8th Ed. Fresh out of the spawning pool, A new Player approaches.

[Masakari]

What up?

I'm a new WHFB player in general, I recently just got out of warhammer 40k. A refugee of that games poisoning power creep and general unbalance. I made the switch by trading my small eldar collection for a basic entry into lizardmen. Out of the deal all i got was a lizardmen codex, a single box of Skinks and and a box of Saurus warriors. I have alot of questions, regarding both lizardmen and whfb.

As of right now my starting guys are unassembled, tonight another totally noob friend is coming over (Skaven) with my buddy who got us into whfb (Tomb Kings) Our plan is to drink, watch movies, and play whfb tonight so myself and my skaven buddy can learn. My main problem is also the fact that I am immensely poor and wont be able to afford anything for about a month and a half, so I'm forced to convert a couple guys from my collection into some hero units so I can play. I plan on getting everything assmbled save for 1 saurus and 2 skinks that I'll convert into heroes (a Scar Veteran, a Skink Priest, and a Skink Chief) I'll be assembling them when my buddies get here, as their bringing alot of extra bits and I'm quite a wizard with conversions (I just cant paint worth a crap). after these I'll still have 22 skinks and 15 saurus warriors for my fledgling force.

Lizardmen Questions_
1.) Saurus warriors: Hand weapons or spears? Musician or no? (what does a musician do anyways?) Banner? (which ones work well in tandem with the spear/HW choices?)
2.) Skinks: Skirmishers or Vanilla? Musician or no? Banners? (again, which ones are good for their respective unit effectiveness) If I overmodel weapons can I still use them without pissing the general players off? as in, if I give them the shield and javelins, and add blowguns strapped to their backs (using that loopy bit to strap it to them for aesthetically pleasing models) can I still use them as blowgun armed skirmishers if I choose not to take the javelins in their loadout? I'm not sure how WYSIWYG works in whfb. I had tournament legal flexibility without having to buy multiple squads of the same thing just for a small difference in gear, it worked in 40k, not sure if it works in whfb. Is the skavenpelt banner good? I think I may include one since my friend plays skaven and there are a couple others in the area that play skaven I hear.
3.) Heroes: What are the go-to items and upgrades for the Skink chief, Saurus Scar Veteran, and Skink Priest?
Above question about WYSIWYG stands true here, I'd hate to model somthing really awsome and then find out I permagimped my little guy by being an idiot. Are the skink chief anti-Skaven options worth it against skaven? If I take an additional hand weapon, can I replace that extra with another weapon from the magic items? or can I skip that purchase all together?

Sorry for the wall of text, but these are ideas that've been bouncing in my head all day. Thanks guys!

 

[Landjorden]

Hi there and welcome to the forum, I myself is a newb when it comes to Lizardmen but I can atleast answer some of your gamerelated questions since I have a decent sized skaven force that I have been playing for a while.

Q: "what does a musician do anyways?"
A: a musician adds one to the combat resolution in case there is a tie, in addition to this he adds 1 to your ld when trying to rally and furthermore if he is in the unit the unit can take a ld test to make a swifth reform (basicly a reform followed by a normal move). I try to include musicians everywhere mostly for the swifth reform thing but if you are short on point you can always skip him for now and build one from your next box of saurus.

Q:Banner? (which ones work well in tandem with the spear/HW choices?)
A: Well, the banner that both saurus and skinks can get are just a normal banner, to be able to buy one of the magic banners you need the option that Tempel guard and Cold one riders have "may buy a magic banner for up to 50p", if you want a magic banner with your saurus you have to get a battle standard bearer (BSB) that is an upgrade for a skink chief, a saurus scar veteran or a slann mage priests that lets him take a magic banner worth any amout but he can´t take any other magic gear (except the slann). A BSB also gives the ability to reroll any leadership test for any of your units that is within 12" of him, well worth the investment in larger games, now in the begining you will most likely only need the cold blooded rule.

Q: Skinks: Skirmishers or Vanilla?
A: Without any Kroxigors, skirmishers every time. I personally use mine with javelins but there are more than one staunch defender for the blowpipes, if you want to save points go for the blowpipes, if you want the flexibility to use them as both skirmishers and ranked go with javelins and shield.

Q:If I take an additional hand weapon, can I replace that extra with another weapon from the magic items? or can I skip that purchase all together?
A: You can only ever have one of each type of magic item, so only one weapon, one shield, one talisman, one arcane item and one enchanted item/ hero and lord, you can only include one of each item once so no dubble dispel scrolls or the like.

Q:What are the go-to items and upgrades for the Skink chief, Saurus Scar Veteran, and Skink Priest?
A: Skink Chiefs: These guys don´t see much play but when they are used it´s normaly as a cheap bsb, ontop a stegadon with a stegadon war spear or on a terradon with some sort of gear to hunt warmachines or lone mages.
Saurus Scar Veterans: There has been a whole thread about this little fellow in the tactic section, try to look it through
Skink Priest: Normaly some sort of magic protection, be it dispel scroll, cube of darkness, diadem of power or cupped hands of the old ones. You could also use the cloak of feathers to make him really mobile and hard to get hold of, a plaque of tepok could work if you don´t want the defence to get him an additional spell.

Q:Are the skink chief anti-Skaven options worth it against skaven?
A: Probably not, with t3 and 2 wounds a lower weaponskill and same initiative as a skaven chieftain you wont have any protection at all, sure you get killing blow and cause fear but that will normaly be a ld 9 check for the chief to see if he gets the shivers and drops to 1 in ws.

 

[Arli]

LandJorden aswered all correctly for the most part. I will add that in fantasy there is no WYSIWYG rule per se. It is not enforced at all. If you want to model them that way, it is up to you. Some people like to play it with that rule, some without. The official stance is that it does not exist in Fantasy. It may be considered bad ettiquette in a game to have saurus that have all spears and play them as HW and shield (without telling your opponent). Most of the time, it will not matter. Most of my saurus have spears and I never play them with spears. I just make it clear when I deploy them that they are HW and shield.