8th Ed. Predictions for Warhammer 8th Edition Armies: Lizardmen

Well, I find with GW, people should be pessimistic, that way we can only be pleasantly surprised.

You only have to look at the inane decisions they've made with this 8th edition update cycle to see it coming. Everything I mentioned has been previously signalled by design decisions in the other armies. Its very unlikely to change, they've been on the warpath to burn as much creativity and options out of every army. More noticeable than that is the zeal towards crushing perceived 'imbalance', which they over-correct to a ludicrous degree in almost every case (although sadly cannons are still king, 20% price increase means nothing).

Slann are almost certainly in their sights, they accidentally gave us one of the best wizards in the game even with all the changes that 8th brought. Expect Slann to cost 400pts base and do less than they can currently. Salamanders will be gathering dust on the shelf next to Empire mortars, due to all the internet bleating by people who can't kill a T4 light monster with next to no armour. Thankfully, most of the rest of our army is horribly overcosted already, so we are unlikely to price increases unless they mess with statlines.

I expect by this time next year, they will be in a bit of a panic mode, because barring some massive resurgence in interest at the local level, Fantasy is going to die off more and more. Storm of Magic is rarely played, and when it is, the inherent imbalances of the core rules ruin what would otherwise be the Apocalypse of Fantasy (ie selling monster kits at the rate Baneblades went out the door). Apoc isn't exactly common either, but both GW and Forge World go to great lengths to support it with updates and new expansions. Fantasy is starting to get a bit of that (Tamurkhan was a muddled but admirable start, Monstrous Arcanum isn't perfect either but it is getting there), but unless they generate interest in the SoM expansion and the core game itself, it won't happen.

The upshot is, they'll have to seriously re-think how magic, warmachines (specifically cannons) and monsters interact. Right now, the only monsters that function properly in that environment are intensely expensive (K'Daai Destroyer and Dread Saurian), and have no models to boot. Magic is variously terrible or over the top ridiculous, and army lores further distort the balance. Warmachines are too cheap and plentiful, and cannonballs unbalance every faction who doesn't possess them.

 

Hello,

From the thing I've been reaserching in terms of 8 ed books, they all got the most monumental and iconal weapons, so i predict that we will have "Blade of Realites/Bruning Blade/Pirhana Blade. Why? BEcause They were in our book since 5 ed. Same gos for plaque of Protecion/Cube of Darnkess, but they are since 6 ed.
Also the Bsb +general is as iconic as Cold Blooded in our army. Oh, and We won't get the Slann Nerfed, oh Now... My predictions are that we get a Slann that can ride a Stegadon and It will be very playable. Why? Everyone has a Slann, but how many people have Mazamundi, or whatever he is called? Not many (because he sux
And I'd love to have a Lore of our own, With drain Magic, Ruination of cities, and Dilivrence of Itza. the new Rules Rock! oly the Tk one has some slight high costs ...

 

All I am going to say is that having been at this game and hobby for a very long time I think 8th is the best edition by far and that the books released since 8th edition (with BoC being the one notable exception) have probably been the best balanced books they have ever released. For every one you have a playable army with a fair number of options (though not in wargear) that is flexible and cool without being broken.

That having been said I don't know that I see us getting a new book any time soon. Dwarves are almost certainly next and after that maybe us but I am guessing they finally get to either brets are woodeleves before us. So say dwarves this fall, and one of the really old ones in february, means us in maybe summer or fall next year assuming they don't do any more redoing stuff that doesn't need it (vampires) before us. Probably making us less of a priority that we already have an almost all plastic line and by month's end they will have finecast pretty much everything.

As for what we will get or have done...

We already have stegadon for our big beasty but maybe they will fix the fact that the crew can be targeted in CC.

Slann is powerful but he isn't OP so I might see some revision but he will probably be ok.

As has been mentioned the krox either need to be points adjusted down ot T and S adjusted up, similar issue with skinks, compare their stats to a night goblin for half the points and I'm sorry but poison just doesn't compensate for that.

beyond that who knows, some points adjustments and maybe one new unit? I for one hope they don't redo cold ones as I just finished 10 of them and hate repeating myself.

 

What Taipan said.

Seriously, I think most of those are on the money. The only thing I'm optimistic about is getting a Coatl. That would be sweet. Especially because I already have an amazing model to use, so I won't have to fork out GW prices.

 

Hasn't the theme sort of been to reduce the cost of units in 8th so far? It's an easy way to increase sales, oh I can field another 20 core units! and it sort of buffs them.

I would LOVE to see our own Lore. The problem is I love Life so much unless it was a really good Lore I would feel handicaped. The LM army is designed around a Slaan so any major nerfs to that single unit is a nerf to the entire army as a whole. Point for point we are a pretty crappy army, you buff them with Life/Light using a Slaan and then you have something to talk about. I could see Cupped Hands getting removed or at the very least nerfed alot.

TG either need a small stat increase, the option to use shields in CC, or their cost reduced.

Krox need a buff or a cost reduction, I would prefer a buff.

Please PLEASE bring back Sacred Spawning.

Finecast Slaan/Krox plus a new monster, Coatl would be cool.

I would love to see new Cold One models but I doubt that would happen. I considered buying DE ones and converting but the price wasn't feasible.

 

Your wish has been already granted!

 

I have very mixed feelings about if lizardmen should get a lore of their own (lore of the old ones?). It would be kinda great and make sense, but I wouldn't want to trade it for the abbility to use all the regular lores. That's one of the reasons for me that makes lizards so much fun to play. You can play the same list but make it play different just by chosing another lore
Magic is a great abbility to adapt to what is happening on the playfield, and to take away all the possibilitiess that is the BrB lores would be a great bummer for me.

Other than that I'm very exited to see what new stuff we get (in a year or two)!

 

I think that the new Lizardmen will be released in June/July. However, I may be completely wrong.

If GW nerf the Slann then as said before, they effectively nerf the entire Lizardmen army.

 

Well, to be fair I remember when the current lizardmen book came out. People moaned about how nerfed the Slann was, it just takes time to figure out the new way to use things. They usually knock down a couple features that people complain about, but then add in new things.

I have a pretty strong feeling that a lizardmen lore will make an appearance, because really, that guarantees that people are going to buy the magic card set for 10 extra dollars. Also it could wind up being a really good lore, especially if it is reserved only for 2nd gen Slann or something.

I also recall that the exact same thing could be said of salamanders. If you think salamanders are broken now, you should have seen them last time around! Think they were similar to organ guns, no rolling to hit. Then these new salamanders come out, and people griped about their best unit being broken (in a bad way) and now people are saying, "ok, you can nerf salamanders". I remember when this book first came out, there were long discussion threads about Razordons vs Salamanders, and now it is pretty much unheard of to see razordons.

My personal predictions:

Slann either flat out nerfed or made to cost a fairer amount for what it can do. Cupped hands will disappear. Extra power dice for free will disappear. I also predict that GW will make it so you always want to take him in a unit of temple guard, because BUY OUR MODELS.

The lore attribute of the old ones will be something goofy like having a chance to summon a jungle swarm for each successfully cast spell, because BUY OUR MODELS.

Oldbloods and Scar Vets will be made more interesting in some way, that will have to do with boosting our units. Scar vets may get price increase. Hopefully the boosts Oldbloods bring to the army will tempt people to take them over a Slann.

Skink priests may pick from 3 lores (maybe life and light)?

Skink chiefs might give poison to skink units (or 5+ poison to ranged)

Core - largely won't change

Special - cheaper cav, won't get stat changes. TG might get cheaper. Steg might get cheaper.

Rare - Salamanders might become move OR fire (ouch!) Razordons will probably increase in usefulness. Rare steg will cost less. Rare steg might be able to take warspear (how great would that be). Maybe it only adds D3 impact in this non-magical weapon incarnation.

We will get a new rare, here's what I would love
Ankylodon with kroxigor handlers - rare monster that is ultra tough to kill and hits like a ton of bricks. It is also slow as molasses for a monster (maybe M5). Has a 4+ ward against shooting attacks (but not magic).

Special charge attack that forgoes regular attacks and stomps in upcoming combat, but instead lets it get 3D6 impact hits instead of the regular D6 impact hits, then attacks, then stomps. It's also +1 to hit after it rolls into combat with the 3D6 impact hits. This critter is strength 6, toughness 7, etc etc.

Or, what is more likely... we'll get a new rare dinosaur called the Carnosaur! It won't be worth its points because of low toughness and no save to speak of. But it will look really cool.

Hell, come to think of it, ankylosaurs were about the right size to be monstrous cav. I'd be ok if you make them uber slow but they've got to have kroxigor riders and a tail attack of some kind. Maybe no impact hits, but in addition to stomp the ankylos would have a D3 tail attack.

Basically what I'm saying is, we only have 3 rare choices right now, and it seems likely that at least one or more BRAND NEW entries will appear. I'm happy to have new stuff, hopefully it'll actually play well whatever they go with.

 

Based off of the images I just saw for the Demon army, I am praying to the Old Ones that the army doesn't get ruined by miserable models. It will already ship the spanish armada because of price increase.

 

I definitely imagine a new "Giant Centrepiece" model, because EVERY army is getting those. In our case, it could be a new Slann model kit (though they'll probably still fit into units) and possibly/probably a new Carnosaur model. I love our current one, but he's hilariously undersized given the steroids they've been giving to Griffons and the like. I hope it retains some of it's carnosaurian swift-looking appearance and doesn't go all "Slaughterbrute Bulky", though.

Salamanders could just use the old Flame Template set-up, where partial hits are resolved on a 3 or 4+ to make it so you can't hit an ENTIRE unit all at once. Razordons could become better fighters to make them more equal (higher toughness makes sense- look at the models!).

Monstrous Cavalry seems to be the most obvious new unit, given what other armies look like, especially since we have almost every other kind of unit.

 

Its not going to be a remake of an existing model. All the new 'big kits' have been brand new inventions.

 

I'm thinking we're going to get a Thunder Lizard (most likely to me since most large center-piece models have been big large ugly things) and some type of monstrous cavalry like larger dinos to ride on or another flying cavalry using Coatls (less likely as we already have Terradons). And whatever the cavalry mount is we'll have the option of using it as a mount for a Scar Vet/Oldblood. Whether or not the Coatls become a cavalry option, I think we WILL have them as a mount for Skinks regardless.

Then the rest of our army will stay more or less the same, TG will get a small buff, Saurus will get their spawnings back, Skinks will stay the same but blowpipes will become 'quick-to-fire,' Kroxigors will get their strength back, Cold Ones will get new models (please?) and a small points reduction, Slann will become more expensive and get a small nerf (not a big one because they still need to be the most powerful non-sc casters), Salamanders will probably cost a little more, and then something will be done to the Stegadons (most likely a small points reduction), and hopefully, HOPEFULLY the EoTG gets a little buff as it hasn't been too much of an appealing option..

Those are some of my predictions

 

I'm betting Kroxigors are the way to go in next book. Least(?) sold model in lizard range

 

What if Salamanders were true Breath Weapons? One shot per game at point blank range or 2D6 hits in combat.

 

What if Razordon Teams are moved to Special from Rare? Or made a "Weapon Team" for Skink Cohorts?