8th Ed. All Kinds of Skinks - Uses?

[Eladimir]

As requested wanted to start a skink thread.

Chamo Skinks - Fantastic unit, the extra BS allows for move long range and double tap on all turns and scouting rule puts them in great places. Reasonably cheap and min size of 5 keeps them small costed.

Skrox Units - Our best non shooting counter to elite troops or Str6 GW troops. The math was done in another thread but Skinks have the exact same survivability vs Str6 troops as saurus do and at half the cost. They are quick, good flankers or as a core unit with lots of ranks to hold steadfast for multiple rounds. Add in the fact that they can swift reform into a huge 2 rank row of javelin shots for only 5 points a piece.

Skink Skirmisher - Personally they dont do it for me. 70 points min for a unit with blowpipes. Which unless you can stay within 6 inches of the target means you can't double tap and still hit on 6's. This to me makes the upgrade to javelins near mandatory for the 6++ CC save and with quickfire you usually hit on 5's. But bumps the cost to 80 points for a unit.
Uses-
Monsters- They are good againist tough unarmored targets like giants but face it those kind of monsters are few and far between.
Redirectors - But lining up at an odd angle they can force charges and pull units out of position. I feel this is removed since you'll be destroyed in CC and flee so they can just reform facing the way they wanted. So it was an 80 point speed bump to slow them for a turn.

Just wanted to throw some opinons out there. Any thoughts comments or even better disagreements are welcomed. I am certianly willing to debate the usefulness of skink skirmishers because warseer once rated them top 5 core units in the game, and some of them must know what they are talking about

 

[n810]

You forgot naked units of skink cohorts.
(ranked unit with javelin, shield and hand weapon)

These guys are super cheep and good for screening saurus units,
they work almost a well as the skirmishin vaariety for a lot less points,
also they survive in close combat slightly longer.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

hasnt this been debated/explained fifty times here by now?

Skink skirmishers shoots worse than chameleons, but they have twice as many wounds. you use them to screen units, then redirect the enemy. shooting is pretty much a side effect. i always use javelins nowadays, because it fits my very mobile playstyle AND it allows me to always stand and shoot against fast cavalry and the like.

tbh i think skink skirmishers are the most usefull core unit in the game. if any other team had access to them i would include 2+ units in every army i made. just do not compare them to other shooting units like for example dark elf RXBs. they are NOT the same type of units and you cant replace one with the other. skink skirmishers are like a swiss army knife and electrical tape. they arent very usefull for a head on fight, but if you use them as well as MacGyver does you can defeat any foe

 

[tankrothchild]

I absolutely love skink skirmishers. I run 3 units of 10, use them as redirects and to whittle down units and screen my 2 big 30 model saurus blocks. Definitely worth the points if used correctly.

 

[Eladimir]

But do they really work that well as redirectors?
If you flee they can redirect the charge, if you stand you'll break in combat and they can reform to face as they wanted to initially. Is that worth the 80 points?

One point I did miss was the use as a missle screen. Useful point.


N810 - Good point didn't mention cohorts, yeah then you talking only 50 points for a 10 wound speedbump/screen.

 

[Arli]

I have to go with the Skrox units. I absolutely love to play them. I do take Saurus as well, but the Skrox units are fun. For a long time, I only took Skrox units (along with Temple Guard bunker for the slann). I will say that it is funny to watch your opponent run away from a unit of 70+ skinks with 3 or 4 krox.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

70 skinks with 3 kroxigors would cost almost 550 points. if i invest 550 points in to a single unit i expect stuff to run from it

 

[Hebus]

But do they really work that well as redirectors?
If you flee they can redirect the charge, if you stand you'll break in combat and they can reform to face as they wanted to initially. Is that worth the 80 points?

One point I did miss was the use as a missle screen. Useful point.


N810 - Good point didn't mention cohorts, yeah then you talking only 50 points for a 10 wound speedbump/screen.

You almost always have to stand to redirect. But remember your opponent has to do a Ld test to redirect the charge if you think of fleeing.
The redirection works just fine. The worst case scenario is you making your opponent's unit lose a full turn and you don't get charged by the unit. The best case scenario is your unit holding the fight and getting another extra turn for you to move (in a 3x3 formation, 10 attacks are the maximum they can take from the enemy, so it should be able to live I guess)

 

[Eladimir]

Well I'm gonna take a unit of skirmishers in each of my two summer tourneys and give em another try.

 

[DanBot]

You don't have to be within 12 inches to be effective with blowpipes. You still get pioson on 10 shots which is as many as you'd have with the javs. And hitting on 5s at str3 in my opion isn't worth 10 pionts. It just makes it that much harder to get my money's worth out of them. I'd much rather chance it that i get a 6in shot than have my 5s hit at 0 extra pionts none the less 10 extra.

Personally I find it really hard to not get my money's worth out of them I like to run loads of them just to have more units than my enemy and have them deploy almost their entire army before I lay any unit of actual value.

My simplest stradigy is to run 4 units. Place all 4 first and put two on each side. 1in from the edge right at the 12in mark. Then the secon 1in from the side 1in behind the unit in front of them. That makes my opponent place 4 units himself. Normally giving away far more in terms of thier stradigy than i just did.

After deployment I try and run them behind or to the side of the enemy. Normally they have to ignore them due to the fact that I've spent almost no points on them and they have an army with as many units as them still advancing quickly to their front. And I set them up 6in away and pluck at them till they feel they have to deal with it and turn to face them wasting turns and risking flank charges, or they accept that they are commited to ignoing them and have to just take the hits. Of course that only works when my opponent plays deathstar and large horde units and field an army of 7 or so total units. Where as I usually field at least 12 in at 2500 pts.

More often than not i find myself trying to play the game of "stay out of their charge arc". Skirmishers are pretty good at it and it normally gums him up. It always seems to take more than one unit to end my little game or about 3 turns of one unit including a swift reform. And if I take 3 skirmishing units and I am only able to do it with one of my units it was worth the price. As long as my other two aren't completely useless.

Screens with the -1 to hit is plenty useful. Esp considering they move just as fast as anything behind them in our army even on the march. And they are still able to take some posion shots if marching. Far more useful as a screen than anything else in our army I'd say.

They make fantastic throw away units. Some people in my close friends don't like to tell me what their hero's gear/banner is and whatnot and I like to find out the hard way what, lets say, a lord choice melee vampire is using before subjecting my saurus to an uphill battle. Enter the skink tester unit.

As a lost resort, if I feel I have almost no use for my skinks than I always find it useful enough to march them 12inches and stand them 6in in front of a block of special rank and file units like DE executioners, guard or even expensive rank and file core like blood letters, and take my 20 pioson shots. wound on 6s. Then take a stand and shoot 20 shots kill about 5 or 6 15-16pt models netting 75pts, wasting a turn of theirs, moving them 6inches foward and setting myself up for the first charge. Becasue I normally find doing this most convenient when me and my opponent are haveing a stand off waiting for the other one to walk into charge range. It doen't typically help me to do so, but it makes it so I win the stand off and makes me feel more in control forcing moves from my opponent. And sometimes it does put me in a better position and open up options.

And it is pretty easy to march 12 inches and end up 6in away from a block unit. Take the 20 shots and stand and shoot for 20. And that is basically worst case for these guys. That's why I find it hard not to get what I payed for. Even if they get shot down attempting to do so, they were only 70 pts. They could have shot something far more useful than my skinks on a suicide mission to net me a difference of ~5 pts.

 

[walkertexasranger]

that last tactic is pretty neat, have never thought to use them like that. I do normally take 4 units of them, typically just like running rings around large units with them, shooting and generally being a nuisance......but whilst that is fun it doesn't always help me win!

 

[DanBot]

that last tactic is pretty neat, have never thought to use them like that. I do normally take 4 units of them, typically just like running rings around large units with them, shooting and generally being a nuisance......but whilst that is fun it doesn't always help me win!

I've been adding more as I go. Kind of like saving my work. I'm on my tablet and it's been liking to "go back" and delete what I'm attempting to post.

I assume you mean the 4 units to win deployment? You know what they say, "50% of the time the game is won during deployment". If that's true, I'd like very much for those odds to be in my favor. haha.

 

[Eladimir]

Solid Danbot. I'm certainly not ready to take 4 units in a tourney soon but maybe I'll give it a try with a friend.

 

[walkertexasranger]

I actually meant the "Marching straight a expensive unit and shooting their face in" move......it appeals to my sense of grandeur I suppose.

But the deployment tactic is solid. I make use of that every game, sometimes even go for the denied flank by plonking on the skinks on one side then march moving them bacl across the board as soon as the game begins

 

[Ronisman]

So you do get a 6++ parry save with javelins and shields? Or is it like they have javelins, shields, and "hand weapons" which they use in cc so they get the parry save then?

 

[n810]

Yes every model in the game is assumed to have a handweapon, weather it is listed or not.