Hey guys! So my group has finally given in, and we're going to start playing 8th! I have only played one tester game to see how hordes and magic worked.. magic was way better than in 7th! That said, we're starting a campaign and I'm having a hard time picking my first general (500 pt battles until we expand to bigger armies and higher point heroes). We're playing with injuries, and 125pt max for our first hero. I'd love to go with a priest and cloak of feathers to start, but I'm terrified of a miscast or canonball injuring my priest for the rest of the campaign. In short, would you recommend Scar-vet, or priest for a 500 pt game? I'm playing against WoC, High Elves, and Dwarves.. so some pretty hard hitters
I would go for the Scar-Vet with crown of command. Ld bonus are nice in lower point games because often steadfast is lost earlier if you play any army other than Skaven.
My fear is that my Saurus shouldn't go toe to toe with my opponents.. Swordmasters, Chosen, and Stunties are pretty tough. I was looking at Scar-vet w/ GW, Glittering Scales, and Venom of the Firefly Frog maybe? Not designed for challenges, but not bad in them. Good against rank and file + elite units. Survivable.. Crown of command would also leave me just 5 pts for upgrades without adding survivability or damage. Scar-vet > Priest the way to go though?
skink priest ftw. put him in a unit of skirmishers and he should be able to stay out of harms way for the whole battle and dish out some damage/augments/hexes. just beware that 500 points is so small an army that the game is not balanced at all. imo, you need to get to around 2000 points before the game becomes balanced. you can still play for fun at 500 points ofc, just dont be surprised if one guy wins every single match.
At 500 points total I would consider running L2 Skink Priest with Plaque of Tepok. A Level 2 running around in a unit of Skink Skirmishers with 3 spells could serve you quite well at that Level. He is very fragile though so you'll have to stay well out of the way. But at 500 points i'm not sure i'd take anything designed for combat i'd probably run skirmishers, terradons, chamo's and a Sallie and spend the entire game avoiding combat and Flaming, Poisoning and hurling magic at my opponents. Thinking about it you could even consider the staff of The Lost Sun instead as at 500 points as 3 x S5 Flaming Shots per turn could come in quite handy.
This is what I was thinking! I'm also looking at my tactics for fighting my three opponents (throughout the campaign, and the heroes remain stagnant) and they are sally and skink heavy. For WoC, I don't want to engage usually (without slann buffs), same with Dwarves, and to a lesser extent HE. So now I'm waffling between Skink Priest, or Skink chief buffer/shooter. Chief would either be a BSB (razor? Flaming? extra movement?) that I put in whatever chamo/skirmishing/terradon unit that isn't covered in deployment to add extra punch, or just a staff of the sun guy/other damage output Priest would be Plaque of tepok and seed of life/or 2 more skinks I have 125 pt max I can spend on hero (excluding mounts). I'll post some builds I was thinking of in a bit. Thanks for the advice! Keep it coming please!
OK! So here are my draft ideas for a skink hero to (hopefully) last through my campaign! 1) Skink Priest -Lvl 2 -Plaque of Tepok -Seed of Life (OR 2 more skinks.. Probably Seed) Pros: -3 spells at 500 pts -Easy to bunker with whatever unit of Skinks looks safest after deployment Cons: -Squishy (injuries last through the campaign) -Miscasts could REALLY suck for the longterm -Dwarves and High Elves have good anti-magic (WoC aren't slouches either) 2) Skink Chief v.01 -Razor/Strider Standard (is -1 AS for my opponents worth it? Could help get some more damage through on certain units.. but strider would be really helpful for Camos/Skirmishers getting within mid range) -LA -Shield -Blowpipe Pros: -Buffs my skinks who are going to play a huge role in most of my matchups -Can bunker with the safest/most important unit -Shoots better than other skinks -Can put in a terradon unit/whatever Cons: -Squishy -Buff might not outweigh having a crippled/lost hero -Meager Damage. Doesn't even have Venom of the Firefly Frog 3) Skink Chief v.02 -Staff of the Lost Suns (is this flaming AND/or poisonous?) -Charmed Shield -Seed of Life -LA Pros: -More durable in his bunker (durable for a skink) -More damage than the first chief with better range (are cannons/warmachines flammable?) -Cheaper Cons: -As with the others, I need his unit to survive (unless I have him jump ship and run away alone with his skinky friends to take the hit) -Still negligible damage The more I think about it, the better the strider banner seems.. But the priest is also a good call? The damage skink sounds cool.. but his damage still sucks. But a blowpipe/VotFF with some defensive items chief still wouldn't do a lot of damage either Any insights guys? Thanks so much by the way, kinda lost in 8th so far
Or! (sorry I know this is a big rant and a lot of info to read through) Skink Priest -Lvl 2 -Cloak of Feathers (gets him outa his bunker if need be and makes for a good channeler late game) If he lives for the first year (8 turns, potential for ~3-4 battles I think max?) then I can upgrade him to have plaque of tepok/dispel scroll/Scroll of Shielding/Opal Amulet Not sure what to do! Even debating designing a skink chief to just sit with a ward save ontop of a steggadon for when he inevitably gets challenged/attacks directed at him! At a complete loss..
If your planning avoidance tactics why not skink chief with staff of lost sun a charmed shield on Terradon. there's no way anything your opponents can field should catch him so survivability should improve, especially if your using terradons and chamos against his artillery/shooting. Two points though - If your talking 125 not including mounts then that makes Scar-vert on cold one possible which is something that can go toe to toe with opponents at 500 points. You Could put him in a unit of 5 COC which both out manoeuvres and out fights mosts opposition at that level. 2: Your BSB idea won't work as you would still have to have a different character to be the army general as only a Slann can be both the general and the BSB.
Thanks for the thoughts! I really appreciate it. Just when I thought I'd settled on Skink Priest with Feathered Cloak, you throw this wrench at me! That's a pretty cool build for Skink Hero, still worried about the damage output compared to other builds however.. And I still maintain that my Scar-Vet cannot go toe to toe with my opponents. Saurus as support would be decent against High Elves, but against Chaos and Dwarves I'm not as confident. I'll probably go with the chief idea, but I'm still debating Priest too. Decently survivable and injuries won't hinder too much (unless he drops his item/s or forgets a spell or something). The random aspect of spells is a bit of a deterrent however, as his supporting roll could be less useful than the chief with a staff.
I've been taking a look at what I might use if I where you and I think i've settled on: Skink Chief on Terradon with Light Armour and Shield and Staff of Lost Sun (4+ AS) 10 Skink Skirmishers 10 Skink Skirmishers 3 Terradons - To either shield the Chief further or run separately dropping rocks on ranged units and eliminating Artillery. the stomp attack makes them good all rounders against the right opposition. 5 Chameleons with Stalker Salamander with extra snack. Basic plan is stay the hell out of the way, sacrificing 1 unit of skink skirmishers to protect the rest of the army if I need to re-direct the enemy. And poison, and flame everything else to death.