Hi Guys, I've seen this many times in army lists and I'm wondering why everybody take this set-up. A lone saurus scar-vet on cold one (cowboy) and only a charmed shield to get protection from cannonballs.. In my opinion it would be slain to quick and would deal any serious damage.. So tell me, why are these guys viable?
The idea is to make him 'unkillable' in melee a 1+ amorsave with T5 and high movement. (also causes fear so they might be WS1) I beleive the strategy is to use him to hold up units and/or assassinate characters. The idea being that hopefully he does enough damage to not loose combat too badly and thus hang around annoying people.
Unkillable against basic units, yeah maybe, but losing by combat resolution is not really nice.. Character hunter hmm.. maybe it will work but don't think so..
Disclaimer. Spawning of Bob is a pretty ordinary general, cartoonist and author. * Cowboys are great. Cheap (now cheaper) 1+ armour and mobile. Losing static combat res is sad but cold blooded Ld 8 will keep you in combat if that's where you ought to be. Swift stride might get you out of it, if not. Check http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/cold-blooded-probability.10479/ for cold blooded stats. Even if you lose combat by 3 you are still 50/50 for holding, and probably didn't take a wound. My most memorable recent match ups (remembering that I am a very bad general) were 1 cowboy drawing out the fanatics and then engaging a horde of night goblins with spears 4 deep (I think my steg charged next turn and fled them off the board), 1 cowboy charging an ogre tyrant and surviving 2 rounds to keep his last wound to win the game, and 1 cowboy who charged and eventually wiped out 3 TK chariots, contributed to the removal of a group of necropolis knights, and then only failed to destroy the casket of souls war machine thingy because one of the attendants got off a killing blow. They have such a nice balance of cheapness, survivability and punch that I would throw them at anything (admittedly I'm an idiot) They make a big mess of anything in the opposition back field from turn 3 onwards. I haven't faced cannons, but I expect they'd be more likely to pick on my steg anyway. * Do not, under any circumstance follow any tactical advice given by an eight foot tall lizard with an eggshell on his head.
For holding units, especially S3 infantry, i'd give the Scar-vet on cold one LA Charmed shield Sed of rebirth Crown of Command
You guys are right, the cowboy is absolutely magnificent, I used him to charge a 10er unit of chaos knights, in the first round the cold one killed of the chaos champion before the cowboy could strike (great weapon), so I only won the combat by 1, but in the second round he killed 4 knights, and fled them. He then gave me the edge in a fight against khorne beserkers, and single handed defeated a unit of nurgle warriors (they were heavily shaken already though) I had him with the armour of repeating and the ward save of 4++ and a great weapon. absolutely stunning the PF rule is also a dream with that guy
I assume he meant Armor of Destiny + repeat armor save (via Dawnstone). 1+ armor (re-rollable), backed up by toughness 5 and a 4+ ward save, makes him essentially impossible to kill through combat.
Well it is the most cost effective character in the game. Yo will nor get more for less in any book. Yes they might get broken in CC, but if you in slan range (ld10), say you fight a 30 infantry fully kitted and BSB. lets say they get a charge off to you r flank. So worse cast scenario. 1 charge 1 flank 3 ranks 2 banner + bsb ---- 7 CR you have 2 attacks hit on 4+ wound 3+ statistically do 1w then 4 attacks, you should get one 6's. hit on 3+ wound +2, say 3 hits do 2 wounds. 3 CR you hold on 6+ cold blooded rerollable test. that's 89.6 % chance of success. but most times you opponent will not have the charge or bsb or flak bonus, meaning the fight will be close to a draw. as long as you have your bsb close, your generally safe.
2 cold one attacks is 1 wound? 4 melee attacks should roll a 6? Odds of rolling no sixes is 48.2% which is a long way from "should". With an opponent who isn't T3, or who has any type of save, you're looking at worse than 3 points of combat res. What I would look at, is what is the odds of holding if you wiff. This is why I take the banner of discipline on my slaan. 3 ranks, standard and charge vs my Wiff means colded blooded 5 with a re-roll. 77.3% chance of holding in the likely worse case scenario. -Matt
Well the probability you roll a 6 on a d6 is 1 in 6, reaping the process 4 times gives you 67% chance of success. And scar vet with dawnstone and dragon bane gem cost what 130 points. Leaving lots of points for other things in the list. An absolute bargain. But you can take a death star, it will solve all your problems, unfortunately only when playing noobs.
Your math is backwards. The odds of not rolling a 6 is 5/6. The odds of not rolling a six four times in a row is 48%. You have a 52% chance of rolling at least 1 six if you roll 4 dice. It's basically a coin flip.
Then try counting rolling at least one 6, in four tries. Right dawn stone with dragon helm, and 4+ ward with dragon bane gem, my bad. Never the less, you get so much for so little. And it leaves so much room for a lot of goodness in the list. Much better then any deathstar you can bring.
Well but what should be a good set-up for a scar-veteran? I made one with Armour of Destiny and great weapon, but not sure if it is the right set-up! Also a cowboy on carnasaur! what is your opinion about the best set-up for this beast?
On Cold One, Dawnstone, dragon helm, great weapon. On Foot, enchanted shield, sword of might. On Carnasaur? That's tough, because Carnasaurs are so hit and miss to start with. I'd go Charmed Shield, opal amulet. I wouldn't invest more, because you're so exposed. It's the same set up I use for my Coven Throne. If you don't need the Iron Curse Icon elsewhere, you could put it on this guy too; but I wouldn't run the Carnasaur without the Engine of the Gods anyway. -Matt
This thread has convinced me to try out one of these guys. I've run kitted out Oldbloods in units of Cold Ones and been impressed by them when they didn't get demolished by Warmachines. How do you guys protect the cowboys from cannons if you are running them out there on their own? I regularly play vs. Empire, Daemons and Ogres and it seems like the cowboy might make to combat against each opponent once before they caught on and just blew him to smithereens in future games. Is charmed shield kinda it for protection?