i see alot of complainging about the bastiladon only giving +1 int and that means our sarus still rubbish but remember we now get hand of glory and can allways take 2 of them (assuming it stacks) and if it is a s5 stone thrower variant as well that weakens alot of the troops that our sarus cant kill any way, to top it the model looks awesome. i think we have too many pesamists here so far all we have had appears to be better than the old book for either a price drop or has gained aditional rules there are a few exceptions (salamanders) but most of us knew they had to be nerfed alittle as much for the army selection etc overall im happy its gonna take some more work to pick a competertive list for sure but looks like we have the tools
Unless you're a Blood Angel Dreadnaught. I hope Skrox is viable as I'm hoping to start playing more of a MSU LM army this release. I would like to note though that for most of the LM troops to be good you had to buff them with either Life or Light. Honestly what's the point of having the most powerful wizard in the game if he does nothing but buff the entire magic phase. I would normally cast 1 or 2 offensive spells a game before. The only reason Lore Master was good was to ensure we got those buffs, it's not like we could cast every spell in the lore every turn anyways. Often times it was Throne of Vines > Flesh to Stone then it was either Shield of Thornes or Regrowth... THEN assuming I can still cast I'd throw a DD out there. Our troops sucked without buffs and were nearly unbeatable with them.
look at 8th edition magic though 70% of it is buff or hex thats abig big part of the way magic plays now its not like 6th edition etc where magic could win the game all on its own (some thing im glad about)
I saw some posts that indicated that Skink Priests will have access to Lore of Beasts and High Magic. Do we know if they also still have access to Lore of Heavens? I love the idea of Saurus units with PF and Harmonic Convergence, but I don't see myself taking that often on the Slann. Surely you would think that at least Tetto'Eko would have Heavens.
Thought I saw somewhere skink priests would have access to Beasts and Heavens, while the skink high priest would additionally have access to High Magic.
Skinks have Heavens and Beasts. Priests, at least, don't have High magic - Lords might. ... Because buffs take our medicore infantry and make them so good that you don't need the direct damage? Things I have done after spending an entire magic phase solely buffing: Had Skroxigor fight Chosen and an Exalted for 3 rounds. Killed a Daemon Prince with a Scar-Vet. Seen of 4 Skullcrushers with Temple Guard. Had Skroxigor fight a Daemon Prince for 6 rounds.
We can only really buff 1 unit per turn. Everything else will then crumble. This is assuming you get the spell off. I've had Flesh to Stone dispell scrolled because my opponent knew that I would crumble without it. I know this game has a degree of chance and randomness but if you don’t buff our troops, even the elite TG, they die really easy to units of equal points cost. The buffs don’t make us steam roll other units, they bring them on par with them. That’s my issue.
That's because you are using Life, and that's where you've gone wrong. I was there at the start of 8th edition, so I know why it appears attractive; but it isn't. You want to be using Light, which has multiple bubble effects to improve more than one unit. Bubble WS10 Initiative 10 and bubble +1 attack, double movement and ASF. Bubble -1 to hit in close combat, -1 to shoot at, or must roll a 4+ to use a warmachine. Bubble auto-pass all Leadership tests. And unlike Life, you don't have to target one of your buffs on the caster's unit. Speed of Light, Light of Battle and Pha's Protection alone protect you from so many things, from close combat monsters to templates, and even some of the worst spells out there (like Purple Sun). I haven't looked back since switching to Light; and I run a Temple Guard horde, which you might think Life would be better for as its buffs are concentrated. It isn't. Life is great for keeping one unit alive; it doesn't do very well with multiple units, and more importantly it doesn't make it easier to kill things and win. Arguably, WS10 -1 to hit auto-pass break tests is just as handy as T6 4+ regen in any case. Against Life, your opponent knows to stop Flesh to Stone or Throne of Vines. With Light, they have twice as many considerations as each one can tip the balance.
My hope is that the Solar Engine buffs more than just Init. If it were to give a +1 to Init, WS, BS and Leadership...well then it would be pretty slick (and would help offset the loss of Leadership of the skinks). From how I read the Batrep in WD it looks like they just said that the unit had a Init of 4 due, in part, to the Solar Engine - they didn't say that Initiative was all it buffed. It if only just buffs Init and has a blast bound spell, it might not see a ton of play but that depends on the points cost of the model and the other abilities of the Bastiladon.
I am actually intrigued by the idea of using swarms for something. I do not even own any currently though.
You know my distaste for the model looks aside... if it spawns Swarms like a Necron Canoptek Spyders' scarab hive ability I think it would be worth it.
It seems like the Ark of Sotek pisses off the snakes and such (by heating them up or something?), maybe it gives a hatred/ASF/frenzy aura to nearby swarm units, and also has a chance to generate new swarms or even cause existing units of swarms to increase in size? That'd be interesting at least, and might replace some of the blowpipe skink units that would be used solely for taking out monsters. I think the Ark of Sotek and the changes made to swarms (why the move to special?) are the things in the new book we know the least about. Maybe swarms moving to special indicates that the Ark of Sotek gives them some crazy buffs, so the decision was made to limit swarms to three units.
One Warseer it has been rumoured that Cold Ones are up to 2 attacks each; however, their cost remains unchanged.
Hmm, that would make a unit of saurus cav kind of tempting, especially in combination with something like wyssan's wildform.
Does Wildform affect the mount as well as the rider? Regardless, I still don't think they justify the rediculous cost. Bring them down to 25-30 (the same range as Dragon Princes, Cold One Knights and heavy cavalry) and I might agree with you. But there is no way Cold One Cavalry should continue to be priced in the 'elite' range of 30+, a range solely inhabited by things like Grail Knights and Chaos Knights.
Random extra S4 attack for Cold ones dont justify their point cost. They have only 2+AS, so they die in random S4 shots too easily