8th Ed. Skink chief on a stegadon or on a ripperdactyl?

[Kdawg112]

So I usually put a skink chief on a stegadon, but lately when I have the big guy charge a unit he gets challenged and all my impact hits and stomps go into the challenge and not the unit. So the stegadons glorious charge is all wasted on one model. Should I be running a steg without a chief on top to avoid this and put the skink chief on a ripperdactyl? I assumed the extra leadership and maybe a magic item on the steg would be worth it but now I'm not so sure. What does every one here think?

 

[Wizgamer]

Ah, but when you win the challenge, all overkill points go towards combat resolutions. Imagine making a unit runaway without causing any damage to the actual unit........

 

[Kdawg112]

I have played against a lot of daemon and undead armies lately that don't run, however that would be great if I forced a unit to run and only killed one model then overran!

 

[A Steaming Kroak]

Impact hits affect the unit, so they don't get lost in the challenge. You lose the thunderstomp in the challange if you kill the champ before the stomp happens - there is no one left to attack. They don't get rolled and added to combat res, they just don't happen. This also affects the mounts attacks, which would be lost if the character with higher initiative kills the champion before the Stegadon roll its attacks. Again there is no one left to attack, and you lose the Stegadons attacks and its thunderstomp. Personally, I think that Stegadons are better without the character because of the potential loss of stomps/attacks. This is a problem with all ridden monsters, and I think is a one of the biggest reasons why you are seeing less ridden monsters (the other being cannons).

 

[RipperDerek]

Impact hits explicitly hit the unit before challenges are declared. However, you can still lose your thunderstomps if you kill the opponent before they happen.

That said, I don't think the skink chief adds anything to the unit but a bunch of points. He doesn't even have better LD than the steg itself

 

[Scalenex]

It is fun to take down a vampire with a lowly Skink (don't tell anyone about the Stegadon).

 

[Dreyer]

A good reason to take a chief on a ancient steg is if you want 2 ancient stegs but you also want lots of salamanders. Either go cheap with light armor, shield and spear (can throw in a dragon helm if you want) or go crazy and give him the egg of quango for explodey goodness!