AoS 1000pt VS Death, TEST Dread Saurian

[Booyar]

Hey guys, hope things are well!

So, this was the second game me and my mate played together, Death won the first game... pfft

I wont talk about the first game because it was really just figuring out our rules as we were both new to the game.
The main thing i wanted to test out this game, was how strong is the dread saurian??

So here we go, this was the list i used:

LEADERS
Skink Starpriest (80)
- Artefact : Light of Dracothion
Skink Priest (80) (shadowstrike starhost)
- General
- Command Trait : Master of Star Rituals
- Priestly Trappings
- Artefact : Incandescent Rectrices
UNITS
10 x Skinks (60)
-Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
-Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
3 x Ripperdactyl Riders (140)
BEHEMOTHS
Dread Saurian (380)
BATTALIONS
Shadowstrike Starhost (170)

And this was my enemy's list:

LEADERS
Arkhan The Black Mortarch of Sacrament (320)
Necromancer (110)
Necromancer (110)
UNITS
10 x Skeleton Warriors (80)
-Ancient Blades
10 x Grave Guard (160)
-Great Wight Blades
2 x Morghast Harbingers (220)
-Spirit Halberds

This was a very exciting game, finally fielding my beautiful dread saurian!

the pitched battle we played was STARSTRIKE

Deployment
i knew i was going to choose who gets first turn as i had less drops then my opponent, so i put my skinks at the front including the priest. had my dread saurian out of any opponent reach, and my star priest was on the side of my opponents big wizard (arkhan).
after set up i used the battalion to advance all my skinks including the priest, but made sure everything important was in the bubble for buffs.

Turn 1 - seraphon
hero phase was straight forward, prey with priest (rerolling, incase it fails because of command trait), and mystic shield with start priest on dread saurian (giving it a 2+ reroll save) but the mystic shield failed. I used serpent staff on dread saurian "obviously" and used the battalion rerolls on the skeletons
i then ported the dread saurian 9" away from the enemy line, close to arkhan (he was bubble wrapped by skeletons)

the movement was basic too, i didn't get the 6 on the port, so i just moved everything up in range for bolt spitting and close enough for buffs next turn. i did keep my priest in the back to stay out of danger, because i knew i would port him next turn. then i brought down my rippers 3" away from the bubble wrap of skeletons.

Shooting phase was useless, i got 1 wound in, but he saved it :/ dam skinks failed me!

Charge phase was amazing, i obviously got the rippers into the skeletons, but failed the first charge on dread saurian... but thankfully i blessed him and he rolled a 10 on the reroll!! happy days

combat phase was great! ripperz went first so i could hopefully get rid of the bubble wrap. but only one ripper could hit the skeletons and another could hit arkhan... it was brutal because that 1 ripper did 5 wounds to arkhan and he saved none "very unlucky" and the other killed i think 3 skeletons. he then hit with arkhan, doing 2 dmg to 1 ripper... then big dread saurian was up, i didn't know the jaws had a 2" range, i was thinking he was going to have to hit the skeletons, but anyways i ended up getting 3 -3 rend jaws on arkhan including 1 double dmg, doing 16 damage (no save). the claws left the skeletons with 2 models, but they ran in battleshock with -2 bravery.

Turn 1 death
I dont really know his army well, but he just buffed his morghast with mystic shield and gave the grave guard double attack/pile in plus inspiring presence. Got the morghast to kill the ripperz (they actually do crazy damage!), moved the grave guard into the dread saurian, charging and doing damage, 5 wounds i think....then my DS hit back and killed a few guard and healed 2 wounds, and they hit again doing more dmg, cant remember how much, but my DS was still doing d6 dmg.

DEATH got the double turn
Turn 2 Death

pretty much the same as turn 1, but he also got about 6 models back for his guard. got the morghast into combat with the DS, doing a ton of dmg... leaving him on 5 wounds but the DS hit back killing a morghast and healing another 2 wounds. it was hard to hurt the dread because he was rerolling saves. the guard brought him back down to 5 wounds though.
no points for objectives, as i controlled the middle

Turn 2 Seraphon

i used serpent staff on the DS again. ported the priest and preyed (blessing DS) then got the star priest to use mystic shield, this time getting it! so the DS was a 2+ reroll save... at this point my enemy quit! rerolling 2+ save and healing after doing damage was to much to handle "fair point"

So in conclusion, i was very happy with how the dread saurian played, it was super fun seeing that model in action! the amount of damage that thing can do is amazing.. and with the right buffs can make him very durable...

moving forward in this list, i would love to bring allies, loremaster and battle mage, giving him rerolls to hit and wound while also having +1 to wound rolls.... making him hit even harder then he already does, also maybe bringing a astro bearer to buff my magic and give the skinks a better chance... bringing more skinks wouldnt hurt either if i had points to spare.

Hope this made sense! and you enjoyed the read as much as i did playing, all feedback is welcome. Thanks guys, and please like!

 

[Crowsfoot]

Good report, your opponent should really be making Arkhan only vulnerable to magic by making sure he is well protected he can do crazy damage, I also don’t get why he had 2 necromancers when he had Arkhan, one to buff the skellys the other buffing the guards?

The Dread is so powerful when used correctly.

 

[Booyar]

Good report, your opponent should really be making Arkhan only vulnerable to magic by making sure he is well protected he can do crazy damage, I also don’t get why he had 2 necromancers when he had Arkhan, one to buff the skellys the other buffing the guards?

The Dread is so powerful when usef correctly.

He isn't a very experienced player, specially with actually game play, he knows the rules well though.

He just doesn't have many models to field anything else, which is unfortunate.

And yea, his bubble wrapping was all wrong to begin with...

But yea, thanks for the reply and the like! Appreciate it!

 

[Aginor]

Nice report, thanks for posting!
I am glad y'all are having fun.

Two necromancers is something I do field as well when playing Death, but then I don't run Arkhan.
The advantage is that you can cast a Danse Macabre even though one Necromancer may die early. He is also quite a cheap hero so with the new regeneration he helps a Skeleton (or other Summonable unit) a bit with that, and with the new spell lore there are enough other spells for him to cast in the meantime.

For a 1000 points game IMO you both were pretty low on wounds, especially the Death player should consider playing a few more Skellies and save Arkhan (who is a great support unit) for bigger games (1500+).


A Shadowstrike and a Dread Saurian in a 1k list is....bold. And pretty destructive when it works. Well played!
If your Dread Saurian dies you are probably toast though, and yeah those Morghasts can hit very well (I am painting mine right now).

Hmpf, now I want a Dread Saurian, too...