Tozon's Host of the Stars

[Tozon]

Hey There!

I found when I was doing my Ogres a few years back having an online "Progress Diary" really helped me keep focus and actually do some painting occasionally so thought now would be a great time to get the new one underway.   With the release of the Handbook my group is getting back into AoS hard and I've always loved Lizardmen so thought I'd take the fresh start as an opportunity to finally get back round to my favourite army.

Having played Lizardmen as my first ever WHFB army back in 5th Edition I left the hobby came back and never got round to doing them again, until now!

So far I've been mostly just assembling but I've done the tester scheme for the model and I'm going to go pretty traditional with the colours but hopefully have my own "look" a bit.  This is the main scheme with my first attempt at the scenic bases:

 

I love everything in the Seraphon range so my painting pile now consists of at least one of everything!  My total collection is listed below and this is what I will be going through (bold = painted, italic = next on the list):

1x Lord Kroak
1x Slann Starmaster
1x Skink Chief
1x Skink Priest
2x Skink Starpriest
1x Skink Starseer
1x Saurus Oldblood
1x Saurus Sunblood
1x Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One
1x Saurus Astrolith Bearer
1x Saurus Eternity Warden
1x Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur

44x Saurus Warriors
48x Skinks (1 complete, 9 more next on the hitlist)
30x Saurus Guard
15x Saurus Knights
9x Ripperdactyl Riders
9x Terradon Riders
15x Chameleon Skinks
9x Kroxigor

6x Razordons
6x Salamanders
36x Skink Handlers

1x Bastiladon
1x Stegadon
1x Engine of the Gods
1x Troglodon
1x Dread Saurian

 

Cheers & thanks for looking

Tozon

Edit:  The colours when I first posted came out terribly so I have changed the picture!

[DamonRafael]

The first pic is much darker!

I love the blue tone in the second, and the base is actually simple and effective. Thumbs up

This reminds me I want to start rebase and paint my liz... Seraphon! 

[Tozon]

Thanks @DamonRafael !  I've changed my first pic now - it was fine on my comp but then went squiffy when I uploaded...

 

So I have my first game of pointed AoS this weekend (actually my 2nd ever full game of AoS!) so have decided to go with a fully skinked up force, I'm going to take:

Skinkin it Up

Allegiance: Order

Total Points: 2000 (1001-2500)

Leaders: 4 Battleline Units: 3 Artillery Units: 2 Behemoth Units: 1   1x Skink Starpriest 1x Skink Priest 1x Skink Starseer 1x Skink Chief   10x Skinks (Battleline) 10x Skinks (Battleline) 10x Skinks (Battleline)   3x Razordons 3x Salamanders 6x Skink Handlers 3x Kroxigor 3x Ripperdactyl Riders 3x Terradon Riders 1x Bastiladon   0x Shadowstrike Starhost

 

 

I'll be going up against a Death list and know he is going to be rocking a Mourngul and Terrorgheist so I am pretty scared of both those!  Should be a cracking game though.

 

Thanks for reading, Tozon.

[DamonRafael]

I have only played one game with Seraphon so far, but I haven't found Skinks so useful in units of 10. OFC I only had a unit of 10, a unit of 10 Saurus and a Carnosaur... Can't wait for your BR

 

[Tozon]

Skinks do seem very.........underwhelming but I'm sure I'll find a use for them - at worse it's  the cheapest option for Battleline so more fun toys like Ripperdactyls and Salamanders.  I've always loved them since my first (and only) warhammer tournament, it was a whole 500pts of Ravening Hordes and I won it with 3 priests and a bucket load of skinks, ah good times!

 

Small up date for this evening.  So I've got my first unit built and sprayed and have managed to get the bases made as well:

 

I'm really happy with the bases and have done a couple of the bigger ones, here's a better shot of the flying base (at the back above):

 

Not the most exciting update in the world but hopefully the next one will have the first full unit!

Thanks for reading, Tozon

[Tommy]

Off to a great start! The bases are great, are they painted cork? Would you mind listing the colours you use, I've been thinking of doing some flagstone bases and the shade I go for will probably be something similar.

Really like the totems as objective markers too!

[Tozon]

Thanks Tommy!  Yeah, it is just painted cork - super simple.

The cork is from Wickes, 3.5mm thick and pretty cheap, just tear it before painting up.

The scheme I'm using is also pretty simple, it's just drybrushing:

All
Spray Rhinox Hide

Sand
Wash Agrax Earthshade
Drybrush Mournfang Brown
Light Drybrush Tyrant Skull

Stone
Paint Eshin Grey
Wash Nuln Oil
Drybrush Eshin Grey
Light Drybrush Dawnstone
Selective glaze with Thraka Green (or any green) mixed with lots of Lahmium Medium - this is just for a bit of depth to the colour.
VERY light drybrush of Tyrant skull (very edges only - still deciding if I like this....)

 

Having written it down it looks a lot but it really isn't - just looks it!  Hope that helps

 

The objective markers were after watching some friends play a game with some 40k models as objectives (it was last minute so can't blame them!!!) and realising that I really needed to get something and then found those knocking around in a ziplock in my randoms box.

[Tozon]

Sundays Games

 

So on Sunday we had pretty much a day of AoS (we actually started about 11 and wound up about half 10 after getting kicked out of Warhammer World at closing and having to play games at mine (but with Chinese Food so.....winning).

 

I only played 2 games and watched the other 2

 

 

Game 1 - 1000pts Flesh Eater Courts v Seraphon (Me as Seraphon)

 

My list:

 

Skink Star Priest

Skink Priest

 

10x Skinks

10x Skinks 

 

5x Chameleon Skinks

3x Kroxigor

3x Ripperdactyls

3x Salamanders

 

I did have an artifact, trait, and triumph......they did nothing all game.

 

Opponent:

 

Abhorrent Ghoul King

Crypt Infernal Courtier

 

30 Crypt Ghouls
3 Crypt Horrors

Varghulf

 

Mission: Gift from the Heavens (I think it's called).  On Turn 2, two objectives come into random board sections and are worth an escalating amount of VPs.

 

Final Result: Called mid T4.  Seraphon 16vps  vs  Flesh Eater Court 0vps (we realised there was no way for the FeC to win at this point)

 

Game Summary:

So this was a very interesting game.  Though the result makes it look like a clear cut victory for the Seraphon it was anything but.  Deployment was cagey with neither of us knowing where the objectives would be placed so we were pretty central heavy so we could adapt to where we needed.

 

During the whole game my entire army managed to kill 5 Crypt Horrors and.....nothing else.  4 of them came back to life as the Courtier is horrendous!

 

The game pretty much came down to movement.  I managed to get my objective from T2 by running some skinks on to it and had enough units I could throw under the wheels of the horror train that my opponent would struggle to get to it all game.  On the other flank the far objective was a bit out of reach of everyone but I managed to get to it but using the skinks Retreating ability.  When he charged me in Turn 3, my first activation was skinks who retreated....8" towards the objective.  That unit just became a real annoyance to the Death player as when they were charged they'd just activate and flee - around the objective making them really tricky to pin down and letting me notch up VPs.

 

Overall a fun game, even though casualties on both side were minimal - a great intro to the game.

 

MVP:  10 Skinks using Wary Fighters for objective control

LVP: Crypt Ghouls who got caught in no mans land and Vargheist who got the run around

 

 

Game 2 - 2000pts Seraphon V Khorne Bloodbound + Skaven (I didn't play)

 

My friend used my Seraphon in this game and they were massively underwhelming.  It was basically the list above scaled (hah) up to include a Bastiladon, some Salamanders, a Star Seer and Stegadon.

 

The game can be summed up as "Chaos had more stuff and the Seraphon toys didn't kill enough".  The mission was Take and Hold and basically Chaos just slowly pressed up and destroyed the Seraphon piece meal whilst taking not a lot of damage in return.

 

Chaos Massacre.

 

Deployment:

 

 

An Impressively messy combat:

 

MVP:  Wrathmongers who killed a Stegadon on a Turn 2 charge and then took an entire Seraphon shooting phase to kill/

LVP: Basically all the Seraphon but a special mention to the 3 Salamanders & Handlers who in 4 turns failed to cause a single wound on the enemy.

 

Game 3 - 1000pts Beastclaw Raiders V Khorne Bloodbound + Khorne Daemons (me as Beastclaw Raiders)

 

My list:

 

Hunter on Foot

 

2 Mournfang

2 Mournfang

3 Yhetees

 

Thundertusk

 

(Genuinely that is it.....9 whole models):

 

 

Opponents list:

 

Skullgrinder

Khorne Banner guy

Bloodstoker

 

20 Bloodletters

20 Bloodreavers

10 Blood Warriors

10 Skull Reapers (apparently they didn't get the memo and should have been called Blood Reapers)

 

 

The Mission was the 4 equally spaced objectives......but that soon become irrelevent.

 

Game Summary:

Given the fact I was outnumbered 7 to 1 I decided to refused flank and try and play the long game using my superior movement to try and make sure he could sneak a winning objective at any point.  Apart from the Bloodletters he deployed bang opposite me and in Turn 1 moved up all his units whilst keeping the characters out of Thundertusk range for the auto kill.

 

I charged.

 

2 Units of MFC and a Thundertusk into the Reavers & the Yhetees and hunters into the Warriors.  I killed everything and lost 1 yhetee in return.  Turn 2 I finish of all his characters and Blood Warriors.  We agree to end the game as I wheel my full army round to face 1 unit of Blodletters.

 

Ogre Massacre.  I think this was an example of an accidental hard counter, unless I played like a moron I'm not sure what the Chaos player could do.

 

MVP: All the Ogres.   The Thundertusk was excellent for it's cost but genuinely everthing worked well.  The Yhetees 6" pile in was excellent.

LVP: The Chaos units did nothing, the Skullgrinder took the Hunter to a wound in 1 round of combat but that's about it.

 

 

Game 4 - 1500pts Seraphon v Gutbusters (I didn't play)

 

This was a really close game that we had to call a bit early, with Seraphon getting given the win (they were ahead and would only lose with some very bizarre dice results in the following couple of turns).

 

The Gutbusters perfomed really  well to be honest (the game likely would have come down to 1/2VPs) with the Tyrant & Butchers definely causing a lot of hurt, I'm looking forward to playing with them more in the future.

 

MVP: The Carnosaur who eventually was the difference between winning and losing with an honorable mention to the Gutbusters Butcher whose spell killed about 20 Saurus (plus more to batteshock) over the game whilst also getting stuck in to combat.

LVP: The 6 Kroxigor who wilted when up against the Tyrant.

 

The Gubtbusters (the firebelly was just a second butcher)

 

 

Chinese food and Age of Sigmar:

 

If you got this far.....wow well done. 

 

As my first real foray into AoS I really enjoyed my games (and went 2-0 over the course of the day!).  The system seems streamlined and fun, there weren't many rules oversights and everything played well.

 

Every unit having several rules made it quite difficult as a "new" player, starting some games at 1000pts really helped and I want to play some more at that level to learn the rules for the units in my army properly.

 

Am playing again on Saturday so need to hit the paint station this week!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, Tozon

[Tozon]

So an update for the night!

Had a bit of a painting session tonight and have got a whole HALF A UNIT painted, so here are some skinks:

 

I also managed to (mostly) finish a Skink Priest, I need some final layers/higlights on him but here is a sneak preview of him with his pals:

 

 

My final preview for the night is a closer sneak peak of my objective markers (no where near finished):

 

 

Thanks for reading, hope you like!

Tozon

[Tozon]

So another weekend filled with games, and 3 games with 3 wins for the Seraphon.  Massively undeserved I must say.
 

But first things, I found an old terrible painted model and managed to strip it and paint it up - the old metal Skink Chief, I love it!   I've not got a close up photo but here he is posing on my RoB board.  And underneath the whole RoB board ready for a weekend of gaming:

 

 

 

The 3 games I played were all multiplayer, one 3 way game (750pts each) and two 2v2 games (1000pts each).  I'll give a little summary of each

Game 1 - Slaanesh V Stormcast V Seraphon

We played the 1 artifact mission (adapted so unit champions could pick up as well) and the Seraphon were largelt ineffective throughout the whole game, doing barely any damage to anyone whilst the big boys scrapped it out.  After they had nearly finished killing each (and me) I managed to 'Wary Fighter' the skink champion on the the objective and run and hide!   

Victory to the cowards!

MVP: The Skink Alpha for bravely running onto an objective
LVP: Razordon, am wondering why they exist at the moment....

Game 2 - Stormcast & Slaanesh  VS  Seraphon & Flesh Eater Courts

This mission was 4 objectives in opposite corners and 2 big plays defined the game:

1) The FeC Ghoul patrol walking on behind the opposing enemy and destroying the Liberator objective holders

2) I realised that if we got a 'double turn' I could probably get us the win, they had a unit of Retributors & a character sat on an objective.  I gambled and pushed my Terradons & EoTG as far forward as possible. We get the double turn allowing me to EoTG (D6 mortal), Terradons Rocks (2D3 mortal) and charge both units meaning I ended up taking the objective from them and winning the game.  High risk, High reward - if it had failed we probably would have lost that flank and the game would have been very tough.

MVP: To many to choose, but probably the Ghoul King for holding up a giant Stormcast monster for 3/4 rounds of combat without dying.
LVP: Everything did well!

 

Game 3 - Stormcast & Khorne VS Seraphon & Ogors

 

This was the Hero claiming mission, which was very lucky for me as my 1000pts was this:

Missing in the pic is the Salamander but my list was:

Scar Vet on Carnosaur w/ Quiksilver
Scar Vet on Carnosaur 
Scar Vet on Carnosaur 
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
1 Salamander

I'd spent the morning assembling the Carnosaurs for the "Kroq Gars Talons" formation so my mates told me to take them (I hasten to add this was decided BEFORE the Battleplan was picked!)  This ended up being basically the deciding factor.

Turn 1 I ran all 3 Carnosaurs onto the objectives & none of them died, by the end of Turn 3 we had mathematically impossible for the opponents to win (and they weren't going to wipe us out either) so we called it.  As dull as that mini report sounds it was a really fun game!

MVP: All 3 Carnosaurs!  But a special mention to the one who didn't attack the wrathmongers in front of him so he didn't kill himself

LVP: The Yhetees we forgot to deploy......

 

 

All in all it was a really fun couple of days of games, and here's a full army shot before my Sunday of more assembling....

 

Thanks for reading