AoS Celestial Stampede ability - thoughts?

[Blitzkriyg]

Jack from RR1s did a MRB of the new Bel'acroix bookand showed the stampede abilities. I hadn't seen them before this and haven't seen any discussion, so what are everyones thoughts? I find it a bit lackluster. The Prime Warbeast is nice, but I could never see using the ability.

 

[Erta Wanderer]

it's not very good and probably wont be taken over thunderquake. if you are looking for discussion we have been talking about it over in new rumor.

 

[Nart]

May be good to finish off something imprortant with decenst save/concverve CP. I don't see real competitive value in the battalion.

 

[Tyranitar]

Idk, it's kind of a leaner thunder quake and not having the krox/hunting pack tax is nice. I agree the ability seems lackluster or just very situational with cases where it would be better than just shooting the basti twice and activating the engine. It seems odd that it's not the chief and two bastis, I thought the fluff was that Kroak had a bunch of bastis laser beam something into oblivion so I'm not sure where the engine fits in. If you could just take 2 bastis and do 4d3 mortals it would be nice.

Conspiracy theory: maybe they're trying to clear out old stegadon inventory before releasing a new kit

 

[Nart]

Idk, it's kind of a leaner thunder quake and not having the krox/hunting pack tax is nice

Thunderquake is way better. Krox/sallies are not tax at all and often MVPs of the battalion and run+shoot+charge is super-important.

 

[Lurkaliska]

I try it and use it on turn one when bastie and engine were too far away to double shoot. It snipe one support hero away (vs std) and in this way i had two command traits, so i could take slann as general with another 4+ cp.

Still dunno if is worth but is rly fun!

 

[Carnikang]

I'll be giving it a try along side a TQ. Just to see. Should have room for another hero and that would give me somewhere to put 2/3 relics....

 

[Nart]

I tried this list:

Allegiance: Seraphon
- Constellation: Thunder Lizard

Leaders
Stegadon with Skink Chief (250)
- General
- Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
- Artefact: Cloack of Feathers
- Weapon: Skystreak Bow
Stegadon with Skink Chief (Iq'To) (250)
- Command Trait: Prime Warbeast
- Weapon: Skystreak Bow
Skink Starseer (140)
- Artefact: Fusil of Conflaguration
- Spell: Hand of Glory

Battleline
Stegadon (240) (Thunderquake Templehost)
- Weapon: Skystreak Bow
Stegadon (240) (Thunderquake Templehost)
- Weapon: Skystreak Bow
Stegadon (240) (Celestial Stampede)
- Weapon: Skystreak Bow

Units
1 x Salamander Hunting Pack (110)

Behemoths
Bastiladon (220) (Celestial Stampede)
- Weapon: Solar Engine

Battalions
Celestial Stampede (140)
Thunderquake Temple-host (150)

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 2
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 71

Worked pretty good to me, despite losing the first game, I was doing very well and only lost because of Legion of Grief's general refusing to die. I want to test it more, since I see a very strong alpha-strike potential. Stegadon's have 32" range thread even before running. And chief with cloak of feather's +starseer can reach very far.

 

[Carnikang]

I was thinking something like that but drop the Sally for a Razor, and get maybe a starpriest for hand of glory and a Skink priest or Terradons chief for a mobile hero to hang back for objectives.

 

[Nart]

Well, priest won't have enough CP to use his command ability, only prayer is useful (which could be actually very nice, once it goes off), but adding any more heroes will increase amount of drops, and advantage against armies like Lumineth, Idoneth, Tzeentch, etc, would be lost. Even if I use 3-drop version, I still force them to set-up battalion at once. And with double-drop it has a chane to out-drop them.

And this list really wants a commanding terrain.

 

[Tav]

the ability is rubbish. you are essentially giving up 2 engine rolls and a bastiladons shot potentially, only do do 4 D3 mortals max and only if all of your things are in range of the thing being targeted

 

[Tyranitar]

the ability is rubbish. you are essentially giving up 2 engine rolls and a bastiladons shot potentially, only do do 4 D3 mortals max and only if all of your things are in range of the thing being targeted

It's definitely situational, but there could be times when having the option is nice. Maybe you're going first on turn one, so giving up the engine rolls that could produce heals is a good thing because that would be wasted anyway, or maybe you need to focus down a target with penalties to hit like cover, look out sir, etc since they don't roll to hit. I think a good portion of the value of the battalion is having a second prime warbeast which is a great command trait. Plus the command point and extra artifact obviously

 

[Nart]

There's an important point of the ability - it is not a shooting attack. So, if your bastiladon is tied in combat, it still can deal damage outside of it. It doesn't require los too. And 3d3 have good chances to one shot a 4-5 wound hero. You can also free models, locked in combat with 1-2 enemy models to shoot-charge something else.

On the topic of cosmic engine roll, well, it random and sometimes you exactly need that additional d3 damage instead of healing/summoning.

I agree, that ability is very situational and not as epic as it could be, but I would mainly take it to run double battalion and get bonus artefact/CP/very low drops (I think, thunderquake/firelance/sunclaw+stampede is an easiest way to get dual-drop seraphon and still be effective).

 

[Kilvakar]

Honestly? The damage ability itself is pretty bad. If they removed the "on a 2+" part and just made it 3d3 mortals it would be a bit better. But still, you have to have three units within 24" of your target. Only two of them generate the MW rolls, then you have to roll and hope you don't get a 1 (you probably will), then hope you roll high enough on the mortal wounds themselves to potentially snipe a very low-wound support hero or finish off a wounded unit. That's a LOT of hoops to jump through to get a few extra mortals. Are there going to be rare times where it works flawlessly and comes in really handy? Sure. But it's not going to be consistent at all.

All that said, I still think the battalion is worth taking just for the extra Prime Warbeast trait in an army where you are already wanting to take Stegadons and Bastiladons anyway. And with the Thunder Lizard artifact being so lackluster, getting that extra Cloak of Feathers on a Stegadon or Blade of Realities on a Carnosaur is always helpful.

 

[Tav]

I like to run a cheeky shadowstrike with my thunder lizards and engine of the gods with cloak.
I likely wont be using this battalion

 

[MackiMac]

In the BR book there is a special battleplan that allowes all your monsters in the army to become part of the battalion. Probably would be very overpowered in a normal game.