Slann
Scalenex
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My friend has got access to a new Dwarf book and after months of playing his Orcs and Goblins, he wants to go back to his original main army. We figured because we both have ludicrously large army collections we’d do a 5500 point game (because 5000 is too small and 6000 is too big). Hopefully will able to play in a week or two.
When I make assumptions on what my friend will bring, I often guess wrong. I played him a lot with the old book, but he hasn’t played the new book yet. Part of the reason he wants to do such a big game is because he can’t completely make up his mind what he wants, so I expect a bit of everything but the Anvil and Thunderers. Probably 4-6 cannons (he owns 7 cannons!) and 2-3 Grudge Throwers, 2-4 Organ Guns. His newly finished (scratch built from old paint pots) 2 Gyrocopters and 1 Bomber are too good looking to not use.
How to pay my Core tax? I don’t have enough Skinks to take less than 40 Sauri. A single 50 model strong Saurus horde? Maybe three infantry blocks? How many Core infantry blocks depends on how many Temple Guard I plan to take which depends on how many Slann I’m taking.
What flavor of Skinks do I want. 20? 40? Should I take larger units of Skink Skirmishers than my usual 13? Should I take a 20 man Cohort unit or two to bunker Skink priests or occupy buildings like I do in smaller lists or is that just a drop in the bucket? What about a tarpit of 50+ Cohort Skinks? A fighting unit of 50+ Skinks and 4-5 Kroxigor?
One Slann or two?: I don’t want to take a Slann without Temple Guard since a solo Slann would get plastered by runed up artillery. Temple Guard are good at fighting Dwarves but with a requirement to take 1375 points of Core too many large blocks of Sauri may yield diminishing returns. If I take around the same number of Temple Guard that’s a very cluttered board and my troops are likely to get in each other’s way.
I really want to give the Lore of Undeath a spin, but it’s already a pain in the, but hauling 5500 points of my minis to my friend’s house will be hard enough. I don’t want to bring my zombies, bats, and skellies too. Granted, I’ll be playing at my friend’s house, and he has a small undead collection, but I am insulting my zombies if I don’t use my zombies. I figure if I take one Slann I’ll want High Magic for the versatility. If I take two Slann I’ll probably go Light and Death or Life and Death. Maybe take Tet in lieu of a second Slann, though I worry that Tet’s Skink bunker would not be able to handle a sustained beating from Grudge Throwers near as well as TG unit would.
I own a lot of Kroxigor, so Kroxigor are going to be in the list, it’s just a matter of how many and in what manner. Small units (3-5) of Kroxigor are just asking to be shot to pieces. Am I better off running two units of eight? One unit of 12-20? Skroxigor Hordes with 5 Kroxigor?
I don’t think there will be space to deploy war machine hunters very effectively, but I am taking a unit of Chameleon Skinks to hopefully prevent a squad of rangers from dropping in on my half of the table, or at least shooting them in the back if the Dwarves get the first Scout drop.
I don’t know exactly what artillery I will be facing, but a highly conservative estimate is four pieces of artillery. Against that kind of firepower there are two strategies: Take zero dinosaurs or take LOTS of dinosaurs. I don’t have enough assembled models to take zero big dinosaurs and still field a 5500 point army. So I’m figuring I’ll take four or five big dinosaurs. I don’t fancy Maz’s chances nor do I fancy a lone Carnosaur (I only own one and would prefer not to proxy), so I’ll stick with Ancient Steggies. That pretty much squeezes out Salamanders and Razordons, but I don’t see warbeasts doing much against this many Dwarves.
My main concern with my one Slann army is that I might have too many units, so some will get in each other’s way and my units can’t all attack at once.
My main concern with the two Slann army is that my units aren’t efficient. In order to pay my Core tax I had to take Poisoned attacks for my Skroxigor and make my Saurus block a bit bigger than I feel comfortable with.
One Slann Army (5 fighting blocks, 1 tarpit, 5 support monsters, plus chaff)
Slann Mage Priest, BSB, Standard of Discipline, Harmonic Convergence, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Focus of Mystery, Channeling Staff, Iron Curse Icon
Old Blood (Eternity Warden), Glittering Scales, Fencer’s Blades, Potion of Strength, Opal Amulet
Oldblood (Cowboy 1), Cold One, Armor of Destiny, Egg of Quango, Luckstone, Great Weapon
Oldblood (Cowboy 2), Cold One, Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza, Talisman of Preservation, Potion of Foolhardiness
Skink Priest, L2 Heavens (maybe Undeath)
Skink Priest, L1 Beast (maybe Undeath) Forbidden Rod
2 x 37 Saurus Warriors, Sword and Board, FC
56 Cohort Skinks FC
2 x 13 Skink Skirmishers with Patrol Leader
13 Chameleon Skinks with Stalker
37 Temple Guard with FC, Razor Standard
11 Kroxigor with Ancient (probably deployed five wide)
4 Ancient Stegadons with Unstoppable Stampede and EOTG
1 Troglodon with Divining Rod (figure he won’t get shot at with four Steggies)
Two Slann Army (4 fighting blocks, 5 support monsters, plus chaff)
Slann Mage Priest, General and BSB, Standard of Discipline, Harmonic Convergence, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Lore of Death, Channeling Staff, Iron Curse Icon
Slann Mage Priest, Lore of Life or Light, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Forbidden Rod, Egg of Quango
Old Blood (Eternity Warden), Glittering Scales, Fencer’s Blades, Potion of Strength, Opal Amulet
Oldblood (Cowboy), Cold One, Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza, Talisman of Preservation, Potion of Foolhardiness
Scar Veteran (Cowboy), Cold One, Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon
Skink Priest, L1 Heavens
Skink Chief, Ripperdactyl, Spear, Light Armor, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem
45 Saurus Warriors, spears FC
54 Cohort Skinks, 5 Kroxigor, Poisoned Attacks, FC
2 x 13 Skink Skirmishers with Patrol Leader
13 Chameleon Skinks with Stalker
33 Temple Guard with FC, Razor Standard (General and BSB)
27 Temple Guard with FC, Gleaming Pennant (Backup Slann)
4 Ancient Stegadons with Unstoppable Stampede and EOTG
1 Troglodon with Divining Rod (figure he won’t get shot at with four Steggies)
I'm open to criticism and suggestions.
When I make assumptions on what my friend will bring, I often guess wrong. I played him a lot with the old book, but he hasn’t played the new book yet. Part of the reason he wants to do such a big game is because he can’t completely make up his mind what he wants, so I expect a bit of everything but the Anvil and Thunderers. Probably 4-6 cannons (he owns 7 cannons!) and 2-3 Grudge Throwers, 2-4 Organ Guns. His newly finished (scratch built from old paint pots) 2 Gyrocopters and 1 Bomber are too good looking to not use.
How to pay my Core tax? I don’t have enough Skinks to take less than 40 Sauri. A single 50 model strong Saurus horde? Maybe three infantry blocks? How many Core infantry blocks depends on how many Temple Guard I plan to take which depends on how many Slann I’m taking.
What flavor of Skinks do I want. 20? 40? Should I take larger units of Skink Skirmishers than my usual 13? Should I take a 20 man Cohort unit or two to bunker Skink priests or occupy buildings like I do in smaller lists or is that just a drop in the bucket? What about a tarpit of 50+ Cohort Skinks? A fighting unit of 50+ Skinks and 4-5 Kroxigor?
One Slann or two?: I don’t want to take a Slann without Temple Guard since a solo Slann would get plastered by runed up artillery. Temple Guard are good at fighting Dwarves but with a requirement to take 1375 points of Core too many large blocks of Sauri may yield diminishing returns. If I take around the same number of Temple Guard that’s a very cluttered board and my troops are likely to get in each other’s way.
I really want to give the Lore of Undeath a spin, but it’s already a pain in the, but hauling 5500 points of my minis to my friend’s house will be hard enough. I don’t want to bring my zombies, bats, and skellies too. Granted, I’ll be playing at my friend’s house, and he has a small undead collection, but I am insulting my zombies if I don’t use my zombies. I figure if I take one Slann I’ll want High Magic for the versatility. If I take two Slann I’ll probably go Light and Death or Life and Death. Maybe take Tet in lieu of a second Slann, though I worry that Tet’s Skink bunker would not be able to handle a sustained beating from Grudge Throwers near as well as TG unit would.
I own a lot of Kroxigor, so Kroxigor are going to be in the list, it’s just a matter of how many and in what manner. Small units (3-5) of Kroxigor are just asking to be shot to pieces. Am I better off running two units of eight? One unit of 12-20? Skroxigor Hordes with 5 Kroxigor?
I don’t think there will be space to deploy war machine hunters very effectively, but I am taking a unit of Chameleon Skinks to hopefully prevent a squad of rangers from dropping in on my half of the table, or at least shooting them in the back if the Dwarves get the first Scout drop.
I don’t know exactly what artillery I will be facing, but a highly conservative estimate is four pieces of artillery. Against that kind of firepower there are two strategies: Take zero dinosaurs or take LOTS of dinosaurs. I don’t have enough assembled models to take zero big dinosaurs and still field a 5500 point army. So I’m figuring I’ll take four or five big dinosaurs. I don’t fancy Maz’s chances nor do I fancy a lone Carnosaur (I only own one and would prefer not to proxy), so I’ll stick with Ancient Steggies. That pretty much squeezes out Salamanders and Razordons, but I don’t see warbeasts doing much against this many Dwarves.
My main concern with my one Slann army is that I might have too many units, so some will get in each other’s way and my units can’t all attack at once.
My main concern with the two Slann army is that my units aren’t efficient. In order to pay my Core tax I had to take Poisoned attacks for my Skroxigor and make my Saurus block a bit bigger than I feel comfortable with.
One Slann Army (5 fighting blocks, 1 tarpit, 5 support monsters, plus chaff)
Slann Mage Priest, BSB, Standard of Discipline, Harmonic Convergence, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Focus of Mystery, Channeling Staff, Iron Curse Icon
Old Blood (Eternity Warden), Glittering Scales, Fencer’s Blades, Potion of Strength, Opal Amulet
Oldblood (Cowboy 1), Cold One, Armor of Destiny, Egg of Quango, Luckstone, Great Weapon
Oldblood (Cowboy 2), Cold One, Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza, Talisman of Preservation, Potion of Foolhardiness
Skink Priest, L2 Heavens (maybe Undeath)
Skink Priest, L1 Beast (maybe Undeath) Forbidden Rod
2 x 37 Saurus Warriors, Sword and Board, FC
56 Cohort Skinks FC
2 x 13 Skink Skirmishers with Patrol Leader
13 Chameleon Skinks with Stalker
37 Temple Guard with FC, Razor Standard
11 Kroxigor with Ancient (probably deployed five wide)
4 Ancient Stegadons with Unstoppable Stampede and EOTG
1 Troglodon with Divining Rod (figure he won’t get shot at with four Steggies)
Two Slann Army (4 fighting blocks, 5 support monsters, plus chaff)
Slann Mage Priest, General and BSB, Standard of Discipline, Harmonic Convergence, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Lore of Death, Channeling Staff, Iron Curse Icon
Slann Mage Priest, Lore of Life or Light, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy, Forbidden Rod, Egg of Quango
Old Blood (Eternity Warden), Glittering Scales, Fencer’s Blades, Potion of Strength, Opal Amulet
Oldblood (Cowboy), Cold One, Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza, Talisman of Preservation, Potion of Foolhardiness
Scar Veteran (Cowboy), Cold One, Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon
Skink Priest, L1 Heavens
Skink Chief, Ripperdactyl, Spear, Light Armor, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem
45 Saurus Warriors, spears FC
54 Cohort Skinks, 5 Kroxigor, Poisoned Attacks, FC
2 x 13 Skink Skirmishers with Patrol Leader
13 Chameleon Skinks with Stalker
33 Temple Guard with FC, Razor Standard (General and BSB)
27 Temple Guard with FC, Gleaming Pennant (Backup Slann)
4 Ancient Stegadons with Unstoppable Stampede and EOTG
1 Troglodon with Divining Rod (figure he won’t get shot at with four Steggies)
I'm open to criticism and suggestions.
