8th Ed. Jungle Swarms- Are these critters of any use in 8th?

ok this shows i have too much time on my hands

Slann lore of light or shadow
Prophet of sotek

skink cohort X 50 with as many krox as possible
then just spam the rest with swarms

now that would be worth playing with just for the sheer hell of it

 

hey all
I literally set up an account to reply to this thread.
Ok so in 7th they weren't very good to to crumbling and stuff.
in 8th the are many similar problems, but they are effective as screens and neutralization of the bigger more nasty stuff.
I have had pretty solid results by running a single unit 4 strong ranked 2x2. it's technically 20 wound over a 40mm front. and 12 poisoned attacks over the same frontage. throw them at things that will be a nascence for the rank and file saurus blocks. the meanest being chariots. get them into position to counter charge those pesky scything chaos chariots or war alter or whatever. If they can grab the charge you'll have your opponent screaming about Mother f-ing snakes on his mother f-ing chariots in no time.
Giants and hydras are also viable targets now that anything can be wounded on 6's.
Finally here comes the juicy part. Run them up the flank and lie in wait, these guys will more than likely be ignored... until... your slann with Lore of Life and buffs the crap out of the unit.
4+ regen, +4 toughness, additional hits just for being in base combat, and then you can re raise them!!! zombie snake for the win.
Now your opponent becomes much more aware of those pests on his flank and may have to divert resources to get rid of them.

 

you can't give them regen unless teh slann is with them, but with the ability to revive them they might actually be more viable... as long as you don't need the revives somewhere else.

 

They could work quite well if you put a unit of about 4 of them in front of a unit of Skink Skirmishers with blowpipes, and target out high toughness, low iniative units i.e. Beast of Nurgle, Kairos Fateweaver, Corpse Cart, Spirit Host, Greasus, Bone Giant, Trolls and other swarms. Skinks come up to the target, shoot a few poisoned arrows into them, and at this point, the huge giant would charge the skinks and decimate them. But because your jungle swarms are there and you would strike simultaneously, if he charges then you could get another few attacks in, if not, then you can keep on shooting him!

 

In most Instances they are a throw away unit anyway. I mean te best thing these guys are doing is getting in the way of stuff. Running distractions, harassing flanks etc. They are freaking snakes Lustria isn't exactly in short supply. When you have a slain though... That's the key. It makes these guys become mean quickly. And it throws your opponent for a loop.

 

The problem is that they are a throw-away unit that costs almost as much as a small unit of skink cohorts each. Given the choice, I'd rather have the skinks.

 

Ok arguing that you can get skinks for the same points....
180 points for 4 swarm bases.
that gets you 36 skinks.
or 30 with and full command with some spare change.

Swarms are unbreakable.
skinks Ld6s

skinks have poised javalins.
swarms have poisoned CC attacks.

swarms are more compact and have many wounds over a small frontage.
Skinks have 1" more movement but are rank and file so suffer from movement deficiencies.

I can't really think of anymore comparisons, I think that both units can fill invaluable support roles necessary for saurus to survive. I think the swarms are just a more specialized tool. The biggest bonus that stands out to me is the unbreakable which can make for some mean tarpits. I also believe that the new skirmisher rules can be capitalized on. Now I may be incorrect but skirmishers no longer rank to maximize with the enemy, instead they simply stay in the formation they were in and close the 1/2" gap between the models. that said if you run them as a long congo line you can rob attacks from the big beefy units and let them grind down the long line of swarms buying you at least a turn, but more than likely more, to get counter charges set up and generally play marry hell with the opponents battle line. Which in the end is really what you want.

 

Also, 36 skinks = 36 wounds before unit is dead.
4 swarms = 20 wounds before unit is dead.

Skink = s3, swarm = s2

Skinks are faster.

36 skinks could also be in 2-3 units worth = more manouvrability
OR 2 decent sized units of skirmisher skinks.

 

that and skinks ca be steadfast while getting he generals Ld making them 9 or 10 stubborn, while swarms crumble.