Been hammering the games recently and although the list is almost set (http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/second-attempt-at-thunderous-charge-list.9041/), one of the things that could still change is the mage in the list getting his Ancient Stegadon back as an Engine of the Gods. I am interested in peoples opinions of it in general. I personally find it just not worth the points and more importantly I find I would rather have the normal Ancient Stegadon instead. I find that losing the double blowpipes is a huge blow. The 5+ ward is nice but without turn one if you really need it for cannons I find its been too late by turn two. The blast is nice in a very situational way and against certain lists but the only major plus seems to be the magical attack element because again in general I would rather have the pipes and throw the ruby ring on the priest. The priest gives no extra leadership to the beast! Even a pip to Ld 7 would have been great! It is nice having the 2+ save on a wizard, and combined with the dawnstone its a nice combo. Extra help to cast / dispel is nice, very much son in the non-slann list I have Obviously with the new VC out I may have to eat my words and be begging for the magial attacks and the bonus to magic but as it stands I just do not see it over the normal ancient. (and if its just a way of getting 3 ancients into the normal lists I would still rather have the chief on it!) Be interested to hear peoples thoughts
It is very situational and can be taken out in the first round of shooting (especially to Empire cannons with engineers or dwarves). However, If you take more than one Steg and present multiple targets, it could work. Another option that you do not touch is the Skink Chief on a ancient steg with the warspear. This build is awesome against HE with their pesky reroll to hit. 2d6+1 impact hits for the win. And you get to keep your giant blowpipes! Unfortunately, you do not benefit from the bubble ward or the magical area attack that the EOTG gives. If you have never tried the chief, you should. It is a really fun build.
The benefit of the magic attack is that it works every turn, the war spear is great but you can still role snake eyes and get stuck. With the magic attack you charge so essentually you are getting the same dice just one is strength 4 instead of 6, however this can hit several units in their battle line helping multiple combats, for several rounds. I find 8th is a war of attrition and with saurus being expensive you need to bring as much hurt as far as possible. Plus you get the blizzard spell which goes a way to mitigate saurus ws 3. Just my thoughts on why to take the eotg
By the same token, you can roll snake eyes on the range of the burning alignment or the charge from the EOTG as well. If you are facing an army consisting of elves (DE, HE, WE), the chief is a better fit for what you need to do.
Before they were cannon magnets (7th edition), I took the ETOG whenever I could. Now, I take it occasionally. I really like using the engine against deamons and undead. In the last game that I took the engine, I had just got it into combat and an existing purple sun spell rolled over it and killed it. I have also had it shot off the board at the top of turn one. Usually, if I get the first turn, I can protect it some with either spells or by using chameleons to eliminate the war machine(s).
Thanks for the repies. Interesting to see peoples points of view. I wpuld really be putting a list together for events or to take on all comers. If I knew I was facing undead etc I can see the benefits but I do not tend to tailor army lists to what I am facing if you see what I mean. At the moment I have been using a chief on the ancient with the flaming sword, charmed shield and dawnstone. If assisting units against regen units he always hit before my main troops to try and negate it. He has the shield for the one turn cannon save. The dawnstone makes him surprisingly hardy in combat. May give the warspear a go but not sure how much of a place this has when I have no idea what I will be facing?
Another fantastic thing to do with the EotG is if you ever decide to play with an oldblood on a carnosaur. Not only does the EotG help pick up the slack in the magic phase it also provides great protection. Any player worth their salt is gonna try and burn down that carnosaur asap which should divert most of the attention away from your EotG. If you want it as support for an Slann this is where things get tricky. One tip is to give it the ironcurse icon.. only 5 points for a 6+ ward save against warmachines.. chances of it saving you are slim but slim is better than none. I honestly follow the same rule most people use when fielding a carnosaur. Get it into combat as swiftly as possible. Look for a nice weak unit and tie yourself up with them. You aren't trying to even win combat, just make it so warmachines can't target you (this means avoid skavenslaves like the plague). I had a friend do this and used two units of 10 skink skirmishers to march along beside it and prevent flank charges. From what I heard it was fairly successful though he said using two small skrox units might have faired better.
Interesting idea with the skink flanks but are you not in danger of getting very very pricey for a Ancient Steg and a character that cannot fight? Ran the chieft on Ancient today and it did its job, got good used form the blowpipes and the chief finished off the 20 man blackguard unit before dying to a dreadlord. Just cannot see running the war spear in an event and giving the poor little git no protection Think if I can get in one more practise game I will switch back to the EotG and trial it one last time.
I had a game the other day against high elves at 2000pts. I had a slann, 16 TG, a Saurus block, some little bits, and an Engine and regular Steg. From left to right, I ended up with Salamanders, Steg, Engine, Slannbunker, Saurus, then the other chaff. He was so mortified by the thought of shooting at the stegadons (and was never sure which to shoot really) with the ward save that he concentrated most of his shooting towards other things which were better suited to weather it anyway due to numbers. I was aggressive with the smaller one but held back with the ancient (always mindful of the ward saves range) until the time was right. Ended up having a chance to burn things once which did all right but wasn't a game changer, and once everything was fairly engaged or within the gungan shield, the -1 to spells helped me out against the +3 from Drain Magic. It never took any damage because he ended up putting his effort towards the smaller one which would have been killed twice if not for Life Magic. It was my first proper attempt with him, but I'll definitely keep trying him out. I also want to try a similar list with a Carnosaur rather then the Slann.
Hello, The trick with the EotG is to synergyze It with the rest of your army. If you take a Life Slann or a Shadow one the EotG is ideal If you don't play with Lone cowboy scar Vets. And with propper equipment for the Skink Priest like Plaque of Tepok and Dawnstone. You have a level 3 Mage that is cappable of running down 18 Nurgle Warriors with Frenzy (statysticly not by a long shot Beside the model is Way cooler then 2 giant blowpipes, and the most important factor..... the EotG dosen't eath Salamander point %