7th Ed. The Flying Oldblood

Discussion in 'Lizardmen Tactics' started by Caneghem, Sep 26, 2009.

  1. Caneghem
    Carnasaur

    Caneghem New Member

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    This is sort of a different concept for a list, and it would center around having an Oldblood with the Blade of Realities and the Jaguar Charm. You'd need a solid magic phase to make up for the missing Slann, I'm thinking an EotG's with drum and plaque, flying priest with the rod of storms, and then maybe a plain old lvl 1 or 2 on foot with a couple dispel scrolls. The last one you can make into a portent of far/second sign/celestial shield type since it will be harder to get him good line of sight of enemies, although all the damage spells don't limit range so you'll be decent in that department as well (and the Comet doesn't even require LOS).

    Having an Oldblood with the ability to fly AND the Blade of Realities is an awesome synergy because the main problem with having him on a Carnosaur is it's tough to get that Blade exactly where it is needed, and once frenzy kicks in he can be led around quite easily. Don't forget, he'll be charging LARGE TARGETS primarily, since they tend to have lesser leadership and be very worth one shot killing. Don't forget that flying large targets can also see him, so keep him tucked between two units or somewhere the large flyer can't land. Especially in the case of large targets ridden by characters, just declare a challenge as you fly in, pop the 6 wound beast the character is riding on (don't forget to roll for physical damage after your blade of realities insta-kills its target, for possible overkill bonus), then watch the character run like a coward! Once he rallies, your Oldblood will be hot on his heels ready to charge him again and finish the job. You will only have a 2+ armor save, but this character will actually get to dictate engagements so armor isn't AS important. Charge a high elf riding a silly dragon and sure he will strike first with his lance at a measly strength 4 (since you charged him after all), but make darn sure you kill that dragon using the luck based lore of heavens spells to your advantage. You will hopefully have at least one skink priest with Second Sign of Amul, so that way when the flying charge goes off, you can make sure that he does a hit or two more than he would have, to force the maximum number of leadership checks. Once he's completed his charge, throw portent of far on him as well just to help maximize the number of hits he does. So basically if all goes well, any 1's you will reroll with portent, any 2's or 3's that miss you can reroll with second sign. Portent of Far only has a 12" range, so make sure that your flying skink priest has Portent and make sure he lands in the safest spot within 12" of where you intend the Oldblood to charge (or simply cast it on him before he charges).

    The other place for him would be tucked into a unit of Saurus Warriors, so that he can be protected from fire but still see non-large targets and have possible flying charge opportunities from there. Remember to scan the battlefield for targets with low leadership, and start moving the Lord in that direction. This may mean hopping between units to get closer to where he can launch his fatal flying charge. Against Dwarves you may note that nothing in the army is below Ld 9, but never forget that single characters can't be hit by the anvil of doom's Wrath and Ruin. The Oldblood should be able to get to the anvil eventually if your opponent fails to dispel the charm. And he will definitely win that fight. In this case your flying skink will want to take advantage of any damage spells he has, as well as his rod of the storm, to continually plaster the anvil of doom. Dwarf players don't want you to know this, but the Runelord is actually kind of a pushover. Shots are NOT randomized to hit the anvil, all of them are distributed amongst the remaining characters, and they get a 4+ ward save. This isn't that great, considering randomizing against a warmachine is like a 3+ ward save (if your goal is to kill crew).

    In reality, you'll likely see people squirrel away a couple dispel dice per phase, just to be good and sure to dispel the Jag Charm. So the key to using this army will be to make every spell really hurt the opponent and try to draw out the dice. You may want to occasionally bluff your opponent into saving dispel dice when the Oldblood doesn't really have any good targets at the moment. In other cases your opponent might feel less threatened by the OB, like for example he doesn't have any good charges. With a 20" movement, you can do a lot to get yourself into a really threatening position. Remember, he can still charge 8" on his own next turn.

    Another thing to consider is more of a general rule with all flying units, but never forget that it doesn't matter what US the model is when you are running down a fleeing enemy unit. So consider your skink priest and your OB for the job if your terradons are otherwise occupied.

    I think this might be a list worth tinkering around with, and of course the rest of the army would have to synergize around the whole concept of having a flying wrecking ball of an OB. Rares are of course the individual salamander packs for armor busting. Specials I'd say chameleon skinks, 4 terradons, a unit of cold one cav with the extra charge range banner, and maybe a normal steg if points permit. The reason I say if points permit is that I'd want a couple good blocks of saurus between which to tuck the flying OB. I'd say 2 units of 18 deployed 6 wide would be sufficient. The reason is that I'd want a couple of good anvils on which enemies could get stuck.. after which the OB could swing into the flank and start chopping away or challenge characters etc. Round it out with one or two 11/1 skrox and some skirmishers/ranked skinks in units of 10 and you have a solid list. The two big Saurus blocks will do very well with the Oldblood there to charge himself into big nasty critters. The one regrettable outcome of this setup is the lack of a BSB, and it may be worth experimenting with dropping the foot-bound skink priest and instead taking a Scar-vet BSB with BBoC and Enchanted Shield. You just run the risk of getting to where your magic phase isn't daunting enough to really draw out enough dispel dice to get your OB flying. But the more I think of it, the better the Scar-vet BSB is starting to sound. He can dart between units of Saurus Warriors depending on who needs the big boost in combat res.

    Heck, with as much as I yammered on about this concept I might as well write up the list. I'll get to it before too long here.
     
  2. Kajchi
    Skink

    Kajchi New Member

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    Wow, this seems like a pretty viable tactic. Only real problem I see is that you have your general flying of from your army. This might not be a problem for saurus, but I wouldn't like to see what would happen to a skink heavy army that used this :jawdrop:

    If I hadn't just bought a carnosaur I would've tried it out for sure! Maybe if I do a 3000 point battle...

    You did give me a nice winged saurus conversion idea though!
     
  3. Caneghem
    Carnasaur

    Caneghem New Member

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    If you haven't already, you can check out the list I made around this concept and see what you think.
     

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