Endless Spells

The Carnosaur is an intimidating model on the board, and our enemies tend to target him as if he's a major threat, but in truth his main function is as a support monster.  While he can engage in combat and inconsistently dish out crazy damage, he is a little frail for a big dinosaur (after all, he only costs 260 points).  It is generally best to keep him away from the opponent's big melee units and use him to support your other troops.  He can shoot at targets with his Sunbolt Gauntlet and devour chaffs and mid-power enemies.  However, as your general in Coalesced, there are command traits and artefacts that can change his role to that of a combat hero, or enhance his value as a support unit.

Look Out, Sir!

The Oldblood on Carnosaur is popular in Coalesced, but rarely taken in Starborne.  That's not to say it isn't useful in Starborne; its Ancient Warlord ability can be quite effective in either faction, and it can still deal high damage (although unreliably) and use Monstrous Rampages such as Roar.  But Starborne lacks synergies with it, and points are always tight, so its the rare Starborne list that includes this hero.

In Coalesced, it is good, with lots of synergies, especially as the general.  As a Saurus and a Monsters, it benefits from Scaly Skin to reduce the damage of attacks against it.  It gets a unique Monstrous Rampage,  Gargantuan Jaws that can let it eat small models whole, and in Koatl's Claw, it gets +1 to Wound on charge.  If picked to be the general, it can be made even better with the excellent Saurus command traits and artefacts, that can make it more resilient, more destructive and/or provide powerful support enhancements.  As a Saurus general, it makes Aggradons battleline units, allowing your army to be more Aggradon focused.  And his Ancient Warlord ability gets boosted from 12" to 18" range.

The main attraction of the Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur is its Ancient Warlord ability.  This ability should not be underestimated.  It allows the Oldblood to issue the same command to Seraphon twice in the same phase, and only spend a command point the first time.  It can do this with any command: Rally, Redeploy, Unleash Hell,  At the Double, Forward to Victory,  All Out Attack, All Out Defense and Inspiring Presence.  Two times.  Every phase. Both player's turns.  One command point for each pair of commands.

Heroes can issue commands to units that are wholly within 12", but if it's your general, it can issue commands to units wholly within 18", which is another good incentive to make this unit your general.

Once an attack from the Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur slays an enemy model, Blood Frenzy kicks in for the rest of the game, giving +1 to Wound rolls for the Carnosaur's melee attacks (Clawed Forelimbs and Massive Jaws).  The enemy model must be slain by one of this unit's weapons, either one of the Carnosaurs attacks or the Oldblood's attacks.  Even the Oldblood's Sunbolt Gauntlet can trigger Blood Frenzy, which can be very useful.  With its 18" shooting range, it's often possible to target and slay a weak unit in your first shooting phase, thus triggering Blood Frenzy before your first charge phase.

In Koatl's Claw, Blood Frenzy's +1 to Wound rolls is a bit redundant with the subfaction ability, Savagery Incarnate, which gives all SAURUS and Kroxigor +1 to Wound rolls on the charge.  But there are differences between Blood Frenzy and Savagery Incarnate:

• Blood Frenzy only works on the Carnosaur's melee attacks, but no charge is required.
• Savagery Incarnate works on both the Carnosaur's melee attacks and the Oldblood's melee attacks, but only after a charge.  

As your general, a Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur can take a command trait.  If it's a Coalesced Oldblood, it can choose from the very good Savage Commanders command traits:

• Prime Warbeast is the command trait to take to give your Carnosaur the most damage potential.  Giving it an additional attack with both the Clawed Forelimbs and the Massive Jaws makes it much more reliable, especially when the Carnosaur's now 4 Massive Jaws attacks are still dealing 5 damage per attack!
• Thickly Scaled Hide makes the Oldblood on Carnosaur more resilient, adding +1 to all save rolls.  Because it only has a 4+ save, that +1 to the roll can be very helpful.
• Vengeful Defender is the support choice, and it tends to be the top pick.  This lets the general and up to two other nearby SAURUS or KROXIGOR units make an extra normal move in the hero phase (or one other eligible unit can make two extra moves instead), greatly increasing their threat range.  This can only be used while the general is wholly within your territory, but it's a great way to get your units onto objectives or launch a long-range assault!

A Coalesced Saurus Oldblood can take an artefact from the Relics of the Warrior table, which includes three artefacts of power, two of which are excellent:

• The Blade of Realities is another enhancement to this unit's damage output, but this time it affects the Oldblood's Relic Celestite Weapon, improving its rend by 1, and giving it +1 to Damage against enemy heroes.
• The tactical option is Sotek's Gaze, which prevents all enemy models with a Wounds characteristic of 1 or 2 from contesting objectives when within 6" of the Oldblood on Carnosaur.  Not only does this make it easier to score objectives, but also sometimes affects the enemy unit's abilities.  For example, against another Seraphon army, it could prevent Saurus Warriors from getting their +1 to save or prevent Raptadon Chargers' Tepok Lances from dealing 2 damage.