8th Ed. Stegadon (bow or blowpipes)?

[gusuwoi]

The next addition to my army will be a stegadon. I ve always wanted to paint one!
My dilemma is between the giant bow or the giant blowpipes? Is it worth it to spend the extra points for the blowpipe instead of the bow?

 

[thenick]

In my opinoin it is worth it. The bow is ok, but you get one shot a turn so maximum of 6 shots right and theres only so much damage they can do when you take into consideration the loss of strength after every kill.

The pipes however can fire every turn, as well as be allowed as a stand and shoot reaction. plus 2d6 each pipe meaning each steg gets between 4 and 24 shots each time is alot especiall considering using mathhammer it will be 12 shots on average with 2 wounds just on poison. get some good rolls and the wounds keep piling up.

 

[MI_Tiger]

If the difference was only the Howda weapon, then it wouldn't be worth it. IMO, the blowpipes are much better than the bolt thrower, but neither weapon will get used much.

But the extra cost isn't really for the blowpipes - what you are paying for is an extra point of strength and a better armour save. And that extra strength applies to your regular attacks (1 less than a baby steg), Impact hits, and Thunderstomp. I think that makes the Ancient Steg well worth the points increase, if you have them to spare.

 

[Ailideon]

The other consideration however is that the A. Stegadon takes up rare points while the other is just special. I generally run heavy salamander lists so it makes it tough freeing up points for the Ancient, unless I use hero points for it. Regular stegadons are good ( not as good as Ancient) for support flank charges.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

just for the record, it is not the blowpipes that you pay the extra points for, it is the improved profile of the stegadon.

Unless you are one of them salamander-lovers that wants to spend all rare points on sallys (and play a game about as exciting as yahtzee) i see no reason to bring a normal stegadon when you can get an ancient one instead. better save and better offense makes it a superior choice imo.

 

[SanDiegoSurrealist]

just a thought:

I magnetized my blowpipes, my Giant Bow and my EOG on both my Stegs so they are all interchangeable on the fly and it saved me a ton of cash by not having to buy 3+ Stegs.

 

[strewart]

Go for the ancient. The steg should be going for combat anyway so the shooting is a secondary concern, bow will always have at least -1 for moving and probably other modifiers so it will pretty much never hit. Blow guns are great for bringing down monsters while you are closing or shooting at things behind the line after you have broken through.

 

[deathlok33]

do the blowpipes have to all be fired at the same target?

 

[SanDiegoSurrealist]

do the blowpipes have to all be fired at the same target?

yes

 

[Lord Tsunami]

he blowpipes fire a total number of 4d6 shots per turn. plus 3 from the javelin throwing skinks assuming they are alive. that adds up to an average of 17 shots per turn. less than 9 normal blowpipe skinks. 17 shots sounds like alot, but how often do you see 9 blowpipe skinks murder the face of enemy standard units? not very often. it is awesome if you can shoot fast cavalry and such, and ofc sphinxes will fear you, but usually the stegadon will be so close to the center of the fighting that the blowpipes can only be fired at targets that are either very numerous and thus dont care, or that are well armoured and thus care even less. tha giant bow will usually do nothing either. take teh stegadon for what it can do in combat (or possibly for the EotG).

 

[Taipan]

Taking an EOTG sidesteps the issues of eating Special or Rare point allotments. You get the Ancient (the one you want, as others have mentioned), and you replace the useless blowpipes (srsly, we have poison spam for Core, we don't need more) with the super-awesome Hax Engine. Also, it would be unusual you don't have points for one, as your only competition for points in Heroes is Scar-Veterans, who are dirt cheap.

On the subject of Rare, by the time you allocate points towards Rare (after taking the mandatory Core, Slann+TG block, and EOTG), you have like 300pts or so to play with. And nobody is going to take one unit over several, especially not one Steg over multiple Salamanders. And Razordons duplicate what our Saurus already do (pump out the S4, and in combat where things actually hit eachother).

 

[wbarobinson]

I dont use any poison but 10 camo skinks... I am worried about steam tanks... Can stegadon help with that?

 

[Taipan]

I dont use any poison but 10 camo skinks... I am worried about steam tanks... Can stegadon help with that?

Nope, Empire will cannonball it to death before it ever makes charge range. If you wanna get rid of the Stank, I'd recommend magic. 'Pit' is ideal, as if you use the small template you're unlikely to miss (so long as you're still touching it dies), and it auto-fails Initiative tests. Per the FAQ, it's no longer immune to magic. T10 and W10 means it just takes too long to die by any other means, and whilst it lives it will cannon+Grind our stuff to death.