i never see someone play terradon riders, only rippers. i know rippers are super strong, especially in shadowstrike. but are terradons unplayable? even when you can summon them for free with an EotG? and they are 20 points cheaper, is that nothing?
Terradons rule. I use them in many lists. I have not used Rippers yet and still win. When six Terradons drop their bombs on something then even a hard target has a good chance of suffering significant damage. The bolas are a bit random, which is probably what many people (including me) don't like much about them. I still use them most of the time. The cool thing about Terradons is that you can harass with them better because they have both melee and ranged attacks. If you use javelins they can even attack in the turn they are summoned (range > 9"). If you go purely by damage then Rippers win though, and Rippers are a bit less squishy because they ignore rend-1 So bottom line: Terradons aren't bad, it is just that Rippers are frickin' awesome.
Personnaly speaking I think that Rippers are stronger, I play versus competitve Sylvaneth/Tzeentch/FEC lists and I can't make enough damage with Terradons, and they only drop their rocks on a 4+ which I always fail... But with the new version, I was thinking, if you teleport or move your engine 21" away from the enemy target, and manage to summon 3 terradons 9" from the ennemy, then they got enough move to fly over their prey, drop their rocks, and finish their move 3" away from the prey, then shoot and wait for the enemy charge. A good diversion to protect your other units and limit the move of the ennemy in the next round (if the Terradons survive to the ennemy Hero phase).
All bases pretty much covered by @Aginor But I agree, Rippers are great for extreme damage but you have to play smart with them - they are a big target and can be easily taken down by someone with a bit of smarts (most of not all people are aware of their damage potential) Thus having dactyls makes them instantly less of a target - so you can push attention onto something a little scarier (dread, basti, slaan etc as they become the most hated foes) Dactyls are great for ‘multi-purpose’ drop back lbs on monsters/elite troops (about a 50% got rate) so May destroy something outright which is always good, but may also inflict partial damage...but hey it’s pretty much free damage. The bolas use is a bit random as said above - but with their swoop they get re-rolls on hit/wounds so the first use can be pretty nasty - great for hordes and chaff clearance, plus the fact that they add half decent range which is always a bonus to a lizard army. - summoning wise I haven’t tested it yet, but they will defo be my go-to when I run out of skink body shields - free bombs yes please.
i like the idea to summong 3 with EotG, charge in and drop the bombs. sounds really funny on paper, that is why is was wondering nobody plays them
I did exactly that in a game last night, only one bomb hit causing 1 mw. Swooped and forced 5 save rolls which he made. Total whiff. Such are the dice gods but I still like them. I think they are better than rippers for summoning since you don't get to place a toad. Good candidates for curse of fates too, since they're doing damage in movement, shooting and combat phase..
If the Engine summons Ripperdactyls in the first hero phase, they come with a toad since you place one toad for every ripperdactyl unit you have in your first hero phase.
thats exactly what i thought. Solid unit, even if they dont do a lot of dmg they will take some notice for the enemy.
Im about to play test a cheezy list with terradons in an escalation league match tonight. Basically its the Shadowstrike at the absolute minimum legal cost for vanguard rules (2+ battle line). I took the terradons BECAUSE the 20 point difference got me under 500 (the points limit for week one of the league)
Terradons got excellent move, have a passable resistance, can shoot and can do some good damage in melee against units with mid save, and now they're cheap. ATM, 3 x Terradons is a good investment.