AoS What realm for my 1000 points?

[tom1017]

Hello guys.

Once again I'm coming here with a few questions because I intend to play my little Seraphon army this weekend.

As usual it'll be made of the only units I own:
An Oldblood on Carnosaur (general)
A Skink Starpriest.
2x10 skinks with boltspitters and shields
3 terradon riders with bolas
3 ripperdactyls riders
1 bastiladon.

I only recently discovered the Mortal Realms option and I can't make up my mind about the one I should pick.

Considering I got spanked twice the only two games I played with Seraphon mainly because my heavy hitter (the Carnosaur) found a quick death, I'm enclined to choose the Gryph-Feather Charm from Ghur, hoping to gain a little longevity.

Now I'm also tempted by Chamon's Hydroxskin cloak because it sure sounds like a fun option (especially if it can also be used while retreating) but I'm thinking you guys may have a good piece of advice for me and there are probably better options.

So I thank you all in advance for the help you'll provide.

Cheers !

ps: Oh, I almost forgot: I don't know if I'll be playing against an army of the Flesh Eater Courts or Stormcast Eternals but it'll be either one.

 

[LizardWizard]

If you want to keep your carno healthy longer then Gryph-Feather Charm is amazing. If you plan to engage with both your Ripperdactyls and Carno during the same combat then I recommend taking Doppelganger Cloak from the Realm of Ulgu. Make sure you are familiar with the Errata for the Cloak if you equip it.

 

[tom1017]

Heya @LizardWizard

Thanks for your always valued help and advice.

I've been contemplating the possibility to take the DoppleGanger Cloak but I'm afraid I don't really know my army well enough to pick a one-shot artifact that will need perfect timing.

Also, as you adviced before, I intend this time to try and refrain myself from letting the Big Shiny Dino charge ealry, first harrassing my opponent from afar with a few gauntlet shots before using him as a second wave, the first wave being my 2 units of flyers and the bastiladon while the 2x10 skinks will try and sneak somewhere to contend isolated objectives if possible, or at least harrass the back of my opponent.

Considering this plan I suppose I'd better take the Gryph-Feather Charm, won't you agree?

Now just out of curiosity, what command trait would you choose? Thickly Scaled Hide will increase my general's resilience so I'm enclined to take this one because I should find myself short on units after 2-3 turns...

 

[LizardWizard]

Considering this plan I suppose I'd better take the Gryph-Feather Charm, won't you agree?

Agreed.

Now just out of curiosity, what command trait would you choose? Thickly Scaled Hide will increase my general's resilience so I'm enclined to take this one because I should find myself short on units after 2-3 turns...

I would actually suggest making the Skink Starpriest your general and giving it the Master of Star Ritual trait. It can help to get your Rippers and Carno into combat while massively increasing their effectiveness.

 

[tom1017]

OK... I'm not sure I understand the idea here.

Do you mean the StarPriest becomes able to cast the Priest's Celestial Rites then, thus possibly stacking the benefit of the ritual to his own spell (Starlight)?
I'm not sure of the names btw, I'm roughly translating from French here.

Rephrasing, can he give both benefits to the same unit if he's the general and is given the Master of Star Ritual trait?

 

[LizardWizard]

If you take Master of Star Rituals then the Starpriest is able to use the prayer from the Skink Priest warscroll which allows the target unit to reroll run, charges, & saves. If you also have summon starlight on the unit then they are -1 to be hit. Rippers and the carno become rather durable under those buffs.

 

[tom1017]

Oooooh, I completely missed that. It sure sounds like a great idea. I'm gonna try that of course.
I suppose I can stack it with the Gryph-Feather Charm I'll give to the OldBlood so this should help a great deal.
Thanks a lot for the tip.

 

[tom1017]

Hi again.

Here's a bonus question:

Being General and being given the "Master of Star Rituals" trait, the starpriest has now 2 abilities (His staff one to double the damage with bites attacks and the priest's one to reroll charge, run and saves).

Can he use both abilities in the same hero phase or do the rules precise you can only use one ability?

Cheers !

 

[LizardWizard]

Hi again.

Here's a bonus question:

Being General and being given the "Master of Star Rituals" trait, the starpriest has now 2 abilities (His staff one to double the damage with bites attacks and the priest's one to reroll charge, run and saves).

Can he use both abilities in the same hero phase or do the rules precise you can only use one ability?

Cheers !

A unit can always use any and all abilities on their Warscroll, including command traits and artifacts, unless an ability's text or the units description limits which abilities may be used. In short, you can use both the Serpent's Staff and Command Trait: Master of Star Rituals.

 

[tom1017]

Thanks a lot for the help, mate.
Now I see why naming the Starpriest General is an even better choice.
Cheers !

edit: unfortunately my friend can't make it this weekend so I'll have to try all these cool ideas some other time...
I'll post a quick report here here when I've played the list

 

[tom1017]

Greetings @LizardWizard
As promised here's a quick report of a game a played friday, trying to follow your advice.
I played against Stormcasts, something like : 3 characters, evocators, sequitors, liberators, vanguard raptors with hurricane crossbow and aetherwings.

The scenario was the one with meteors, comets (or whatever) coming down on the field at turn 2 (1 on the middle line) and 3 (1 in each player's deployment area).
I chose to start, hoping to get some shots at my foe before he could do the same.
The plan was to place the bastiladon in the center and attack with the flyers as a first wave. The carnosaur was supposed to attack in the second wave and the 2x10 skinks were supposed to control objective.

It didn't go too bad and indeed keeping the carnosaur behind the bastiladon allowed me to keep him around.
The starpriest general was quite useful with the buffs he could give. This helped the ripperdactyls to annihilate an elite unit (200 points I believe) and I was quite impressed.
The shots from the bastiladon and the Oldblood did hit quite a lot but my foe proved to be very resilient. Add to that that he had a character that could heal d3 hit points per round so it was hard to destroy his units.

We stopped early 4th round if I recall correctly because my skinks got wiped by shots from the raptors and the other unit got charged and destroyed before I could disengage.

With only the general and the wounded bastiladon and carnosaur left, I couldn't hope to get control of the objectives and we called it here because I was already behind in points, thanks to his damned birds my terradons failed to kill.

Retrospectively I don't know if I could have won but I wish I had tried to use the lord of space and time ability to place my terradons or even a behemoth in the back of the raptors who gave me quite a hard time.
Also since I chose to start my foe could get a double turn between turns 2 and 3. It's still something that keeps me a tad perplex and I struggle to deal with this. I suppose I should have let him start.

I love the list but it's pretty hard to play and be efficient with it. Next step will be to test the shadowstrike battalion option


edit: grammar, spelling and clarification

edit2: rule question:
I tried to kill the birds by unloading my terradons bombs on them, only the move implied I flew up to reach the unit and then came backward. Is this legal or do you have to end your move on the other side of the unit you fly over?

 

[LizardWizard]

Sounds you had some strong decisions making over all.

On this battleplan I always like to slow play it a bit and hold back till I know where the objectives will be. Knowing that you have LoSaT frees you up to overload one side of the table. This makes your opponent either give you the flank and hope the objectives don't hurt him. Or they try to match your field presence and you can LoSaT away if the objectives land elsewhere.

Longstrike Raptors and Evocators are both priority kill targets. You probably should have gone with your flyers into the Raptors and focus your Basti and Carno into the Evocators. It is risky to swing in with your Carno, but if he is CP buffed it aught to be able to handle them.

It seems as though you played the game well. I am sure you would have won if you were more familiar with the units you were facing. Seraphon require the highest amount of game knowledge to play well in my opinion. Which can certainly be a double edged sword.

 

[Aginor]

I tried to kill the birds by unloading my terradons bombs on them, only the move implied I flew up to reach the unit and then came backward. Is this legal or do you have to end your move on the other side of the unit you fly over?

That's legal.
As soon as one of the Terradons moved over a small part of any model then you can fly back and all the Terradons can drop their bombs.
I usually use up at least 1", better 2" of my movement so there are no discussions on whether I really managed to fly over or not.

 

[tom1017]

Thanks for the replies, guys.
It's true that not knowing my opponent's strengths (and weaknesses) didn't help much.
For instance, my opponent had 3 units of 5 guys (including some nasty elite) waiting to be teleported anywhere on the field and really, this isn't easy to deal with.
I had my main strengths in the middle of the field, skinks on the flanks, to deny him possibilities to deepstrike., but still, they remained an annoying threat, even if the Starpriest-buffed Ripperdactyls made a great job ripping apart the elite unit after it's been a tad weakened by shots from the Bastiladon and the OldBlood.

In hindsight, I may have been a tad more successfull had I
1 - Let him begin.
2 - Use LoSaT on the Bastiladon once it had been charged and engaged. It wouldn't have been a problem had I rolled 1 or 2 whereas a good roll would have allowed me to teleport behind the raptors, in range for my beam but out of range of their crossbows.
Also, the Stormcast unit that was fighting the Bastiladon would have been shot at then charged and engaged both by the Carnosaur and Terradons, giving the latest more efficiency because their silly move to try and kill the birds implied a CP to run so I couldn't even shoot at them nor try and charge them afterwards while lining up to get slaughtered by the crossbows.

In any case it's been a fun game and I'm eager to play again. Maybe I'll ask my opponent to play the same list so I can see whether experience helps

Cheers !!!

 

[Oh_Man]

Can someone please explain to me the mortal realms thing? Is this optional or mandatory? Do both players have to agree which realm you play in? Or is this only declaring what realm your army came from?

 

[Imrahil]

That is my questions as well.

Gr, Imrahil

 

[tom1017]

Can someone please explain to me the mortal realms thing? Is this optional or mandatory? Do both players have to agree which realm you play in? Or is this only declaring what realm your army came from?

From what I understood it's just another option you can give to your army when you build it.
I don't think you have to discuss it with your opponent, it's just a way to gain access to more relics and such.

 

[LizardWizard]

Can someone please explain to me the mortal realms thing? Is this optional or mandatory? Do both players have to agree which realm you play in? Or is this only declaring what realm your army came from?

Realms of Battle are optional. Many events do assign realms to each battleplan in their event packets however. Many times they will also assign a specific realmscape feature/s as well.

This is separate from the Artifacts of the Realms. You are allowed to pick a realm of origin for your army. It from the ream of origin that you gain access to realm specific artifacts. These artifacts are pitched battle legal and widely used in tournaments. They do not have to correspond to the Realm of Battle you are playing in. Think of them as a command trait or any other feature you can select when building an army.

 

[Oh_Man]

Is that just the Artefacts or also the weapons as well? In my book I see there is both Artefacts and Weapons. There are also realm specific spells? Do you get these as well if you say your army is from these realms?

Why can't I find this info in the book facepalm I must be looking in the wrong area.

 

[LizardWizard]

Is that just the Artefacts or also the weapons as well? In my book I see there is both Artefacts and Weapons. There are also realm specific spells? Do you get these as well if you say your army is from these realms?

Why can't I find this info in the book facepalm I must be looking in the wrong area.

Artifacts include the weapons as well. You only get access to Realm spells if you are playing on that realm of battle.