8th Ed. Aiding a newblood

[1Legion]

Hail comrades, I seek your wisdom,
I've been playing my first few games of 8th Edition and with Lizardmen, and I LOVE these guys! My first game was against Dwarves, which had me quite down, as I'd heard they were one of the toughest, most stubborn armies to try and face; however, just one Saurus unit was charged by two dwarf blocks, and HELD, I was blown away, I actually ended up killing them gradually, and winning that combat! (Apologies, I am just so pleased with my army!) My Skink Priest blasted a Gyrothoptor thingy out of the sky, doing all he did that game because of the nigh unbeatable magical defense of the dwarf kind. It ended in a draw because our troops never budged or died! XD

My second game, however, went not nearly as well...a gunline of Empire. Tons of handgunner and crossbowmen, with three Greatcannons in the wings, it was quite brutal just marching up the field...I would really like help on how I can best combat such ranged power? I lack much ranged retaliation myself, only on my two Stegadons, one being an Engine barer, and the other with giant blowpipes...
I can obliterate him once I closed, but it wasn't enough to do much since I lost most of my troops going up the table...
Thanks in advance, comrades. For the Old Ones!

 

[Xul]

use chameleon skinks (deployed as scouts behind his lines) to kill the cannons or to tie them up in close combat. use the EOTG to provide a ward save against shooting to advancing troops. salamanders are great against big infantry blocks - you just need to either get the 1st turn or hide/screen them if possible before being able to shoot. even if you can't he will have to choose between the salamander or your advancing infantry as a target for his shooting. some heavens spells are also good at making his shooting less efficient - and those spells are pretty cheap, 1 of them is the signature spell, so you can use it even with a L1 skink priest.

 

[walach]

If it's any consolation, i think most armies are now struggling against the power of dwarf/empire gunlines.

as said, chameleons and magic. big blocks of saurus should be able to weather a fair bit of normal handgun/crossbow fire.

other than that... i dunno, load your dice for the first turn roll?

 

[Sun Drinker]

make sure you're not just setting up against each other and trying to annihilate each other. make sure you're using one of the scenarios in the rulebook, that should help balance the matches a bit. the stegadon with blowpipes also might be too much of a point sink in a match against a gunline. your points might be better spent on more saurus or skinks (though it very well might be worth it to keep the stegadon with EoTG). stegadons are pretty great in close combat but against gunlines our saurus are less points for more wounds (and they're great in close combat too).

we've got the standard of chotec, EoTG, choice of lore of light for our slaan, access to lore of heavens from our skink chiefs, access to terradons and chameleon skinks, and our slaan has access to an amazing ward-save vs. shooting. if you haven't considered some of these things they may help you.

good luck!

 

[1Legion]

Thank you both so much for the ideas and help. I'm stuck slightly in that I only have so many models at the moment, which, swapping items and such, will equal out at 2250. It's 20 Temple Guard, and Oldblood, 35 Saurus warriors (split into two units), 2 Stegadons, and 8 Cold Ones.
If I could get a few item ideas to help out, that'd be ever more helpful!
Also, I should be getting a Mage-Priest in the mail any day now, to move out the (sadly..) Oldblood for some serious magick!

 

[1Legion]

Hello again comrades, I was wondering also, how can my Mage-Priest play out in games against the Dwarfs, because they're almost impossible to get spells off against as I've found now....

 

[Haemoglobin]

Use the cupped hands if you use a different lore than lore of life. Chuck a whole bunch of dice at a spell you really want going off for an IF. You could use Lore of Life aswell, but the problem is that the throne would probably get dispelled pretty much every time if its a smart player.
Power Scroll could work aswell but you are getting an unavoidable miscast (put it on a skink priest though).

IF is probably the only way to get a spell off

I would suggest either using the Lore of Shadow and try to get an IF Pit of Shades (boosted version). Dwarves like putting their warmachines concentrated and surrounded by troops (at least the player i play against). Whatever it hits, its likely to die (max I of 2 think?) and warmachines auto-fail initiative tests.

You could also just go for a magic low army and spend more points in troops. Provide plenty of targets for him to shoot at, aswell as including large blocks of saurus to withstand the punishment.

Also, start hating gyrocopters already. My opponent tends to bring two, and they can be very annoying.

 

[logalog]

Now from what I remember the dwarfs it an additional +2 on there dispell roll and unless you are fighting a high level game they probably don't have any rune smiths (? don't remember what they are called). Anyway it should be just like fighting against a level 2 wizard with any other race. So it might be either the luck of the roll or your spell selection order or even the number of dice that you are rolling. If your using your slann you should be getting a +4 to spell casting which should null out any dwarf bonus to dispell.

 

[Haemoglobin]

Yeah but they get additional dices from their Runelord, they have items/runes that steal one PD and add it to their DD etc etc. They are annoying to get spells off I can guarantee you.

 

[1Legion]

Yes, the Dwarf player has a runelord, and with the recent FAQ the Anvil of his allows him +1 to his dispell results as well as he said. Even with a bonus from my Mage, he gets around +2-3 to stop it, and the dice Gods can be cruel

Good news, I got my Mage Priest the other day, and got to test him against Tomb King foe. I am SO amazed at how powerful he is, and I used the Lore of Life, making his Temple Guard an unstoppable, regrowing unit that he couldn't hurt, and I was able to dispell anything he tried to cast at me. The only real trouble I had was his darn Bone Giant that crushed a unit of Saurus warriors without much effort over a few turns. Any tips on how to stop something like that??
Thanks comrades!

 

[logalog]

I don't know anything about tomb kings but something to always remember is if its big and tough skink it to death over and over and over again. Poison is always your friend.

 

[1Legion]

I had tried that, and even with a lot of blowpipe shots from a Steggy, and I only ever wounded/poisoned it a few times, and it just passed it's armor save no problem. I'll have to fight it with Temple Guard at least, or try and blast it back to the stone age with the Mage! Otherwise, it will slay anything that it touches pretty easily...

 

[Xul]

well, it has a 3+ AS, which is not a good message for the poisoned darts....but it has I1, so pit of shades should work on it - but u need a Slann to cast it.

 

[1Legion]

My first game using my new Mage priest was against the Tomb Kings, and I used the Lore of Life, to great effect. It essentially made my Temple Guard he was in untouchable, save for a few wounds from his Caskety thing, but they beat down a unit of his undead calvary, and four Ushabti with only three losses, which I then replaced! My issue was that the giant was on the other end of the table, outside most of, even boosted, range of my spells were to help the poor Saurus warriors out.
I'm trying not to tailor any lists against things, like Fire Lore against Wood Elves, Light against Undead, etc, to be more fun, but it is hard to fight the tougher things like Bone Giants and Dragons without something strong, because they avoid my Temple Guard.

 

[vapor]

My best friend plays TK-- the trick to killing the bone giant is to make sure you charge it, it's really weak without it's unstoppable assault. Soften it up with some poison shots or magic, then charge your steg (impact hits+ hit's on 4's, wounds on 3's, he'll have a 6+ AS-- plus skink attacks) or temple guard (hits on 3's, wounds on 4's, 5+ AS or 6+ if you have the razor standard) into it.

You should put some easy wounds on it and the CR will finish it off.