Everybody walk the Stomposaur.

 

Okay, the Squig list is memetastic and it would be very easy to do similar with a Seraphon army: whack it full of big stompy lizards and go stomping, who cares about objectives?

Well, me. I want a competent army and I’m not persuaded purely Big Things would do that.

Goal:

To be able to tear up the enemy with dinosaurs’ while still playing the objective game.

Research:

First look at the GW site and just how old are these models? Yeesh, they have to be some of the oldest still available, surely? That’s got to be a no.

Anyhoo. Seraphon are famous for Slann, but they don’t ride dino’s so I’ll avoid them. Coalesced is a more “meaty” themed army taking 1 less damage from attacks. The troops won’t care but the dino’s sure will. That brings us to the Thunder Lizard constellation: Monsters (dinosaurs, come on) have +2 wounds and Stegadons are battleline.

Yup. That’s where it’s at.

 

Battalions?

Let’s see… no, no, no and Thunderquake Temple-Host. Hmm, this brings an Engine of the Gods or Skink Chief on Stegadon (sweet), a combination of Bastiladon and/or Stegadon (2 total) a unit of Kroxigors, Salamanders or Razordons. Hmmm, let’s check out those models. Great, all resin and the sculpts are not terrible, but far from good. Salamanders look like the best rules-wise, but are the worst models. Kroxigor though… they benefit being near skinks and are quite chunky bois. Sure, let’s go with that to start.

Building the list:

So let’s start with the battalion then: the Bastiladon seems lacklustre in combat, so I’ll start with just one of those with a Solar Engine (pew pew!), one Stegadon and an Engine of the Gods, along with the Kroxigor. That’s the battalion sorted and gives us one battleline unit. Say, that Start Collecting box has a Bastiladon and some Skinks in, with an additional character and three Terradons. Fine, some Skinks give us a cheap second battleline then and some spare models we may use later.

That gives us three dinosaurs which is clearly not enough, so lets add in a Scarveteran on a Carnosaur, bringing us to four dinosaurs. I’d like one more, and we’ve only spent 1,280 so far so it’s likely, but there’s that pesky other battleline choice needed.

I’m not going to lie, I want to add in some Saurus because the Start Collecting box adds them onto the Carnosaur purchase for just £5 more but of all the plastic models, I think these have aged the worst. Plus, they cost at least 40 points more than a skink unit so lets add more little guys in there. 20 skinks and three Kroxigor protectors, that seems fine.

We lack casters, and I want at least one more dinosaur. Skink Oracle on a Troglodon you say? What a coincidence! This is a core I have to say I like, and leaves 440 points to play with. Lets be thrifty (in this hobby?) and add in the skink priest I’ll have spare from a Stegadon and a unit of Terradon Riders from the Start Collecting box to take us to 280 points spare.

Fine, I’ll have another Stegadon then, and have 40 points to play with Endless Spells.

 

The Army:

Engine of the gods

Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur

Skink Priest

Skink Oracle on Troglodon

3 Kroxigor

20 Skinks

3 Terradon Riders

2x Stegadon

Bastiladon

That’s officially £330 new from GW using a Start Collecting Skinks box to save a few pounds, but I reckon I can get the other 8 skinks needed through a second hand seller, so can save up to £25 there too.

Comes to 33 models, with six of them being monsters. Nice.

Pros:

Six monsters certainly hits the stomp factor and the twenty skinks are small, so should paint up quickly.

Cons:

Even avoiding the Saurus, some of these sculpts feel very dated. And the Bastiladon does not feel like a proper monster to me either, but that still gives me five to thunder around with.