would free up a fair amount of points. Soul of stone is a bit of a luxury purchase for me. I would, albeit reluctantly, drop it if there were points needing to be made up. - Bits and pieces. I’ve kind of gone off salamanders and I’m not sure if a single salamander in this kind of list would be worth it. Two won’t fit due to rare points constraints with the double steg combo. Perhaps drop it for a skink priest with a cube? Or would that be a mistake? Anyway, thanks for taking the time the read through all this. Would love to hear any general comments you guys think of outside the stuff I’ve asked above. Cheers!
To address your concerns: -I like the double Carno + cowboy act. I think the cowboy works better on a Cold One. -Your Slann seems a little too unprotected for my tastes, but that's your call. Soul of Stone has always been nice in my games. Not sure what else to give him since I'm a big TG guy, lol. -One Sally should be fine. It's better than none! The big thing I see is that you have quite a lot of Rippers. The two Carnosaurs should serve the same purpose as the Ripper units. If I were you I would drop one of them and use the spare points to beef up your Saurus or the Skrox. 24 Saurus seem a bit wimpy for 2400. 11-and-1 Skrox seems the same. Almost pointless to me. I'd combine the two Skrox units. I'd lean towards beefing up the Saurus though. You'll need at least one decent combat unit and those guys are it. I guess I'm harping on the "anvil" part of a hammer and anvil army. You have lots of good hammers; 8 to be precise; but really only one good anvil unit. More staying power is never a bad thing. So yeah, that's my thoughts. Looks like a fun list though! Sure to cause lots of mayhem, haha.
Thanks for the feedback! Looking back now at the list I can see what you mean. 24 Saurus probably won't be able to achieve much at this points level. I think you are right in saying I should look to increase the unit size by a bit. My thoughts with the Skrox were that they are pretty mobile units which can work along the flanks to help clear space for the big nasties. That and I feel bad for not having used them since the old book! Also, I think I might have been a bit too tired when I did this list last night. Looking back, there is no way all that stuff can fit in. I think I forgot to put in sharpened horns when I added it all up or something. Dropping the Ld banner, one unit of rippers and the salamander allows me to bring the Saurus unit up to 35 with full command. The list now comes in at the right points (sharpened horns and all!). Any thoughts on the Slann build? I'm still unsure about loremaster of high magic vs death vs shadow. A cheap BRB slann would free up some more points but the flexibility of high magic is pretty nice to have. Edit: Another possibility if I go with a cheap BRB Slann is switching the final unit of rippers for a Salamander and upgrading the scar-vet cowboy to an old blood with the glittering dawnstone halberd combo (not quite enough lord points for a GW sadly).
Are you planning on putting the Slann in the Saurus unit, or running him solo? If you're going solo I'd try to make him ethereal. That's a pretty good defense as long as you keep him out of combat. Being the BSB you don't really want him in combat anyway. If he's going into the Saurus I think he's fine. 4+ ward and 5 wounds are handy for being in the front row. If you like the flexibility of High Magic but want to cut out some points, why not drop Loremaster? You can still feasibly swap out to Death or Shadow if the game dictates that you'll need it. He'll be like a souped up BRB Slann.
My plan with the Slann was to more or less run him solo. Probably start him off in the Saurus or Skinks, depending on the amount of ranged threats, and then move him out. I figure most of the stuff that can threaten him will be busy dealing with the four beasties lurching forwards. I've never actually used an ethereal Slann before. Aside from the high points cost, the fact that he cannot join units scares me a bit. I guess it is something I can try out though. I hadn't really considered taking high magic without loremaster. The four extra swappable spells seems like such a great deal. Again though, I've got some time to try out some different combinations.
I also don't think ethereal is worth it, too many points and too many things can still slip though. Put him in a skink skirmisher bunker behind the saurus is a pretty safe place. With your build you should be dominating the flanks.