Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.0/Seraphon

Your Lizardmen, who are acting as Order Daemons in the Age of Sigmar setting to pop up behind enemy lines.

Seraphon summary

So remember how during the End Times, all the Lizardmen managed to do was get anally raped by the Skaven, have a lot of Slann die, get Lustria blown up by the moon, and then fuck off into space to leave the world to its fate, potentially dooming the world to Chaos. Since the few remaining Slann, being the most powerful wizards in the lore, could likely have helped the Incarnates' ritual go off without any problems and the remaining Lizzie forces could have helped to hold off Archaon's forces just a little longer, potentially tipping the balance and helping to save the world GW couldn't have that so Lizardmen got hit with both the nerf bat and the idiot ball. (Tl;dr: remember how all the Lizardmen did in the End Times was fuck up then leave?) Well now they're back as the Seraphon to redeem themselves. How're they doing that? Well instead of a dying race of ancients all living in the jungle, the Seraphon are now FUCKING DAEMONS! Yeah, every single unit in the Seraphon army except the Slann has the "Daemon" rule. And they're still hardcore anti-Chaos, so ladies and gentlemen, we're looking at the first army of Order Daemons and it is scary. These buggers can do basically everything daemons can do, including summoning new units. Seriously, Slann can summon every. Single. Unit in the scrolls except for other Slann. This includes not only troops, specialist units like Chameleons, and even things like Carnosaurs, but they can even summon named characters like Kroq-Gar and Tetto'Eko. Yes.

Seraphon Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar, most of this is based on theory and bound to be altered as the Battletome is released. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Named Characters

• Lord Kroak: Holy balls, is the skele-frog strong now. For starters, the big guy doesn't have an exact number of wounds: during the Battleshock phase, roll a die, add the amount of wounds he suffered in the turn and if it's higher than his Bravery he is dead unconscious for the rest of the game, otherwise he heals all wounds, making him essentially immune to anyone attempting to chip away at his wounds over several turns. In addition, if anything would flat out kill him, he instead takes d6 mortal wounds. He's one of only two wizards with two exclusive spells (and the other one is Nagash, so that should give an indication as to how strong Kroak is at casting): Celestial Deliverance allows him to inflict d3 (d6 on Chaos Daemons) mortal wounds on every enemy unit within 3d6" and can be used three times in a turn (with a +1 on the casting value on each successive usage), while Comet's Call inflicts d3 mortal wounds on d3 (d6 if you rolled 10+ when casting) units of your choice. Just take a moment to let that second one sink in. D3 mortal wounds... on up to any six enemy units. This spell has a global range, and only a small handful of units can shrug off mortal wounds. And now characters cannot join units. You know what you do on turn 1 with this spell? Start peppering as many enemy heroes as you can with this spell, two good shots and on average that's a kill. The enemy is a Vampires player with an annoying necromancer who'll summon a bunch of reinforcements? Comet's Call. Your enemy general has a really devastating Command Ability? Comet's Call. Kroak is basically an assassin who traded his sniper rifle for small meteors and he can be devastating from the first turn if you capitalize on this. In addition, in a game where the average number of spells a wizard can cast is one per turn, Kroak can cast four. FOUR! And, like any Slann, he can summon basically any unit in the army. FOUR TIMES! One casting of Comet's Call, then up to three summoned units to reinforce your army and better defend you battle line, and Kroak is one scary bugger. And if you're thinking that a dead body would make a poor general, think again. His command ability let's Kroak see the freakin' future, allowing you to alter fate with some sweet rerolls. This has you roll three dice, for every roll that is a four or higher you get to reroll ANY single dice. Rolled a one on a Deadly terrain feature and your Carnosaur died instantly? Reroll that. Failed to wound an enemy monster that had one wound left? Reroll that. Failed casting Comet's Call? Reroll that too! You can even reroll the initiative roll that decides who goes first in the next turn, so always keep one reroll spare just in case.

• Kroq-Gar/Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur: Remember how Kroq's gauntlet was a bound spell and could just be dispelled easily, it wasn't really that effective and just ate up power dice that could be used elsewhere. Well now instead of a magic spell, his gauntlet is a missile weapon, so now it's as dispellable as an arrow to the face, which is to say not at all. Now he makes D6 shots that hit on 3+ and wound on 4+, a nice little addition that lets him soften up enemy targets before he charges. He wounds on 2+ against Chaos Daemons, however, making his gauntlet actually pretty dangerous against a Greater Daemon or Daemon Prince. In addition, it rends at -1! However what you really want Kroq-Gar for is Grymloq. See that enemy monster over there? Well, if Grymloq hits with both of his Clawed Forelimbs attacks (3+ to hit at full wounds and he doesn't need to wound,) then Grymloq pins the monster to the ground and his Massive Jaws attacks hit on 2+ rather than the normal 4+. Oh, and those Massive Jaws have five attacks, rend and cause 3 damage each rather than the D3 that regular Carnosaurs cause. That's a maximum of 15 wounds from the bites alone, and it's easily feasible to have all of the bite attacks hit with a pin. To make him more deadly against those big-wounds monsters, literally every attack except for those shooting attacks can have more than 1 damage and all but the Clawed Forelimbs rend. Kroq's spear does D3 damage, the Forelimbs do 2 damage, and all attacks but the Forelimbs rend at -1. Bang. In addition once they cause a wound, Grymloq enters Blood Frenzy which lets him run and charge, helping you hunt down those monsters even easier, chase down puny enemy heroes, or even just smash into enemy lines to give support. Unfortunately against normal enemies, Grymloq has a harder time hitting with his Massive Jaws compared to the regular Carnosaur, hitting on 4+ rather than the normal 3+, though he still retains the superior damage stat so it's all cool. In addition, he comes with the Bloodroar ability. If your opponent passes their Battleshock test withing 8" of Kroq-Gar, you roll your own dice. If you roll higher than what they rolled, that unit immediately fails the Battleshock test by D3. This is an okay rule normally, but against enemies like Morghast or Ogres, it can be devastating to watch up to three multi-wound juggernauts just runa way because you managed to kill just one of them. And for bonus points, this works even if your opponent cannot possibly pass their Battleshock test. You kill one of their guys and they have a bravery of 10? Doesn't matter, they still have to take the test and that means that you can hit them with a Bloodroar. Ouch. Unfortunately his Command Ability is rather limited, as it only gives two extra attacks to a second Saurus hero within 20", which is not as effective as it may seem as heroes often lead from the back in AoS now. Make somebody else your general, Kroq-Gar works better as a flank attacker and monster hunter anyway.

• Chakax/Saurus Eternity Warden: Chakax is now an absolutely fantastic support character. For starters, he grants nearby Temple Guard an extra attack, which can really make a difference seeing as how Temple Guard are now something of a glass cannon, so buffing their offense is a great help. But what you really want him for is his Selfless Protector rule, if he's within 2" of a Slann when they take an unsaved wound, Chakax can intervene and take the wound himself, suffering a mortal wound while his master remains safe. Chakax has seven wounds, which allows him to take seven bullets before dying. But the really effective thing about this is that Chakax, like any other non-Slann, can be summoned by a Slann. So if your Slann's meat-shield is killed, you can just summon him back at full wounds with no trouble. Easy.

• Gor-Rok/Saurus Sunblood: Gor-Rok is basically the only on-foot Saurus Hero worth taking. He's pretty good in combat as he deals a total of 7 attacks before his special ability. If he rolls a 6 to hit, that attack becomes d3 attacks. And then, a 6 to wound deals d3 wounds with that single attack. And his shield blocks every Rend up to -2, making him quite the tank, especially if buffed with an Arcane Shield. Also he can make a very fine general too with his awesome Scent of Weakness Command Ability. You can pick one enemy unit within 15" of Gor-Rok. Gor-Rok then tells his troops "fuck that unit up," which lets every Saurus unit reroll failed to hit rolls against that unit until your next turn. Great for when you really need to crush a specific enemy unit fast.

• Tehenhauin: His snakes make 6s to hit an automatic mortal wound. His command ability allows every Skink within 18" to reroll any 1 to hit in the cmbat phase, but this is rather useless as Skinks are still pretty squishy and, with a few exceptions, should not even be in close combat in the first place. They even have a special ability that lets them bamf out of combat faster than Tretch Craventail instead of attacking, making this Commabnd Ability useless. He also has the Priestly Rites ability from regular Skink Priests, but this too is not as effective as it looks as the regular Skink Priest's Priestly Rites can effect all units within 8" rather than one, making it stronger than Tehenhauin's. These priestly rites are something that Tetto'Eko amusingly lacks. However, unlike Tetto, the Prophet of Sotek is no longer a wizard, exchanging magic for them Priestly Rites, so I guess it all works out in the end.

• Tetto'Eko/Skink Starseer: He is now the only non-Slann wizard our little pals have, and one that can't summon like the Slann can, but he has his own benefits. His unique spell allows him to give either +1 or -1 to single dice roll made by a nearby unit in each phase, nothing to sneeze at if carefully use. His other, more important ability has both players choose a number between 1 and 6: if the players chose different numbers you get a number of rerolls equal to the number you chose, but if you and your opponent chose the same number he gets the rerolls. This makes for a rather fun mini-game with your opponent, essentially "guess the number I'm thinking," but it is also a very powerful ability as those rerolls can make or break a whole turn, especially if combines with the rerolls from Kroak. Shame he can't spam meteors anymore though.

• Oxyotl: If he does nothing in the movement phase (afters 1st turn AND he was already on the board), he wounds on a 2+ in the subsequent shooting phase. But the real deal is that now Chameleon Skinks, instead of moving regularly, can just vanish during the Hero Phase and reappear anywhere you want during Movement Phase. This is on top of the ability the chameleons have to get a 3+ save as long as they occupy terrain instead of the normal terrain benefits (so no 2+ save). Basically your Chameleons can teleport in and out of the battle and appear literally anywhere they want. Nice.

Slann

• Slann Starmaster: Special and unique enough to be awarded his own section. Can cast and unbind 3 spells per turn, gives every fellow Seraphon within 10" the ability to fly and reroll saves in the Shooting Phase, can move constellations allowing either rerolls 1 to hit, add 1 to every spell casting attemt or add 1" to run and charge; you can change the constellation before casting spells in your Hero Phase on a 4+, but a 1 on that roll will negate spells for that turn. His exclusive spell makes every Daemon on the field roll their Battleshock tests on 2d6, keeping the highest if it's a Chaos Daemon or the lowest if it's a Celestial Daemon (read: a Seraphon/Lizardman/whatever). He can also summon any non-Slann unit in the Warscrolls, and can cast through any Skink hero and Troglodons rather than only through Priests.

Saurus units

• Saurus Oldblood: Either on foot or on a Cold One. On foot he allows every Saurus within 5" to reroll 1s to wound and his command ability allows every unit within 10" to rearrange themselves. If he takes a Cold One he can get tons of extra attacks with some rolls (3 attacks, after that on a 4+ you can get 3 more attacks, and 3 more after that on a 6+) while allowing rerolls on 1 to charge and to hit to every Saurus within 8" and giving an extra attack to Cold One Cavaliers in the same range.

• Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur: This is the big show. The Carnosaur allows any Saurus unit within 15" to get extra attacks for each 6 to hit. The Carnosaur itself is filled with interesting abilities: his bite attacks get +2 to hit if he targets a monster he already wounded hit successfully with both his claw attacks in the same turn. In addition, if his bite attack kills an enemy model he can run and charge in the same turn for the remainder of the game and can make d3 models flee from an enemy unit within 8" in the Battleshock Phase regardless of whether the test is passed or not (you just have to roll over their battleshock roll not counting bonuses).

• Saurus Astrolith Bearer: A Scar-Veteran with a totem. It allows any Seraphon within 10" to reroll failed to hit and also gives +1 to casting spells and +8" to spell ranges which are all extremely desirably abilities (combine this with a unit of Temple Guard that hit on 3+, and laugh as your formerly I1 get revenge on those pesky elves, HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING HIT WITH REROLLABLE 3+ TO HITS, YOU PONCES!?,)

• Saurus Warriors: Get +1 to hit if the unit has 20+ models, and everyone gets an extra attack when they're 30+. Nice. Shit, take these guys if you can't afford temple guard otherwise these are nothing more than summoning fodder. That said, while they're weaker than Temple Guard undeniably, they are much easier to summon. You can summon twice the number of Warriors than you can Temple Guard, making them a much more desirably choice for reinforcements as they'll give you twice as many wounds.

• Temple Guards: Nice to guard any hero, giving him +2 Bravery and +1 Save as long as they are within 8".(Another way to read the rule is the unit of temple guards gets +2 Bravery and +1 Save.) TG hit and wound on 3+ with their halberds, make two attacks apiece, and rend at -1, plus those bite attacks that are can make for one or two extra wounds, they hit very very hard. Unfortunately they can only be summoned in groups of five, so they make poor reinforcements.

• Saurus Knights: A bunch of lizards riding lizards, each able to be armed with a bevy of tools. If armed with spears, a 6 to hit inflicts a mortal wound along with the eventual regular wound. Taking a Stardrake Icon makes nearby enemies that test Battleshock suffer -1 to the roll while taking a Wardrum lets them double their movement, but now can't run or charge. On top of that, you can also take shields, enabling them to ignore any rending below -2.

Skink units

• Skink Starpriest: A new model gives Skinks a wizard-priest. His only weapon's unremarkable, but he has two abilities: His staff, which can give any nearby Seraphon that use their bites and roll a 6 to wound to double the damage, and his special spell, which can either reduce any hit rolls made on a fellow Seraphon unit by 1 or reduce the hit rolls of an enemy unit by 1 (And also dealing d3 damage to Daemons as well because fuck'em). If you take one, they won't quite replace a Slann, but they can certainly take the burden of sorcery off them.

• Skink Priest: Allows a unit within 8" the ability to reroll charge, run and saves if he rolls a 4+ first. Can either get Priestly Trappings (allowing the aforemented ability to be used on every unit in the range) or a Cloak of Feathers (+1 save, +6" Move and can fly). Really both can be very effective.

• Skink Chief: He gets a single reroll in each phase while giving +1 on to hit rolls to a Skink unit within 10". A must-have for Skink Armies thanks to that Command Ability.

• Skinks: They get a +1 to hit in Shooting Phase if the unit has 20+ models that becomes a +2 if they're at 30+, and can retreat when charged.

• Chameleon Skinks: As said before with Oxyotl, they can teleport around instead of moving. Also, scenery gives them a 3+ save (doesn't stack with the normal terrain bonus), and attacks in Shooting Phase deal 2 wounds (3 on Chaos Daemons) if you scored a 6 to hit.

• Terradon Riders: First flying cavalry. Once per game they drop mortal wound-causing boulders on units they passed through in Movement Phase, Sunleech Bolas make every scored hit into d6 wounds, they can reroll hit and wound in close combat (but by doing so they're considered not flying until next turn) and the champion can get a sword that rerolls failed hits against flying units.

• Ripperdactyl Riders: The other one. They have the same gliding ability as Terradons, but lose the rocks and the bolas. In exchange, their beak attacks keep rolling to hit until they fail. Also the Blot Toad is still here and it's scary. Instead of making one attack with those beaks against a toad-infested unit, they make three. And each hit grants another attack. Six of these guys make for 18 attacks with theoretically infinite more on the way. Nasty.

• Skink Handlers: Weak as heck lil' guys with goads that automatically wound on a to hit roll of 6. However, they synergize well with some of the monsters, which will be discussed below.

Other

• Salamanders: Fucking hell, these guys are deadly. They only make a single shooting attack now rather than using a template, but that shot hits and wounds on 3+ and does D6 DAMAGE! A unit of these guys can really mess up an enemy monster or character. In addition, any hit unit rolls a die at the end of the shooting phase, on a 4+ they take d3 ADDITIONAL MORTAL WOUNDS. Did I mention it has rending -2? Yeah, -2. Because fuck your enemies. When within 3" of a Skink handler, their fire breath goes from 8" to 12".

• Razordons: Another ranged unit, Razordons make 2d6 attacks at 12" which gain rending -1 within 6". In addition, on a roll of 4+ they can OVERWATCH CHARGING UNITS. If a Skink handler is within 3", they reroll 1s to hit, which means they only miss on 2s. Nice. Might make a nice wall to march in front of your other units.

• Kroxigor: Melee beatsticks that have 4 hammer attacks. 1 in 3 can take a moonhammer, instead gaining attacks equal to all enemies within its 2" range. If their bite successfully wounds an enemy they have a chance to latch on. You roll off with your opponent. If they win, nothing happens but if you win you cause mortal wounds equal to the difference in the roll (meaning your opponent technically wins ties). It appears that these mortal wounds only apply to the model wounded by the jaws, however, meaning they won't spill over onto the unit. If any Skink unit is within 3" of the Krox, they can reroll failed to wound results of 1.

• Jungle Swarms: A fun little unit that can regenerate and cause mortal wounds on to hit rolls of 6. EXTREMELY fragile as they have no save at all, but potentially hilarious when your swarm of snakes, toads, and (actual) lizards rolls over the enemy's hero.

Monsters

• Engine of the Gods: Replaces everything we said about the Priest from above with a dinosaur and a table: you roll a number of d6 that depends on how many wounds he still has (3 usually, 2 if he suffered 5+ wounds, 1 if he has only one wound: a Slann within 10" allows you to throw an extra dice and discard one of them) and you can either damage yourself, heal yourself, damage a single unit, damage many units, summon any unit from the Seraphon Warscrolls, Slann included, and even stop time which forces the opponent to skip a turn (though you must scream ZA WARUDO at the top of your lungs if you ever roll this effect. Not an in-game rule, but still.) It's totally random, but almost all of its effects are deadly as fuck. It's a bunch of skinks on a GIANT DINOSAUR! Why aren't you playing it?

• Stegadon: A monster that buffs skinks and isn't too shabby in combat itself. Unlike the carnosaur, the stegadon seems more fit for range combat with all the ranged attacks it gets. Unlike the next monster, however, it can defend itself in combat a decent amount. What makes it stand out most is its Sunfire Throwers. Remember those giant blowpipes? Yeah well we replaced the darts with FIYAAAA! Basically they're now flamethrowers, and they make a single attack for every enemy within range. Against Ogres? Not so good. Against a massive horde of zombies? Fuck me, that's a lot of attacks. And really, what's more metal than a giant war-dinosaur piloted by smaller dinosaurs with fucking flamethrowers? Nothing.

• Bastiladon: A crazy tanky monster that ignores rend and can even ignore wounds. It has a GIANT CRYSTAL POWERED LASER on its back and can send out snakes in an AoE for point defense. However, this is a ranged beast. 20" range, 2d6 attacks with -1 rend that do 2 damage? Yes please! Oh and by the by, the Bastiladon is a true monster of a tank. Seriously, have a wizard hit it with an Arcane Shield to give it a 2+ armour save that cannot be reduced by any rend, then have a skink priest give it rerolls to all failed armour saves. A rerollable 2+ armour save that cannot be reduced by ANYTHING. Fuck.

• Troglodon: No longer the loser it was in WFB. Has the ability to use both range and melee decently. Its skink oracle rider can even unbind magic! Can be hilariously fast, since its ranged attack gives it a +3 to charge distance if it charges a unit it wounded. It gets a bunch of decent attacks in melee and causes enemies within 8" to subtract 1 from their bravery.

Formations

• Skink Patrol: You take a skink priest, 2 units of skinks or chameleons in any combo, and a unit of terradon or ripperdactyl riders. For your efforts your skinks gain a unique scout move in that they roll 2d6 per unit and can move that many inches after set-up but before first turn. The priest can pick ANY unit he can see at ANY range and give all units from the skink patrol rerolls to hit and to wound against the chosen unit. The fliers can choose not to set up and instead can be set up more than 3" away from any enemy units in any of your subsequent movement phases. In addition, they add 1 to their wound rolls for that turn's combat.

6 Ripperdactyls will do on average 69 attacks with their beaks (3 attack each with the toad + reroll to hit). Which results in 51 hits and 50 wounds (2+ with reroll). Even on "elites" troops (save 4+) that's 25 HP lost for 18 HP used with little chance to miss.

Add a Skink Chief to be the general here and your skinks will very easily start hitting on 2+ with all the combined +1s. This makes for a devastating ranged army if you go with some Boltspitters with rerolls for 1s, but the scariest part of this are the Ripperdactyls. Combining all the buffs you can get for them, you can have a unit of Ripperdactyls make 3 attacks apiece with their beaks thanks to Toad Rage that, as we know, generate additional hits for every successful hit. But now thanks to all these To Hit bonuses, you're hitting on 2+ with rerolls. You'll fucking drown in the number of attacks. This formation is a must-have for a Skink themed army.

• Saurus Host: A Saurus Oldblood, 3 units of Sauruses, and a unit of temple guard or Saurus Cavalry join together. This allows them to completely ignore battleshock tests (interestingly, the wording allows you to take them if you want as it says "you do not NEED to take battleshock tests..."). In addition, all units in the host make 2 attacks with their jaws and shields instead of 1.

External links

• Rules are here [1]
• Lustria-Online.com, the main Seraphon army forum.