The Update of Seraphon in the latest FAQ got a lot of people (including me) excited, so join me on the small faction exploration that will focus mostly on the newest models and profiles. I will start with a small note that basically every list I describe here will use blessings, so if you look for a list that isn’t using them – sorry, for me and my style of listbuilding this faction doesn’t exist without blessings. But lets start the list exploration and what would be the better start than – how to cheaply and easily start with the faction
Seraphon list for a new player
like in every other faction, the bread and butter of the list is chaff. Big fighters are great and often decide games, but for the list to function certain number of fighters must be met or the list will not work at all. I would say that for Seraphon players (especially the new ones) the topic of chaff is both the blessing and a curse. Its a curse, because the faction lacks solid and spammable choice to base the list on, fortunately Starblood Stalkers exist and provide access to 3 exceptional and “relatively” cheap fighters in form of Otapatl, Tok and Xepic.
Expect to see most of this guys in every list in this article. 80 points for 2 of them is quite a lot for a chaff, but very strong shooting attack (in relation to cost) and exceptional mobility allows them to not only get where they need to be, but also have enough speed to find the safest possible spot in such area to later on shoot everything in sight. Your skinks will eventually crit and for me playing around that damage is part of the fun as you can adjust your plans based on this crits. if one of your skinks will get lucky and roll 2 crits then often you will change your plans to quickly finish off an enemy that you did not expect was killable this round.
We have some base for a warband now, lets look into the more exciting fighters and the FAQ increased the roster of potential options with beautiful new models that also happen to have great rules (assuming you use blessings, btw its a good idea to magnetize heads. Its hard, I know) – Kroxigors. Two of the options we got is a Kroxigor with +1 attack blessing and a Warspawned version that doesn’t have to be blessed to be effective.
Outside of profiles they also differ with unique abilities:
As you can see blessed Kroxigor with Brutal Blows have insane damage potential (with double of fives/sixes: 81% for 16+ damage and 61% for 20+ damage. Knowing this damage thresholds makes critfishing with your skins way more exciting). Kroxigor Warspawned ability might be easier to use (as against Brutal Blows enemy can just spread out) and have additional effect – your opponent might not want to target your skinks with shooting attacks. As the list had to be beginner friendly lets not look for a leader too far and stay within 2 boxes with a Kixi-Taka.
With the assumptions that I just presented the list basically writes itself and this is the result:
2-Box Seraphon list:
Kixi-Taka, The Diviner (135pts, Hero)
Kroxigor Warspawned (205pts)
Kroxigor Warspawned (205pts)
Kroxigor (200pts) +1A blessing
Otapatl (80pts)
Tok (80pts)
Xepic (65pts)
7 Bodies isn’t particularly impressive, but with 3 big fighters, some shooting and very mobile chaff this list is quite versatile.
Next steps
Let’s look at how we can improve the list. One of the aspects of the list that we can try to amplify is the fact that despite the “fists” of this warband delivering quite a punch, they are located on a very short arms. It would be nice to improve the threat range. Additionally with only single Kroxigor opponent has to spread out only within 6″ of him, which isn’t as difficult as we would like, so increasing the number of Kroxigors is something we want to do. As far as Warspawned kind of our big guys is concerned – his ability require putting skinks dangerously close to the opponent, which with only 7 bodies is a risky plan. Lastly – it would be nice to increase the “chaff trimming” capability and if possible do it from the distance as we want to protect our not so impressive numbers. Hopefully all of this changes can be done in quite a simple (and in my opinion quite elegant) way – by adding single Soulsworn Knight-Relictor:
Seraphon (2 boxes) + single ally:
Soulsworn Knight-Relictor (165pts, Hero)
Kixi-Taka, The Diviner (135pts, Hero) +1 Strength
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Otapatl (80pts)
Tok (80pts)
Xepic (65pts)
This list tries to abuse one of the common problems with battlepacks in order to eat a cake and have it too. Usually one of deployment groups is way less impactful than others (for some reason its usually Shield), so by sacrificing the strength of the weakest group (one less Kroxigor) we try to amplify all of the things that the list already does well:
- Shooting gets improved, as there are now two S4 “magic missiles” instead of single S3 one
- playing around Kroxigor Brutal Blows ability gets really difficult because of doubling the number of Kroxigors and increased mobility thanks to Questor double
- No need to put skinks in danger for the purpose of Warspawned ability
- By outsourcing movement to Questor double Kroxigors can now perform more attack actions
There is an alternative way of expanding the “base list”, that increase the body count, but also require 2 allies and its a variant that basically replace a Questor and blessing from Kixi-Taka with a pair of Company Captains.
Seraphon (2 boxes) + two allies:
Kixi-Taka, The Diviner (135pts, Hero)
Company Captain (90pts, Hero)
Company Captain (90pts, Hero)
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Otapatl (80pts)
Tok (80pts)
Xepic (65pts)
Lets expand the pool of fighters we chose from as there are more great fighters than Kroxigors and Kixi-Taka’s crew. First of such fighters is definitely Slann. For the next list (just as for the previous one) I must credit Magnus (this is how he is known on Discord).
Frog, Krox and Coordinated Strike:
Slann Starmaster (265pts, Hero)
Calthia Xandire (210pts, Hero)
Battle Priest (65pts, Hero)
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Otapatl (80pts)
Tok (80pts)
Xepic (65pts)
The list has access to the best triples in Order. Coordinated Strike is a classic and having both: powerful melee option in blessed Kroxigor and a heavy artillery frog will certainly bring a lot of pain to the opponent.
Second triple is a teleport available to Slann. It can be used to reposition treasure bearers or crucial fighters in “hunt missions” away from danger or to make sure that enemy bodyblocking won’t stop your Kroxigor from reaching the key target. It has a cool name too.
Finally, the third triple is a faction staple – Tearing Bite. High triple can lead to absurdly high damage. Who need crits when your Kroxigor can do 10 DMG with normal hits (most likly on 3+ because of his high Strength).
Because I mentioned Tearing Bite – prepare for a bonus round of MathHammer (all calculations are done for the target with Toughness 5 or less). The “lesson” for today is that the number to remember when using Kroxigors is 16 (or 2 crits, as its easier to remember that way). If you need to deal above 16 damage then Tearing Bite with Ability Value 6 (or to a lesser degree 5 and 4) is better than Brutal Blows with the same ability value. Its a comparison of double and triple, but it shows how powerful the Kroxigor double truly is (and that in some cases using your triple of sixes as a double might be a better idea).
Other Fighter that definitely requires a closer look is a Saurus Scar-Veteran on Aggradon. Its a powerful model with incredibly high cost. In my opinion this fighter works best in other factions as his high cost require access to cheap chaff, that Seraphon lacks, but lets try to figure out how the Seraphon list including the newest big guy in Order lineup may look like:
Scar-Vet:
Saurus Scar-Veteran on Aggradon (295pts, Hero) +1 Strength blessing
Soulsworn Knight-Relictor (165pts, Hero)
Battle Priest (65pts, Hero)
Kroxigor (200pts) +1 Attack blessing
Otapatl (80pts)
Tok (80pts)
Xepic (65pts)
As always, thanks for sticking to the end and I hope this article expanded your knowledge, inspired you or was at least fun to read. I hope to keep releasing new stuff on the blog more often in the second part of the year and you can expect next update quite soon (it will be about Ogors or a new battlepack, depending which one I will finish first). Bye
Overthinking Warcry 