8th Ed. 800pt - 1500pt Escalation

[Devean]

Hi, yesterday I played the first game in an escalation campaign (we are playing 800,1000,1250, 1500 point games rising every 2nd week). My list (800pt) was:

Scar Vet
- Cold One, GW, LA

Skink Priest
- Plaque of Tepok

23x Saurus Warriors
- HW/Sh
- Musician and Banner

12x Skink Skirmishers
- BP's

12x Skink Skirmishers
- BP's

3x Terradon Riders

1x Salamander

Overall, I went well, won 2 (Skaven and Ogres) and lost 1 game to the Dark Elves. Problem is, I don't know how to beat the DE if I verse him again. He had:

lvl 2 Sorceress (shadow) with extra spell and annoying ward save which gets better against high strength

15 repeater crossbows

2x 6 shades

25 (ish) black ark corsairs (I think so, they were frenzied the whole time and had three attacks each)

In short, he shot me to pieces with all those shots (54 shots each turn) and repeatedly Okkam's Mindrazor'd his corsairs so that they were dealing out 3 attacks per model (with rerolls) at strength 8. I managed to kill about a third of them with skinks and terradons before CC but they still destroyed my saurus in one turn.

I'm thinking that I need a dispel scroll and/or diadem of power to neutralise his magic a bit. At one point I thought I was going to win (I destroyed all the shades and a third of the corsairs with minimal casualties) but as soon as those hate filled, frenzied, S8 elves got into the army they ripped up everything. In short, how should I combat this? At 1000 points, what changes to my list should I make? The terradons and skirmishers were stars so I'd like to keep them

Sorry about the essay but I hope that's all clear! Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[Devean]

Hi again. I've made a 1000 point list that goes like this:

Scar Vet
- Cold One, LA, Charmed Shield, Spear

Skink Priest
- Lvl 2, Dispel scroll

23x Saurus Warriors (HW/Sh)
- Command

11x Skink Skirmishers (BP's)

12x Skink Skirmishers (BP's)

3x Terradons

6x Cham skinks

1x Salamander

1x Salamander

I could also be versing TK, HE and Brettonians from memory. Games are this Thursday, so any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Arli]

That's a good 1000 point list. The only thing that I would change is the chameleons unit. I would shave some points somewhere else in order to take another unit of 6 chameleons. Other than that, you should be good.

Against TK, focus on killing the Herophant. Also, make sure that you take out the casket of souls and any catapults first (with chameleons).

Against Bretts, do not (under any surcumstances) let the brets charge your units. You should try to use your skirmishers to lead them into a position where you can charge them. That way they do not get the str bonuses from their lance formations. Use the chameleons to take out the trebuchet(s) that they bring as well.

Against the HE, stay away from his elite special units. Whittle them down from a distance with the salamanders then charge the saurus in to finish them off. Take out the balistas with the chameleons. The reroll most of the HE units get will suck, but the saurus are tough enough to survive that fairly easily.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[Devean]

Thanks for your thoughts Arli! I'll look at putting in more chameleons but my concern with that is that if I don't get the first turn, TK archers can be pretty annoying by always hitting on a 5+ regardless of modifiers. I played one of my first games a few weeks back and the TK player had no trouble taking out my cham skinks and terradons with his archers (he got first turn). With the -1 for skirmishers and -1 for cham skinks, they are very reliant on not being hit in the first place.

Having said that, 2 units would divide the fire, leaving at least one unit alive for my first turn - I'll see what I can do to fit them in.

As a side note, the brettonian player is a good mate of mine and he hates my list we've played multiple times and he finds the skinks very annoying (though they do almost nothing against his 2+ AS knights)- good psychological effect!

Thanks for your thoughts (and welcome!) and please let me know if you have any ideas in taking on the DE player (he is currently winning the competition). At the moment, I'm thinking the best tactic is to deny as much magic as possible (esp. Okkam's Mindrazor) and make the terradons and skinks draw as much fire as they can, leaving the salamanders and saurus to get within charge/fire range of the crossbows.

Cheers

 

[Devean]

My new list (with the extra chameleons)is 999 points:

Scar Vet
- Cold One, LA, Charmed Shield, Spear, Luckstone

Skink Priest
- Lvl 2, Dispel Scroll

20x Saurus Warriors (HW/Sh)
- Banner and Musician

10x Skink Skirmishers (BP's)

10x Skink Skirmishers (BP's)

3x Terradons

6x Cham Skinks

5x Cham Skinks

1x Salamander

1x Salamander

I could take out one more saurus and add an extra cham skink but I have a thing for round numbers and I want to keep a decent core when needed. Let me know what you think!