Ok, so I actually got into warhammer and indeed into sculpting all thanks to the 5th ed Lizardman book way back when I was just 15-16 (and that's a strong 14 years ago). However with the 7th ed release I was utterly disappointed, both in terms of what had been done to many characters, units (KROXIGORS!) and especially magic items and spawnings. Many of the sculpts likewise did very little for me *coughancientstegadoncough* So my question here is why should I get back into LM? Persuade me.
I did not play back then, so I do not know which rules changed that you did not like. As far as the stegadon goes, I hope you disliked the metal one and not the plastic one, because the plastic one is awesome (in my opinion). Now, to the point. Lizardmen are one of the best armies in 8th edition. We have troops that can be very competitive in most settings. We have some really awesome skirmishing units. We have Awesome salamanders. We also get the best non character caster in the game!
That you Rikard?!! Most compelling reason is we need your sculpts! The only thing that is correctly matched by their sculpts are actually the krox: current models are thin and weedy like the nerfed statline. From a gaming point of view the only thing LM now fear are cannon and the points cost of our own troops. You can have the slann dominating the magic phase either solo or in an almost indestructable TG block. Salamanders are superb at burning up enemy troop blocks although again current models aren't brilliant. Scar Vets are great especially mounted on a Cold One, but again the infantry SV models are mostly meh and mounted worse.
Well, if you don't like many of the current models maybe this just isn't the edition to restart LM, could be worth waiting a couple more years for the next release. Not much compared to the 15 you have already waited. Having said that, stegadons are nowhere near a critical part of the army so you won't really miss not having one. Especially the EotG. Overall LM at the moment are pretty nicely balanced with a lot of versatility since basically everything in the list is worth taking except for swarms. That gives a lot of legitimate choices for army styles that can still be competitive. The Slann is pretty much the best option though and there is quite a gap in power level between an army led by a Slann and one that is not. This is a bit of a shame if you aren't a fan of a big/very important magic phase. A LM army is also very striking on the table, and with the combination of impressive Aztec/Mayan style equipment that can be painted either gold, jade or obsidian and the lizards themselves that can be painted any colour, you can get a very unique army that really stands out well.
Nope, I loath the plastic one, it's a very bad sculpt, anatomically it would fall over and die, it has been sculpted with severe hip dysplasia, to the extent that in real life it would not be able to walk. It's even been sculpted with a broken ankle. I showed it to some palentologists and they had a good laugh (not joking here).
I absolutely agree. The new steg is horrible. I was considering buying it since it's on sale at my local store right now, but I just can't get past it's rear-end. I'd take another 5th edition one any day. COLLECTING Our new Kroxigor models are pretty awesome, IMO. I'm glad they went back to the older style krox. Those snake-looking ones really didn't cut it for me. Kroxes are my favorite units, lore-wise, so I am glad they made them look beefy again. So we have a few awesome units and a few ugly units. New Terradons, Cold Ones and Steggies are probably the worst. I expect at least 2 of those to change whenever we get another update. The new saurus (with or without the crest) and the skinks are great though. Plus they can be modded fairly easily into unique models, particularly with the new Temple Guard kit. All sorts of goodies in there. Skinks don't always rank up so well, but I use them as skirmishers. No big loss there. Oh, and the Carnosaur. Those are cool. I have 2 Along with collecting comes our color scheme. But wait! We are lizards! They are all sorts of colors! Pick a couple of your favorte colors and go at it. Plus if you have different colored cohorts you can argue that they are different spawnings bred for a particular purpose, possibly from different temple cities under a united cause. Also, there are tons of 5th edition LM on ebay if you don't like the new models. Proxy the skink archers as blowpipe skinks. I tell people to pretend they are super-short bows and the skinks load up two arrows at a time. No one I know has had a problem with it. PLAYING Everyone else nailed it. Well rounded army. You can pretty much pick your favorite tactic and the LM have an answer for it. Cannons and gunlines excluded, to an extent. Our named characters are bleh at the moment. You can build your own that are very competitive though, so that makes up for it.
Hey Rikard I bet you could make some epic conversion from this guys 28mm dinos. http://achesoncreations.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=57&Itemid=1 Ps. guys Rikard is the guy whe sculpted Lizardmen for Avatars of War.
Yeah the variety of colours that are an option for painting I think is a huge plus. Most, if not all races are stuck to a certian skin colour.
I doubt I'd ever use Kroxigors again, that strength cut pretty much ruined them for me (or as far as my tactics went) Painting wise I've never been bothered, it's always nice to have variety and I think that's what I really liked about Lizardmen (spawnings). Model wise I like the metal 6th ed old bloods and scar vets, skink chiefs and especially Tehenhuian is a gorgeous sculpt. However there are quite a few which just feel so lacking to me personally. Even if I had the funding and time I think I'd take at least two years to resculpt all the things I wanted to. This list would look like something like this: Stegadon (ancient) Salamanders Terradons Temple guard Chameleon skinks Razordons Special characters (only some of them, mainly the unreleased ones) Carnosaur - from a point of wanting to do something new, I still like the old model. Cold ones - like the metal riders but on dark elf cold ones they look awesome! Un released and un-written characters Nakai - kind of doing/done this though... Lotl - crazed skaven killer and maniac what's not to like? I did (ages ago though) start writing the 7th ed Lizardman book, well my own version and just for fun, is it worth me sticking up some of the entries just for fun? Cheers.
Definately! I'd love it to use that new krox you´re working on as Nakai, so if you can be bothered to make a few rules for him as well as the new AoW sculpt, that would just be fan-dabby-babulous. Pretty miffed at the Korxigor nerf as well, but hopefully they will recive an update in the new book, which should be released before this decade is out I can agree that the stegadon looks a bit wonky with his back hips, but personaly i'v given up trying to apply my knowledge of biology and physics on minatures, since more or less half the range would get torched by science. Plus trying to figure out how dragons work since they are hexapod (six limbed) reptiles cost me an evening and a fair share of my sanity. The most compelling arguments i'v ever come up with to collect the lizardmen boils down to two things: 1. Freedom of painting. We are the one single army that can look EXACTLY however we want without a lore freak like me going bonkers. 2. We have dinosaurs.
To be honest with you I don't think you can collect LM ever again. It seems to me that you have fallen head over heels for the old 5th edition LM. If I had you talent and skills and I wanted to pour my love and devotion into an army I would just buy as many of the 5th models as you can maybe buy the use a Triceratops figure from Reaper or Ral Partha instead, and then convert your own Howdah for it.
No to deviate, but it looks like I have to eat my own words. I just got one of the new stegs as a gift. Time to man up and start liking it, lol. The kit actually has a lot of fun bits in it, so hopefully those will pacify me. Hear, hear.
Agreed on the dinosaurs part, it's the reason I started playing them too, my main love being Kroxigors. I will get around to uploading the rules I wrote soon, though I did only just get as far as new magic items as well as new spawnings and even rare spawnings (rare spawnings meant you could only take one of those spawnings and no other spawnings). I even worked on making temple guard equivalent upgrades for scar vets and old bloods. They have +1 to WS, I, scaly skin save and are stubborn but cannot take spawnings. It will be interesting to see what happens when the book gets re-done, I'm hoping Ant Reynolds gets to write it (I think he did the 6th ed book). @SouthlandLizardman If I was still as nutty on them as I used to be, you'd see me sculpt 80% of my army, not buy old 5th ed minis or reaper ones. Incidentally, along with your opinions, if you could have GW resculpt one model and one model only for the current range, what would you want them to resculpt?
The Kroxigors. The one with the weapon above his head looks good, the other two look a bit goofy. Although in this case i'd have them just send the IP to you with the note pinned to it saying "Here you go, have fun, enjoy". Otherwise it'd have to be the cold ones. They look... well, to be fair, they do look like they coined the "stupidity" concept.