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AoS Seraphon vs Starter Set Balance

Fulcrum
Cold One

Fulcrum

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Hi all!

I just wanted to ask what was a balanced force of Seraphon units that can have fun playing against the armies that came in the starter set (Stormcast and Bloodbound), and also in Spire of Dawn (High Elves and Skaven). I just want something that can stand up to these armies but wont also steamroll.

Thanks!
 
The bloodbound in the starterset are kind of awefull, you're liable to stomp that with a seraphon starter set.

The stormforged in the starterset will probably be a tad too powerfull to take on with just a seraphon starter set, they have several sources of mortal wounds & they are difficult to kill for anything other than your carnosaur unless you get some good charges with your knight.

The high elves from the spire set will probably kill you before you get in range, their advantage in range is overwhelming and our starter set lacks numbers and the speed to make up for this.

The skaven probably just have flat out too much stuff for our starter set to chew through and will win by attrition. Plus again they have several sources of mortal wounds and ranged superiourity.


Anyway, as a simple comparison:
Not counting the battelions:
Our starterset is worth around 780 with most of that going into your carnosaur.
Stormforged in the starterset are worth about 820 points, but have a fairly balanced and rounded army.
Bloodbound 640 with only their lord being particularly noteworthy as he could potentially oneshot your carnosaur.
Skaven : 740, but with quite a lot of cannonfodder and reasonable ranged troops and a more balanced army.
aelves 820 with considerably ranged firepower

Anyways, get the seraphon starterset and 1 or 2 boxes of something else to round out your army. Our starterset is great value and a good start, but it makes for a rather weak army on its own.
 
I just had another quick look, the skaven will decimate you most likely, they just have so much more stuff, ranged superiourity and again multiple sources of mortal wounds. Even if their point value is fairly low they might actually be one of the better armies of these 4 lists.

The aelves will most likely dominate you too, out of the 5 armies they have the best ranged capabilities by far, they're fairly sturdy, especially with the archmage's shield and do quite a lot of damage.

Anyways if I'd have to rank them it'd be as follows:

1) Aelves: they have ranged superiourity over the others, they are quite sturdy (especially with the archmage's shield) & have a big monster
2) Skaven: decent ranged, by far the most numerous & will win any battle of attrition if they can keep their warpfire thrower & wind mortar save. If the warpfire thrower had a better range or the poisoned wind mortar was more reliable (1 attack is liable to miss) I'd even rank them above the aelves. As long as their two weapon teams & engineer are allowed to take potshots they'l bleed you out eventually.
3) Stormforged: decent well rounded army, but slow. Has acces to mortal wounds & healing while being very sturdy but is simply outgunned at range in this match up. It has an advantage if it gets to play a defensive objective type match though.
These three can be fairly equal depending on circumstances.

Trailing behind:
4) Seraphon starterset: has a big monster and some halfway decent cavalry. No significant range & 12 warriors isn't going to get you anywhere. Also no mortal wounds unless you kitbash a starpriest. Kitbashing one of the Knights into a scar veteran helps a bit, but isn't going to win you any matches either. It's basicly just a big monster + some (halfway decent) fodder if you stick to just this box.

Far far behind:
5) Bloodbound: has a dude with a magic axe that might oneshoot your heroes & monsters, other than that it has nothing of note. No numbers, no ranged, and it's big scary monster is fairly harmless. The Khorgorath really should be fielded like the rat ogors, in units,not as an individual. Also does anyone know why the Khorgorath can only be bought as part of the starterset?
 
Huh, that's a lot of really good information. So what should I add to the SC box to get somewhere between the Skaven and Stormforged? I don't have much experience with building armies so either they are very weak because lack of synergies or they get to be too much to handle for other opponents in my group.

Thanks a bunch though, I really like the detailed response!

As for the Korgorath, I believe the Lord Relictor is also exclusive, so it might just be to get people to get the starter.
 
The lord relictor at least is a hero, not this weird kinda unit monster. Ah well, weird.

Anyways, the stormforged are a bit difficult to deal with for our starterset. They are sturdy & have 2 reliable ranged sources of mortal wounds + a unit with ranged attacks. For such a small army they are increadibly versatile & well-balanced. If your opponent plays smart & has a bit of luck with the rolls it'l be extremely difficult to be on equal footing based on our starterset as he can already do quite a lot of damage before you've ever engaged. Add in one or two rounds in which his liberators slow you down while he takes potshots and you've probably lost half our starterset before ever reaching the real threats. We simply lack numbers, range & damage to deal with them reliably.

I would probably suggest taking something ranged, the stormforged have fairly shortrange and even a small unit of skinks could already even things out.
Possible options:
- A unit of skinks
- A unit of skinks chameleons
- 2-3 razordons or salamanders + their handlers

This should even it out without immeadiatly overwhelming them.

It should help you bash through the liberators a bit faster plus it stops his two lords from keeping back and taking potshots. The judicators will still be difficult to deal with. And if you're playing wthout any objective's you'l probably still lose, dealing with his judicators with our starterset without any limitations put on them is probably impossible without vastly overwhelming his forces (or just not using the starterset at all).

As for the skaven, the main advantage they have over you is numbers. They only have 2 sources of mortal wounds: the warlock & the warpfire team. And the poison wind mortar isn't reliable enough to be that much of an issue. All of which are slow and squishy. Use your oldblood's gauntlet to shoot down them down, especially the warpfire team while you chew through the hordes of clanrats. It depends on how quickly the carnosaur can chew through the clanrats. If you have a bit of luck the starterset might already be on equal footing simply because your carnosaur went off and ate all the clanrats in 2 turns. However, it probably wouldn't hurt to get 1 extra box of something weak to even out the numbers a bit. Try getting a box of saurus warriors so you have an actual unit instead of just the 12 in the box. That should be plenty. The skaven are simlpy easy enough to kill even if their army is vastly more versatile.
 
O for the sake of completion:

The aelfs wouldn't be too difficult to deal with once we get more than our starterbox for us for 1 simple reason, they have only 1 source of mortal wounds & if that archmage casts arcane bolt he won't be using his shield. Get some temple guard who can shrug of the arrowfire, or just throw saurus warriors in numbers at it. The only real issue will be the horses who could potentially run around you in circles until you die. The only real option we have for that is something that outfires them, which would basicly be a stegadon or a bastillidon or a crapton of skinks with boltspitters, but if you'd use those options you'd probably just stomp the aelven army.
 
The advice you've given has been really useful thank you!
 
Tried out a game yesterday with the suggestions you made, the results were very close! I just barely lost with the skaven making it out with some clanrats and the engineer. Thanks a bunch for your help everyone, it made the game loads of fun without needing to worry about fairness.
 
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