Once I finish painting my Lizardmen, (slow but sure I'm getting there) my main rival and I are going to fight a massive 1 on 1 8000 point game, using very nearly every model I own. Here's my list; it's tailored to combat his Daemon army, but he'll be just as prepared so it should even out. I'll arrange characters with the units that they'll join; each # is one unit. 1) Slann: Lore of Life. General, BSB (Standard of Discipline), Cupped Hands, Bane Head. Becalming, Mystery, Rumination, Unfathomable. Scar Veteran: GW, LA. Glyph Necklace, Dragonhelm, Firefly Frog Venom. 31 Temple Guard: Full Command, Banner of Flame. Champion has Blood Statuette. 2) Slann: Lore of Shadow. Book of Ashur, Divine Plaque. Becalming, Mystery, Rumination, Soul of Stone 3) Oldblood: Carnosaur, GW. Armor of Destiny, Dawnstone, Other Trickster's Shard 4-7) 4x 10 Skink Skirmishers: Blowpipes. One unit has a Brave. 8-9) 2x 10 Skink Skirmishers: Javelin & Shield 10) Gor-Rok 40 Saurus: HW&S, Full Command. 11) Scar Veteran: GW. Hide of Cold Ones. 40 Saurus: HW&S, Full Command. One hero in each unit. 12) Skink Chief: Javelin, LA, Shield. Obsidian Lodestone. 24 Ranked Skinks & 3 Kroxigor: Full Command. 13) Skink Chief: Javelin, LA. Shield of Mirrored Pool. 24 Ranked Skinks & 3 Kroxigor: Full Command. 14-15) 2x 6 Chameleon Skinks 16) Skink Chief: Terradon. Staff of Lost Sun. 5 Terradon Riders 17) 5 Terradon Riders 18) Saurus Oldblood: Cold One. Gold Sigil Sword, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Crown of Command. 17 Cold One Cavalry: Full Command, Ranger Standard. 19-21) 3x 2 Salamanders 22) 3 Razordons 23) Skink Chief: Ancient Stegadon. Javalin. War Spear. 24) Skink Priest: EotG. Channeling Staff, Obsidian Amulet. 25) Skink Priest: Dispel Scroll, Cloak of Feathers. 26) Skink Priest: Cube of Darkness. So, there you have it. That's exactly 2000 points of Core (hence the lone Skink Brave), and every Core model I own. The list sits at 7999 points, but I think there's room for improvement. Life Slann is an obvious choice for anchoring the battle line. I'd like to go with Light, but I'm expecting the Sundering Banner yet again, and that makes Light pure suicide. The Bane Head is for sniping something with Cupped Hands (the BSB if I'm lucky). Blood Statuette is for taking a shot at the Blue Scribes, whose presence has been confirmed in the opposing list (I'll try to get them with Withering first). I don't think 31 Temple Guard are necessarily overkill in this situation, as I hope to lure as much as I can into the tar pit, and it has to be able to hold up to everything that gets thrown at it. The Saurus may be a different story, though. 40 seems big, but they're going to take a pounding holding the Temple Guard's flanks. I'm not a huge believer in spears, but I suppose I could be swayed either way. Shadow Slann is going to be my ace in the hole, I think. Enfeebling Foe will combine well with Dwellers, and I should be able to snare more than a few Plaguebearers in the Pit before the lines clash. Nerfing the enemies should, in theory, work just as well as buffing my own units, but we'll see. Smoke and Mirrors will help keep the Slann out of trouble; he's going to partner up with the flying Priest for some teleporting hijinks once the scroll is used up. The Chiefs in the Skrox units are there for spell damage control. Rancid Visitation is absolutely brutal on any unit containing skinks, and my opponent knows it. Bouncing it back on the Unclean One might be a neat trick; the Chief with the shield will be positioned as a tempting target if he rolls that spell and not Plague Wind. The Cold One unit deserves special mention; they're going to plow right through whatever terrain is in the way and hunt mage units, Lords of Change, etc., then with any luck land a flank charge once the battle lines are drawn up. I don't see them functioning effectively in smaller units. We agreed that 3D6 will be rolled for winds of magic, and the defender will get the middle dice as a D3, plus the highest as usual. Magic is going to be brutal for both sides, so I'm thinking the Cube could be a game changer if it works. Three priests does seem like one too many though. I'm definitely open to suggestions. I think the key to winning is going to be giving each unit a task, and making sure they stick to it. Skinks, for example, need to go after Greater Daemons- If I could take out the Great Unclean One early on, it'd be great. Bloodthirster will be a problem, though; 3+ armor, 5+ ward will make even poisoned shots tough, and he'll have a 2+ or 3+ ward against spell damage (plus I9, so no Pit, probably). Buffed Skrox unit might be able to break him on combat res if they get lucky... Thanks if you made it all the way through the long post. Any way you slice it, this should be a spectacular battle between two fully painted and based armies. There's plenty of time before I'm done painting though, so critique away!
A VERY impressive list, would love to see a photo of it all. One thing, wouldn't you be better off giving cupped hands to the shadow slaan seeing as the life slaan will ignore the miscast on a 2+ anyway. Just a thought
at first I thought the same thing as mixer86, but on reviewing the shadow slanns setup and the shadow lore he can easily cast most spells on two dice, three if you really absolutely need that spell to go off. With the soul of stone the horrible miscasts can be avoided mostly (especially if he is out and on his own. Pie plate, what pie plate?) Aside from that little bit. . . Wow! this looks like it is going to be one hell of an awesome game. It's sheer size puts me out of my depth for any real proper critic so, as mixer86 has said, give us pictures please.
I want to join in on the praise and say that this looks epic. I guess I would suggest more core (saurus and skink skirmishers) but since there are no more models I guss thats out of the question. For handling the bloodthirster I would just suggest wave after poisonous wave of darts and javelins. No monster enemy can stand up to that for too long. other than that i think your idea of buffing his opponents (t8 saurus) is the way to go since he will fall appart quickly against that enemy. Good luck with the game.
Thanks for the feedback, guys! Regarding which Slann gets the Cupped Hands, this opponent believes that dispelling Throne of Vines is #1 priority. I usually don't get to have it up for more than a turn, if he doesn't dispel it outright. I'd almost like to have Soul of Stone on the Life Slann, too, but I think MR3 is going to benefit the whole unit more. So far with painting, I have finished: 1 Slann carnosaur and rider skink priest on Foot Gor-Rok scar veteran with great weapon 2 stegadons (crew isn't done yet) 6 kroxigor 6 chameleons 20 blowpipe skinks 28 javelin skinks 3 terradons 4 cold one riders 38 saurus 6 salamanders 3 razordons There's still a long way to go; If I can get ahold of a camera again I'll post some pictures.
It's still in the planning phase, actually. I got sidetracked helping with a class at the local technical college for the next few months, so I haven't managed to finish my painting yet. In the mean time I'm playing around with my list, trying to get things optimized. I want to try and find the points for Oxyotl somewhere, for no other reason than sniping the Changeling out of his unit before he gets a chance to kill an Oldblood or something. One thing we agreed on as we continue to plan this is blind deployment. He has attached a curtain rod above the game table, so after setting up a suitably thematic terrain scheme (the daemons will be coming out of a portal thing to attack an overgrown ruin) we will place the curtain and both set up our entire armies without knowing where the enemy will be. This could represent the Lizardmen having read a sacred plaque to know where the daemon incursion will appear, but not exactly when- Then as the daemons materialize en mass, both armies clash without a chance to formulate much of a plan. There will also be objectives on the board to claim for bonuses (like reinforcements), and we've decided to keep the scoring formula from 7th edition, as it is far superior. At this size of game, declaring a winner over 100 points score difference is laughable. Thanks for keeping tabs on this, as it helps inspire me to keep on painting. Once all is said and done, I'll definitely have a battle report for you all... and I don't plan on losing. Stay tuned!
List looks great, very solid. i just can't start to imagine how long it would take to finish the game :/