8th Ed. New player looking for advice/tips

[Callum]

Hello all, I recently have decided to start lizardmen, I have managed to gather a decent ammount of models and would love any feedback on what I have in terms of viable lists and such.

Lizardmen Army

1x saurus oldblood
3x skink priests
1x skink chief ( on stegadon)
Slann Mage

40 saurus warriors - hand weps and shields
20 skinks - javalins and shields
20 skinks - blow pipes
6 kroxigors
8 cold one riders
1 ancient stegadon

well thats what I have and would love any feedback on how this army could do and any good lists would be apreciated, I also have few other questions.

1. What lore is best for slann mage?
2. pros and cons of lizardmen
3. how they do in 8th edition

Thank you and hope its not to long.

 

[Eladimir]

I'll take the easy one
1) Best Lores are Life, Light, Shadow - In that order personally.
A slann in a TG unit is safest with life for the extra miscast protection.
You can mitigate this with the other lores by taking Cupped hands.

 

[elmoheadbutt]

2). Pros of LM army: strong backbone units, awesome magic
Cons: slow, low Initiative, not a lot of range units

 

[Devean]

3) I believe they are about in the middle in terms of competitiveness- maybe a bit better than most armies but not overpowered.

not a lot of range units

I agree with elmo on the other points, but not this. Whilst lizards don't have the conventional ranged units (that stay at the back and fire bows/crossbows), one of their main strengths would have to be the wide range of skirmishers that can be fielded (that are all ranged). Thinking of skink skirmishers, cham skinks, terradons, salamanders and razordons. They can all march and fire, allowing you to manoeuvre around enemy flanks and shoot with (near) immunity. Most are on the cheap side so can be disposable but still do a lot of damage collectively. They are especially handy when your opponent fields a few big, nasty CC units. Your skirmishers can dance circles around them (literally) and always be out of charge arc.

In summary, as well as elmo's comment-

Pros: Cheap yet effective skirmishers, awesome leadership roles (cold blood)

Cons: Poor character selection (they're all uber expensive for what you get)

Btw Callum- have a look at some of the army lists already up on the site and see what you think. It would probably be best for you to work out a list you like and we can tell you what we think. Some points to ponder might be: do you like big dinosaurs? , do you like lots of CC action?, do you like the idea of skirmishers? Lots of magic? A bit of everything? Etc... Let us know what you come up with.

EDIT: Just realised that Razordons can't march and fire according to the army book

 

[Callum]

Thank you for the replies so far, I was wondering with the list of units I currently have, I am missing salamandars/razerdons, are these considerd " must have" in a lizardmen army?

also why lore of life is best?

 

[Callum]

Also why is lore of life best overall?

 

[Scalenex]

Thank you for the replies so far, I was wondering with the list of units I currently have, I am missing salamandars/razerdons, are these considerd " must have" in a lizardmen army?

also why lore of life is best?

Salamanders are considered a must-have by many Lizardmen players. Point for point they are probably the most powerful unit we have. They are especially good against horde armies. 8th edition in general favors very large blocks of infantry and salamanders are good at thinning out large blocks of infantry. The automatic panic is nice and when there is nothing good to shoot at, they can help out your Core troops by charging an engaged enemy unit in the the flank or rear.

Razordons fall somewhere between good and lousy depending on who you ask. Almost everyone believes Salamanders are better than Razordons unless you are playing versus Ogres. Unfortuantely Razordons, unlike Salamanders cannot march and shoot.

Life is popular because most of the spells are relatively easy to cast, a Slann with Focused Rumination can get several spells off round after round. Life is popular for the Miscast Protection, because Slann cost a lot of points and people don't like to lose 400ish points to an unlucky miscast. Life is popular because it's versatile: It has useful augments, useful direct damage spells. Life is popular because it has about the only means non-undead have to heal casualties.

That's why Life is popular, I hesitate to say best. Personally I prefer other lores, but I think that's partially because I avoid Life just out of a desire to play something different. I also play dwarfs a lot, which means I can rearely keep the Remains in Play spells up for long.


You should check out the link in my signature and browse the Tactica index for more specific breakdowns (no Life Tactica yet though).

 

[elmoheadbutt]

I agree with elmo on the other points, but not this. Whilst lizards don't have the conventional ranged units (that stay at the back and fire bows/crossbows), one of their main strengths would have to be the wide range of skirmishers that can be fielded (that are all ranged). Thinking of skink skirmishers, cham skinks, terradons, salamanders and razordons. They can all march and fire, allowing you to manoeuvre around enemy flanks and shoot with (near) immunity. Most are on the cheap side so can be disposable but still do a lot of damage collectively. They are especially handy when your opponent fields a few big, nasty CC units. Your skirmishers can dance circles around them (literally) and always be out of charge arc.

You're right about the skirmishers. I personally don't equate them to range units but yes, I agree with you 90% (the other 10% being the razordon which you corrected yourself )

I was wondering with the list of units I currently have, I am missing salamandars/razerdons, are these considerd " must have" in a lizardmen army?

I notice you don't have any skinks deployed as skirmishers. Any particular reasons why? I find them very useful to annoy the hell out of opponents. Also, if you decide to use skorx unit, you need to be aware of the krox to skink ratio, which is 1:8. 40 skinks will only allow you to have 5 krox.

 

[Callum]

I plan to use the 20 skinks with blowpipes as skirmish formation, and run a unit of 6 kroxs by them selves, not sure if running the remainder skinks with javalins is best as a unit of 20 or skirmish formations of 10?

 

[elmoheadbutt]

You can't run krox on their own and I suggest deploying your skinks as skirmishers with blowpipes.

 

[Scalenex]

You can't run krox on their own and I suggest deploying your skinks as skirmishers with blowpipes.

Aren't Kroxigor a Special option?

 

[Callum]

hmm, I find no where in the book saying they must be with skinks.

 

[Devean]

Aren't Kroxigor a Special option?

Yes, that's correct. You can field them individually if you choose although generally, a more competitive build is to couple them into skink units. It's your choice.

If you have your skinks as skirmishers (which is their strength), have smaller units. So in this case I'd say 2 lots of 10 skinks (I go no more than 12 normally). You can do javelins if those are the models you have- they do have their own strengths after all (+1 AS and quick to fire).

Hope that helps!