Hiya, The past two days I played my first games against someone other then the one who taught me, and some points came up: Saurus Warriors and Spears: I thought the good thing about spears/handweapon & shield was you could choose which to use. However, the guy I played against says spears are just one handed weapons so I can use my shield even if I choose to use spears, giving me an armor save of 4+ (5+ scaly skin + shield), even if the 2nd row fights too. Is this right? Salamanders & Crew: So after a few rounds I had enough misfires to have no crew left. I assumed that would mean the salamander couldn't use his flame attack anymore. However, I couldn't find anything about it. (In the end it didn't matter as I had to roll on the monster table and ended up with frenzy so I didn't really have a chance to breath anymore anyway). Could anyone clarify this? THanks in advance!
The Saurus do still get to use their shields. So they get a 4+ save when using spears and a 3+ save when using hand weapons (look under the weapons section in the BRB, there's a paragraph that says that when you're fighting with a mundane hand weapon and a shield you get an additional +1 to your armour save, as long as you're fighting on foot and an enemy to your front.) As soon as all the crew have died, the Salamander has to take a monster reaction test. (You did this and failed if the Salamander got Frenzy and Hatred ) If the Salamander passes the test then you can control him as usual and he can do whatever he used to be able to do when his handlers were still there (move, charge, fight, breathe fire,...). If the test is failed then you need to look up the effect and see what he's still and no longer allowed to do
Assuming you are just taking in general terms, if you had troops with a 2 handed weapon and shields, you can use the sheid when you are being shot at any in combat you could either use the 2 handed weapon, or you could use a handweapon and shield. I think Temple Guard might work this way with their Halbreds.
True, you once again have to make the choice between fighting with the two handed weapon (and losing any benefit from the shield (TG using their halberds will get a 4+ save from a 5+ scaly skin save and light armour)) or the hand weapon (and getting the bonus for a shield and the hand weapon and shield (TG fighting with hand weapons and shields get a 2+ save))
by the way, unless you roll 3-4 on the monster reaction chart the salamander can still operate as normal. with stupidity it must be close to your general and with frenzy you have to keep it more than 12" away from the enemy. even if it becomes unbreakable it still shoots but you can't move it anymore