POWERFUL BUILDS & TRICKS
(updated to FAQ 27-08-2021)
Ok, this won’t be a real “tutorial”, but I think that I could some suggestion on how to exploit single models or a block of a certain unit, to have a strong centerpiece for your army. Nothing new for the members of this community but still helpful for beginners that would like to field something that hurts.
I won’t do theme-based lists (this is @LizardWizard’s job), but I will also give some suggestion on units’ choice to develop a particular tactic.
At the same time, I will also give some hint on tricks (and mind tricks) you could employ to surprise the unwary opponent.
As always, I’m not going to cover all the bases, you are free to experiment, do some mathammer and discover by yourself the various possibilities.
This is a post that can and will see continuous adds-on, as we will discover new cool things.
up til now we have:
stegadon
carnosaur
kroxigor
terradons
skinks
saurus knights
Starborne sallies
slann / kroak
suggestions to keep your dudes alive
suggestions about Realmshaper Engine
The Horned King: Stegadon Chief
This is the most powerful single build available to stegadon (and probably to seraphon)
Basic stegadon got (at full profile):
10 wounds, move 8, save 4+
missile weapons: you can choose between skystreak bow (24” – 3 attacks 3+ /3+ / -1 /3dmg) or Sunfire throwers (1 attack / roll a dice for models in a target unit within 8”, deal MWs on each 5+)
basically, long ranged or anti melee
Melee weapons: 4 different weapons, ALL hitting on 3+/3+/rend -1: 3 meteoric warspear (branded by the chief, 1dmg), 2 massive horns (4 dmg), 2 jaws (2 dmg), 5 crushing stomps (2 dmg). a grand total of 12 meee attacks.
a very respectable statline.
1st step - use the Coalesced faction:+1 attack to jaws weapon: you go to 13 melee attacks.
2nd step - pick thunder lizard subfaction and make the stegadon chief your general with 12 wounds: tnx to the command trait you gain +1 attacks to ALL the weapons of the mount (crew is counted as mount); so:
shooting: 5 javelins by skinks and then 4 Bow or 2 dices rolling for the sunfire thrower (the profile of ST is “attacks = 1; so it turns into “attacks = 2).
melee: Having 4 melee weapons, 3 of them of the mount, you gain 3 attacks for a updated total of 16 Attacks
3th step: start of hero phase: select the Great Drake, add +1 attacks to all hero melee weapons (4): The updated total of you melee attacks is now 20.
4th step: use your command ability on yourself and add 1 attacks to each melee weapon... The final total is 24 melee attacks: 5 warspear +5 horns +6 jaws +8 stomps
5th step: with coalesced, 1/ battle you can use the mount trait beastmaster. +1 attacks to mount's melee weapons: now it's 27 melee attacks: 5 warspear +6 horns +7 jaws +9 stomps
6th step: give your general a cool artefact (for example, Cloak of feathers: -1 to be hit, +4 to move and fly).
There, this is an auto-sufficient build, and it can be improved with a minimal support.
For example, give to it a Sacred Stegadon’s helm for save 3+, stick near it a single puny skink priest and now your stegadon with 3+ save is impervious to rend -1, can run, shoot and charge and all his attacks now hit at 2+.
Or give it a ward save 5+.
The Jaws King: Hero on Carnosaur
Too many variables here. I will try to examine some of the ones that (IMO) are the most effective (and less reliant on external support – I will basically consider only a Starseer, but a Sunblood is great for a carno).
The carnosaur at its full profile got:
2 forelimbs: 3+ / 3+ / - / 2 dmg
3 jaws: 4+ / 3+ / -1 / 5 dmg (these are the big damages you’re looking for). the 4+ to hit becomes a 3+ when targeting models with 7 or less wounds characteristic.
the heroes got:
ScarVet: 6 attacks 3+ / 3+ / - / 1 dmg
Oldblood: 3 attacks: 3+ / 3+ / -1 / 3 dmg. on each 6s to hit it doubles the hits.
IMO some heroes works better in some subfaction then in different ones.
Starborne, Dracothion’s tail.
Place in reserve an
Oldblood, with Godbeast pendant.
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use a Starseer to give a -1 to saves to the target unit (for the sake of simplicity, from now on i will treat the -1 to save as the equivalent of an additional -1 rend), call from reserve the Oldblood and place it within the range of the Starseer’s Staff. Your fav. target will be an elite or something with wounds characteristic equal or less than 7.
Charge 3d6 with the carnosaur and activate its command ability for a +1 to hit.
Now you ALL your attacks hit on 2+: 4 spears (rend -2, doubling the attacks for each nat. 6); 3 forelimbs (rend -1), 4 jaws (rend -2), dealing multiple damage with all of them. and when the enemy will kill your oldblood, on a 4+ it comes back at full health.
(side note: with heroic action Their Finest Hour, LoSaT the guy and have your oldblood wound with everything at 2+, saving at 3+)
Coalesced, Koatl’s Claw.
ScarVet, with the Eviscerating blade artefact.
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use the Starseer as described above.
Charge and activate its command ability to double the hits on each nat. 6.
tnx to KC savagery incarnate you gain a +1 to hit, so now you have:
7 spear (rend -1) that on each 6 deal 2 MWs
3 forelimbs (rend -1)
5 jaws (rend -2)
ALL your attacks hit on 2+, and each nat. 6s will generate 2 hits.
and yeah, use Their Finest Hour to wound at 2+ with everything.
Coalesced, Thunderlizard.
Oldblood with command trait Prime Warbeast for +1 attacks; give it something to help keep it alive (Amulet of destiny).
Set the Sacred asterism on Great Drake, use the starseer as described above.
Charge and activate the command ability for a +1 to hit.
Now you ALL your multiple-damage attacks hit on 2+:
5 spears (rend -2, doubling the attacks for each nat. 6);
4 forelimbs (rend -1),
6 jaws (rend -2)
The Kroxigor Avalanche
This is related to the Horned King, as it gives its best with a similar set-up.
Kroxigors are heavy hitters. save 4+, 4 wounds, move 8”, they are sufficiently though and fast; each one got 4 Maul attacks and yaws attacks, all of them with rend -1, hitting at 4+ (3+ if nearby a skink unit).
The maul deals 2 dmg, the jaws 1 dmg (with additional MWs for each nat. 6+ on HIT rolls)
For the sake of simplicity I will consider only the maul, but each unit should have also at least a moonhammer:
simplest build: 6 kroxi, 1 Skink Starpriest (430 pts).
1st step - use the Coalesced faction:+1 attack to jaws weapon. The total of melee attacks for each kroxigor is now 6: 4 maul + 2 jaws. 24 + 12 for the whole unit.
3rd step – have your Starpriest babysit them, to give them +1 to hit, serpent’s staff and magical support (for example: hand of glory).
now your unit will have:
24 maul attacks hitting on 3+, rerolling 1s, dealing 2 dmg for each unsaved successful hit
12 jaws attacks, hitting on 3+
plus an average of 6-7 additional MWs.
The Lustrian Bombers
6 terradons + 1 terradon chief (310 pts) + 1 / 2 additional heroes
the idea is to reliably deliver your deadly cargo on the intended target, rolling 6 dices and dealing d3 mortal wounds for each 2+; 6 terradons will deal on average 5 d3 (around 10 MWs), plus the rest of the attacks.
Terradon got move 16” and (other than the deadly cargo) each one got also d6 attacks with the sunleech bolas and 4 attacks with the razor jaws.
Starborne Fang of Sotek gives them +3” in the first turn, Coalesced gives them additional jaws attaks.
A skink priest makes them run and shoot / charge, and +1 to hit, a starseer could make them charge 3d6. But let’s consider the priest.
use hunter’s steed (+1 to run and charge), skink priest and a CP to have them run 6” and suddenly you have:
move 16” (or 19”) +7” for the increased run.
Shoot with the sunleech bolas (average 22 attacks, hitting at 3+).
Charge 2d6+1” (total average 31”/34”!).
Deliver the cargo and enter melee (24 melee attacks hitting on 3+... 30, if you're using coalesced).
Sounds good, right?
Now, imagine you are also using a skink starpriest and the serpent’s staff: all your attacks now deal MWs for each nat. 6S to wound. The number of shooting + melee attacks is on average 46, hitting on 3+; on average, it means 5 / 6 mortal wounds, for a grand total (including the deadly cargo) of 15-16 MWs, plus the normal damage.
The Poisoned Skinks Cloud
30 Skinks + 1 skink Starpriest + 1 Skink priest (225 + 210 pts)
30-skinks unit (with boltspitters to hit at 16” and shield) will do 60 attacks: the priest will take them to a respectable 5+ save even against rend -1, and “to hit 4+”; nat. 6s to wound will deal MWs tnx to the Starpriest and cast Hands of Glory to reroll 1s.
On average you will roll 33 “to wounds”, delivering 5/6 MW (plus normal damage).
Play them as Starborne Fangs of Sotek and the enemy will be terrified by the prospect of charging them, because they will do mortal wounds again AND the charge will fail 50%.
Yippee ki-yay! the Saurus Cowboys
10 knights (220 pts) a ScarVet and a Starpriest
Each knight in a coalesced Koatl’s claw gains an additional jaws attack (they have 2) and a +1 bonus to hit. That alone lets them do seven attacks each (2 lances at 3+, 2 knight jaws at 4+, 3 CO jaws at 2+), threatening double damage with the lances. A grand total of 71 attacks, rerolling 1s (Hand of Glory from the Starpriest).
Support them with a Scar-Vet, doubling the attacks on a nat. 6 to hit (14 additional attacks on average).
And all those attacks will deal MWs on 6s “to wound”… we are talking about more than 10 MWs, plus normal saves (alas, with no rend).
Granted, not all of them will attack due to rule of coherency, but it's still a respectable thraeat. And if you're ready to pay the price by losing some model, you can attack with all of them to delete a nasty target.
Now you see me… Starborne salamanders
A full unit of 2 salamanders is among the best targets for LoSaT.
Make practice and learn how to use them as a rapier that hits like a claymore.
pick your target, buff the sallies with hand of glory to reroll 1s, move the sallies at blast range (positioning them outside of serious retaliation). If you have previously buffed also their save with a skink priest, you can also go for a charge.
In the following round move them on the other side of the battlefield and repeat the process… in the meantime you could provide some other buff.
Basically buff them, move them, blast & chomp, rinse & repeat. Practice the tactic… sometime it won’t work but more often than not you will obtain solid results and you will force your opponent to play your game.
The MWs’ Storm - Kroak
One of the best tricks available to Seraphon armies is the ability to deal a large amount of MWs tnx to various abilities that interact with the shooting / fight phase (Serpent’s staff on top of them), or simply by the unit itself (hello Salamanders).
So, it’s sufficiently trivial to build a list focused on dealing MWs… but obviously it needs also the most classic support of MWs source: magic.
Kroak + Astrolith bearer: 580 pts.
Lord Kroak got a +2 to cast, the AB gives additional 6” and another +1, stuck the bonus of Sage’s staff on Kroak for a +4 to cast; use an arcane vassal to increase up to 12” the range of spells (remember that range increases work also on endless spell).
Lord Kroak.
1,2,3 - cast 3 times Celestial deliverance (range 16” from the vassal) with increasing casting value: 7+, 8+, 9+. You have a +4 to cast it.
4 – cast comet’s call. with a 4+ you will succeed on a roll of 3+; on a 6+ you will hit d6 targets.
Lord Kroak alone is going to deal an average of 10-11 d3 MWs, basically 20-22 MWs in a single round of casting. Sounds pretty good.
Of course, variations are possible (you may need life-saving spells, or stellar tempest or spells as Purple Sun for a more focussed firestorm), but you get the idea.
...and with the endless spell Lauchon the soulseeker, you can do it in T1!
Hard as a Rock
You have a melee general and you wanna keep it alive? use artefacts and spells and stack their effect for maximum protection.
Spells: Control Fate (Starseer: +1 to saves); mystic shield (+1 on saves), Slann C.A. (+1 saves vs shooting), Blazing starlight (Starpriest: gives to a enemy unit -1 to hit)
Abilities: Priest staff (+1 to saves, skink only)
Artefacts: Stegadon helm (+1 saves, skink only), cloak of feathers (-1 to be hit and fly, skink only), Gryph-feather Charm (-1 to be hit)
as you can see, by combinations of items and spells, it’s trivial to have a hero with saves 3+, ignoring some rend, and with -1 to be hit
Life always wins
Wanna play war of attrition? Heal your dudes!
the Emerald Swarm endless spell is your friend: not only it heals 1d3 but it also raises dead models so it’s extremely useful to increase the durability of your saurus horde.
The Astrolith Bearer irradiates a 12” bubble of 6+ FNP (feel no pain – ignore wounds / mortal wounds on a 6+).
EotG: can heal d3 wounds to each seraphon unit within 12”
Slann spell – celestial apotheosis: heal 1 or d3 wounds
Heroic recovery: heal up to d3 wounds to a hero.
Prayer: Heal - d3 wounds to a model
To keep hordes alive, favor Emerald lifeswarm and 6+ FNP.
For big dinosaurs everything’s good, and you could heal 3d3-4d3 wounds to a single model
Realmshaper Engine - placement tips
not something you can optimize, but it’s useful to know how you can employ our terrain.
Any Realmshaper Engine must be set in your territory, more than 3" from any objectives and other terrain features.
You must garrison the terrain with a seraphon wizard or priest if you want to use its effect. (a unit can be set up as a garrison at the start of a battle if the terrain feature is wholly within the unit’s deployment zone. Alternatively, a unit can garrison a terrain feature instead of making a normal move if all of its models are within 6" of the terrain feature, and there are no enemy models already garrisoning it
. this also means that you cannot LoSaT into it)
Given that you can place the RE at more than 3" from an obj, you can set it in your deployment zone to garrison it immediately, and control the obj with your garrisoned unit/s
And yeah, you could garrison it with your slann, and keep the saurus guards not garrisoned, but hidden behind it, to negate LoS to them and grant total safety to your main dude.
