Ancient Stegadon

Ancient Stegadon is a Lizardmen war beast unit in Total War: Warhammer II. This ancient, revered beast is a fearsome sight on the battlefield - their giant blowpipes causing much destruction.

Description
The eldest Stegadons are the strongest of their kind. Over the ages, some of their fiery temper has cooled and, as they often outlive their Skink crews, they gradually become more accepting of new handlers. Each new team honours their beast and elder Stegadons are widely venerated. Many crews will hammer bronze or gold plates covered with glyphs into their gnarled hide, more to mark a beast's status than to provide additional protection. Likewise, on the eldest of beasts, reinforced masks are set over the creature's headcrest, and ornamental bracelets or sharp metal tips are commonly seen to cover its horns. Ancient Stegadons frequently carry fearsome blowpipes in their fighting howdahs. Each fires a cluster of darts that separates in flight to create a hail of poisoned death. It is for good reason that the Skinks name these fearsome weapons 'Sotek's Sting'.

Strategy
Where the standard stegadon functions as a long-ranged artillery unit to be used against armored and large targets, the ancient variant serves as an anti-infantry melee tank. The poisoned projectile barrage fired by the skinks riding on top have a short range, but are able to do so while the beast is moving and in the thick of combat. Melee mode is recommended over keeping it on ranged mode, as the beast's melee and charge attacks are its primary source of damage with the projectile barrage providing debuff support. The stegadon itself should be supported with counters against anti-large units, as it will trade poorly with them given its high cost.