Hello fellow cold-bloods, I've come up with the following three lists for a tournament coming this weekend and could not choose between them. Care to help me out? Which one would you choose? Extra credit for pointing out something that's missing and/or unnecessary in any list. Thank you! 1) RazorKroak - 2000 Lord Kroak - General - 450 Balewind Vortex - 100 Saurus Astrolith Bearer - Incandescent Rectrices - 160 10x Skinks - Blowpipe & Club - 60 10x Skinks - Blowpipe & Club - 60 10x Skinks - Blowpipe & Club - 60 Thunderquake Starhost - 170 Engine of the Gods - Coronal Shield - 220 3x Razordons - 120 Skink Handlers - 40 Bastiladon - Solar Engine - 280 Bastiladon - Solar Engine - 280 2) EternalShadow - 2000 Shadowstrike Starhost - 170 Skink Starpriest - General: Master of Arcane Rituals, Incandescent Rectrices - 80 40x Skinks - Blowpipe & Club - 200 40x Skinks - Blowpipe & Club - 200 6x Ripperdactyl Riders - 280 Eternal Starhost - 130 Eternity Warden - Coronal Shield - 140 20x Saurus Guard - 400 10x Saurus Guard - 200 10x Saurus Guard - 200 3) Bloodclaw - 2000 Slann Starmaster - General: Great Rememberer - 260 Bloodclaw Starhost - 200 Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur - Incandescent Rectrices - 280 Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur - Warblade, Coronal Shield - 240 Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold-One - 100 Saurus Sunblood - 120 20x Saurus Guard - 400 10x Saurus Warriors - Clubs - 100 10x Saurus Warriors - Clubs - 100 10x Saurus Cavalry - 200
#1 is a bit dangerous since it misses wounds. Also pretty cheesy but that's OK if it is meant for competitive play. #2 hard to tell. Could work if you use the flyers to snipe and the Guards to control objectives. Still looks a bit immobile to me with that many Guards. #3 I think you should try to have at least one full Warrior group of 40. Maybe drop the Knights instead.
re:1 Yes, it is lacking in models and wounds but the last few times I played that list I figured out how to keep my Skinks save so that they can teleport and run to objectives to score points after my opponent's army is obliterated by the big lizards. And also yes, it will be a very competitive tourney re:2 Thats's the idea but I hear what you mean regarding overall mobility. IMO this is the weakest out of three options and could use a rework. re:3 A maxed-up unit of Saurus would require more than dropping the cavalry since I'd be down to 2 battlelines. Would dividing the 20-strong unit of Guards into two units of 10 a good idea? It might make the list more flexible and actually make the Guard more efficient in combat at the same time.
In regards to #1: When do you plan on putting Kroak on the vortex? Here I'm especially thinking in regards to the 'slann healing bonus' when within range of the starhost?
Kroak will teleport and summon balewind to finish off the remainder of the enemy once their main battle line is broken. Until then, and especially if my Thunderquake is under attack, he will stay within 10" of the formation. Balewind can still help him there for mystic shield/arcane bolt if not for the +1 to cast.
Razorkroak is excellent, but as noted when kroak jumps upon the vortex, your EotG will lose the Slann's bonuses, if you want to move the formation. And if you plan to use the bastiladon for a more close combat, I'd swap a solar beam for an ark of sotek, to spam mortal wounds (sometime the rend -1 granted by the solar beam won't be enough. Eternal shadow got my vote: excellent ability to snipe characters / kill dangerous units, to make easier the work for your guards. I would cut 40 skinks for a unit of chama skinks, using the 80 saved points for a skink priest, trying to give rerolls to the guards' saves. Bloodclaw: to have no range attacks is very hard in a competitive enviroment
So, I picked RazorKroak. Played two games, won one and lost the other. The one I won was against Beastclaw Raiders. I finished setup early and made him go first which I think was what won me the game when I eventually got my double turn. He kept back in turn 1, so none of my units received 6 mortal wounds from either of his 4 thundertusks. My first turn I teleported Kroak to his flank where he would be out of range for the thundertusks but close enough so that he might hit them with celestial delverance. Got off both comet's call and celestial deliverance, plus arcane bolt. Dealt good enough damage and that was it. He won the initiative and in his second turn he decided to push forward and managed to get 3" extra movement from his winter table too. He hit my Bastis and Engine with everything he had which almost killed one Basti and the Engine but they survived. In my second turn I teleported Kroak back so each monster got healed D3 and all was well. Razordons and Bastis utterly destroyed three of his Thundertusks after Kroak and the Engine softened them up. When I won the initiative for a double turn, he conceded. The scenario was Starstrike from GHB'17 but the objectives didn't come into play much since the game was over so early. I lost against an incredibly irritating Khorne army with Gore Pilgrims and Brass Stampede formations at the Total Conquest battleplan. Almost everything could unbind my spells or had a 4+ save against spell effects. He used his blood tithes and the brazen rune artifact to auto-unbind celestial deliverance three times which bought him enough time to spread out and eliminate my Skinks. By the time I could kill off his units I had two turns remaining to overcome an 8-point difference which, in the end, I could not. But I did fairly well and if I were the one to receive that critical first double turn, things could have turned out differently. My ability to keep my Skinks safe needs some more practice after how they were butchered this game too. But overall against an army almost specifically designed to be a thorn in my side, I think the list did fairly well.