8th Ed. Are Chameleon Skinks useful?

[Oldest]

Do you find that Chameleon Skinks are useful? Or are they just a big waste of points? Tell me what you think, I'm interested to hear your opinions on them.

 

[n810]

They are one of out best units in 8th edition, and our only scouts.

 

[Danger Goat]

Totally. But you have to use them wisely. They are not just throw away units. That's what regular skinks are for. Pick a vaulable target and do everything possible to make sure they survive long enough to take it out. This may mean that you will not get that 1st turn warmachine kill, some patience and manuevering may be in order.

 

[Shaslain]

As long as you have a plan for them and do not treat them like normal skinks then they are useful. They cost almost as much as 2 skink skirmishers who have the same weapons, but the main key is their increased BS and scout ability.

Scout ability is all about exploiting your opponent's oversights. An experienced opponent will fill up his back field so your scouts will have to deploy in front of them, but if they get their calculations just 1" off you deploy the chameleons back behind him and screw with them for the rest of the game.

 

[Arli]

You are joking, right?

lol

Anyway, I will always take at least 2 or 3 units at 2k. In the last year and a half, I have only had maybe 2 games where they did not live up to their potential. These guys are the reason that I started lizardmen. I own 31 counting Oxytl. I use these primarily to hunt war machines, but I also have used them to redirect units.

 

[T`hinker`er]

I think the more useful question is how many to take in a unit and whether or not the unit champion is worth the extra points, statistically speaking. I find that 2 units of 5 in a 1500 point game works out about right. 3 units can be better, but often you will not have 3 places where you can deploy a scouting unit, especially if your opponent is careful in how he deploys. Other thoughts?

 

[Arli]

I would say that the stalkers are never worth their points. If they also had an additional CC attack, it would be worth it. Also, I always forget to make their shots at the higher BS. So, I never take them. I usually play 3k-3.5k games. In games that size, I will take at least 2 units of chameleons. I will try to get 10, or at least 7 in each unit. I will follow that up with either a unit of Terradons or another unit of chameleons.

As far as deployment goes, I routinely play a Brettonia player that usually denies me any meaningful deployement of my scouts. That said, I usually just deploy 12 inches in front of my targets. This works most of the time.

 

[BEEGfrog]

Always remember the trick of aquatic terrain. Placed at the back of the deployment area it can often allow a big enough gap to allow your chams to be deployed behind his troops (normally this means near the side edges). Placed at the front of the deployment area, overlapping deployment and centre areas or just in front of his deployment area allows the chams to walk/march into the terrain from 12" away from his troops.

You can also use this terrain to get him to deploy his anti cham troops well away from where you actually plan to deploy your chams or force him to deploy his cham targets away from a prime area.

 

[parrot]

Chameleon skinks are very good at attacking lone characters and warmachines. I usualy take a stalker if any modifiers occur.

 

[strewart]

Scout ability is all about exploiting your opponent's oversights. An experienced opponent will fill up his back field so your scouts will have to deploy in front of them, but if they get their calculations just 1" off you deploy the chameleons back behind him and screw with them for the rest of the game.

Really? How does that work? We use 12" deployment zones so there is basically never 12" free behind a line, unless the army is small and elite or using a refused flank tactic..

Overall though, yes charmeleons are a very useful unit. Quite vulnerable to magic missiles though so be careful of that.

 

[kroxigor01]

They really are fantastic. For only a few hundred points they let us break all the rules for deployment and leapfrog the normal 2 turn stand off before any damage is cause. A 60 point Chameleon unit can 10 poison shots at almost anywhere on the board turn 1.

Increasingly, opponents are forgoing the traditional predators of skirmishers. Armour Knights, Fast Cav, small units of nimble infantry. Instead they are taking huge ungainly blocks, warmachines and wizards based around casting uber spells.

Its funny how often you can convince your opponent its "not worth it" to charge that tiny unit of skirmishers (a good way is to move through a wood, the opponent might be relying on steadfast), which basically means you can cause complete havoc.