AoS Oldblood, is he good in some way?

[Darkneo89]

Am I the only one who thinks that new oldblood is just too weak compared to others army "Lord"? I mean the best way I found to play it in 3 match is to use the sword (4 attacks 3 to hit 3 to wound, no freaking rend!?). Maybe the only good side is that he has 7 wounds and weak rend (-1) does nothing to him, but I tried him 3 times and he is just weak.. Does someone find him a role who fits his wars roll already?

 

[Ixt]

Well, his ability to boost Saurus' move by 3" gives them a 7 or 8" move stat (possibly the highest in the game for infantry of that class?), he's not bad in combat with the Suntooth Maul, and rerolling 1s with Saurus when you're often wounding on 3+ is really nice.

Looks like our Oldblood may have finally hung up the armor, uncorked the Metamucil, and taken on more of an officiating support role. Here's to a 2,000-year-early retirement! *clink* Cheers.

But anyway, what kind of support have you been giving him? What are you fighting with him?

 

[Darkneo89]

We tried 3 match lizards vs empire "battallions vs battallions", just to try all the special abilities and their efficiency (terradons are freaking awesome) minimum wounds possible per unit (3x10 saurus, 1 oldbood, 1x5 saurus on cold one + 2x10 skins, 1x3 terradon, 1x priest vs the same kind of composiiton of empire army). His abilities are ok indeed, reroll 1s with saurus its cool but they only have one attacks each who wound on 3+, others are at 4+ (after a 5+ on hit....), it just look's like he has nothing more than his support role, and we all understood that a saurus based army is not that good since skinks are o.p.

 

[Ixt]

No no no, Saurus have more than one attack each. If taken outside of the Saurus Host battalion, they have 2 attacks each. They receive one from their weapons, and one from their Powerful Jaws.

If you've got 10, then they get +1 to hit per the Ordered Cohort ability. In the host, Saurus have 3 attacks!

1 from their Celestial weaponry,
2 from their Powerful Jaws (the additional one comes from their Predatory Fighter ability via Saurus Host).

So basically, every Saurus model you had was only making 2/3 of the attacks they were supposed to, and it sounds like you weren't taking advantage of the +1 to hit (at least for 1 round of combat, unless you went 2nd and lost at least one model from every unit before striking back).

The other thing about Saurus is that they have power in numbers, per their special rule. With 10, you get +1 to hit. With 20, you get +1 Attack. In a large group, you're looking at 4 attacks per model... suddenly, those re-roll 1s got a good bit better!

Under 20...
1 weapon attack (3+/3+ w/ Club, re-rolling 1s), 2 jaw attacks (4+/4+, re-rolling 1s). Each model should be scoring 1 wound.

Over 20...
2 weapon attacks (3+/3+ w/ Club, re-rolling 1s), 2 jaw attacks (4+/4+, re-rolling 1s). You may see one model scoring 2 wounds more often than not. That's pretty good.

So, yeah, Oldblood's a support guy for sure... but he really shines when you've got large blocks around him. Minimum blocks won't benefit as much because of the Ordered Cohort rule. Think of him as the Arkadon of 8th edition -- not that great, unless you take a bunch of Jungle Swarms. Then it's actually not so bad.

And yeh, skinks and terradons (SUNLEECH BOLAS!!!!) are vicious.

 

[KingCheops]

I agree that as your general he is a little underwhelming but his 3" move is useful for setting up attacks. Since charging is more like 40K the actual final positioning of units matter unlike 8th edition. That distance can be the difference between charging with 5 saurus and 15. The Saurus Host certainly benefits more from a different general however and just take the OB reroll 1's to wound, +1 to jaw attacks, and the no battleshock.

 

[Bainbow]

I thought the Olblood was pants too at first. Bad command ability, weak melee, average armour, only good part was the Wounds. And the Saurus battalion is awful so no reason to take him for that. But then I noticed that one ability he has that gives all Saurus within 5" the ability to reroll wound rolls of 1. That's... actually a really good ability, especially with 3+ to wound. He may be weak in combat and may make a bad general, but it turns out he's a bloody amazing support, I rarely play a game without him now for this very simple yet deceptively brilliant rule.

 

[Gorgerak]

I have played with a saurus battalion and I must admit - I love it! Blocks of saurus are just so hard to chew through with the battleshock immunity. It will help you clog up opponents for turns on end, whilst the extra Jaws+Shield attacks are fantastic for nipping the extra couple of wounds on that monster that make it less effective.

For me Age of Sigmar is becoming about 2 things: 1) rolling as many dice as you can, to force the opponent to have to roll more armour saves. and 2) putting re-rolls on these dice to further improve your chances.

For this, Saurus battalions are one of the best formations in the game - and another is the skink battalion (ripperdactyl fun times!)

 

[Gorgerak]

Sorry - I've just realised I've completely ignored the actual topic of this thread oops, my bad >.<

Saurus Oldblood - yep agree with the other posts, great support, not a shining example of a combat character though.

 

[Bainbow]

I have played with a saurus battalion and I must admit - I love it! Blocks of saurus are just so hard to chew through with the battleshock immunity. It will help you clog up opponents for turns on end, whilst the extra Jaws+Shield attacks are fantastic for nipping the extra couple of wounds on that monster that make it less effective.

For me Age of Sigmar is becoming about 2 things: 1) rolling as many dice as you can, to force the opponent to have to roll more armour saves. and 2) putting re-rolls on these dice to further improve your chances.

For this, Saurus battalions are one of the best formations in the game - and another is the skink battalion (ripperdactyl fun times!)

Eh, I reckon the Battalion is weak because it forces you to divide your Saurus into two units, which is bad because Saurus need to be in hordes to be at the top of their game. And the Battleshock immunity is great, but at Bravery 10 plus 1 per ten models, it's not entirely needed. It's better for defensive lines, and the Saurus are just rubbish for defense, excelling in attack instead.

 

[Gorgerak]

but at Bravery 10 plus 1 per ten models

sorry is this in the main "rulebook" I don't remember seeing this on the warscroll?

I reckon the Battalion is weak because it forces you to divide your Saurus into two units,

dont you need 3 saurus units in a battallion?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, i don't have access to the scrolls at the moment.

 

[Bainbow]

sorry is this in the main "rulebook" I don't remember seeing this on the warscroll?

Yes, it is in the main rules. During the Battleshock Phase, your Bravery increases by 1 for every 10 models there are in that unit.

And sorry, you're right. It is 3 units of Saurus. But that makes it even worse, I find, because then you have to divide the units by even more to make three, lowering their effectiveness.

 

[Gorgerak]

Yes, it is in the main rules. During the Battleshock Phase, your Bravery increases by 1 for every 10 models there are in that unit.

And sorry, you're right. It is 3 units of Saurus. But that makes it even worse, I find, because then you have to divide the units by even more to make three, lowering their effectiveness.

Ahhh I didn't realise that, thanks. I assume the negativity over three units is due to the finite number fo models you have? If you had 90 Saurus, i dont suppose 3 units would be a problem. Unless that is, you are using a comp that introduces a points system, which further limits your ability to take lots of mahoooosive units.

Yeah I can understand that - I dont have enough "points" in my club's comp to take 3 units of 30 and i would prefer to take 2 units of 30 over 3 units of 20, but the battallions bonuses make it a very worthy trade in my eyes.

Its horses for corses I suppose - have you tried the skink battallion? I have some fantastic ideas for building an army with it, mostly revolving around Oxyotl, CHameleons, ripperdactyls, skink priests, jungle swarms and krox.

But sorry that should be a different thread.

 

[Bainbow]

Ahhh I didn't realise that, thanks. I assume the negativity over three units is due to the finite number fo models you have? If you had 90 Saurus, i dont suppose 3 units would be a problem. Unless that is, you are using a comp that introduces a points system, which further limits your ability to take lots of mahoooosive units.

Yeah I can understand that - I dont have enough "points" in my club's comp to take 3 units of 30 and i would prefer to take 2 units of 30 over 3 units of 20, but the battallions bonuses make it a very worthy trade in my eyes.

Its horses for corses I suppose - have you tried the skink battallion? I have some fantastic ideas for building an army with it, mostly revolving around Oxyotl, CHameleons, ripperdactyls, skink priests, jungle swarms and krox.

But sorry that should be a different thread.

I'm of the belief that a full unit of Saurus should have at least 40 models so you can get the hit bonus and the attacks bonus, while still being able to sustain some casualties without losing some of your bonuses. So for my vision of Saurus, that would requite 120 of them at least in order to make the Battalion work. Still, different playstyles, I suppose. Shame we won't get the chance to test each other's visions in a game against each other, that could be fun.

And I wrote up a Skink army list in a nearby Skink thread. It definitely uses the Skink battalion, which I think is amazing.

 

[Gorgerak]

that would be a good game - skink battallion vs saurus battallion - I want to do this now!