I am not talking badly about the new Stegadons, I think they are great. I am talking badly about putting a hero on a Stegadon as it makes them very vulnerable and right in the thick of combat, especially the engine of the gods. I guess I'll have to try it out a bit and see, but I know lots of opponents who would simply target the skink hero with characters in combat, then you get a stegadon testing on the monster reaction chart and a sink of 100+ points depending on what you equip the hero with, plenty more if it is an engine since the thing stops working without the priest there.
well i think eotg is not the real combat one. if youre going for heros on steggie and want a combat version you need the chief and not the priest. you can back up the chief with a eotg giving him a wardsave or blasting the unit in combat with some hits. you can always charge in with a eotg if things are getting the wrong way or you are in doubt.
If it helps, I participated in four games this weekend, and the Engine was devastating. I destroyed Warriors of Chaos, High Elves, and Daemons with a massacre because of this bugger. He killed a Daemon Prince in one blow with Burning Ailment, lol. The only fight I lost was against Empire because a stupid cannon right smack in the middle of his army nailed my Engine and blew it up turn one. I lost the fight by only 16 points though. So, give it a shot, I think you'll love it. Nothing better then wiping out an entire DP unit turn 3 with an unstoppable Engine spell .
They are actually pretty well protected on Stegadons. As per the rules for stegs the Chiefs and Priests displace one of the crew, and gain all the benefits of being part of said crew. 1. The character gains a nice armor save (3+ regular, 2+ ancient). That skink priest may be in combat, and he may have a low toughness, but a 2+ armor save should keep decently safe. 2. The death of the character does not force a monster reaction roll. The steg does not roll on the chart unless all 5 crew (or 4 + 1 character) have been killed. 3. If the character riding the steg is challanged (say by a unit champion) the character AND the steg fight in that challenge. The rest of the crew will attack when the fight is over. All good things. While I wouldn't put the EoTG directly into combat, I would certainly consider throwing flank charges with it. D6+1 impact hits + crew attacks + Steg attacks can do wonders when landed on a flank of a bothersome unit. Also, if the character is killed you do NOT test on the monster reaction chart
yes the challange thing wouldn't do anything as the stegadon can just fight in the challance and most times put a wound or 2 on something, maybe even overkill a champion... But the EoTG is easily a 440+ unit and what u get is a lvl 3 caster, a stegadon and a one turn spell. As unit alone a EoTG will never do it alone on magic. Put a slann on it and you emmediatly have 900pts in magic characters... Which is just too much for me. I prefer just a cheap but powerfull slann together with a lvl 2 skink. And use a normal ancient stegadon as hammer unit.
i played a EoTG the other day against empire, Lv3 caster with the war drum. with this set up you are never march blocked and can out of charge arcs, then set off a huge spell! i killed a canon, made a unit of great swords run, and put two wounds on his general, not to mention wounds on other things, and he had no charges on me! I think the engine is totally worth it.