7th Ed. Upgrading to 1500 - the Lizards roll on!

[Bakatron]

Roit, after my successful debut last week, there's a bunch of us meeting up this Sunday to play some more, and we're going up to the heady heights of 1500 points! If it's not a problem, I'd value your thoughts on my updated list. I've made a couple of changes to the original list, to encompass a couple of issues I had before.

And note that I'm at work and can't remember magic item names, I'll edit 'em in later.

Heroes:

Skink Priest - 415pts
- Lvl 2 Upgrade
- Ancient Stegadon
- Either Diadem of Power or the staff which lets you blow stuff up once, I forget the name :/

Saurus Scar-Veteran - 130pts
- Light Armour
- Sword of striking first
- Cold One

Skink Priest - 90pts
- Dispel Scroll

Core:

Saurus Warriors x13 – 174pts
- Spears
- Musician
- Standard Bearer

Skink Skirmishers x10 – 70pts

Skink Skirmishers x10 – 70pts

Skink Skirmishers x10 – 70pts

Special:

Cold One Cavalry x6 – 230pts
- Standard Bearer

Terradon Riders x3 – 90pts

Rare:

Salamander – 80pts
- Extra Skink

Salamander – 80pts
- Extra Skink


Thoughts? My basic plan for the upgrade was at least one more unit, get a Sally for the other flank, bulk out the COC a little and get a second wizard. The other changes are to ColdOneisize the Scarvet (which, with his upgraded save from that meant I could drop the shield), drop a saurus to go with that, and to spread my magic around slightly.

Edit: Crap, I think I might have the points value slightly wrong on the scar-vet... where to lose a few points..

 

[Bakatron]

Sorry for the doublepost, but there's only so much edit you can do

Bit concerned that I only have one unit of infantry. Contemplating turning one of the skirmisher units into a rank and file skink squad with a Kroxi in, and maybe shoving the second priest into them?

 

[novatomato]

Maybe if you tells us what armies you think you will be facing most often we could help in a more specific way.

If you want to be more offensive in the magic phase I'd take the Rod of the Storm, but remember that it is one time use and only does D6 hits, so it could be completely useless. Use it either when you want/need to get off a different spell and need to draw your opponents dispel dice, or when your opponent has no dice left.
If you want defensive power give him the Diadem.

 

[Barotok]

Is your skink priest, mounted on an ancient stegadon using the EotG? I'm assuming so.

Also, you asked about the magic item that you couldn't remember. Is it Rod of the Storm?

I wouldn't recommend ranking up all of your skink skirmishers, as they play a big roll in most army lists for the LM (if used properly). I am slightly concerned with the small unit of sarus you do have. Consider that at 1500 points you'll be facing much larger units of infantry which will most likely beat the sarus in CC every time (depending on the opponent) due to SCR. This means one of two things. You'll need to make sure you have something that can help your sarus by charging in the flank to assist them in breaking those big units of infantry or you'll need to beef the unit out to a more comparable size to the other infantries you'll be facing. I would recommend at least 15 with 18 being a great number. Since you are running spears, 18 is a great number because you can take advantage of the wider frontage and maximize your spear attacks. You also get the benefit of 2 additional ranks for combat resolution.

On the subject of the Cold One Cavalry, I notice that you have a standard and nothing else. I am assuming your Scar Veteran is going to go in the unit, which will bring your unit to 7 models. While this isn't a big problem if you plan on frontal charges of large infantry units, a unit that wide will most likely have more trouble maneuvering into the flank if you plan on using them for flank support. It is true that you can drop one of the riders to the back rank to help soak shooting making a smaller frontage which will ultimately be more maneuverable. Or you can drop a rider out all together making the unit smaller, saving points and still providing you the maneuverability. If you're dead set on making the unit super strong, giving them a Scar Veteran is great. I would also recommend picking up a musician and perhaps a champion, in case you run into something that can waste the SV (not likely, but they do exist). This type of unit is capable of plowing infantry head on (with some good rolls).

To summarize though, it seems that you on the fence between a power house unit and a flanker. Thats a tough area to be in since you can't really have the best of both worlds.

Best of luck this weekend.

 

[Bakatron]

My most common opponents look to be various Chaos armies, Orcs, and maybe TK and High Elves.

Ok, to address Barotok's points, firstly yes, the priest has an EotG, and I believe that is the Rod of the Storm I'm thinking of.

I wasn't planning to rank up all the skinks, I thought I'd switch one unit over to a ranked unit with a Kroxi, so i have a second block. Ok they won't be great, but they'll be able to harry and generally annoy the enemy, (and I'd like to get a Kroxigor in somewhere just cause I love the models!) plus I was thinking to hide the second priest in there so he has a little protection.

My unit of Saurus will have the Scar-vet in, hence the strange number of Saurus. I'll be running them 5x3. The Cold Ones... I'd love to give them a champ/musician, if I can find the points! I may just drop them back to the 5 strong unit, but I'll likely keep the standard they have for extra resolution. I'm looking to run them mostly to charge down the flank, then wheel across and hit enemies in the side.

Does that help?

 

[Barotok]

If you're putting the Cold one mounted Scar Vet in the unit of Sarus consider the following:

Cons:
1) You'll be making the entire unit subject to the stupidity rule.
2) You'll be throwing away the movement benefit of being mounted on a cold one (unless you charge out).

Pros:
1) Extra WS3 STR4 attack
2) SV causes fear (Mount rules show up in the Old Blood entry but not in SV entry; Thick Skinned, Stupidity, Fear)
3) +1 Unit Strength
4) Extra 25x25mm base used (cavalry base), helps w/ rank bonuses


My other concern is with the COC. If you run them with the intention to charge a flank, giving them a standard is a gamble as far as points. If the charged unit is in combat with another one of your units at the front that has a standard, then you still only get 1 CR, even though two are present in combat. That's not enough in and of itself to say remove the standard or keep it one way or another. I just don't know how sold on the idea I am. Flanking cold one units are going to be removing the enemy's rank bonus anyways (higher than US5 into the flank) which puts you way ahead. Provided you don't flub the rolls associated with the attacks, I don't know how usefull that standard will be. Perhaps try it out and see if it's needed? I'd like to know what you find.

 

[Bakatron]

Hmm, maybe I'll pull out the standard then and just run them 6-strong. That gives me about 19 points to play with, I'm sure I can buy a magic item or the like. Maybe the Plaque of Tepok for the second priest, give him some options?

Oh, or maybe I'll give the ranked skink unit command. I'm certainly considering a Brave to protect the priest from challenges.

 

[Strim]

You can only use 1 rare unit at 1500 points... (either you take out one salamander or you join both in one unit).

At 1500 points you don't need so much defensive magic... If you get the priest in the EotG with the diadem and a dispell scroll you are getting 6 dispell dice each turn, and you wouldn't need the other priest.

For the mounted scar-vet i would use the sword of might and the enchanted shield.

The unit of saurus, try to make it bigger (15 or 18)

The rest i think it's ok (but i wouldn't use ranked skinks, they are not worth the points they cost)

 

[Bakatron]

Oo, I'd missed the Rare units thing. I'll join 'em up, Sallys are great

I'm pretty much set on having the priest use the Rod of the Storm over the Diadem. The reason for the second priest is to try and get a second spell off in a round, I figure that'll give me a nice bonus

Scar-vet-wise, note that he'll be in the Saurus unit as I stated before, I've not just chosen a random number of troops, that's so they rank up at 5x3! I found in my last game that he suffered from his low initiative a lot, which is why I was thinking the Sword of the Hornet so I get a few attacks in first. I don't need the shield, as he's on a Cold One, so +2 armour save anyway, he's already at *thinks* 1+

The ranked skinks are something I'm not 100% sold on, but they're there for a few reasons. Firstly, I only have one ranked infantry unit, they'll be another target. Secondly, I want to try out a Kroxi. I don't have the points/figures for a unit of 'em, so I can throw him in with teh skinks. Finally it gives the second priest a little protection, thanks to Look Out Sir!