I don' know what to get 1st:battalion or saurus+skink+steg boxes. I don't like the look of CoK, having come from high elves with superior (Point for point) dragon princes. I also don't see the advantage of TG (even if I did have a slann mage prince) And just in case anyone doesn't know, the battalion has 16 SW, 12 skinks, 10 TG and 8 CoK (correct me if im wrong, i havent checked.)
Temple gaurd are awesome! The have WS4 S4 2A 1W, unbreakable, and with handweapons, they get a 2+ save. CoK are ok. They are very good cavalry, but not always reliable. I would start with a battalion i guess, because its actually a bargain, and unless you see yourself never using either cold one knights, or temple gaurd, its worth it.
temple guard aren't unbreakable and the only adavantages they have over saurus without spears is that they have 1 better save and 1 more WS, is it worth it for 5 points per model??
I actually think CoK compare reasonably well to Dragon Princes. COs are a little slower, but have higher strength and toughness as well as cold blooded so they survive in prolonged combats much better. I did prefer the dragon princes though, so you are certainly not alone if you don't take CoKs. TG... Well they are brilliant shock troops. But definitely best used with a Slann because otherwise the cheaper saurus warriors are nearly as good and can perform pretty similar roles. Remember TG with halberds have higher strength as well, so they can cause a lot more hurt especially to armoured opponents. But yeah there are people that run a Slann solo, and it works for them, and of course if you aren't running a slann you probably wouldn't take TG. You can always use the TG models as rank fillers in the back of saurus units, so you won't find the models useless, and they do look kinda cool. But if you are sure about not liking either, there is no point getting the batallion. Buy some other troops first. Also remember you can easily buy a batallion later on since oyu will always need saurus and skinks, so if you have doubts hold off until you have played a few more games and read up a bit more on the units.
I thought long and hard about getting a battalion in the begining. In the end I couldnt do it, and its just cause I hate the cold one cavalry. Blasted GW needs to do something about this henious unit. They are really really bad, and I want to use CoC in my army! but I cant.... because the look of my army is more important then its tactical function. Im sad and depressed and full of anguish because of the "ugly model syndrome" that plagues many armies. Wow im sounding slightly melodramatic. Maybe I should stop eating soy.....
You could try to find the old Battalion box... I think is better then the actual... 24 skinks, 24 saurus and 8 Cold ones... You buy 2 of that Battalion and never have to worry about skinks and saurus !
I like the cold one cavalry, they look big and fat and really seem to be T 4. The dark elf cold ones look more appropriate for dark elves, more detail, more realistic, way thinner and leaner. If you take a real close look at our models, most of the stuff we have looks kinda cartoony. We have these big open mouths and blocky bodies, and our arms and armor are just these big hunks of stuff (bordering on choppas). I think that the old starter box is hard to beat, and I eventually individually purchased everything in that box again, since I just realized there's never enough skinks and saurus. (especially skinks) I have yet to purchase a stegadon because it costs 40 American dinars and it is fairly easy to scratch-build a chumpy stegadon. If you are halfway decent at modeling with clay or Green Stuff you can probably blob together a halfway decent toad and be in business. From my experience, scratch building a carnosaur is impossible. Also, the Temple guard can do something that often, for me, justifies the heavy cavalry in tomb kings, which is that they can carry a banner, and further, can carry a magic item. Massing Dispel Dice and magic pew pew will lower your comp score badly, and T.G. with no slann is great for comp. Give them the banner of wizard stupidity and give the revered guardian a blood statuette of spite and suddenly the unit contributes significantly to your magic phase without owning your comp. Just take the ten of them in the box and suddenly you have a hammer unit, rather then an anvil. They can take the flank on something and just beat the everlasting crud out of it with halberds, and maybe even soak a charge from feeble infantry with just one rank. As for the COC, you can get six of them and a banner for less then the price of a stegadon, and in my games they tend to be more helpful, and more resistant to cannons.
Hmmm... I will have to consider using a unit like this in <2,000 pts. Interesting to hear this through a lot of "TG stink w/o a Slann" shouting...
Well... They don't. They are actually quite effective if you can get them where you want. Like that I had them punch a unit of 40 goblins and breaking them a couple of times(They came back). Funniest moment ever... Hero goblins... That leg it. That they blocked the big bad block of black orcs behind them too wasn't that bad. Considering they had gorguts the evil. (Or whatever he's called) The no-slann thing comes in handy since I have Skinks for magic. Which gives me a nice use for some temple guard to guard a slightly less bloated, intelligent, magical or lazy, Saurus hero-guy. Cheers!
Really? I don't find them that blocky myself, and their weapons and armour are supposed to look all ceremonial and Aztek-y, except with more "awesome". Resplendent in their solid gold armour while they beat on the warm-bloods with their 'obsinite' warclubs. And to the OP, the Battalion has 20 Saurus, not 16.