AoS Saurus unpopularity

[4idvet]

Hey everybody, hope y’all are doing well in all this madness.

I’ve got a question for the community, the question is this: Why are the saurus lists not considered as good as skink lists competition wise? I thought the saurus were actually well worth taking this go around was the consensus after the book first dropped?
I’ve been super busy but I feel like I’ve missed something or a shift in opinion happened and I’d just like you knowledgeable folks to kinda explain it like I’m 5 and break it down? Thanks a bunch!

 

[Erta Wanderer]

Hey everybody, hope y’all are doing well in all this madness.

I’ve got a question for the community, the question is this: Why are the saurus lists not considered as good as skink lists competition wise? I thought the saurus were actually well worth taking this go around was the consensus after the book first dropped?
I’ve been super busy but I feel like I’ve missed something or a shift in opinion happened and I’d just like you knowledgeable folks to kinda explain it like I’m 5 and break it down? Thanks a bunch!

great question i love saurus and they are my primary army they do good work. the reason skinks are over all better is they are cheaper faster and they are ranged units. on top of that our best units the salamanders benefit from skink buff heroes and we are to hero dependent to take both skink and saurus heroes. skinks are also the ones that benefit most from the starborn faction/subfaction as they don't need to make a charge after teleportation and sotek is made spasificaly for them
it's not that suarus are bad (they aren't thats why i run them) it's that skinks(who are worse then they used to be) benefit more from whats in our book

 

[Grotpunter]

I think Saurus Knights are very viable in Koatls Claw, Im not a fan of Warriors but the issue imo is just lack of mobility in Coalesced. The teleport in Starborne provides so much utility - You can deepstrike and punish your opponent if he does a bad play. This can flat out win games on its own. The teleport can also cover whenever yourself make sloppy and bad play. Salamanders (or whatever really) in a bad position/wrong part of the table? Fear not, just teleport and ignore positioning mistake. Out of position to win an objective on the other side of the table? Teleport and grab it. If you do those mistakes in Coalesced you lose.

The summoning aspect is also big for objective play - Even if you wont be summoning multiple Dread Saurians, the fact you can summon 10 Skinks to grab an objective or screen your stuff or summon another Salamander to grab a weak protected point is pretty big.

 

[Nart]

On top of that, we don't have any abilities to manipulate activations. We cannot strike first, cannot fight twice or force opponent to fight last. This kind of forces our competitive lists into shooting.

 

[Canas]

Essentially cuz starborne is better, and skinks benefit most from starborne. Plus there's inherent advantages to shooting, even without the bonusses from starborne.

Also, since we have relativly little overlap in synergies between skinks & saurus mixed forces don't really work. So once half your force consists of skinks you might as well double down.

It doesn't help that the advantages saurus have are somewhat underwhelming. Skinks have mechanical advantages by being faster & being able to shoot. Not to mention they're way cheaper. Saurus "merely" have a better melee stat-block and it isn't even that impressive a statblock. This also means that our saurus trade relativly poorly with certain opponents who can strike first etc. Which like @Nart pointed out, doesn't speak in their favour either.

 

[4idvet]

Oh man this is terrible lol. I just put together tons of saurus infantry and one of each saurus hero lol. I even rebased my old Kroq Gar to be a “scar vet on cold one” lol.

 

[Nart]

Oh man this is terrible lol. I just put together tons of saurus infantry and one of each saurus hero lol. I even rebased my old Kroq Gar to be a “scar vet on cold one” lol.

I wouldn't worry, if I were you, unless you are going to go 5-0 at a GT or your meta is super-competitive. I still enjoy my thunderquake in friendly games.

 

[4idvet]

Honestly I think I’m the most competitive one out of them all so it should be fine, however my girlfriend has bonereapers and now lumineth so the home games will be interesting.

I’ve always ran big units of saurus since fantasy battle days I was just wanting them to be a viable option if I wanted to go super competitive if that makes sense.

All that said I’m far away from ever pulling a 5 and 0 with anything so it’s not a great loss, or even a loss at all really.

 

[Erta Wanderer]

Honestly I think I’m the most competitive one out of them all so it should be fine, however my girlfriend has bonereapers and now lumineth so the home games will be interesting.

I’ve always ran big units of saurus since fantasy battle days I was just wanting them to be a viable option if I wanted to go super competitive if that makes sense.

All that said I’m far away from ever pulling a 5 and 0 with anything so it’s not a great loss, or even a loss at all really.

they work well you just have to be careful and know what you are doing

 

[Canas]

Oh man this is terrible lol. I just put together tons of saurus infantry and one of each saurus hero lol. I even rebased my old Kroq Gar to be a “scar vet on cold one” lol.

It's not that bad, you should be fine in a normal enviroment, it's just not the most competitive ever

 

[Arcanis161]

Oh man this is terrible lol. I just put together tons of saurus infantry and one of each saurus hero lol. I even rebased my old Kroq Gar to be a “scar vet on cold one” lol.

My army is going to be Skink heavy, but I'm still getting Saurus units. They may not be competitive now, but no one said the Great Plan was going to be fulfilled immediately.

 

[Dread Saurian]

Oh man this is terrible lol. I just put together tons of saurus infantry and one of each saurus hero lol. I even rebased my old Kroq Gar to be a “scar vet on cold one” lol.

Yo my young saurus you keep your chin up you have nothing to feel bad for. You can still enjoy your footsloggers to the fullest extent without issue.
Memes and dreams baby

 

[valentine009]

Coalesced Saurus Knights are great targets for serpents staff if you are fighting bone reapers.

 

[Killer Angel]

Basically, if you go horde, skinks are more mobile and can shoot.
going to sauri, knights are still better than warriors, because they are good damage dealers, faster than warriors, less subject to battleshock, much more easier to buff (because it's a pain to have 40 sauri "wholly within") and all their attacks land (while with a warriors' horde this is more problematic)

 

[Lizerd]

The issue with saurus warriors is that in hordes, they become slow and rather clunky, subject to shooting, and can be tied down before reaching ideal combat. From my experience they aren’t specialized enough to truly replace our other battle line. They can be good, but we have better options available

 

[Dread Saurian]

The issue with saurus warriors is that in hordes, they become slow and rather clunky, subject to shooting, and can be tied down before reaching ideal combat. From my experience they aren’t specialized enough to truly replace our other battle line. They can be good, but we have better options available

You think giving em advance and charge would make em more viable?

 

[Lizerd]

You think giving em advance and charge would make em more viable?

It could, would make them around as mobile as saurus knights. Of course they will still be more clunky but the speed would help

 

[Putzfrau]

Being able to run and charge would be absolutely massive. Get an extra 2 inches from sacred asterism and a built in reroll. Yes please.

Let the skink prayer work on both or give the astrolith bearer a prayer that only effects saurus for the same thing.

Or just make saurus cheaper. That fixes everything

 

[4idvet]

I guess I maybe should have waited a few months after the book was out before I got 120 Saurus Warriors huh lol. I thought the big blocks of saurus were gonna be viable and competitive this time around lol. I’ve only got two units of skinks, a unit of 10 chameleon skinks , Kroak, 3 Krox and a slann with the crew of assorted skink heroes minus the star seer Non saurus wise.

 

[Putzfrau]

I guess I maybe should have waited a few months after the book was out before I got 120 Saurus Warriors huh lol. I thought the big blocks of saurus were gonna be viable and competitive this time around lol. I’ve only got two units of skinks, a unit of 10 chameleon skinks , Kroak, 3 Krox and a slann with the crew of assorted skink heroes minus the star seer Non saurus wise.

Nah dude, totally play them. Saurus are perfectly fine for a vast, vast majority of gaming scenarios. Unless you're playing against super nasty stuff all the time, you can 100% make a Saurus list that can compete.