Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur

The Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur leans into melee damage output, and with his Maim and Tear ability, he's particularly suited for hunting down and finishing wounded heroes and monsters.  His damage potential is very high, but it's unreliable, and he's not as resilient as is often assumed.  But as the general in Coalesced, he can be enhanced to be focused on higher and more reliable damage output (the Killosaur) or be balanced with better armor or tactical support abilities.

As a MONSTER, the Carnosaur counts as 5 models for contesting objectives.

The Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur is isn't really a good fit for Starborne.  It lacks synergies and can't be enhanced much with command abilities or artefacts, making it the weakest version of itself.  It can still deal high damage (although unreliably) and use Monstrous Rampages such as Roar, but it remains fairly frail and lacks the Ancient Warlord ability of its Oldblood on Carnosaur counterpart that is far more useful in Starborne.

In Coalesced, it its not bad, 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.  And as a Saurus general, it makes Aggradons battleline units, allowing your army to be more Aggradon focused.

Maim and Tear is an ability for doing some extra damage against wounded heroes and monsters.  It isn't particularly good against units of many models, as it can only ever slay one model.  At the end of the combat phase, you can pick an enemy that's within 1" of the Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur.  For each wound currently allocated to that unit, roll a die and cause a mortal wound for each 5+.

This means that if Maim and Tear is used on a unit with a model that has taken wounds equal to 3/4 of its Wounds characteristic, Maim and Tear will just barely kill it, on average.  Not bad on a big monster or hero.

Once an attack from the Saurus Scar-Veteran 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 Scar-Veteran's attacks.

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 Scar-Veteran's melee attacks, but only after a charge.  

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:

• The Carnosaur can eat a special model like a unit commander, standard bearer or musician, thus denying the unit an ability , such as being able to issue commands to itself.
• The Carnosaur can eat a model out of a unit that is necessary to maintain unit coherency, which can force the opponent to remove a bunch of models from the unit if coherency cannot be restored before the end of the turn (though you may need to prevent the unit from restoring coherency with a pile-in).

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 Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur can take a command trait.  If it's a Coalesced Scar-Veteran, 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 Scar-Veteran 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 Scar-Veteran 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 Scar-Veteran'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 Scar-Veteran 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.

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.