Hi, Just bought a pretty decent second hand lizzy army (at least 2k points) with basically every unit from the book....except a stegadon. when looking through the army list section i noticed that roughly 9 out of 10 armies have a stegadon in it. So is this because the model is cool, or is a steg almost a must have unit? thx. Bork.
Its definitely not a must have unit... A fair part of it is because it looks awesome and makes a great centrepiece, but it is also good enough that it usually does drag its weight. Basically its a solid choice, you need to be a little bit careful with how you use it, and some games it will get blown away in turn 1 but other games it will kill a LOT.
For me, the Stegadon is a must have. Here is why: 1) A stunning model, a centerpiece like no other for the Lizzies. 2) Heavy-hitter : Nothing hits as hard as a Steg in our army and we often lack high S attacks. 3) Versatility: That's right!!! An ancient Steg is very strong at range unlinke the other big monsters other armies have. You can wait a turn and prepare your charge. 4) It's an aggro magnet: While some will say it is a bad thing, for me it is a good thing. Anything that would blow my Stegadon in 1 turn would most likely take care of at least one block of Saurus. It distracts the enemy from the real threat in the army. And if it doesn't, well they usually regret it!!!
I usually make sure to get one into the bigger games. In small games I find it hard to justify since it can be killed with one 90 point cannon (which is crap btw warmachines are soooo overpowered on a point to point basis this edition). I dont shoot very much with it. I find the bolt thrower to be trash and if Im in range of the blowguns I should be charging. I only charge flanks or rears whenever possible. A steg in the front is almost always a dead steg. It its pretty effective at tying up the big gribblies that exist in army books now. Also never doubt the power of a terror test.
I've been using them to great success against the undead. When you charge, those high-S impact hits can really put the hurt on a unit and they are amazing at stopping just about everything! In my last match-up, it got charged by a maxed-out Black Coach (ethereal, flying, etc) and whilst it couldn't hit the damn thing it sat there for FIVE turns without a scratch. Single-handedly saved my flank.