Why use Ark of Sotek Bastiladon? Some testing that nobody asked for!

[Lagreskul]

So, after deciding to torture myself with some Nakai gameplay, I found that I was actually having fairly decent success with the Ark of Sotek as an (albeit pricey to recruit) t2 bastiladon in comparison to the ferals. Having decided to do a cursory search, I noticed some lukewarm discussion of them from Total War: Warhammer II days. So, having seen that, I decided to throw them into some test battles vs. AI! Here's what I found!

Testing Parameters

-3 units total on each side

Lizardmen
- Lord: Gor-rok (avoiding group buffs)
- 1 Ark of Sotek Bastiladon
- 1 Feral Bastiladon/revivification crystal

High Elves
- Lord: Prince (it's a melee lord that won't get in the way of things)
- 2 units of Silverin Guard (engaging 1 bastilodon each)

Reasoning
I chose Gor-rok since he can guarantee to keep the enemy melee lord busy for however long I want. I did not test the solar engine bastiladon because that will have a different operational niche than the other 3 bastiladon varieties with its long range splash artillery. Ark of Sotek, Feral, and Revivification crystals will all be primarily getting into melee with some aux. damage from skink riders.

I decided to match against High Elves because the elves are a faction within which you are always going to encounter mass spearmen. The Silverin Guard are a sort of mid-tier worse-case-scenario matchup for bastiladons as moderately heavy infantry (75 armor) with good anti-charge bonus.

No cycle charging; merely brawling it out.

The results!

Match-up 1: Ark of Sotek vs Feral Bastiladon
Ark of Sotek: 36 kills, 6,572 damage
Feral: 16 kills, ,1750 damage

Performance notes: Both Bastiladons got bogged down fairly efficiently by the spearmen and did similar amounts of charging. While poison was active, Ark of Sotek varied from "winning" to "winning decisively" and was negatively affecting the Silverin's break bar during combat, before performing similarly during off-time. Feral started out even and then steadily declined to losing decisively. Both fled combat at similar times.

Match-up 2: Ark of Sotek vs Revivification Crystal
Ark of Sotek: 53 kills, 6,878 damage
Revivification Crystal: 16 kills, 2,236 damage

Performance notes: In this test, the Ark of Sotek bastiladon was able to charge repeatedly through the elven spearmen, racking up substantially more kills. However, the damage is very similar to the scenario with less kills, suggesting that, over the course of a few activations vs. 75 armor troops, the Venom of Sotek racks up about 4,000 damage which is not bad for an infinitely usable ability that is theoretically weaker against heavier armored troops (And will improve the effectiveness of allied troops). In this combat, the Ark of Sotek bastiladon momentarily broke the unit of spearmen it was engaging before being driven off the field. Winning status was relatively similar where Ark of Sotek Bastiladon fluctuated depending on if the poison was active or not.

A somewhat telling screenshot[i.imgur.com]

Conclusions

For melee range bastiladons, the clear winner performance wise is the ark of sotek bastiladon. It will deal 3-4 times the amount of damage to a suboptimal match-up vs moderately armored spearmen in melee compared to its counterparts and will have significantly better battle performance, being able to contribute to a unit breaking by itself. You probably should not crash bastiladons alone into spearmen, depth guard, or slayers, but if you are going to do it with any bastiladon, consider doing it with an ark of sotek.

The poison javelins of the skinks seem to grant only marginal performance increases (revivification crystal vs feral bastiladon was very close) and will likely serve mainly to slow the enemy troop prior to engaging and in skirmishing situations.

Why use them? (campaign, since I don't play multiplayer)
As two of the first tier of bastiladons you get access to in campaign, its main competition is the feral bastiladon. having nearly double the recruit cost, having an additional 1/4 in upkeep cost, and requiring 2 turns to recruit, the Ark of Sotek does have some significant shortcomings. However, slot-for-slot it will perform substantially better in comparison to feral bastiladons, as it hopefully would with the significantly higher recruit cost.

Obviously, it will not have the healing of the revival crystal and the solar engine is probably still the most well rounded as both long range artillery with splash damage and a 4000 mass heavily-armored shock monster. But if you intend on using your bastiladons to wade into the fray and open up weak spots for your infantry, the Ark of Sotek is likely your best pick.

[Chara H Dreemurr]

Thank you for your time and research

[OpalGotMyHeart]

Damn nice stuff, personally ive always used them cause i have an addiction to high kill counts and pretty colors, both of which the ark of sotek provides.

[lethminite]

I just recently did some Nakai, and while I didn't do tests like you, was very impressed with them.

[Grinch]

They do stupidly good in sieges too, park it on a choke point and enjoy the poisonous tar pit.

[Conflagration]

How many fights did you test it with?

[zefyris]

Interesting test. Out of every difference in campaign, the 2 turns recruitment is probably the only major reason to not take it imo. Especially since, as Grinch mentionned, the poison AoE is excellent when fighting in tight spaces like sieges.

[SpeaksTooFast]

I have also found they work well as an anti-infantry tool. Having something like 3 in your army can be really good in the early game so you can keep their abilities active. I do tend to phase them out in the later game when I prefer using many of the faster units in the roster.

[Lagreskul]

Originally posted by Neurotoxin:

How many fights did you test it with?

Just a couple. Would probably be good to get some diversity - see how they do against other anti-large things. There's probably not many reasons to test numerous times on the same test, given it's an ability that's not going to miss vs. infantry units it's the size of, deployed from a critter in the middle of it. It's fairly clear that it turns the tide for the bastiladon momentarily against an otherwise poor match-up and can do a decent amount of damage, even against decently armored opponents. It also is an excellent applicator of a particularly potent poison to every single unit near it - other units that engage will benefit from the bastiladon equally. If you have them engage in pairs in a siege gate mosh pit, you can turn an area into an effectively near-continuous no-gone for infantry.

Given that the tier at which you'll probably use these in campaigns (seems to be the biggest deal for Nakai, who does not have to build a temple of sotek so they can be a 4th turn recruit), they're going to be an absolute menace to the skaven, peasant spearmen, horrors, or skeletons and zombies you're going to be crashing them into, but the question is obviously how long they'll maintain relevance.

[AkumulatoR]

Hardest to recruit and most expensive variant is also the best at smashing things. Shocking, I know. You didn't really need all that research to expect that conclusion.

[lethminite]

Originally posted by AkumulatoR:

Hardest to recruit and most expensive variant is also the best at smashing things. Shocking, I know. You didn't really need all that research to expect that conclusion.

Good job being negative, while also being wrong.

"it's better" wasn't the thing in question, it's how much more cost effective it is compared to alternatives that's the cool conclusion.
"The 2x expensive variant is >3x as good" is the conclusion that makes doing this type of research worth while. Maybe it was only 1.5x as good, for 2x the cost, so not worth it, except to save army space, you don't know until someone does something like this.

[Lagreskul]

Originally posted by AkumulatoR:

Hardest to recruit and most expensive variant is also the best at smashing things. Shocking, I know. You didn't really need all that research to expect that conclusion.

The temple of Sotek is, indeed, something that makes them a bit trickier to utilize. Further campaign experimentation has made me see this additional downside's immediacy.

The campaign user who definitely gets the most out of them immediately is Nakai, who does not build temples of Sotek and can just rush them out straightaway, receiving them potentially as turn 4 recruits (first turn, build monster recruit building; second turn begin recruitment; etc.) A trio of them is awfully nasty when the low-tier Cathay spearmen is the main thing opposing them.

Probably still pretty good for Tehenhuain, Gor'rok, who spend a lot of early game fighting skaven; I could see it getting some degree of value with Oxyotl doing a "I can't see him behind all of the dinosaurs" strategy, using the Ark of Sotek as a compact but particularly threatening frontline beast and as a gate-breaker since propensity for skink use makes sieges a little bit of a weak point for oxyotl.

I wasn't expecting it to be, like, the worse at melee, or barely better or something, but the degree to which it is effective is something that did surprise me. The more opportunities to cast, the more the discrepancy between it and the other bastiladons you might utilize in melee grows. Over the course of a 3 casts getting effectively triple the damage from the poison.

It gets a bit more interesting with solar engine v. ark of sotek. The best conclusion for that is that as long as you have good line of sight and allies aren't engaging with the enemy, solar engine is probably the play. Ark of Sotek will be a much better melee companion for other troops.