Okay heres the ,ist im thinking of tournamenting with in 2010. ill post the list then my reasoning behind the units, any comments or criticisms would be greatly appreciated! Lords/Heroes Oldblood – Cold One,Light Armour, Enchanted Shield, Blade of Realities – 275pts Skink Priest – Lvl2, Engine of the Gods, Diadem of Power, Dispel Scroll – 440pts Scar-Veteran – Cold One, Light Armour, Sword of Battle, Maiming Shield – 160pts Scar-Veteran – BSB, Light Armour, Shield, Great Weapon – 124pts Core 12 Saurus – Standard, Musician – 162pts 12 Saurus – Standard, Musician – 162pts 10 skinks – 70pts 10 skinks – 70pts Special Stegadon 5 Cold One Cavalry – Champion, Standard – 215pts 5 Cold One Cavalry – Champion, Standard – 215pts 4 Terradons – 120pts 2248pts Oldblood: The best thing i think we have in terms of hydra/manticore/wyvern/carnosaur defense. plus he's hard to kill and gives the army a real punch. Engine: Big ward save and great knight killer. With the diadem i have 6 dispel dice with one wizard, and a horrible monster to deal with. Mounted Scar - vet: 6 attacks at str 5 with a 1+ armour save and movemnt 7 causing fear - nuff said really BSB- this thing will hack up chariots with his great weapon and provide a boost to nearby units for re-rolling break tests. great with stegadons, and really very cheap for what he is. i would rather he not be mounted as the cavalry units will often be target priority bo.1 and i like him being in a silid more predictable position as he wont have to commit to anything. Skinks: Great march blockers, giant killers and fodder, they will be used to redirect charging cavalry etc so that i can flank with my other units. Saurus: 12 6 wide. only one rank but again very cheap for what they are so ig i lose them im not too worried about goiving up half my army, thoug with 24 attacks and the support of a bsb they can dish out alot of damage to gain combat rres and get a re-roll on break tests to give time to throw a steg or some cavalry into the combat. COld ones: Horible cavalry unit, champs in there to protect the character from killing blow. amazing flanking unit that will be charging the units that are stuck in combat with the deceptively powerful saurus and stubborn stegs. Stegadon: the bow is completely unreliable. however what it is is t6 with stubborn and cold booded. again with bsb support this aint likely to be going anywhere and is a fantastic tarpit that can really do damage on the charge. Terradon/ march blockers, Wizard and war machine killers and the drob rocks ability makes these a fantastic tactical asset in any army. Okay thats the list and the reasons im taking what im taking. please if anyone has and criticms or advice on what could make the army better it would be much appreciated. thanks
I like your thinking behind the Oldblood, I'm a big fan of the Oldblood list. Firstly, about your Saurus units, remember they only move 4, so you will find ur steggie, skinks and cavalry will be way out in front and in combat while your saurus are still plodding in your table half. The good thing about saurus is that they give you a solid, dependable line, even when charged. If something breaks through your initial attack and charges them, they will be gone, and I assume your bsb too, as I assume that is where you will put him. What I would do is double up your unit, take 24, with a full command and save yourself 6 points, and have a much more stable, strong unit to have your bsb tied up in. Next your characters, first drop the enchanted shield on the Oldblood, its overkill, give him a normal shield with the six points you saved from your saurus and he still gets a 0+ save (-1) in combat, and you save 15 points. Next swap your scar vets around, give the cold one scar vet the great weapon, as hell still have a 3+ save, but will be able to dish out 4 str 7 attacks, give him the bane head with the 15 points you saved from the Oldblood and you have a dangerous character killer. Give the bsb the maiming shield and sword of battle and you not only improve the combat potential of the saurus block further, but also improve his save by 2 in combat making him harder to kill and save another 3 points from his normal shield. Finally id drop a terradon and give both saurus units musicians, just in case they ever flee for any reason, or are in a drawn combat, I know they have good leadership, but you never know when having a musician in the unit may turn a game. (If it means you win a combat where it would have been a draw for example-coupled with fear...priceless) Now you should have 15 points left- 10 from the terradon after adding musicians, 3 from the scar vet, and the 2 you were under to begin with. I'd use it to give your Oldblood a talisman of protection-just in case of any armour ignoring attacks. Total points cost = 2250 Hope this helps
Some of my advice might conflict with the above, but I noticed a couple of easy tweaks you can make. Step 1, drop the champions on the Cold One Cav. Your saurus characters will be much safer without them, because with your current setup you get no "Look out Sir" roll, and so a cannon can easily snipe either of your expensive heroes. Unit champions do not count towards the 5 rank and file necessary for LoS. This will also save you a whopping 40 points!! So 42 left. I agree with going normal shield on the Oldblood, as 0+ save is already really good. 51 points available now. The EotG is optimized for magic defense, no improvements needed there. Just be careful about how you wield the thing, try not to get it into combat unless totally necessary, just use it to help insulate you from shooting and zap things with Burning Alignment. Magic focused enemies will be spoiling for a chance to assassinate the skink priest on top, since killing him knocks out 4 dispel dice and a scroll. The scar vets could be better optimized. For the Cold One rider, get rid of the maiming shield. It is actually a very overpriced item, as an extra attack typically costs 20 and a shield costs 3 points. Also consider that the Burning Blade of Chotec is also only 20 points, and will really dish out the pain against anything with armor. For vanilla str 5 attacks, your other rank and file saurus cav can hand those out. The Scar Vet can take the Burning Blade and become a can-opener. So you'll have one unit with the Oldblood for vaporizing big critters and the other cav unit for tackling armor. Both will be great flankers as well. 78 points available Now for the BSB Scar-Vet you can make a couple of improvements while keeping him a chariot buster at strength 7. Exchange his shield for the enchanted shield and give him Venom of the Firefly Frog. You still get the parry bonus, because the Venom rules clearly state that whatever weapon you are using retains its original properties. The only way to lose the bonus is if your weapon ceases to be a "hand weapon", so the enchanted shield won't mess it up either. Scar-Veteran – BSB, Light Armour, Great Weapon, Enchanted Shield, Venom of the Firefly Frog – 146pts Now he can have str 7 poison magical attacks with 4+ armor, or str 5 poison magical attacks with 1+ armor. I recommend the latter in most cases, except for chariots which auto pop. Even against super tough monsters (T5+), those poison hits are going to start to matter, and having a 1+ save to back him up is really nice. Incidentally, I think 1+ is the best armor a Scar-Vet can have on foot. 56 points remaining I'd get the war banner into one of your cold one units for 25 points. Stick this in your general's unit, since he is geared more toward monster killing, the banner will help him break units against which the Blade of Realities isn't optimal. You also want to help stack the odds for the General's unit, since he gives up an extra 100 points if he falls. 31 points left... I'm a huge fan of the War Drum of Xahutec, and I would slap it on the Burning Blade Scar-Vet. This helps keep his unit moving, and prevents early game march-blocking. It also comes into play after the cav has charged and overrun a unit, or perhaps a unit has fled and left your cav near the enemy line. In these situations the cav would be forced to charge something else since they would be march-blocked and unable to gain a good position. With this item you now have the choice to make a full 14" move that can swing you around behind the enemy or take you somewhere the enemy will absolutely not expect. And what do you know, it's 30 points.. sorry, don't know what to do with the last point. Scar-Veteran – Cold One, Light Armour, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec, War Drum of Xahutec – 163pts That's how I'd tweak the list. The units look good, don't go below 4 terradons, that's an optimal number that allows 1 casualty while still preserving the magical US5.
Overall I like the list, its fairly unique compared to the number of Slann or Carnosaur lists you see around, and suggestions are more based on personal preference than anything else, that being said, I would: Lords/Heroes Oldblood – Cold One,Light Armour, Enchanted Shield, Blade of Realities – 275pts Im not much of a fan of Blade of Realities, and I think that if your using the Old Blood with Cold One Cav. you'd probably want to build him as more of an all rounder than what is essentially a monster killer... Id personally look more at the Blade of Revered Tzunki (think thats it, +1 Strength, no saves) for utility reasons, as even if your not against armoured targets you still get a strength bonus and strength 6 should be good against the monsters you'd be hunting with BoR I agree that the enchanted shield is going a bit overboard, with the points saved by getting the Blade of Tzunki you could get this guy the 5+ ward I believe, and spend a couple of extra points for a shield for a 1+ save and 5+ ward Skink Priest – Lvl2, Engine of the Gods, Diadem of Power, Dispel Scroll – 440pts Love this setup with your army don't change a thing! Scar-Veteran – Cold One, Light Armour, Sword of Battle, Maiming Shield – 160pts This is a personal favourite of mine for putting into a saurus unit, in a cav unit though Im more inclined to follow Caneg's logic with the Wardrums/ Burning blade combo, also, you could give him the BSB upgrade and give the generals coldone unit the Warbanner, so both units have at least +2 CR to help crack ranked up/ elite units and to help cover for any fluffed combat phases Scar-Veteran – BSB, Light Armour, Shield, Great Weapon – 124pts Another personal favourite, Id drop the BSB upgrade though, this then makes him a fairly cheap can opener upgrade for your Saurus as well as being able to take some hits. If your after a tough BSB on foot I like Enchanted Shield, Light armour, Venom of the Firefly Frog. Wouldn't worry about the Great Weapon in this case as you really want to protect your BSB. My other concern with keeping him with your saurus as BSB is it makes him a target, a decent enemy unit rolls in and your relying on kills to bring your units CR up Core 12 Saurus – Standard, Musician – 162pts Great unit, only problem can be if the enemy hits them with their best troops (eg. Heavy Knights, Black Guard etc.) as they are in fairly small numbers and are relying on the ability to kill their opponents to win back CR 12 Saurus – Standard, Musician – 162pts see above 10 skinks – 70pts Just like to mention these are presumedly skirmishers, not cohorts. again, great unit 10 skinks – 70pts see above Special Stegadon Good counter charge support for the Saurus, and as you say, can be a great tarpit to help hold your mainline 5 Cold One Cavalry – Champion, Standard – 215pts Not a fan of champs in here even with characters, but they can be handy bodyguards 5 Cold One Cavalry – Champion, Standard – 215pts See above 4 Terradons – 120pts Very handy utility unit, no problems here As I say, these are more personal preference suggestions than anything, but hope it help a bit.
Have you considered giving the oldblood the sword of striking. The +1 to hit is useful in every situation as you will only ever be at 3+ without it, whereas +1 to wound can sometimes be wasted. Plus its cheap (25points) personally it is one of my favorite items as Ive lost count of the times ive rolled a couple of 2 to hit. And if your going to put your oldblood in the cold one cavalry, just take an ordinary shield (-1) save in combat no point going -2. Then you could take the glyph necklace with your spare points for that 5+ ward save. Total cost = 246
Sword of striking is less efficient than sword of might. A strength bonus reduces to wound and armour save. Anything that removes a save type altogether is more efficient still. Bonus attacks vary in more or less an improvement depending on the survivability of your target.
I always try to arm my characters to fight rank and file rather than other characters, and quite alot of armys have basic T3 so thats why I go sword of striking, and no matter what the ws of your opponent you always get the plus 1, so its always useful, whereas most other weapons are only useful some of the time. Although you are correct strength bonuses usually win the mathshammer.
Yup, depends what you want him to do. We tend to have little or no trouble with rank and file (COR or spears or stegs) so can opening, hero killing or monster slaying is the best set-up for our combat characters IMO.
I like sword of striking if your going fairly maic heavy, then throw the 1st heavens spell (re-roll 1's to hit and wound) on the unit and watch the fun, against weaker rank and file units thats 5 attacks hitting and wounding on 2+ with re-rolls on the 1's