8th Ed. Weird Tactics

Hello, Lustria! Brand new WHFB/Lizardmen player here, but very seasoned Orks & Eldar player from 40k. Not entirely certain where this post belongs; my apologies if I've erred.

I just finished running an experimental list last night (which describes all of my lists of late). Basically, I've been going against the more conservative advice of boards across the web to see for myself the mettle & utility of some of the lesser-favored units. While all of what I'm reporting comes directly from my own battle reports, take it with a grain of salt! I'm still very inexperienced.

In any case, it is a pleasure to rescind lurker status and talk amongst all of you, as I've been following these boards for some time. I am excited to learn from the collective wisdom of Lustria!

/picksnose

Ok! Enough bs! Here we go! Ugly weird units and their ugly weird results:

Last night, I played against a very tough WoC list that was reminiscent of many cheesy Tyranid lists I've played against. We ran at 2k points. Though I wasn't looking for competitive play, I suppose it's good that he brought a competitive list to test.

Two Gorebeast chariots, 4 skullcrushers, 2 chimeras, flying kitted death wiz nurgle dp, nurgle warriors -- 24 or maybe 30.

I ran a LM/HM Slann, flying Skink heavens, 12 temple guard with command, 5 razordons, a solar engine Bastiladon, a young stegadon with sharpened horns, and 4 squads of 12 skink cohorts with poisoned attacks, musician, and a krox.

I just want to comment on these individuals' performances rather than layout the battle. The purpose was not to win, but to test.

Razordons: Early on, I had dropped Fiery Convocation (killed many of the nurgle warriors and figured that was good enough) for a lore of metal spell and rolled up Blades. That was very fortunate for a number of obvious reasons. These guys, coupled with either augments or direct damage from Metal become a huge threat to high points armor. This is what happened:

Shooting, they were hitting on 3's at that point. If I remember right, I didn't have enough PD left to cast Hand of Glory. They effectively rolled 5.2 shots each. 20 hit, and 8 wound. He saves 3, for 5 wounds. Charges next turn. Feeling ballsy, I'm now rerolling 2's and Misfires in the Stand and Shoot, hitting on 4's. I strike up a whopping 38 shots, with 20 hits again. 13 wound, luckily. He saves 7. That's 11 wounds, and he now has a lone Skullcrusher. I wasted no PD on a turbo'd Searing Doom that turn, and didn't drop a nice spell for the necessity of Searing Doom: the Razordons simply held their ground against an intensely killy unit. I see a lot of hate for them, but it seems like with just one buff they become a serious threat and let us save on power die.

Solar Engine: Coupled with a Slann and Priest, this thing has let me cast freely by forcing a dispel die literally every turn that I've used it. Reliably goes off on a three. This time, I ran it as a more-or-less throwaway detachment to my Stegadon, which I'll describe in a bit. I've run it a couple different ways to great effect, so it's not a one-trick pony. Not a stellar unit, the Bastiladon, but solid support. Definitely worth taking, this guy.

Young Stegadon: Everyone says, "Go ancient!" so I thought I'd leave the Metamucil at home give this lad a chance. Now, I ran it as a monster hunter with a Bastiladon in tow. This is what happened:

The Stegadon, with Sharpened Horns, charges a Chimera, which had just managed to knick the corner of Skrox. I roll up 4 impact hits, 2 of which wound: average. Somehow, I only roll up two multiple wounds. Bummer. But then? My I2 is buffed to I3 by the Bastiladon, making me go first. I looked into this more: I3 seems fantastic for monster hunting, as most monsters seem to be I2 or less. Going first with 4 attacks, the Stegadon actually plucks off the final two wounds and takes no damage at all from the combat. I have read countless times, "Yeah, my ancient charged, took three wounds, killed the thing, then died next turn." How about takes NO WOUNDS? Anyway, he overruns into the flank of a threatening chariot and kills it with Impact Hits.

That had me thinking: the lower strength causes this thing to be overlooked! With decent rolling and some magical support (something stegadons often need anyway), the young guy can capably handle his own pretty well. In the future, I am considering running a skink chief with a spear on top with a BSB/flaming banner for FLAMING DINOCOW! can the Chief fire the Giant Bow? Can anyone speak to this thought?

Can any SPEAK TO FLAMING DINOCOW?!

Small Skrox: I used to run Skirmishers exclusively, but, man, is this a good unit! It put two wounds on a demon prince from shooting, and held its own for three rounds of combat! They eventually lost after depositing another wound on the prince in CC. Small TG squad made an excellent clean-up crew.

144 pts, ld 7/unstompable til the krox eats all the wounds, poisoned attacks, ranked up (steadfast with 5 or more vs monsters, you see), parry saves, very high initiative, and incredibly mobile. I look forward to not running them exclusively, but perhaps a squad or two alongside camo or skirmishers.

Anyway, let me know what y'all think! Not sure if these are new ideas or anything, but I've seen no reports for a number of them. Thought I'd share!

And just to get it out of my system...

 

I haven't tried this myself, but it sounds fun!

Skrox units are not unstompable anymore... the Spawn-kin rule says that the Skinks can be stomped.

I still like the Skrox for a Priest//Tetto bunker though. I mostly add a Kroxigor for his Ld boost. Ld5 sucks and Ld7 is better than you can get from a Skink Chief (and pretty much all the other Krox stats are better too)!

 

Thank you for the Stomp clarification! Do you know whether the Skink Chief may fire the Giant Bow? It says that he replaces the Skink Crew, which, to me, makes it sound as though he may.

 

I'm pretty sure that RAW and RAI say that the Chief may not shoot the giant bow. Also, the FAQ for the previous book clarified that characters could not fire the Giant Bow and the wording for the rule didn't change between editions.

The wording of the Giant Bow is: "one of the Skink Crew may fire the Giant Bow" and while a Skink Chief/Priest *replaces* a Skink Crew (in so much as you remove 1 Skink Crew and add 1 Skink Chief/Priest) it does not *become* a Skink Crew (capital S, capital C).

There are those that disagree with me, but I think my argument holds a lot of water.

 

Fair enough! Thanks much.

 

I like keeping the Bastiladon near the Razordons. With any buff at all, razordons become very good.
Buffing to Init 5 really helps out a lot.
If you can get hand of glory for WS, BS and Init, it's stupidly good.

In the first game I ran them in I shoot to death a block of nurgle warriors (the 3 that survived the stand and shoot were killed before they swung).

Now, find a use for jungle swarms and troglodons.

-Matt

 

I thought Troglodite had a thread that defended it OK matt?

Basically run it as a new version of dual slaan, but this one isn't as bad in combat as a solo slann, and cheaper.

Swarms: you have to run with blocks or the ark. Still not good, but no amount of math-hammer or theorizing will make them seem better. Sub-optimal choice, that you can make work with a lot of dedication to doing so in your list.

Is baby steg any different other than worse shooting and less strength? Its cheaper, but if you are bringing a venosaur to buff it, its actually much more expensive. Its best boon (to me) is that it is special instead of rare in case you are having trouble balancing your %'s.