8th Ed. Getting started

[Varyn]

Hey Everyone

I was hoping a few of you might be able to give me some advice on getting my Lizardmen army started. I used to play warhammer about 10 years ago and have just started again. I have the following in my army:

20 Saurus warriors
24 Skinks with Javelins
1 Skink Priest
2 Skink Heroes

Obviously this is a very basic start to my army and it needs a lot of work, I just could use a bit of advice on which units/heroes/lords are essential and which could be considered a luxury or optional "fun" extra.

I will be fighting against my girlfriends orcs and goblins army which current consists of:

20 orc boyz
20 night goblin archers
20 night goblins with spears
10 black orcs
10 savage orcs
1 goblin shaman
1 black orc big boss/war boss
3 fanatics
10 spider riders

Clearly my army is outnumbered, and I am looking to get a few units so we can have games of around 1000 points to get us started.

I think I have rambled on enough for now, so I will eagerly await the responses.

 

[BEEGfrog]

Especially as you are playing your girlfriend you need to consider whether you are deveoping the army to win or have fun...

Essential: 2x to 4x sallies. Sallies are so good you can't not have them! Also anothe pack of saurus, 20 is a bit light.

Playing to win: Slann and about 25 Temple Guard some blowpipe skinks

Playing for fun: Stegadon, another stegadon, old blood on carnasaur, kroxigor

Things to avoid except to be super fluffy: swarms and COC (except for use as mounted characters) as neither are worth the points you pay for them.

 

[Varyn]

Thanks for the reply

I'm trying to get 20 more Saurus warriors at the moment and then some temple guard sometime after that.

Any suggestions for a general? If I don't take a mounted general should I just put him in a unit of saurus warriors?

 

[BEEGfrog]

Once you get above 1500 pts it is time to start thinking about a slann. Of course if you have 1500 pts the slann puts you close to 2k.

The only disadvantage to putting a mounted character is the loss of "Look out sir" on template attacks, at smaller points costs these types of attack are less likely. With her current army your girlfriend can only generate one template type attack (curse of da bad moon, the gobbo 6th spell), the time to worry is when she gets rock lobbers or taking a 4th level shaman.

A character on a cold one makes the unit stupid, this normally doesn't cause a problem now that the rules allow all leadership tests to be re-rolled within 12" of the army standard. This is balanced by a possibly unintended quirk of the rules where a single stupid model makes the entire unit ITP.

In any case, don't get a slann and put it in a unit of saurus. A slann is fine solo or in a unit of TG but not in a saurus unit. TG also aren't cost effective unless they have a slann embedded.

Skink generals are for friendly themed games not competitive ones.