Been fiddling around with the new battletome and noticed a few key things - the main one being, Im not sure I want to bring a non-Kroak Slann in this list. In Coalesced, he only gets a single spell choice from the Lore ( the obvious choice for many units of Saurus being either the teleport or the extra Rend. But - he only gets one, and that's a lot of 275pts to sit around and buff a single unit all game. Warriors are insanely good at objective holding, and I highly recommend bringing a bunch of them. I might try something like these two lists next : LEADERS Oldblood on Carno (285) Starpriest (130) Astrolith Bearer (140) Saurus Oldblood (130) BATTLELINE Warriors x10 (200) Warriors x10 (200) Aggrodon x3 (210) Aggrodon x3 (210) Kroxigar x3 (175) BEHEMOTH Stegadon (300) 1980/2000 OR to bring the Big Frog himself, LEADERS Kroak - 395 Scar Vet - 255 Astrolith - 140 Starpriest - 130 BATTLELINE Warriorx10 - 200 Warrior x10 - 200 Warrior x10 - 200 Aggrodonx3 - 210 BEHEMOTH Bastiladon w/ Solar Engine- 265 1995/2000 Questions and input welcome!
Work has been nuts but finally got a chance to come back and bump this thread with an update. Got to try the Kroak list against Kragnos + the Mammoth Boys. SUPER Impressed by the warrior-coalesced durability. They ate so many attacks, it was a little unreal. (In my territory, and all-out defence for +2 to negate some of the big rend, then the -1 damage from coalesced + the 6+ ward save from the astrolith.) Kroak as always just put out a stupid number of mortal wounds spells, great addition if you wanna go a bit more competitive - but I feel like I'm gonna leave him on the shelf for friendly games. Tried the priest with the monster heal this game instead of the run+charge. The Carno kept taking some massive hits but healed more off of the Heroic Ability than the spell. So might swap back cause it wasn't too impressive for the extra 2-3 wounds per turn when he stayed near the Engine anyway for 'Fight at Top Profile'. Speaking of, the Carno was an absolute monster with his rolls - and just had some super unlucky save rolls on behalf of the beastclaw raiders. I think in the 2nd turn I hit with every attack but 1 forearm on the Carno, and a Stonehorn, between his save + his ward took 0 damage. Was very upset lmao. Bastiladon, fantastic for sniping out unwanted heroes. Profiled a few big mammoths early on before they got into range. And a great follow-up unit once your warriors are stuck into combat.
Thanks for the battle report! Everyone seems to be trying the Trog Bomb and the Ark of Sotek Basti, so it's good to hear some positive news from the alternative sides of our army!
Yeah, Starborne seemed really strong so I thought I'd lean more into my beefy boi dinos haha. I really like the new Koatls' Claw rule, and the warriors finally fit their description as 8 foot tall crocodile bruisers haha. The only thing about the book that perplexes me is the Kroxigar ruling. Battleline in KC, pointed to basically include the -1damage for what they do, but.... synergize with skinks? Who gets 0 bonuses for that half. I feel like they should either have made them beefier and dropped the skink rule, or moved them as a conditional Starborne battleline and made the synergy with skinks stronger. Theyre just sitting in a really weird awkward place right now where they feel like they don't belong in either list.
Yeah, I hear that. But I think Games Workshop had a challenge balancing troops for both factions, since they are so different in each. Personally, I think they did okay here. I see it this way: In Coalesced, Kroxigor are boosted combat troops to keep them potent relative to Saurus. Coalesced will still often have skink screens, because they're cheap, and Kroxigor behind a skink screen with their 2" range can sometimes be it of range, and sometimes pile in and counter-strike (and still bite) after the opponent hits the skinks, which is what the Warspawned are designed to synergize with. In Starborne, Kroxigor are still brutes, relative to Starborne Saurus, but here there are an abundance of skinks to synergize with. Of course, they aren't as strong here, but battleline Kroxigor didn't really make sense in Starborne, and barking requirements are easy to meet with cheap skinks anyway.
I've watched a few Trog Bomb games online, and people are still learning it and not playing it all that well imo, but the results have been interesting. They start off with a bang, wiping out key enemies and scoring a lot of objective points. But without strong troops, they have trouble holding off the enemy, mostly relying on the creation of screens though summoning and trying not to get shot. As the Starborne player makes mistakes, they start to lose their precious cosmic nodes. This reduces their effective range for all their magic and cosmic abilities, and reduces the influx of cosmic power points. It becomes a struggle to hold off the enemy. However, they usually are able to keep the opponent focused on killing wizards, and are able to maintain the lead in the score, which is what counts.