Tutorial A Guide to Seraphon Battalions - GHB2017

My experience against elite has always been bad. Agreed on the weaker melee troop, included it in the post

Well, warriors fight better in large groups, attacking also with the rear "rank" (a thing knights cannot do), delivering more attacks.

 

my anecdotal experience

The problem is that mortal wounds are unreliable.
5 knights will do 6 lances Attacks, re-rolling 1s. So 3/4 roll "to wound" and you need a 6... so you need also Curse of Fate to change a 5 into a 6.
But you cannot be sure of average results when you roll just 6 dices... up til now, my anecdotal experience tells me that i can count more on the bites.

Anyway yes, I put Knights and Warriors on a similar "power level", they just do different things. Luckily, there is the points discount fo knights, with the old price they were worse.

 

SHADOWSTRIKE STARHOST​

UNITS REQUIRED:

1 Skink Starpriest OR 1 Skink Priest
2 units of Skinks or Chameleon skinks (any comb)
1 unit of terradons riders OR ripperdactyls riders

Minimum size cost: 490 pts (Starhost, Starpriest, 2 x 10 skinks, terradons) - just for the record... it's unusable
realistic minimum size costs:
1) 610-630 pts (Starhost, Starpriest, 2 x 5 chama skinks, flyers)
1) 690-710 pts (Starhost, Starpriest, 1 x 5 chama skinks, 1 x 40 skinks, flyers)
Size increases: upgrade to 10 x chama skinks, or to 6x flyers



Skinks stats:
Save 6+, ignore rend up to -1, Move 8. wary fighters
Weapons choice: with this starhost, imo it's Boltspitters. range 16", 5+/5+. +1 to hit if 20 or more; +2 to hit if 30 or more.

Chama Skinks stats:
Save 6+ (3+ in cover), Move 8. ambush, vanish from sight
Dartpipes: range 16", 2 attacks each, 3+/4+. 1 dam / 2 on a 6+. 3 on a 6+ vs chaos daemons.

Terradons:
3 wounds each, move 14", save 5+. Drop boulders 1/game
Ranged Weapons choice:
Starstrike javelin. range 10", 2 Attacks 4+/3+. (3+/3+ for Alpha)
Sunleech bolas: 1 Attacks: 4+ (3+ for Alpha) / d6 "to wound" at 3+
Melee:
Terradons beaks: 4 Attacks 4+/4+, 1 dam
Skyblade: 3 Attacks 3+/4+

Riperdactyls:
3 wounds each, move 14", save 5+ (ignore rend -1). Re-roll failed to hit / to wound. additional attacks with vicious beaks for successful to hit.
Melee:
warspear: 1 Attacks (2 for Alpha) 4+/4+, 1 dam
slashing claws: 3 Attacks 3+/3+
beak: 1 attack (3 if near blot toad) 4+/3+

Skink Starpriest
Serpent staff (useless for the formation), wizard with Starlight

Skink priest
priestly trapping, 50% re-roll saves. With Cloack of feathers canfly with move 14" and save 4+. Nice missile weapon.

The Starhost gives:
- you can move 2d6" your units after set-up
- re-roll 1s to hit / wound for all the units of the Starhost agains a target visible to your skinks starpriest / priest,
- you can set up the Flying unit in the sky. Set it up at more than 3" from the enemy, then you can add +1 to all "to wound" rolls




HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

This is going to be complicated, I'll try to keep it short.


This Starhost gives us amazing units, buffing them with additional abilities that otherwise we cannot have. It's certainly one of our most useful battalions, not for its brute strenght (which it lacks), but for the utilities it brings on the table.
This Starhost works essentialy as support, and won't win the game by itself, however it will give you a great help, no matter the enemy you are going to face.
You have units that can act as assassins, redirectors, bait... but the main role of this starhost is the Alpha strike(s), to eliminate dangerous targets / enemy heroes / general, key units and similar.
Usually, you will set your Flying unit near the target you want to kill, and attack, with the support of your light shooting.
All your units are supposed to work helping each other in their role, so we'll try to see how we can exploit their use, analyzing each one of them.

Starpriest / priest.
they use their abilities in the hero phase, and with units set-up in the sky or camouflaged, there's almost nothing they can do. Unless they target the unit of skinks, if you're using it (theyre still useful for the rest of the army!)
Anyway, the 2d6 initial move granted by the starhost, may be exceptionally useful to move your priest, and see that hero that is hiding behind a scenery and you want to target...

Skinks.
I hate how GW nerfed our Skink Chief, sadly he's no more usable, but you can still put at use one unit of them in the Starhost.
Your 40 skinks, now can be teleported anyway on the battlefield, setting them at more than 9" from the enemy... and that's why you will equip them with the boltsplitters, to be able to shoot.
40 shots at 3+, rerolling 1s to hit, on average 30 will hit successfully.
It's 30 "to wound" at 5+, rerolling 1s: on average you will force 11-12 saves. Not exceptional, but it may be useful. If your skinks are buffed with a mystic shield or Starlight, it should be a nice investment.
(side note: if you equip them with javelin, you would score 16-17 successful "to wound", but you must be able to move them at less than 9" from the target: this could be done with a Stegadon)

Chameleon Skinks:
They are made to cover a support role, appearing from nowhere and shooting at the enemy, to weaken it and prepare the setting for our troops to clean the battlefield.
You can employ them as objective grabbers, assassins (a squad that pops up and targets a wizard in the rearguard), redirectors, (place them on the rear flank of an advancing unit, that must choose to ignore it and suffer ranged Attacks, or chase it and lose a couple of turns) or bait (they appear and shoot, luring the enemy to chase them, but you placed them within range of charge from another unit).
in the Starhost, they are probably going to further soften the target of your Alpha strike, or to clear the way to charges by rippers, by eliminating screen units.

Ripperdactyls:
Their job is fairly simple: pick a target, stick the toad to it, let them descend from the clouds and shred it to pieces.
With the nerf of the Rule of One, you need to do some math to know what they can give you.
With rerolls, a unit of 3 will do
theoretical max result:
31 successful to wound
average rolls:
21-22 successful to wound
There you are: against a unit with save 4+, you know your rippers are going to deal (on average) 10-11 unsaved wounds.
When you want to go heavy on assassination, pick a unit of six of them. The only downside is that you couldn't be able to attack with all of them, if the opponent is wise enough.

Terradons:
They are slighly cheaper than rippers, but also less threatening. They can inflict mortal wounds (but they're not reliable on it), and can do some damage with the burst effect of sunleech bolas, but again, it's random and, in both cases, you need to be dangerously near the enemy.
It's still possible to do something good with them: here's an idea that worked for me, but other tactics are certainly possible
Place your terradons "hidden in the clouds", and field also a unit of rippers, placing the bloat toad near the target unit
Then pop the terradons, exactly where there is the toad, and shoot the enemy, enjoinin the rerolls of 1s and the+1 to wound... the rippers will remain in a safe position in the rear.
Then, the enemy will have to choose... If he charges the terradons, he will probably kill them, BUT he will place himself exactly upon the toad. And your rippers are waiting. So, your opponent will probably bypass the terradons (thus losing some movement). In your turn, terradons will move over the target unit, releasing the boulders, shooting again and charging the weakened unit.




EVALUATION:

Power level: medium-high.
You need to invest points in this starhost (around 630-730), you're not going to fill the slots of battlelines, and you'll have a battalion that is just a support to your army.
However, the abilities of the battalion and the utilities of the units that form it, are amazing, and the wide choice you have within units is great. This Starhost may be just for support, but its versatility is beyond compare. It will never let you dissatisfied.
One of the best things is the fact that you have a nice range in the units' choice. For example, if you want to focus on assassination, pick chama skinks; if you want also a a battleline unit that can skirmish better than its usual standard, insert skinks. The same can be said for the choice of the hero. Basically, you can model the starhost upon your needs.
Probably, the best combination is to have both skinks and chama skinks, to cover more roles.

Low points game (750-1000)
Sadly, the battalion cost is too high for low points games... but it could let you kill the main threat of the enemy, and at that point chama skinks are great to take objective, providing you have something big to fight what remains of the opponent.
It's a hard task to field it at 1000 pts, but you could try to play a 630 pts Starhost (with Starpriest, double chama skinks, and rippers), add 2x10 skinks as battlelines and a Stegadon. Pretty fast, considering that you can teleport one unit even without the Slann. 990 pts.

Mid points game (1250-2000)
Excellent.
The Starhost will let you deal with some of the most dangerous enemy units, and you will have enough points to develope the rest of the army, even with another melee starhost, that will enjoy the support of the Shadowstrike.

High points game (2250-2750)
Again, Shadowstrike is great. Plan the core and the tactics of your army as you like... no matter what they will be, the shadowstrike will support your strategy. Its strenght is not in the combat prowess, but lies in its versatility.




Final note.
As said, this starhost shine in a support role.... however, if you want to try different things, it can be possible to build an army with almost just Shadowstrike.
Exploit chama skinks and their ability to vanish and reappear, using that as combat style, using pieces of terrains to gain cover’s bonuses, working on attrition.
Given that chama skinks appear in the movement phase, the bonuses you'll have will be those of the Starhost, re-rolling to hit and to wound rolls of 1.
You can include up to 2 chama units in the formation, so you’ll do it.
Use TWO Shadowstrike Starhosts, to have 4 buffed units of chama, and 2 units of flyers to deal with the main targets.
you should have no less than 25 chama skinks, at least 6 flyers, a couple of priests. use minimum size units of skinks for battleline, use a Slann with double teleport and possibly 1-2 durable units to teleport for more shooting (bastiladon / Razordons).
It's doable at 2000 pts; pop and shoot, then teleport/vanish again. Don’t leave clear targets to your enemy. Use Ripperdactyls and concentrated fire to eliminate long range shooters that could hit your chama, then proceed to erode the rest of the troops.

 

Fair points. I've added a couple of notes.

Yes and no.
Yes, it's the only one in our battletome.
No, we have also the Heavenswatch Starhost (which is basically a grand mix of Shadowstrike and Thunderquake, so nothing really new)

 

Agreed. They put zero effort into it, and that's really a shame.

 

without the skink chief, they basically confined skinks to a side role.

 

Nope, but the skink priest can use the 2d6 free movement

Yep, but I'm spending 170 to have the whole formation. A 160 astrolith would be just an additional cost that would benefit very little the units of the Starhost.
The scope of the starhost is to give you "hidden in the Clouds" and a rerolls of 1s (which works also on to wound, a thing that the BSB cannot do)

Well, leaving aside the fact that is the opponent deploys its army wisely, you couldn't be able to charge the intended target with all your rippers...
in the tutorial it has been taken into account the possibility to upgrade the Flying unit to 6 models.
That said, I agree that it should be made more clear: I will edit it, trying to be more explicit.

Yes, but unless I'm fielding two units of 40 skinks each , it would be counterproductive to use a 10 x skinks in the starhost (instead of a unit of chama skinks).
10 or 20 batlleline skinks that act as screen / objective takers, may not use the bonuses and work the same... in the formation, I'd rather use 240 pts of 10 chama skinks with rerollabe 1s, AND a block of 40 skinks.