Today we are looking at the long-anticipated Seraphon battletome for AoS. Was it worth the wait? (It’s space-traveling dinosaurs so of course, it is.)
Travis Perkins is giving us his thoughts on the Seraphon battletome for AoS now that their final form has been revealed by Games Workshop!
(Spoiler Free) Lore:
The lore is pretty excellent in my opinion. My favorite being that they removed the idea that all the Seraphon where was memories of the Slaan brought into being. It’s still out there in that it’s a bunch of space-traveling dinosaurs that not only shoot lasers but also ride even bigger dinosaurs. (If I didn’t have such a backlog totally would be painting an army). However, the lore is also good in that it brings in some structure to their back story as well as gives them a more material presence in the mortal realms. I think that’s a good thing because it gives them some skin in the game rather than just fighting from afar. Also, the unit descriptions are great and it really brings some much needed “fluff” to this fan-favorite army. One thing that’s lacking are stories as told from the viewpoint of the seraphon. There was a short story in Maligned Portents from the viewpoint of a skink starmaster that I found fascinating and I didn’t see anything like that in this battletome, which is a shame.
Painting Guide:
This was disappointing as it seemed like it didn’t go as into depth as other more recent books. While this is a small complaint, you can pretty much find any sort of painting information you want through the app or various forums. It’s still nice to have a more in-depth painting guide in your Seraphon Battletome if you want it.
Allegiance Abilities, Artifacts, Spells, and Terrain Piece:
The overall abilities are decent enough, you can juggle a spell for your slaan every hero phase swapping a spell in and out as needed. Then you can give a seraphon hero 1 to attacks or 1 to their casting rolls both of which are useful, or you can add 1 to all units run and charge rolls for the turn. Finally, you select to be either starborne or coalesced.
Coalesced are then either Koatl’s Claw or Thunderlizards and they also gain the following: Ignore bravery modifiers, reduce all damage taken by 1 (to a minimum of 1), add 1 to attacks of jaw weapons, and finally, they can ignore deadly and sinister terrain that falls fully within its territory. Kotal’s Claw gives saurus 1 to hits rolls that charge, a unique command ability, a chance to gain back used command points (on a 4+), and an artifact that makes unmodified hit rolls of 6 deal 2 mortal wounds in addition to normal damage. While thunderlizards get 2 additional wounds for all monsters, a unique command ability that lets your solar engine or cosmic engine go a second time, a command ability that adds 1 to attacks made by a mount, and an artifact that gives the bearer a 12” inch shot that you pick 1 enemy unit and roll D6: On a 1 the weapon is destroyed, 2-5 it deals D3 mortal wounds, and on a 6 it deals D6 mortal wounds.
Starborne are either Dracothion’s Tail or Fangs of Sotek and they also gain the following: All units have bravery 10, a summoning table that requires celestial conjuration points. If you general is a Slaan or starseer you get D3 points a turn, then if you have a saurus astrolith bearer you gain D3, then you can give up casting spells with your Slaan or Oracle for an additional D3 every spell you give up. An example of cost is 10 skins cost 6 points, while an engine of the Gods costs 30. At the end of the movement phase you can pick 1 friendly unit anywhere and teleport it anywhere as long as it lands more than 9” from enemy units.
Dracothion’s Tail units can be set up in reserve in a 1 to 1 ratio, the command trait gives your general an additional spell and lets you re-roll 1 casting, dispelling, or unbinding roll every hero phase, and the artifact gives the bearer a D6 roll when they are slain the first time: One a 1-3 they are removed, on a 4-6 they are not slain and instead heal all wounds. Fangs of Sotek adds 3” to all skinks units move, a command ability that lets your skinks shoot and retreat in your opponents charge phase, a command ability that gives you a chance at a bonus command point, and an artifact that can outright slay an opponent damaged by it on a 5+ (happens end of combat phase).
I am not going to go into detail on all the artifacts and spells in the Seraphon Battletome. However be aware each unit type (Slann, Skink, and Saurus) have unique command abilities, artifacts, and spells. I will say the artifacts are way more powerful than what I have seen in other battletomes and often do two things rather than just one. For example, skinks have on that gives them 4” to their movement and fly, saurus have one that improves rend and damage, etc.
For spells Slaan have a lot of buffing magic which can be incredibly useful to power up your troops, but they can also take control of the endless spell game with drain magic (on a 9 though) or even negate magical items for the entire game. Skinks have more then same with a lot of buffing magic, but they can also bind endless spells to them. One thing that is missing is damage magic, while they each have a horde control spells, they do not have access to much damage magic outside of that.
Realmshaper Engine: Free terrain piece for the Seraphon and it looks awesome! However, what is does is let you garrison a priest or wizard and you can pick a terrain piece anywhere on battlefield and roll a dice for each enemy unit within 3” of it. (Add 2 to this roll if it is within 18” and subtract 2 if it is more than 36”) on a 4+ that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
Bound Endless Spells: They have access to all the general endless spells but can make them bound, meaning only a Seraphon player can move them before each round.
Units:
My favorite units in this army are as follows:
- Slaan Starmaster
- Chameleon Skinks
- Bastiladon
- Saurus Warriors
- Oldblood or car Vet on Carnosaur
For me this army is all about magic and nobody (well they shouldn’t anyways but some do) does magic better than the slaan. Chameleon skinks are teleporting snipers that you can hero snip with all around the board, plus they are hard to kill when they are completely in cover. Bastiladon while not as good as they used to be are still lumbering tanks, that take forever to remove. I love the Saurus Warriors as a battleline unit to me is fantastic value for money.
You are getting 10 of them with rend (take the club) for just 90 points and if you go all 40 you get a 40 points discount. Finally, the carnosaur is a fantastic model that can dish out some serious pain (the rider on top is a bonus too).
My least favorite units from the Seraphon Battletome are as follows:
- Kroxigors
- Saurus Knights
- Saurus Guard
Saurus Guard are 100 points for 5 and I just don’t think they are worth it for the points cost. If you want to boost your Slaan’s survivability take a unit of 5 or 10 but for 10 points less I think your better off just taking a unit of 10 Saurus who have the same stats with a slightly worse attack. (Very similar if you take more than 15 Warrirors) With the Saurus Knights I just feel like they are pillow fisted in that they have no rend. While they are reasonable at 100 points for 5, they are going to have to claim an objective first rather than take one from the opponent because against any sort of armored enemy it will be tough sledding.
Finally, the Kroxigors remind just seem to not be able to do much in that you’re not getting enough for the 140 points. They could be useful to put inside skink units to give them a little bit of punch, but you’re not looking to get your skinks into close combat unless you must so not sure on the usefulness of these guys.
So, that’s a very broad look at the book which I think is overall a very solid book. I don’t think you’re going to see crazy win percentages for it (like Disciples of Tzeentch and Bonereapers) but I do think it will play very competitively against most opponents. Plus, the coolness factor of these guys is off the charts, even with some outdated models its still a bunch of dinosaurs using science and magic to defeat their opponents.
Next time we will look at some of builds for each of the sub-factions in this army from the Seraphon Battletome.
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