Lords: Slann Mage-Priest (General, Battle Standard Bearer, Focus of Mystery, The Becalming Cogitation, The Focused Rumination, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Standard of Discipline) Heroes: Skink Priest( Dispel Scroll) Saurus Scar-Veteran (Shield, Burning Blade of Chotec, Glittering Scales) Saurus Scar-Veteran (Great Weapon, Gambler's Armour, Venom of the Firefly Frog) Core: 20 Saurus Warriors (Full Command) 20 Saurus Warriors (Full Command) 10 Skink Skirmishers 10 Skink Skirmishers Special: 20 Temple Guard (Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame) 6 Chameleon Skinks 3 Terradon Riders Rare: 1 Salamander Hunting Pack 2 Salamander Hunting Pack Total Roster Cost: 2196 I'll put a scar vet in each saurus block. Probably hang the skink priest back until the scroll is needed. I'm still not sure what lore to go with on the slann. It'll be life or light. I'm leaning toward light at the moment. Any suggestions on the list? I'm pretty inexperienced against most armies. My friends play high elves and skaven so I have an idea of how to deal with them. I've played against dark elves once which wasn't pretty. Every other army is probably going to surprise me with something nasty.
Do you think a steg is worth the points at 2200? Or would it just die to a cannonball first turn? I don't have much experience fielding them so I'm not sure what the best option is. I have a single steg model I'm in the process of magnetising so I'd only be able to field one or is that sufficient? Where would I take the points from?
Had the tournament on the weekend. 6 games in total, 2 wins, 3 losses and a draw. Not too bad considering how new I am to warhammer. Wins were against WoC and Ogres. Losses were from Skaven, high elves and dark elves (they all pretty much massacred me). If I never play darks elves again I'll be very happy. That was just nasty. The draw was against beastmen. Things I need to learn: How best to deploy my saurus and temple guard blocks. The high elf loss could have been turned around had I been able to get my blocks into combat. As I had advanced them all up the field at the same time when he charged my temple guard my saurus blocks either side were not in the charge arc so just sat around helplessly as he destroyed my temple guard (he had shadow and debuffed them to uselessness. I hate Teclis btw.) I did manage to blow up his level 2 with cupped hands - he took out half his swordmasters at the same time which was nice. In all three losses they killed my temple guard and slann. I'm still unsure as to the best way to use that unit. it's a lot of points to sit back and do nothing but at the same time if you get into a bad situation and get killed it's pretty much an auto defeat. The skaven battle was really nasty also. He had a heap of massive blocks with 10-15 ranks each and a bell. His abom destroyed my flank. I was one wound off killing it annoyingly but it was far too late. If I was able to direct all my attacks at it from the front I might have killed it but as he flanked me I just got steamrolled. Dark elves just shot me death. Two 20 strong blocks of repeater crossbows as well as a hydra. I was useless in the magic phase - the dice were against me. He debuffed me horribly with shadow and just unleashed hell with his 80 crossbow shots each turn. I never want to see dark elves again!
Dude, some of those losses sound like they would have been horrible to watch. I'm new to playing as well and would also like to know about when to hold off your close combat units and when to charge down the field. I think if they have gun lines I'd hide them behind scenery somewhere and send out my skirmishers to soften them up. Knowing how to deploy in different situations, and keep the battle line to respond to charges would be good to know for me too. Maybe you should take this post over to the Tactics section. I'd like to see some responses, or maybe there are guides already up. Worth having a look
The biggest change that I had to go through going from 7th-8th edition is not caring about the initial charge. This is especially true for lizard men. 4 out of 5 times I am going to let my opponent doe the first charge on me, aslong as I have my counter charges setup. The only bonus to the initial charge is a +1 combat rez bonus, not that great in the scheme of things. You just want to make sure your oppenents arn't multi charging your units. A saurus block of 25 can generaly last through any intial charge of enemy against the front. Now that you have held out you are ready to side charge with your hammer units, skroks, temple guard, stegadon, etc. This tactic is even better if you happen to have popped a few lore of light/life spells on the Saurus Warriors.
Well personally i would have made 1 block of 40x saurus warriors in a horde formation. the number of attacks is just crushing 41 attacks with just the saurus(21 from champion and front line + 20 supporting attacks) most enemies cant handle that....... Also lore of light is what makes my army. Speed of light and birnoas time warp on either one unit or the big cast just made your super tough saurus into the best core troop in the game. Speed of light gives you the edge with WS 10, I10; and bironas time warp gives you always strike first and one extra attack. after your saurus attack your opponent especially elves and skaven wont have the attacks to even make a dent on your units
I'm tempted to try a saurus horde but I'd be worried about being destroyed in one hit with something like dwellers or pit of shades. My regular opponent fields Teclis meaning he has a good chance of getting off whatever nasty spells he wants.
The saurus horde isn't thát good. Especially not if your are facing teclis! Dwellers or Pit will ruin your day in a hurry! Against an army that is superiour to you in combat: do not advance. Hold back, fire with skinks and magic. Redirect units with your skinks (or terradons, chameleons, salamanders...) and try to pick your fights. If you can, try to dual-charge 1 of his units while redirecting his unit that was supposed to support. If he also out-maneuvers you (cavalry, (flying) monsters, multiple units), while you should use your skinks to prevent this, just make sure you can make counter-charges. Let your units support eachother. Ofcourse, a flee-reaction might leave him stranded by only stumbling forward a couple of inches. Against an army that is superior in the shooting fase: 2 options; Hide, seek&heal (lore of life, only if present) Charge in with everything. Providing target saturation. Move up with everything you've got and just keep pushing forward, no matter the losses. Once you've chosen to go down this path, there is no turning back. Your skinks should try and silence as many guns as possible (starting with the biggest/most dangerous) and working their way down. If your opponent starts shooting your skinks first, fine. Your big blocks will chew through the rest of his shooty units (and/or supporting blocks) without a hitch. If he fires at your saurus block, fine: your skinks will take care of his expensive guns. Either way, your opponent will have too many targets to fire at and will not have enough firing power to deal with all of them. That's the general idea Deployment: Skinks first! Once your opponent has deployed an infantry block, you have a good idea where his other blocks are going to be. As a rule of thumb, infantry should support infantry. So 1 block placed, means the rest is going to be close (this is what your opponent is thinking too ofcourse!). So place some skinks (doesn't really matter where), a Salamander on an inside flank, some terradons on a nice position etc...Hopefully he has less light troops so has to commit his blocks first. Your Cold one riders and stegadon could and probably should also be placed before your infantry blocks. These units are fast enough to catch up if they need to. If he deploys his block(s) first: Compare his combat units to yours. Do you think you can take him head-on? Deploy opposite of his units. Do you think he will wipe your combat units in no-time? Deploy on a flank (or as far away as possible, but still room to maneuver). If done correctly, you opponent will have at least 1 infantry unit that is very far away from your units and thus: the action. So by deploying smartly, you already have taken 1 unit effectively out of the game. I've written a tactic about deployment, mind you: this was under 7th edition rules. THe general principles are still valid though. here Hope this helps , The Hunted
Thanks for the tips. I definitely need to work on my deployment skills. I've been running mainly with 3 blocks of infantry (saurus x 2 and temple guard). I find that they do seem to get in each others way a bit. I'm wondering if I'm better of with only two bigger infantry blocks but more support units (CoC, stegs, skrox, etc). I've been having good success with my blowpipe and chamo skinks on the flanks. Plus salamanders are just awesome. I'm still working out the best way to field terradons. My high elf opponent uses bolt throwers but is good with his deployment meaning I can't get my scouts all that close to them. Plus he usually runs with some eagles which he likes to set up facing towards where ever I can put my chamo skinks. Meaning if I don't get first turn my chamo skinks eat a charge from an eagle. Either that or I need to hide them behind some terrain putting them too far away to be effective. The eagle is annoying as I often have to target it instead of the bolt throwers which is exactly what my opponent wants.
Your chamo's should be able to stand and shoot down any eagles that charge them. Beyond that just because they can scout doesnt mean you have to. You can deploy them with the rest of your army if terrain and enemy deployment arent on your side. I sometimes run a similar 2 saurus block 1 TG block line up. I usually put the TG in the middle an inch or so ahead of the saurus that flank it. Im more than happy for an opponent to charge the TG unit. With the slann in there they arent going anywhere. Then you should get some nice flank counter charges from the saurus blocks. Definitely deploy all skink units first. All the skink units are at least movement 6. They can get to where they need to go very quickly. I like to deploy a 12 skink 1 krox unit a couple feet away from my saurus blocks. I put that out early and my opponents usually assume thats where my main deployment is going and starts to put his infantry opposite. The skroks can then 12" march back to my lines on the other side of the board. While his stuff is only moving 8".
3 blocks or 2 blocks...both can work. I prefer a support-heavy army most of the times, so I would go with 2 blocks. Remember a stegadon can handle an infantry block on it's own fairly well (especially with a [life-slann] BSB nearby!). When moving, think ahead. What is your opponent likely to do, and what do you need to do, to come out in a good position. It's no problem is the bolt throwers live for a turn (or two, or even three) extra. Just target the eagles with everything you've got in the 1st turn. Get rid of them, then target his RBT's. After you take out all of his support units, High elves are a whole lot less scary. They will try to do the same to us ofcourse, because our M4 saurus are even less scary without all of our skink units running around! If the RBT's fire at your chameleons, smile! -2 to hit (maybe more because of terrain) and 6 shots, maybe 1 of them will die. An eagle is handled easily with poisoned blowpipes and the odd magic missile. Don't be afraid to drop some terradon rocks on it either! Skrox are great for fooling your opponent. They look like a big block of infantry which needs support (and face it, they do). But luckily for us, they are fast enough to switch position and therefore leave an enemy unit stranded .