Here we go, ladies and gents! My first game with my freshly painted (some of them anyway) Seraphon! Today I played Josh (Curly Josh) and his Sylvaneth in a 1,000 point learning game. Josh looked at his rules for the first time moments before the battle, so we had a good time figuring out the nuances of how his list worked. We ended up starting with a relatively easy mission to start with and avoided using Battle Tactics to help learn the overall rules.

The lists were as follows:

Player: ERIC Battle Formation: Sunclaw Starhost Spell Lore: Lore of the Primal Jungles Manifestation Lore: Krondspine Incarnate REGIMENT 01 General: Slann Starmaster (280 points) 1. Kroxigors x3 (220 points) 2. Saurus Guard x5 (110 points) REGIMENT 02 Saurus Scar-Veteran n Aggradon (180 points) Artefact of Power: Blood Rage Pendant Heroic Trait: Being of the Stars 1. Aggradon Lancers x3 (210 points)

Player: JOSH Battle Formation: Lords of the Clan Spell Lore: Lore of the Deepwood Manifestation Lore: Manifestations of the Deepwood REGIMENT 01 General: Treelord Ancient (320 points) Artefact of Power: Seed of Rebirth Heroic Trait: Spellsinger 1. Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3 (200 points) 2. Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords x3 (220 points) 3. Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords x3 (220 points)

Round 01 – Not a Great Start for Dinos

Josh won the deployment roll and dropped his regiment right away, place a single tree close to the right objective, and clenched the first turn. In his Command Phase he summoned the Spiteswarm Hive just outside of 3″ of the left objective in order to make it less tempting for me to grab. At the end of his Hero Phase, I dropped a Krondspine right outside of 9 inches of his Spiteswarm and waited patiently. After a bit of maneuvering and some failed shots with his Greatbows, Josh conceded the turn to me.

I did not make great use of my turn, sadly. I realized that using the Krondspine with a Slann was a bit of a waste of his Level 3 Wizard capabilities. Not to mention most of the spells I wanted to cast were not as far of range I would have liked. The Slann cast “The Earth Trembles” to hit the Spiteswarm for 2 mortal damage and then resolved to let the Saurus do the rest of the work this turn. The Krondspine successfully charged the Spitespawn while my Kroxigors and Aggradons failed to charge the Wyldwood, despite the range barely being over 6 inches. The Krondspine ended up doing very little damage while the Kurnoth Hunters piled in and slapped 11 damage onto the manifestation. To add insult to injury, I used Power Through to use up my remaining Command Points for the turn, learning the Spiteswarm on 2 health.

Round 02 – Even Worse Time for Dinos

I ended up winning the priority roll for this turn, but since we weren’t using Battle Tactics, there wouldn’t be a downside if I took the double turn. Out of fairness (and my folly), I opted for Josh to take the first turn this round. His Hero Phase started with a killing blow via Banishment on my Krondspine as well as tossing a few mortal wounds into my Saurus Guard. I managed to summon the Krondspine back at the end of the Hero phase, but it wouldn’t be sticking around very long. The Kurnoth Hunters and the Tree Lord Ancient moved in on the charge and dispatched not only my Slann (sneaky piling in!) but also most of my Aggradon Lancers, leaving only one sweet dino sitting on 2 health.

When my turn came around, I charge my Scar-Veteran on Aggradon into his Tree Lord Ancient, barely scraping any bark off of him and died spectacularly. At this point I knew it was over and I conceded pretty quickly.

Lessons Learned

Holy cow. So many things learned here.

1. Slann is Too Expensive in 1,000 Point Games
At 280, that’s a lot of my points tied up in one unit. I could’ve run a 150 point Skink Starseer and had a Level 2 Wizard with some defensive tech for my units. The Slann is a great unit that can bring models back, but when its dead, its useless. The Saurus Guard’s 5+ Ward was great, but if the Slann is in combat, something has gone horribly wrong. People objectively think the Guard are better than the warriors, but I have a feeling that a Starseer and a unit of 10 Saurus Warriors might be a better bang for my points at this low a point level.

2. Krondspine is Better for Low Level Wizard Armies
To be perfectly fair, I was being super lazy and only wanted to deal with one manifestation here. That being said, the other Manifestation Lores had a lot more to offer Seraphon as a whole. I don’t like going TOO meta, but I’m going to have to play around and see what lores will best suit my style of play. I don’t want to be the “Purple Sun like everyone else” guy, but the Prismatic Palisade might be worth taking the Twilit Sorceries alone. Ok, after reading about the Umbral Spellportal’s battle scroll, that would also benefit a lot of spellcasting. Fine. I’ll have to build THOSE now, too.

3. More Bodies, My Dudes!
As much as Josh played with a small amount of bodies, I feel like having a healthy mix in my list is going to benefit me more. Dropping the Slann would clear up some extra points to bring a full unit of 10 Saurus Warriors. I would also drop the Kroxigors and add another unit of Aggradon Lancers which leaves me with 80 points to toss some Hunters of Haunchi for objective play. Will more Aggradons be better than Kroxigors? Not sure. But the Scar-Veteran’s ability will hit 2 units of Lancers if they are within 12 inches, so that’s something anyway. The only issues is that I need to build MORE LANCERS which is tiresome, but it’s part of the game. I tend to like to play a variety of units and not just repeat what’s good, so I get weird about “spamming” what is good.

While I type this, I’m now considering dropping that 2nd Aggradon Lancer unit for a Spawn of Chotec, Terradons, or a Engine of the Gods just to be contrary to myself and have a little more fun. There’s something to be said for trying out a variety of units during these early days of a new edition. I’m tempted.

4. Remember Your Damn Battle Formation Abilities!
C’mon, man. You left so many mortals on the table. Bad Eric. The cards are very good from a unit level, but I may need to make a laminated “Battle Formation / Traits / Artefact / Heroic Trait” card or something to remind me of the extra abilities not tied to the war scrolls specifically. There is also something to be said for even using Sticky Notes on the war scrolls themselves or use dry erase as well. Lots of things to consider to combat my ADHD.

Until next time…

ANYWAY! Great game! There’s something to be said about using a teaching game to not only teach someone else but you also solidify the rules in your own mind as you do so.