Below is my list idea for a local tournament. What are your thoughts? Any tweaks or improvements? Slann - 260 General Trait - Great Rememberer Artefact - Ragged Cloak Spell - Stellar Tempest Astrolith Bearer (160) Skink Starpriest (80) Claws of Glory Engine of the Gods (240) Ethereal Amulet Skink Priest 6 x Ripperdactyls (280) 10 x Skinks (70) 10 x Skinks (70) 10 x Skinks (70) 10 x Skinks (70) 3 x Salamanders (120) 3 x Skink Handlers (40) 5 x Chameleon Skinks (110) Shadowstrike Starhost (180) Balewind Vortex (40) Chronomatic Cogs (80) Aethervoid Pendulum (50) Total 2,000/2,000 The idea is I have a mobile army especially with teleports so I can dictate the flow of the game/where armies engage. Use this to my advantage so I can sneak objectives with skinks. I have some MW output from pendulum and engine if needed, High rend from salamanders and a tonne of no rend from rippers so I have the tools to deal with most things.
Claws of glory is not going to help a skink or Ripper based army. you have plenty of rerolls as is naturally occurring with "spring the trap", "swooping" the astrolith, and command points. switch that spell to either tempest of convocation based on the army you will face
The idea of the claws of glory is only there so I can cast it on the salamanders before teleporting them and the skink handlers to get a slightly more reliable hit rate. Realistically turn 1 the skink priest will be casting cogs so the slann gets extra summoning. Which spell would you take instead? Meteoric Convocation or Celestial Apotheosis (Heal the engine in case it gets bracketed) are the others that tempt me.
better to keep it on your slann then, because he can change the spell after you send them on the suicide run
I have issue with Chronomatic and BWV in the same list. I know it's the 'best' way to run a slann for summoning points, but overall, if you have anyone able to decently prevent you from bringing them into play, or your casts dont go off, you're in for a bad time. But that's just me. My advice would be to merge two of the skink units to a big 20 man unit to toss across the table as a speedbump if need be, or to use as a big screen for your force. This also decreases your drops outside the Shadowstrike slightly (though you'll still have to many to guarantee a choice of order).