8th Ed. How should I kit out my Old Blood?

[CookieGuy]

I'm playing a list I like in an upcoming tournament that is largely hampered due to models and cash availability. (and that I lost my TG and spear saurus in my parents attic :/ ) So, my list outline is as follows: 1 saurus, 4 skinks, 2-3 rippers, 1 large krox unit, 2 priests, Scar-Vet BSB (cold one w/ GW), and an Old Blood.

So, my first ideas are to give the Old Blood (on a Cold One, of course) charm shield, 4+ ward, and fencer's blades with potion of speed/potion of strength or GW with potion of foolhardiness. The weapons do about the same wounds on T4, with the GW doing better against T5 and higher and the Fencer's Blades doing better against T3 and lower.

So, the GW seems like the more points efficient path to go among those 2, even though I have plenty of S7 in my army.

Are there any other good options for equipping an Old Blood Cowboy? With the GW option, I have about 30 points to spare without losing anything, and I could always drop a Krox from the unit if it was worth it. Any ideas to help me out?

 

[Smexygor]

Depend on what to use him for. On cold one I'd try glittering scales, Fencer's blades, and crown of command. Hit a unit and hold it for an extended time, plenty of time to get a flank charge while he wacks enough guys to keep him useful. He'd be cannon bait though. So getting him into combat ASAP would be best.

 

[Blackthorne]

My oldblood is kitted out with pirhana blade, other tricksters shard, dawnstone and he rides a cold one.

This guy has a 1+ rerollable save and 5 s5 AP attacks that do d3 wounds. The goal here is to sneak through as many wounds as possible and negate as many saves as possible, so -3 to armour and rerolling ward saves (I haven't figured out what to do about regen saves yet though). He also still has 10 pts of wargear allowance left for whatever you like (dragonhelm maybe to get the 2++ vs fire).

I've also considered the above setup too. It maximizes his hitting power to get as many s5 attacks in, and lets him solo it up against some things too.

 

[CookieGuy]

Thanks for the responses. I really like both of those builds. However, I don't know if I'd want to run him without a charm shield as he is the only cannon target aside from my BSB. Also, I have some of those items on by BSB, who I really like.

I should have been a little more specific. My BSB Cowboy is equipped with GW, dragonhelm, dawnstone, and tricker's shard (which works incredibly well). And I'm using Tetto, so I can vanguard him up the flank with some Rippers (caught everybody off guard in my 2 practice games).

The Old Blood's purpose in my army should be to get to and take care of the things that my Krox/BSB and Rippers can't handle or just get behind the enemy lines (or the flank) and cause mayhem on whatever he sees. I imagine that would be units such as really strong cavalry and maybe certain monsters and characters.

I'd run the fencer's blade/glittering scales build if I thought he could live for a turn before he charges. Any army with 2 cannons can almost guarantee that he does not.

But I do like the idea of the piranha blade build. The 2 options that I see:

1) Scar-Vet Cowboy - GW, dragonhelm, dawnstone, OTS
Old Blood Cowboy - Piranha blade, Talisman of Preservation, Charm Shield

2) Scar-Vet Cowboy - GW, Talisman of Preservation, dragonbane gem
Old Blood Cowboy - Piranha blade, Dawnstone, OTS, Charm Shield

I'm leaning towards build 1 as it provides my general with another ward save, while being nearly as effective as build 2, and I don't have to sacrifice anything on my BSB.

I appreciate the help.

 

[Anubris]

I've actually been thinking about how to equip an oldblood cowboy and a scar-vet bsb cowboy these past few days.
I didn't think of using the Piranha blade yet myself; I think it's a cool item but 50 points might be a bit expensive for its effect. Still the build with charmed shield, talisman of preservation and piranha blade on an oldblood looks quite alright.

However...I believe a scar-vet BSB without charmed shield might be quite vurnerable (unless you give him a 4+ wardsave through armour of destiny). The dawnstone is good for the scar-vet since the cheap cost allows you to take other items along with it.

A build I want to try out:

Old blood cowboy, Great Weapon, Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard.
(Chakax converted on a cold-one and you get WYSIWYG!)

Scar-vet cowboy (BSB): Charmed shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Striking, Potion of Speed

Advantages:

Oldblood: T6, 1+ AS, 4+ wardsave. D3 impact hits (strength 5 I think, great weapon probably won't work on that), hits with Str 7 and enemies reroll wardsaves --> "suitable" for smashing hard targets and characters.
Scar-Vet: Charmed shield makes up for the lack of a wardsave, dawnstone remarkably increases survivability. Sword of striking has more ''profit'' on a scar-vet compared to oldblood (lower weapon skill) and potion of speed can give you an edge when you really need it.

Disadvantages:
Oldblood: no charmed shield, if you are unlucky with wardsaves you could die early against bolt throwers / canons / lore of metal.
Scar-vet: charmed shield is nice, but he lacks a 2+ ward save against fire spells. Lore of metal could be a serious issue.

I also believe that Armour of Destiny is still ''OK" for an oldblood cowboy (even though you are overcapping on armour save) because it allows you to take a dawnstone or a talisman with magic resistance.

For Carnosaur builds I think Armour of Destiny is a no-brainer (since you have more difficulty to get a 1+ armour save). From there on I would say dawnstone / MR(2) talisman with a great weapon and maybe even TOTS is quite good.

Piranha blade is also quite decent on carnosaur: light armour, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, piranha blade seems like the build for that. However... the carnosaur already has D3 wounds so maybe it's slightly overkill? Also, if you give the oldblood TOTS I believe that the carnosaur's attacks will also force enemy ward save rerolls.

Also, question to the OP:
What amount of points were you thinking about for these characters? Do you aim to fit in a slann or do you run skink priests? Are you planning on using lone characters or are you also considering cold one cavalry itself? I really like to see someone theory crafting about combat character builds!

 

[sirkently]

I have had some decent games with an oldblood with sword of bloodshed and the stegadon helm. But I run him in a bus with a scarvet kitted out for challenges.

 

[CookieGuy]

Sirkently, that is how I plan to run my Old Blood once I get enough Cold Ones for a bus. What do you give your Scar-Vet? GW, armor of destiny? But for now, I have certain model limitations, so must pass on the Cold One Bus.

Anubris, I really do like your builds, but the only reason I see to have the Sword of Striking over the GW is to have a magic attack. The GW will deal equal to or more damage in almost every situation, and I3 isn't losing much for ASL. (I'd run Potion of foolhardiness with the GW for more fun and save 11 points). So, are ethereal units common and/or tough in a tournament setting? Is it worth it to lose some hitting power to include magical attacks (other than Tetto'Eko). I've been out of the loop for awhile.

That said, I was advised to take a character with dragonhelm or dragonbane gem due to some really tough flaming attack monsters running around, and that it'd be best if I had a 1+ rerollable with a 2++. Is this advice valid? That is the main reason for my original Scar-Vet build.

To answer your questions Anubris, for my current list I plan on taking Tetto'Eko and a level 2 Beast priest. I'm not taking a bus at this time, so they'll be solo. I have 460 points that I can spend on my general and BSB and hardly have to cut back on any other parts of my list (just losing a couple saurus and a champion from my still large anvil unit).

 

[Lizardmatt]

Character Tanking and Grinding:
Cold One, Armor of Destiny, Dawn Stone, Other Tricksters and great weapon. "Just" 5 S7 attacks, but he's really tough to kill.

On Foot/Cannon Proof:
Sword of Blood shed, Egg of Quango, light armor, shield, dragon helm.
8 S5 attacks, along with the egg (which is most often 2D6 S5 hits).

Stubborn Foot:
Sword of Anti-heroes, Stubborn Crown, 5+ ward, enchanted shield, light armor. 1+ armor, with increasing power as more characters fight you/your unit. Stubborn means you'll often stick around long enough for an enemy to put too many heroes into the fight.

Elf Killer:
Blade of Realities, shield, Cold One. Banner of the World Dragon/Pendant that! Oh, I got a 2+ ward vs magic, or Oh, I got a reverse ward save... you get Nothing! Wounded on 2's, no armor no ward!

So far, Elf Killer is my favorite. Sure, you're only T5 and 1+ armor; but at least you've got the skill to hit on 3's and kill on 2's, ignoring all their special rules.

-Matt

 

[Xaroq-kai]

I don't know how you'll feel about it but i'll throw my build out there

Carnosaur

Yes Carnosaur
I know how to use it.

Ogre Blade S+2

Talisman of Preservation Ward 4+

Other tricksters shard base-to-base contact opponent re rolls successful ward

Really ward is the only thing that will keep him from killing someone outright

At S7 he will tear through all but the best armour saves and even the best would be reduced to the worst

they pass their ward save.... haha.... no.... reroll