AoS Eternal Thunderquake

[claymore36]

I don't plan on playing in tournaments but was looking for a little input on my eternal starhost and thunderquake list. I like big dinos and realize the thunderquake is very effective right now but really love my saurus. I was wondering if a list with the eternal starhost and thunderquake could work. The list is posted below but the basic idea is to castle up and march slowly up the board with the big unit of guard up front, the two small units on the flanks, the salamanders up front, and the big dinos in back guarding the slann. The big dinos shoot, the guard discourage enemy charges, and the slann buffs everything as best as it can. The smaller guard units can be teleported to objectives later in the game (assuming they survive) but otherwise everything stays together for most of the battle. I realize razordons are preferred to salamanders, and double bastis are better than a basti and stegadon, but those are the models I have currently. Any thoughts? Also, I only threw the starpriest in because I had 80 points leftover, do you think it's redundant with the Slann?

2000 points

Eternal Starhost
Thunderquake Starhost

Heros:
Slann Starmaster
Skink Priest
Eternity Warden
Engine of the Gods

Core:
10 Saurus Guard
5 Saurus Guard
5 Saurus Guard

Behemoths:
1 Bastiladon (solar engine)
1 Stegadon (giant bow)

Other:
2 Salamanders

 

[Theo]

It looks pretty dope, but you do need to field a unit of skink handlers aswell for the thunderquake, so make it 1 sally and 1 handlers

 

[claymore36]

I knew I was forgetting something. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[claymore36]

So my friend proxies an idoneth army in the game, here’s what I noticed. The first three turns were great. My buffed bastiladon and guard held the line against all his elite eel cavalry and that giant turtle while a teleported stegadon killed an enemy hero and stalled his thralls. I thought the high tide ability would turn the game in his favor but it actually hardly did a thing. Unfortunately turn four he gets to retreat and still charge or shoot. I forgot his cavalry can all fly and while I killed a couple eels, wounded the eidolon, and killed the turtle the rest of his cavalry used their 14” move to get behind my line and charge my slann and eternity warden. At that point everything started falling apart without my buffs. My remaining guard and bastiladon killed the eidolon and the rest of his cavalry while the engine helped, but then his thralls hit my line and those things are ridiculously efficient, getting extra attacks against 1 wound models and 2 damage attacks against multi wound models. Through sheer weight of attacks they dropped my bastiladon. Overall the combination worked well but I didn’t think about how far his cavalry could fly to get around me. Had I shored up that defense and held it for even another turn I would have broken him but that movement combined with the versatility of the thrills finished me off. In the end he had ten thralls from what was a twenty man unit, three reavers, and the tide caller and my army was gone.

 

[Crowsfoot]

So my friend proxies an idoneth army in the game, here’s what I noticed. The first three turns were great. My buffed bastiladon and guard held the line against all his elite eel cavalry and that giant turtle while a teleported stegadon killed an enemy hero and stalled his thralls. I thought the high tide ability would turn the game in his favor but it actually hardly did a thing. Unfortunately turn four he gets to retreat and still charge or shoot. I forgot his cavalry can all fly and while I killed a couple eels, wounded the eidolon, and killed the turtle the rest of his cavalry used their 14” move to get behind my line and charge my slann and eternity warden. At that point everything started falling apart without my buffs. My remaining guard and bastiladon killed the eidolon and the rest of his cavalry while the engine helped, but then his thralls hit my line and those things are ridiculously efficient, getting extra attacks against 1 wound models and 2 damage attacks against multi wound models. Through sheer weight of attacks they dropped my bastiladon. Overall the combination worked well but I didn’t think about how far his cavalry could fly to get around me. Had I shored up that defense and held it for even another turn I would have broken him but that movement combined with the versatility of the thrills finished me off. In the end he had ten thralls from what was a twenty man unit, three reavers, and the tide caller and my army was gone.

You'll get him next time

 

[claymore36]

Now that I know what I’m doing I’m pretty confident I can get a win in. Honestly it was a great game and it was really hard today who would win until the very end. They’re slippery but nothing seemed overpowered, although I also got really lucky and that turtle’s jaw attack failed to wound me. Next time I’ll keep my heroes protected all around and maybe replace my stegadon with a second bastiladon. The MVPs for the game were the slann, bastiladon, and the guard. With all their buffs the guard and bastiladon refused to give him any ground so he had to fly around me. I think shooting armies with vulnerable heroes will really suffer against these guys but thankfully most of their rending attacks are only -1 and they don’t have many reliable mortal wounds. The turtle is a pain to kill but after three turns it failed to kill a single Saurus guard while I whittled it down with shooting and magic. The unrendable reps are also durable but honestly didn’t kill much and eventually fell to weight of attacks. Everything is pretty squishy but they certainly hit hard and fast.

 

[Ecozh]

I was wondering if you use the command ability of your Slann, van they still fly ''over' your battle line.

 

[Aginor]

I was wondering if you use the command ability of your Slann, van they still fly ''over' your battle line.

Who?

 

[Ecozh]

The unit of Eels that got his Slann and Eternity Warden.

 

[Aginor]

The unit of Eels that got his Slann and Eternity Warden.

Ah ok. Sure, flying units can fly over other flying units, if that's what you wanted to know.

 

[Ecozh]

Yup, thanks.

 

[claymore36]

I did use the command ability but as was already answered they can still fly over then. My real mistake was as a 40k player I keep forgetting you only have to be within 3” to be considered in combat. I had a very thin line of Saurus Guard in my rear guard and he was able to still get in combat with my HQs because they weeent far enough back. It was a stupid mistake and one I’ll be more careful about in the future.