New to Seraphon - Are there any must have units.

[Riddles]

and why please. Thanks.

[Aginor]

Nice to see another Lizard! 

Well, IMO there are no must-takes. Seraphon are in the great situation that they are versatile.
There are three branches of our army (also established that way with the new GHB2017 comand traits) that you can build your army on, and all three have lots of options to choose from. They can also be mixed. Those three are Slann (magic), Saurus (Melee infantry, cavalry and monsters), and Skinks (light infantry and some monsters).

That being said: Seraphon are all about synergies. We don't have that one killer unit that belongs into every army and you need that one to win, but of course there are some stronger ones and some weaker ones. Some are very rarely used and considered not worth their point cost, but with the loads of changes and new abilities that we will receive with the GHB2017 quite some units that were "meh" became viable all of a sudden. One great example is the Slann. Many people didn't play them since with the Rules of One and reinforcement points the Slann was just underwhelming for his point cost. Now with the new traits that has changed. I don't see any units in our army that are completely useless.
But many of them are not very useful if you don't build up on their synergies, such as choosing the correct buffs or bataillons. We have lots of buffs to stack on a single unit if necessary.
If I had to choose one "worst unit" I'd say it is the Engine of the Gods. Its main mechanic (at least until now) is very unreliable, and some of its random effects are summons, which cost reinforcement points. You could make it better by using a Slann AND a Starseer (which means you have to spend 680 points on those together using new points). Meh. It may be good for that one new bataillon though, if that rumor I heard is correct (free summons of bataillon units or something like that).
Another one that I consider to be not really strong is the Saurus Oldblood on foot. Which is why I was shocked to see it become more expensive in the GHB2017. Maybe there is something in one of the new bataillons that makes him awesome, or his very mediocre command ability is much better when playing big hordes. Otherwise I don't see why his points increased. He was played rarely because he isn't that strong.

But let's move on to your question, shall we? I know I am writing walls of text again, rambling on and on about my favourite army.

As I said before, there isn't that one best unit you have to use, but several that are considered to be strong.

Darren Watson made 4th place and 7th place in two UK tournaments with a list based on our glorious leader, Lord Nukealot, eh, Kroak. He was terribly expensive (dropped by 90 points now!) so he wasn't often played, but he is powerful, as Darren showed. So Kroak makes my list. He is still expensive though, and without his synergies (I'll say Astrolith Bearer, Balewind Vortex, and Eternity Warden) he's still a bit underwhelming.

The second one in my book is a Saurus. the Saurus Eternity Warden can either be used as a bodyguard for a Slann, or as the leader of one of our best bataillons, the Saurus Guard bataillon called Eternal Starhost. Very defensive. Against armies wiht mortal wounds output our guards die quickly, everyone else is in for a long nasty fight against guards, especially when they are buffed by the Eternity Warden.

The Astrolith Bearer is great. He is not mobile but granting rerolls of all hits for half of the army and buffing casters' range and cast rolls is good.

The Bastiladon is great. He has a 4+ save against mortal wounds and a good regular save and with a bit of luck (or help by an Astrolith Bearer, a Skink Chief, a Slann, or a Starseer, or a combination of those) he can dish out good damage. Also he's a Dinosaur with a laser beam. 'nuff said.

With the 40 points reduction from the GHB2017 I love our Oldblood on Carnosaur. He's a frickin' huge guy that eats your face if you don't kill him quickly.

The Starpriest has a good buff and a good spell. Also he can be played as the head of another one of our best bataillons, the Shadowstrike Starhost. That bataillon is so good, I wrote a song about it. No joke.

Ripperdactyls are great (especially in the aforementioned bataillon). I actually don't play them myself but others do, and they are flying bulldogs carrying Skinks with Javelins, eating your face while their riders stab you.

Skinks. I love Skinks. They are cheap, as fast as cavalry, they can shoot, they can retreat from melee. When buffed they become much more scary than they look like.

 

Ok I could go on and on because I like our units. Salamanders, Razordons and Stegadons are cool as well. It depends on your build.

 

My best advice: Choose a few units that you like, judging by looks. There is a good chance that you can build good lists with them. Perhaps not tournament-winning lists, that's too early to say, but you can win against many armies with many lists. So if you want to win, it would be useful to know what armies you encounter at the place you play.
Or maybe choose a play style, and we'll tell you what in the army fits best.

[Seraphage]

As a new player I would recommend you to buy the models you like and then built from there. 

One of our most all around units is Bastiladon but it is really up to your play style. So go for the beauty and then search its strategies 

[Centuryslayer]

Maybe we need a Let's chat Seraphon soon. I predict after ghb17 drops there will be a bunch more space faring lizards about

 

[Aginor]

I am almost sure about that.

[Riddles]

6 hours ago, Aginor said:

Nice to see another Lizard! 

Well, IMO there are no must-takes. Seraphon are in the great situation that they are versatile.
There are three branches of our army (also established that way with the new GHB2017 comand traits) that you can build your army on, and all three have lots of options to choose from. They can also be mixed. Those three are Slann (magic), Saurus (Melee infantry, cavalry and monsters), and Skinks (light infantry and some monsters).

That being said: Seraphon are all about synergies. We don't have that one killer unit that belongs into every army and you need that one to win, but of course there are some stronger ones and some weaker ones. Some are very rarely used and considered not worth their point cost, but with the loads of changes and new abilities that we will receive with the GHB2017 quite some units that were "meh" became viable all of a sudden. One great example is the Slann. Many people didn't play them since with the Rules of One and reinforcement points the Slann was just underwhelming for his point cost. Now with the new traits that has changed. I don't see any units in our army that are completely useless.
But many of them are not very useful if you don't build up on their synergies, such as choosing the correct buffs or bataillons. We have lots of buffs to stack on a single unit if necessary.
If I had to choose one "worst unit" I'd say it is the Engine of the Gods. Its main mechanic (at least until now) is very unreliable, and some of its random effects are summons, which cost reinforcement points. You could make it better by using a Slann AND a Starseer (which means you have to spend 680 points on those together using new points). Meh. It may be good for that one new bataillon though, if that rumor I heard is correct (free summons of bataillon units or something like that).
Another one that I consider to be not really strong is the Saurus Oldblood on foot. Which is why I was shocked to see it become more expensive in the GHB2017. Maybe there is something in one of the new bataillons that makes him awesome, or his very mediocre command ability is much better when playing big hordes. Otherwise I don't see why his points increased. He was played rarely because he isn't that strong.

But let's move on to your question, shall we? I know I am writing walls of text again, rambling on and on about my favourite army.

As I said before, there isn't that one best unit you have to use, but several that are considered to be strong.

Darren Watson made 4th place and 7th place in two UK tournaments with a list based on our glorious leader, Lord Nukealot, eh, Kroak. He was terribly expensive (dropped by 90 points now!) so he wasn't often played, but he is powerful, as Darren showed. So Kroak makes my list. He is still expensive though, and without his synergies (I'll say Astrolith Bearer, Balewind Vortex, and Eternity Warden) he's still a bit underwhelming.

The second one in my book is a Saurus. the Saurus Eternity Warden can either be used as a bodyguard for a Slann, or as the leader of one of our best bataillons, the Saurus Guard bataillon called Eternal Starhost. Very defensive. Against armies wiht mortal wounds output our guards die quickly, everyone else is in for a long nasty fight against guards, especially when they are buffed by the Eternity Warden.

The Astrolith Bearer is great. He is not mobile but granting rerolls of all hits for half of the army and buffing casters' range and cast rolls is good.

The Bastiladon is great. He has a 4+ save against mortal wounds and a good regular save and with a bit of luck (or help by an Astrolith Bearer, a Skink Chief, a Slann, or a Starseer, or a combination of those) he can dish out good damage. Also he's a Dinosaur with a laser beam. 'nuff said.

With the 40 points reduction from the GHB2017 I love our Oldblood on Carnosaur. He's a frickin' huge guy that eats your face if you don't kill him quickly.

The Starpriest has a good buff and a good spell. Also he can be played as the head of another one of our best bataillons, the Shadowstrike Starhost. That bataillon is so good, I wrote a song about it. No joke.

Ripperdactyls are great (especially in the aforementioned bataillon). I actually don't play them myself but others do, and they are flying bulldogs carrying Skinks with Javelins, eating your face while their riders stab you.

Skinks. I love Skinks. They are cheap, as fast as cavalry, they can shoot, they can retreat from melee. When buffed they become much more scary than they look like.

 

Ok I could go on and on because I like our units. Salamanders, Razordons and Stegadons are cool as well. It depends on your build.

 

My best advice: Choose a few units that you like, judging by looks. There is a good chance that you can build good lists with them. Perhaps not tournament-winning lists, that's too early to say, but you can win against many armies with many lists. So if you want to win, it would be useful to know what armies you encounter at the place you play.
Or maybe choose a play style, and we'll tell you what in the army fits best.

Thanks! I don't mind the wall of text at all, it's very useful. i currently own the start collecting set(with the carnasaur assembled as an oldblood on carnasaur and the skink oracle being converted up a bit and being used as a skink priest with priestly trappings) and 10 saurus warriors. Any tips on what works well with that?// I'm thinking of getting a bastliladon any advice equipment to choose for it.

[rokapoke]

9 minutes ago, Riddles said:

Thanks! I don't mind the wall of text at all, it's very useful. i currently own the start collecting set(with the carnasaur assembled as an oldblood on carnasaur and the skink oracle being converted up a bit and being used as a skink priest with priestly trappings) and 10 saurus warriors. Any tips on what works well with that?// I'm thinking of getting a bastliladon any advice equipment to choose for it.

When you build the Knights, it's very easy to create one as the Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One. That would give you not only another Hero, but one that synergizes (interesting -- spell check is angry about this but I feel pretty strongly that it's a word) very nicely with the Knights due to his command ability (if you run him as the general). I've attached a picture of mine.

As far as the Bastiladon, it depends on whether you intend to use him in melee or use him as artillery. If you want to hold him back and shoot your opponent down, use the Solar Engine. If you want to push him into the fray, use the Ark of Sotek -- get him surrounded by multiple enemy units and he destroys lots of stuff every combat phase (not just during your turn).

[Solaris]

I'm also a new (potential) Seraphon player, have been eyeing them for a long time and feel like now may be the time to take the plunge. I like to play in tournaments, and do prefer my armies to be highly competitive.

My first inclination with Seraphon would be a Saurus build because it's cool. Looking through the warscrolls and the new point costs with the new allegiance abilities in mind, I think the Sunclaw Starhost looks excellent. We have a plethora of offensive and defensive buffs to stack on Saurus Warriors, and with rend -1 they become absolutely lethal.

Does anyone have experience playing this kind of list?

[Aginor]

I am more of a Skink player, so my experience with Saurus is very limited. But Sunclaw is a pretty cool bataillon and so is Bloodclaw.

As for the Bastiladon: it is not hard at all to make it convertible. Try both versions. Most people tend to use the solar engine though, because it is one of our few ranged weapons with a decent range.

Problem with the ark is that the damage output can be pretty low if there are only two or three units near it. So with the hordes getting probably played more often in the future it might well happen that your Bastiladon is surrounded by just one unit, maybe two. Then the ark is not good at all.

The solar engine isn't perfectly reliable either but at least it shoots the target you want, and you can use curse of fate, an Astrolith, a Skink Chief, or a bataillon bonus to improve those hit and wound rolls.

 

As for the starting box:

Skink Priest conversion is good use of those spare parts.

Converting one Knight to a Scarvet it also good.

Then buy a second box, then you already have everything for a Firelance Starhost, which got quite a bit better with the new items and abilities and the point decreases.
Build the second Carno as an Oldblood or even as a Troglodon. Both have their uses. If you like Saurus I would tend to build the Oldblood on Carno though. Build yourself a Starpriest out of the second leftover Skink. Both Starpriest and Priest are worth having. I built myself a Skink Chief but you will probably not need that one, because his only real use is his command ability.

To further expand your Saurus army you should think about getting a Sunblood and/or an Oldblood on foot, but you should definitely get more Saurus Warriors. Those are only good in large numbers.

 

Also: for defensive purposes the Astrolith Bearer is very strong. But he limits your mobility so you might have to either teleport it or let the enemy come to you.

[Xanax Lot]

15 hours ago, Aginor said:

Nice to see another Lizard! 

Well, IMO there are no must-takes. Seraphon are in the great situation that they are versatile.
There are three branches of our army (also established that way with the new GHB2017 comand traits) that you can build your army on, and all three have lots of options to choose from. They can also be mixed. Those three are Slann (magic), Saurus (Melee infantry, cavalry and monsters), and Skinks (light infantry and some monsters).

That being said: Seraphon are all about synergies. We don't have that one killer unit that belongs into every army and you need that one to win, but of course there are some stronger ones and some weaker ones. Some are very rarely used and considered not worth their point cost, but with the loads of changes and new abilities that we will receive with the GHB2017 quite some units that were "meh" became viable all of a sudden. One great example is the Slann. Many people didn't play them since with the Rules of One and reinforcement points the Slann was just underwhelming for his point cost. Now with the new traits that has changed. I don't see any units in our army that are completely useless.
But many of them are not very useful if you don't build up on their synergies, such as choosing the correct buffs or bataillons. We have lots of buffs to stack on a single unit if necessary.
If I had to choose one "worst unit" I'd say it is the Engine of the Gods. Its main mechanic (at least until now) is very unreliable, and some of its random effects are summons, which cost reinforcement points. You could make it better by using a Slann AND a Starseer (which means you have to spend 680 points on those together using new points). Meh. It may be good for that one new bataillon though, if that rumor I heard is correct (free summons of bataillon units or something like that).
Another one that I consider to be not really strong is the Saurus Oldblood on foot. Which is why I was shocked to see it become more expensive in the GHB2017. Maybe there is something in one of the new bataillons that makes him awesome, or his very mediocre command ability is much better when playing big hordes. Otherwise I don't see why his points increased. He was played rarely because he isn't that strong.

But let's move on to your question, shall we? I know I am writing walls of text again, rambling on and on about my favourite army.

As I said before, there isn't that one best unit you have to use, but several that are considered to be strong.

Darren Watson made 4th place and 7th place in two UK tournaments with a list based on our glorious leader, Lord Nukealot, eh, Kroak. He was terribly expensive (dropped by 90 points now!) so he wasn't often played, but he is powerful, as Darren showed. So Kroak makes my list. He is still expensive though, and without his synergies (I'll say Astrolith Bearer, Balewind Vortex, and Eternity Warden) he's still a bit underwhelming.

The second one in my book is a Saurus. the Saurus Eternity Warden can either be used as a bodyguard for a Slann, or as the leader of one of our best bataillons, the Saurus Guard bataillon called Eternal Starhost. Very defensive. Against armies wiht mortal wounds output our guards die quickly, everyone else is in for a long nasty fight against guards, especially when they are buffed by the Eternity Warden.

The Astrolith Bearer is great. He is not mobile but granting rerolls of all hits for half of the army and buffing casters' range and cast rolls is good.

The Bastiladon is great. He has a 4+ save against mortal wounds and a good regular save and with a bit of luck (or help by an Astrolith Bearer, a Skink Chief, a Slann, or a Starseer, or a combination of those) he can dish out good damage. Also he's a Dinosaur with a laser beam. 'nuff said.

With the 40 points reduction from the GHB2017 I love our Oldblood on Carnosaur. He's a frickin' huge guy that eats your face if you don't kill him quickly.

The Starpriest has a good buff and a good spell. Also he can be played as the head of another one of our best bataillons, the Shadowstrike Starhost. That bataillon is so good, I wrote a song about it. No joke.

Ripperdactyls are great (especially in the aforementioned bataillon). I actually don't play them myself but others do, and they are flying bulldogs carrying Skinks with Javelins, eating your face while their riders stab you.

Skinks. I love Skinks. They are cheap, as fast as cavalry, they can shoot, they can retreat from melee. When buffed they become much more scary than they look like.

 

Ok I could go on and on because I like our units. Salamanders, Razordons and Stegadons are cool as well. It depends on your build.

 

My best advice: Choose a few units that you like, judging by looks. There is a good chance that you can build good lists with them. Perhaps not tournament-winning lists, that's too early to say, but you can win against many armies with many lists. So if you want to win, it would be useful to know what armies you encounter at the place you play.
Or maybe choose a play style, and we'll tell you what in the army fits best.

well said my friend

[Xanax Lot]

8 hours ago, Riddles said:

Thanks! I don't mind the wall of text at all, it's very useful. i currently own the start collecting set(with the carnasaur assembled as an oldblood on carnasaur and the skink oracle being converted up a bit and being used as a skink priest with priestly trappings) and 10 saurus warriors. Any tips on what works well with that?// I'm thinking of getting a bastliladon any advice equipment to choose for it.

 

5 hours ago, Solaris said:

I'm also a new (potential) Seraphon player, have been eyeing them for a long time and feel like now may be the time to take the plunge. I like to play in tournaments, and do prefer my armies to be highly competitive.

My first inclination with Seraphon would be a Saurus build because it's cool. Looking through the warscrolls and the new point costs with the new allegiance abilities in mind, I think the Sunclaw Starhost looks excellent. We have a plethora of offensive and defensive buffs to stack on Saurus Warriors, and with rend -1 they become absolutely lethal.

Does anyone have experience playing this kind of list?

Hi Guys,

I have seraph and shaven and have been playing Seraphon for a very long time, now and as @Aginor mentioned before I have come to realize that our army is really on of the most balanced armies that there are out there. You will have plenty to do in each of the Hero Phases and depending on how you want to make your build you can excel in any of them. 

Regarding the competitiveness of the army I have to say this has been a roller coaster the last two years, when AoS first came out Seraphon where undoubtably one of the top 3 armies due to synergies (with we have A LOT, and many ways to make them redundant) and summoning, then with the nerf to summoning our army wasn't so competitive, yet it didn't stop Darren Watson to finish close to the top tables in two tournaments, now with the new GHB 2017 and the changes we have seen I dare to say that we will be back there at the top again, our alliance ability, artifacts and comand traits synergic extremely well and fit the army fluff, also lords of space and time is an insanely good ability.

Having given you a short history of the competitiveness of the army here are some ideas on some build stiles that can be competitive:

Save Oriented: Ethernal stardust is a very good battalion it gives your taurus guar a 2+ save, D3 Damage and +1 attack. If you combine this with a skink priest that 2+ becomes rerollable, and if you add a starriest their bites make double damage on 6s and the unit gets -1 to be hit. Unless you have a lot of mortal wounds output you won't be going anywhere.

Close Combar oriented: Double Carnosaur List with skink starter, skink priest, lore master of hoeth and shadow strike battalion, with this list I was able to kill two stone horns on the second turn.

Alpha Strike: this we did very well and we have learned to do it even better with the new GHB, take a shadow strike battalion with ripperdactils a big block of Saurus and some chameleon skinks with a Plan with curse of fathes and you can have your whole army alphastrinking and charging on the same turn! 

Mortal wound output: this is a classic, Kroak, gastrolith bearer, bale wind vortex temple guard and a shadow strike you will be hitting most of the units in the board with 2D3 mortal wounds per Hero phase.

Shooting: here you get to choose, but if you go with bastiladons salamanders and chamaleon skinks its not going to be a fun shooting phase for your opponent (not as reliable as storm fiends but also effective). another option is to take a lot of skinks and buff them with the skink chief 

hope this helps if you want any more detail just ask, also I invite you both to join lustria online you can learn a lot about the army there