8th Ed. 2000 points 8th edition dual carno list.

[Haemoglobin]

Hi!

I will be attending a tournament with the following rules:

- 2000 points
- No special characters
- SoM, End times rules, spells and items not allowed
- Characters gain LoS rolles against auto-kill spells (Dwellers etc)
- Roll once for spells for the entire day
- 3 rounds of Battle Line
- 25 points per battle, additionally each player gets 25 available points. Points are deducted from these 25 for the following things:

The army list :The player has NOT entered the army list ahead of time. - 5 points

Lord-Hammer The % spent on heroes and lords is larger or equal to 35% of the army list points. -10 points

Hero-Hammer If only fielding Heroes OR only Lords. -5 points

Horde(s) If fielding 1 or more horde formations. -10 points

Wizard Duel If you field an army with only magic users as heroes and/or lords. (magic users: generating or able to use power/dispel dice) -5 points

So as you can see bringing a Dual Carno list is already giving me a -10 points penalty.

The list:

Lord:

Saurus Oldblood, General
Carnosaur, Loping Stride and Bloodroar
Great Weapon
Armour of Destiny
Crown of Command
Luckstone

Hero:

Saurus Scar-Veteran, BSB
Carnosaur, Loping Stride
Great Weapon
Light Armour
Charmed Shield
Talisman of Preservation

Skink Priest, Lore of Heavens
Lvl 1
Dispel Scroll

Core:

34x Saurus Warriors, Full Command
10x Skink Skirmishers, Javelin & Shield
10x Skink Skirmishers, Javelin & Shield

Special:

Bastiladon, Solar Engine
4x Ripperdactyl Riders
4x Ripperdactyl Riders

So I would love to take a dual carno saur list, as I have most of the models for that list painted. Would you guys have any other suggestions? What about a list with only a single Carnosaur?

C&C would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

Honestly I can't see anything totally wrong with the list, so it might not need changes, just see these as suggestions.

It's hard to squeeze anything in there.

If I were to make a change though, I think I would replace the Bastiladon with a unit of Chameleons.
On the other hand, the Bastiladon could protect you against Purple sun.
You could drop two ripperdactyles and the Bastiladon, and then take an Ancient stegadon instead.

I really like that you are taking a double Carno list , I did that myself the other day, and it worked just fine (altough both carnos ended up dying).

 

[Haemoglobin]

I feel that I really need at least 2 groups of Rippers to actually be able to anything with them. They die so fast to just about anything. Taking two groups is much easier to get at least 1 in a combat that I want it to be. I was thinking of taking 2 units of 3 Terradons instead of the Ripperdactyl Riders but that would take out alot of kick of the list.

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

I meant two units of 3 ripperdactyles, but units of 4 is probably more effective.
It was just that two ripperdactyles and a bastiladon is the same price as an Ancient steg

 

[Haemoglobin]

I like the idea of having an Ancient Steg (hell maybe even with EoTG) but I think I would lose alot of utility with the loss of the +1 I and the bound spell of the bastiladon.

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

I like the idea of having an Ancient Steg (hell maybe even with EoTG) but I think I would lose alot of utility with the loss of the +1 I and the bound spell of the bastiladon.

You will probably be 6 dicing the bound spell though, and hope for irresisteble force, otherwise i don't think it will go of, besides you will only have one other spell with the skink priest.

The bastiladon is great protection against purple sun. for saurus it means that you will loose half the guys. But other than that, I don't think it will do much.
Of course it depends what you are up against. Elves will still not like the thunderstomps.

If anything I think the best thing you could take is Chameleon skinks, to destroy those warmachines or what not, that might be a threat to the Carnosaurs.

 

[Haemoglobin]

I could switch out the Ripperdactyls for two units of 3 Terradons and a unit of 8 Chameleon Skinks. Then add Ironcurse Icon to the Skink Priest (that will be in the Saurus Warrior unit). That way I get those Chameleons in, and still have some flying support. I do think I will miss the attacks from the Rippers though, but in the end they die nearly every game and give up their points.

 

[Haemoglobin]

Anyone else have any idea how this list would work? What would you guys change about that list? I was thinking to maybe drop the Ripperdactyls to 2 x 3 and adding a unit of 10 Skink Skirmishers or 5x Chameleon Skinks.

 

[Chicken Lips]

Yeah, I like the idea of dropping the Rippers to 2 units of 3 and picking up the Chameleon Skinks. If you need the extra points, I might try dropping the Crown of Command and being a little more particular about your match-ups with him. He won't need it as much if you keep the pair of Carnos together and charging the same targets when needed.

I do think that the Bassy is a good choice though. That bound spell will still give you options as to which spell your opponent needs to stop. That could essentially increase your magical effectiveness by 50%. In a numbers game, that's huge.

Something else to consider (and something that I've been playing around with) is taking the Arc of Sotek instead of (or in addition to) the Solar Engine. Spitting out Jungle Swarms next to your Saurus Warriors each turn can really add up and make your Warriors super-effective. They also make great speed bumps (especially if your Warriors did wind up running for whatever reason), not to mention the flank protection you'll get from the Bassy.

 

[Haemoglobin]

Well I've decided to drop the rippers and add 2x 3 Terradon Riders and a unit of 8 Chameleon skinks. Looking at the list of participants there were a scary amount of Warmachines

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

there were a scary amount of Warmachines

That doesn't bode well for the Carnos.

But play your cards right, and you do stand a chance, after all you do have the means to deal with those filthy warmachines.

 

[Haemoglobin]

Yea plenty of WoC, TK, Skaven and Daemons

 

[classicflava]

i would put in cowboys instead of rippers. They are very good at supporting carnosaurs when charging units (your carno can no longer be challenged out) they are also more durable than the rippers and should be targetted with warmachines as you have two carnos that will be the main targets

 

[Haemoglobin]

yea but I am already at the absolute max of my character points like 994/1000 or something. And I'd rather not drop the Skink priest or a carnosaur

 

[Haemoglobin]

Ok tournament finished and a short summary:

2 minor losses and a draw

Better than expected. I do have the feeling I played fairly soft lists and on many occasions having one extra turn would have turned in my favor.

So first battle was against Ogre Kingdoms

He had the following, keep in mind im doing this from memory so I don't know exactly what he had.

LvL with ogre lore
BSB with great weapon
in a unit of 11 Ogres with great weapons

3x Maneaters with sniper and poison

1x Cannon

4x Mournfang

4x Leadbelchers

1x Cat? (single model chaff)

My rolling was over the place and so was his so that made it an interesting battle. I killed his Mournfang and Maneaters. The Leadbelchers had one model left, the cat had one wound left and the cannon had one wound left aswell! He got my BSB (but not the mount, which proceeded to fail his monster reaction test and just stayed put), General, my 2 Skink Skirmishers units, Chameleons, my Saurus warriors, my priest and a unit of Terradons. If I had an extra turn I could have turned the tides and get some more points but it was a good battle. I still ended up 9-16 which wasnt too shabby for the amount of units he killed.

Second battle was against Vampire Counts. He had the following:

Vampire Lord, blender (with sword of might, other tricksters shard, talisman of preservation, quickblood, red fury, lvl 3 vampire lore)
Wight king, BSB
in a unit of 13 Black Knights, lances and banner of the Barrows.

4x 5 Dire wolves

1x Vargulf

30-35x Crypt Horrors with Ghast

Terrorgheist

1x Spirit Host

I managed to kill his Dire wolves chaff, shot the Terrorgheist in one turn (gotta love poison) and that is about it. It ended being a mexican standoff where it would just be some shuffling but nobody really charged in because we knew if we charged wed get stomped. In the end I just charged my Saurus Warriors in his Crypt horrors just for the fun of it. Then got flanked by the black knight unit In the end I do think I screwed up by wasting my valuable chaff on his chaff. I lost my terradons in stupid ways: 1 unit ran off the board after a flee reaction from a charge and the other got hit by a Vargulf after it charged and ran over a unit of Skink Skirmishers. In the end he got my Saurus Warriors, my Skink skirmishers and chameleons and my terradons.
Another 9-16 which could have been better for me if I had used my chaff properly.

Third battle was against Tomb Kings. His army had the following:

LvL 4 mage, lore of Nehek
LvL 2 mage, lore of Death
Necrotect in a unit of 25 or so Skeleton Archers

12x Skeleton Archers

5x Skeleton archers on horse

Casket of Souls

2x Screaming Skull Catapult

3x Warsphinx

5x Chariot (one unit)

He had his unit with mages and necrotect set up clever: the unit got into a building wich was then flanked by one warsphinx on the left side and 2 warsphinx on the right side. So basically If i were to charge the Saurus Warriors into the building they would end up flanked by 3 warsphinx. The way the terrain was set up turned that area in one big bottleneck so I couldnt do a lot about it. My terradons got both his SSC's, I shot his Skeleton archers on horse, nearly got the chariots (1 left D, killed one sphinx with a carno, had another with only 1 wound left. Again one extra turn would have made a huge difference but can't be helped.
This battle ended in a draw.

I have to say that the Saurus Warriors were lacking. I am used to bringing a horde of them so even when they take heavy casualties they will still be able to hit back with a lot of attacks. However the points and the tournament were restricting the use of hordes. I think I might have been better off with some more Skink Skirmishers and a Skrox unit. The Chameleons performed well every battle and definitely got back their points. Same goes for the Terradons (even though I didn't use them well in battle nr 2). Surprisingly the Carnosaurs survived alot. I'm pretty sure that is because I got lucky with my matchups and didnt really encounter any of the hard lists. I do find that the damage capability of the list is a bit low, but I really do need the terradons and chameleons to be able to take on the warmachines and other chaff. Bastiladon was always worth his points aswell.

All in all I am pretty satisfied. I didn't expect to actually get relatively close to winning battles with this list. I definitely need more practice though.

 

[ASSASSIN_NR_1]

That doesn't sound too bad.

Out of curiosity: How did the Carnos do besides the fact that they survived?

 

[Haemoglobin]

The Carno's didn't do very much. In the first battle the general and his carno got shot by the cannon,but the mount passed his test and rampaged through the Mournfang and Maneaters pretty easily. The BSB got shot off of the Carno which then failed its Ld test and rolled a 3 on the monster reaction table. Which is the one where the monster becomes Unbreakable and doesn't move for the rest of the game. Just as I had set it up to charge the cannon and take away its last wound.. In the second battle I kept them back, the VC lost his Terrorgheist and had no shooting at all. And I didn't want to lose the Carnos because I would have to charge them into a unit of Black Knights with a Blender lord and a BSB with support on the flank in the form of 35 Crypt horrors with their annoying Poison attacks.The charge arc was iffy because I had set them up in a crappy position and I lost all my chaff so the Carno's didn't do a thing that battle but provide Ld boosts and rerolls.
The third battle I had a similar issue, not really getting them in position properly because of that bottleneck. I did manage to kill one Warsphinx in one combat turn on turn 6 with the General. I was playing very cautious with him because the he only had 1 wound left because of the casket. I had trouble dispelling what I wanted because of the huge dice difference that TK can get (several 10PD for him and 4DD for me).

All in all I find that playing a Dual Carno list is hard because you need some luck with the terrain and magic. And you really need to be on the ball with chaff and chaff removal. The Carnos can do a lot of damage but you can't just throw them at everything. The increased Inspiring Presence and BSB reroll was very very useful though. My next 2k list will have more redirectors. I was thinking of removing the Saurus Warriors and replacing them with Skink Skirmishers and a unit of Skrox perhaps. Maybe Skrox darts. Any suggestions?