7th Ed. 2250 Main army list for a four month map campain

[Maedhros]

In the campaign I'm going to be joining next month each player makes three armies (2250, 1999 & 1500) which we'll have to shuffle about to take and defend our territories. Sounds kinda like Risk + Warhammer. Each unit and character will gain experience (and take permanent wounds) based on their performance and therefore I thought it would be a good idea to go for solid units and a magic oriented list.

The following list would be my largest army and I figured I'd get it hammered out before I started work on the other two.

Slann - 485
Becalming Cognition
Focus of Mystery
Focus of Rumination
Bane Head
Blood Statue of Spite
Cupped Hands of the old ones
Battle standard bearer

Skink Priest with EotG - 430
lv 2 caster
Dispel scroll
plaque of tepok

Skink Priest - 150
lv 2 caster
Cloak of Feathers
Rod of Storms

Scar-vet - 133
Cold one
LA
Shield
BBoC

16 Saurus Warriors - 222
Spears & full command (scar-vet goes here)

2 x 10 Skink Skirmishers with blowpipes - 2 x 70 = 140

5 Saurus Cold One Riders - 175

3 Terradons - 90

16 Temple Guard - 263
Musician

2 Salamanders in a pack - 160
2 extra handlers

Total - 2248

PD - 10
DD - 7

2 Anvils (Temple guard and Saurus)
2 Hammers (SCoR & EotG)
3 Harassers (skink skirmishers & Salamanders)
1 war machine hunter (Terradons)

I doubt this list is optimal and I kinda feel like I am trying to do too many things at once, the SCoR in particularly seem out of place as I'll probably be holding mid-field. Again I was thinking of focusing on Magic with the slann. I'll probably make my 1999 more combat oriented so that I have a tool against dwarves.

I fear I've spent too much on characters. I'm also not sure that the rod of storms is worth it as compared to a second dispel scroll. My thought was that with my regular 9 power dice I would probably be able to draw out their dispel scrolls and DD during turn 1 and 2 in order to snipe prime targets with the unlimited range rod and blood statue. But the reality is that 7 DD and 1 scroll isn't much magic defense and i'm kinda banking on becalming cognition to help me shut down their casting.

Armies at this FLGS are generally not too brutal, no deamon players, but hyrdas, dragons and Stank + popemobile show up. There are at least two vampire players and a Tomb King so I have to be able to handle tar-pits. And while I know I'm tipping my hand by posting here (since at least one other player from the FLGS reads this forum) so be it.

I'd love to get some feedback, thanks for reading.

 

[Gor-rok]

Seems solid enough; here's my thoughts.

1) You can't take both bane head and blood statue with the Slann as he can only have one enchanted item. Consider exchanging it for an enchanted shield for the scar veteran, thus giving him a 0+ armor save.

2) With your Slann's large target line of sight in his temple guard, the flying priest won't be that big of an advantage for casting missile spells (and every time I've tried it he's gotten shot up). I'd give him a scroll and the diadem and hide him somewhere to be a pure dispeller. With 9 dispel dice and at least one scroll, you'll usually shut down the enemy's magic phase pretty well once his main caster gets in range of the Becalming Cogitation.

3) Drop one dispell scroll and you'll have points for an extra terradon in the group, if you have a model for it. For me that's made a huge difference in panic tests, combat res., and rock hits.

4) If you're unsure about the cavalry filling the "hammer" role, consider 3 kroxigor. They don't have to roll for stupidity, they hit harder (but not quite as well or as often), and they have four more wounds than the five riders. Also, charging across a water feature can be a nice surprise tactic.

Well, that's all I can think of. Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing the other two lists.

 

[Maedhros]

Thanks very much for the feedback. I particularly appreciate you pointing out the goof with the Slaan's enchanted items. Bugger, now I have to choose between the rod of storms and the blood statue of spite. Both are excellent but good for different things...probably go with the blood statue as it sounds more reliable and targetable since I can snipe a single low T character model with it. I suppose a perfectly reasonable worry with either item is that I will only get the surprise once since I won't get to alter this list over the course of the campaign.

The idea to find extra points for a fourth terredon is a good one and I think I'll probably do that. I like that idea mostly because units will take permanent stat loss (and other penalties) for getting wiped out which an extra model would help with (even though they still need to take a panic check for losing one model). It already worries me that my skinks will be limping around on crutches before it's over.

I don't have any terredon models right now and have been getting by on chamo skinks but they're only useful if my opponent is silly enough to chase them. Just have to fork up for four of them I suppose. Personally I loathe metal models (particularly flyers) as they seem to get damaged easily due to their weight. Man, if they were to make lizards another plastic kit those would be right there near the top for me. (or a plastic slann with multiple poses, palanquins, etc)

I don't have any kroxigors either (due to being metal again) but have been kinda curious about them. I love the armor on the SCoR until something annoying like Jezzials or a bolt thrower show up.

Well, all that blathering above just means I haven't made up my mind yet and really need to play test this.

What do other folks think regarding dispel dice? Is six + becalming and one scroll enough (dropping the third priest entirely) or is the 150 points worth it to get 9 dice, becalming, and two scrolls? If I dropped the priest I would probably spend the points 150 beefing up the riders and perhaps the skinks since any unit that lives gets experience toward permanent stat bonus's (+1 BS on skinks would be GREAT)

 

[Sebulba]

I don't know man, I think the rod of storms might be better than the blood statuette of spite. Sure, the BSS works well on elves and humans, but even then it only works half the time. Against chaos or something hard like them... it's not worth it. You may ping off a wound if your lucky. The rod of storms is good against any army.

Do you want to have an EotG? It seems like a huge point sink... up to you though. It seems like in a campaign like this you'll want to split your points over more units rather than have one big, stompy thing.
Because stegadons aren't as stompy as some other things out there...

 

[Maedhros]

Good point on the rod of storms, there are plenty of armies where they won't have characters under T4. My main reason for wanting it is I expect a dark elf or two. The rod of storms is probably going to be more valuable in more games.

I'm defiantly taking the EOtG. I don't think it's over priced at all at this point level (particularly not next to my slann) and have been fielding it with success even down at the 1200 point level. Sure it will be a big war machine target but the 5+ ward save and back up hammer it provides are invaluable.

 

[The Hunted]

6DD+scroll+becalming is sufficient IMO. You can stop 2 big spells with 3 DD.
Or if your opponent decides to spam: 3 times with 2 dice. Splitting up is always possible

9DD gives you the advantage of dispelling another big spell, with 3DD.
But what are the odds of your opponent managing to cast 3 big spells (which you all want to dispell) whilst being in range of becalming...? Add mage-hunting to that+a possible cupped hands blow-up...
I think your safe and sound.

You should definetaly play with some lists, and then playtest them. The difference between SCoR and kroxes is pretty big. Not only in stats, but also in gaming/style.
See what you like the best, not what is statistically the best.

Last tip:
Split your salamanders. 2 units is better than 1, especially in this case.
You can choose 2 different targets, bait&flee with 1 more unit (than you have now). You can sacrifice an 90 points Sala, but not a 160 points pack. You also have 1 more drop in deploying.
In my book, that's only advantages!

Good luck on your list and battles!

The Hunted

 

[skinker]

Definitely recommend taking 2 units of 1 salamander as opposed to a unit of 2. You can always run them together, but splitting them up adds a LOT more flexibility.

 

[Maedhros]

Sounds good, just got my slann and salamanders in yesterday and I'm going to start play testing them. I'll try what you recommend about splitting my sallies as I'm not using my rare slots.

At least at this time I'm probably gonna skip the kroxes since I already have SCoR. I'll have to try fielding them as empty base proxies in a friendly game at some point though. Do you prefer them alone or in sKrox units? Biggest advantage of the sKrox is core choice of course but all those skinks offering free wounds for CR worry me.

Your logic on DD makes sense. I guess I am getting a little biased with a VC player I've been having small games with. He has 7PD at 1k and just keeps healing his damn units with the same single dice spell over and over.

 

[Gor-rok]

Kroxigor work great all by themselves as a hammer unit, and have better maneuverability than skrox units. Skrox in my belief work better in a larger group where the inevitable casualties matter less and they can offer their biggest advantage- static combat resolution. That means being willing to commit a big chunk of points to them. The key with skrox is getting the charge, and letting the kroxigor kill as much as they can to avoid having a lot strike back at the fragile skinks.

For your current situation, I think you're fine with the cold one riders until other models make themselves available.

As far as vampires go, becalming cogitation is your best friend in stopping the one die spell casting. Get in range for it as soon as you can, and also consider the dominion standard for forcing stupidity checks on all the casters nearby. Finding the points for a cube of darkness will give you a 50% chance of shutting down an entire magic phase, which also might be worth a try. Find what works best for you, just don't tie so many points up in anti- magic that your fighting units come up lacking.

 

[The Hunted]

Kroxigor work great all by themselves as a hammer unit, and have better maneuverability than skrox units. Skrox in my belief work better in a larger group where the inevitable casualties matter less and they can offer their biggest advantage- static combat resolution. That means being willing to commit a big chunk of points to them. The key with skrox is getting the charge, and letting the kroxigor kill as much as they can to avoid having a lot strike back at the fragile skinks.

For your current situation, I think you're fine with the cold one riders until other models make themselves available.

As far as vampires go, becalming cogitation is your best friend in stopping the one die spell casting. Get in range for it as soon as you can, and also consider the dominion standard for forcing stupidity checks on all the casters nearby. Finding the points for a cube of darkness will give you a 50% chance of shutting down an entire magic phase, which also might be worth a try. Find what works best for you, just don't tie so many points up in anti- magic that your fighting units come up lacking.

Adding to anti VC tactics (at 1k):

Go for the vamps. If he really has 7 PD at 1k, his vampires won't have much protection/fighting gear. Direct your attacks to his vampire(s) and watch them fall. If he has to spend time healing his vamps; that's less time he speands healing/boosting his units!
At 1.000 points, all you need for magic defence is a Level 2 priest with diadem and a scroll. 5DD+scroll!
that's 1 big spell and an invocation stopped. Or 2 invocations on 2 dice, and 1 on a single die.
Against VC, magic defense if well-spent on pretty much any points level (bar 500).

The Hunted