8th Ed. 2k Saurus & Stegs vs. Skaven

[Lawot]

I'd like to bring something unusual (for me, at least) to my next game against the Skaven.
He's likely to bring:
3 blocks of 40 Slaves
1 block of 20 Slaves with slings
Grey Seer
Chieftain BSB
Warp Lightning Cannon
2 Doomwheels, or 1 Doomwheel and 1 HPA
2x10 squads of Giant Rats
Warlock Engineers a'plenty

I've played a Skink Cloud against to a draw, and a Saurus-heavy list to a defeat (a Dreaded 13th each to the Saurus and Temple Guard...game over). I'd like to either do a fast-attack list, or the following:

Slann, Heavens
Harmonic Convergence
Soul of Stone
Becalming Cogitation
Channelling Staff
BSB
Skavenpelt Banner

Skink Priest, Heavens
Level 2
Dispel Scroll

Skink Chief
Stegadon
Sharpened Horns

10 Skinks
Javelins

10 Skinks
Javelins

36 Saurus
FC
spears

8 Chameleons

Stegadon Ancient
Engine of the Gods
Sharpened Horns

2 Salamanders
2 snacks

My thoughts:
Probably the strangest thing here is that I put a Skink Chief on a baby Steg, and took the Ancient Steg in the Rare section, separate from the Priest. I'm thinking that will do two things: First, it evens them out as targets, a little - a baby Steg on its own and an Ancient Steg with a Priest would give my opponent a clear target priority. I hope this muddles it a little. Second, if that Ancient Steg with a Priest were taken out, that would leave only my Slann for the magic phase. By splitting them up, I keep 3 casters, essentially (counting the Bound spell of the EOTG).

With a big Saurus block, two Stegs and two Sallies, I hope to provide target saturation for the Doomwheel/WLC/magic. Also, the size of the Saurus block allows me to survive at least one casting of the Dreaded 13th.

I thought about filling my Core with Skinks and taking a block of Temple Guard...but between Dreaded 13th and miscasts, I decided that having more bodies took priority over fighting ability...plus, Saurus will deal just fine with basically everything except the HPA. Skaven don't have those elite infantry and cav that Saurus have such a hard time with.

Finally...Lore of Heavens? If my opponent castles up like he has before, Comet will be key. Urannon's and Chain Lightning should help me deal with HPA's and the Doomwheels that could easily Zzzap! my Stegs out of existence, and the buffs should be helpful once the Stegs and Saurus get into combat.

I see several weaknesses in this list:
First, no Scar-Vets. I'm hoping the Stegs will provide the high-Strength hits and staying power I need.
Second, not many Sallies. Not much to do about this, except drop the Cham's, the EOTG or the Chief and replace the points with Sallies. Hey, maybe not a bad idea...
Third, lots of points in the Slann, when two casts of Dreaded 13th could wipe out him and his unit. But I'm tired of getting dominated in the Magic phase by rats that should be getting fed to the snakes.

Any thoughts? Particularly interested in a) weaknesses or strengths that I've missed; b) whether the Skink Chief on a Steg is worth it - and any suggestions; and c) how I need to play this army to make it work.

Thanks all!

 

[NexS1]

3 blocks of slaves looks nasty, simply because they're a tar pit that you'll need to grind them down.

I'm not sure you'll need that many saurus in one unit though. I'd personally take 2 skink priests (one with dispel scroll and one with cube of darkness). I'd also take 2 units of 3 sallies to really mess up his slave units and use your skirmishers to charge block everything but the unit you want to kill (ie: the one with his characters in it).

I don't know how useful it would be... but i just had a thought that you could be cheeky and put your slann in a unit of cold one riders to remove him as a target for dreaded 13th haha

 

[Lawot]

You know, I've had that Cold One Rider thought too...one the one hand, it seems like a waste of expensive combat troops...but really, maybe 13th immunity is worth it? Not sure...
Regarding the Salamanders...taking that many precludes taking two Stegs. So I could, but it would make it an essentially different list.

 

[NexS1]

You could take the ancianet on the priest and give it the engine and take a baby steg in special, giving you rare points to spend on sallies?

 

[FerEnough]

I'm curious about the Skavenpelt banner, I mean... are you getting the Slann in the Saurus Block?

If you do, he will be right in the front row, not so sure that you want that

also...the banner gives you frenzy and hatred yes, but you get the entire oponent army gain hatred against that unit... and I dont think you want that either.

Perhaps by droping the banner you could use those points to add in the sally's account

 

[Lawot]

Actually, I do want both of those things.
Dreaded 13th can be cast on the Slann if he's alone - all it takes is one cast with irresistible force (which is plenty likely), and he gets turned into a rat - ward saves and 5 wounds don't matter. If I manage to kill the Grey Seer before I reach combat, I can pull him out of the unit. But otherwise, his chances in the front rank of the Saurus are a whole lot better than his chances alone. I would put him in Temple Guard, of course, but they're special...and, with the way Dreaded 13th can rip through my units, I'm interested in having more bodies, not more quality. I could go with Skink Cohort to do this, as well, but Saurus will actually do some damage once they get there. So yes, I'm putting the Slann with the Skavenpelt banner in the Saurus.

Regarding hatred, I'm not all that scared of the Skaven Hatred. I have a higher-quality attacks and more of them; I think having both of us re-rolling misses will still work in my favor.