Different experiences, I guess, my Saurus either completely wipe out an opponent or the combat was close, in either case the rule won't affect me. I can't actually remember the last time my Saurus didn't pursue when they could.
But that is what alot of people are bitching about. Its the same bloody book. Just swap ripperdactyls for basic and probably more usefull teradactyls and boom. same list as every1 has ever used before. What we wanted was something new. Something new in core, in special, in rare or whatever that is usefull. And the skrox unit didnt just get a nerf. A nerf would be saying it can be stomped. No it got obliterated. Its now useless to a point where it cant be run. In 7th ed it wasnt so bad as people could hit the skinks for combat res, leaving you with the krox to fight back, or just hit the krox but with only the front rank fighting it was unlikley to kill them all. Now though, not a single use for them.
What are you fighting with saurus to win so well? It's the same problem as with Ripperractyls. Yes you could wipe out blocks of low quality troops. But are these things really dangerous to require a specific counter? Don't we already have plenty of tools for that? Stormfrog, the major problem with Ripperractyls is that the are glass cannons which give the enemy a chance tto kill them first or simultaneously because they have low initiative poor toughness and armour save. That thry can't roam enemy lines looking for targets of opportunity because of frenzy is a second weakness. And no, thr changes aren't broadly positive. We have the same overcosted and underperfoming units as before, a bunch ofnew things with poor value, and even further restrictions on versatility than before. A complete missed opportunity to inject new life in the book by getting us to switch things up. Look at the radical overhauls that high elves,Warriors and daemons got for better or worse. We actually took a step backwards and got more restrictive. The only thing that I'm coming around to are solar engines. Might try 2.
What do you run your Saurus into that they totally wipe out? I either find I have a choice between sending them against massive units of cheap dross that will take them 3-4 turn to cut down through (Empire halberdiers, night goblins, Skaven slaves/clan rats) or units so nasty that they don't have a prayer of winning (swordsmasters, white lions, chaos warriors/chosen, any kind of monster/MC).
Can I say from the outset that I'm not optimistic, commenting on something you've not read at all is unwise to say the least. While I've only had an hour with someone else's copy I do at least know what it says. The thing is terradons and chameleons make better WM hunters, don't have a roughly 50% chance of being baited into an unrealistic/undesirable charge and can't be led around the board by the nose. Their terminal lack of resilience only compounds the problem. "Once a century"? Your Saurus don't win combat very often then? I'll admit that if your Saurus are losing combat all over the place being forced to pursue out of position is going to be the least of your problems. I couldn't agree more. The problem they they're the only core unit we have that is still worth taking. Do you know how many units of skink Skirmishers a needed to fill a 750pt core allowance? How did the EotG get better, all its abilities got nerfed into the ground. It can now do three things and all of them are a complete irrelevance, and it costs 50pts to upgrade it? I really can't see why you wouldn't just take a regular ancient and save yourself 50pts. Yep, strength 4 makes them a must-take for another edition, great balancing of the book there... Is that a joke, the last Lizardmen book was an overpowered monstrosity, this new thing is lower middle tier at best. It is not in any way better than the old one, there are maybe three units that have really improved, and two of them are stegadons.
IMHO I prefer playing as a lower-tier army. It's just not fun when you stomp your enemy into the ground. Even when playing I fielded a Khannon once and, to be honest, it felt awful. I think the predatory fighter rule is very fluffy, including the skink thing. After all, a Slann needs about 10 minutes to say something, and I can't imgine a Slann shouting. Maybe it would be more logical if saurus characters also counted. Also, about the ripperdactyls, or whatever his face was, just keep them in your bubble. you can later fly over your enemy's gigant horde of deadly deadliness, and then start eating his smaller units. It surely will take time to learn how to play those guys, but 3+d3 attacks against a unit is great. (I think the bloat rage works like frenzy, but it grants 1+d3 attacks instead of one. )
Absolutely, I don't mind that the army won't be top of the pile any more, I'm my opponents will appreciate it (although I'd stopped using my Slann because he was too powerful, it will be nice to et him out again and not feel like a jerk). I'm just feeling a little flat about the whole thing. All the new units seem to be either average (Bastilodon) or downright awful (ripperdactyls, troglodon) and everything else has pretty much stayed the same. I'm slightly envious of the other armies that got books recently like high elves who got some really strong new units and magic items or daemons who got loads of cool things. Lizardmen seems to have failed on the "shiny new things" score because all of our new things look decidedly rusty (and I'm not talking about the ripperdactyls colour scheme).
i didnt read it all yeat so skink cohort 5pt/model +2pt the poison attack mazdamundi pts!!! sallys 80 pts S4 no magic banner for CoC
Well, at least we don't have any absolutely unusuable units like the Hellflayer, Seeker charitos, Exalted seeker chariots and flamers XD (except the trog and carno, but let's be honest, we can't make a good monster unless it's cheap or has a 4+ ward) Also I'm glad that we don't have any must-have units. Skirmishers are great and you can't go wrong with good old saurus.
balistadon is 150 pts and can change to solar beam for free EotG 6+ ward and 4d6" d6 s4 hits is pasive and we have it all the time