So I'm still pretty new to the game, I've played maybe 7 games of AoS so far. I've won two of them. Aside from me just needing to remember what all my stuff does, I feel I need a little advice in list building and deployment tactics. I've done limited research into how I should build my models, and this is what i have so far at my disposal: 1 Scar-Vet on Carnasaur armed with Warspear 1 Oldblood on Carnasaur armed with Warspear (Oldblood isn't glued on, i'm thinking of trying to magnetize him so I can switch between mounted and on foot.) 1 Kitbashed Scar-Vet on Cold One 2 Skink Starpriests 2 Kitbashed Skink Priests 1 Kitbashed Saurus Sunblood 2 Bastilidons armed with Solar Engines 6 Terradon Riders armed with Bolas 20 Saurus Warriors with Clubs and 20 Saurus Warriors with Spears with spare alphas to run them as two units of 10 or 1 of 20 each. 20 Skinks with Boltspitters, daggers and Bucklers. 10 Saurus Knights with Spears and 5 with Clubs. These have underperformed reliably and I am shifting away from focusing on them as I did at the beginning. I also am working on following Crowsfoot's tutorial using spare bits. I should have 2 Trogolodons and an Astrolith Bearer in the hopefully not too distant future. Waiting on supplies in the mail and for my schedule to allow me to hang out with a buddy more experienced in kitbashing for help. I've been running Coalesced Koatl's Claw for all of my games, and I'm loving the jaw attacks. I only recently finished building the 22 warriors from a Warriors booster and got the Sunclaw Battalion at my disposal. In the one 1K point game I got with it, I Immediately loved it MUCH more than the Firelance I was using prior. I want to focus on Saurus moving forward since I have the more Saurus units than Skink ones and I'm loving the Coalesced playstyle and narrative thematics. Disclaimer: All but one of the games I've played so far were First Blood, not objective. And my first two games a friend of mine was 'teaching me' with FEC and OBR. I'm not sure how that skews things.
Welcome to the hobby. It sounds like you've gotten a solid start with the game so far. It also seems like you are aware that OBR is in a strong place. And as you already know, AoS is more balanced with objective based play instead of kill counts. Here is a decent start point if you are looking to refine a 1k Saurus list: Allegiance: Seraphon - Constellation: Koatl's Claw Leaders: Saurus Sunblood (130) - General - Command Trait: Dominant Predator - Artefact: Eviscerating Blade Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One (110) - Artefact: Blade of Realities Skink Starpriest (120) Battleline: 40 x Saurus Warriors (320) - Spears 10 x Saurus Warriors (90) - Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (90) - Clubs Battalions: Sunclaw Temple-host (140) Total: 1000 / 1000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 200 Wounds: 78 Until you have the additional 20x Saurus Warrior, I suggest either swapping out the Sunblood for an Oldblood on Carnosaur or keeping the Sunblood and upgrading the ScV to an ScV on Carnosaur. Run the spears as a 20x block and then two blocks of 10x Saurus Warriors w/Clubs. You could also just add a few Saurus Knights instead.
Yeah, i experimented with the Knights more extensively first, but I quickly realized they're not meant to do the bulk of the fighting. I've been using the Oldblood on Carnasaur in place of the Sunblood so far, and I'm not sure which is better in terms of Oldblood or Sunblood for the purposes of command abilities. The +1 to hit vs the +1 to wound is a tough call.
In 2k take both. In 1k list I prefer the +1 to wound since you can already get the +1 to hit via Koatl's Claw. The Sunblood also target's an enemy unit allowing multiple attacking Saurus units to benefit. However, if you plan to cast Hand of Glory with the Skink Starpriest, then you can get to +2 to hit via Oldblood and Koatl's Claw command abilities while re-rolling 1's to hit.
Man, I really need to keep track of my buffs better. I didn't realize Koatl's Claw gave me +1 to hit at all.