8th Ed. 2500 First list with Cowboys

[Gary_M]

Having been converted to cowboys with GW and magic protection, I've been drawing up a list and would welcome any comments:
Lords
Oldblood, GW, Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone, cold one
251

Heroes
Tetto
Skink priest, dispel scroll, beasts.
Scar vet, GW, armour of fortune, other tricksters shard, bsb, cold one
Scar vet, GW, Steg helm, light armour, option of speed, luck stone
614

Core
3 x 10 skink skirmishes
35 Saurus warriors
625

Special
9 cold one cav, full command
Bastiladon, solar engine
6 chamo skinks
538

Rare
Ancient Steg, blowpipes, sharpened horns
Sallie plus snack
Sallie plus snack
418

That all totals only 2446 so 54 points short, and no idea what to spend it on! Is it worth removing the giant blowpipes from the Ancient Steg and getting the engine of the gods?

Do I have too many skinks (I've never used an army with a large skink contingent before)?

Would welcome your comments on both the builds for the cowboys and the army generally (inc the 54 pt shortfall)

Thanks.

 

[Gary_M]

Revision: Dropped chamo skinks taken 4 Terradons total points cost now 2498.
Is this a good swap?

 

[Belerophon]

You're worried you have too many Skinks - I'm worried you have too few...
I'd lose the Saurus Warriors, personally, and either load up on more Skirmishers, or, if comp should prevent you from getting more, go for cohorts to fill up your core. Remember to load up on jav/shields instead of blowpipes for the Skirmishers.

I personally love Terradons. They're a great tactical unit, and is also great for taking out enemy chaff on the fly by.

As for the Steg, I find the Giant Blowpipes pretty worthless, since You'll often find yourself needing more than 6's to hit, thus missing out on the poison. Whether or not Engine is worth the 50 pts is another matter though. Depends how compact you want to play your list. If you generally spread out, the 6+ ward-aura has less potential effect, but if you're only looking to buff a few select units, it might be worth it anyway.

Play around with it, see what fits your playstyle.


/Bele

 

[Gary_M]

I just like Saurus Warriors!!! Was hoping to

I know skinks can be / are more competitive but I want to use Saurus. Nothing more to it than that (and a restriction on what figures I have!). Thanks to buffs (HoG / Wyssans) I normally do ok. Not too sure about Buffs using Heavens though Have to try hexing with Iceshard I guess. but have the Level 1 Skink priest for Wyssans.

I usually play quite compact and to refuse one flank or the other depending on terrain - I try to use a piece to anchor onto if possible.

For me this is a completely different list to my "norm", but need to give it a go and experiment with different lists.

My playing style? Well, I after giving up WFB about 25 years ago I played a lot of ancient gaming. Either Alexandrian or Roman. Both relativley slow moving resilient infantry armies (although the former does have decent cavalry as well). So something of a theme here I guess.

 

[GhostWarrior]

Having been converted to cowboys with GW and magic protection, I've been drawing up a list and would welcome any comments:
Lords
Oldblood, GW, Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone, cold one
251

Heroes
Tetto
Skink priest, dispel scroll, beasts.
Scar vet, GW, armour of fortune, other tricksters shard, bsb, cold one
Scar vet, GW, Steg helm, light armour, option of speed, luck stone
614
...

I would argue that your CO characters are not particularly optimal, but they are very close. Some easy suggestions:

Remove the Potion of Speed from the Second Scar Vet. It provides no real value whilst he is carrying a Great Weapon. Alternatively, give him a halberd so that the Potion could have some value. My personal view is to just drop the Potion. Even swapping it to Potion of Foolhardiness (1 additional Attack for 1 round when charging), would have more value - and costs the same.

I might suggest putting the Other Trickster's Shard on the Oldblood. It does several things:

It means you don't have to 'risk' your bsb by putting him in base to base against a character you want to have re-rolling wards (though he could probably take it for at least a round and be ok).
It means you don't have to 'risk' accidentally putting the bsb in base to base with your general - who'd then have to re-roll his ward saves!
It allows the Oldblood to really be able to take on just about anything - and on his own.

Otherwise the builds look very good. You are definitely on the right track regarding the 'spirit' of how these guys should be built. (tough defensive, with a GW).

On your Terradon question - you may find that 3 Terradons does everything just as effectively as 4, whilst also fitting in tighter spaces easier. A HUGE drawback of a unit of 4 - is if it gets reduced to 1 model and panics, it can only rally on snake eyes (per brb faq, units reduced to 25% or less of their original # need snake eyes to rally - and 1 is exactly 25% of 4). A unit of 3 can always attempt to rally, even when reduced to 1 model.

More skink units is more optimal - but 3 is a very good number too. I use 3, but I also have 1-2 cohort units and 2-3 units of terradons. I definitely respect that you want to use your Saurus - good luck with it!.

If you think you can squeeze another Lvl 1 Beasts priest - it might be worth it. 2 chances at Wildform really helps increase the odds that 1 goes off - which improves the fighting capabilities of the saurus greatly.

 

[Eladimir]

Keep the Saurus, 3 terradons is indeed the magic number

Those are my votes

 

[Gary_M]

Thanks for the tips guys. All greatly appreciated.

Definitely swap the potion around as per Ghost Warrior. Will also swap the Other Trickster Shard over - I picked up on oppos re-rolling but hadnt followed it through for friendly models.

3 Terradons is the way to go - I think I was just using up points and had realised the 25% issue, just went with it anyway!

I'll re-do and post an update in due course. Not sure when I'll get to use the list, probably Monday at the earliest.

Cheers,

Gary