Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Seraphon

GHB 2.0 has just added sweet buffs to an already awesome army. Where do we start?

Why Play Seraphon

Because they are Lizardmen in AoS. Motherfucking mesoamerican dinosaur people riding motherfucking dinosaurs, what is not to love?

Want more details?, fine:

Pros

• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• The Lizardmen Citadel miniatures are the true End Times survivors; only 4 characters are out of printing: Oxyotl, Tenhenhauin, Skink Chief and Jungle Swarms, yet you can find Skink Chief and Jungle Swarm bits on flying cavalry/stegadon and Saurus Knights sprues respectively, and with some simple conversions you can make your own Oxyotl or Tenhenhauin.
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• Since they survived so well the End of Times, they have 27 different units available; most that any other surviving miniatures without splitting into smaller subfactions (at least for Order players, since Slaves to Darkness also survived really well).
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• Having so many miniatures makes room for extreme flexibility: you can go all Saurus, all Cavalry, all Skinks, with tons of leaders buffing all of them. Simply you have many options available to choose from.
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• Excellent synergy. Your heroes will buff and buff your dudes.
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• They have arguably the two most powerful, non-Monster keyword, wizards in the entire game: Lord Kroak is still around, being able to cast FOUR spells each hero phase, while having extremely aggresive abilities, but the regular Slann got a massive buff on GHB 2017, more of this on Battle Traits and Battle Traits.
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• The lowest bravery value of this army is 10. This guys will only run away if they are pounded to the ground.
• They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• Did I mention that they are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs?

Cons

• None, they are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs after all.
• Well, you could say that having the DAEMON keyword could be troublesome, but the vast majority of anti-daemon abilities are for CHAOS DAEMONS, so the few and spare universal anti-daemon abilities are nothing to lose your sleep, specially considering that Seraphon are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs.
• Also, all of your heroes keep your units together; individually Seraphon units can pull of a fight but are not nearly as strong without a leader nearby, so expect them to be the prime target of your enemy. They are Aztec lizardmen riding dinosaurs after all.
• Only 1 unit in the entire army has a Rend characteristic greater than -1.

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.

Common rules Every saurus troop unit have the following common rules: Stardrake Icon (reduces bravey of nearby enemies), Wardrum (can move twice as long in the movement phase, but is unable to run or charge after), and every basic unit can have Stardrake Shields/Star-Bucklers (ignore rend unless is -2 or better).

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

If your army has a SERAPHON allegiance and chose to take the SERAPHON allegiance abilities, it has the following rule:

Masters of Order:

SLANN WIZARDS in a SERAPHON army can attempt to unbind enemy spells that are cast anywhere on the battlefield, rather than only those cast by enemy WIZARDS within 18". In addition, if the casting roll for a SLANN WIZARD in a SERAPHON army was a double, and the spell was successfully cast, then you can add 6" to the range of the spell. The first half of the Slann massive buff that got with GHB 2017. Three global dispells and added rolls from a Baleful Vortex and a Sage's Staff constellation, some few magic Skinks here and there, and only the heaviest-wizard Tzeentchian armies will outspell you. DAMN.

Lords of Space and Time:

Once per turn, in your hero phase, you can pick one of your SERAPHON units anywhere on the battlefield to be transported through space and time. If you do so, roll a dice for the unit; on a 1, the unit can not move or charge in this turn, on a 2-5, it can be removed from the battle field and set it back again anywhere more than 9" from an evemy unit. This counts as the unit's move for the next movement phase; and on a 6, same as before, but it can move again in its movement phase. Carnos flanking for days to come. Quick escapes from your heavily damaged Slann. Deep striking is kinda what AoS is all about, so if you have any experience with it you know you valuable is it.

Command Traits

There are nine for a SERAPHON General of an army with a SERAPHON allegiance that has chosen to take the SERAPHON allegiance abilities. You can choose one out of three depending on which keyword your general has: SLANN, SAURUS or SKINK. (If you roll for picking one; use a 1D3 instead of the regular 1D6).

Slann Command Trait

This is the second part of the huge Slann buff from GHB 2017. All of them are pretty interesting, and while not exactly situational, all of them work better under certain circumstances.

1. Arcane Might: Re-roll 1s on casting and unbinding. A modest trait, and the more "generic" of the three.
2. Vast Intellect: The general can use the Curse of Fates and Summon Starlight spells from the Skink Starseer and Skink Starpriest warscrolls. Quite awesome, honestly, given how unreliable is the regular Light of the Heavens; casting both of them will let you summon a Mystic Shield or Arcane Bolt, all the four of them argubiably way, way better than LotH.
3. Great Rememberer: as long as is still alive, you can use the Lords of Space and Time battle trait twice in each of your hero phases rather than only once. Teleport, as previously mentioned, is awesome. Doing it twice is just twice as awesome.

Saurus Command Trait

Sadly, Saurus generals didn't had that much love from GW this time around.

1. Disciplined Fury: Re-roll on single failed hit roll for the general on each combat phase. Not that good, honestly, given the plenty of suorces from where you can get them.
2. Thickly Scaled Hide: Re-roll saves of 1 for the general. Maybe the best of the bunch, funily and sadly enough.
3. Mighty War Leader: Can also use Inspiring Prescence alongside your another command ability. Once again, battleshocks are not an actual worry for any DAEMON army, and until FAQ's, it is unclear if you can use this twice in case your general doesn't have another command ability.

Skink Command Trait

Fortunately, Skinks got more useful Command Traits that their beefier brothers. It's like if GW wanted us to buy more Skinks than Saurus...

1. Master of Star Rituals: If the general is a Skink Priest, they can use Celestial Rites twice. If not, they learn said ability. A good ability for a Cloaked Priest, but it has to be properly re-worded for a Priest with Priestling Trappings: while this means a second chance to make a Ritual in case the first one was screwed, does that mean that the Ritual can stack? probably not but still. Remember, your general has to be a SKINK, so this works with Trogs, Stegies and Basties. Have fun.
2. Nimble: Add +1 to the general's Move characteristic. Add +1 to its save too if they are not on a mount. This way you'll wont be that guy who has a +2 saving Bastiladon. As long as GW don't FAQ the Starseer' Palanquin as a mount, this is a useful trait for survival, but not as good for buffing your army.
3. Cunning: If the general is at 3" of an enemy HERO; on a 4, said enemy hero suffers 1 mortal wound. Unless mounted, you don't want Skinks on melee. And even mounted, it is still meh.

Artifacts of Power

One HERO in your army (+1 per additional warscroll battalion) may take a relic from the following tables:

Artifacts

• Zoetic Dial Roll a d6 at the start of the battle round. On the turn that corresponds to the number you rolled, you can reroll your failed saves. If you roll a 6 you can choose which turn to use it. Not bad, but you have better options.

• Incandescent Rectrices Roll a dice the first time this model is slain. On a roll of 1 or 2, it is slain as normal. On a 3 or more it heals d3 wounds. If the model is not slain then you can move it up to 12", so long as it's more than 3" away from an enemy unit. Yep. 3 FUCKING INCHES! As you can imagine, this is especially hilarious in the combat phase. Stack Lord Kroak's rerolls on it for added fun!

• Blade of Realities Adds -1 to the rend of a weapon your hero uses. Pretty good if used with a weapon that already has -1 rend and more than 1 point of damage, otherwise it's not worth it.

• Light of Dracothion Once per battle, the bearer can automatically unbind a spell used by an enemy spellcaster within 18". Take this only if you expect a wizard heavy opposition, but otherwise skip. It's not like you're short on spellcasters anyways.

• Coronal Shield At the start of the combat phase, roll a d6 for every enemy unit within 3". On a 4 or higher, that unit gets a -1 to hit for the rest of the combat phase. If you're using a Carnosaur Hero as your general and you're facing hordes of low accuracy enemies, this is probably a better choice than the Retrices.

• Prism of Amyntok At the start of your movement phase, you can forgo moving and target an enemy unit within 12". On a roll of 3+ they are struck with d3 mortal wounds. Great if used in conjunction with Smite to kill Heroes.

Named Characters

• Lord Kroak: Is still strong however nerfed due to errata 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" due to recent errata even though their order battletome states it can be cast 3 times errata states the rule of one supersedes this and can only be cast once, while Comet's Call inflicts d3 mortal wounds on d3 (d6 if you rolled 10+ when casting) units of your choice. 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. EDIT: Kroak is significantly less useful after the General's Handbook FAQ clarified his special rule on Celestial Deliverance still can't be cast multiple times, even though the rule seems to have built with this in mind.

Slann

• Slann Starmaster: Oh boy, did the Old Ones buffed this lovable fat frogmen. They went from "hey, they are pretty good, give 'em a chance" to "you are playing this game wrong if you don't have one". Having two powerful battle traits backed up with a choice of three strong command traits, expect to see this guys everywhere until nerfed to the ground (or get new competition for the spot). 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); pretty unreliable, since it only affects battleshocks for DAEMONs; every single one of them has a natural 10 Bravery, so you will start to have bad battleshocks only with a heavly debuffed unit, and worst of all, Chaos Daemon troops regularly have standards to return more models on rolls of 1, which you can't never really guarantee even with this spell. 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

• Scar-Veteran: Either on Cold One or a Carnosaur. 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. The Carnosaur 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)This is a decent ability against most, but send this guy against some kind of elite multi-wound units like brutes, ironguts, or storm fiends, and they will dove over the table trying to kill you after all three of their hyper elite carry units run).

• Saurus Sunblood: Living avatars of Dracothion Sotek, the Sunblood is a dedicated combat hero that hits shit with his shield and hits even harder with his club. 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 wounds. And then, a 6 to wound deals d3 damage 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 the Sunblood. He 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.

• Saurus Oldblood: Either on foot or on a Carnosaur. On foot he has a Stardrake Shield (ignores rends unless its -2 or better) and FOUR different weapon options (please refer to his warscroll); he also allows every Saurus within 5" to reroll 1s to wound and his command ability allows every unit within 10" to rearrange themselves. Aside the potent Carnosaur abilities, he loses his Stardrake Shield and regular weapons for a Sunbolt Gauntlet (shoots D6 times at 18", kinda regular profile, with -1 Rend and 1 damage, but get +2 To Wound if he targets CHAOS DAEMONS) and a Sunstone Spear (strong weapon, 3 attacks, +3 to hit and wound, -1 rend and D3 damage). His Command ability can be quite stupid: pick a weapon from ANY Seraphon Hero from your army at 20" or less from him (doesn't clarify if it can be its mount if it has one). Add 2 attacks to said weapon. Considering how almost EVERY melee Seraphon Hero has already TWO OR EVEN MORE ATTACKS and that THE WORST TO HIT OR TO WOUND ATTRIBUTE IS +4, you can make a Heroic Wreaking Ball with this. Scar-Veterans on any presentation are your best option to abuse this; on Carnosaur they can get 8 attacks with their Warblades or Spear, on Cold One they can get 5s attack plus 2 possible for his ability. They all move at 10". Jus use your Oldblood on Carno, fill the Behemoths cap with Scar-Vet on Carnos and then fill the Leader cap with Scar-Vets on Cold Ones. Be ready to be That guy.

• 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 Eternity Warden: Saurus Guard-type hero, wields a big fuck-you-stick that is pretty good on its own, but ultimately you're taking him to bodyguard your Slann and buff nearby Saurus Guard. All nearby Guard units gain +1 Attack with their polearms. And yes, this stacks with the battalion to give them D3 damage. Ouch.

• 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.
  • Alternative opinion: Saurus Warriors are one of the best Battleline units of any faction, period. With Bravery 10, 5+ Save that doesn't get affected by -1 Rend, two attacks each, and guaranteed "Run" move of 5", they're rock solid. Only the meanest Heros and Monsters will kill them fast; in every other circumstance, you can rely on them to do their work. Tarpitting things, holding objectives, killing hordes, or anything you want, they will do it, and do it well. Make them the anchor of your army, and you won't be dissapointed.

• Saurus 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. Note: These guys last long as shit against anything not designed for mowing down infantry thanks to the above rules. There is even a video in which a single temple guard lasts four rounds with a runeson on magmadroth, the first two rounds completely solo.

• 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 Starseer: The new generic Tetto'eko. Mostly useful as a utility-mage. Has an ability where you can place down a dice with a secret number and your opponent has to guess it. It's basically a minigame of Liar's Dice, you get the number you pick as rerolls, but if your opponent guesses it, they get them instead. Also has a cheap and dirty spell to grant you the ability to increase or decrease a dice by one. This guys are quite dangerous on their own right: being able to change up to 12 rolls (in different manners) on each turn per Starseer can result in a disaster for your enemy. Out-Tzeentch Tzeentchian armies with this guys.

• Skink Starpriest: When Age of Sigmar was first released, Tetto'Eko was the only non-Slann wizard Seraphon had, but the Battletome gave them this second guy too. 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.

• 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. That last hit-and-run tactic should not be overlooked because in AoS even if you get charged, your enemy has to decide on it's alpda strike. Do they deal damage to your annoying Skink unit that can flee, or do they prioritize dealing with your high value targets. Great for mind games. One of the underrated rockstars.

• 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..

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.

Battalions

• Sunclaw Starhost: A Sunblood grabs 3 packs of Saurus Warriors. They all get an extra attack on their bite and their weapons gain -1 rending and 2 damage against daemons. Meh. Least it's easy to build.
  • Alternate opinion, while this Battalion is mediocre, not only will you almost certain already have the units for it, extra attacks are always useful, but the most important bit is it's the base for much better Fangs of Sotek Battalion, so build it so it's always on hand!

• Eternity Starhost: An Eternity Warden grabs 3 packs of Saurus Guard. All Guard gain +1 to their save when near the Warden and if they don't move, their polearms get d3 damage. This is the ultimate anti-fun cheese, since the Guards already have +4 saves, when they get close enough to the Warden they increase it to +3, and then, the battalion increases it again to +2. Put them under cover and they'll have a fucking +1 save. Now use Mystic Shield so they can only be damaged by Mortal Wounds. Now you are officially That Guy. Make them defend objectives for maximum RAGE.

• Firelance Starhost: A Scar-Vet on a Carnosaur or Cold One leads 3 packs of Knights. Any Knights near the Hero add +3 to their charges and if they roll a 6 to wound with their Celestite weapons following that charge, it becomes Mortal, which also stacks onto the rules for spears. This can be scary.

• Thunderquake Starhost: this one's got a lot of variety for a formation. First, grab a Troglodon or Engine of the Gods. Then take two of any combo of either Stegadons or Bastilodons. And to top it off, grab either Kroxigor or a Salamander/Razordon with Handlers. The biggest Unit (Troglodon/EotG) and anyone nearby can either gain re-rolls to hit/charge or re-rolls to wound/save. To make this even more insane, everyone here heals a wound in the Hero phase, upping to d3 wounds when next to a Slann.

• Starbeast Constellation: An Oldblood (On foot or Carnosaur) and a Starseer add in every other Starhost, making a massive Strike Force Ultra. Aside from every other bonus here, the Oldblood also gets the ability to use his Command Ability at all times while also enabling anyone within 20" to use theirs as well.

• Heavenswatch Starhost:Consisting of a starseer, two skink priests and/or troglodons and three to six other skink key word units (including fun things like Stegadons, Engine of the Gods and Bastiladons) this battalion offers some nice benefits. As long as the starseer is alive he may designate a unit visible to him and every unit of this starhost get's to reroll to hit and to wound rolls of one. To make this host even more awesome your big beasties heal one wound per turn. Considering that many attacks of units in this battalion will hit and/or wound on a 3 or better this means that whatever your starseer points at will most likely die in a barrage of laser beams, fire throwers or salamander fire. Need I mention that the new Slann warlord trait lets you teleport a pack of Salamanders with Handlers into range on turn one? Or the double team of fire stegadons that can share their Alphas bonus move to pull of devastating first turn charges - with reroll able to wound rolls on their stomp attacks? Or those 40 Skink blobs, that up their damage potential by a metric ton? Whatever you do, make sure your Starseer doesn't get sniped - thankfully he only needs to be able to draw LOS with this ability and can stay somewhere safe, preferably out of sight of anything else.

Overall this can be considered one of the better battalions, because you're likely to want a starseer anyways for those sweet rerolls, and only the two priests/troglodons can be considered a tax - if at all that.

• ’”Bloodclaw Starhost:’”Consiting of 1 Saurus oldblood (on/off carnosaur) 3 other heroes (except astrology bearers) and 3-9 units of warriors, guard or knights.

They all get an extra attack with their jaws and shields and all the heroes an use their command abilities whilst with 20” of the oldblood

• Fangs of Sotek:Consists of an Oldblood on Carnosaur (lets face it, you already have a load from the Start Collecting sets) a Slaan Starmaster, and a Sunclaw Starhost, this gives every unit but the Slaan +3 move on the first turn, allows the Oldbood to use his command ability if he is not the general, an extra command ability if he is, AND adds 1 to the roll when you use Bloodroar. You can also take up to FOUR other Battalions (choose from Sunclaw, Firelance, Eternal and Thunderquake Starhosts) with this (as well as any other Seraphon unit) and, if you do take the maximun number of extra Battalions, your army gains the Strategic Mastery ability from the Starbeast Constellation, which means any Hero units within 20 inches of the Oldblood can use their command abilities even if they are not the general, scary....

Army Building

(Note: the point here is to share ideas to build an army on shape, but you should think about playing what you like the most (as always, fun is first, as long as you don't act like That Guy). Also, we'll try to suggest you easy ways to get a strong force while trying to save the most money possible, which shouldn't be that hard, since GW have been releasing bundles with decent saving on a constant basis WHAT KIND OF HERESY IS THIS?)

Buying tips

Arguably the best way to start your army, is get two Start Collecting! boxes.

Really, that easy. 2 Saurus Warriors units, 3 Saurus Knights units and an extra Knight that can be converted to a Scar-Veteran on Cold One, and two Carnos/Trog as you want, and 4 extra Warriors that can be used as summoning fodder or convertion material.

From there, you can take many different choices, thanks to how wide is the Seraphon range.

You could simply buy more Star Collecting! boxes, maybe another 3. This is because one box comes with 12 Warriors (because is a relatively old sprue and the regular box has 20 Warriors), so you can have 60 Warriors between the 5 boxes. You will also get another 24 Knights, but they are a pretty viable unit (unlike Oldhammer latests editions), and you will never, ever, will have extra Carnosaurs. They are just beautiful models, worth every cent.

The Thunderbeast Host bundle from GW is also a good way to save around 15% worth in the big boys of the faction: 2 Stegadons, another Carno and one flying unit.

An honorable mention to the Arcane Heroes bundle for Silver Tower: it has a Skink Starpriest, and if you have a friend who could use the other heroes of the kits, or you yourself have another army or small force, its a good purchase.

So, yeah, you have quite few options to get some Seraphon miniatures in easy to get blocks. -Hold on, hold on, are you sure this is GW?

Matched points

Fortunately, Seraphon have a wide array of units, and everyone is viable.

From a single Start Collecting! you get:

• 100 points from 10 Saurus Warriors.
• 120 points from 5 Saurus Knights.
• 200 points from a Troglodon OR 260 from a Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur OR 320 from a Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur.
• Total: 420 points using a Troglodon OR 480 points using a Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur OR 540 points using an Oldblood on Carnosaur.

Not counting the possible extra models you can use: 100 for a Knight converted or counting as a Scar-Vet on Cold One (damn, you could simply use the 3 extra Knights as Scar-Vets too), 100 from using the free Saurus Oldblood on foot if you buildt a Troglodon and 100 from getting creative to use your Skink Oracle as a Skink Priest or Starpriest, and you could even use Jungle Swarms from the Cold Ones bits if you are allowed.

1000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 2 Battleline units, you can have up to 4 Leaders, 2 Artilleries and 2 Behemoths. Your minimum tax is 260 points; 2 10-units Skins and one of the following leaders: Saurus Oldblood, Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One, Skink Priest or Skink Starpriest.

Two Start Collecting! kits gives you a quick and easy to get force, as well as a multi-task list, with some spared models to use in larger games.

• 20 Saurus Warriors (Battleline).
• 10 Saurus Knights (Battleline).
• Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (Leader/Behemoth).
• Saurus Oldblood on Foot (Leader).
• Troglodon (Behemoth).

This uses exactly 1000 points.

This is a heavy focused melee list.

Depending on what you are facing, the Scar-Veteran and the Saurus Oldblood are good generals; excellent weapons and stats. The Saurus Oldblood is more defensive, favouring a stead approach, and the Scar-Vet is generally more offensive.

Use your Warriors in one or two blocks as you wish; you get a +1 To Hit if you have at least 20 on the same unit, but this will last just one turn or even less. Bring them along your Saurus Oldblood on foot if you are using him as your general.

Use two units of Knights, using the weapons you find the most useful. They are quite slow for regular cavalry tho, at 7". Use them as flankers and alongside your Scar-Vet if he is your general.

The Troglodon is a great addition here, since its a jack of all trades. D3 ranged attack with good profile and damage (and the only ranged unit on this list), and get 3" extra if it can charge succesfully and damaged with his poison, which can be quite effective since it has 7 attacks at +4 hit (with enough luck and not having taked so much damage, it can be able to deal 15 wounds on melee), it has its own roar that substracts 1 from enemy Bravery and, most importantly, can unbind one spell just like if it was a wizard (something this list lacks).

Not a specialist, but it gets shit done. However, never expose it to get 8 or more wounds. Its ranged attack has 18", gets worst if by 3" each time it suffers 2 or more wounds, it gets 1" for each two wounds and its bite starts at +2 to wound, reduces to +3 the next for wounds and get worst by one each time it suffers two additional wounds.

It biggest flaw is that it fills lots of roles. Expect to see some heavy focus upon it.

2000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 3 Battleline units, you can have up to 6 Leaders, 4 Artilleries and 4 Behemoths. Your minimum tax is 340 points; 3 10-units Skins and one of the following leaders: Saurus Oldblood, Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One, Skink Priest or Skink Starpriest.

Keep using 2 Start Collecting! kits, now you can deploy all the models included:

• 20 Saurus Warriors (Battleline).
• 15 Saurus Knights (Battleline).
• Scar-Veteran on Cold One (Leader).
• A Firelance Starhost (using the Cold One Scar-Veteran)
• Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur (Leader/Behemoth).
• Saurus Oldblood on Foot (Leader)
• Troglodon (Behemoth).

This alone costs 1340 points. But if you can replace the Oldblood on foot or count it as, you can pick a Saurus Sunblood for 20 additional points.

Now, lets assume you also got a Thunderbeast Host kit, now add:

• An Engine of the Gods (Leader/Behemoth).
• 1 Stegadon (Behemoth).
• 3 Terradon/Ripperdactyls Riders.

This will costs 1980 points, or 2000 if you play a Sunblood instead the Oldblood on foot.

Other option is use a Skink Priest or Starpriest instead the Oldblood on foot: you will have one spare Priest from building a Stegadon anyway, and with some convertion you could use your spare Oracle as one of those two. You can get a Starpriest if you wish, its a nice little sculpt.

This list features more ranged options.

Having 16 Cold One Knights, you can easily convert one into a Scar-Vet and make a Firelance. The Scar-Vet on Cold One is a good choice for a general because his command ability synergizes strongly with the Knights: re-rolling hits and charges is important, more considering how the Blazing Lances stacks with Blazing Cohort (yet another mortal wound), and the Cold Ones gain an additional attack. This battalion can easily snowball if left unchecked.

While lacking the Stardrake Shield, the Oldblood on Carno might be a little more killy than the Scar-Veteran by virtue of his sunbolt beams, while his spear is still as good as the regular. His command ability is strong for heroic wrecking balls.

The Thunderbeast models are great supportive options: the Engine of the Gods speaks for itself and the Stegadon can deal a good amount of AoE or single target damage. Both of them should be keeping distances when not overly necessary, but can be dangerous when charging towards the enemy. The flying cavalry is quite useful. Terradons should be prefered by virtue of their ranged attacks, while the Ripperdactlys can dish out important damage for evasive but fragile enemy units.

The Oldblood on foot is a strong support for your Saurus, even without its command ability. The Sunblood is a big, bulky, scary lizard, able to soak decent amounts of damage and dealing it back. The Skink Star/Priest are reliable support options; the Priest can be a strong buff machine, while the Starpriest is a cheap wizard that can help your units with magic.

As a bonus, deploying this whole army should be a sight to behold!

2500 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 4 Battleline units, you can have up to 8 Leaders, 5 Artilleries and 5 Behemoths. Your minimum tax is 420 points (DON'T DO THAT JOKE); 4 10-units Skins and one of the following leaders: Saurus Oldblood, Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One, Skink Priest or Skink Starpriest.

From the previous example list, not much more to add here.

If you picked a Sunblood, you could get third Warriors unit and upgrade them to a Sunclaw Starhost. Add a Slann Starmaster is a fantastic idea; 3 spells/unbinds, can cast through skink heroes and Troglodons at 15" away and buff your whole army.

This costs 2440 points. If your place allows older scrolls, you could pick a Skink Chief to close at 2500.

Legacy / Unsupported

• 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 wounds. And then, a 6 to wound deals d3 damage 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: 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.

External links

Rules are here

Here are links to all the warscrolls for the army, in the same order as they are listed in the article.

• Their Warscroll Compendium

• Lord Kroak

• Slann Starmaster

• Saurus Oldblood (On Foot)

• Saurus Oldblood (On Carnosaur)

• Scar Veteran (On Carnosaur)

• Scar Veteran (On Cold One)

• Saurus Sunblood

• Astrolith Bearer

• Eternity Warden

• Saurus Warriors

• Saurus Guard

• Saurus Knights

• Skink Starseer

• Skink Starpriest

• Skink Priest

• Skinks

• Chameleon Skinks

• Terradon Riders

• Ripperdactyl Riders

• Salamander

• Razordon

• Kroxigor

• Engine

• Stegadon

• Bastiladon

• Troglodon

• Lustria-Online.com, the main Seraphon army forum.