Age of Fantasy/Tactics/Saurians

Why play Saurians?

Because dinosaurs. You've got more than a fair share of scaly monstrosities to throw around and you accompany them with ground forces that are equally vicious.

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Pros

• Very strong magic game
• You got monsters
• Fearless everywhere
• All geckos get Strider

Cons

• While your saurian warriors are tanky, don't expect them to come cheap
• Poor shooting, usually relegated to the geckos
  • Said geckos are also flimsy

Special Rules

• Predator: Any time this unit rolls a nat 6 to hit with a melee weapon, they gain an additional attack with that weapon. You'll be relying on this more than a little since the units with this can't do much else besides bite and claw their way through the enemy
• Primal Roar: Tyrannosaurs and Spinosaurs can trigger this once per game, allowing two units within 6" of them to trigger Predator on a nat 5+.

Wizard Spells

• Scrutiny (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit in melee. Your geckos will be relying on this since they lack defense.
• Serpent Egg (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 4 hits.
• Transcend (5+): A friendly unit within 12" heals a wound or raises a model with one wound left. As expected, healing is always something you want on hand.
• Jaguar Pounce (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. While it won't kill a hero on its own, it's still a good hero-sniping spell.
• Energy Reservoir (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can move an additional +9" the next time they move. This has way too many uses to ignore since this equals more than double a unit's base movement in most cases.
• Piranha Swarm (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 AP 1 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Frog-Mage: Taking this guy pretty much sets him as your army's centerpiece. This croaker's the most powerful wizard the army can grab and is well-protected with a 2+ defense. If you feel the need to protect it further, you can buy an ancient palanquin for Tough 6+, a neigh-untouchable 1+ defense and Strider. Its lone weapon is a pathetic slap in melee, but you can upgrade it to either be A3 Rending or Blast 3 AP 1 if you need to wreck mobs. In either case, this should be a last resort.

• Saurian Veteran: The beatstick hero, and he proves to be quite good at it. On top of Predator, the veteran also totes a hand weapon that can rip through light armor as well as a good 3+ defense.
  • Weapons: The base hand weapon's A4 AP 1 does make it viable to ignore buying a new weapon if you're not expecting to fight some real messes. The lance adds Impact 1 but requires that you buy a mount, the spear provides phalanx, the halberd gives Rending, the great weapon offers a monstrous AP 3 and dual wielding gives you another volley of attacks to rip with. In most cases, it all boils down to what situation you want to throw this guy into.
  • Mounts: The veteran has two options. The raptor essentially gives a horse that also gives two attacks. The tyrannosaurus is quite obviously a monster, upping defense to 2+ and Tough to 9 with a terrifying set of attacks and Primal Roar. While it's a bit sketchy if you decide to trigger it to improve yourself and another ally, it could mean the difference between ripping down an enemy and risking the chance of retribution.

• Gecko Chief: Your budget hero. While not as good as the saurian vet, you have a good deal more flexibility in regards as to what you can pick out. Your lone mount is the pterodactyl, a fast little thing that provides Flying as well as some attacks and Tough 6. This flyer can then be boosted with either rock bombs (letting you pelt enemies he flies over) or Ripper Breed for the ever-direct Furious and Impact 3.
  • Melee: By default, the chief has a simple A3 hand weapon. Your only options here is either going for dual-wielding if you want to make a nuisance or a lance if you plan on going for the cavalry charge.
  • Ranged: Chiefs have three options here. The javelin gives AP 1 and poison, the fire bola provides an extra attack and the blowpipe offers poison at longer range.

• Gecko Priest: Even flimsier than the gecko chief, but this guy merely serves the role of a base wizard. Sadly, this guy lacks any upgrades, so it's better to consider the priest a spell blocker with a side-business in casting minor spells.

Infantry

• Geckos: Your chaff infantry. That said, these give you your most plentiful shooting between either the AP 1 Poison javelins and the longer-range AP 1 blowpipes. On top of this, you can also give Poison to their hand weapons (why would you do this?) and buy paint to provide Stealth (the much safer option).

• Chameleons: Slightly better at hitting than the geckos. These guys have Scout as well as Chameleon, a rule that gives enemies a -2 penalty to hit them while shooting. This is all to justify that these guys are way more than twice the cost of the base geckos. Fortunately, they come with blowpipes included, so you can easily fire away from any location you see fit.

• Pterodactyl Riders: Fast Flying buggers with Tough 3, but a mere 5+ defense to offset the strengths they have. Lances are their only melee upgrade, providing Impact 1 and absolutely go well with Ripper Brood providing extra Impact as well as Furious. They can buy javelins and blowpipes if you want to shoot, and these are on top of the option for Rock Bombs, the ability to whack enemies these pterodacyls fly over with a potential of 3 AP 1 hits.

• Saurian Warriors: Take the role of traditional footslogger infantry, but markedly stronger with a 4+ in quality and defense. This is particularly important since the geckos can be swatted off the map with little more than a stiff breeze. They can take the gamut in melee weaponry on top of a harpoon if you want to go hero hunting.

• Guardians: An improved set of saurian warriors, each with 3+ quality and defense. This comes at the cost of being trapped to halberds with AP 1 and a price hike so high that it'd be wiser to abandon them in smaller games.

• Raptor Riders: The stronger cavalry of the saurians, though they aren't as nimble. This is fine since they're already packing quite a punch and can buy lances so they hurt even harder.

• Gators: The slabs of meat to the clubs that represent your warriors. Each of these guys is Tough 3 and hauls a great weapon powerful enough to fell practically anything they come across.

• Snake Swarms: The real chaff. When you want to rely on the geckos for shooting, you grab these for sacrificing. If any of them survive, then hope you can at least score a hit so you can proc Poison.

Monsters

• Dragon Lizard: The first of your smaller monsters, toting only Tough 3. While it lacks Fire Breath, it still can throw out a bevy of shots (3d3 of them) that can melt light armor. If you want to guarantee that it hits as much as possible, you can buy a Lizard Handler so you can roll another d6 and drop the lowest d6 when determining hits.

• Spiked Lizard: This lizard lacks the AP of the Dragon's breath, but it covers a better range. As above, you can rely on the Lizard Handler to get as many hits down as you need. This makes the spiked lizard better against light infantry and swarms that are acting as meatshields.

• Triceratops: Now we're talking! This is a big monster with horns capable of gouging things (You can upgrade the AP of them for fairly cheap) and four geckos throwing javelins at whatever looks at it funny. Seeing this, it almost feels like a crime that you need to buy Impact when charging is the thing a triceratops is supposed to do.
  • Shooting: You can actually buy other things to shoot with on top of those javelins. The giant blowpipes give you more poison at a familiar range. The giant crossbow gives you much better range and a much more potent shot, but only one. You can instead buy Altar of the Gods, giving two units within 6" Stealth when they next get shots - a handy way to support your forces.

• Spinosaurus: Poison aficionado between the venom spit providing a small blast and the claws riding off Predator. The fact that it can spit makes it a bit of a better idea to buy Primal Roar. If you wanted some more casting, you could instead buy a Priest Rider so you can cast like a gecko priest. The issue with that is the idea that you now made your monster a target.

• Ankylosaurus:Your biggest and nastiest. The mace tail on its own is capable of splatting heroes and elites like nothing and its stomps give you at least an alternative against most mobs. On top of that is the crew with its pair of javelins to toss around.

You can select one of two upgrades here: The Ark of Snakes lets you potentially deal immediate hits, allowing you to thin the herd quite a bit before you even reach combat. The solar beam instead gives a bit of magic dakka capable of splatting most infantry.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Fearless everywhere
• All geckos get Strider

Cons

• While your saurian warriors are tanky, don't expect them to come cheap
• Poor shooting, usually relegated to the geckos
  • Said geckos are also flimsy

Special Rules

• Predator: Any time this unit rolls a nat 6 to hit with a melee weapon, they gain an additional attack with that weapon. You'll be relying on this more than a little since the units with this can't do much else besides bite and claw their way through the enemy

Wizard Spells

• Scrutiny (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit in melee. Your geckos will be relying on this since they lack defense.
• Serpent Egg (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 4 hits.
• Transcend (5+): A friendly unit within 12" heals a wound or raises a model with one wound left. As expected, healing is always something you want on hand.
• Jaguar Pounce (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. While it won't kill a hero on its own, it's still a good hero-sniping spell.
• Energy Reservoir (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can move an additional +9" the next time they move. This has way too many uses to ignore since this equals more than double a unit's base movement in most cases.
• Piranha Swarm (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 AP 1 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Saurian Veteran: The beatstick hero, and he proves to be quite good at it. On top of Predator, the veteran also totes a hand weapon that can rip through light armor as well as a good 3+ defense. Arena restricts the veteran's mount choices to only the raptor, an equivalent to the steeds most armies get but with some extra attacks as well.
  • Weapons: The base hand weapon's A4 AP 1 does make it viable to ignore buying a new weapon if you're not expecting to fight some real messes. The lance adds Impact 1 but requires that you buy a mount, the spear provides phalanx, the halberd gives Rending, the great weapon offers a monstrous AP 3 and dual wielding gives you another volley of attacks to rip with. In most cases, it all boils down to what situation you want to throw this guy into.

• Gecko Chief: Your budget hero. While not as good as the saurian vet, you have a good deal more flexibility in regards as to what you can pick out. Your lone mount is the pterodactyl, a fast little thing that provides Flying as well as some attacks and Tough 6. This flyer can then be boosted with either rock bombs (letting you pelt enemies he flies over) or Ripper Breed for the ever-direct Furious and Impact 3.
  • Melee: By default, the chief has a simple A3 hand weapon. Your only options here is either going for dual-wielding if you want to make a nuisance or a lance if you plan on going for the cavalry charge.
  • Ranged: Chiefs have three options here. The javelin gives AP 1 and poison, the fire bola provides an extra attack and the blowpipe offers poison at longer range.

• Gecko Priest: Even flimsier than the gecko chief, but this guy merely serves the role of a base wizard. Sadly, this guy lacks any upgrades, so it's better to consider the priest a spell blocker with a side-business in casting minor spells.

Infantry

• Geckos: Your chaff infantry, being your only squad-based unit. That said, these give you your most plentiful shooting between either the AP 1 Poison javelins and the longer-range AP 1 blowpipes. On top of this, you can also give Poison to their hand weapons (why would you do this?) and buy paint to provide Stealth (the much safer option).

• Chameleon: Slightly better at hitting than the geckos. These guys have Scout as well as Chameleon, a rule that gives enemies a -2 penalty to hit them while shooting. This is all to justify that these guys are way more than twice the cost of the base geckos. Fortunately, they come with blowpipes included, so you can easily fire away from any location you see fit.

• Pterodactyl Rider: Fast Flying bugger with Tough 3, but a mere 5+ defense to offset the strengths they have. Lances are their only melee upgrade, providing Impact 1 and absolutely go well with Ripper Brood providing extra Impact as well as Furious. They can buy javelins and blowpipes if you want to shoot, and these are on top of the option for Rock Bombs, the ability to whack enemies these pterodacyls fly over with a potential of 3 AP 1 hits.

• Saurian Warrior: Takes the role of traditional footslogger infantry, but markedly stronger with a 4+ in quality and defense. This is particularly important since the geckos can be swatted off the map with little more than a stiff breeze. They can take the gamut in melee weaponry on top of a harpoon if you want to go hero hunting.

• Guardian: An saurian warriors, each with 3+ quality and defense. This comes at the cost of being trapped to halberds with AP 1 and a considerable raise in cost. If you're fielding one, you're going to want him to kill as many foes as possible.

• Raptor Rider: The stronger cavalry of the saurians, though they aren't as nimble. This is fine since they're already packing quite a punch and can buy lances so they hurt even harder.

• Gators: The slabs of meat to the clubs that represent your warriors. Each of these guys is Tough 3 and hauls a great weapon powerful enough to fell practically anything they come across.

Army Building

Tactics

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Age of Fantasy Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Dwarves:	Dwarves - Sky-City Dwarves - Volcanic Dwarves
Elves:	Dark Elves - Deep Sea Elves - High Elves - Wood Elves
Greenskins:	Goblins - Orcs
Havoc:	Beastmen - Clans of the War Cry - Havoc Dwarves - Havoc Warriors - Rift Daemons
Humans:	Chivalrous Kingdoms - Duchies of Vinci - Eternal Wardens - Humans - Kingdom of Angels
Undead:	Ghostly Undead - Mummified Undead - Ossified Undead - Vampiric Undead
Other:	Giant Tribes - Halflings - Ogres - Ratmen - Saurians - Shadow Stalkers