AoS Level the playing field (literally)

[Acehilator]

Starborn/Dracothion's Tail

Battle Regiment:
Kroak 395
Slann 275 (Lord of Celestial Resonances, Spacefolder's Stave, Comet's Call)
Saurus Guard x5 130
Skinks x10 85
Skinks x10 85
Skinks x10 85
Hunters of Huanchi with Starstone Bolas x5 90
Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek 200

Command Entourage:
Skink Oracle on Troglodon 270 (Sacred Stegadon Helmet, Cosmic Crush)
Skink Starpriest 130 (Speed of Huanchi)
Astrolith Bearer 140

Endless Spells:
Chronomantic Cogs 70
-------------------------------
TOTAL: 1955

Not much board presence at all, but some serious MW output and maximized summoning potential. There are lots of floating points here for further tailoring (and to accomodate the inevitable Kroak price hike).


General order of operations:
- Teleport the Troglodon up the board at the beginning of the hero phase with a Slann heroic action "Spatial Translocation" to be within 10" of a large part of the opponent's army
- cast Cogs with the Slann (92% chance for success, in a castle position that allows no unbind if Battleplan allows)
- cast Celestial Equilibrium with the Slann

Level the playing field:
- cast Comet's Call with the Slann (through the Troglodon, no range restriction)
- Cast Celestial Deliverance x 4 with Kroak (through the Troglodon, no range restriction)

- cast Arcane Bolt with the Skink Starpriest
- try to cast Shield with the Troglodon (no rerolls from Cogs, and for sure in unbind range, so not a given)
- bring in the Bastiladon from reserves with the Spacefolder's Stave for the cheeky 7" T1 charge
Place it close enough to the Oracle to hand out a reroll if neccessary. With the distraction by the Bastiladon, the Stegadon helm and the -1 to hit aura, plus maybe Shield and All out Defense, it might very well be possible to have the Oracle survive the first turn.

That's five CCP for four casters + Astrolith Bearer on the board, plus six from the Slann due to Lord of Celestial Resonance, plus four from Kroak, plus two from the Skink casters. So capped at 17. You are probably getting 14 or 15. I would probably bank the points, and start shoving bigger things into people's faces from T2 onwards. A unit of Kroxigors each turn with a 7" charge sounds like a plan.


Is the initial board presence enough? No idea.
Fun to play against? I guess not.
Monstrous abuse of mechanics? Hell yeah. (Thank the designers for building such a shitty battletome.)

 

[Lambs and Lions]

So this seems to be THE starborne list. The only thing up for debate is what troops are best.

I think you really want to be two drop. Picking who goes first or second is so important if your plan is a massive alpha strike MW bomb.

I personally like fangs better than DT. You are only holding your bastiladon off the board and I think he is better off as a huge blocker against an alpha strike turn 1 and turn two you can teleport him away. The free redeploy is very good with a lot of our skink units.

I am wondering if rapterdon chargers are good for a turn 1 charge or if they are just more easy to kill wounds that make for a very soft base. If kroak and slann are doing so much heavy lifting maybe more guard are better.

 

[Acehilator]

Not sure how much use redeploy really is with Skinks. You don't want to use it to make the opponent's charges easier against your squishy units by moving closer, and staying away is not a problem if you don't have a board presence to speak of anyways.

 

[Acehilator]

The FoS version of this list would lose the Bastiladon and add a Skink Starseer, which gives you a CCP cap of 20, with an average of 18. So that means a unit of of Kroxigors every turn.

 

[Lambs and Lions]

The FoS version of this list would lose the Bastiladon and add a Skink Starseer, which gives you a CCP cap of 20, with an average of 18. So that means a unit of of Kroxigors every turn.

While the extra CCP is nice and getting rid of ward saves is nice. I think losing the bastiladon drops a rock the army needs. I just fear with so many squishy heroes you will get trampled over by fast armies.

 

[Acehilator]

Yeah, might be. Just throwing some options around. You could also ditch the Starpriest (heresy, I know) and take the Starseer instead. This list doesn't really have a good target for Serpent Staff anyway.

 

[Lambs and Lions]

Yeah, might be. Just throwing some options around. You could also ditch the Starpriest (heresy, I know) and take the Starseer instead. This list doesn't really have a good target for Serpent Staff anyway.

Honestly that seems like a better option. I have been playing around with a way to add chargers to my list and the starpriest is good with them but I just worry about how weak of a castle we are making. What happens when they get the alpha off on us. Or we don't kill that key piece and they are able to counterstrike.