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Got my start collecting seraphon box finally and I'm wondering how I wanna build them... I looked through the rules and didn't see it .. but are units allowed to have mixed weapons now? Like half spears and half swords? Or even if it's allowed is it better to keep one unit all with 1 type?

Was wondering mostly for the cold one riders, I had 2 different units of saurus already. 24 with spears and 24 with hand weapons.. not sure if I should bump them up to 30 each, or just sell/trade the new sprues. Seems like 30 is a lot for a unit these days

Basically I believe a unit has to select one line of the relevant war scroll. For example if you have a Skink unit, all of them need to have blowpipes or else javelins, but not a mixture. This is partly to make the game simpler. It will also simplify your tactical decisions. If your Skinks have half javelins and half blowpipes, you will frequently be worried whether to close in to javelin range, in which case your blowpipes are sub-optimal, or whether to stay at blowpipe range, which is safer but wastes all your javelins.

However, many playes wouldn't care if the figures in a unit have a variety of weapons as long as the majority have the weapon you declare at the start of the game.

Some players, including me, would not care if all your Skinks were depicted with javelins but you declared them as blowpipes, just as long as you don't have another unit with javelins that you want to use as actual javelins.

All the above is hypothetical. As regards unit size of Saurus and so on, 30 seems to be a large unit but if it gets an extra bonus I think it is worth exploring. The Skinks get I think it is +1 to hit for every extra 10 figures in the unit. A large Skink unit with 30 figures is going to be like a machine-gun, hitting on 2+.

That is the kind of factor you want to look at in detail for your Cold Ones and Saurus.

From the Saurus Knights warscroll (emphasis added):

Some units wield Celestite Blades, while others prefer Celestite Lances.

So no, the rules do not allow a mix of weapons. Whether you can use them as counting as armed with a different weapon is between you and your opponent and/or the tournament organizer.

As Ghaz says, the warscroll of any unit defines the equipment options and limitations in the first paragraph of text under the stat bar.

Hmm.. well sauruses have this rule..

Ordered Cohort: Saurus are even deadlier when fighting in organised ranks. Add 1 to this unit’s hit rolls if it has at least 20 models, and 1 to the number of attacks each model makes with its Celestite weapon if it has at least 30 models.

So maybe a unit of 30 is a good idea? Seems like a lot of models to move around especially with the tons of skinks I'll have on the board too .. but I guess if I just used 1 unit in a game, and I'd have the option to play with spears or swords for the game I'm gonna play

Of if I stick to 24, I'll have 4 wounds to soak up before I lose the rank bonus

You would be better off with a unit of 30 Saurus because they will get +1 attack and +1 To Hit. However they will also be a major bullet magnet because the enemy really wants to kill a figure to get rid of the bonus attack. Therefore it would be a good idea to form a unit of 36, to give yourself a buffer.

You'll want to concentrate the whole unit into a small area to maximise the number of figures that can get into attack range.

To make movement easier, you could mount them on 20mm square bases and put them into movement trays.

Well, both of my 24-man units have custom magnetized movement trays that are 6 models wide with 4 ranks.. I could make a new tray with a 5th rank... or are ranked blocks of troops not as good in AoS? I was assuming it would be better to have all the minis separate like 40k.

I also have trays for my units of skinks mixed with kroxigors, the kroxes were nice cuz the skinks were hard to get ranked up good so they made some extra space in the middle. Guess I have to make them into 2 smaller units. I have a whole bunch of old skinks with bows that I can use to fill up the ranks.

I also have custom trays for 2 blocks of 50 night goblins, that I can stick together for 1 big unit of 100

I don't think there are any area affect weapons like flamethrowers or heavy artillery, so there's no great disadvantage of forming up in blocks.

In melee there is a big advantage in crowding as many figures into range as possible, to get the maximum attacks. This obviously is easier to do in blocks.

It doesn't mena you wouldn't sometimes put the figures into other kinds of formations, however this will alwqays be an option if you've got your figures magnetized onto block bases.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I don't think there are any area affect weapons like flamethrowers or heavy artillery, so there's no great disadvantage of forming up in blocks.

The closest I could find to a flamethrower was the Dwarf Flame Cannon which has the following rules:

Flame Burst: When firing a Flame Burst, pick a unit within range; it suffers D3 mortal wounds. After firing a Flame Burst, roll a dice; on a 1, 2 or 3, the flames die out and the unit you shot suffers no further damage, but on a 4 or more it is set ablaze and suffers another D3 mortal wounds before the flames are extinguished.

So I agree that there doesn't seem to be a disadvantage of forming up into blocks.

Hmm.. well, I guess I’ll keep em and bump those units up to 30.. But yeah, I don’t like how all you have to do is kill 1 and the bonus is gone. I’ll have to see if I can get ahold of some 25mm square bases for them before they’re gone forever.. I know i can get laser cut wood bases but I hate when they all don’t match

I was planning to rebase my army into rounds some day just because I like the look better than squares, but I think I like the magnets I did better. It’s fun when they snap in place and don’t slide all over. Though I guess I could still just magnetize the bottoms of the round bases too. But the sauruses use 32mm rounds now, not 25mm squares, so I'll have to see if they fit on 25's

Litko Aero Systems will do you just about any kind of base you want, including custom sizes, in a variety of materials.

http://www.litko.net/

They are really good. I've had tons of bases from them.

I've found that Laser cut bases are usually pretty precise, compared to sawn bases.

hmm, yeah I might try Litko.. I ordered a whole bunch of round wood bases for my woodland scenics trees from them, so they would stand up better.

I do like the GW style plastic square bases though since it's easy to glue my magnets under them and they're tucked under out of the way. I just trimmed pieces of sheet metal down to the size of my movement tray and glued that on top. The minis don't move at all unless you pluck em off.