Lessons from my 1500pt game last night:
1) On all-comers lists, expect lots of poison. It seems Hagbane is going to be on a lot, with maybe a starfire scouts to remove regen from destruction. Even 40 poisoned, AP shots will drop an ancient steg in pretty short order. At least my engine got a 4+/6+; baby steg's going to be on 5+ saves
2) I clearly overreacted to the Trueshot option. He didn't have any, and it will be a minority in general lists if Hagbane is as effective as it seems. This makes T2/3 skirmishers less of a writeoff than I was expecting.
3) Salamanders scare wood elves, but need a skink screen as they will be a prime target. Getting into range is still tricky, as 30" bows and a tendency to back off a few inches each turn is going to hurt your ability to get optimal shots off, and it may be a case of trying long shots wherever the opportunity presents
4) Shadow Magic, Miasma, Withering, Pit. Even Pendulum complements their S3 shooting well. So...yeh.
5) Lore of heavens over Lore of Beasts on Skink. I went beasts because I though trueshot would make iceshard irrelevant, but in Hagbane makes T5 irrelevant instead. Give yourself a chance at the comet, or Curse of the Midnight wind to cripple poison reliance.
6) You need to be killing elves early. They can outshoot you, have skirmish and/or soft cover everywhere, but they hate magic missiles. Burning Alignment drew the scroll turn 1. Flock of Doom was, for once, not useless, and the laser fried waywatchers nicely even on low - Bastilodon was definitely my MVP, soaking up waywatcher fire and even flattening fragile, T3 Elves in combat. These are invaluable against WE, I'd strongly consider taking 2 in a tailored list. I had 3 magic missiles/direct damage in my list and, after the salamander, they were the main threat I could offer. Ruby ring of ruin, High Slann with Soul Quench or even a fire slann all fit with this.
I do still wonder about CoC; those waywatchers are going to be shooting something any way you cut it, and they're still wounding on 5+, before any buffs you apply. Wyssans makes 6+ to wound, Cursed wind makes them reroll half their successful wounds, any number of -1 to hit hexes can help out here, Engine gives a 6+ ward (and cav can scren the engine) and, all that aside, Waywatchers are unquestionably #1 on target list for fireballs or camo skinks. the alternative is to not bring any armour at all, at which point they switch to BS5, AP multi-shot and mow down skinks and terradons.
Troglodon is a bit of a push in any list, but maybe here..? S/T5 is at no disadvantage at all, they're fast, can channel for another chance of a 3+ bound magic missile, and give you an arcane vessal which can't be sniped in turn 1 by a waywatcher hero...problem is, it costs you Salamanders or your Engine.
The first time Kroak + strategically placed flying priest gets a decent magic phase against Wood Elves could be funny as well!
