8th Ed. bastiladon, ripperdactyl and terradon question

[thedanman13]

Hi guys,

Sorry to be a pain but I was wondering if anyone could explain the usefulness of these units in an army?

E.g, which is the most effective setup for the bastiladon in general and why? Does the New book finally give terradons a place in an army/how do ripperdactyls look in comparison?

I can't buy the book until Monday when I get payed but I would love to start seriously thinking about what I'm going to buy along with it.

Also, apparently the troglodons are useless which is disappointing since they are by far my favourite LM miniture so is the scar vet on a Carnie a good choice or can anyone think of a good way to make the troglodon useful?

Cheers
Danny

 

[Rikard]

At face value the bastilodon looks much better with the snake alter option, especially if you take Tehehaiun too (see the topic for strategies done by N810).

Terradons fill their roll as harassers and war machine/lone mage hunters.

Riperdacytls....hmmm, not seen the book yet, but they look like a bit of a glass canon, likely to die/take heavy casualties early on, but very useful (D3+1 attacks each for frenzy, with armour piercing and killing blow).

This could prove useful against high armour save, high point units (though initiative is something to be mindful of) or for devastating horde units.

 

[GCPD]

Terradons were amazingly cheap flying chaff that could effortlessly redirect, go war machine hunting and put the hurt on some units with their rocks. They can still do these things except they are a little more pricey but can also get str4 flaming shots.

I quite like the solar engine to help mitigate purple sun/pit and the magic missile might be useful in making chimeras think twice. Otherwise the bastiladon is pretty cheap and tanky and the str10 attack might be good. I'm not a huge fan of the sotek arc thiugh.

Ripperractyls I have no idea. Going to use them to find out.

 

[Joasht]

I was kinda surprised the Carnosaur had a 10 point bump.......it didn't seem particularly worthy of any point increments.

 

[Lizardmatt]

With the Ld of the skinks, I'm going to be using rippers to hunt warmachines.
Frenzy means I won't panic.

 

[walach]

Solar thing sounds the way to go to me.

Terradons with flaming sound good, makes regen nasties easier to take off.

Rippers sound good just from a suicide unit point of view to me. Get bastilodon/hand of glory to make sure they go first and charge even heavy cav, they should put some real damage in

 

[Caneghem]

Rippers benefit from a lot of the high magic spells. I plan on running 2 units of 3, even though they are fairly fragile. I think they combine well with arcane unforging...

A lot of people run their BSB centrally. I'll place a blot toad in that unit, to make the rippers a real threat. A lot of people also will put a 4+ ward on their BSB, which takes up virtually all of their magic item slots (maybe they'll have the dragonbane gem though). So a cast of arcane unforging, whether it wounds or not, will leave the BSB fairly defenseless. Now the rippers can charge them right up front, and in the magic phase if you're lucky, you can pop a wyssan's or a boosted Hand of Glory on them for the WS and Init bonus (unfortunately, Bastilidon's aura is only 6 inches, but maybe you can work this out on the turn the rippers charge).

Now the BSB is probably really wishing he had that ward save, right? I think the unit is our version of assassins, without the whole element of surprise thing. Keep them screened from BS shooting behind a monster or something, and as for artillery, well that's why I'll take two units. Also I get the feeling the artillery will be hitting the steg/bastilodon/etc.

 

[Skubzilla]

Does the initiative boost from a Bastiladon stack with another Initiative Boost from a Bastiladon?? (assuing both take the ark of Chotek)

I.E. Can you run 2 Bastiladon's beside each other in the centre of the army, and have a unit of saurus/TG on either side, giving collectively +2I to either unit of Saurus if they're both close enough together? I3 is a much nicer defense against Initiative based spells than I1. Purple sun could knock out 83.3~ percent of the models with I1, as opposed to 50% of the models with I3. That's kind of a bid deal in my oppinion, especially when discussing Temple Guard.

 

[Mahtis]

Skink chief on a ripper might be a good war machine hunter. give him stegadon helm and charge a war machine. First is d3 impact hits at str 4, it has a chance to take the warmachine out instantly ^^ If not, he he still hits 3 times at str 4 (5 if with spear) and then ripper hits 3 times also with str 4. I think there is no warmachine that can take something like that

 

[newlmplayer]

If you gave the chief a spear would his impact hits be at str 5? Or is it just at his base strength? Also would a chief on ripperdactly generate a bloat toad?

 

[Mahtis]

The impact rule says that the wound rolls are made "using the strength of the model". So its d3 str 4 impacts, it can be up to 5 if you cast wyssans on the chief

 

[Rhodium]

If you gave the chief a spear would his impact hits be at str 5? Or is it just at his base strength? Also would a chief on ripperdactly generate a bloat toad?

No, the entry for the Ripperdactyl as a hero mount does not have the toad rage special rule, so a chief of a ripper would not generate a bloat toad, only units of them