for a combat powerhouse what is more effective? a unit of 5 kroxies or an ancient stegadon without the engine? - 15 str 7 WS3 attacks with 15 wounds and 3 S4 stomp or - D6+1 str6 impact 3 attacks and D6 S6 stomp? I will have a baby steg as well no matter what. vs nurgle warriors I think the Asteg may be better as it gets the impact and stomps vs the greater number of attacks. ie 4 impact wounds + 1 attack wound + 3 stomp wounds vs 5 attack wounds + 1 stomp wounds vs heavy cav the kroxies may do better. any thoughts?
After playing so many games with kroxigors and stegadons ill share my opinion. Stegadon deals initial damage by impact hits. Can survive a buch of attacks due to their T6 W5 AS3+. But if you are facing nurgle halberdiers warriors they may even kill your Stegadon in turn 1. If the beast doesnt die, you are delivering 2d6+1 STR 6 hits on 2+ wounding. So at the end of the round youll be damaging their unit. Kroxigors charge, get smashed due to poor defense and are decimated, what is left for dead attack on 5s. Then if you have some hit, wounds on 2+. Then you stomp with s5. Well with luck you deliver 3 wounds and you lost your monster infantry in one round. So against WoC with whatever mark. Stegadon will do better by far. Kroxigors are amazing looking badass. But in the end they die before they could strike. They have tactical uses since they drag lot of attention on the enemy army and of course if you try to flank charge your enemy units they will be aware of that. (bringing your true purpose into play) Where Kroxigor shines is against high Armour Save units that cant deal more than 3 wounds on a round, usually on a flank charge. So when you strike you will be able to break or annihilate that unit. Another good point is that they are good cannonball goalkeepers. So they can screen your 400-500 point monster with a fair chance of success. (1/6 chances to fail to wound & 2/6 chances to fail to kill the Krox)
I've been debating the same issue with my own list and still haven't come up with an entirely satisfactory answer. Both the ancient steg & krox have areas where they shine and times when they just give away VPs. A lot depends on what else is in the list and the type of opponent you are likely to face IMHO. Here are some key lessons I have picked up thus far: Ancient Steg: 1) Strengths - stubborn, terror, T6, 3+ save, 5 wounds, extra shooting, thunderstomp, impact hits and single model mobility. 2) Weaknesses - single model vulnerability, limited benefit from magic boosts, no ranks, cannot occupy buildings, LD 6 outside of bubble, poor 2nd + round combat ability vs units it cannot thunderstomp. 3) Utility - steggie is a fantastic support unit with a block of infantry as most of its vulnerabilities are negated since it can be placed where there is minimal contact during a combo charge. The stubborn also makes it an excellent anvil to pin enemy blocks while moving TG/saurus to a flanking position. The two main problems with steggie is that it is only one cannonball/spell away from death and that it really can't do much in rounds it doesn't charge, especially against units it cannot stomp. Finally, the offensive & defensive potential of steggie doesn't really change much with magic so its upside potential is limited. Kroxigor 1) Strengths - S7 can openers, a lot of potential attacks boosted by the PF rule, ranks, fear, lots of wounds, LD 7, S5 stomp and able to benefit significantly from almost any augment. 2) Weaknesses - T4/AS 4+ vulnerability to S4+ attacks, low WS, ASL and less mobile than single models. 3) Utility - Against any S3 units, kroxigor rock even without buffing or flanking since their vulnerability to combat is minimized. The combination of 15+ attacks, stomp and ranks means they can break tarpits much more quickly than a steggie and are far less likely to have an "oops" moment where their lose combat to 3 ranks + standard and get run down by clan rats!! Similarly, they excel at going after big monsters with a limited number of attacks since they can win a war of attrition even if they are losing 3-4 wounds/round. As Man0War has indicated, krox will lose big time if they try to play smash-mouth with any enemy elites and even suffer quite a bit when facing a lot of S4 attacks in combat. They can engage such units but only on a flank. Perhaps the best part of kroxigor in my experience has been the improvement in their offence/defence with just about any augment/hex. Wyssans is absolutely amazing but the combo of miasma & hand of glory can yield impressive results when the krox are suddenly hitting on 3s and being hit on 4s or 5s (OK, so the latter part is mostly luck but it has happened once or twice). The key is that there are many augments/hexes with relatively low casting value with big payoffs for krox and at least one is likely to get through in a turn. In the end, I am beginning to favour krox in groups of 6 (breaks enemy ranks if hit from a flank) vice a single ancient steg but much of that may have to do with having to face a fair number or ironblasters, skull cannons, etc. Ideally, I would like to have both but at the moment I feel that the krox are better since they are more likely to make it into combat and the ability to give them a big boost with magic really tips the scales in their favour in my list.
Kroxs problem is that they are actually quite bad against anything they actually should be fighting ie high armor stuff. Units with high armor save like demigryphs, mournfang etc will charge the krox and smash their teeth in. I would go with the steg
I completely agree to this, but when your enemy has units like you mentioned abovd, maybe it's not very smart to let them charge your krox! And i'm sure you 'll be smart enough to deploy that good it wouldn't happen.. Another point, you should find both of them at a tournament, which is more viable in that situation? 6 krox (more wounds against warmachines, mostly i see more s3 units then demigryphs!!) Or an stegadon!? Or maybe another option? Like a naked chief of stegadon for bs 5 sniping, but maybe as useful as an ancient in combat, even with a lower S
Sure not letting them charge you helps, but those guys are all much faster than your krox, and he will be trying to prevent you from preventing him to charge If we are talking against empire (since you said demigryphs) I would bring the steg, im not afraid of a cannon or two since we have terradons and chameleons (plus iceshard blizzard) Even halbediers can crush kroxigors, the only really favorable matchup for krox compared to the steg is regular knights and thats only if the knights somehow dont get the charge. Still iffy on using the chiefs ballistic skill, will have to wait for a faq to see how that turns out but im not counting on it.