8th Ed. Killing Skaven Hellpit abomination

[Troggs]

One of the main people I play against is a scaven player, and his hellpit is brutal.
It's got devastating attacks, good initiative and a 4+ save.
Is it possible to give saurus the flaming banner?
I've tried taking it down with a hoard of 40 skinks, worked pretty well until the terror kicked in.
The saurus finished it off, but it reduced their numbers significantly, afterwards they were taken out by rat ogres and a warmaster.

 

[Arli]

Once the abomination is wounded by a flaming attack, it cannot ressurect after it dies. The regen comes back after the current phase, but it will stay dead. I would recommend the ruby ring of ruin followed by a ton of skink shooting. You can also stagger some skink (skirimshers) around it to tie it up until you can whittle it down.

There is no other real easy way to deal with it.

 

[Qupakoco]

Yah, that thing is no fun. I usually rely on skink skirmishers to take it down. I haven't tried out the ruby ring yet. That sounds like a solid plan.

If you want to give your saurus flaming attacks you can take a Scar-Vet BSB and give him the Banner of Eternal Flame and stick him in a saurus block. It's a pretty cheap banner but it'll take up all the Scar-vets magic item points. Give him a GW to make sure he get's the best chance of wounding it. If you want him to have a good armor save you can put him on a Cold One.

And speaking of Cold Ones, a unit of those guys can take a magic banner. You take a unit of them with the flaming banner and send them after the abomination right from the get go.

Shem's Burning Gaze from Lore of Light is flaming as well. A S6 attack at a 48" range isn't too shabby.

 

[Stonecutter]

A good option I find is to take a slaan with the flaming banner and no TG in the army (not really required when fighting skaven IMHO). The slaan can temporarily join a large unit of skinks to make their shooting attacks flaming and then can rejoin a combat unit such as saurus later. Also, since skrox are classified as unique, they cannot be stomped and thus they are a reasonable infantry choice to tie up the HPA in CC. If the HPA has been flamed beforehand, the krox S6 attacks will eventually grind it down and kill it.

 

[Troggs]

A good option I find is to take a slaan with the flaming banner and no TG in the army (not really required when fighting skaven IMHO). The slaan can temporarily join a large unit of skinks to make their shooting attacks flaming and then can rejoin a combat unit such as saurus later. Also, since skrox are classified as unique, they cannot be stomped and thus they are a reasonable infantry choice to tie up the HPA in CC. If the HPA has been flamed beforehand, the krox S6 attacks will eventually grind it down and kill it.

I didn't think you could have skinks in non-skirmish units with ranged attacks?
What units in the army can hold magic banners?
I've not used and skrox yet, looking forward to them. They seem very good, and present in most online lists.

 

[Stonecutter]

The only lizzie units that can take magic banners are COK and TG, hence the need to give the slaan a flaming banner. With regards to skinks, the ranked units come with javelin & shields so if you form a skrox unit with 24 skinks & 3 krox to have a frontage of 12 you can get 18 javelin shots off. Skrox require care to employ effectively. They are lousy at tackling other infantry head on since the T2 skinks die in droves. However, skrox are very fast and make good flanking units and are ideal for taking on big monsters that would thunderstomp the crap out of saurus or TG. That and having the krox strike back with S6 while being all but immune to attack until the skinks have died make them my preferred unit for fighting HPAs or any other big nasty that threatens my saurus and TG blocks.

 

[HoverBoy]

I have a blade of chotec vet leading my TG (with frog in tow), he only needs to get one wound off at his I3 and suddenly the thing has no save when the TG swing.

 

[Huichi Mixi]

I read about a way of reducing the scariness of the hellpit. Just fly a terradon unit or move a sallie/razordon unit about 1" away from the flank of the hellpit. The hellpit has to wheel, then roll to move then move in the movement phase. Anything it touches with its movement count as charged. The shape of the base of the hellpit means that if it wheels to face your unit then it would come within 1" of it which is not allowed. Therefore it cannot wheel so it must move straight forward. Plus you would get the throw javs/breath weapons/razordon darts at it every turn.

Its a cheese way of dealing with it and have never tried it.

 

[Stonecutter]

I read about a way of reducing the scariness of the hellpit. Just fly a terradon unit or move a sallie/razordon unit about 1" away from the flank of the hellpit. The hellpit has to wheel, then roll to move then move in the movement phase. Anything it touches with its movement count as charged. The shape of the base of the hellpit means that if it wheels to face your unit then it would come within 1" of it which is not allowed. Therefore it cannot wheel so it must move straight forward. Plus you would get the throw javs/breath weapons/razordon darts at it every turn.

Its a cheese way of dealing with it and have never tried it.

I would strongly advise against even attempting to use such a cheesey and unsportsmanlike "tactic". There are ample valid methods of dealing with the HPA or other big nasties without engaging in such questionable practices. WFB is a game and good sportsmanship and play is part of what makes it an enjoyable hobby. Resorting to this type of rule bending/exploitation certainly detracts from the enjoyment of the game and reflects very poorly upon the user. Furthermore, most tourney organisers will ban this type of silliness the same way night goblin fanatic sling shots and dwarf miner congo lines were banned. Lastly, do you really want to be known as "that player" who uses these types of "tactics"?

 

[Huichi Mixi]

I read about a way of reducing the scariness of the hellpit. Just fly a terradon unit or move a sallie/razordon unit about 1" away from the flank of the hellpit. The hellpit has to wheel, then roll to move then move in the movement phase. Anything it touches with its movement count as charged. The shape of the base of the hellpit means that if it wheels to face your unit then it would come within 1" of it which is not allowed. Therefore it cannot wheel so it must move straight forward. Plus you would get the throw javs/breath weapons/razordon darts at it every turn.

Its a cheese way of dealing with it and have never tried it.

I would strongly advise against even attempting to use such a cheesey and unsportsmanlike "tactic". There are ample valid methods of dealing with the HPA or other big nasties without engaging in such questionable practices. WFB is a game and good sportsmanship and play is part of what makes it an enjoyable hobby. Resorting to this type of rule bending/exploitation certainly detracts from the enjoyment of the game and reflects very poorly upon the user. Furthermore, most tourney organisers will ban this type of silliness the same way night goblin fanatic sling shots and dwarf miner congo lines were banned. Lastly, do you really want to be known as "that player" who uses these types of "tactics"?

I can't disagree with you there