How's it going? Its been some time since I last posted on these forums. I had begun work on a new lizardman army last spring and made some major progress before I was derailed with life and an urge to be outdoors after summer hit. Now that winter is upon me I pulled out my lizardman army again with an aim to finish it up over the next number of months. The army is largely built but I have one major purchase left and was hoping to get some guidance from some experienced players before I drop some money down on my army. The question is this: What is better, 3 terradons or 8 chameleon skinks (both come out to around 60 Canadian dollars to order from GW). To provide context, I already have 2 units of 10 skink skirmishers in my list (and have another 10 to build). I'm leaning towards buying the terradons for pure aesthetic reasons, but it seems the chameleons might be a better option. I namely want either of the two units to hunt war machines right from the start of the game then having the normal skink skirmishers to support them in later turns. The bulk of my 2.4k army includes 2 decent sized blocks of saurus warriors, 1 block of temple guard with slann, 2 salamanders and 2 stegadons. Its the inclusion of the stegadons that has me thinking I really need to devote resources in my list to reliably take down war machines. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
they are both very good. probably the chameleons are better warmachine hunters in general, but if you come up against a castling dwarf they wont be able to get to the warmachines. the terradons might though. i always include both chameleons and terradons (at 2400p), so i would suggest you buy the terradons and then buy another pack of plastic skinks and then convert them into chameleons (well, maybe 10 of them at least. this is a very simple conversion. i have some pics in my plog (see link in signature) and many many others have done similar things around here. just browse this forum for inspiration/tips.
I prefer the chameleons. However, Lord Tsunami makes a good point. I never face dwarves, so it is never a problem for me. Usually, if I plan on taking terradons, I will include a skink chief on a terradon as well. I will also make sure that he is in a unit of at least 5 or 6 terradons.
As Lord Tsunami says, financially it makes better sense to buy the terradon and convert normal skinks into chamos, it takes about 10 mins, heck you could just paint a normal skink chamo colours and that would probably do. Game-wise, both serve a good purpose but sometimes chamos can be useless against armies that have little war machines, at least with terradons you can drop rocks and maybe charge a small unit of chaff (like a sabre tusk)
since i play both dwarfs and lizz (shooting dwarf army) i wills ay either is useless against me! sorry but i block shooting (4 machines one the ancil 40 thunderers and a big blovk of something in the front of machines from all side corner nothing comes around) either way if i have to pick ONLY ONE of hte 2 and based ONLY on playing critiria i would pick chameleon even though terradons are excelent diverters i play with 3 skirmisher skinks for that!
I concur with Lord Tsunami. I made 24 Chamo Skinks out of regular Skinks and I didn’t technically convert them at all, I just painted them in retro army camouflage colors (I used a camo green base and blotched the rest with spots of differing shades of brown and green). I converted only three models. I wanted to give my Chamo Skink braves the larger swords and blowpipes and it just so happens that both the large skink swords and the blowpipes had only came on right arms so I had to do some chopping to make left handed sword and blowpipe arms. Some people cut off the crests and sculpt round bulbous eyes to accentuate the newt look, but I don’t care for buggy eyed round head Chamo Skinks, so I chose not to mess with it. I concur with Mitros. I play versus dwarfs a lot. So much so that when I play against non-dwarfs taking out the enemy war machines seems pathetically easy (and I tend to take more hunters than I need ). I would say against non-dwarves with artillery you need one or two teams of hunters and versus dwarfs you need 3-5 teams of war machine hunters (to make up for the ones the dwarfs shoot down). Otherwise you might as well as take zero war machine hunters and use the points you would have spent on them to boost your main blocks so they can absorb the hits.
Thanks for the tips everyone, I think I will try my hand to convert the unbuilt skinks into chameleons and pick up 3 terradons. That would give me 2 units of 10 skink skirmishers, 2 units of 5 chameleons and 1 unit of 3 terradons to hunt warmichines. Do you figure that should be enough for a balanced list to help protect my stegadons?
i almost never use terradons as Warmachine hunters! i use them to redirect at long range cause failed cahrges due to fleeing and stuff like that! but buy some convert for cham and try it out!
chamo skinks bring me the most points next to my sallies i love the little buggers, everyone seems to hate them
well for my chameleon conversion i just simply clipped off the flaps on their heads, made little balls with green stuff, and used a paper clip to make the eyes actually look like eyes, then i recommend using extra saurus shoulder pads and putting them on their back so they look better haha as for the differences between using terradons and chamo's ive never used terradons, but the chamos have served me very well playing tomb kings (guy usually runs 2 screaming skulls) the thing is the terradons id imagine are much more maneuverable as opposed to the chamo's where if your not first to act they get very chopped up
I usually take a unit of both, and I'd always take the camo skinks as my first choice. But they both fill slightly different roles. The skinks are great monster and warmachine hunters with their poisoned attacks. The terradons are better disruptors and support units; With their high movement they can quickly get to awkward situations and help tip the balance, like with a flank or rear charge into an existing combat, or with their feigned flight can generally make a pain of themselves and hopefully generate a few failed charges. They can also engage warmachines in close combat and stand a good chance of taking one out (just don't get them near a hellcannon)
Terradons are better at disrupting charges, and getting in the way of the enemy in general. Simply because they are faster. Also, and I haven't seen this in this thread before: Terradons are Great for running down enemies! Chameleons are better at dealing damage, are harder to hit and can scout. Chameleons will throw your opponents of their game, because they can actually harass an infantry unit pretty good. The terradons are a bit more predictable in that way. I personally go for chameleons over terradons. I love the scouting option and run enough skinks so the speed of the terradons isn't that much of an advantage. That being said, I would buy the terradons and use regular skinks and paint/convert them into chameleons. If you get a chance; proxy both of them first in some battles and see what you like better! The Hunted
As a side note I use the old skink model add my chameleon skinks. They're slightly smaller, a littler tougher looking and very cheap on eBay! I tend to take these over terradons.