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AoS Painted Myself into a Corner—Tactics Help for a 500 Point List

Discussion in 'Seraphon Tactics' started by Christopher, Apr 12, 2018.

  1. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    My local Games Workshop location is hosting a four-week Age of Sigmar Escalation League starting tomorrow and my outsized goal is to have a fully painted army for each week. So far, so good, in that I completed my 500 point list last night (Week One is 500 points using the Vanguard Pitched Battle rules, Week Two is 1000 points, Week Three is 1500 points using the Battlehost Pitched Battle rules, and Week Four is 2000 points).

    The two big house rules are that measurements are taken base to base and that there are no double turns—whoever wins the initiative roll in the first round has the first turn in each subsequent round.

    All games in the League will be played using the same draws from an Open War card deck. Each Thursday, the shop manager will draw one Deployment, one Objectives, and one Twist card, making a video of the draws which she’ll then post to the shop’s Facebook page. She hasn’t done it yet for Week One, so I don’t know the exact details of the Week One games.

    We can play twice a week, taking our better result to be recorded in a just-for-fun points accumulation.

    Now, as the title of this post suggests, I have my 500 point list ready to go. Thing is, I’ve still only got maybe a half dozen AoS games under my belt and will be playing against skilled and experienced players. Most likely, I’ll end up playing a lot against the Death player who’s smashed me in every previous contest (more on that below).

    Here’s my list.

    Battle Trait—Lords of Space and Time

    Saurus Eternity Warden (General)
    --Leader
    --Thickly Scaled Hide Command Trait
    --Coronal Shield Artefact
    --Inspiring Presence Command Ability

    5 Saurus Guard
    --Battleline
    --1 model built as a drummer
    --1 model built as a Stardrake Icon bearer

    30 Skinks
    --Battleline
    --Boltspitters and Star-bucklers

    1 Salamander
    --Artillery

    1 Razordon
    --Artillery

    That’s exactly 500 points.

    My general question for this post is this: what tactics, both broadly and specifically speaking, are most likely to be effective with this list in most situations?

    Here are tactical notes I wrote for myself for the test game I played against that Death player last week.

    In every Hero Phase, use Inspiring Presence and consider using Lords of Space and Time (possibly on the same unit).

    Consider using Lords of Space and Time to teleport the Skinks to a distant objective as soon as possible.

    Keep the Saurus Guard with 5” of the general. Give their lack of mobility, consider setting them up on a unit in friendly territory.

    Use the Salamander and the Razordon as assassins targeting enemy Heroes.


    And that might have worked against that Death army had I actually followed my own advice (and rolled better). We played using those cards and drew a fairly simply two-objective scenario with a Twist of no Battleshock tests to be taken. I teleported my Skinks to close to the objective in my opponent’s territory on my first turn, set up my Eternity Warden and Guard on the objective in my own territory, and set the Salamander and Razordon up flanking the middle of the board—where he’d concentrated most of his forces, which consisted of two undead Heroes of some kind and Battlelines of ten zombies and twenty skeletons (to the best of my recollection).

    The three major factors in my defeat were two mistakes I made and the simple nature of his Battlelines. Mistake Number One: I immediately took the bait when he sent his zombies up the middle and sent out my Saurus Guard to engage with them. Mistake Number Two: I realized this days later—I didn’t give myself the Celestial Cohort bonus on my shooting with the Skinks! This led to them being tied up in an all-battle scrum around the objective marker in his territory. Simple Fact: His skeletons and zombies Just. Kept. Coming. Back.

    Minor factors included not taking the save for cover in the first round and frankly, the fast and loose nature of my opponent’s play. As just one example, I’m pretty sure he was taking an extra save for his skeletons dependent on them being in proximity to one of his heroes, but they were more than 9” away, which I think is the minimum.

    The only thing that worked out fairly well was that I tied up his two heroes with my artillery for most of the game.

    Sidebar Question: His skeletons were armed with a mixture of Blades and Spears, giving him incredible ranked reach in melee (lining up the 2” Spearmen behind the 1” Bladesmen). It had been my understanding, based on a FAQ I read, that in most cases any given unit has to be armed identically across all models. In this case, that would be all Spears or all Blades. The exceptions are dependent on the language of the Warscroll, but the Warscroll for Skeleton Warriors specifically says “some units are equipped with Ancient Blades, whilst others go to war with Ancient Spears.” Also, he made a practice of using his Icon Bearer among the skeletons to bring back D6 slain models, as you do, but he did so at the end of the Combat Phase instead of during his Hero Phase, explaining that since we weren’t taking Battleshock tests it wouldn’t make a difference when he did it. At the time, I let that pass, but now that I’m thinking about it, it seems a little off.

    The question in all that is, am I right about the identical arming of units being required?

    Okay, that’s enough of a wall o’ text.
     
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  2. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    The shop manager has posted her card draws for Week One on Facebook. The deployment is caddy-corner. The objective is War of Attrition, which is apparently just adding up the wounds of all slain models at the end of Turn Five. And the Twist is Blessed Healing, choosing a friendly unit in the Hero Phase to heal D3 wounds. So basically, try to kill everything you see (and make sure it stays dead), as near as I can tell.
     
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  3. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Ok the good thing is that you have a good amount of wounds and at 500 points Saurus Guard and the Eternity Warden will be pretty hard to kill.

    I think you already got the main points covered tactically.

    You lack magic support and a good Command Ability (since the Eternity Warden has none), so yeah, Inspiring Presence on the Skinks is a good choice I think.

    Your main priority should be to kill anything that can cause mortal wounds. If you can achieve that you can afterwards just sit on objectives because the enemy will have a hard time to kill you. The Skinks can kite well, use that to your advantage so you don't lose too many of them.
     
  4. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

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    To use Lords of space and time don't you need a caster? @Aginor
     
  5. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Nope, it isn't a spell and has no special requirements. Every Seraphon Allegiance army can use it.
     
  6. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

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    Cool I need to read and play more!
     
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  7. Arawn
    Saurus

    Arawn Member

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    Hi,
    Maybe I missed something, but I think that as you will play with the Seraphon allegiance and use Lord of space and Time, you can't use the inspring presence of the Order allegiance.
    You can't mix both.
     
  8. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    Maybe it's me that's missing something, but I thought Lords of Space and Time was an allegiance-dependent Battle Trait, while Inspiring Presence is an allegiance-neutral Command Ability available to any general.
     
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  9. Arawn
    Saurus

    Arawn Member

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    ...And you're definitely right, my bad, I always forget this one
     
  10. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    No problem. I can't keep track of all this stuff without extensive notes and printed out Warscrolls, and even then I keep making crucial mistakes (see "Negelecting Celestial Cohort bonus," above). I keep telling myself I'll eventually internalize a lot of it, but some things, like the bonuses some units give to other units in certain situations or at certain ranges, I'll probably have to look at every time.
     
  11. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    Holy smokes. I just won my first ever Age of Sigmar game! Against Skaven. Battle Report to follow in the appropriate forum!

    Edit to add: It was my first ever win, not my first ever game. I've lost probably six or seven leading up to this.
     
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  12. GingerGiant
    Skink

    GingerGiant Member

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    Yes, the Skeletons need to be armed identically across the unit, because the description describes the unit being armed with X or Y. Other units like Orruk Ardboyz can mix weapons within a unit. Furthermore, it does make a difference whether he heals them at the end of the Combat Phase or Hero Phase. When he restores skeletons at the end of his Combat Phase, his Skeletons are better off during your Turn, since you will have more to kill before wiping them out, and he can potentially retreat with the survivors on his turn. If he waited until his Hero Phase (like he should have), the Skeletons must survive two full Combat Phases before being restored. Over a long time, the trend is similar, but in a game with only 6 turns, it makes a big difference.
     

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