AoS Skinks useless?

Thank you very much. I do hope I was of some help, designing army lists has become quite the hobby of mine since AoS came out due to the much greater freedom in what you can put in the army, so I like to design themed armies like this Skink one to be as powerful as they can be.
It's quite nice, I loved 8th but I wasn't able to make an army that was entirely Clan Eshin and nothing else back then, while I can now. A friend of mine came at me with an army of just Black Orcs, Black Orc Bosses, and Grimgor. Again, impossible before but making a custom tailored army now is very feasible. That's my main love for the new rules.

 

I understand you completely. Back when I started this hobby, I wanted to go with WFB. But I wasn't able to play the models I liked, and lists were set to something very specific and I found that too restricting. So I went to 40k instead. With the new rules I can now play the game I want and play whatever I like, which is nice. So yeah I'm liking AoS quite a lot.

 

I appreciate the game for prioritising fun over competitiveness, something that I've always felt should be the case.

 

I completely forgot about this rule when I put them on the table and they still took down a Hellcannon in one turn. I love Ripperdactyls!

 

Yeah, Rippers are bloody brutal.

 

Aside from upgrading to Chameleons, what is the best way to optimize regular skinks? Blow pipes or Javelins?

It seems that all the weapon choices are quite balanced. Initially I liked the javelins for more wounds, but I'll always be in charge range unless the unit I'm targeting is tied up.

How's everyone fielding their skinks? and are there tricks to using one or the other?

 

This.

 

Skinks need the Skink Patrol battalion to be truly effective. They should also have at least 30 models in the unit to get the 3+ to hit, I take about 40 so I can sustain damage without losing the 3+ to hit. The battalion's rerolls of 1's to hit is also useful for this, and the Skink Chief is a must have if you want your skinks to be a threat because of his Command Ability. Also go for the blowpipes, the javelins are to short range, and you can be hitting on "+ with rerolls anyway if you buff the skinks right. Take shields too, because who'd want melee weapons on a Skink? Lastly, get them some tanks and melee support to keep the enemy off them while they pepper the enemy with darts, Bastiladons work well with a wizard/priest combo, Stegadons are good here too. Rippers too, for the Battalion and this.

 

This is all amazingly useful! I would love to see more of your lists! AOS has definitely set it up to use the big fluffy characters I have been wanting to use!

 

Personally, I think the blowpipe and club is the best loadout. True, you'll let rends get through but skinks have a 6+ save anyway. And if I'm reading it right, you get 2 attacks in melee: 1 from the pipe and 1 from the club. Also the pipes have significantly longer range than javelins. Of course coming from 8th ed. I much rather preferred the skink cohort over the skirmishers so I have a lot more of the javelin than the blow pipe skinks.

 

I go javelin and club. 40 of them sometimes wuth the skink chief, and of course the skink patrol.

With their withdraw ability they reign on the field. Always keep em close to someone, that way you force them to attack the other stronger unit (melee), you withdraw and shoot like there's no tomorrow

I'm nothing without skinks!

 

I thought that there won't be sneak peeks anymore! but good to know.

 

Whaaaat?!

 

If your skinks are in combat, you're playing them wrong. Skinks are far to squishy to use in melee. A blowpipe and shield, on the other hand, will give them protection against ranged attacks that rend, allowing you a 1/6 chance of saving rending wounds, far better than a 0% chance.

Thanks, pal. I'm glad you think so.

 

You know you can give em a club + shield in one hand and javelin/blowpipe in the other right?
I have javelins, club + shield. With a steg that has alpha yiu can move them twice per turn...

 

If I remember correctly, the Skink warscroll specifically states that you cannot have three pieces of equipment on them. You're basically limited to a ranged weapon and an off-hand item (so a club or shield,) the only exception being able to have just the club and shield with no ranged weapon.
Can't look at a source to check, though, the Skink warscroll's offline.

 

Thank you, pal.
So I was right (aside from thinking you could have javelins and clubs.) The options are Javelins and Shields, Blowpipes and Clubs, Blowpipes and Shields, and Clubs and Shields. You can't have three pieces of equipment on them.