AoS What's the best option to build skinks? (2.0)

I keep going back and forth. If you can effectively "honeycomb" your ranks you can get 2 ranks of clubs in and either way with only a 2" reach on spears, you won't get a 3rd rank regardless of which weapon you run.

 

Actually, the 3rd rank at 2" reach is easier to get in than the 2nd at 1" reach, so you'll always be able to get 3 ranks of spears in if you can get 2 of clubs.

That said, the rend means the clubs are equal vs 3+ saves, only marginally worse vs 4+ saves, and much better vs 2+ or re-rolling saves. (If the saves are being re-rolled, Clubs win out against any save of 5+ or better).
Saurus hit hard enough that I think the worst case is probably more important than the best case, and the worst case for clubs isn't as bad as it is for spears because of the rend.

 

star born sunclaw gives +1 rend to spears or clubs so spears can have rend as well

 

I ran a Sotek list today with Kroak, two 40 man skink squads, one 10 man skink squad, a priest, a star priest, an oracle, a astrolith, a scorpion steg, a basildon, and cogs. Was against tzeentch.

I pretty much completely shut down his casting which was nice.

I was able to kill a lot first turn with a blob of shield / pipe skinks who got buffed up, then charged a few units. I lost about 15 at the end of the day, but was able to then LOSaT them next turn to shoot up some backfield characters.

If you are just going to YOLO them, I think there might be a decent case for spear / club on some maybe one of the squads, prob not all though. Not hard to get into spear range, and it's not too hard to do 240 pts of damage / disruption.

I did mess up though and didnt pay the 30 extra points for putting a chief on the stegodon, literally had the book in my hands for 15m, so they did have 3 attacks.

 

@valentine009

Good to hear. What was the Tzeentch player running?

 

i like blow gun and club skinks droping them shooting and then charging are fun

 

I'm not super familiar with Tzeentch but he had a bunch of tzaangors, chaos warriors, pink horrors, the ogroid dude, and like 4 other casters. I dont think he was running anything super competitive.

Kroak and the Oracle both with unlimited range + to unbind were very strong though. The Oracle also did ok in combat after getting charged and let Kroak spam his spell from the back. I gave up Oracle cast first two turns for summoning but did 11ws with a Tide of Serpents round 3.

It was the Generals handbook mission where if you hold both objectives at the end of turn 3 you win. I was able to use constellation + slann fly command ability + cogs to LoSaT into a rolled 8' charge to 11' jump over his screening horrors and grab the objective to win.

 

I've got two more boxes of skinks heading my way and I'm thinking I will build them as blow gun and club. That's so much damage potential in a fairly small amount of time.

Shoot opponent, get charged, use FoS command ability, shoot again - and if you get the 4+ to dip then counter charge and mop them up.

If it all goes to plan, Skinks can humiliate your opponent like nothing else.

 

The possibility of this scenario makes me so happy.

 

Im imagining the Skinks going all “Aight Im tired of this shit! No more running away! Whos with me boys? Get ‘em!”

 

yup just make shur they are in starborn because 5 bravery sucks

 

In my first game I was able to delete a Demon Prince after it charged into my lines before he had a chance to do anything. felt good

 

Shield+Blowpipe is still the best, IMO. I couldn't get in melee more than 20 models so far. Keeping them over 15 as long as possible is essential. Even when it is only 30 shots, they are still decent. But they need poison badly.

 

But the clubs make Skinks straight up decent in combat, provided you've got the CP for +1 to hit and an extra attack (and if you're bringing Kroak, you mostly will).

I think anyone who wants to commit to removing 40 Skinks from the board is going to succeed regardless of whether they have a 5+ or 6+ save.

I agree that the shields are good, but I've been playing blowpipes and shields for years and I'm ready to try something new. The possibility of Skink skirmisher-berserker hybrids is too much for me to pass up on.

 

The clubs got worse with the revision by reducing their volume of attacks in my opinion. Shields give you staying power and with the buffs available I don’t think they really outweigh the extra save. Plus you will typically be using Parting Shot to try to avoid melee combat anyways. At least that’s how I see it.

 

Well, the main problem with clubs is that they won't be hitting all at once in most cases. Regardless survivability - there's a huge difference between 14 and 15 skinks. Random lucky saves may save skinks another round of double shooting. And 5+ save is decent in aos, actually.

I've lost only 20 skinks against whole Kharadron's army shooting. Then backfired with 40 poisoned shots. If not for random 6+ saves, I've certainly gone below 15.

I think, we need more testing to decide, which loadout will pay off better.

 

Reducing the volume of attacks? Haven't Skinks always had just one attack with clubs?

 

Yeah but they also had a melee profile with their pipes. Now that they all have the knife profile that gets replaced by the club I think it’s not super worth especially considering that they have a +1 to hit most of the time anyways.

 

The weight of efficiency balances between output of their ranged attacks vs melee. I think that melee skinks could work best in two broad scenarios:

1) FoS, vs an army with relatively little ranged or spell damage output (teleport buffed unit, shoot, don’t charge, wait to be charged, shoot again, and hope you get a 4+ to run away, then next turn shoot again, move within 3” and get the charge with your entire blob, as opposed to a 9” charge on your turn getting you only 6-7 bodies into combat if you make it at all
2) Using the Starseer and hoping you roll like a 14+ on the 3D6 charge

If you are playing an army with good ranged attacks, they should be able to dismantle the unit easily.

 

the knife maintains the attacks... it replaces the pipe in melee with the same profile....