You need to field a Slann Mage Priest per Temple Guard unit and they always accompany him into battle until their last breath (or hiss) because of their 'Sacred Duty' (special rule).
This is not that much of a limitation because you're likely to include a Mage Priest in your army in any case and the Temple Guard benefit from another facet of the Sacred Duty rule which makes them Stubborn (ie they never suffer a minus to their break test rolls due to a lost combat resolution). With a leadership of 8 (read '10' due to cold bloodedness) you'd have to be VERY unlucky to fail a break test.
If you so choose you can turn this unit into an uber death dealing battle winning SAS / Delta Force outfit. It's very much a case of all your eggs (or a lot of them) in one basket but the basket is armour plated and full of protective bubble wrap.
You can make this unit hard because of the presence of the slann priest who can have 100 pts of magic items, can carry the army standard and is a level 4 wizard with access to any of the lores of magic (note: you can roll on different Lore lists for each spell choice if you wish).
I'll deal with the Slann options in a future post, they can dramatically empower your unit (especially by providing them with greater resilience). For now let's get back to the Temple Guard.
The Temple Guard carry halberds (+1 strength) so they cannot use shields in close combat but can carry them to fend off unwanted missile fire while out of combat.
They can also carry a magic banner (you should take the Sun Standard of Chotec -1 to hit for enemy missiles against most armies but maybe not chaos or Bretonnians). You should also take a musician - this is one of your most important units so it's a case of no expense spared.
Their initiative is low so it's a shame you cannot opt for great weapons but on the bright side you'll at least strike first againt enemy great weapon units and, if you're fighting Dwarfs which also have an initiative of 2 you'll probably strike 1st in the first round (on your charge) and have 50% chance of striking first in subsequent rounds.
The best thing about Saurus Temple Guard, other than their stubborness, is their 2 attacks and toughness of 4. With scaly skin (5+ armour, better than the usual Saurus scaly skin armour save of 6+), these warriors mean business.
Make sure you take a large unit (I'm talking 25+), there are plenty of options to protect this unit and 'soup' it up (which you'll find under a future Slann Mage Priest post). Invest heavily in this unit and it will pay you risch rewards on the field of Fantasy battles.
I thought I'd better promote this unit, Saurus are far too modest and unemotional to speak out for themselves :)
