Since the prospect of either not being playable at the beginning of 9th edition (or maybe not at all, worst case scenario), I have been wondering: Which edition has been your favorite so far, from a lizardmen perspective? For simplicity, let's stick to "matching" editions (So no 7th edition AB with 8th edition BRB).
I have voted 8th since it is my favourite edition. Oh and for the record, so far every rumour I have read pointed to the lizardmen being playable in 9th.
I voted 6th. The armies that hit the board looked more like Line of Battle armies instead of just a big brick. Psychology actually mattered. Magic was good but not an "I win" button (I absolutely hate spending 1 hour setting up this damn game then taking it all off in 15 minutes because someone hit the big spell). There's a lot more but my recent hate of 8th edition made me go back and look at previous editions for why I used to like this game.
Probably the 6th edition Lizardmen book, Because it was great under both 6th and 7th edition BRB's Also back them our characters and lords and core where amazing.
Might have come out wrong, I am not personally afraid of losing my army. I have been afraid of either being tempoarily unplayable, or 9th just being a massive step backwards/towards 40k (40k has far worse rules than fantasy, so I'd hate to see that happen) - Also not looking forward to potentially losing Slanns. I have a hard time placing my vote, hence the topic question. 8th feels.. polished, somehow. I liked the overall feel of 7th better. I sadly didn't try 6th edition, but lack of army-wide killers (Which GW seems to think has to be everywhere) would certainly make me want to try it out. Also the whole "Slanns aren't just level 4 wizards with lots of bling" thing. 7th edition slanns were awesome. High Lore is a great addition, though - some of those spells just have utility you can't just don't find elsewhere. Wandering deliberations is also pretty handy.
I haven't voted because I have only recently started a Lizardman army, so I am only familiar with 8th edition. I do really like the flow of the army though. It doesn't feel over or under powered to me. It feels right. Now, if they were to strap a huge cannon to the back of a dino...well...
Your 6th edition Slan could roll spells on all 8 lores to basically make his own custom lore. I think you got at least: 5 spells, +1 to cast and dispel, and +1 die per cast attempt. and 3 levels of the dispel spell (Enemy dice are ignored if they roll a (6) or (5+6) or (4+5+6) to cast) oh and my favorite, Slan where immune to miscast.
Well most armies where pretty powerful that edition, but the Slann was by far the best mage. * oh yea, slann + temple guard was usually around 900 points. while powerful, you definitely paid for it. ** lord Kroak was around 1200 points that edition, and if he died you could only tie or loose the game.
Instead of disciplines you chose your Slann's generation and the generation came with a set assortment of goodies. Slann were 5th gen by default and you could pay to go up to 4th, 3rd, or 2nd and all things were cumulative for the Slann before them. 5th Gen = + 1 to cast and dispel, roll spells from multiple lores if you choose 4th Gen = +20 SS, Miscasts are autofails but no chart roll (in those days miscasts were failures not Irresistible Force) 3rd Gen = +42.5 SS and a Hero Slot (categories were limited in numbers of units not points) +1 Wound, gain a free spell to hex enemy wizards making them discard 6s (or 5s and 4s on the boosted version). +100 VP to opponent if the Slann is slain 2nd Gen = +135 points, a hero slot , and a Rare slot, +1 Wound, free power die on every casting attempt, +100 VP to opponent if Slann is slain. My understanding is if the Slann died, the Lizardmen's opponent practically auto-won. Not that different from fighting pre-End Times Undead in 8th edition. I started in 6th Gen but I never played big games, so it was always Slann-less. I was leery of going 3rd or 2nd gen. That's a lot of eggs in one basket. The Southlands list did not allow Slann below 4th Generation at all.
Also important to keep in mind that at 2500 points you got a total of 4 characters of which 1 can be a lord. So your 2nd generation Slann, in addition to costing around 600 points, also took 50% of your character limit and IIRC 50% of your rare slots. Contrast that with vanilla 8th or Nagash 8th.
I feel like 6th edition was a more clear reflection of the Lizardmen from a fluff perspective. Slann were truly a force to be feared, but you paid for it. Sacred Spawnings were still a thing, and they gave some flavor to your army. That being said, I like the current 8th edition rulebook the most. Not perfect, but then, none have been. I find myself enjoying the game a lot more this edition.
Both, from a Lizardmen perspective. Comparing them across editions is a bit iffy, since 7th edition books weren't made with 8th in mind, for example. And by "best", I mean whichever edition you think was the best. I feel like my successrate went up when we got to 8th edition. My biggest issue with 8th especially, is how GW seems to be making some stats, initiative in particular, both useless and mandatory at the same time. You can have a high initiative, but without ASF, those elves don't care, and will probably be striking before you even if they use GWs... But if you have a poor initiative value, a death wizard has a fair chance of outright removing 50% of your entire army on the first turn. 7th certainly didn't feel this bad. In fact, in a lot of ways, 7th felt... more fun, somehow. Not even nostalgia speaking, since I had a battle against a skaven player not too long ago using 7th edition army books and BRB. It's kinda funny how slanns seems to have been nerfed every chance GW gets.
Hello, I voted 6th edition. I felt that the army book had the most depth in it and almost every unit in it were playable. I also loved how the spawnings and slann generations worked. Having said that I think that 8th edition has better rules. I mean there were a lot of things better in 6th/7th but there are a lot more things better in 8th. BR Agrem
I have not played with 7th BRB. but with the 7th and 8th lizardmen rulebook. If you play normally, I would say that 7th was the best for the Slann but 8th best overall. If we take end times into account (which it seems is getting the norm, gamesworkshop wise), I would definetly say 8th, since slann hass acces to all BRB lores at the same time, plus end times spells. although they do not have the same raw power as before, they have supreme adaptability, they are prepared for everything, while still being excellent wizards. Slann are one of the best wizards and now has the potential to complement everything in our armybook. no other mage can really stand up to the slann (as far as I know) While teclis might in some ways rival our slann, he is a lot harder to keep alive, he does not have a save, he has half the toughness and 2 less wounds. He cannot be tailored to certain play styles. In one round he could be better than the slann, but the slann performs more consistently. he can ignore one miscast, but again only once, so the slann performs more consistently. He has a special scroll, but we wouldn´t honestly be bothered by potentially losing a single spell if we have 63 others. He is one wizard level higher, but that does not matter eitehr as we could just take Book of Ashur. the short version: 8th
I started playing in 8th edition with 7th armybook (i used to love that book), but i have read 5th and 6th armybooks aswell, and even if i didn't read the old rulebooks my opinion is LM have lost way too much gaming power and fluff with each new edition, and even if they're a decaying empire it doesn't feel good at all, at least to me. I love ET magic, but just because it allows slanns to be viewed again as what they should be: the best casters in the world (if "best" is intended like "most versatile"), and i still think old edition slanns were waaaay more powerful and reliable (maybe too much, that's right). So, ET magic is a nice tool for our slanns, let's just hope we'll keep them in new edition... but it seems plausible that we won't. In the end, i'd say 6th edition: slanns generations were amazing because of their power and i love the possibility to customize your army, a thing that 8th armybook does not offer at all sadly. 6th gave us spawnings aswell, so i really think that would be the perfect edition for me, but with the current models haha. I've loved reading 5th edition aswell, expecially for the background, and i've found really interesting some things like slanns and salamanders, but 6th has something that feels better to me
I forgot the spawnings (shame on me). spawnings would be awesome to have again. chaos warriors have something similar, so why can´t we. saurus are made for war, should´nt they have the potential to become better that chaos warriors? I spawnings came back, I would probably say that would be the best edition.
Okay I'll be the jerk who votes fifth. As a social game with gentlemen, herohammer wasn't nearly as bad. And - it gave us lizardmen - we had units within units (skrox) for first time in warhammer - slann got carried around - cool stories in the army book - lizardman rocked at low points - it was the only one that I played