Slann: BSB, Rumination, Becalming, Mystery (lore of life), Cupped hands, Standard of Discipline Skink Priest: Cloak of Feathers, Dispel scroll Scar Vet #1: Light Armor, Shield, Sword of Strife, Dragon Helm Scar Vet #2: Light Armor, Shield, Ogre Blade, Potion of Speed Skink Chief: Light Armor, Shield, Dagger of Sotek 29 Saurus: Spears, FC (Scar Vet 1 in here) 21 Skinks 2 Kroxigor: FC (Skink Chief in here) 11 Skink Skirmishers 15 Temple Guard: FC, Flaming Standard, Ruby Ring (Slann and Scar Vet 2 in here) 8 Chameleon Skinks Ancient Steg Salamander Salamander 2498 total
Hard to go wrong with a list like that. Looks like you've got the bases covered; I can't really pick out any significant weaknesses. The only thing I'd be wary of is something immune to flaming attacks like High Elf Dragon Princes/ Tyrion, which will make them immune to your Temple Guard unit's melee attacks. Personally I go for the Razor standard to help the guard carve right through armor, but it is more expensive. Let us know how the list works out- I'd expect good things.
There's still a few things I'd like to change, but have to wait until I can budget a few more models. I'd like to drop the second scar vet and add a second unit of chameleon skinks ( and use the leftover points to upgrade to the razor standard.) As it stands, I figure I'll see regen and flammable more often than flame immune, and worse comes to worse I'll just hit anything immune with the skrox, steg, or saurus. Going back to school out of pocket really puts a cramp on my spending money. Otherwise, the only thing I'm really debating is trading out cupped hands for the forbidden rod. (D6 extra power dice could really help out on a low winds roll, the Slanns 4+ ward and life attribute ability should make up for any wounds I take.)
Not sure about skink chief in the skrox unit. Won't it get challenged and slaughtered by pretty much anything?
I. Think its to many points spent on lords and heroes. You will need bigger blocks of saurus warriors. Just my opinion.
I say go for the skink chief. He has good initiative, and killing blow might make them think twice about putting an expensive character up against him. Plus, with full command in the unit, the champion can absorb the hits in an unwinnable situation (i.e. Changeling). As far as cupped hands vs forbidden rod, my instinct says stick with the hands. It's both an offensive and defensive tool, and nothing boosts your confidence more when throwing lots of dice around. Also, keep in mind you won't always have the Throne in effect; some opponents make it a point to dispel it every chance they get.
As it stands, it's what I can make with my what I have available model-wise. Going up 250 points, CoC becoming useless, and the changes to infantry effectiveness (I used to run 2x 18 saurus spears) really put a cramp on what options have available. However, the huge block of 30 saurus have preformed really well with my playstyle, so it hasn't been an issue so far. The second scar vet is in just to eat up points until I can budget in more chameleon skinks. The Skink chief is a combo of extra points and just plain fun (if he dies I'm out 84 points, if he wins a challenge I get to mock my opponent relentlessly for losing to a skink.) Since I hit things in the flank with my skrox (after weakening them with magic and shooting, and usually holding them up in the front with TG or Saurus) it shouldn't be that much of an problem. Gor-rok, you've hit my feelings on cupped hands as well; but the thought of the extra dice in a low rolling winds magic phase did appeal to me.
Thought of converting some normal skinks to chameleons? I also ran into this problem as having to just field 10 is rather expensive. If all else, just paint some skinks green
I did, but that would require buying another box of skinks, as all of them are already in units. And... my lizzies are already green.
After playing around with the list some more and mathhammering out various combinations I came up with this: Slann: BSB, Rumination, Becalming, Mystery (lore of life), Cupped hands, Standard of Discipline Skink Priest: Cloak of Feathers, Dispel scroll Scar Vet: Light Armor, Shield, Sword of Strife, Dragon Helm 29 Saurus: Spears, FC (Scar Vet in here) 22 Skinks 2 Kroxigor: FC 10 Skink Skirmishers 16 Temple Guard: FC, Ruby Ring (Slann in here) 8 Chameleon Skinks 5 Cold One Cav: Std/Mus Flaming Standard Ancient Steg Salamander Salamander 2500 on the nose I dropped the second scar vet and skink chief, filled their holes in the skrox/tg and added a 5 strong CoC unit (shifted the flaming banner to them for hydra/HPA hunting). While I really think CoC took it in the teeth in 8th, they'll have a better damage output than the two heroes (barely), an extra wound, another banner for breaking points, and another deployment drop. I don't expect much out of them, so if they do anything at all (including sucking up shooting) I'll be happy.
Finally got a chance to test it out, outside of a couple of games with terrible dice on my part (rolled 1's for my cupped hands three games in a row, my Ancient Steg failed 6 out of 6 4+ AS's against a stand and shoot reaction)it performed very well. My buddy is trying to decide on a second army so he proxied up several lists from various books and we got in about 7 games over the last couple of weekends. Notes: The block of 29 saurus + scar vet is definitely the way to go in 8th. It went head to head with several extremely nasty combat units (blocks of 18 chaos warriors with MoK and halberds, horde formation of marauders (MoK) with great weapons, Hydra, Black guard) and either won the combats directly or held for several turns until I could get some support over to them. As much as lore of light would compliment it, Life is a much better choice. Tried them both out and Life just works so much better overall. On that same note, once you hit someone with dwellers they start saving dispel dice for it, use the threat of casting it to get the spells you really want (flesh to stone, throne, earthblood, regrowth) off. The ruby ring is a waste, I either forgot about it or used the PD to cast another spell with my Slann. Will be exchanged for a war banner for the next few games. Skrox units are amazing with the Krox not being able to be targeted in CC.
Cool, thanks for the report. As I mentioned, I really like the list and will most likely try something similar to it, hopefully in the next few weeks.
Not great, but not as bad as they were the first few times I used them at the start of 8th. I used them as flankers and to hunt hydra's and mage bunkers. Their low Ini hurts them quite a bit as they can't shrug off deaths like saurus or tg can. And going up against chaos knights made me realize exactly how bad they are-- 5 extra points per model gives the knights better WS, better consistent strength, better initiative, and a better AS. Oh and no stupidity (which does seem to crop up when it will hurt you the most.) Not to mention access to marks...
Quick note: I didn't see this as I scanned this post quickly, the standard of discipline, I would take it off the slann. If not you can't use his leadership. But the rest looks good.
You can use his leadership. If he's carrying it in a TG unit the TG aren't using the inspiring presence rule, they're using the highest leadership available within the unit rule. Everyone else benefits from his leadership 10 bubble.