AoS My First AoS Army

Hello all:

I recently decided to play AoS with my gaming friends. I have always loved the look of the Seraphon's and the decision was almost immediate on which army I would like to build.

I should have the following models arriving in the mail today:
Start Collecting! Seraphon
Seraphon Skinks
Skink Starpriest
Lizardmen Skink Priest

If I figured it out right I will have about 72 wounds:
Oldblood on Carnosaur (12 wounds? - can't find warscroll for the box set on line)
8 - Saurus Knights (16 wounds ? - can't find warscroll for the box set on line)
12 - Saurus Warriors (12 wounds? - can't find warscroll for the box set on line)
24 - Skinks (24 wounds)
1 - Skink Priest (4 wounds)
1 - Star Priest (4 wounds)

I am not sure if this will give me a good selection to start out with? I thought the price of the Start Collecting box was a no brainer, everything I have read says that Skinks are useful and I thought the two different priests looked like a good starting HQ.

I am not sure which weapons to model my army with? I have seen several different articles and they all seem to have different opinions. Should I do a mix and declare what weapons I am using each game or is it WYSIWYG?

I saw the excellent article by Skinquisitor on making a troglodon conversion out of the extra bits in the SC box. I am going to take the time and challenge myself to create one to add to the list ones the initial painting frenzy is finished. I am not sure if I want to mold the body or purchase a small rubber dino from a craft store or toy store and be creative with my table saw. Either way I really want to add one to my collection if I can make it look good. I have never worked with water effects before and I am hesitant to try on a conversion in case I mess it up. Maybe emerging from a mud pool?

I believe I am going to go with a base skin color of red (Vallejo Game Air Scar Red) and work the scale details with other shades of red. I may also vary the scale color by unit for easy identification. From what I have read it looks like the older the Seraphon the lighter is scale color will be. So maybe some vet units with fades scales?

What else should I buy to start out with? We are starting at 80 wounds lists for our initial games.

Thanks for reading!

 

I believe I would like to have a more offensive army than a defensive one. I am not sure if my starter order will allow that? I tend to play aggressive in other games; I feel I will have the same play style in AoS. I would prefer to just buy the models I need to field an aggressive army and collect others as I have time/money available.

Thanks!

 

First rule of AoS. You can completely disregard sound tactical and competetive advice and logic on the grounds that you want to use a weaker build just because it looks cool. I've done it myself twice, 50% of AoS is "I want this because it looks cool!"

If you want to go full competetive, though, I'd really recommend only one type of basic infantry. Our basic infantry are our Saurus Warrios, Saurus Guard, Saurus Knights, and Skinks, and each one offers a different playstyle. Guard will sit back and do bugger all, but will have saves so high that they become nearly impossible to kill as they beat down anyone who charges them while other specialised units take out enemy ranged support. Skinks are very fluid, like the rogue playstyle. They'll die if you so much as breathe on them too hard and their attacks do basically no damage, however they make up for this by avoiding combat entirely while peppering the enemy with an ungodly amount of tiny shots for a death-by-thousand-cuts. That said, if you want an aggressive army then you'll want to choose between Warriors or Knights.

A good warrior army will focus on horde tactics and vampire-like levels of summoning. You'll be sending an unending horde of warriors to just wear down your enemy line over time while your Slann sits back with a whole posse of heroes all channeling their supportive powers into boosting his casting rolls to be as high as we can possible get them so he can pull of the double-summon as much as possible to get as many reinforcements in there are you can to drown your enemy in cold blood as you sacrifice more troops than the Skaven for your victory.

Knights meanwhile take a more powerful approach to attacking, in the sense that they sprint around at top speed dishing out Mortal Wounds like it's gone out of style. By equipping Lances and using the Firelance Starhost, every wound roll of a 6 will inflict two mortal wounds in addition to all the brilliant normal damage you can pull off with basic lance attacks and poisonous Cold One bites. These guys can't be summoned back as easily as the warriors, making each one of them more valuable to you, but they will move across the board much faster and will hit much harder with some really strong armour-piercing attacks.

In practice, the Knights tend to be more powerful but also much more difficult to use well, while the Warriors tend to be more forgiving if you make a mistake but also lack that delicious double Mortal Wounds thing. That said, remember that other units like Salamanders and Bastiladons can act as support to fill the tactical holes in your armies.

 

Thanks for the input. I have a few more questions.

1. What is my "Slann" is that my priest? A particular type of priest or the Saurus Sunblood character?

2. What specialty items should I order directly from GW now? I need to order Saurus Sunblood and I need a $65 order to get free shipping; it is insane to pay $10 shipping on one item. Should I get a salamander, a skink priest in feather cloak, something else? Really want to order just what is "web only" for now if I can to get the shipping break.

3. My original list came yesterday and evidently there is no "Skink Priest" available; I received just the Star priest. What should I use to replace him?

4. Looking at Bainbow's post I should be running warriors or nights. Should I bother building my box of Skinks?

5. Weapons - Is AoS played as what you see is what you get or can I model with various weapons and declare what I have on my sheet/roster that I make before the game? I wanted to start building last night but wasn't sure what weapons to use. It appears that Lances are the way to go on the Knights but I am not sure about the warriors and skinks?

6. For items 2, 3 and 4: What changes should I make to my starter list? Add this many knights or warriors or skinks or HQ's?
Oldblood on Carnosaur
8 - Saurus Knights
12 - Saurus Warriors
24 - Skinks
1 - Star Priest


Thanks for all of the help!

 

1: The Slann is the fat magic frog thing in a hoverchair that is the most powerful type of wizard in the game (because Nagash cheats with all his fancy equipment while the Slann work with nothing but their raw power,) they're pretty much essential for any Seraphon player. They come in the Slann Starmaster and Lord Kroak forms, with the Starmaster being a better support and Kroak being a better damage dealer. So for an aggressive army you want the Starmaster to support your attacking troops.

2: You should certainly bolster your infantry. Decide on whether you want to focus on Warriors or Knights and get some more of whichever one you choose to build your army around.

3: The Skink Priest is available, he's the feathery cloak dude. Though honestly I think that the Starpriest is a better choice anyway and you have one already so I don't think there's a need to get the normal Priest.

4: Oh yeah, build them. Until you finish your army, you can use the models you plan on eventually switching out to bolster your army. Use everything you have until you hit the wound limit and start switching the less valuable units out. Also you can use them as painting practice if you're into that.

5: It really depends on where you play, it's often agreed upon that a unit of just clubs can't use spears but if you had a 50/50 set-up then it would be down to the discretion of the people you'll be playing against as to whether or not they're cool with that. I'd check with them first. That said, if you decide to go with the Knights then I'd just go with lances exclusively, the Blazing Lances ability in a Firelance Starhost is why you should take knights in the first place, really unless you're taking them because they're cool, which is fine.

6: You should definitely bolster either the warriors or knights, but only one of them. Decide based on which of the playstyles I described is more up your alley. Knights for difficult yet powerful abilities that are great when they work but may backfire if your opponent can out-maneuver you, or a much more forgiving horde mode of Warriors. A Slann is also a must-have, in fact get one first before anything else. A unit of Chameleons would also be valuable in any army. And if you go Warriors, then some Salamanders can help, or some Razordons if you go Knights.

 

Hijacking this thread abit, what is it about the salamanders/razordons that you think synergizes better with warriors/knights?

 

Well the major advantage that the Salamanders have is their Rend, which is a massive -2. It makes them ideal for penetrating high-armour defensive lines, which is an ability that the rendless Warriors lack. Even if you decide to use the Sunclaw Starhost to get that Rend -1, even though the Sunclaw Starhost is rubbish, you're back to square one against other Seraphon players who can no-sell Rend -1 without even having to try. This allows the Salamanders to cover the weaknesses of the Warrios quite nicely. Meanwhile the Knights are line-breakers and can easily inflict Mortal Wounds, they already possess the ability to pierce armour rather nicely. What they lack are fast and cheap attacks good for clearing low armour mooks who will attack in hordes, like Zombies. Yeah they hit hard, but while the ability to shatter armour under a charge like it was never even there is a great advantage against the tower shields of Liberators or the impossible defenses of a Temple Guard line, it's a little mundane against hordes of disposable no-armour mooks who are expected to just take you out with sheer numbers. While the Warriors can counter this with their own numbers, the Knights lack the cheapness to field that's ironically necessary to counter unending hordes, they're too high level. However the fact that a single Razordon can pump out 2D6 shots with ease in an army that can grab rerolls like a fat kid grabbing sugary goods at a sweet shop makes a unit of the spiky buggers ideal for clearing out waves of Zombies and Skaven, which covers the weakness of the Knights like the Salamanders covering the Warriors.

 

Awesome! Cheers for explaining your thoughtprocess, can't more then agree.

 

Thank you for the response!

Is there anywhere to buy a reasonably prices Slann? I can get most of the items through different vendors but the web exclusive stuff isn't easy to find. I found a few on eaby but they are missing pieces and almost as much as the WH webpage.

If any of you have any used parts/pieces that you think would benefit me please send me a PM and let me know what you have.

Thanks again!

 

That's not the sort of thing to ask me, I'd just tell you to buy it direct from GW so you actually support the people making the game. So on that note, I'll excuse myself before I turn into a preacher. Give us a bell if you have any more tactical questions.

 

And/Or play!

 

Bainbow: Sorry if I offended you. I get my items from my local gaming store when I can or web vendors that handle the official GW products. I buy from the different web stores because they are typically cheaper than ordering directly from the GW site and I can combine items to save on my shipping (paints/brushes . . . .).

I would love to see one of the stores but unfortunately there is no GW official store near me; I think the nearest one is over 2 hours away. I hope to take a trip there in the near future. None of our local stores seem to stock much AoS stuff which makes it harder to find things when you need them.

Thanks.

 

You didn't offend me, lad. The entire reason I backed out of that part was so that I didn't offend you.

 

Just have them order it for you, usually no problem at all, atleast where I live!