7th Ed. 2000pts army - No overpower

[Phoenix49]

Heya, posting this list just for fun mainly, I'll probably get the usual "replace that unit with the other, they're useless" but I love the models in here and the army composition perfectly suits my playstyle: challenging strategy war instead of Slaan/Double EotG setups.

Lords & heroes
*Saurus Oldblood [General], Light armour, Blade of Realities, Enchanted Shield
*Saurus Scar-Veteran [BSB], Cold One, Light armour, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec, Glyph Necklace
*Skink Chief, Ancient Stegadon, Light armour, Shield, Stegadon War-Spear
*Skink Priest, Diadem of Power

Core
*15x Saurus Warriors, Spears, Standard/Musician
*10x Skink Skirmishers
*10x Skink Skirmishers

Special
*12x Temple Guards, Standard/Champion, Venom of the Firefly Frog
*4x Terradon Riders, Brave
*3x Kroxigors
*5x Cold One Riders, Standard/Musician, Blessed Totem

Total : 2000pts

Notes :
*BSB goes with COC or alone, for monster/machine hunting.
*One change I could note is swapping the Glyph Necklace for the Shield of the Mirrored Pool (same price) just in case the opponent is a bit more magic-shooty than expected.
*The only thing that I don't know yet is if it's better to have the Diadem of Power or a Dispel Scroll on the Priest. Usually I consider dispelling useless. While a Scroll is a safe thing, but also "one use only".
*I _know_ that Temple Guard is considered a waste of points if they don't have a Slaan but i LOVE the models and I bought them and I'd rather lose with an army that I love that isnt completely min-maxed rather than just replace everything with "musts".

 

[Sebulba]

Yeah man, I totally agree. Use the models you like, if you're having fun who cares if you win or lose.

I would switch the cold one model though. I assume you've already made up your BSB scar-vet? If it is possible I'd switch him with the old blood. That blade of realities is nasty and it might be worth it to put it on a M7 mount. OR, use it as a horned one for a M8, non-stupidity mount. You could get these points by taking the brave out of the terradon unit (you'll probably forget to use the enhanced BS anyway... I always do haha.)

I like the TG set up, the champion using magic items is fun. Perhaps you'd rather have sword of the hornet? That way even if he gets charged he always hits something first to reduce the number of attacks they get. Up to you. If you add 2 more units and then put your scarvet BSB here (no mount) you'd get the full 15 and be sitting with a really hard unit.

The diadem takes the model's generated power dice and makes them dispell dice. So, it may be worth it to make him a lvl 2. 2 power dice become 2 dispell whereas the 1 power dice is just one more dispell...

Things you could afford to lose. Probably the brave, the glyph necklace, and Maybe the magic banner on the CoC (totally up to you). Again, this is your list and you're the only one who gets to play with it so take anything we say with a grain of salt. I'd favor personal preference over all else.

More to follow later.

 

[erians]

Lords & heroes
*Saurus Oldblood [General], Light armour, Blade of Realities, Enchanted Shield
*Saurus Scar-Veteran [BSB], Cold One, Light armour, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec, Glyph Necklace
*Skink Chief, Ancient Stegadon, Light armour, Shield, Stegadon War-Spear
*Skink Priest, Diadem of Power

If your army choice is based on the models then I assume its ok to comment on the magic item set up? Personally I wouldn't take the blade of realitites as its very situational and only truly effective when you are up against monsters with poor LD (fun against a hydra or abomb tho !), but it has its uses. The lack of scrolls can hurt you depending on how many PDs you usually face, but you have room for a scroll on the priest.

Core
*15x Saurus Warriors, Spears, Standard/Musician
*10x Skink Skirmishers
*10x Skink Skirmishers

Solid choices, no complaints.

Special
*12x Temple Guards, Standard/Champion, Venom of the Firefly Frog
*4x Terradon Riders, Brave
*3x Kroxigors
*5x Cold One Riders, Standard/Musician, Blessed Totem

Very interesting with 12 Temple guards without slann, they can really dish out some pain, but without stubborn they are far from an optimal choice. Your other choices are pretty standard, looks good. Poison on the champion is pretty interesting, there are some other "just for fun" choices in there, like the ASF sword.

I recommend NOT using a brave on the terradons, it enables casters to force you into a challange, so instead of basing up 2 terradons you only get to strike with the champ (which means one less very important S4 attack).

*The only thing that I don't know yet is if it's better to have the Diadem of Power or a Dispel Scroll on the Priest. Usually I consider dispelling useless. While a Scroll is a safe thing, but also "one use only".

Why not both?

*I _know_ that Temple Guard is considered a waste of points if they don't have a Slaan but i LOVE the models and I bought them and I'd rather lose with an army that I love that isnt completely min-maxed rather than just replace everything with "musts".

Very good attitude, way to many thinks "what is the optimum choice?" when constructing lists, instead of "what choice is the most fun?".

 

[Phoenix49]

Thanks both of u for the awesome answers

@ Sebulba :
*I saw the Sword of the Hornet, and the only reason I didnt take it was because I'd rather take the hits on my T4 unit, and since the Champion is gona attack anyways unless he gets specifically targeted (and noone EVER does) I prefer having higher chances of hitting (Poison), wounding (S5 instead of 4) and armor reduction (-2 instead of -1). + they are magical attacks, and that is never useless. Also, I save 15pts, so for the time being I'm sticking with my poisoned, magic halberd. If it fails, we'll see ^^
*Thanks SO much for pointing out that the Diadem of Power is only the "model's own power dice". I didn't read that correctly so you're right, a lvl 1 guy is only 1 more dispel dice...Making him lvl 2 and the diadem is kinda...60pts just to get 2 extra dispel dice. Rather take 2 dispel scrolls and keep him at lvl 1. No idea where to get those points from though, I'll look into it and update the list. That Glyph Necklace does look useless...

@ erians :
*I do agree to some extent that the Blade of Realities is very situational (although I've killed a Dark elf Dreadlord with Pendant of Kiss-my-*** that missed his Ld test on a roll of 11...) but could you please give me some advice on how to equip an Oldblood? I've seen a post on various Scar-vet item combos, but Oldbloods are 90% of the time not used coz everyone plays with the easy-mode Slaan-priest, or it's Blade/Enchanted Shield combo. I'm really open to any suggestion on this one.
*Thank you very much for pointing out the Terradon Champion issue!!! I only put him coz I had 10pts to spare, but it's only a minor bonus compared to the big trap I can get lured into with a challenge.
*I'll update my list and hope you can get back to me

 

[Sebulba]

Well, a cool oldblood combo is scimitar of the sun resplendent (or sword of battle if your trying to stay cheap), the maiming shield and carnosaur pendent, if you're staying with the CO/HO idea. Not sure the cost of all that, the horned one being magical might put it over 100 points, but that gets you 8 str 5 attacks plus the str 4 attack from your mount. Kind of fun for cleaning up big blocks of troops.

 

[erians]

*I do agree to some extent that the Blade of Realities is very situational (although I've killed a Dark elf Dreadlord with Pendant of Kiss-my-*** that missed his Ld test on a roll of 11...) but could you please give me some advice on how to equip an Oldblood? I've seen a post on various Scar-vet item combos, but Oldbloods are 90% of the time not used coz everyone plays with the easy-mode Slaan-priest, or it's Blade/Enchanted Shield combo. I'm really open to any suggestion on this one.

Sebulbas 8 S5 attack build is pretty straight forward, pretty ineffecient against armored troops but anything with 4+ or worse save and T3 will be desintigrated. I would always mount him on either a cold one for the save and mobility, a horned one for same reasons and no stupidity or a carnosaur. On a cold one he has 0+ save, which combined with T5 makes him very resilient even against S6 attacks (with enchated shield even S7 attacks bounce off him). You should gear your Oldblood to complement the rest of your army tho.

Having trouble with knights or other 1+/2+ save units? Get a Blade of Revered Tzunki, then he chops up 3-4 knights / turn ! Trouble with monsters? Keep the Blade of Realites (still put him on a cold one tho, you need the move to connect with the intended target). Need something to chop infantry with? Scimitar and Maiming shield is your friend. Here are a few examples of some builds depending on the Old Bloods Purpose, all have light armor and cold one (unless they have a magical item of the same kind) :

Anti-armor Oldblood: Blade of Revered Tzunki, Enchanted Shield, Banehead
Pros: Great character killer, -1+ save, great knight killer, mobile
Cons: Stupidity, no ward save

Anti-infantry Oldblood: Scimitar of the Sun, Maiming Shield, (Optitional: Banehead / Carno pendant)
Pros: Great against T3 with medium / light armor, 0+ save, mobile
Cons: Stupidity, weak against 1+/2+ save units, excells in the same area that all saurus units and characters excell in and doesnt really add anything to the army

Support Oldblood: War drum, Sword of Hornet, Maiming Shield
Pros: Always marsh with M8, can marsh 16" between unit and give marsh block immunity where its needed, 6 S5 ASF attacks helps a lot against chargers. 0+ save, no stupidity, very mobile
Cons: Relativly weak attack, no ward save, weak against 1+/2+ save

All around Oldblood: Sword of might, Maiming shield, Horned one
Pros: Enought attacks to take on infantry (5+1), enought strenght to take on armor (5x S6), 0+ save, very mobile, no stupidity
Cons: Doesnt really excell in anything, no ward, can be replaced by a much cheaper Scar Vet without loosing much punch

Id always take a Horned one if I had the points tho, +5 pts from a normal Cold One and you get both +1 move and no stupidity, great trade. Provides much needed armor save. Your army has skinks, saurus, TGs, terradons and CoC, all good for taking on light armored troops, while only kroxigors does decently against well armored troops, so anti-armor oldblood is pretty good in this list. You could switch bane head and enchanted shield for maiming shield for some extra punch against all infantry, but he looses his anti-character quality. Play test different set ups and see what you like and what works for you.

 

[Phoenix49]

Ok, thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. So here is an alternative I can think of, 1995pts, I won't post the army again, it's exactly the same as above, only the General and BSB change:

*Saurus Oldblood [General], Cold One, Light armour, Scimitar of the Sun Resplendant, Maiming Shield
*Saurus Scar-Veteran [BSB], Great Weapon, Light armour, Shield, Sun Standard of Chotec

I don't like to have all my heroes on mounts, I know people love to add +2 armor save "for free" to everything that moves, but I prefer 360 view over a huge mobility. Even from my experience with Dark Elves, it's nice to have the Cruise Missile immortal master on dark steed that kills everything, but you can always outflank him ^.^ While a hero on foot provides quite a lot of tactical advantage, at least for me. Even with their pitiful movement of 4 (sorry, the dark elf in me is awakening again).

I'll put the BSB with the TG, save them from "some" shooting I hope, just enough to get them in close combat. The combat bonus and break test reroll will make up for the absence of many models in the unit and will actually the job that I have in mind for them: kill stuff.

As far as the Oldblood is concerned, I guess that I can swap his magic items at will, in the end I'll stick with one BSB and the General, one of them on Cold one (if its the BSB, he helps the COC, while the General on cold one can go on his own and raise hell).