8th Ed. Temple Guard 'Lifestar' in action: 2500 V Daemons, WoC

[Gor-rok]

I ran this list in two 2500 point battles, first against Daemons, then WoC. I drew it up with no particular opponent in mind, so not everything is particularly optimized.

Slann- General, BSB, Lore of Life. Cupped Hands, Razor Standard; Becalming, Mystery, Rumination, Unfathomable
26 Temple Guard - full command, hornet sword for champion.

Scar Veteran- Armor of Destiny, shield.
29 Saurus - full command

2x 24 skinks & 3 kroxigor- full command

2x 2 salamanders- 1 extra handler

6 chameleons

Versus Daemons:

Big Unclean monster (Forge World model on horizontal chariot base- Giggantic!)- general, tons of stuff that hurts you if you're in base contact with it, level 3 wizard

Nurgle men with BSB herald- banner of -2 leadership, full command

2x 20 Khorne men- full command

2 x 6 flamers

Tzeench wizard on flying chariot- all spells from Death, something else

Masque

We rolled a regular Battleline scenario.

In short- The chariot wizard flew around casting debuffs, and the Khorne men zeroed in on the skrox units right away, trying to smash through. Salamanders got a few good kills on them before they got into combat. Flamers went after the chameleons, then the salamanders with a vengeance. Shootouts occured, with upper hand going to the flamers. For some reason, the chariot and one unit of flamers charged into one of the skrox combats.

In combat, both skrox held out, allowing the saurus to flank one combat (chariot) and the TG the other. Both Khorne units were butchered but held out with a few models left. Slann kept casting buffs on his own unit, and Tzeench guy kept debuffing. Masque began to cause problems with leadership bomb, as usual.

After the next round of combat, the chariot, flamers, and khorne unit went poof versus the saurus, but the saurus were then flank charged by the large monster and plague herald unit and broke. They managed to escape. Monster pursued, but failed to overrun into anything with a horrible roll.

Having finished off the other Khorne unit, the Slann's unit charged the BSB herald, and the second unit of skrox managed to capture the Masque, ending it's depredations. Slann and buffed up friends slaughtered the Nurgle herald's unit, then went after the enormous general creature. It forced toughness tests on all in base contact every time we wounded it (and it had 10 wounds); fortunately TG were T8 from life magic. Unfortunately, the thing was so obscenely enormous, it meant six models were testing every time. But, it died, and we lived (mostly).

A combined charge from a depleted skrox unit, lone salamander, and lone chameleon finished off the remaining flamer unit, wiping the foul interlopers off the table halfway through turn 6. I lost the chameleons and one unit of salamanders.

Points of interest: Parry ward save with ranked skinks rocks, and puts killing blow right in it's place. Once the Temple Guard get 'roided up on buff spells and hit combat, there's not a whole lot that's going to touch them. Becalming Cogitation is even better now.

Versus Warriors of Chaos:

Hellcannon

40 Tzeench marauders- shield, armor, full command, hoard formation

30 Khorne Warriors- Double weapons, full command, hoard formation, Rapturous Standard (double or a single 1 on break test = insane courage)

Lord- some stuff
BSB- some other stuff
28 Tzeench Warriors- shield, full command, hoard formation

2x Tzeench wizards- unknown items

20 Khorne Chosen Ones- full command, halberds


We rolled Blood and Glory scenario.

This went basically exactly how you'd expect. Granted, this was my opponent's first 8th edition game, and he just couldn't wait to have a gigantic infantry engagement. Unfortunately...

If the Slann getting ultimate power Dwellers Below off against the marauders wasn't enough (75% instant casualties, Cupped Hands on the miscast), the salamanders flank shooting from both sides basically cut the legs out from his army. I'd imagine that, when curled up in their nests sleeping, salamanders dream about situations like this; I know I did when I was painting their models. Basically, it was impossible not to have full template coverage on anything other than a misfire, and the Khorne warriors didn't get any save at all against them.

Lesser highlights- Chameleons assassinated a wizard. The Hellcannon got a nice shot off on one skrox unit; The Chosen Ones chopped up the other pretty well. The Slann & friends and Saurus waltzed through what was left of both units of warriors, though the Lord did manage to best my scar veteran in a duel. Razor standard + halberds was, as expected, fantastic.

By turn 4, his army was in tatters, I had lost one of the salamander units, and the store was closing.

I can't claim tactical genius here due to extenuating circumstances, the enemy's remarkably atrocious dice rolls among them. It was, however, a nice taste of the awesome potential some of our units have in textbook case ideal situations.

In closing: I know the Slann is big time overkill, but for the way I'm playing this I think he kind of has to be. If anything critically bad happens to the unit, I'm done for, and any amount of safeguards should be worth it. We'll see how it plays out in the next few games; gun lines are a concern, but likely manageable.

When I first proposed this list, the general consensus around the store was that opponents would simply avoid the Temple Guard. So far that hasn't happened; if they're close enough to charge any of my units, I'm usually close enough to charge them, and, barring a horrific magic phase, I can have at least one augment spell going on them at the time.

If anything, I'm thinking of moving the scar vet into the temple guard unit so he can benefit from all the buffs, but I'll see how it does after a few more games to change anything around. Thanks for reading the long post, and your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

 

[SeBM]

I like your list, I've been thinking about a list with a 'lifestar' unit as well as a big block of saurus with an Old Blood. Do you think a 20 strong TG unit would be enough???? Congrats on the win, it's good to know you beat DoC with such a list since my best friend is thinking of getting a DoC army.

Let us know how the list turns out in your next couple of games, I, for one, will be glad to hear about it.

 

[Gor-rok]

I think the less temple guard you take, the more you have to tone down the Slann to avoid making it such a disaster if something goes wrong. It actually might be better in the long run, as it would give you a lot more points to shift to the saurus and elsewhere. In that case, I would drop Unfathomable and Cupped Hands, and possibly even the Razor Standard. Giving the champion an item is still a good idea, as you'll be able to resurrect him and make great use of it.

I played the Daemons again yesterday, same list, and got a crushing victory, though it was far closer of a game. The fat Nurgle creature got off a spell that makes everything in contact with it drop basically all it's statistics to '1', and that did a horrible number on the temple guard. He charged them with everything else he could, but in the end the Slann was left standing with two temple guard and one wound left (I keep forgetting to use the heal ability while casting Life spells). I lost a unit of skrox and a salamander pack; he had Masque, one flamer unit, and the Tzeench wizard, minus chariot, left on the board.

Everything else in the army needs to be supporting the Lifestar; as I found out in the last game, if you let it get even slightly isolated they'll pounce on it, and you'll be hurting bad before reinforcements arrive. I use the salamanders and chameleons to whittle down troop blocks before they hit the TG, the saurus to guard a flank, and the skrox units to counter charge.

There should be some gun lines and undead in the tournament next weekend, so we'll see how this list holds up then.

 

[Vilicate]

In what formation do you run those skrox units?

I really like your army. I'm fielding a similar unit (I'm going to try out the stupidity banner for wizards on the TG, but that could easily switch out to the razor banner). It seems pretty hardy.

Keep up the reports, you seem like a really competent warhammer player.

 

[Gor-rok]

Eh, I don't know about competent, but I have better than average dice luck, and I'm always willing to lose a few games trying out unorthodox strategies. Thanks!

I run the skinks six wide, four deep so that all three kroxigor fit, while keeping the unit as narrow as possible. It's basically a kroxigor delivery system, where the skinks offer ranks, parry save, shooting, and expendable wounds, and the big guys do your damage in close combat and cause/protect from fear. I tried running six krox by themselves in a 3x2 unit, and even getting the charge they got slaughtered due to Always Strikes Last.

I'll try for a few more games this week and let you know how they go, then the Lifestar will have to prove itself in the tournament.

 

[Romulus68]

Eh, I don't know about competent, but I have better than average dice luck, and I'm always willing to lose a few games trying out unorthodox strategies. Thanks!

I run the skinks six wide, four deep so that all three kroxigor fit, while keeping the unit as narrow as possible. It's basically a kroxigor delivery system, where the skinks offer ranks, parry save, shooting, and expendable wounds, and the big guys do your damage in close combat and cause/protect from fear. I tried running six krox by themselves in a 3x2 unit, and even getting the charge they got slaughtered due to Always Strikes Last.

I'll try for a few more games this week and let you know how they go, then the Lifestar will have to prove itself in the tournament.

How do you overcome the large amount of losses sustained by the Skinks in close combat?

I've been running a unit of 16 Skinks and 2 Kroxigors, but find myself having very lopsided combat resolutions.

 

[Ilnar3]

By taking a slan with life, or just taking as many skinks as god,

 

[Gor-rok]

First thing is to not use the skrox like they were saurus, because they're no where near as durable. One on one, the skinks will take too heavy of casualties as you described. I either hold them back a bit and use their superior movement to flank whatevers' attacking the temple guard or saurus, or I use their ranks (more skinks = more better) to stay steadfast and tie something up for a while so one of the other support units can get it.

With only 16 skinks in your unit, I'd use them as flank chargers. You won't have ranks long enough to be steadfast, but you should have more than enough to disrupt their unit, or to go war machine hunting.

Lore of Life does synergize very well with the skrox as Ilnar3 said, and the lore attribute will help recover the odd kroxigor wound as you cast.

 

[the-graven]

Nice battle reports.
About the Great Unclean One, he had one of forgeworld you said, that thing is GROSS, I saw one at a tournament, and someone had painted it so well and gross, that staring at it almost made me puke, really I'm not kidding that thing was so gross I had to look at something else, otherwise I would puke.

 

[Gor-rok]

Yeah, the model is one of the most detailed and disturbing I've seen. There are maggots festering in the large open wounds on it's back, and it's partially eviscerated, with a small nurgling tugging on a loop of it's intestines. It looks like the nurgling has taken several bites as well, and it's smiling.

The large creature also has a long, prehensile tongue that's wrapped several times around it's weapon, which appears to be coated with feces and blood. Overall, the model is a perfect representation of filth and disease.

*sigh*. I wish Forge World made a carnosaur model...