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So if I give my saurus warriors spears do they still retain their hand weapons?
also if the above answer is yes, then can I choose to have the saurus with spears use their hand weapons to get a nice 3+ sv in close combat?
Thank You Dakka

yes and yes, although if they use the hw/shields, they loose the ability of the second rank to fight.

Unless the weapon options say it replaces your Hand Weapon, you keep the Hand Weapon in addition to the new weapon.

As Shotgun said, you can use HW/S, but if you do then you can't fight in two ranks. You can take a 4+ save w/ two ranks of fighting, or a 3+ save w/ one rank of fighting.

One additional thing. you chose what you want to fight with in the first round of combat. Once that has been chosen you must use the same weapons until combat ends.

Also keep in mind, depending on what is attacking you, that you still keep your 2 attacks from the second rank if you go with spears. So - just say you run them 6 wide and with spears, you'd be looking at 25 attacks if you have a unit champ. Spear saurus rock!

Mattbranb wrote:Also keep in mind, depending on what is attacking you, that you still keep your 2 attacks from the second rank if you go with spears. So - just say you run them 6 wide and with spears, you'd be looking at 25 attacks if you have a unit champ. Spear saurus rock!

For the most part, I find Spear Saurus superior for that reason. The times I would not suggest using spears are when you're facing armies that, when they reach combat, are both going to be heavily armored (meaning your 2 S4 attacks are unlikely to overcome their save) and shred through your non-HW&S Saurus. Ex: T4, 2+ save models (such as some forms of Cavalry, Chaos Warriors, etcetera): The extra six Saurus with HW&S are on average going to cause one more wound. If the sacrifice of HW&S bonus isn't going to make you suffer more than one extra wound, you're coming out equal / ahead. If losing the point in armor will cost you two or more models, the spears didn't net you anything. Meanwhile, still in example, said six models attacking are a further two wounds (or three total) on an Ogre. That's one dead model, meaning three less attacks in later rounds (or possibly four) in addition to another +2 to your combat res (or +3 total).