As we all know by now saurus knights suck. They suck to an extent that I discovered they are useful as a screen. So what can we have an alternatives? Well here’s what we got. Kroxigors might be okay, but they aren’t particularly powerful. But we do have other options. Monsters are one of our strengths. Arguably carnosaurs or stegadons are far more effective as shock units. Lethal impact, bravery debuffs, and they look awesome. I could be wrong however and other haughty are welcome.
I view Terradons and Ripperdactyls as our actual cavalry. Their attack profile, movement characteristic, and points cost are all more in line with standard cav stats. Unfortunately like the rest of our army their saves are lacking.
There is a lot of - 1 rend going around so our 5+ ignore rend 1 shields is often not much worse of than 4+ save models. Saurus knights are weird, they are more skirmish cav but at 90 points for 5 2 wound models, who can auto run 14 if need be. 5 guys got 20 attacks with various profiles but against a 4+ save they average 3.5 damage death, which is more than a unit of liberators at least. They are cheap battle line with decent output, for 30 points more than a skink unit, they are worth considering, if you want chaff than can't be completely ignored offensively and also running be as fast as skinks rolling a 6 to run. Now as line breaking shock cavalry you are entirely correct, they won't stand up to anything nasty, but 5 guys for 90 pts are not elites. Think about it mighty crushers of khorne get to roll 20 attacks for their points, these guys roll 41 for 180 points if all can attack, so it is not entirely wet noodle territory.
just stop viewing them as line breaking heavy shock cavalry ala crushers of khornes. They're capable enough stat-wise as a battleline unit and enough of a threat that they can fight off the usual 10-man objective grabber units.As long as you view em as cheap fodder battleline that actually has a bite they're more or less fine.