7th Ed. Stegadooooooooon

[PwnBunny]

I'm so very new.

I like stegadons. I like everything about them and the model.
Thus far I have had no luck whatsoever when I take a stegadon in my lists. Typically I take an ancient stegadon with the Engine of the Gods - I hold it back and use it primarily as something for my lvl 2 skink priest to stand on and grab extra spells from. But then I start reading about the other stegadon variations and I want to know your opinions! The giant bow or the blowpipes for instance, how successful have you been with those? What are your suggestions with stegadon tactics? What are the stegadon's strengths and weaknesses?
I need to learn how to use my stegadon!!!! Thanks in advance!

 

[Caneghem]

"I need to learn how to use my stegadon!!!! Thanks in advance!"

You're asking the wrong question! You can't revolve your list around any one model and expect to have success that way, no matter how much you love that one model..

The EotG is a support stegadon primarily, providing shielding from missiles for your nearby troops and possibly zapping some armored foes now and then.

Putting a skink chief with the war-spear on an ancient or normal stegadon makes it a powerful hammer unit capable of smashing up units by itself.

Taking a naked steg, with no characters, makes a decently reliable hammer unit to support saurus blocks. You can also throw them into combat without worrying so much about the weak skink character on top.

Since they perform many roles, it is not completely unheard of to have multiple stegadons in the same army. Just know what role they are going to fill first

 

[strewart]

The role of the steg vs the ancient is both similar and different. The giant bow is not going to do very much really, you will be moving every turn and BS is poor anyway so it will hardly ever hit. The blow pipes do have the potential to inflict a fair bit of damage, say if you had just destroyed an enemy unit and in your turn had nothing to charge, you manouvre into position then fire the blowpipes ready to charge next turn. Both will perform very well in combat, the extra strength on the ancient makes it a lot more deadly to armoured troops but remember that most of the attacks are impact hits so you could still barrel into combat and roll a 1.

The points difference between the two is quite important to consider, the ancient is a fair bit more. Both types can take similar roles, as heavy support for infantry blocks. Neither can be relied upon to defeat a ranked unit alone (unless there is a chief with warspear) so both are a bit more of a support role. When the chief is there they are definitely a hard hitting hammer.

And the engine is very good. You don't want to throw it away early, and you don't want to let the priest die, but it is still an ancient underneath so it is a waste if he doesn't see combat, as a support in the flank where you can kill everything in base contact before they attack back preferably. Also the burning alignment spell is very effective and fairly close range.

 

[Eagleblaze]

As strewart said, the ancient is a great mount, but you still have an ancient underneath so it should see combat.

The only bonus, from the perspective of the skink, for having an EOTG is that you gain 1 magic level, a +2 save and gain some elevation.
On the downside you are now a major target, are a large target, and have quadrupled your point cost.

Don't use the anceient as a shield, it isn't one.

With good manouvering and some strategy your priest will do fine without that +2 save, so don't waste the raw power he is sitting on by hiding the stegadon.

-Eagle-

 

[Alesh]

I like to run an EoTG with (effectively) a Level 3 Skink Priest on top. A level 2 upgrade, the EoTG for an extra PD/DD, and the Plaque of Tepok for an extra spell. Having the fire power of a Level 3, the Burning Alignment, and my Slann with the Focused Rumination makes for a nasty, nasty magic phase.

Use your Stegadons as support units. Don't expect them to take out anything with an average static combat resolution, unless (as has been mentioned), you have a Warspear on it.

 

[beardedgecko]

am i like the only one who has rolled a "2" for distance on about 6 out of the 10 times Ive used burning alignment???????

 

[Kyrogar]

am i like the only one who has rolled a "2" for distance on about 6 out of the 10 times Ive used burning alignment???????

I have rolled an Inch short a lot of times . I only use burning when the other 2 are of no use in the battle.