What is the consensus for bringing a tooled chief on terrain over a unit of 3 vanilla terradons? Chief with steg helm and other non magical goodies seems to outclass a unit most of the time. The only real added danger I see is lore of metal. Sure you have fewer wounds, but you are much harder to wound (relatively speaking).
Don't forget fewer rocks, too. 3d3 s4 can make a real mess of fast cav, elves in general and skirmishers in particular (I've crushed many a waywatcher). Of course the chief has a smaller footprint and arguably is better for magician/war machine hunting. I prefer the unit but really I think it's a personal preference.
I prefer efficient Terra Chiefs over the full Rider units. You have much more control over the Terra Chief, and are much more likely to get his footprint in an ideal location (won't be as likely to be obstructed). He also has the added benefit of being able to control your cowboys (especially key when they go off on their own). Get the Chief to a 2+ Armor save, and give him a 2++ Flaming Ward, and a Spear just in case, and call it good. You can make him like that for under 100pts. My 2 Favorites: Skink Chief, Terradon, Light Armor, Shield, Warrior Bane, Dragonhelm Skink Chief, Terradon, Spear, Light Armor, Enchanted Shield, Dragonbane Gem Cheap toolboxes that both enhance the army, and have roles to fulfill in specific matchups. I still like Terradon Rider units, but if you're asking me which is better/more efficient in more situations, its the guys I listed above.
Searing doom would otherwise make very short work of this guy. It is also great against flaming cannons (dwarfs, daemons), the entire lore of fire, anything with the banner of eternal flame.
Ruby ring protection specifically, and magic missiles in particular (most are flaming). It's not as popular as when wood elves dropped, but the Elf meta is still dominant enough that magic missiles are common.
Exactly. Also, Lore of Undeath is starting to gain some real steam at the tournaments in my area. One of the favorite units to raise is Hexwraiths. These chiefs provide a hard counter to that unit (since the Hexwraiths themselves have flaming attacks, and the horses are only Strength 3), especially the one with Warrior Bane. And when facing the Elf meta (especially Wood), the Terrachiefs can attach themselves to Saurus/Cohort/Krox/Temple Guard units, and be safe* until they need to split off and do their own thing. The Terradon units have no such protection (and many tables in my experience cannot fully hide them). *As safe as any unit can be when the WE player decides to shoot its entire army at it.
That is an awesome trick. For some reason I thought that a flying character couldn't join a unit, but I've checked through the BRB and as far as I can tell you are absolutely correct. It's funny that our Terrachief can join an infantry or monstrous infantry unit but not a unit of terradons. One question, if the Terrachief joins a unit, does he have to use his ground movement of 2 or can he still fly? I've heard this argued either way.
He would have to use his ground movement. This can be circumvented by having him hop from unit to unit each turn. The tactic works best when multiple cohorts/Saugus/TG are advancing on a common contact point.