Since my poor skrox got hit with the nerf bat I need something else that can handle stuff like demigryphs, mournfang, plus 1 knights, hydras, aboms etc. Anyone have any suggestions? Feel like we are out cold to these units without relying on magic.
For for most knights, a unit of ripperdactyls is a good counter. Against multiwound armored things, an ancient steg charging in with sharpened horns can wreck face. If you have an "anvil" unit like a block of saurus or even your skrox unit, you can hold them for one turn, then counter charge with the ancient steg or even the Bastiladon. Other than that... Saurus heroes with great weapons. Temple Guard are good with the caveat that you have the Razor Standard and a Bastiladon nearby. I think this will allow them to strike before mournfang and you will strike before the Juggernauts of Khorne.. however they won't perform too well in a straight up fight without either a boosted Hand of Glory or preferably some Wyssan's Wildform.
hmm by my math an Ancient steg with sharpened horns wont even kill a single demigryph on the turn it charges. that cant be right? and after that round it will do almost nothing
So let's see this math then.. Let's just count how many hits you have to do it take to do a wound (before multiwounds) Demigryps are T4 so S6 will wound 5/6, then it gets 4+ AS that's 1/2. That means to do at least one wound would mean 2,4 hits. Ancient steg will do at least 2 hits and max 7 hits. So it's almost guaranteed that it will at least do one wound. If we do get 7 hits, that means almost 3 will wound. There's potential not just to kill one with sharpened horns, there's a (very slim) chance of killing 3 demigryphs! (needs some serious dice rolls)
If you instead calculate the average nr. of wounds an Ancient Steg (with sharepened Horns) would do to a unit of Demigryphs, it would amount to 3,75 wounds (1 dead Demigryph). Average nr. of hits = 4,5 x 5/6 (Chance to wound) x 0,5 (Armor saves) x 2 (D3 multiple Wounds) =3 ,75 Wounds.
On average rolling you should kill off one of the demis with impact hits, which then reduces the number of attacks coming back. And remember the T6 should cut down on what they can do against the Stegadon. Also you could get another lucky wound through with the Stegadon's regular strength 6 attacks. Killing one of them reduces them to less than one rank as well, so no steadfast, you might break them.
Chance of an Ancient Stegadon's impact hits killing: 1 Demigryph: 64.10% 2 Demigryphs: 24.83% 3 Demigryphs: 6.19% These overlap, i.e. the chance to kill 1 includes the chance to kill 2. You can use the same binomial distributions as always for discrete dice events, but the random attacks and random wounds require a polynomial power expansion for their respective probabilities. From a game standpoint, that's not bad at all for just the impact hits; I'll work up some numbers with the skink and steg attacks later. This is better than I really expected for how much people talk about how awesome Demigryphs are *grin*
Most cav are only as good as the charge they get. Our cav is the exact same either way, and isn't as fast anyway. Replacing Skrox is a tough call since nothing puts out S7 outside a hero with a great sword.
Don't forget the Bastiladon's tail attack! It can help if the monstrous cav is already stuck on a unit of infantry.
Well, a Stegadon may be M6 w/o swiftstride, but being a lone monster gives it free pivots, which makes it really maneuverable. In my experience if you really want to land a charge with a Steggie and you're willing to wait until turn 3 you can make it happen without much trouble. Plus, they make great tarpits to set up charges for other stegs.
The trick is keeping it alive in a laser cannon meta. You need warmachine hunters in your army if you want to make that steg work, so add the cost of a unit of terradons to each steg you take.
I bring 3 scar-vet heroes now because of this. I used to restrict the number so my army wouldn't be cheesy but now i feel it bring my army up to middle high tier if i use a "tough" list. So my answer is... more scar-vets .
I used a scar-vet in a unit of 5 cold one cavalry with great success, they killed a High Elf Prince on a Griffon, I did get the charge though and I was using spears on them (haven't converted my old models yet). My scar-vet had a great weapon, the steg helm, light armour and the luckstone. The impact hits are awesome! Definitely using the steg helm again.