Certainly I'd call giving the Elf riders Strength 4 BS, as the vast majority of Elf units have Strength 3. I'm sure in previous editions of the game they also had Toughness 3 as they should, though this new edition makes the call less easy given that mount toughness is folded into rider toughness. Giving them Toughness 4 because of Cold Ones being tougher than the Elves themselves makes sense... but in the same vein one could consider that our Saurus Cavalry should indeed be Toughness 5 due to Saurus being tougher than Elves, plus benefitting from riding equally tough Cold Ones. I mean, Blood Knights have Strength 5, so it wouldn't be untoward to have a cavalry unit with Toughness 5 too.
The str 4 Cold One knights dates from either the 6th edition revision for Dark Elves or 7th edition, along with their ld boost to 9, in order to encourage their use in lists. Also weren't Blood Knights nerfed to str 4 in the legacy/legend list?
Blood knights are now strength 4 down from 5 in 8th. Might be just a limit on what non monsterous things can do.
Grand Army Composition (Note: Allow for more than one Slann and more than one unit of Temple Guard. Remove the silly Skink Priest restrictions, and the Saurus tax.) Characters – Up to 50% of your army’s points value may be spent on: 0-1 Slann Mage Priest or Saurus Oldblood per 1,000 points Saurus Scar-Veterans, Skink Priests and Skink Chiefs Core – At least 25% of your army’s points value must be spent on: Saurus Warriors, Skink Skirmishers and Jungle Swarms If your army’s general is a Slann Mage Priest, 0-1 unit of Temple Guard may be taken as a Core choice Special – Up to 50% of your army’s points value may be spent on: Temple Guard, Chameleon Skinks, Kroxigor, Cold One Riders, Terradon Riders and Ripperdactyl Riders 0-2 Bastiladons per 1,000 points 0-1 Stegadon per 1,000 points Rare – Up to 25% of your army’s points value may be spent on: Salamander Packs, Razordon Packs and Troglodons 0-1 Ancient Stegadon per 1,000 points Mercs and Allies as per the Legacy rules. Special rules (Note: Some Skinks have Aquatic, some have Move Through Cover; get rid of one. Cold Blooded should never have been nerfed.) Cold Blooded: Change to: “When required to make a Leadership test or a Break test, models with this special rule may roll an extra D6 and discard the highest result.” Aquatic: Delete Aquatic, and replace any instance of it with Move Through Cover Characters Slann Mage-Priests (Note: Pretty much like the Square Based Renegade Pack. Let them join units and give them abilities to match their points cost.) Increase base size to 60 × 60 mm Increase Movement to 4 Change Troop Type to Monstrous Infantry Gain Wisdom of the Old Ones: Once per turn, a model with this special rule may re-roll one of the dice from a single failed Casting roll. In addition, a model with this special rule knows one more spell (chosen in the usual way) than is normal for their Level of Wizardry. Gain Palanquin: A model with this rule may join units with the Guardians special rule despite having the Fly special rule. As long as the front rank of that unit contains a minimum of 4 models, this model may be placed in the second rank, while continuing to confer benefits to the unit in the form of Leadership and special rules. As long as this model is not in a fighting rank it may not attack or have attacks directed against it or cast Assailment spells, but it can cast and dispel other spells as normal, even if its unit is engaged in combat. For the purposes of shooting and casting spells, this model has a 360 degree vision arc and ignores models in its own unit when drawing a line of sight. Skink Priests (Note: A puzzling lack of mounts ... also, Armoured Hide was made for Lizardmen.) May be mounted on a Terradon for +30 points Replace calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) Saurus Oldbloods, Saurus Scar Veterans and Skink Chiefs (Note: Let the combat heroes take light armour.) Replace scaly skin with Armoured Hide (2) and calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) May take light armour for +6, +6, and +4 points, respectively Core Saurus Warriors Replace scaly skin with Armoured Hide (2) Gain: 0-1 unit per 1,000 points may purchase a magic standard worth up to 50 points Decrease points cost to 13 points per model Temple Guard Replace scaly skin with Armoured Hide (2) Increase Initiative to 2 Change Guardians to: A unit in which the majority of models has this special rule may be joined by models with the Palanquin special rule. Skink Skirmishers Replace calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) May take blowpipes for free Increase points cost to 6 points per model Special Cold One Riders (Note: these must come down in points; just compare them to Dark Elf Cold One Knights ...) Replace scaly skin with Armoured Hide (2) Gain Furious Charge Replace the cavalry spears option with: The entire unit may take lances … +2 points per model Decrease points cost to 32 points per model Kroxigor (Note: Not killy or hard enough. Up their save and their AP.) Replace scaly skin with Armoured Hide (3) Replace Great Weapons with Saurian Maul (Range: Combat; Strength S+2; AP -3; Requires Two Hands, Strike Last) Bastiladons Ark of Sotek needs rework, but I don't know what. Healing ability automatic, or 1/game create 1 new Jungle Swarm base, or give Poisoned Attacks to a unit for a turn? Terradon and Ripperdactyl Riders Replace calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) Rare Salamander Packs Replace calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) Fiery breath: Replace Breath Weapon with Column of Fire (‘misfire’ removes D3 Skink handlers – if no handlers, Salamander suffers a Wound), and gain Flaming Attacks, Move & Shoot, and Cumbersome Razordon Packs Replace calloused hide with Armoured Hide (1) Razor barbs: Replace Multiple Shot (D3) with Needs More Nails (‘misfire’ removes D3 Skink handlers – if no handlers, Razordon suffers a Wound) Stegadons and Ancient Stegadons (including character mounts) (Note: Impact Hits gain AP like the Ogre Stonehorn; Howdah and Engine per Square Based Renegade Pack.) Gain Thunderous Charge: Impact Hits caused by this model have an Armour Piercing characteristic of -2. Change Arcane Configuration to: Friendly Wizards may apply a +1 modifier to any Casting roll they make whilst within 6" of an Engine of the Gods. Change Split Profile (Chariots) to “In combat, all enemy rolls To Hit are made against the highest Weapon Skill available among this model’s split profiles.” (As per Square Based Renegade Pack) Troglodons Need a complete rework, but I don't know what. Skink character mount? Power Level 2 Bound spell – choose which? Primeval Roar affects all units in Command Range, trigger 1/turn, or automatically 1/game, give something else than Furious Charge? Lore of Lustria Apotheosis: Change first sentence of Effect to: “This spell can target friendly characters, including characters engaged in combat.”
I wouldn't remove the 1+ requirement for Saurus Warriors, because non-Legacy armies like Beastmen also have such requirements for their most typically-seen Core units, and it's a little bit of help in stopping Lizard armies just becoming Skink-spam nonsense. Plus, I'd reduce Saurus Warrior points back to 11 as per earlier editions, and increase Skink Skirmishers to something like 9 points per model - as in earlier editions they were still somehow seen as the best unit when they were costing 7 points per model. I'd really like to see a crackdown on the Skink Cloud tactic in general... Lizard armies should be about Saurus first and foremost with Skinks in support (unless you're playing a Tehenhauin Cult of Sotek-style army, which would make a good Army of Infamy rather than a permutation of the main list).
A few things here. Way to many restrictions first of all. No other ToW army is like that. And some are a moot point. You can't fit an ancient steg in a 1k list, or 2 in a 2k list etc. The percentage in rare never allows for 2. Its probably a driving factor in their cost, much like the empire steam tank. But in general I think you are really limiting peoples fun when you have too many 0-1 or 0-2 restrictions. It would be nice if aquatic did something else and they have both. Just because its so classic for lizards Its not suspicious. They should not get them. It diferentiates them from chief. Also they have access to the flying carpet and feathered cloak. Armoured hide is a rule for mounts, not characters IMO. They need the scaly skin and calloused hide to count as having "Armour" so you can buy magic armour. Its necessary for core mechanics. That being said, a carnosaur should have armoured hide(1) See above about armoured hide For the skinks, Itd make more sense for their cost to stay the same, and blowpipe be their standard weapon, then +1 point for a shield and javelin. Or else really fix blowpipes. Largely agree conceptually. Down points for Cold Ones. Up durability for Krox. Most mostrous infantry have and armour upgrade option. Have they have scaly skin, and an upgrade to something the equivalent of full plate. Also give them impact hits, and then a cool thing would be a bonus attack with their tail/jaws. A new "predatory fighter". yeah, IDK as well Aother thant eh armoured hide stuff again, no notes. For the trog, Maybe just allow it to roar every turn yeah, thats good
What I suggest is way less restrictive than the Legacy list, go check. There are Core factions with 0-1 wizard lord or combat lord per 1,000. And Ancient Stegs are 230, you absolutely can take them at 1,000 points. 0-1 or 0-2 is really common even among Core factions. Behemoth spam is a problem in TOW. Ah. I forgot about that. Strike it! Yeah, that'd be nice. I do suggest giving the combat heroes access to light armour though. Skink Skirmishers are too good at 5 points, and with classic Cold Blooded ...
Lol. Yeah. Ancients are 230. But I never take an Ancient without an EOTG for the 255! My bad Still why 0-1 per 1k. 1k has a 250 cap, so you can only take 1. 2k would be 500... so that's 2. Or 1 per 1k. It's just an unneccessary restriction
As for behemoth spam being a problem, it's really characters on behemoths that's the "problem". Normal behemoths aren't super dominating. And of any faction should be able to do a proper monster mash, it's lizards As for the skinks, I'm saying 5ppm Skink with the current bad blowpipes isn't bad Then make them cost more for a shield and jav