Pretty good video about the carnosaur, but taking thunder lizard and sunclaw temple host wouldn't be my first choice. This is one is for you @Lizerd 20:55 mark he talks about the good stuff.
Excellent.. excellent I do agree with him that the sunclaw is probably one of the best ways to make him hit hard as the jaws hit so hard, although running some nearby knights to keep up with it in mobility. However I’m not entirely sold on thunder lizard as it means sacrificing the Koatl’s claw buffs which make saurus battleline downright terrifying here is my personal take on them Allegiance: Seraphon - Constellation: Koatl's Claw Leaders Tezka (250) Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur - Artefact: Blade of Realities Kor-Ax (210) Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur - War Spear - Artefact: Eviscerating Blade Lord Kroak (320) - Spell: Stellar Tempest Kro-Qua (120) Skink Starpriest - Spell: Hand of Glory Xa-Gar (120) Skink Starpriest - Spell: Celestial Harmony Rostal-Xhotl (130) Saurus Sunblood - General - Command Trait: Dominant Predator Battleline 10 x Saurus Knights (200) - Lances 10 x Saurus Knights (200) - Lances 10 x Saurus Warriors (90) - Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (90) - Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (90) - Clubs Battalions Sunclaw Temple-host (140) Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs Balewind Vortex (40) Total: 2000 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 116
so you know that's @Caleb ex nihilo right? he has another good video on the forums here that breaks down the basti save rules
So wouldnt you still take coalesed for the extra bite attack and damage reduction? Or are you one of those other skinks?
Did a quick calculation for the Skink chief on a stegadon. With very minimal buffs of prime warbeast, herald of the old ones and coordinated strike he is doing 19.21 wounds vs 4+ armor save. You also have a a few MWs on the charge. You will always bring a skink priest in a skink build all this is costing you is your general slot. Stegadons do some nice damage from range so you don't need to get it to combat right away. His command ability plays really well with big blocks of skinks and his steadfast majesty helps keeping the skinks around. If you want to put feather cloak on him he moves 12" and has a -1 to hit. He has enough attacks that of you have a skink starpriests you can use the serpent staff on him to do 4 or so MWs. On defense, the stegadon chief does much better than the carnosaur. Feather cloak for -1 to hit, skink priest for a 3+sv and if you attack <5 models you can easily get him to a 2+sv.
the purpose of the video wasn't a comparative of the better option, just a method for people to maximize the carnosaur if they want to run him.
Of ocurse I’m taking coalesced, it’s just Koatls claw grants that in addition to the other coalesced stuff
Someone correct me if I am wrong but you can't take an Oldblood on Carnosaur in a Sunclaw battalion. It specifies a "Saurus Oldblood" by name. Much like Sotek refers to Skinks by name in plain text and not bold. You can see this in the Firelance where Scarvet is bold meaning you just need a model with that keyword and not the specific named unit.
So the thing to point out here is Oldblood is a keyword, shared by both the Oldblood on foot or the Oldblood on Carnosaur. Thus it becomes a valid unit choice there are also some other guys who’ve discussed this before, I can try and link it
It has nothing to do with the keyword. There's a clarification in the main rules that says you can ignore sub-headings when selecting units as part of battalions. "On Carnosaur" is a subheading for the Saurus Oldblood (on carnosaur). The battalion just says "Saurus Oldblood", so you can run the carnosaur version.
Do you happen to know exactly where that rule is? I just want to have it at the ready for if it comes up in the future. I like to be able to quickly pull up the rules whenever there is something like that which can be misunderstood. It does make sense though. Why else have the "on carnosaur" in a different font bellow the name if it wasn't considered separate for that exact scenario. Edit: Never mind I found it. I just didn't read carefully. Page 15, section 1, second paragraph is where that is stated. So I can have that at the ready any time it comes up. Thanks for clarifying for me so I would go double check rules.
This is one thing that motivates me to potentially bring saurus in starborne - a few blocks of rend -2 saurus that can hop around the board is a nice thought (with a great drake Oldblood with relic weapon of some variety as well) not super competitive but kind of cool for fun matchups. Would be fun vs a buddy’s pre-sacrosanct stormcast (poor soul) Edited for silly mistake
Rend -2 saurus warriors could be pretty scary, but the issue is they only make one attack with that each unless your taking them in a block of 20 or more. I kinda feel that coalesced saurus in a sunclaw temple host are more potent, but I’ve never gotten to see starborne saurus warriors
My idea would be 2x20 clubs and 1x30 or 1x40 spears. You would need to rely on cogs, Starseer, and hunter’s steed most likely. But you have inbuilt reroll charges which is huge
I tend to shy away from multiple giant blocks of saurus. You still need to have guys on objectives and putting a lot of points into multiple combat units doesn’t leave much for that when you factor in support. I like to have 3 units to smash things. A big unit of knights/saurus, a super up carnosaur like in the video, and then a unit of salamanders is my go to in my all comers lists. still let’s me afford small skink units to sit on objectives, and can deal damage without being the giant point sinks large saurus units of 30-40 are. Sure you could take units of 10-20 saurus to sit on objectives but that is a waste imo.
Yeah it’s a tough call since we have so much other good stuff. I just figure you are spending 160 for the batallion and at least 90 pts more to get 3 min sized saurus squads vs 3 skink squads, so your minimum additional cost of entry is 250 (500 including the carnasaur). To make the clubs sing you need at least 20 saurus, so again, another 270 pts on top. So 770 is what you pay to use a sunclaw effectively, over the price of 3 cheapest battleline. This is a big investment (can get 3 full salamander units, plus 50 extra points to spare which is arguably a much better pick). In my mind it would be best used semi-competitively, if you don’t want to simply ruin some poor players day with MWs out the wazoo...