In the event that the opponent shoots at my terradons with the repeater bolt thrower, they typically take down 1-3 wounds. This = 1 dead bird. The other 2 will dispatch of the crew the next time on the charge, or it may take 2 turns of combat to kill the crew with only 2 birds. Either way, my 90 point unit has tied up a 100 point unit's shooting (which means he isn't shooting at anything else), killed it, and my remaining birds are free to do whatever for the last 2-3 turns of the game. Additionally, they usually find a good soft target to drop rocks on as they fly over for the war machine charge, dealing a few wounds. They definitely earn their points back and then some. I also make sure to place a couple of forests in my terrain deployment. Terradons fly up and sit 2 inches inside the forest, which makes them -1 to hit and often keeps all 3 alive. Next turn, they can charge out and deal with the machine.
i know this isn't the place for this question, but aren't we a bit too "old" to say "they earn their points back"? we had a nice, long conversation about cohorts where their point was to redirect and then die, so why does everybody [i.e. most people] judge units on the points they earn? a unit of terradons march blocking the whole game and separating the enemies army is unlikely to get 90 points back by throwing javelins but they also might ensure you a victroy by just being there...
Yes I was being completely juvenille by sayin they earn their points back... wtf? Obviously you can't measure the value of a unit solely by how much they kill, BUT if they happen to kill more then their point value, then THEY EARN THEIR POINTS BACK. You should focus less on semantics and more on getting your rules and strategies straight. You posted incorrectly in this thread a couple of times already and really... aren't we a little too "old" to be posting inaccurate facts?
Oops, looks like Lustria-Online just rolled a one on this forum's animosity test... I do agree that perhaps a better way to judge a unit's effectiveness is whether or not it was worth the points you put into it. Therefore, that unit of cohorts that redirected a huge knight unit into a forest and stalled them for a few turns is worth the 50 points even though it didn't get any points back on its own. Terradons really are the way to go because they are just so much of a threat. I've never really used chameleon skinks before but they seem to be a little harder to use than terradons. I mean, what if you can't get your chameleons into range of their crews for very long? How often can you scout a unit behind someone else's army? Terradons are great because for 90 pts you get flying, drop rocks and the arboreal predators rule which makes these guys awesome at taking out support units and generally mucking up things in your opponent's flanks. Lizardmen units are generally very expensive so it's hard to look at them at how much you're getting per point. 12 points for a T2 model? That's as much as a spear toting saurus! You have to look at the roles each unit fills in your army. Don't overload on any one thing and you'll be golden.
hehe nice one, totally using that next time a 'rules disagreement' happens in game i tried to look at this objectively, as i think i have pretty much stated, yes, terradons have thier uses, yes war machine hunting is one of them (as was asked in the original post). are they overpriced? maybe. are they vulnerable to enemy attack? i would say very much so! used right, they can score very nicely throughout a game, especially with weak war machines and support units to pick on. used wrong and they'll end up dead to a handful of archers.