AoS Some Newbie questions

[Nuradin]

so, I am planning on giving Age of Sigmar a real shot this time. The last time I ended up playing WoW instead, and my Seraphon army quickly ended up on the shelf.
But now that I have read up on things, there are a few questions that I would really like to have some sort of answer to or discussion about.

1) Skink Starpriest or Skink priest? Pros and cons? From what I can see Starpriest is better for survivability and Skink priest for a more aggresive army? Would you agree?

2) Eternal Starhost and Shadowstrike starhost, I recon I can use them without having purchased any of the books? And what would the best way to complement those two be?
I have a Bastiladon and Lord Kroak (unglued and unpainted so far), and really like the idea of using the Bastiladon. Lord Kroak I hear has gotten worse with the rule of one. Thoughts? ideas?

3) People say you can convert Warriors into Guards, and that you can create Oldblood and/or Sunblood from left over parts from the starting box. What actually costitutes a model? How can I actually say that all those pieces together equals an Oldblood, for example?

4) When fielding my Saurus Guards (I have 30 of them), I have seen people going with 3*5 and 2*10+1*5! My question here is with the standard bearer and the drummer/musician. Do they also get the same amount of attacks as a normal Saurus Guard? Do you use them in those units that you pick?

Any thoughts, ideas and general discussion is much appreciated

 

[Bowser]

1) Starpriest. Actually a wizard, can cast and unbind. Priest 50/50 shot to get his prayer off. Both quite good, but Starpriest is just getting more out of that 100 points. Tehenhauin is 80 points and has the same prayer as the priest.

2) Lord Kroak is great, but he is too expensive. If you plan on playing 3k, probably take him. Bastiladon is great for everything. Eternal starhost, shadowstrike and bastiladon go well together, but bloodclaw would be better still. Stegadon is great if you want skink heavy armies. Do you plan on using terradon or rippers for your shadowstrike?
3) That's up to you/ your game club. I used an upside down knight body and some greenstuff to fill out for an oldblood on foot. Just depends on how much you want to put in.

4)Musician and standard have the same weapons and stat lines as the rest of the unit. It is in the FAQ. I always use full command. Musician, alpha, and standard always makes the unit so much better.

 

[Nuradin]

Aaah, at a first glance I was really excited for the Skink Priest since my guards could then reroll the saves.
But the more I look at it, Starpriest appears to offer a more varied set of abilities and would therefore allow for better reaction to what is happening on the battlefield. Hadn't even thought about Tehenhauin.

Not really sure how many points. I would think 2k is the most common and yes, Lord Kroak then becomes a bit too expensive.
I am planning on running Rippers, cause I just love the chance of getting all those chain attacks. And spreading fear through a toad I've been contemplating running two units of rippers just because I love the theory of them so much Never played a game yet, so it is all in theory! And I was kinda hoping Bastiladon was a good choice, cause it's probably my favorite looking monster of the bunch! And was really looking forward to painting it.
How do you mean Bloodclaw is better? You mean Shadowstrike and Bloodclaw? or Eternal and Bloodclaw?
I dont really like the skink models, so I wasn't really planning on going skink heavy. Shadowstrike is basically just to counter the slow moving army that is Eternal Starhost. And seriously, who doesn't love surprises in the form of Chameleons and Rippers?

Well, then I can just take whatever left over parts I have and see what I can create out of them! Was thinking about creating a sunblood and an astrolith bearer from one of the warriors. I should have enough left over parts to do that in one way or an other!

Yeah, I remember reading something about them having the same attacks as everyone else. But when I take a look at people's armies over at warhammer tv I rarely see anything running around with a standard. But yes, you are very much correct that running with full command makes the unit so much better. So I will ofcourse do that!

 

[Bowser]

Bloodclaw gives you 4 saurus heroes and you can use all of their command abilities. Mixed with shadowstrike is a beast. 2 units of Ripperdactyls are always fun. That second toad just gives you so much board control.

 

[Nuradin]

Is it possible to run Bloodclaw efficiently with Guards? how much such a formation look in that case?

And thanks for the picture. Been looking the web for a nice picture of Bloodclaw and heavenswatch, but without success.

 

[Bowser]

Yeah, if you want to build defensively, imagine all of those buffs on thise little monsters. Now try to take an objective away with a bastiladon nearby. Thise bad boys are not moving.

 

[Nuradin]

What buffs do you mean, exactly? I dont really see where they would get the buffs that make it better than Eternal Starhost. (this is where my newbishness comes into play)

 

[Bowser]

Eternal gives +1 to save and D3 damage if they didn't move.
Bloodclaw gives an extra jaw/shield attack, now the other abilities are uo to you. Eternity warden Alpha warden ability and Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur gives an extra attack on a 6 roll mixed with a sunblood ability to reroll failed hit rolls, and an oldblood on Carnosaur ability to give the heroes bonus attacks, think about the damage output there. Or a couple of scar-vet on cold one so you can divide and conquer. Or an oldblood on foot to move them a few inches. It comes down to biw you use the command abilities. It's not necessarily better than an eternal starhost, but gives you more options and outs.

 

[Nuradin]

That would indeed give alot more options!
I will certainly that starhost into consideration, even though I really like the Eternal Starhost only because it makes my Guards into immortal beasts! (although mortal wounds would kill me pretty quickly).
Or I just try running two different armies. One with guards and Eternal, and one with knights and bloodclaw!

 

[DeadlyRecluse]

I feel like a conversion is valid as long as the person has put in some sort of effort to make the model different enough from the starting model. It doesn't matter to me as much if it doesn't match the model it's trying to emulate, but if your temple guard just look like warriors without something significant to set them apart from actual warriors, it makes it confusing to play against or even play with