n810 said:
Yea onlu a 2+ armor save, 4 attacks per base, 2 of wich are st 5 on the charge, and generate extra attacks on a roll of a 6, toughness 4, and cause fear.
yep just terrible.
Yeah, that's called cherry picking
2+ armour save is good... until you realise that the meta has shifted to lots of 1+ armour, so most people are already bringing the "big guns." Mass S4 attack's aren't uncommon, and they will cause COC a real problem. You can forget about S5+ entirely. Sad to say, T4 2+ just isn't good enough in today's game, especially when you have low initiative and a high points cost, and that's the biggest problem with them. They're one of the most expensive heavy cavalry units in the game before you even add the ludicrously priced Spears (beaten only by "super heavy" cavalry like Chaos Knights, Grail Knights and Blood Knights which are all in a league of their own), but in no way have the stats or Special Rules or game influence to suggest it. Compare them to Dark Elf Cold One Knights at the same cost, who come with Lances
and ASF
and Murderess Prowess
and Weapon Skill 5. Or Dragon Princes, who are both cheaper and faster and have 2 S5 ASF attacks and pack a 2++ vs the most common anti-armour spell (Searing Doom). I mean come on. Its mind boggling just how badly Vetock screwed them up.
Speaking of which, you need 4 attacks because their Weapon Skill is so low that you'll miss with half against anything that's WS4 or higher. So an ideal target would be WS3 or lower, S3 or lower (so none die first), and T3 5+ AS or lower (so your S4 attacks will actually do something). That's, what, Goblins, State Troops, Peasants and other equally low quality Core. Even if you fork out for the Spears, you're then going to be looking for slightly tougher things to make them worth their while - maybe T4 and 4+ armour - which will undoubtedly have better strength to kill them first.
Then there's Stupidity and M7, which means that you can't always rely on them doing anything, or getting into the optimal flank.
And they can't even take a magical banner to either account for some of their weaknesses (Gleaming Pennant, Standard of Discipline, and Banner of Swiftness would all be worth while) or give them a niche role (Banner of Eternal Flame and go Monster/Troll hunting - of course, its not like the army isn't replete with Flaming attacks anyway).
Understand that I don't expect cavalry to go into the front of things and simply roll over them - that's a terrible game design that Monstrous Cavalry need to lose ASAP. But I simply don't see any meaningful contribution that they can make at their current cost and which other units in the book don't do better. That's a lot of units competing in the 100-200 point bracket in the book, and Ripperdactyls, Kroxigor and Stegadons all fulfill largely the same role except actually well. Hell, if Ripperdactyls didn't exist you might argue that CoC are the best means of getting mobility and Swiftstride into your lists. Granted, they all need additional support to a greater or lesser extent as well, but not nearly to the same degree or the same detriment (cost) as Saurus Cav. Scar-Vet delivery systems is probably the best that you can hope for but, ultimately, if its 150 points of Cold One Cavalry or 150 points of another Scar-Veteran, which is going to do more?
Its a damn shame, as I think they are a really cool idea and a solid opportunity. Moved to Core or dropped to 24 points + 2 for spears, and they might have been worthwhile. And I really hope that GW haven't priced them for 9th edition where cavalry will dominate, as there's little infantry regiments in this game as it is at the moment.
