8th Ed. Saurus Warriors HW/S or Spears?

So this is kind of a noob question (new to fantasy and Lizardmen) but before I build my army I just wanted to get some opinions if SW are better off with HW/S or spears? As of right now running to blocks of 20. So please all help is much appreciated. Thanks all!!

 

The choice is rather even right now,
so realy either is good.

 

At the moment I have a block of each to test out my preference, I have been playing with the expectation that the spears would hang back a bit an take a charge where the hand weapon block would be a bit more pro-active and pursue. However with Predatory fighters there is now less of a choice as to whether you pursue or not

 

Okay cool thanks for tips!

 

If I horde I always go hw/shield.

If I do not horde I have a choice, and I am starting to lean towards spears.

I base the decision on the rest of my army and what I want my saurus to do. If you go purely based on the numbers the spears are a clear winner, with spears give 33% more pain while taking 17% more wounds in return assuming you have enough ranks.

However this doesnt take things into account like steadfast, where if all I want is my unit to survive 3 rounds against a vampire lord, all I really need is them to remain steadfast for as long as possible, and when you fight against red fury every ward save is a precious gift.

So if you want an anvil that stays steadfast longer you either want shields, or an engine of the gods.

 

Spears are free, but do saurus get to choose what they fight with at the beginning of combat

or do they always have to use spears if they choose them?


nevermind - i was thinking of characters with multiple weapons

 

I always go with hw/s due to the extra comfort of the 6+ parry save.

 

I prefer spears.
Spears + Engine of the Gods buff or Spears + Earth Blood spell should cover for the lost parry save

 

If I am gong with a horde, I choose spears as this will give them the most use for the longest time. The unit is usually 45 to 50 models.

If going with smaller units, usually around the 30 mark, I go with hw/s for better resilience.

 

I'm trying out spears at the moment. My reasoning is that this provides a lot of flexibility. Depending on whether you want ranks or damage output, you can mix between horde, 8-wide, 6-wide or 5-wide. Spears allow you to maintain a fairly decent damage ratio no matter what your formation. Its an extra 25% damage increase over HW&S when 5 wide, for instance, whilst the parry only saves 16% more (although there are occasions where you wouldn't get any save, but still keep the parry).

I wouldn't have paid the points for it before, but as a free upgrade its worth it. Also spear saurus in horde look really cool - there's just things that you can do with spear weapons to make the unit look much more dynamic.

If you're looking at 24 or under then I probably wouldn't bother, as you're likely to lose the models before they get to attack with their spears. At 25 or over, though, I'd seriously consider it.

 

If you have the points for an extra rank of bodies, I like Spears a little better. HW+Shield is still plenty solid, though.