STEGADONS
This model is the reason I started collecting Lizardmen... seriously! I've always
liked dinosaurs ever since I was a kid, and the Steg gave me a chance to play
with one and still feel like a grown-up. However, the rules as they used to
be made a Stegadon a bit of a challenge to use effectively.
A Leadership of 5 meant that my Steg tended to panic at the first opportunity if I didn't keep him near my General, and if thrown into combat by himself, the Steg would always break (Leadership 5 meant that if I lost combat at all, I'd be testing on a '4', which, even with the Cold-Blooded rule, usually meant he'd be waddling away). You can probably imagine how happy I was to see this model get a rules improvement as well! Stubborn terror-causer (another thing I waited years for) who is also Immune to Panic?
And a much more respectable Weapon Skill of 3 means that I might occasionally hit with his non-impact attacks. Now I can use him with impunity! Okay, a Leadership 5 even with Stubborn and Cold-Blooded is still not a guarantee, but it removes the guarantee that he will break every time I throw him into combat alone. 235 points is not cheap, but with the havoc he can cause and his new level of reliability, it's a price I'm willing to pay!
The Stegadon has two real disadvantages as I see it — Leadership and Movement. Movement 6, while nice for getting him to the enemy reasonably quickly, means that he is yet another unit that cannot be expected to reliably run down the opposition (particularly opposing cavalry). Also, Leadership 5 means that, even though he's now Stubborn, my Steg will still run from combat about half the time if he loses. And with a Flee move of only 2D6", he can't reliably escape his pursuers. So I have to be careful with my big dinosaur, and make sure I don't use him badly or he'll disappear from the battlefield lickety-split!
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