For the first time ever I've beaten a Demons of Chaos list today! And I must say the Man of the Match was the "spartan" skinks. I fielded 2 units, one of 40 and one of 50, either side of a TG unit with Slann. I just thought I'd open a topic on the possible uses of hording skinks. Movement - Skinks are fast, at Movement 6 allowing them to outmanouver all but cavalry on the board. It does allow you to get the charge in if you need a flank charge if you want it, but see below for why I WOULDN'T choose to charge. Shooting - This is why Skinks are so feared. Their poisined attacks make mincemeant out of Greater Daemons, Giants, Dragons, you name it. when firing in two ranks, you can throw out an impressive 20 shots when horded, and 6s auto wound. Not to mention, you can use this when being charged in a stand and shoot reaction, and I've always found that those few extra kills is more important than the +1 CR. Close Combat - Skinks are fairly average troops, with a 6+ save and parry save against enemies. However, at 5 points each even a massive unit of 50 is only 250 points, and has 30 attacks in CC. And your enemy is going to have to kill more than 20 to reduce this number. While they're not going to slaughter heavilly armoured troops, they can handle and tarpit easilly, whilst your Saurus and TG kill the tougher stuff. More importantly, the unit is steadfast in most cases, which helps to form some nice combos... Ideas for use - Even with Cold Blooded, this unit is going to scamper away quickly. There are a few ways of avoiding a retreat, my favourite is being near a Slann with BSB and Banner of Discipline. This gives them Ld 10 on Cold Blooded with no modifiers which should keep the combat going on. If the skinks are striking out further away, adding a Chief or Scar Veteran boosts the Ld and Combat capabilities of the unit. having a Chief with BSB and Skavenpelt makes them frenzied, adding 10 attacks. If you want some more firepower, you can add in some Kroxigors to the unit. However, if you're hording the unit then you loose 4 attacks per kroxigor, as well as two javelin shots, for an extra 35 points (over the 4 skinks). Now that S3 can wound anything, I'd leave heavy armour to Sallies and CoC and let Skinks soak up the enemies. As always, units love a few buffs, so its worth considering to make the skinks better with the Slann or Skink Priests. Flesh to Stone or Earth Blood are easy to cast, especially when mixed with the Throne of Vines, and make the unit a lot harder to kill. The Light spells can also be fun, not many people expect WS 10 skinks! I wouldn't reccomend using Regrowth however, save it for the more expensive stuff. Weaknesses - Beware of being charged in the flanks, as the lack of supporting attacks will have its effect. Screening units are a must, or deploy the Horde on a flank anyway. The unit has a low S and T as well, and spells like Dwellers Below can be catasrophic. Skinks don't like heavy armour either, so they're better against lower AS units. Finally, the skinks will turn tail if not supported with Ld improving guys. Hope this advice helps anyone when using Skinks!