I think we have several points to actually discuss here:
a: The Engine of the Gods is unreliable to begin with, that is its whole premise. With a Slann, Kroak, and/or Curse of Fates you can improve that chance and you have a greater influence on the outcome. I think that this randomness is OK, we don't have that many of those random rules.
Discarding a die can change the result by an average of around four I think. Actually I am too bad at statistics to properly do the math on that but I am pretty sure your chance to get that result improve dramatically.
It isn't so much as unreliable as much as that it's all over the place. The special abilities don't fullfill the same/a similar niche. Too much variance what each ability does. I'd much prefer it if all the possibilities were say, defensive mechanics in roughly the same sized bubble, or at least better ones having better range never worse ( a heal, a +1 to save, a -1 to hit, reinforcements, an extra save like disgustingly resilient etc.). Since it's abilities are all over the place it no longer fills a clear niche which makes it rather annoying to build a tactic around. If all the possibilities were in the same niche you could at least build a tactic around (e.g. if all are defensive it could be the lynchpin keeping your army up, or if all were offensive it'd be the spearpoint of your charge). Though again, not so much an issue with your suggestions as it is with the general design of the EoTG.
b: Talking about those Skinks units: Reinforcing 1d6 Terradons means 3-18 wounds restored. That's pretty much. I tend to say it would be conceived as too strong. For those reinforcements My opinion is this:
- Reinforcing Skinks and Saurus Warriors could be 1d6 or even 1d6+3 to be helpful.
- Reinforcing Guards 1d6 would be gamebreaking against many armies if it works, I'd say 1d3 is OK.
- Reinforcing Terradons or Rippers.... I think 1d6 actually wouldn't be too bad, here is why:
-- Rippers and Terradons are squishy. If they were a group of three you don't need reinforcements because they most likely will be dead after first contact.
-- IF you had a bigger group (6 or 9) the reinforcement _potentially_ gets a lot stronger. A six is potentially game-breaking now. BUT we have three things that lessen that impact: Firstly: The ability is not exactly reliable (with a Slann and a healthy EotG a 1in5 or 1in4 chance that you even get that result, and then an average of 3 models restored) and you have to be in range, which is my next point.
Secondly: Rippers are deep strikers, and so are Terradons most of the time. So they are not very likely to be in range for the ability except if you teleport your EotG to the front (which you probably shouldn't) or keep them from the deepstriking role, so playing them defensively. Also if your tactic relies on it...well, you HAVE to keep both your Slann and the EotG alive and healthy or it won't work. So the Seraphon player will probably decide to reinforce another unit instead, do mortal wounds, or heal.
I still like the reinforcement option a lot since it adds a meaningful choice for discarding your Slann dice. Right now the mortal wounds options are the only options that are worthwhile for the higher rolls.
Wait you mean reinforce 1 unit? I read it in the same manner as the heal works, so affecting all units. That does significantly reduce it effects. In that case it definitly won't be overpowered. Possibly it'd even be too weak. Too unlikely to proc at a time where you can actually reinforce a meaningfull unit.
I do like the idea as a mechanic though, reinforcements don't seem to be punished by extra pointcosts (Why is this anyway? They reduced summoning to a glorified thunderstrike, but skeletons getting back up over and over or demons spawning out of nothing cuz of a banner is somehow fine?). Plus it's actually an interesting mechanic. However I'm guessing that at 14-17 with a range requirement it'l just be too unreliable for 1d3 or 1d6 to really be worth it.
Also on the notion that guards might become OP with this.The ability doesn't proc that often, doesn't spawn that many, the EoTG can be shot (easily removing the option for it to even proc this ability, it only needs 2 wounds to lose acces..). Plus the general issues that guards have still hold. So I don't think this'l be any real problem.
c. About the teleport: I honestly think it is one of our strongest abilities. Imagine teleporting a unit of fully buffed Saurus Warriors behind a squishy enemy archer unit, or a Dread Saurian or two Snake Bastiladons near some enemy heroes. A unit of Razordons and an Astrolith Bearer are also pretty scary when teleported.
Also if you consider objective playing (instead of destruction of the enemy) teleporting becomes strong because you can teleport a REALLY slow but sturdy unit or two onto an objective, such as a Bastiladon or a unit of Guards and their Warden.
If it procs at the right time it can be genius, that is true. But with how unreliable it is to get this specific one it is not something that you can work into your strategy. You can't count on getting that crucial extra teleport. Which means that your tactic will already be build around not having it. At which point I expect that most times when it procs you're just sorta going to be sitting there going like "well I already got everything in the position it should be in, now what?"
d. About option 5: Yeah it is a bit boring, but I like that it adds reliability. A bit of math: 4 out of 18 are 22% Together with that chance you get for any other result anyway (16.6% for the heal and 22% for the other two) you have a better than 1 in 3 chance to get your favourite result and a very good chance to get the one next to it. That's pretty good. A Slann improves that even more.
Normally if at least two of your dice show a 5 or 6 it is impossible to get the heal if you need it. Now you may be able to still choose it (although the mortal wounds options are probably going to be favoured my most player in that situation). Also it is the simplest option and one that your opponent is most likely to agree on. Remember that we cannot enforce that rule easily, we have to talk our opponent into accepting it. And I can assure you my friend I play most against surely will not accept option 4 (reinforcements) if it has the chance to restore 6 Rippers to live even though the chance is not good.
Your math is wrong
it's not 4 out of 18 it's 34 out of 216 for a roll of 14-17 which is ~15%. The heal only has a chance of about 5% initially, the long range attack about 33% and the AoE 46% and the double turn about 1-2%.
The most likely result reminas the AoE by a landslide, followed by the long ranged attack. Should you prefer the healyou're only getting it at a 20% chance. Admittadly it makes the heall a hell of a lot more likely to be accesible without having the EoTG be wounded, which could be valuable. But if you're not interested in the heal it's mot likely not going to chance all that much...
I do agree it's the easiest option to sell, especially against the type of people that fear rippers and the like far too much and thus will refuse the reinforcing mechanic without even actually considering it.
