AoS 2k list: December Tournament

[Kurufinwe]

New to the Age of Sigmar and playing in a tournament in December. Could use any thoughts or advice on my strategy/army.

Allegiance: Seraphon
Heroes
-Slann Starmaster (260)
General
Command Trait: Vast Intellect
Artefact : Incandescent Rectrices
- Engine of the Gods (220)
Artefact : Coronal Shield
- Skink Starpriest (80)
- Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)

Battleline
- 10x skinks (60)
Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
- 10x skinks (60)
Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
- 10x skinks (60)
Boltspitters & Star Bucklers

Units
- 6x Ripperdactyl Riders (280)

Behemeths
- Bastiladon (280)
- Bastiladon (280)

Formation
- ShadowStrike Starhost (180)

Endless Spell
- Chronomantic Cogs (60)

The gameplan for me is to use the rippers to take out a high value target like a hero/general or large unit early, and use the battleline skinks as blockers if needed for my engine/slann so they can summon more units to eventually overwhelm the enemy. Also bastiladons because I enjoy their laserbeams. My summonable units is somewhat limited though. I have as extras:
40x skinks
30x saurus warriors
5x saurus knights
1x skink starseer
1x saurus oldblood
1x scar-vet on cold-one
1x scar-vet on carno
1x saurus astrolith bearer

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 91

 

[LizardWizard]

A few observations:

You would probably get more fire power by dropping one of the Bastiladons to add in 4 Razordons while also maxing out one of the units of Skinks in your Shadowstrike Starhost. Then your Skinks will get the battalion bonus and you razordons should be able to keep pace with damage the bastiladon would have contributed. Plus Razordons have the added bonus of disincentivizing enemy charges.

If you are only bringing cogs for extra Celestial Conjuration points then why not bring the Balewind Vortex instead? It cost 20 MPP less and gives the Slann a +1 to saves. Unless you plan on needing the extra movement from cogs at some point.

Also, if you plan to go a summoning route then you don't really want to be using spells on your Slann. I know curse of fates can be pretty awesome on an EotGs, but anything over 6 is very useful. You also already have access to Summon Starlight from your Skink Starpiest. Perhaps it is worth it to drop VI for GR. You will get an extra 3 Conjuration points and gain a second teleport to continue adding to the pressure of your earlier alpha strikes.

 

[Aginor]

My main concern would be melee alpha strikes.
Your list has....7 drops I think, and you don't have a lot of bodies on the table.

It will hit pretty hard though, if you survive the first round.

 

[LizardWizard]

My main concern would be melee alpha strikes.
Your list has....7 drops I think, and you don't have a lot of bodies on the table.

It will hit pretty hard though, if you survive the first round.

Yep, his Skink screening will have to be tight if he faces many Destruction armies or the infamous Idoneth.

 

[Nart]

I am fresh from 2k 5-game tournament and want to second about Great Rememberer. Through 5 games I used Curse of Fates ONCE!

In other cases:

1) I needed more Conjuration Points;
2) It was denied;
3) I did cast it, but didn't need the effect/it wasn't helpful.

Summon Starlight from Slann was heplful, but Starpriest could do the same in most cases. Teleporting two units may be risky, but you can use GR twice on the same unit. Vast intellect was better in 1'st edition, because Slann had less choices to cast without endless spells/realm spells and, of course, no Celestial Conjuration.

If you use realm artefacts, take Ignax Scales or Ragged cloak on EotG or Slann. Gryph-Feathered talisman and Miasmic blade are nice too. Coronal Shield is strictly worse than last two, because it doesn't work in shooting and you need to roll 4+ for it to have effect.

Vortex is striktly better for Seraphon, than Cogs, because it gives way more bonuses to Slann for less points. +2 movement may be heplful, but it buffs enemy too, so... In case you don't have vortex, I'd go for another unit of 10 skinks instead of Cogs.

Best units to summon, IMO, are Skinks, Ripperdactyls and Razordons. EotG and Astrolith are second best because of high CP price only. I don't need to explain about Skinks, Rippers are perfect distraction and hit hard. 14" means they will be where are they needed the turn after summoning. Razordon is a lot of dakka only for 6 CP.

 

[Kurufinwe]

Thanks LizardWizard, Aginor, and Nart for your thoughts and suggestions.

A few observations:

You would probably get more fire power by dropping one of the Bastiladons to add in 4 Razordons while also maxing out one of the units of Skinks in your Shadowstrike Starhost. Then your Skinks will get the battalion bonus and you razordons should be able to keep pace with damage the bastiladon would have contributed. Plus Razordons have the added bonus of disincentivizing enemy charges.

If you are only bringing cogs for extra Celestial Conjuration points then why not bring the Balewind Vortex instead? It cost 20 MPP less and gives the Slann a +1 to saves. Unless you plan on needing the extra movement from cogs at some point.

Also, if you plan to go a summoning route then you don't really want to be using spells on your Slann. I know curse of fates can be pretty awesome on an EotGs, but anything over 6 is very useful. You also already have access to Summon Starlight from your Skink Starpiest. Perhaps it is worth it to drop VI for GR. You will get an extra 3 Conjuration points and gain a second teleport to continue adding to the pressure of your earlier alpha strikes.

If I had the money to put down on 4 Razordons I would for sure think about that option, but I will only be able to borrow 2 from a buddy in time for the tourney. Will probably use them to summon. And on the subject of summoning, is my summoning pool limited to my extra models, or can I pull from the pool of slain models to summon "new" units? I will definitely swap out cogs for vortex. Thanks for the suggestions

My main concern would be melee alpha strikes.
Your list has....7 drops I think, and you don't have a lot of bodies on the table.

It will hit pretty hard though, if you survive the first round.

I am a little confused by this. Remember I am very new so I do not know all the lingo and strategies I must defend against.

I am fresh from 2k 5-game tournament and want to second about Great Rememberer. Through 5 games I used Curse of Fates ONCE!

In other cases:

1) I needed more Conjuration Points;
2) It was denied;
3) I did cast it, but didn't need the effect/it wasn't helpful.

Summon Starlight from Slann was heplful, but Starpriest could do the same in most cases. Teleporting two units may be risky, but you can use GR twice on the same unit. Vast intellect was better in 1'st edition, because Slann had less choices to cast without endless spells/realm spells and, of course, no Celestial Conjuration.

thanks for your suggestion. GR does sound like a more enticing choice now. I will also check with the guy running the tourney about artifacts and realm rules. I just chose those based on what is available to order/seraphon. I know next to nothing about realm rules and their artifacts.

 

[Aginor]

I am a little confused by this. Remember I am very new so I do not know all the lingo and strategies I must defend against.

Oh, sorry.
I'll just explain it quickly:

When setting up units you and your opponent take turns. The one who finishes first has the right to go first in the first battle round.
"Drops" means how many units you place on setup. Normally that's the number of units you have. The exception are bataillons, they allow to place all units of the bataillon at the same time, as one drop.

Army lists that rely on so-called "glass cannons" (squishy, but hard hitting units) like to minimize that number to ensure they go first.
Some armies can even build one-drop lists. Seraphon for example have the Fangs of Sotek and the Dracithions Tail bataillons for that, and Sylvaneth can use a Gnarlroot Wargrove to do the same thing.

Alpha strike means that you plan on striking first and hard. Alpha strike lists can be based on ranged units (like a Seraphon Shadowstrike Starhost with Skinks and Terradons) or on melee weapons (like Idoneth Deepkin who spam fast eel riders, or Ironjawz using the Gorefist bataillon that grants their cavalry even better movement)

Many strong lists in the current tournament scene are alpha strike lists, and since a low number of drops is so important for them you should expect to mostly fight lists that only need four drops or less.
So you should prepare to not get first turn, with seven drops that's rather unlikely. So remember to plan your set up and tactics accordingly.

Hope that helps.

 

[Nart]

And on the subject of summoning, is my summoning pool limited to my extra models, or can I pull from the pool of slain models to summon "new" units?

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. These are just new units using the same models. You cannot return a unit to a battalion, however.

Remember I am very new so I do not know all the lingo and strategies I must defend against.

Some armies, like Sylvaneth, Skryre, Legions of Nagash, SCE, etc. can place units in your territory turn 1 due to their abilities and can charge in the same turn. Usual restriction is 9", but some can be placed in 3". The best way to prevent this is to place cheap, disposable units, like skinks around bulk of your force, so your opponent must place their units too far to harm your units. Keep at least 6" between your units and skink screen, and you are relatively safe. But the larger this 9" bubble, the better. You can bubblewrap a Slann with a single 10-model skink unit too, so he cannot be charged. Just keep 3" between Slann and skinks.

 

[Kurufinwe]

Oh, sorry.
I'll just explain it quickly:

When setting up units you and your opponent take turns. The one who finishes first has the right to go first in the first battle round.
"Drops" means how many units you place on setup. Normally that's the number of units you have. The exception are bataillons, they allow to place all units of the bataillon at the same time, as one drop.

Army lists that rely on so-called "glass cannons" (squishy, but hard hitting units) like to minimize that number to ensure they go first.
Some armies can even build one-drop lists. Seraphon for example have the Fangs of Sotek and the Dracithions Tail bataillons for that, and Sylvaneth can use a Gnarlroot Wargrove to do the same thing.

Alpha strike means that you plan on striking first and hard. Alpha strike lists can be based on ranged units (like a Seraphon Shadowstrike Starhost with Skinks and Terradons) or on melee weapons (like Idoneth Deepkin who spam fast eel riders, or Ironjawz using the Gorefist bataillon that grants their cavalry even better movement)

Many strong lists in the current tournament scene are alpha strike lists, and since a low number of drops is so important for them you should expect to mostly fight lists that only need four drops or less.
So you should prepare to not get first turn, with seven drops that's rather unlikely. So remember to plan your set up and tactics accordingly.
https://hobbykiller.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/how-to-stop-unwanted-friends-from-dropping-in/ This article was helpful as well after some googling.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, that is a lot of help. I should expect an attack on my Slann the first turn, and should setup defensively. Since I plan to do the same thing to my opponent with the Ripperdactyls, it makes sense someone else will try the same thing, but with a quicker setup.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. These are just new units using the same models. You cannot return a unit to a battalion, however.

Some armies, like Sylvaneth, Skryre, Legions of Nagash, SCE, etc. can place units in your territory turn 1 due to their abilities and can charge in the same turn. Usual restriction is 9", but some can be placed in 3". The best way to prevent this is to place cheap, disposable units, like skinks around bulk of your force, so your opponent must place their units too far to harm your units. Keep at least 6" between your units and skink screen, and you are relatively safe. But the larger this 9" bubble, the better. You can bubblewrap a Slann with a single 10-model skink unit too, so he cannot be charged. Just keep 3" between Slann and skinks.

Excellent. I was worried I would not be able to use dead models as part of my summoning pool. Now I know I could use dead rippers again! And the bubblewrap idea is driven home. Protect the Slann!