Hello everyone! I'm a 40k player who got convinced by a friend to also start AoS and since I always wanted to start a lizardmen army in the past, that was the right time! I had about two games of AoS so far against my friend with his Free People and both times I got completely and utterly smashed. My lists: 1x Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur 1x Skink Starpriest 1x 10 Saurus Warriors (Spears) 1x 20 Saurus Warriors (Clubs) 1x 20 Skinks (Boltspitter and Clubs) 1x 10 Saurus Knights His Free-People list (I'm just trying to describe them since I don't know their names): 1x General on Horse 1x 30-40 Blob of Footsoldiers with Sword and Shield 2x 10 Rilfemen 1x 3 Demi-Gryphons with Lances 1x Some kind of No-LOS Rocketlauncher, doing 3 Shots with D1-6 damage In both games, I felt completely hopeless. My units seemed to do no damage at all and he had all that crazy synergy with bonuses from his general. I was using the rage roar from my general, the starpriest buff but the damage always felt extremely lackluster from me not doing enough wound rolls. He was just sitting in the defence, waiting for me to come and hearing what crazy rolls his footsoldier blob could make (saving and hit throws )... I ultimately charged a group of riflemen with the saurus knights and skinks and from all the attacks I made I only killed 2 models. I gave up the game in round 4, seeing that I could do no damage to him at all. Am I doing something gravely wrong or is that just a pretty overpowered list he's using? On my WIP List are: 1x Troglodon 10 more saurus warriors, 6x more knights 1x Stegolodon / Engine of the Gods
Welcome! First of all, talk with your friend why he is such a jackass. It's a pain in your first AoS Games (as a complete beginner) to play against a shooting army which just stays in the back On your list, as you browse through the other lists here on LO you will see, that most people play either with Saurus or with Skinks, combining them looks cool, yes, but the units are easier to buff when you choose only one type of them. If your friend likes to play the Shooting Corner, you may have a look and the Shadowstrike Starhost, the Thunderquake Starhost or even a Kroaknado For your next steps i would advice you to play a bit around with the Warscroll Builder, Read through the Forum here and read through your Battletome and the GHB17. The teleport may help you with your games (and yes you can use it without a Slann) For your next Models, i saw that you don't own a Bastiladon. Buy one. Maybe Two. Period. They are one of our strongest and coolest Models. And beside of that, if buffed by a priest they can have a 2+ Rerollable Save, that ignores Rend, and a 4+ Save against Mortal Wounds. Play that and ask your friend how it feels when he can't take a wound on your Bastiladon Just play a few games and get to know the game. Free Peoples can easily be eaten by our dinosaurs
I don't have a lot of experience with fighting Free Guild but I am sure that we can come up with viable lists. I am sure we can beat them most of the time. I'll have to look them up though. I can post something tonight or tomorrow. How many points are you aiming for?
Against a shooting army I would go thunderquake with razordons 3 minimum, go 2 basilidons a astrolith bearer for rerolls
...or maybe wait a month because half of that might change in the next edition scheduled for June this year...
Thanks for all the answers! We're aiming for 1000 Points games now, probably more in the future. I've ordered a bastiladon, maybe that'll help. Since he got himself a few start collecting boxes of other races, we're going to try out some other combination next time to give me the chance to learn this game better. It just felt so incredibly unsatisfying to get smashed two times.
Your collection right now is simply too small to really get anywhere. Skinks & saurus warriors both prefer being in hordes though saurus at least do some damage in a sunclawstarhost even with only groups of 10. And they kinda form the core of what you currently have. So for now the easy stuff would be the following: 1 unit of 20 skinks is bascily kind of pointless as it's not enough to gain any bonusses. Split it up into two of 10. At least then they can split up and they'l be less suspectible to battleshock. Get a sunblood so you can make a sunclaw starhost of those remaining 6 Knights, turn one into a scar veteran so you can make a firelance starhost. A firelance starhost, especially when buffed by the starpriest, should pose a serious problem for his stuff I think. For the stegadon, start with the big crosbow I guess, it'l be usefull to try and shoot his cannon thing. Other than that, it'l mostly be a question of "get more stuff" so you can actually flesh out your army. Possibilities for more stuff that'd be good against his: Thunderquake host, however it's liable to not be fun for him to fight.. it's rather powerfull in 1000 point games Shadowstrike host, though again, might not be fun for him to deal with if they're a bit too effective at eating his cannon immeadiatly. An eternal starhost + skink priest should be able to withstand his cannon for a while. Though if he has no mortal wounds he'l definitly find it frustrating as he'l barely be able to scratch it. Generally speaking 1000-point games seem a tad problematic balance wise, it's very easy to have one side utterly stomp the other.
Rocket team? Just gank the crew with Skink shooting or an Arcane Bolt. Heck, your boltspitters are pretty devastating to the Handgunners, too. Just sprinkle some of their boltspitter lovin' across the handgunners and crew (probably no more than 1 target per 10 Skinks), and let Bloodroar+Battleshock do the rest. Sick a nice big block of Saurus Warriors on the Guard. Assuming he's using the General's Command Ability, he's not using Inspiring Presence, which is about the only thing that will save the Guard from a really bad Battleshock phase at the hands of the Warriors. You have lots of time to set up a charge with maximum engagement from the Warriors.
with 20 skinks he's only going to trigger 2 saves on average. Unless those things have a non-existing save he'l not wittle them down nearly quickly enough. Battleshock will be devestating to them, but with the amount of ranged firepower his opponent has you won't come close enough before being shot to pieces. So not really viable currently