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9th Age Choosing our Core

Lawot
Kroxigor

Lawot

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A question for you all, my scaly comrades:
Looking over the available lists, I'm afraid that Saurus are only appearing occasionally, Skink Braves with Caimans are in almost every list, and Skink Hunters/Skirmishers are very common. Some say that, in a competitive list, Skink Hunters/Skirmishers must be maxed out at 4 units. What I want to know is this:
1) Do you think that it's "the more Skink Hunters, the better"?
2) What makes Saurian Warriors attractive, or not?

We're trying to get a better balance in the Core section, and I'd really appreciate your input!
 
Maybe it's just because people have wanted it to work for so long,and now they can use the "skrox" unit effectively?
 
well, saurus warriors are solid now, and fieldable IMO (can become quite fast actually, and/or be protected by ranged attacks thanks to the engine). That being said, many of the competitive players always used skinks and they keep doing it because they prefer the tactic and/or don't know how to use saurus warriors properly, or they just don't have saurus warriors models.
Skink braves with caimans in every list? They were very common in 8th (with 7th book) aswell, and they weren't OP because skinks gave tons of combat resolution against decent enemy infantry, not to mention flanking: i don't think it's very different now, and i don't think it's a problem. Let us have fun with one of our favourite units hahaha, it has great matchups and terrible ones.
(on a side note: lots of stuff which "deserves a nerf" in our armybook has terrible matchups aswell as optimal ones. Carno is the exception, but I'd prefer seeing a point raise and keeping him this way since it just feel awesome having FINALLY the best monster in the game in a dinosaur army)
Regarding your questions:
1) nah. I've never been a total skink cloud guy, 2-3 units are usually enough for me;
2) they're attractive because you can now build a combat core, or a different core (if we only could field skrox darts i'd often field warriors and darts, without hunters. Skrox darts are one of my worse regrets about the last update), because marks are great, because they're though and can become beasts with magic (always been this way), because they're visually cool, because we have many ways to make them special (magic, poison from thyro, marks) and so on. Anyway, don't expect to see more than one unit per list expecially if temple guards are in aswell: one, two infantry blocks are enough for many and many players. You can buff them easier and buy chaff and monsters, this way!
 
I currently use: 1 big block of saurians and 3x hunters without skirmish. It works fine considering my opponents. Perhaps not so much vs more skilled opponents.

I'll soon try out spear warriors even though I find them too expensive. I'll have to take less, but with AP on the spears I have good synergy with moraec's fury - hello S5 AP2 warriors! I also have the AP banner on my TGs, so it gives me some flexibility.
 
didn't think about that! I have to say that i'm waiting for a price drop to try out the spears actually, but hw and shield works nice
 
I think the problem is that skinks can do so many things whereas saurus are a bit of a 1 trick lumbering pony. Also, having a lot of skink skirmishers all around you takes skill to counter and can easily divert troops, whereas saurus have obvious counters.

Overall I'd say that there are two issues that make skirmishers so popular:
  • Saurus are basically worse versions of our special troops (due to core tax) so the best way to improve your list is to take something you can't really take in special.
  • Skirmisher movement rules are overpowered, their movement rules mean they can avoid combat far too effectively thus negating their main weakness.
 
I've just bee to a 9th age tourney. 28 player, 3 Saurian Ancients. Two of the lists had 35 Spear Saurus with lvl 4 Skink priest (both with hatred, one with serpent totem, the other with crocodile). The other list was MSU. All ended up round the middle within of 5 BP.
 
Next game im gonna try this:

2x40x skink braves (in horde)
Additional hand weapons
Poison attacks
Javelins

(Thyrosuctus - altar of the snake god
Taruasaur with engine )
 
All those 5+ poisoned attacks, with a potential for 4+. Your opponent better not bring any monsters.

Maybe you should consider 2 Thyroscutus, one for ecah regiment.
 
Mr Phat said:
Next game im gonna try this:

2x40x skink braves (in horde)
Additional hand weapons
Poison attacks
Javelins

(Thyrosuctus - altar of the snake god
Taruasaur with engine )
Click to expand...

I'm trying a list like this tomorrow supported by a Skink High Priest with Lore of Nature, a unit of 6 Skrox, some Rippers and a BSB on an Ancient Taurosaur.

Needs more poison hits!
 
What are using nature for exactly?
Think heavens re-rolls might do better, but im just not a fan of it anymore :\
 
I have a couple of things that can be healed through the lore attribute (Caimen, Steg BSB etc) and I think that I will lose bodies very fast. Its still only a T2 / 6+ / 6++ in the best scenario.
The Skink High Priest in the list has the Pathmaster item so I would choose the following spell: Dwellers, Throne, +4 T, Regrowth. Then I also have a LvL 2 Skink Priest where I am still undecided on what to take. Wilderness would be nice to buff the S of the Skinks though. I am just assuming that I will loose like 10-15 Skinks before hitting combat and want to mitigate that. It might be worth taking the Signature for the +4 Regen but I think that might be overkill with the +4 T spell.
 
I feel that skink cloud is still the best, and will be the best unless they nerf skinks so hard that they will just be to expensive. The control you get in the deployment fase from them is fenomenal, if you play more tournaments you will learn that the deployment fase is by far the most important fase, it is there that you win games.
 
I tried 2x 40 Skink Braves with FC, Poison and AHW backed with Lore of Nature, Ancient Steg with Godly Engine and a Thyroscutus (poison upgrade). Had 2x 10 Skink Skirmishers, 2x Spearback and a Salamander as drops for redirection shenanigans.

I won the game but I think it is more because of my extremely good rolls than because of the list. The Godly Engine is a must have really. The skinks have a 6+ and 6++ because of it. The amount of 6+ saves I passed was obscene, and the turns I didnt save many I had Stone Skin on my Skinks turning them into T6.

If you want this kind of lists to work you need the combination of the Thyroscutus for poison, the Godly Engine for the Ward save and the Lore of Nature for the defensive boosts (Stone Skin and the 4+ regen). Losing any of these three really screws you over. Was interesting to see 80 Skinks that actually WANTED to go in CC :P
 
No Caimans :P but I can see why to take them. Basically using them for punch and having the benefit that wounds are split up.
 
After reading all the reviews on our army at the T9A forum I'm left wondering why saurus are still not a top choice for other players? It seems that in almost every report listed with them they perform exceptionally and against any opponent provide options. Although I have yet to see someone use them with the +1M totem and +1M magic banner t which is one of my favorite builds, it seems they are competitive given half a dozen different builds and synergize really well with the rest of the army.

Are skinks just that amazing for everyone else? To be honest I have always thought skinks were great point for point, but now that they got more expensive and saurus got better upgrades I expected a much more balanced list building.
 
I use 30x Saurus Warriors with +1 M banner and the 3+ AS as a solid anchor and to remove steadfast from blocks.
 
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