Im talking about the two formations at the back of most AoS army books Personally, I love the concept, giving great bonuses in exchange for taking "Core" units that otherwise would be over looked (for example Temple Guard are twice as good as saurus, but you need at least 30 Saurus for the Host) So what are everyones thoughts on how worth it these are? I think the Skink one is a no-brainer, id be hard pressed to not take every one of those units anyway, and probably will throw a 2nd unit of rippers in. The Saurus one.... It gives outstanding bonuses, but Oldbloods are okay, and Saurus are decent, but id rather use all those models/wounds (w/e your system is) buying more Temple Guard & Chakax/Gorrok if I wanted to go Saurus Heavy Thoughts? Is the immunity to battleshock that much better than the 12 bravery Temple Guard it can be replaced with? Or is it just nice to have a use for all those Saurus models we all have. Also, do you think one could field 2 Skink patrols? I have the models to manage it
Immune to battleshock is pretty darn good. It's not outside the realm of possibility to easily deal 10 wounds in a round of combat so your 12 battleshock is not really going to help you much. You could use your general's ability in the Hero phase to make 1 unit immune but the whole battalion being immune is pretty good. The Old Blood's command ability doesn't look that great on paper compared to some others but it is highly useful in getting the charge and also maneuvering your models into spots where they can get into melee range.
The OB's ability is situational, but being able to move 3" in the Hero phase could spell the difference between remaining stationary/piling-in against enemies within 3", and retreating. I think that we're the only army that can do that. I did have an encounter before where an enemy charged and piled in to 2" away from one of my blocks of infantry, only for me to use that ability, reform them back to over 3" away, and carry on downfield. Again, it's situational. How situational is it? It's as situational as enemies trying to snare your units by being within 3", for what it's worth. I haven't played enough to tell how often it comes up, but it was a game-changer at the time. Just something to consider. In any case, the Skink Patrol is flippin' amazing. It goes without saying, so I saved it for a blurb at the end. =]
Do you think its worth running 2? I would like to run the Skink Patrol plus another unit of Rippers, would it be worth just throwing in the extra units of skinks and 2nd priest?