Hey guys. I'm starting a lizardmen army just have a few questions. I've already ordered myself a battalion and the army book, and was thinking of also going out and grabbing myself a Slann Mage Priest, a Stegadon, a Saurus Oldblood and a Razordon Hunting Pack (I've heard Salamander's are better but a friend has offered to sell me the Razordon pack for £5). I'm basically asking if I've made the right kind of choices with what to add onto my battalion? And also, do Kroxigors and Terradon riders have to have a certain number on the battlefield to field a unit or do they count as individual units? I could probably afford to grab a single Kroxigor on top of what I already plan to order but if they need a minimum of say 3, I'd rather wait and buy the three together. And lastly, I hear the Stegadon comes with a skink priest. Could that priest be used seperately from the Stegadon as a lord choice? Thank you in advance, Zen.
The priest can be used seperately and GW actually has an article on it: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...cat1300305&aId=11600007&_requestid=149017
Im not the expert, but thats a lot of expensive, small units, both money and points wise. In a 2000 point game, you can only use one lord, and the batallion only gives you 1 unit of saurus and skink as core troops. Personaly i would drop the slann for now, and buy a second set of saurus. They from a really hard line of both defence and attack. Use the leftover cash to buy a skink priest and then also field the skink preist from the stegadon. THis give you two quite flexible magical choices to play with. JUst when you buy new models, try to avoid the whole, 'look, its shiny and big, i want one' approch, build up from a solid core of troop.
You are certainly on the right track with your choices. Not a bad collection to start with at all! Well done. As the article linked above shows you can make a number of conversions and I think you will get a lot of use out of a Scar Veteran. That is one conversion or purchase I feel your should make to add to your collection. This can be done using parts from the batallion box set which you will have! Currently I am converting 2 Scar Veterans from the box, one will be on foot and the other will be on a Cold One. As you get 8 Cold Ones in the box this leaves me with 7 to make, 1 champion, 1 standard, 1 musician and 4 normal Cold One Cavalry. Having a skink chief to place on a stegadon with a warspar and also a skink priest to place on the stegadon so you can use the engine of the gods will be a great addition also! Both of these models can be made from the Stegadon box kit, which you will also have shortly! There is a thread on this site regarding magnets by Stewart where you can find some great info on how to use them to get flexibility out of your kits with interchangable pieces, there are some great photos in there from n810 in regards to his already magnetised Stegadon (http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/rare-earth-magnets.951/) It seems your characters are sorted or soon will be! This leaves units... More Saurus 3 terradons you will find extremely valuable. 1-3 Salamanders will certainly increase your ranged firepower. Kroxigor go great in Skrox units. 2 Krox in a unit works well. I dont believe many people field them as their own unit at all?
The battalion only gives you 12 skinks and in most lizardmen lists it never hurts to have more skinks. So I'd suggest you buy another box of skinks, since they perform so many useful tasks on the battle field.
Here's the deal with that: One battalion box does not have enough of anything, really, except Cold One Riders (in some cases, I like having at least two units of five myself, just in case I ever want to play a more Monster-y army.) Almost anyone will tell a new player looking for what to buy after their first Battalion box (which really is the best place to start, in my opinion) to buy more Skinks, or more Saurus, or more Temple Guard if they really want to run a Slann. So, really, the best buy after a battalion box and a Stegadon is another battalion box. If you think about it, you'll be able to field two 6x3 blocks of Saurus Warriors, 2 units of 10-12 Skink Skirmishers, a block of 20 Temple guard in which to insert a Slann so you can run 6x4, and 16 Cold One Cavalry which you can run in 3 units of 5 with a leftover or make 10 regular for two units of 5 plus full command for each when you want them. Of course, if you never plan on using some of the extra models, congratulations, you now have enough bitz leftover on your sprues to make convincing Scar-Veterans or Oldbloods both on foot or mounted! Considering a box of Skinks and Saurus run you $70 and the battalion is only $20 more for 18 more models, nearly half of them mounted, it's a no-brainer to me. And, if you decide to order from one of the reputable online dealers you can get the battalion delivered right to your door for $78. I don't know about you, but I'd pay nearly that much after tax for the two boxes alone. As players of Lizardmen, we really are a lucky lot, in that our Battalion box is full of units we will use in most cases. Some battalion boxes are really not a bargain at all in that they come with a unit that many people will not want to use. After two battalion boxes, a Stegadon and a Slann I suggest another Stegadon, 4 Terradons and 3 Salamanders or Razordons. At that point you will be ready for just about any type of game and anything you add will be icing on the cake.
i'll repeat what others have said to make a counter-argument to the poster above and still be on topic: you want to have enough saurus for 2x 18 or 3x 15 models so you are sure you will allways have enough saurus whatever your list may look like. 20-30 skinks are also important as you want them either as skirmishers or ranked but you want them. temple guard are usefull mostly only with a slann and you want about 16 of them most of the time to make a nice 5x4 unit with a slann while most people don't field more than 1 unit of cold ones. i suggest another saurus and skink box and some salamanders. afeter afew test games you should decide either for terradons or chameleon skinks as both field the same role and having both these units in the amry is a bit redundant and sometimes a waste of points. you should also decide if you want a slann or a old blood based on gaming experience so don't rush it. mostly, just play a few games with porxies unitll you decide what you really what and only then order them. also, skink+kroxigor units are a matter of debate so you would want to wait a bit before ordering korxigors now, regarding the batallion discussion: there are worse batalions than the LM one but ours is not the best. the skaven one contains 3/4 units that are used the most (clanrats/slaves, monks/censer bearers, giant rats). basically after 1 batalion you pretty much strike out as a LM player since you arerly need 20 saurus again and 12 skinks is rather crap. 10 TG are only usefull if you plan on running Slann with TG and more than 1 unit of COC's seems a waste of points since they are so expensive, you;re probably better off with buying a batallion, saurus units (1-2), skink unit and MAYBE another TG unit if you like them that much. a skaven player wants a minimum of 2 batalions to have enough plague monks to field a big unit, enough bits to convert plague censer bearers and enough giant rats to last for a lifetime, not to mention clanrats of wich he needs a lot. the way I see it the batallion is only worth buying once, after that individual boxes are a better deal
I respect your opinion Bibamus. Just be aware that you are actually spending more for less with your recommendations. The OP already stated they were getting a Slann, so the Temple Guard are not wasted and ten won't be enough. You are suggesting buying 1-2 more boxes of Saurus at $35 each and another box of Skinks at $35. That's already $15 more than that second battalion box if you get all of that. I conceded that someone may not want that many Cold One Cavalry, 16 is quite a lot after all. But, I have seen many people who wouldn't mind 5 regular CoC and then full command so they can field them as versatile as possible, which leaves you with options to make hero conversions, as I mentioned above. There is always the option of picking up just a few extras here and there to round out a unit by picking things up on eBay or garage sales, bitz stores, etc. I started out by picking up a box of Skinks, box of Saurus and 12 additional Saurus off of eBay. I then grabbed a Stegadon and a friend gifted me the old Cold One Cavalry. I wish I had just bought the two battalions off the bat. I don't regret getting the boxes of core units, of course, as now that I added the two battalion boxes a couple more stegs, 3 terradon riders, Tiq-Tak-To, 3 Salamanders, a Slann, Kroq-Gar and a Hero on Cold One and on Foot, I have every option I want at the moment (okay, not really, I likely will pick up some chameleon skinks later on). Of course, I am coming from the background and school of thought that says the more models you have, the more options you have. I know that isn't for everyone. I only play one army in WHFB. I don't intend to limit myself to a Slann or an Oldblood on Carnosaur. I think having them both is the best and ideal option, that way I can choose what is best for me on any given day and mix things up so I don't get bored. Plus, as one of the most versatile armies in WHFB with the fewest basic models, getting them all isn't nearly as expensive as it would be for say an Empire or Dark Elf player. Anyway, I was just speaking from personal experience and what I think would work best for me now. To sum up, here is two battalion boxes: 40 Saurus Warriors 24 Skinks 20 Temple Guard 16 Cold One Cavalry ______________________ 100 models $180 retail $150 online and you might want to add some more skinks and/or Saurus down the line, but not a whole box of either and you have plenty of conversion opportunities for mounted heroes. battalion +2 Saurus boxes +1 skink box 52 Saurus Warriors 36 Skinks 10 Temple Guard 8 Cold One Cavalry ______________________ 106 models $195 retail $162 online and you might want to add more Temple Guard if you run a Slann and you may want to add a unit of Cold One Cavalry if you ever want to run more than one unit and you still might want to add some skinks because they can be used two different ways still. Less opportunity for conversion. Oh, and you're still shy of having three blocks of 18 Saurus this way.
yay for posting half drunk. i didn't run the math but i stand by my opinion mostly. you can easly convert chameleons from skinks so its nice to have enough and not everybody runs Slann with TG, some prefer a lone Slann for the mobility and also some people allways field COC's with full command allways (I'm talking about me in particular and generalising ofcourse). in this case 2 batalions might be a waste except the number of saurii wich are never enough. as for Slann v. Oldblood with or without Carnosaur, some people just can't drop the benefits of magic for a more powerfull close combat phase (me again) in wich case they will field a Slann most of the time but will probably add a Carnosaur to the collection at some point to have the versatility you were talking about
Thanks for the recommendations guys. After having a browse through my army book, and winning £30 on a bet this weekend just gone, I've narrowed my final shopping list for beginning the army to... A battalion, an extra box of Saurus Warriors, an Oldblood, a Slann Mage Priest, a Stegadon, a Razordon Hunting Pack and 2 Chameleon Skink blisters (since I can't afford a unit of Terradon's at the moment and I love the C-Skink models). After these are all painted up and I've got a few games under my belt I'll grab some more skinks and a couple more Razordons. Hopefully should be picking them up either next weekend or the wednesday after that. I'll try and post some pics at some point but I haven't actually painted a mini in over 2 and a bit years so my skills will be rusty! Thank you all again for the information guys.
I like your version of 'narrowed'! Terradons won't let you down when they do finally get on the field! The same applies to the Salamanders!
im not so sure about the salamanders (im still pretty new myself and haven't got to try them yet) bet the terradon's are a real let down to me unless there is a big monster in the opposing army then drop rocks works amazing.
Terradons aren't really there just to drop rocks... much more commonly they're harassers - march blocking, charging fleeing units, etc. Salamanders on the other hand are combat creatures.
Fully agree there! Terradons become essential at harassing fast units and high toughness/ low armor units, like the new Razorgors in the beastman army. The poison javelins can whittle them down as they approach your line, as well as slow them down via blocking. Terradons are also amazing at baiting frenzied enemy units to charge into bad positions. This is also helpful if you end up fleeing into woods. Some player's feel they are 'crutch' and try not to take them, but my feeling is they are in the book for you to use, and they are amongst the top flyers in the game for the cost.