I have an upcoming Lizard on Lizard match. This is one of the armies I am thinking about bringing. LORDS Slann BSB (Death or Life) - Fencer's Blades - Channeling Staff - Seed of Rebirth - Egg of Quango - Standard of Discipline - Becalming Cog - Harmonic Con - Unfathomable Pre HEROS Tetto'eko Skink Priest (Beast) - Lvl 2 - Dispel Scroll - Ancient Stegadon - Sharpened Horns CORE Skroxigor x 35 - Full Command - Poison - Kroxigor x 4 Skirmishers x 10 Skirmishers x 12 SPECIAL Temple Guard x29 - Full Command - Gold Sigil Sword - Razor Standard RARE Salamander x3 - Extra Handler x2 Total Points 2498 My opponent can be counted on to run a large unit of Saurus Warriors, 2-3 monsters, at least 4 skirmish units and possibly a small unit of Cold Ones and/or 'dacyles. If he runs a Slann he can be found in a 15-20 unit of Temple Guard. The plan is to bunker the Slann and Tetto in the Temple Guard and Cohort respectively. The Stegadon will deploy on the flank of either the TG or the Skroxigor to give them the 6+ WS and to extend the range of the Death spells. The skirmishers and salamanders will run around and take care of chaff as well as lone characters. I want to get my TG and Skrox into HtH as quickly as I can and use the Stegadon to hit the flanks. I am not too concerned with his skirmishers as they will be an annoyance to my Temple Guard and only a minor worry to my Stego and Skrox. This will be mitigated by my skirmishers keeping him at a respectable distance until I can close to HtH. I will use my skirmishers to keep his skirmishers away from my Skrox and/or stegadon. My Skrox unit is a tarpit and will hold whatever it engages in HtH. The Temple Guard will chew through his blocks and if I can time it right I would welcome him to hit me in the flanks with his skirmish units. If he does it will nullify my rank bonus but I will be stubborn with LD 10 and BSB. The upside is it will lock his skirmish unit in with me and I do not fancy they will last long against my Guard. One of the few times when loosing combat would be helpful as I will have a chance to wipe out normally hard to catch skirmish units. My plan for handling his monsters is with magic. With a LD 10 I have a very good chance of melting the mind of any of his LD 6 monsters and a better than average chance of doing the same to his characters. Also since lizards are notorious for having craptastic INT may the Old Ones help him if I manage to get the Purple Nerple off. What do you all think?
Overall looks like a pretty fun, fast and likely effective list. My only comments are some minor tweaks to give the army even more flexibility: Wizards - one too many IMHO. There are only so many dice and 3 wizards can't possible share them effectively. I think it would be worth it to drop the 2nd level (but keep steggie) or Tetto'eko for a SV cowboy. Slaan - fencers blades are wasted since he will be in the 2nd rank. This will free up points for the SV cowboy. Poison Skrox - If the poison is dropped, an entire extra unit of skirmishers can be fielded. I think the extra shooting and deployment much better than 6-8 CC poison attacks. With regard to melting monsters with LD 10, don't forget he is likely to have a LD 10 bubble and thus the default death may not be anywhere near as effective as you think/hope. Other than that, have fun.
There are a couple of reasons for the Priest 1: Dispel Scroll Caddy 2: Extend the range of the Death Spells which are a bit on the short range side You do have a good point on the Fencers Blades. I know he will only get one attack but at least I know it has a better than average chance of getting a hit. I think the poison for the Skrox unit is worth it since it will give auto wounds on units with high toughness. The points saved will only give me enough for another minimal skirmisher unit or partly towards a cowboy. IIRC according to the FAQ the General's LD bubble will not help against the death brain-melting spell because it is not a leadership test. Besides unless he is running a Slann BSB w/ Standard of Discipline he cannot have a LD 10 bubble unless there is another way I am unaware of.
In a lizard on lizard action, I came out on top thanks to lore of fire. It's super easy to cast and just erases those pesky skink screens. It's good enough against saurus and temple guard too. Having the magic missiles let me get ahead in the chaff war early, and stay ahead.
It's hard to go wrong really Fire: Butcher the enemy chaff and your Skinks can redirect or shoot to their heart's content, your Salamanders will have a free reign. Light: In an even matchup the one with major buffs wins Death: Kill the enemy Slann and will, you've probably lost your Slann enough times to know what's going on. Purple Sun devastates Sauri. Shadow: Saurus vs. Saurus supremacy Life: Miscast protection and the ability to make sure your Temple Guard Deathstar outlasts the other guy's. Also healing for dinosaurs. Slann-less: You have numbers or you have powerful Saurus characters, move quickly to two team your opponents. Solar Engines are your friend, as are scroll caddies Your original list is fine as is. For minor tweaks I would recommend lowering your Skink priest to L1 and considering Heavens. Then his chance for casting a spell goes from none to slim. I'd split your Salamanders into two groups rather than one big group. More spread out flame templates gives you more chances for panic. I would make your Skirmishers units groups of 13 if possible. That way they can take a nonsouped up magic missile and not necessarily panic outright. I'd consider an Obsidian talisman of some sort for less randomness than Unfathomable Presence. The bearer of the Egg of Quango must be in base-to-base contact to use, so it will not help a Slann bunkered in a Temple Guard until his unit is almost dead.
You do make some good points. Since I already have a Heavens caster I wanted to have access to some Beasts buffs if needed. I could drop him down to a Lvl 1 and use the points to add some skirmishers and extra handlers. I do not have him to cast spells so much as act as a scroll caddy and a focus point to extend the range of the Slann's spells. The problem of splitting the salamanders is it makes the one on his own vulnerable to his skirmishers and being caught alone. If I took Life then I would drop the Seed of Rebirth and Unfathomable Presence for the Obsidian Talisman and 10 pts of extra skirmishers and/or handlers. The Slann can take and use the Egg of Quango since the Army Book says "Nominate one enemy unit in base contact with the bearer or his unit," I will have to give it some thoughts to making some tweeks.