7th Ed. All skink army.

[Grifthin]

The Combat vs Magic thread got me thinking, how good are skinks really - and why is the Skink army of Doom so deadly ?

I'm probably gonna take alot of flak for this but, I hate skinks. I hate verything about them, from the Fragile tiny models, the small amount of extra's on the sprue and their T2 and Crappy stats.

I'll use them, cause they have a role, I plan and include them in my army building, but I don't like them. So what is it that makes the Skink army od Doom so effective ?

They have poison.
Movement 6
They are reasonably cheap.

Besides these factors what else do they have going for them ? Could someone that has used the army of Doom, maby post and explain why they are so good (according to the intrawebs), with perhaps a example or 2 of how they would tackle another army ?

(not a flame, really curious)

 

[strewart]

Personally, I dislike the models and really hate the fact that there aren't enough blowpipes OR javelins to equip a full squad, plus there is only one empty hand for a shield.

Really, you love them or you hate them. You do not need them, and if they don't fit your style then don't take them. I am very unused to having an army with really cheap models that you can throw away, especially ones that are kinda useful like skinks. Not only the poison, but skirmish makes them hard to shoot and cold blooded makes them more likely to stick around than basically every other unit of their type in the game. My HE army had nothing cheaper than 9 points a model, my VC had zombies but they were still 6-7 points and really unusefull due to their speed, and TK only had ~10 point skeletons.

So I will be tending away from skinks too, I definitely have some because they are the cheapest way to fill core choices but I just don't like the idea of a skink horde even if it is effective.

Really you summed up the advantages already minus a couple; multiple blow shot poison attacks, high movement, skirmish, cold blooded. If you don't like them, it doesn't mean you will lose for not taking them.

 

[Grifthin]

What units do you replace skinks with, to fulfill the same roles ?

 

[skinkyone]

how can you not love a 10 man skirmisher unit that can dire 20 shots if it want to,

i get alot of lucky posion roles though so i might be a bit biased


the main reason for using them though is to bait enemy units into charges

 

[Gannon]

I saw some Skink armies of Doom in 6th ed, but at a point of 1500.
Hell load of skinks, supported by 3 skink priests and Salamanders did a very good job for those points.

They were just a poison horde blowing away the enemy in the shooting and magic fase, ignoring combat.

It worked as long as you don't go higher than 1500ptns. After that our skinks just get blown away by either shooting or magic.

How I could see a Skink Army of Doom now, would be by using lots of steggies, razers, sallies supported by skinks. As skinks now got a bit more expensive.. But then its more like a Dino list rather then a skink list...

 

[Benman]

It all changed a lot when the rule for allowing skirmishers to march even within 8" of enemy unit was changed to the unified rule 'no marching when enemy unit is within 8'.
That's when the tactic for an all skink army was almost completely down the drain. Before that change, all skinks armies ruled, although not having high S units. The 100-200 shots depending on armylist would even kill or decimate 2+ save units.
Lizardmen all skink armies where the reason they changed the marching rule, just because all skink armies where somewhat overpowered.

 

[strewart]

What units do you replace skinks with, to fulfill the same roles ?

Terradons. They can march block and hunt small stuff, lone mages and warmachines, as for screens... I don't use them. My units don't get beat up too bad usually anyway.

 

[Grifthin]

In other words Walk forward and take it in the teeth ? And set them on fire ?

 

[strewart]

Yeah it would need to be a very heavy shooty army to take down a couple of stegs, a carnosaur, and the well armoured t4 troops. Add the engines ward save into the mix... Well, my t3 poor armour combat heavy elves always made it to battle mostly unscathed and they never had the luxury of a screen, though they were a touch faster.

 

[lupercal]

i used to hate skinks but after my first 5 or 6 games i realized that they did a considerable portion of my kills in any given game once i started using them properly even only using like 20 or 30 made a big difference i really started to like them when i started playing ogres they really shined there but 30 skinks is almost a full unit of saurus so it really comes down to what you like i just like skirmishers because i used to play alot of 40k and they work similar to everything in that game so i can use them well i was going to get a wood elves army until my friend started building one for that very reason

 

[slannFrogy]

Indeed they are good for cheap units and the poison helps alot

 

[Aranigej]

In the 6th edition rules I used to field an all skink 2000 pt army and I only ever lost 1 game with it. It was basically a southlands army using the following:

5 lv 2 skink priests

6 units of 10 skirmishers
2 units of 10 scouts

all blowpipes

10 chameleons

3 units of 3 terradons

2 units of 3 salamanders

Now that the skirmishing rules have changed and you can no longer march within 8" don't really think there is a point to this sort of army anymore.

Also, it gives you a terrible headache moving all those models!

 

[lord karnik]

I still think we can swing a skink army at 2k. for example 3-4 units of cohorts, 3-4 skirmisher, stegs, chiefs and Priest. Every unit in your army has skinks in it. So I would consider it a skink (horde)! Unless you ues 2-3 EOTG then it is not longer a horde

 

[blackhawk]

plus there is only one empty hand for a shield.

you need to cut of the hand weapons,, blowpipes or javelins from the fists holding them.
when the new skinks came out, everyone knew that, it was in the whide dwarf, on the GW site, on forums etc....

 

[strewart]

plus there is only one empty hand for a shield.

you need to cut of the hand weapons,, blowpipes or javelins from the fists holding them.
when the new skinks came out, everyone knew that, it was in the whide dwarf, on the GW site, on forums etc....

When the 'new' skinks came out I was heavily entrenched in my Sylvanian VC army and High Elves, I didn't take note of the finer details of the LM kits.

I think the skink kit is about the only one where you have to make modifications to be able to field one of the standard options. i just don't think there are enough pieces on the sprues, it seems poorly done. Every kit I have encountered actually comes with empty hands for shields, and extra arms and such, while the skinks do not even have enough pieces to give the whole kit one weapon type.

 

[ex Daemon]

That is one poor kit then... just ordered some and now i can't equip them all properly BOOOOOO