Workshop Wednesdays: Dino’ Ridding Seraphon And Cosmic Frog Wizards

Welcome to the table,

 

At one point in my younger years, I attempted to run the Dungeons & Dragons game — regularly scheduled three times a week — with a very high fever and little to no consideration for my own personal health. There was zero good reason I should have been doing this aside from being a D&D day. I was also a stubborn and silly little guy who figured rolling dice and pizza were going to cure me of whatever had my skin feeling like it was on fire. I don’t know much about what happened that session, but a few days later, when the fever broke and I woke up on my friend’s parents’ couch, I was told that out of nowhere, I said “Through the tall grass, you see … Dinosaur people … in feathered armor!”

I can’t say with certainty what exactly planned the fevered seed of bipedal dinosaur people, and I am very grateful my right-hand-man got me somewhere I could sleep off whatever infection made me tank the game by introducing something that made no sense in the setting they were in. I like to think it was probably the Lizard Men from Warhammer.

While it feels like lifetimes since those carefree, albeit unhealthy, days, the feather-wearing lizardfolk have continued their battles across the game table, now finding themselves called the Seraphon in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. Let’s get into it.

The Seraphon are a humanoid lizardfolk warrior species (and related subspecies) of celestial magic who watched their homeworld destroyed by the ruinous powers of the gods of Chaos. That event set this species on its path and turned them into warriors of Order, pushing back against Chaos where ever it crosses their path.

Seraphon are constantly working to advance a mysterious Great Plan they believe has been set out before them by their gods (known as the Old Ones). To achieve these goals, the Seraphon form grand armies and mount great scaled dinosaur-like beasts to fight their foes.

The Spearhead: Seraphon set has 1 Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur. The cool thing: it can be built to represent a bunch of different force options including the Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur, or a Skink Oracle on Troglodon with a Saurus Oldblood on foot. The set also comes with 2 Kroxigor that can be built as Kroxigor Warspawned, and it additionally comes with 10 Saurus Warriors. All of these are unpainted and unbuilt in box, but honestly that is half the fun of the hobby and all the time painting and building can be used to listen to sweet lore videos.

One of the things I dig most about the Seraphon are their weird leaders, though. They come in the form of these frog-like space wizards that float around on these stone platforms using their ancient timeless knowledge to decipher a cosmic equation they believe holds the ordered plan for their species passed down by the Old Ones.

The Slann Starmaster has a litany of magic at its disposal with an ability to tap into the forces of magic so old and so powerful that it puts even the most experienced magic users from other species to shame.

The Slann Sarmaster kid has a lot of options to personalize your floating space toad spell singer in a way that fits your unique style and the style of the army you are trying to field on the table of play.

When you talk about the Slann, one stands … errr … floats above all others. Lord Kroak is the oldest known and most powerful of the Slann; a fun thing to say about a dead space frog wizard if you ask my humble opinion.

You read that correctly. Lord Kroak is indeed dead and mummified upon his floating stone pedestal where his spirit lingers around, occasionally calling down comets from space to blast enemies on the battlefield or walls of flames to consume the forces of chaos who find themselves before this dead magus from a destroyed world.

It’s not all floating frog wizards, though! The Seraphon have their fair share of mounted units as well. The Scar-Veterans are champions among the lizardfolk and this venerated status allows them to ride into battle atop the Carnosaur, one of the most brutal scaled creatures in the Age of Sigmar.

 

Carnosaurs are over thirty feet — in Heroic scale mind you — of thunder and fury and can turn the tide of battle if they are allowed to get close enough to a enemy unit that they can chomp and stomp on.

The Scar-Veterans kid has 2 head options, and 3 relic weapons including a spear, blade, and greatblade. This kit can also be used to build a Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur unit or a Skink Oracle on Troglodon unit if you are not feeling the Scar-Veterans unit, but that is your call. You could always buy three of them and build one of each if you were really into it … I’m into it.

The Seraphon are not without their mass troop transport either. The mighty Stegadon is this hulking horned beast who carries about a band of skink armed to the teeth with javelins and arcane weapons.

Stegadons are essentially living siege weapons who can charge into combat, breaking ranks and crushing fortifications with ease.

The Stegadons kit has 113 plastic components with a ton of customization options not only for the head, tail, and banners of the Stegadon, but also a slew of options for the riders and combat platform on it’s back.

The Order loving lizardfolk are not without aerial support as well. The Ripperdactyle Riders are frighting foes that fly in from great heights. What is unhinged about these units is the riders send in this bloated skink toad into the battlefield so that their Ripperdactyle mounts get all rilled up and will deal even more damage in combat.

Stank turns into battlefield strategy in the ordered minds of the Seraphon.

For those looking to jump into the deep end and really get a great force of Seraphon going, the Spearhead Sunblooded Prowlers box set comes with the bits to build 31 miniatures. It’s a solid way to way to start a new Seraphon collection or expand an existing Warhammer: Age of Sigmar army while saving yourself some coin in the process.

In Seraphon society, they designate various groups within their civilization as Constellations. These units each have their own unique culture, iconography, and ways to wage war against the forces of chaos or anyone who crosses them.

The Sunblood Prowlers are stealthy and brutal in their tactics, hunting down foes and destroying them in a bid to please their lords and serve the grand cosmic plan.

 

The Spearhead box contains enough bits to build 4 Jaws of Itzl, 1 Spawn of Chotec and it’s 3 Skink handlers, 13 Hunters of Huanchi — including 10 Chameleon Skinks and 3 Terrawings — and 10 Saurus Warriors. The Saurus Warriors also include parts to build an optional champion, war-drummer musician, and standard bearer with options for two different icons. The heads and shields are interchangeable across the miniatures, and each warrior can be armed with either a club or a spear so you can really make this set your own.

 

 

 

Dinosaur people who follow very ordered and logical tactics to destroy the forces of Chaos is a twist on the traditional “lizardman evil” tropes we normally get in fantasy settings.

I’m not saying the cosmic frog wizards, their armies of dino defenders, and the secretive Old Ones are good guys in the Saturday Morning cartoon sense. I am saying it’s really rad that these forces are not just mindless angry lizardmen hellbent on destruction.

Until next time, I dig the hell out of the Seraphon and think of all the really cool lore and strangeness in the Age of Sigmar they are one of the cool standout species that have a lot of lore opportunities to bring some fun to your gaming table.