13 zombies was a bad example as they don't break, but the point was people aren't going to suddenly field units that are big enough not to be wiped out but small enough to lose combat just to bait us. I'm not getting particularly worked up about it, it's just another downside to be aware of. Sure it's possible for us to work around it, but people are pretending like the downsides don't exist.
That's fair. As someone who plays with a lot of Fast Cav, I can totally see this being an issue if you can get a flank charge off against saurus and there being no skink characters around. Even four or five saurus don't have a good chance of killing all five, and then they're going to expose their flank to the units that I want them to. My experience playing against Lizardmen though is that they never seem to break from combat when I want them to anyway, so even flanking them almost never seems like a great idea.
gets pf on 5+, reroll misses shield is+2sv and chargers take diff terrain with -1 mod kb and hkb and multi wound do 1w on a 2+
Will Saurus expose their flank unwittingly? Or will they have a flankless Bastilidon right there by their side to block your wanna-be surprise flankers? If you get to bring both a unit that forces my Saurus to pursue and a unit to flank charge them, then I get to bring a Bastilidon to protect their flank.
I'm going to go ahead and say that's not a big worry of mine with Chameleons, Salamanders, Skink Skirmishers, and Terradons still around, in addition to there not being many flavors of chaff that can survive a frontal attack on a Saurus unit. And if it turns out to be a bit bigger of an issue than I anticipate, my first list under the new regime has 2 Skink Priests for Arcane Item carrying purposes, so I'm not terribly worried.
Surely at 2d6 HITS you don't roll to hit therefore poison would be irrelevant as you can't roll a six on a dice you don't roll?
So lets talk Bastilodons, which variant are people most looking forward to? It seems to me that the ark of Sotek will work nicely to anchor a flank of your battle line buffing a swarm as you advance up the table while the solar engine is better wedged between your Saurus blocks to spread the Int buff around. The arks DD attack isn't wonderful, but at least its not a bound spell so it will probably do more for you than the beam of Chotec anyway. I'm thinking of the following at 2k Slann (High loremaster, +2 dice to channel, staff of channeling) Scar Veteran (Carnosaur, charmed shield, light armour, spear) 30 Saurus (spears, full command) 2x 10 Skink Skirmishers 20 Temple Guard, Full command Bastilodon (Ark of Sotek) 2 Jungle Swarms Ancient Stegadon w/ Sharpened horns 1 Salamander Hunting Pack I wanted a L1 skink priest for Wyssans and saurus control as well, but I'm almost certain there won't be space, on the other hand I can always swap out a dud high spell for Wyssans in the first magic phase. I'm also thinking about trading out the salamander pack for a small chameleon scout unit, but again I'm unsure.
I think that I prefer the Solar Engine unless Tehenhauin is involved - I look to the Vampire Counts' Bat Swarm as a key example of how making a Swarm better doesn't necessarily make it good. And I'm not sold on the Carnosaur when I can just take Sharpened Horns on an Ancient Steg and get a monster with superior all-around utility. My projected list at 2500 is looking mostly like this: Proposed List - 2500 points Core - 720 points 50 Saurus Warriors, Full Command, Spears 2 x 10 Skink Skirmishers Special - 690 points 2 x 6 Chameleon Skinks 36 Temple Guard, Full Command [Slann goes here] Rare - 460 points Ancient Stegadon, Engine of the Gods, Sharpened Horns 2 x Salamander Hunting Pack Heroes - 185 points Skink Priest, Cube of Darkness [Lore of Beasts] Skink Priest, Dispel Scroll [Lore of Beasts] Lords - 435 points Slann, BSB (Standard of Discipline), Channeling Staff, Harmonic Convergence, Soul of Stone, The Becalming Cogitation [Lore of Light] Grand Total: 2490 points I'm assuming that Skink Priests are the same points as they were in the old book (no one has said anything about that yet). The goal here is to generate massive amounts of attacks via Light buffs and Predatory Fighter (Speed of Light/Timewarp ftw), and use Wyssan's to give them some sting. I have a couple of points lying around which I'm not entirely sure what to do with, and I could probably use one more deployment drop (maybe trim the Saurus to 40 for another unit of Skirmishers, though that means I start losing attacks with casualties immediately). Either way, those are my initial thoughts.
Awesome! Now I just need to carve out enough points to take the Razor Standard on the Temple Guard and I'll be set.
Damn GW, I'll have to remodel 20 Saurus to give them spears... Nice thing, I don't need to buy anything, I already own all I need... Might have to actually get the book though xD.
I know, spears are now the way to go it seems. ALL of my saurus have HW+SH. I guess you only need >50% holding spears, so not all the old models go to waste. I think at this point, swapping the arms out it more trouble than it is worth, you never know what might change in 9th edition!
Yeah I'm looking at 2 solar engines myself. Why 2? Well I think 2d6 s2 hits and swarms are rubbish, and I don't have spineys aversion to bound spell. Also two of them should give reliability. I'm also going to use rippers instead of terradons. I know. I still hate them, but I hate them so much that it's a challenge to make them work. So I will, so you don't have to.
I'm pretty excited for this book despite the negatives that people are seeing ive changed my old views, I'm optimistic. Besides everyone hates on stuff now till some guy roles into a GT and wins using everything everyone hates. Because its the general that makes the army.
You don't understand how most disappointed people feel. The book with still work... But army lists won't be very different than what you were seeing before (I'm actually not buying anything since none of the new stuff seems worth it). Though, if you manage to win a tournament using a lot of Saurus Cold One Cavalry, Razordons and Ripperdactyl, you'll deserve a big cookie!