The Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur is a popular pick in Coalesced, especially as the general. It's an intimidating monster with very high damage potential, but without the proper enhancements, its damage is pretty unreliable, and it's not as resilient as one might hope. And yet, the Oldblood on Carnosaur is mostly included in an army for its incredible Ancient Warlord ability, which allows it to issue two commands for the cost of one. This makes it a powerful and versatile support monster that cannot be underestimated.
See the Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur warscroll on Wahapedia.
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.
As a MONSTER, the Carnosaur counts as 5 models for contesting objectives.
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:
Enemy units that are within 3" of a Carnosaur are affected by its Terror ability, which prevents it from receiving the Inspiring Presence command. This means the enemy unit is more likely to take loses from battleshock.
A Coalesced Carnosaur can use its unique Monstrous Rampage, Gargantuan Jaws, to try to eat a smaller enemy model that is within 3". If you roll over the target model's Wounds characteristic, it is immediately slain. Aside from just being awesome, this has two main uses:
Note that the 3" range to use this Monstrous Rampage is often enough for the Carnosaur to reach over another friendly or enemy unit to grab his target.
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:
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:
When a Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur or Scar-Veteran Carnosaur is optimized for damage output, they are playfully referred to as Killosaurs. This is done by making one of these models the general of the army and giving it the Prime Warbeast command trait and the Blade of Realities artefact. Because of its Maim and Tear ability, the Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur is the more deadly of the two.
The Killosaurs can deal some serious damage output, but are still fragile. They are generally taken in more casual or "fun" games, because all though the can unleash destruction, so many good abilities are sacrificed to do this that it's not considered nearly as effective as a strategy.
The two Saurus heroes on Carnosaur have the same 260 point cost, access to the same command traits and artefacts, and have identical melee weapon profiles. The only differences are that the
Scar-Vet has the Maim and Tear ability and the Oldblood has Ancient Warlord and a missile attack with the Sunbolt Gauntlet. The Sunbolt Gauntlet isn't fantastic, but it is nice to have as a way to trigger Blood Frenzy before the first combat phase. But the real difference comes down to Maim and Tear vs. Ancient Warlord. And while Maim and Tear does make the Scar-Vet more deadly in melee against heroes and monster, Ancient Warlord is such a powerful ability that it's not even really a close comparison. The Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur is widely considered to be the better of the two.
But the Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur does make the must dangerous version of the Killosaur, and can be fun to play!
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". See Core Rule 6.1.
No. Some Core Battalion abilities allow a unit to receive a specific command without the command being issued. The Oldblood on Carnosaur's Ancient Warlord ability allows it to issue two of the same command, so only commands issued by the Oldblood can be used twice. Core Battalion command abilities aren't issued by anyone.
No. If the Carnosaur uses the Gargantuan Jaws Monstrous Rampage at the end of the charge phase and successfully slays a model, it will not trigger Blood Frenzy, because Gargantuan Jaws is not an attack. The Blood Frenzy ability specifically says the model must be slain by one of this unit's attacks.
Yes. If the Oldblood shoots an enemy with the Sunbolt Gauntlet and successfully slays a model, it will trigger Blood Frenzy, because missile weapons are attacks. The Blood Frenzy ability specifically says it is triggered if any wounds caused by this unit's attacks slay a model.
No. Blood Frenzy and Savagery Incarnate, the Koatl's Claw subfaction ability, both give +1 to Wound rolls in certain conditions. If both +1 to Wound modifiers are in affect on an attack profile at the same time, you still only get to add +1 to the Wound roll as per Core Rule 13.3, step 2, but the redundant +1 to Wound can cancel out a -1 to Wound from an enemy debuff.
Unfortunately, it's not. The Bloodrage Pendant adds 1 to the Attacks characteristic of the bearer's melee weapons, or 2 attacks if the bearer is at or below half health. That would be great if applied to the Carnosaur's Clawed Forelimbs and Massive Jaws. But Core Rule 27.3.1 states that unless an artefact or command trait specifically says otherwise, they don't affect attacks by the bearer's mount.
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