Sorry if this is newbish I'm a little new to WHFB and tabletop gaming in general. I'm looking at terradons as warmachine hunters in a larger point game we are playing (2800 pts). It looks like a skink chief can join a unit of terradons. If so does he become fast calvary as well? And if so couldn't I take a blowpipe with him? Meaning the terradon troop would get a 12" vanguard deployement, followed by a 20" move followed by a 12" 2x blowpipe shot (6's needed if i'm doing the math right). Thanks for your help!
The chief does gain the fast cavalry rules. This is from our book, which specifically states that he may join the unit. IIRC, the chief has a great BS, which should actually be hitting on 5s and 6s at long range. -1 from moving, -1 for double tapping, and -1 for long range. Hope this helps.
His mount has the Flying Cavalry rule so is Fast Cav by himself. I wouldn't recommend hunting warmachines with any kind of Terradon though. Chameleon Skinks are much better at it.
terradons are pretty "meh" atm, especially a skink chief on one (because of the price tag). chameleons are indeed better at KILLING warmachines, but terradons do have two redeeming features that makes them a viable choice even for warmachine hunting. #1: if the opponent deploys in a "castle" formation, your chameleons may have a hard time drawing line of sight to the warmachine, and with cover save the poison special rule may be negated. terradons could potentially charge straight over said "castle wall" and get at the juicy war machine behind. #2: even if you fail to actually kill a war machine in a single round with terradons (those blasted dwarfs again...) it will still be locked in combat and will not be able to shoot. if the chameleons kill all but one crew with a volley (not unlikely tbh) the machine will still get to fire the next turn. This is why i bring both units. If you do not have any dwarfs in your meta, the chameleons are probably better though
I feel your pain on the Dwarf meta game! I regularly have to play against double or triple organ guns, castle formation and a pair of cannon. There is almost no way to get at the damn machines with chameleons, and my terradons get shot out of the sky very quickly (and if they do get into combat, only 2 can fight and they do not get their stomps, as the war machine crew is not "infantry"). In such cases you just need to rush forward and get into combat quickly, I think. Note also, that the Heaven's deck has some good uses against the castle formation. If you can overcome Dwarf magic resistance, casting Iceshard Blizzard makes his artillery half as effective. And castle formation is very vulnerable to chain lightning and the comet of Cassandora. Even Wind Blast has some potential against a castle.
Any advice as to weapon loadouts for the Chiefs? I've got a winged serpent model I'm going to be counts-as a Chief on Terradon, but for the sake of appearances I was just going to go with a close combat setup, glittering scales for -1 to hit him and another magic item of some sort.
If you can protect him from being shot down as he moves across the board into the enemy rear, the blowpipes that give him 3 shots per turn seem like a good weapon for him.
Actually Blowpipes + Venom of the fireflyfrog is a good combo, since it makes his shots magical, and since they are already poisoned shots, the amulet bumps them up to poison on a 5+. Rerolling misses. also whatever mundane close combat weapon he has will be poisoned as well.
Here's the build I made for the Arena of Death. He went up against a Killing Blow-proof Dwarf so he didn't last very long. Fortunately on the gameboard he is super mobile and can pick his fights a lot easier. Skink Chief Terradon Light Armor Shield Dagger of Sotek The Other Trickster's Shard Seed of Rebirth He's got Killing Blow, a decent 4+ armor save with 6+ regeneration, and he makes his opponent reroll a successful ward save just in case he gets a Killing Blow. He also causes Fear, gets a Stomp attack, a Terradon attack, and a single rock to drop somewhere. In testing I found that sometimes (like 1/4 fights) he could kill a Scar-Vet in the first turn of combat due to his high initiative and Killing Blow. If he didn't kill the SV he would usually die in the first turn before the Terradon got to do anything. But that is against a proven combat character, so his odds were slim to begin with. Against a soft squishy wizard his odds are much better, especially if they are wandering around solo. EDIT: The 5+ poison is a good idea. Oxyotl has that plus he's a Sniper and a Scout. Has anyone ever taken him? I know he costs a lot but I could see him picking off a wizard pretty easily.
Unless they faq'd it, the venom allows rerolls of already poisoned misses, not a 5+. I made that same mistake last week, IIRC.
hmmmm... 5+ is a 2/6 chance 6+ is a 1/6 chance plus a reroll for another 1/6 shance added together ...? for a 2/6 chance? my mathhammer is a bit rusty ... maybe you are suposed to divide the numbers or something?
The reason I made the statement is that I remember a post from somewhere concerning rerolls. Not sure where it was though.
this is not added. it is a 6+ roll (1/6) + a 6+roll knowing the first one miss (5/6*1/6) so it is 1/6 + 5/36 => 11/36=30.55%