Saurus are god-awful. Initiative 1. Yikes. If the 'Supporting Attacks' rule disappears, then I'll like them more. That's a nice attack boost there that will surely tip the tide against 1-Attack infantry, especially if the Saurus have spears or Frenzy. Until then, however, it's Temple Guard w/ Skrox Core for me. Saurus are pathetic as is. Too needy. I blame Lustria's destruction entirely on the performance of its Saurus Warriors.
What kind of arguments would you like? Cheap skirmishing core chaff does make blocks of infantry better, I don think there's much of an argument there. Dwarves don't have cheap chaff, again I'm not sure what else I need to say to qualify that statement. It's extremely obvious just by flipping through their book Lizardmen play dwarves well because our characters are generally cav with a ward save (saurus characters ) or get a free look out sir. The typical "skink cloud list" doesn't have any good targets for cannon fire and a block of templeguards can take a bit of a beating. There's no monsters or chariots, or small in number elite infantry for the cannon to just take off one after another. A monster mash list would have a harder time but that's fairly obvious I think. And as for saurus being fine, just take a flip through Slebodas battle reports. On numerous occasions he calls his saurus block the "mvp" of the army. A garbage unit is never an MVP. Lizardmen being a strong army is apparent in their tournament placings. They aren't the dark elves, but you don't get 3 showing up In the top 10 of the SCGT if they are weak. What else would you like to know?
/shrug. Just know that I only got my book today and if I hadn't already spoiled the whole thing for myself I wouldn't have been tterribly pleased about it but w/e.
That did just fine I hope you know I wasnt out to get you with that. Its just short statements doesn't seem like you, as far as I recall you generally speak your case thorough, that was all I missed -- Remember: when discussing saurus it could be VERY positive for understanding to describe meta. I for one meets "Heavy CC", "Avoidance" or regular "Gunlines". Saurus cant compete with Warriors or Witch Elves. So I dont take them. Saurus cant catch fast moving elves OR take a charge from wildriders / survive Death/shadow magic. So I dont take them. Saurus will get pommelt just the same from heavy warmachines as skinks. and since they always strike last afterwards, usually theres not a lot who gets through. Thats what I meet, so I dont take em. A thing I must point out to my own disadvantage (for the sake of argument) is that over half the players I go out against is players from the danish ETC team (oh yea also: I play ETC comp) One could speculate if they are simply better than me, and know how to handle saurus better than they are able to contain skinks. That might affect my view, as my succesrate has gone up proportional with me dumping saurus for skinks, and the fault could be mine. That said, I might have to run a saurus list soon to test if my increase in the game has anything to say.
My average list involves a unit of saurus, a slann (either with TG or ethereal) and a solardon. Especially with the TG, I usually try to get a combined charge off, or force my opponent to charge us both. Most of the time, my saurus will be slaughtered, but they do take a lot of them down, allowing my TG to do the mop-up. It's not an awardwinning strategy, but so far it worked against OnG, Skaven and Ogres, so I am pretty sattisfied. I will try a skink swarm sometime, but for that I first need a lot more skinks. At one point I charged a unit of savages (big uns I think) with my saurus (30 saurus vs 40+ savages). I beat over half of them before he killed all my saurus, and left his unit so weak my temple guard didn't even broke a sweat. I think my point is, I'm not trying to keep them alive. They are a glass cannon and I tend to use them that way.
No worries I'd love to see saurus be better, it's just hard for me to imagine that scenario without creating a situation where they are too strong. Atm I still use them but that's because the model is sweet and I don't play fantasy very competitively
are you serious? Wild riders are a glass cannon Swordmasters are a glass cannon ripper dactyls are a glass cannon. The definition of a glass cannon is "Fragile hard hitter" I would define a unit of saurus as the opposite
Just out of curiosity Phatmotha, when you did run saurus, what did you run and how big were your units? I can see that our metas are drastically different. I don't think I've fought DE since 6th edition (I hear they are pretty nasty) and have only faced WoC a handful of times this year. I go against a lot of Ogres, HE, Orcs n Gobs, and Empire. So I find them extremely effective.
I know they are not (meant to be) glass cannons, but I find IMHO it's the best way to use them. They do not have the staying power like WoC for example, nor do they have the hitting power to compensate for it. When I charge a unit with my saurus warriors, I expect them to keep them busy at least, or soften them up for my other units. I do not expect them to survive.
That's what's normally called a tarpit. You have traded some of the delaying power in exchange for extra enemy casualties.
I shall use the honoured Stegadon helm to kill skaven, untill my honour has been restored, or Sotek claims my soul.
The old ones are pleased. You shall receive an extra share of itzi grubs and a really fancy feather as a reward.
I am honoured. Henceforth I shall be known as Quinras the Feathered, nemesis of the ratpeople and protector of my little bubble.