Continuing on with the Monster Planet series we are going to look at the howdah ridden beasties of the Old Ones. That’s right! Today’s beast is : Stegadons!
First and most obviously to note, Stegadons come in three distinct flavours. Stegadon (Vanilla), Ancient Stegadon (Aged Cheese), and Engine of the Gods (Beer Battered).
Strengths
- D6+1 Impact hits.
- Terror.
- Cold Blooded
- Stubborn
- Jungle Poisons for melee and javelins on crew
- Immune to Psychology
- Unit Strength 10
- Good Toughness (6)
- Giant Bow (Stegadon only)
- 3+ save for crew/character (Stegadon only)
- Giant Blowpipe damage potential (Ancient Stegadon only)
- 2+ save for crew/character (Ancient Stegadon and Engine of the Gods)
- Engine of the Gods – cannot be dispelled (guess which one has this…)
Weaknesses
- Large target
- Ridden Monster
- Immune to Psychology
- Low Ld (6)
- Mediocre save (4+) (Stegadon only)
- Giant Blowpipe range (Ancient Stegadon only)
- Engine needs a T2, W2 character to stay alive on it in order to function. (Engine of the Gods only)
General Tips
- High strength attacks or attacks that remove armour saves are gold vs. any Stegadon. If you face an Engine of the Gods and have a way to hit it immediately (cannons?) and you have a way to increase chances of going first – do it before the gungan shield raises.
- Don’t be afraid to shoot high strength missiles or magic at the Engine of the Gods. 5+ ward is good, but not great.
- Spells that effect the Ld of the Stegadon can be invaluable. Doom and Darkness for example would lower the Steg’s Ld to 3. Stubborn or not – that usually means getting broke from combat if you lose.
- You must get the charge to stop impact hits. These are the majority of the combat res that the Stegs generate. If you can Flank or Rear charge it increases the odds.
- Prioritize. Vs a multi-steg army the Engine of the Gods should be your first target no matter what. Ancient or Regadon could be taken in either order depending on where your vulnerabilities lie.
- Always direct attacks on the Engine towards the Skink Priest in melee to kill the engine’s abilities.
- If you can take Lore of Metal you will be able to drop a Skink Priest with ease by sniping him with the Rule of Burning Iron. It can also help to severely wound Stegs.
Additional Army Specific Tactics
Beastmen
- Keep your general near any unit that intends to tangle with a Steg. Terror could see off your low Ld units with ease. The only option are frenzied units – but they are obviously harder to control.
- With multiple cheap chariots available, a multiple charge should give you enough resolution to break it, even if you don’t kill a steg outright.
Bretonnia
- Lords or Paladins must charge with a unit of Grail or Questing knights to ignore Terror and ensure that a few wounds can be taken so your character can kill the Stegadon.
- The Virtue of Audacity combined with the Sword of Heroes will ensure the Stegadon's destruction
Daemons of Chaos
- Any Greater Daemon should easily hold it’s own if you don’t get charged.
- Bloodcrushers should handle a steg with many high strength attacks
Dark Elves
- Single shot repeater bolt throwers
- Caledor’s Bane should take care of a steg nicely on a charge.
Dwarfs
- Massed bolt throwers.
- Hammerers will have a good chance to see off a Steg if you give them some appropriate runic standard to combat Terror and raise static res as high as you can.
Empire
- A good cannon shot will drop a Steg in a single volley. 2 or 3 should drop a Steg a turn on average if you are good at guessing.
- Steam Tanks are an effective foil. It’s really down to who gets the charge.
High Elves
- Star Lance on a Prince. If you add a dragon you will almost always win.
- Repeater bolt throwers. Single shot.
Lizardmen
- Slaan with pumped spell casting and the lore of metal.
- Counter Stegs with Stegs. May the best crusty lizard win. Giant bows are good to snipe with also.
Ogre Kingdoms
- Tyrants are instrumental to fight Terror. No matter what – try to keep your Tyrant near to lower the fear it will cause in your important units.
- Ironguts if you can get the charge.
Orcs & Goblins
- Massed bolt throwers
- Massed fanatics
Skaven
- Doomwheel. The ultimate ratty big-thing killer.
- Massed Jezzail Fire. Large target is your friend when you can’t shoot straight.
Tomb Kings
- Tomb Scorpions. Killing blow on the Skink Priest will put a crimp in the lizzies day.
- Casket of Souls Light of Death. Ld6 will send the Stegs to the place of dust real fast.
Vampire Counts
- Banshee / Wraiths. Screams will drop Stegs fast and if you can charge first you should be able to avoid Engine Alignments long enough to kill the priest before he fires it up. Just ensure your unit isn’t small if you melee or US 10 will crumble you.
- Blood Knights. With or without killy character should kill a Stegadon on the charge. Just ensure there is either enough to survive the grind, or protect with the Drakenhof Banner.
Warriors of Chaos
- Glaive of Putrefaction. All you need is one wound and the Stegadon is easy pickings to the other guys in the unit.
- Tzeentch blasting spells, Magnificent Buboes for Nurgle or Titillating Delusions from Slaanesh can really mess up the Stegadon. Some quicker than others, but they will all deal with it in the end.
Wood Elves
- Massed shooting and don’t leave the woods. Nothing new here - again.
- A Lamentation of Despairs. Fair change to get it off, but you might take off the last 3 wounds off on a Steg after you wear it down.
Disclaimer: Not saying the above are the ONLY ways of dealing with this beastie, but these are the first options that really popped out for me in each army. Some will of course have an easier time of dealing with it.
So I know that some of the army specific tactics are the same as for facing the Doomwheel, but lets face it – some armies only have so many tools in their tool box.
What do you do to face off against these crusty lizards of DOOOOOOM!?
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17 comments:
What about the trebuchet of doom for brets? :)
Too much scatter to be reliable. Treb is best vs. mass hordes than specific targets. A 2" drift could take the center off the Steg - then it's basically useless with a single S5 hit.
Don't you hit both the crew and the stegadon with a template/blast?
you refer to 'the wheel' in the bretonnia part... last I checked.. stegadons are wheels. lol.. Other than that, great once again. Keep em coming
Nice.
I'd like to point out that Stubborn is the printed LD value.
So you cannot use LD lowering spells to affect it for break purposes.
@Timmah - Yes and no. If the template covers the Steg completely all are hit (very unlikely). If it's a partial cover, they are all hit on 4+, and if the center hole is on the Steg you randomise between crew and monster.
@Tyler - Whoops! Corrected.
@Stelek - Doom and Darkness states that it's -3 to the test. So yes, you test on 6 Ld, but get -3 to the roll. This is likely a check with the ref/opponent before casting moment...
It's also "the wheel" in the VC Blood Knights part and both WoC :P
Empire: Sword of Fate. Pity it is only 1 target. :(
From a praticle standpoint you'll only ever really see the Engine of the Gods in competitive lists. If you manage to charge the engine with, well pretty much anything, just poke the priest and the thing is useless.
Excellent article Steve! Though I think I agree with Stelek in this instance that Stubborn > Doom and Darkness, Will need to check my BRB later.
If not whoring mass-cannons and are bringing Outriders (great glass-cannon), bring Long Rifles. Shoot those smug Priests off their high...dinosaurs. Remember that the Hammer of Sigmar *does* benefit the ranged weapons of unit champions, so there is incentive for your opponent to dispel it (helping Burning Iron go through). And of course, your unit can target something else as well.
Ok - removed all of the incorrect wheel references. Serves me right for posting when really tired.
@Jive - let me know how you read it.
Rule of Burning Iron can't snipe the priest - you could target the steg but you'd have to randomize - so it's only got a 1-in-6 of sizzling the priest.
I stand corrected on the Rule of Burning Iron. This was corrected in the 2009 rule faq. My mistake. You could switch that with the Spirit of the Forge in that case to up your chances of priest sniping. The rule is also somewhat effective vs. the Ancient Stegs, so may be worth firing off anyway.
Steal Soul is an excellent Priest sniper, especially with Bane Head. Has done me well in Lizzie civil wars.
Hmm...
Doom and Darkness - Suffer -3 to all leadership-based tests.
Stubborn - During a break test, use the Leadership on the profile. Ignore break test modifiers.
Stubborn does not explicitely ignore LEADERSHIP modifiers. If you interpret "-3" as -3 LD then Stubborn wins. If you interpret "-3" as -3 to the actual result of the test then Doom and Darkness wins.
Bingo Kroxigor01... Likely why it's best to clarify with a ref or you opponent on the ruling if you intend to use it.
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