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7th Ed. the ideal slan guard?

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Arklite

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just something I’ve been thinking over.

when building my army I’m looking for (generally speaking) 2 thinks. power and low price. as such my attention has fallen on the concept of using spawned saurus as a slan guard.

temple guard are generally speaking a far superior bodyguard in terms of killing potential and ability to resist attack. (better weapon skill and better SS save)

on the other hand saurus are quite a bit cheaper and with the correct spawnings could make a powerful alternate to the temple guard. for example with the spawnings of quetzals and tlazcotl you have a unit of saurus who are immune to psychology and almost as tough as temple guard. the downside is that such a unit will take up a rare choice rather than the somewhat expendable core choice. Should you have a 2nd gen slan this removes the ability to take sallies or a stegadon. Both rather potent.

I however use a 4th gen slan ;)

based on the way i plan to use my slan’s body guard the respective points costs are 273 for the temple guard (PAIN!) and 233 for the saurus (not so much pain, but at the loss of a rare choice) the temple guard are of course significantly superior to the saurus at killing things. But in the job of keeping the slan alive these rare saurus might be worth while. (Both in points and on my pocket)

what do we all reckon?
 
For 40 pts I'm not sure it's worth sacrificing that rare slot and the significantly inferior troops. I've tried just about everything from a lone slann to fully kitted TG, here's my take on it.

TG are one helluva investment. But slap on the Totem of prophecy and you are looking at a unit which the opponent will have to kill to the last man to get rid of - even with fear! How many units can say that? In addition, they're trying to kill elite saurus warriors to the last man, heck just beating these guys in combat is enough of a challenge for most armies.

Having said that though, they are expensive, there's no getting round that. My alternative is simply saurus with BSoTlazcotl. This pretty cheap spawning protects your from basic annoyances such as fear, terror and panic, while still giving you a pretty tough unit in itself (even without spawnings, saurus are no pushover - they all have cold blood and BSB :D). When you look to put another spawning on them such as Quetzl, and they take up a rare slot and only 40 pts cheaper than TG...well I would just bite the bullet and go for the TG, but that's just me :)
 
In my opinion, it really depends on who you generally play against. If you play against chaos, vc, or tk on a regular basis then Saurus with Tlazcotl are better hands down because to make your Temple Guard immune to fear costs an additional 75 pts which there is no excuse for.

Now on the otherhand, if you play against opponents like elves, I would say that temple guard are worth the price. Most people think of TG higher WS only in reference to their ability to do damage, but it also works to minimize the damage they recieve (WS 4 armies are only going to hit TG on a 4+). This, combined with the 3+ save and the stubborn, means that they will stick around for longer and elves do not perform well in protracted fights.


Or, you could just skip hiding your slann in a unit, and just put a thing of jungle swarms in front of him and use your free pivot when enemies are close.
 
The stubborn/BSB combo for slann w/TG is pretty much unbeatable. Even if they get killed in combat that Stubborn is priceless and will keep you around when coupled with cold-blooded. Face it, if your Slann w/bodyguard flees your pretty much done, especially if they get caught! If I'm gonna invest that many points in to a lord choice, I think its worth the extra for the TG to make sure they both hang around. Using blessed spawnings on saurus may work but in the end you might have almost the same points invested and they can still break if hit hard on the charge (which they probably will be at least 1 time per game probably more).

my 2 cents
 
Another point to consider is the inflexibility of the temple guard. There have been certain times when my opponnenet has lined up those chosen chaos knights of knorne con lord and I know that if my slann stays in the unit he will be toast sooner or later. Being in the Saurus allows him to leave the unit , perhaps even leapfrogging into a saurus unit nearby, hopefully outside of the knights charge arc. With temple guard the slann can never leave, so even if there is only one or two temple guard left the slann cannot move into a safer unit
 
I think we have enough units such as swarms, skinks, and other lone characters to successfully lure those frenzied knights away from the block. But even if they did get in, the unit holds for a turn and then my krox come in to open up those knights :)
 
I go for a Saurus with Tlatzcotl. The way that people kill Slanns are not by shooting (though they may try), its by beating them in combat with a massive tarpit of zombies or something and running them down. Taztcotl gets rid of that idea completely. You never want your Slann fleeing and this prevents that (unless you roll shoddingly).

I dont take Temple Guard purely because they cost more money, this is a way to get around it.
 
Temple guard are the only lizardmen unit that i do not own. Why you ask? I see their abilities and I can imagine what they are good for, but they cost more money than i am willing to pay for them. Salamanders were also really expensive, but at least i can (and do) use them in all my lists. While i will only be able to play temple guard effectively when i play a slann list.
Maybe if I see some cheap on ebay... but I rather put my slann in a tzlacotl saurus unit or run him all alone behind a few units to shield him off.
 
Give a box of saurus spears and a good paint job and you've got some TG (that's how I made mine anyway ;) )
 
Good Suggestion. I have about 16 Saurus with Spears that I did not even paint because i almost never use them ^^ as temple guards they might finally be allowed out of their box again
 
I'm an inexperienced player but this is what makes sense to me. If you field a Slann in the middle of a decent sized temple guard unit then you have a "pink elephant" on the table. Your opponent is going to try and crush that squad, it's a given right? ... So couldn't you really used that to take attention away from the rest of your army? I don't know how everyone fields their TG and Slann but I would want mine in combat with something in the other army or I would feel like it was being wasted. On top of that if you start advancing the Slann you can hit with short range spells and bring the battle standard close in on all your combat troops. I guess I"m just repeating what was already said. The few Lizardman games I've wathced people play with TG (I don't have any yet), they tend to just stick them in the back and do nothing, seems like a waste to me.

Point is I'd be very aggressive with a Slann and TG, I"d be cautious but but very aggressive. Does that just end up getting the Slann killed?
 
I prefer to play my slaan offensively hitting a unit with a cvouple of 2d6 S4 hits thgen hitting them with temple gaurd finishes of most units and TG are so expensive its a waste not to use them as a cc unit in my oppinion.
 
I usually sit back casting offensive magic, when it's time to engage I have a unit of TG and two units of Krox to lend a hand :bored:
 
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