Saurus were never on a similar power lvl as chaos warriors.
Chaos Warriors were actually viable. Saurus never were and were never even as close to as strong. Stats meant very little in WHFB, it was all about equipment and Saurus had iniative1 and no great weapon.
Saurus sucked in fantasy, arguably more than they do now. They were not elite infantry, and were not pointed or intended to be used as such.
The notion that saurus are cold blooded killing machines comes from the lore and nothing else. I dont necessarily disagree with that assumption, but Saurus have always been cannon fodder in both fantasy and Age of Sigmar.
I would debate that hotly.
Saurus were on an elite level in terms of Core choices because most enemy Core choices still required 5+ to wound them due to having T4, so against most Core choices Saurus could simply weather their S3 attacks and strike back with their mass of S4 attacks that would generally wound on 3+ or 4+, and against enemy Core troops with Great Weapons Saurus would be able to strike first and take out a lot of their number before they struck back. Sure, Initiative 1 is their main drawback, but if you’re T4 as opposed to T3 and equipped with a 4+ Save as Saurus are, you can weather the attacks of most enemy Core. Indeed I see their Initiative 1 as not being so much of a flaw, but more one of the things that keep them balanced.
Chaos Warriors in 7th and 8th on the other hand are ridiculously powerful for a Core unit, they are so overpowered that they render one of their elite units, Chosen, completely obsolete because the two units have the same profile yet Chaos Warriors are cheaper and can be taken in Core. It doesn’t even make sense that they are that powerful, they’re principally just mutated humans so at the very least should have 1 attack rather than 2. Chaos Warriors were pretty balanced in 6th, they still had their high Initiative and Weapon Skill, which makes sense with their lore, but also had one attack rather than two and had Heavy Armour rather than Chaos Armour, which not only keeps them balanced as a Core Unit but also made Chosen, who had 2 attacks and Chaos Armour, more viable (and it made more sense for them to have that extra attack and armour save bonus because they were elite lorewise compared to the rest of the army).
True, in terms of being elite compared with every other unit in Warhammer Fantasy, basic Saurus rank pretty low down, but they are elite compared to most other Core troops specifically - in a straight fight between 2 Core units with no buffs from heroes or anything, I would say the only Core units capable of beating Saurus would be Chaos Warriors (who are OP as mentioned earlier) and any knight unit (who are riding Barded steeds which gives them a 2+ save, so there's not much most Core choices can do against those). In Age of Sigmar, on the other hand, if we compare Saurus with all the other Battleline units, they rank very low down. Vulkite Berzerkers, Blood Warriors, Witch Elves e.t.c are all so much more powerful 1-1, and the horde army Battleline choices like Night Goblins and Crypt Ghouls can be spammed more easily than Saurus can.
