8th Ed. Saurus - how many is too many?

[walach]

I know this is going to be an unanswerable question, but anyways...

for a normal sized game, say 2-3k points, what size would you make your saurus blocks, assuming you don't know who or what you're playing?

I reckon i want somewhere between 40 and 60 saurus in my army, but how to divide them up is the question.

 

[Xlcontiqu]

I run two blocks of twenty in my 2500 list, but I think I am going to switch it to three blocks of twenty.

 

[DesertLIZARD]

I rock it with 25 blocks a unit for two units just to play it safe.

 

[Pwidget]

I ran a block of 30 in 2k games, 5 wide 6 deep, and it seems to do very well. I also don't take Skrox units, so most of my combat revolves around buffed TG/Slann and Saurus Warriors duking it out with the enemy's big infantry units. I literally had a block of 20 TG/Slann sit there and whittle away 2 blocks of 6 Ogre Bulls and a unit of 5 Ironguts + beefed up Tyrant, and owned that battle because of Slann Magic (Shield of Thorns = Win in that situation). But I digress, I'm thinking about running a couple smaller blocks of saurus next time, prolly going 5x4 on each of them, HW/S.

 

[strewart]

In 8th ed, I am thinking 20 is right at the low end of the scale, possibly too small of a unit. 25 would be the starting point for me, maybe pushing to 30 but that makes quite an expensive unit. Could also go 24 with 6x4, but then you suffer the same low number of ranks as a unit of 20 does.

 

[DesertLIZARD]

In 8th ed, I am thinking 20 is right at the low end of the scale, possibly too small of a unit. 25 would be the starting point for me, maybe pushing to 30 but that makes quite an expensive unit. Could also go 24 with 6x4, but then you suffer the same low number of ranks as a unit of 20 does.

That's the problem with Saurus Warriors, you need them, you know they are hard to beat, but those points you use for them are the points you want to use for other fun things like a unit of kroxigors or stegadons in my case (2000 point army, 1 EOTG, 1 Skink chief with steg warspear on stegadon and a stegadon special unit)(I won)

 

[vapor]

29 spears with FC and a Scar Vet has yet to let me down.

 

[the ironfoot]

I like 24, but i mainly play small games.

(2000 point army, 1 EOTG, 1 Skink chief with steg warspear on stegadon and a stegadon special unit)(I won)

I'm pretty sure you cannot field an EOTG and warspearsteg in 2000 points, as you can only have 500 points of heroes...

 

[Gojira]

If you don't know who or what your playing, always include at least 1 unit of 20 (no more), and then 1 or more units of 25/30/35

I've seen some people run 40 in horde, but that's not to my taste, and not great when don't know who or what you're playing, but lots of attacks are always cool.

 

[Rokanos]

I run two units of 24 (6x4), bearer and musician w/o champion (I don't find them worth the points), one spears and one HW+SH. One of the two almost always dies (the tourny this saturday I full point wiped both my opponents without losing anything (lore of light against VC and OK)(came in a round late thanks to some lazy people at work or I might've top 2'd instead of getting 4th x.x), but the saurus were invaluable in both games. If you only take one block...take HW+SH, the parry save has kept at least 2/5 saurus alive on a nasty round.

 

[rammramm]

In 8th ed, I am thinking 20 is right at the low end of the scale, possibly too small of a unit. 25 would be the starting point for me, maybe pushing to 30 but that makes quite an expensive unit. Could also go 24 with 6x4, but then you suffer the same low number of ranks as a unit of 20 does.

That's the problem with Saurus Warriors, you need them, you know they are hard to beat, but those points you use for them are the points you want to use for other fun things like a unit of kroxigors or stegadons in my case (2000 point army, 1 EOTG, 1 Skink chief with steg warspear on stegadon and a stegadon special unit)(I won)

I am sory to go offtopic here (especially since Im new to this forum) but I dont see how such a build could possibly be legal.
The point cost for a skink chief on steg and an EotG seems like it would go way over the allowed 500 points for characters in 8th edition.
Please tell me if Im wrong cause I would love to have such an army myself.

PS. I know you can run with more stegs as special and rare but there is something about combining a bigass steg with a character that speeks to me.

 

[Pwidget]

Level 2 Skink priest with Ancient Stegadon/EOTG mount comes in pretty short of the 500 point allowance, just don't expect to get a Scarvet in that is very beefed up.

 

[wolfmage]

Too many Saurus equals a horde.
Also joining in on the EOTG thing going on, it's good to see them back last time I looked half the posts of stegs were just not to and not to bother mounting characters all because of a few wimpy cannons.

 

[JohnMavrick]

I currently run two blocks of 18 with hw/s and a block of 20 w/ spears. I also usually run TG in a block of 20 (w/ slann). This does me a lot of good in a 2500 point game. True taking the other cool stuff like stegs and chameleons is fun and all but I like to make sure my baseline is covered and Saurus is the only way to do that.

I've not had any problems with this build so far and people generally complain greatly when they see that many saurus on the field. It's a lot of scalie muscle to contend with!

 

[drpieceofme]

I run 2 blocks of 36 or 40 or 1 of 60. With or without spears. This makes all lores of magic viable haha.

It's funny seeing my opponents face when I drop 1 then 2 blocks of these bad boys. The downside is I only get 2 Sallies and 2 Chameleon skink units. Still fit my Engine and Scar-Vet though.

 

[novatomato]

My latest series of games I have been playing with one unit of 24 with a scar vet and spears, a second unit of 20 no spears, and a temple guard unit of 20 with my slann. My last game I won a massacre with my opponent, who was playing high elves, having a single phoenix guard model left on the table.
So 44 saurus warriors seems to be a good number to go with.

 

[Kurlin]

Level 2 Skink priest with Ancient Stegadon/EOTG mount comes in pretty short of the 500 point allowance, just don't expect to get a Scarvet in that is very beefed up.

You missed the fact that he had BOTH a chief on a stegadon and a priest on a EOTG. Which would definitely put you over the 500 point cap on heroes.

So rammramm is right, that would be an illegal army list.

 

[ArmyC]

3000 point game

I am considering this question as well. 5x5 or 6x4 ? Spears vs HW/S ? Scar Vet or Champion ? I and thinking about a large ammount of saurus. Maybe 4 blocks of 24, 2 spears, 2 HW/S, running 6x4, with Lore of Light. 36 TG w/ Slann in the middle of 6 x 6. Skirm out front. EOTG in behind the TG.

 

[Clockwork]

6x4, hand weapon and shield and Slann with Life for the win. I've just come off beating High Elves, Wood Elves and Vampire Counts with this combination. My opponents complain how difficult it is killing Saurus, how much damage they dish out, how difficult they are to rout, and how even after all that the Slann just brings them back to life anyway.

Saurus units of this size are expensive enough and deal enough damage and attacks imho. I find I have enough trouble squeezing everything I want in that I can't spare the points. In any case, the parry save from the shields only enhances the Saurus' survivability, one of their strongest attributes, which is no bad thing.

 

[JohnMavrick]

Re: 3000 point game

I am considering this question as well. 5x5 or 6x4 ? Spears vs HW/S ? Scar Vet or Champion ? I and thinking about a large ammount of saurus. Maybe 4 blocks of 24, 2 spears, 2 HW/S, running 6x4, with Lore of Light. 36 TG w/ Slann in the middle of 6 x 6. Skirm out front. EOTG in behind the TG.

36?! I ask again THIRTY-SIX?! I thought 20 was really pushing the edge in number of Saurus! I think you could shrink this unit down and save yourself some points. Most people run a unit of 16 or a unit of 20. Depending if you like semetry at all. So unless you have a hard time with your TG getting nuked in the game I'd suggest busting it down a lot.