Tutorial Seraphon Overview (updated to AoS 3.0)

pretty much what @Kilvakar said, but basically if the guards are behind the building (thus being "invisible"), they cannot be targeted directly by shooting and will act as bodyguards, taking wounds in place of your Slann.
Add a astrolith for a 6+ ward and possibly emerald lifeswarm, and those guards will last for long.

 

Update after the winter 2021 FAQ

 

Updated to the new points and the new endless spells.
Added some considerations.
i'm working also on a brief analysis of the current season of war

 

PITCHED BATTLES 2022-2023 - SEASON 1
GALLET, THE SPLINTERED LAND​

If Thondia was about monsters, this season is about troops.
We have the following main rules:

GALLETIAN VETERANS: all Battleline units with less than 4 wounds and no mounts gain this keyword (Saurus guards, Saurus warriors, Skinks)
PROVING GROUND: each round, the players that goes second, can pick an obj that must always be a different one. That obj can be controlled only by galletian veterans
BONDS of BATTLE: basically galletian veterans can fight on 2 ranks, regardless of the range of their melee weapons

CORE BATTALIONS
(only one per type can be included in your army)​

Expert Conquerors: 2-3 galletian veterans unit only. Each model couts as 3 for the purpose of contesting obj
Headhunters: 2-3 troops units (not Leader, Artillery or Behemoth). +1 melee dam against galletian veterans. Among the best units we have for this role there are saurus knights (great number of attacks) and Kroxigors, that can really bring the pain with this. Note that a Stegadon in thunderlizard loses the keyword behemoth and gains the keyword battleline, so it qualifies.
Our skinks are already frail and are galletian veterans. If they meet a Headhunter unit they will literally melt... if you were planning to field a 30-skink unit with buffs to shooting, you may wanna think carefully about it.

BATTLE TACTICS​

In Age of Sigmar 3.0 making sure that you get as many battle tactics as you can is often what will win you the game. However, it is a big challenge to reliably secure battle tactics in all five rounds. As a rule of thumb it is far better to try and achieve battle tactics that do not rely on dice rolls - because missing that one battle tactic might lose you the game. This also means that whenever you have to go for a battle tactic that needs you to kill enemy units make sure to send all you got after that one unit - the Dice Gods can be cruel and you would rather overkill by a lot than leaving the opponent’s unit alive on a single wound because you rolled below average. One last note before we dive into the actual tactics: all lists are different and your list might be especially good at some tactics while worse at others. This is something to keep in mind when you build your list: “What battle tactics can I reliably achieve with this army?”.

GAINING MOMENTUM
You need to destroy a unit and control more objectives than your opponent. It’s situational but when you’re ahead on objectives it’s not that hard to achieve. Keep this in mind for the mid-game.

AN EYE FOR AN EYE
Another mid-game tactic. Sooner or later you will lose a unit… if you can reliably retaliate then pick this. This is one of our easier battle tactics to make, as we can put the hurt on the enemy when we need to. You want to pick this as soon as you lose a unit and have a good chance of killing one of theirs, as you might not get the chance later.

DESECRATE THEIR LANDS
An excellent tactic for a couple of reasons: you can plan a way to have a way to deliver a unit in a place where it will steal a terrain (LosaT, Chama skinks…) and it’s a tactic that doesn’t rely on dice rolls (as in the case of killing an enemy unit). You can see if you’re going to score it and play safe. This tactic is best to save for when you will have a hard time making any of the other more situational ones.

THIS ONE'S MINE
You need to kill a unit with an attack by your general… if you have something as a skink chief on stegadon this is a safe bet. If your general is Lord Kroak, then it's horrible.

HEAD TO HEAD
Destroy a galletian veteran with a galletian veteran. look at our galletian veterans and reconsider it. Unless you have guards in range of those 2 last survivors of a skeleton unit, don't pick it.

OUTMUSCLE
Extremely situational. You need to destroy a galletian veteran that is contesting an objective marked as proving ground. You might get this once in a full moon, but don’t count on it.

AGAINST THE ODDS
First rounds (but can be achieved every time) just control an objective that is not contested by an enemy galletian veteran. It’s by far the easiest one - which is ironic as they have called it Against the Odds.

BARGE THROUGH ENEMY LINES
Usually mid-game to late-game, but it can be done whenever you want. We can have highly mobile units and some shenanigans to put 2 units in the opponent’s territory. This is the only tactic that can give you a bonus point if completed by 2 galletian veterans, so always keep an eye out if you can score that extra victory point with those 2 squads of skinks - it can win you the game.

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MIGHT OF THE STARBORNE
starborne only - summon a unit of 20 CCPs within 12" of a certain obj. That's good because it doesn't rely on dices, but you need to collect those 20 points.

STAMPEDE OF SCALES
coalesced only - Run with 3 monsters and have them end the move within 6" from each other, in the opponent's territory. Kinda awful.

GRAND STRATEGIES​

Where battle tactics are the meat of how we rack up points during a game, grand strategies are what can win you the game if you are neck and neck with your opponent on points. A grand strategy grants you 3 points if you complete it, which is quite a lot - but think about it this way: if you can complete your own and stop your opponent in completing theirs it is a 6 points difference… that equates to completing 3 battle tactics. In other words, grand strategies can turn a game around. Use this to your advantage and try to stop your opponent in completing theirs while you make sure that you can achieve your own. As a general rule of thumb you want to pick a grand strategy that is proactive and not reactive. In other words you want it to be in your control, and not your opponent’s, if you can succeed at your strategy or not. We won’t be giving Grand Strategies ratings as they are too dependent on what list you have - rather we will provide some pointers about what to look out for with each strategy.


NO PLACE FOR THE WEAK
Killing all the opponent’s battleline units is a very matchup dependent strategy. It might be doable against armies like Skaven and Sylvaneth, but if you face Maggotkin or Nighthaunt it suddenly becomes unrealistic. If you pick this then your bastiladon that shoots a small unit that tries to escape can win you the game.

TAME THE LAND
This strategy is fairly simple: take the opponent’s objectives. The issue here is that if you can complete this strategy you are already winning by a landslide. When we consider grand strategies we should look for ones that are achievable when we are on the backfoot and this one is not.

DEFEND WHAT'S OURS
This is a risky strategy to pick because it demands a lot of you. There can be no enemy units at all in your territory. Most armies will have units that they can teleport to negate your strategy or small ones that can be hidden behind terrain or similar. Unless you want to play a really defensive game then you should probably avoid this. End even in this way, if your opponent goes second in the last turn you probably won't make it.

TAKE WHAT'S THEIRS
This strategy is very proactive and is fairly straightforward. If you want to bring the pain to the opponent, this strategy can be planned around.

DEMONSTRATION OF STRENGHT
This strategy is not for every army, and i struggle to imagine Seraphon with a dominance of Galletian Veterans at the end of the day.

SHOW OF DOMINANCE
At first glance this strategy seems to demand a lot from you, but consider that a single unit of Galletian Veterans can complete this strategy if they stand in the centre of the board and thus have models in all quarters. This strategy is similar to Demonstration of Strength but can be achieved if you plan your positioning, for example if your game revolves around having an impenetrable castle (full guards around kroak) and place it in the middle of the board, then this is a good strategy to go with.

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THE ASTROMATRIX
starborne only - draw an imaginary line from each corner of the battlefield to the opposit one. No enemy wizard touched by those lines and at least one friendly wizard. If your opponent don't have wizards or have only one, it can be achieved.

CONTINUOS EXPANSION
Coalesced only - end with 1 unit wholly within each quarter of the battlefield. Not that impossible, a good strategy to pick.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT​

Sooner or later, it was doomed to happen.

With the new battletome, our army has been completely rewamped.
Classic units, that were on our side since the Old World, went down in flames just to be replaced by new, different ones.

Rules, stats and abilities are changed... to the point that not only the analysis of the single units detailed in this thread is no more valid, but also many of the tactical considerations are now a relic of the past (and of course all the combos).

This thread has been an immensely useful tool, that served its purpose for more than 3 years.

You served us well, and you'll have always a place in my heart... but it's time to let you go.

from now on, this thread will be no more among the sticky ones.