8th Ed. 3001 Point Army

[onlinemph]

This is my first post up here so I thought I might as well make a list, here it is.

Lords

Slann Mage Priest
Higher state of consciousness
Focus of Mystery
Harmonic convergence
Becalming Cogitation

Obsidian amulet
Channeling Staff
Healing Potion

Saurus Old Blood

shield
Sacred Stegadon Helm
Biting Blade
Light Armor

Heros

Skink Priest

Dispel Scroll


Skink Priest

Cube of Darkness

Scar Vet
Light armor
BSB Banner of swiftness
Cold One
Great Weapon

Core

36 Saurus Warriors
Full Command
Spears

36 Saurus Warriors
Full command
Spears


Special

Cold One's 10
Full command

Chameleon skinks 10

Rare

Ancient Stegadon

Sharpened Horns
Unstoppable Stampede
Engine of the Gods

Ancient Stegadon

Sharpened Horns
Unstoppable Stampede
Engine Of the Gods

Here's how this is going to work. Both Skink Priests are in the two Saurus hordes. They will be going with lore of beasts and using Wyssan's wildform on the squads they are in. This casting will be made all the easier by the two Engine of the gods. The Saurus hordes will be going down both sides of the board while the Slann and the Cold Ones move up the center. Seeing as the Slann in nearly un-killable, he'll be right out in the open blasting away with Lore Of Life and Lore of High Magic. To further support the Saurus hordes, the BSB will be riding around with the cold ones to provide moral and flanking support if needed. This is unlilky though as the ancient stegs will be on the inner flank of both Saurus hordes.

Anyway I thought this would work well, tell me if you find something wrong!

 

[Scalenex]

I modified your OP to remove the post values. Please review the rules for posting stickied to the top of the Army List forum.

The list looks solid though a bit unorthodox. It's unusual for Lizardmen players to give a non-Slann BSB a magical standard and it's unusual for a player to field Skink Priests in Saurus blocks.

The concept seems well thought out. I'm curious what you are using to generate terrain. Your army would likely do quite well in a fairly open table but your reliance on big units for this list means you will likely have trouble coordinating your units together on a field with lots of terrain, especially if the terrain pieces are buildings or rivers. Such a scenario would end up separating out one or more chunks of your army form the rest.

If you are deploying your Saurus Warriors in horde formation, I would advise against spears. You would need at least 40 Sauri per unit to maximize your attacks. RIght now the spears will only net you six extra attacks and those attacks will start to disappear the moment you take any casualties.

If you deploy them in ranks between 5 and 7 models, the spears will be a good investment because you will have lots of extra ranks to ensure you get extra spear attacks for most of the game.

And as this is your first post, welcome to the forum!

 

[onlinemph]

Sorry about the point value misunderstanding. I was under the assumption that it was okay to show the total point value of a unit, I'll remember that.

The people at the GW and hobby town I go to prefer a low amount of terrain, but even then I tried to make the two different battle groups independent and capable of handling a wide variety of threats on their own. Lost wounds and troops can be replenished by the Slann acting through the skinks. I am worried about cannons gibbing my Stegadons, how should I combat that?

I was thinking of running the Saurus warriors 12 wide, but the more I think about it, it seems cumbersome.

Anyway, thanks for the warm welcome.

 

[Scalenex]

The reason we can't have unit point entries is that it's too easy to figure what the points cost is, especially if the unit is a single model like a Stegadon.

Your assumption that you can cast healing spells through Skinks is not correct. Slann can cast direct damage and magic missiles through Skinks but not hexes or augments.

I'd highly advise you do not deploy 12 wide. You would actually LOSE attacks. Saurus Warriors have 25 mm bases and the vast majority of our foes have 20 mm bases. Even 10 wide Saurus Warriors will typically having two or three Sauri in the front rank not in base contact with the enemy (and thus all the supporting attacks behind them). At twelve wide that's even more Saurus attacks you don't get to use. It doesn't matter how badass our troops are. If they can't get into base to base contact with the enemy, they can't do anything.

The spears would provide nothing at all (since 10 wide formations get three ranks of attacking models anyway) so you'd want to go with hand weapon and shield over spears if you went that wide.

Avoiding cannons is not easy. It's especially not easy for new players. I'd give this thread a look for some pointers but experience is really the best teacher for cannons.

 

[onlinemph]

I just looked up the rules for Arcane Vassal. That makes me extremely sad. I suppose the Slann will have to be running down the center to provide support. But I think the Slann's tough enough.

How about six wide for the saurus? A nice square would do well I think.

It's disappointing about the cannons too. I was hoping for a cookie cutter answer for them, but this isn't chess. Could the cold ones with the banner of swiftness get at them while the rest of their army is busy with the flankers?

 

[goomba]

You'll have to modify a couple of your magic items I'm afraid as you are only allowed one from each category. So Old blood cant have Charm shield and Steg helm together nor can the priest have powerstone and cube together.

 

[onlinemph]

You'll have to modify a couple of your magic items I'm afraid as you are only allowed one from each category. So Old blood cant have Charm shield and Steg helm together nor can the priest have powerstone and cube together.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
I think the powerstone might not be worth the points either.

 

[Scalenex]

Six Saurus wide is a very good idea. You'll get to use all your frontage's attacks against most enemies.

With spears that's 18 attacks when charging and 24 attacks when not charging. That's before unit champions, embedded characters, or magical buffs are factored in. A unit of 36 Saurus Warriors with spears deploy six wide will not start losing attacks until taken below half strength so this will be a unit that will inflict good hits for a long time.

A Slann is nearly always best when deployed in the center. That's where he can apply his leadership bubble and spells best.

You actually have a decent list for cannon control if you play it right. You have target saturation, healing magic, and a ward save

10 Saurus Cold One Riders is a bit overkill for cannons and would likely be better served supporting your Saurus blocks.


For this particular build I have the following suggestions.

-Swap out any High magic spells you don't need for Life magic spells and keep your Stegadons within 12 inches of the Slann for as long as possible to let you heal them as much as possible. Swapping a High Magic spell for the Heavens signature spell is a good idea as well if you aren't taking any Skink Priests with Heavens since that has a 50/50 shot of negating a cannon shot.
-Close the distance between your forces and the enemy as soon as possible. If you get into close combat he can't shoot you.
-Don't forget to apply the 6+ Ward save from the EOTG. A 6+ is better than one would first guess.
-If you get to place any terrain, place any hills or barriers in the center region of the board in front of paths your Steggies are likely to take.
-Never expose your Cold One Cavalry's flank to a cannon, that's asking for trouble.

 

[onlinemph]

Thanks for the advice. Should I even bother with a cannon hunting unit, or should I just trudge through?

I also saved 33 points by getting rid of the powerstone and downgrading the obsidian lodestone on my slann to an obsidian amulet. I only needed magic resistance 2 anyway. What should I spend it on?

 

[Scalenex]

Trudging through and taking cannon fodder is a valid strategy. In fact my first victory against my Dwarf friend occurred when I gave up on war machine hunting altogether and designed a list to trudge and do little else.

For the extra points. I'd go with bulking up your Saurus Warriors. If you downgrade your Skink Priests to level one, you'll have even more points and you can take a unit of Skinks to send against a cannon or run interference to help your Saurus Warriors. Your Skink Priests won't be casting a lot of spells other than Wyssans anyway. Your Slann has +4 to cast and has eight spells. You have two Engines of the Gods that can blast things with bound spells (oh yeah, don't forget to apply the casting break to whatever non-High magic lores your Slann ends up with).

I rarely take level two Skink priests myself unless I'm running without Slann.

 

[onlinemph]

Trudging through and taking cannon fodder is a valid strategy. In fact my first victory against my Dwarf friend occurred when I gave up on war machine hunting altogether and designed a list to trudge and do little else.

For the extra points. I'd go with bulking up your Saurus Warriors. If you downgrade your Skink Priests to level one, you'll have even more points and you can take a unit of Skinks to send against a cannon or run interference to help your Saurus Warriors. Your Skink Priests won't be casting a lot of spells other than Wyssans anyway. Your Slann has +4 to cast and has eight spells. You have two Engines of the Gods that can blast things with bound spells (oh yeah, don't forget to apply the casting break to whatever non-High magic lores your Slann ends up with).

I rarely take level two Skink priests myself unless I'm running without Slann.

I got rid of the level 2 upgrades and the ruby ring of ruin. This left me enough points for the chameleon skinks. They will be going warmachine hunting. Does this all sound solid?