Hey everyone! I was decided to try using a skink cohort instead of a usual skirmisher squad, but quickly had problems getting my skinks to rank up. Then I looked at the GW site and it looks like most of the skinks in their cohorts are set up with only hw/shield, which would make it easier to rank up. Has anyone else run into this problem? Do I need to assemble them differently from my skirmishers, or do I just need to be more careful making sure their poses can rank up as I assemble them?
Yeah I found the same thing. They're not really designed to be ranked up I think. I'm using the old bow and arrow skinks in Cohorts because they rank up so easily! My conversion skills are pretty bad so I haven't been game to do any of the bow-to-javelin conversions a few other people have done so I'm basically just hoping people are cool with it.
I was able to get my skinks to rank up with shields and hand weapons (and a few spears for appearances). When I was putting them together, I had to figure out which arm and weapon combos would let the tail of the skink in front of it through. I then marked which column that skink belonged in, so I only have to figure out the right order for each column, rather than for the entire unit. It is a pain in the butt, but it looks nice when you are done. If you want to use the same skinks as your skirmishers, make sure they can rank up as you build them, and mark them. It is really hard to get haphazardly built skinks to rank up. You have to set their arms with the intention of fitting a tail near or through it.
I use archer Skinks for Cohorts since they rank up so well. My painted archers I decided to leave as is, but my unpainted archers I've been gradually converting to javelin Skinks. Cutting off the bows and sticking javelin bits in the quiver. Nothing fancy. I was planning to intersperse a few newer models among my Cohorts eventually but my newer Skinks have been mostly drafted to go into my zombie legion (all the bits for everything make conversions easier). Even as zombies they have ranking issues so I put archer Skink zombies, Skaven zombies, or Human zombies between them.
I never understood why GW uses bases that so poorly facilitate the size of their models. So many warhammer models suffer from this. I wish 20mm bases were 25mm and 25mm bases were 30mm. Things would be so much easier. Of course, it is difficult to change things mid-flight. I assume that at some point the older models fit on the bases much more easily. All of this could be a moot point though if 9th edition really does bring about round bases.
6TH Edition Orc archers on their 25mm square bases... How would circular bases help? If you put some of them on 20x40mm bases that might ease things. Or, get some 40x40 bases and put two skinks on those. Those larger bases represent either 2 or 4 skinks. Stuff fits better. You need fewer figures for bigger units.
Circular bases help no one! But those are some of the 9th edition rumours. I would be appalled to see circular become the norm for 9th edition.
I wonder how it would work if there were some of each type....cavalry on pill-shapes...gasp-rectangles...OVALS ! !
I had forgotten: the Brettonnians used to do that, ...sort of. Lances, Wedges, Arrows....the haters called it cheese wedges.
Alright guys, thanks for the replies! Marking each column seems like a good idea, I'll probably do something along those lines.
I have the same issue, i just kind of shove them together as best I can. It doesnt look pretty but it works. Sometimes i'll include a unit filler or two in particularly difficult locations. It breaks it up a little bit and helps slightly.
Unit fillers work especially great in larger cohort units. Plus it saves on models and if done with a care, it can make the unit look a whole lot better.
Another thing I've done with difficult to rank up units (a unit of zombies I painted for my brother's friend) was to label the bases with which rank and which file they belonged to. It's a bit of a pain but it's better than trying to work out that one damn configuration they rank up with each time you pop them on the table.