8th Ed. 500 - 2500 Escalation lists

[Dunya]

A couple of my friends are slowly getting back into playing Warhammer after lengthy breaks, and they're in the process of learning the 8th ed rules. So we thought it'd be a good idea to make small escalation style private league starting at 500 and continously adding on 250pts until we reach 2500. I'll be playing against Wood Elves, Dark Elves and High Elves, so I'm bound to face some Treekin and Hydras thus the Burning Blade will be a priority item when I think I can afford it.

No comps or concern for fairness. We will each have our 2500 lists in mind every step of the way and won't include any model types (Skink Priest excepted) that aren't represented in the final list. We agreed on that mainly for the reason that it would really help us get to know the final list when we get there.

Alright, here are the first 3:

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Skink Priest
- Level 1, Plaque of Tepok

16 Saurus (8x2)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

11 Skink Skirmishers (bunker)
- Blowpipes

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

498 pts
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Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Venom of the Firefly Frog

Skink Priest
- Level 1, Plaque of Tepok

23 Saurus (8x3)*
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

10 Skink Skirmishers (bunker)
- Blowpipes

3 Terradons

5 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

749 pts
----


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Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec

Skink Priest
- Level 1, Plaque of Tepok

17 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

18 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

10 Skink Skirmishers (bunker)
- Blowpipes

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

Salamander

996 pts
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*Edit: changed the width of the block

 

[Dunya]

And the next 3:

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Slann Mage-Priest
- Focused Rumination, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Dragonhelm, Burning Blade of Chotec

24 Saurus (8x3)*
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

13 Temple Guard (6x3)
- Std, Mu

10 Skink Skirmishers
- Blowpipes

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

1246 pts
----



----
Slann Mage-Priest
- Focused Rumination, Dispel Scroll, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Great Weapon, Armor of Destiny, Cold One

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Dragonhelm, Burning Blade of Chotec

18 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

18 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

13 Temple Guard (6x3)
- Std, Mu, Standard of Discipline

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

1497 pts
----



----
Slann Mage-Priest
- BSB, Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Dispel Scroll, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Dragonhelm, Burning Blade of Chotec

18 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

18 Saurus (6x3)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

10 Skink Skirmishers
- Blowpipes

13 Temple Guard (6x3)
- Std, Mu, Razor Standard

Stegadon

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

1746 pts
----

*Edit: changed the width of the block

 

[Dunya]

Phew, the last steps and the final list:

----
Slann Mage-Priest
- BSB, Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Dispel Scroll, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Cold One

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

13 Temple Guard (6x3)
- Std, Mu

Stegadon

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

2000 pts
----



----
Slann Mage-Priest
- BSB, Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Dispel Scroll, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Cold One

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Dragonhelm, Burning Blade of Chotec

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

19 Temple Guard (6x4)
- Std, Mu, Razer Standard

Stegadon

3 Terradons

5 Chameleon Skinks

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

Salamander

2250 pts
----



----
Slann Mage-Priest
- BSB, Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, Lore of Life

Scar-Veteran
- Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon, Cold One

Scar-Veteran
- Light Armor, Shield, Dragonhelm, Burning Blade of Chotec

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

24 Saurus (6x4)
- Hand Weapons, Std, Mu

10 Skink Skirmishers
- Blowpipes

19 Temple Guard (6x4)
- Std, Mu, Razor Standard

Stegadon

Stegadon

3 Terradons

6 Chameleon Skinks

Salamander

Salamander

2500 pts
----

Not all of them are equally scrutinized, so I'm open to all feedback. The final list is all about control, getting through the Stegs and the Scar-Vet is extremely difficult. The TG are pretty slick aswell with the Razor Standard, Earthblood and the Burning Blade dude, really makes it a very allround unit.

 

[eppe]

Why are you running your Saurus 8 wide at 500 points then 6 wide at the higher point games?

 

[Dunya]

Thanks for the reply,

Because there's no Scar-Vet in the block at 500, and only a single unit. So want to do as much damage as possible over a small frontage. Later on the width of the army becomes an issue, but not at 500. Should maybe consider going wider at 750 though.

 

[eppe]

Have you done measurements to ensure you are getting more attacks? Unless running Horde (10 wide) I always assumed 5 wide was better with a deeper rank to ensure you are getting Steadfast.

 

[Dunya]

Well 6 wide is good for 25mm bases as you excatly get to envelop 5 wide 20mm units. 5x20=100 and 4x25=100 plus you get the two on the edges aswell.

Generally speaking there is not much downside to going even wider, other than less rank bonuses and less manouvrebility, but it gives quite a nice damage boost against wider formations. In the 500 list I simply didn't have points for more Saurus and couldn't claim a 3. rank bonus with 16 and 6wide, so decided to go wider.

I consider Saurus to be in the ACR unit category, meaning they should win combats by beating up the other guys not by being more numerous. Not a big fan of really deep formations with 11point models, my own rule of thumb is max 2 redundant ranks, and only that many because of having Initiative 1. So if were to go to 30 strong units, that would mean horde formation, but the army becomes terribly wide then.

Pretty sure I'll go 8x3 on the Saurus units in the 750 and 1250 lists btw. May even use that as the standard formula for all 24 strong units, but I think it may constrict the manouvrebility of the larger lists too much. There's no doubt it would be quite an improvement to the theoretical damage output of the armies.

Example:
Two 24 Saurus strong Saurus units are fighting each other. One is 6x4 the other is 8x3, this means that the 8x3 unit will produce 24 attacks compared to the 18 of the 6x4 unit. The increased amount of damage dealt would far outweigh the benefit of having another rank.