8th Ed. Arg! Confused newbie needs directional advice!

[walkertexasranger]

Hi all,
first time poster, bought a bunch of Lizardmen a year or two (or three? farout, can't remember) back and have only just started to actually think about turning them into an army (played O&G back 6-7 years ago, 6th ed...so I'm somewhat out of practice).

I have the 7th ed army book but where I'm coming unglued is that 8th edition is new to me.......and the dynamic of what is good/bad appears completely different (or more appropriately I should say that it seems like troop roles have changed a lot).

So I'm at the point of wanting to buy more models.........but have no idea what I should buy. I've read as many of the threads as I can get hold of......but opinions (all well justified) seem somewhat mixed.......are TG good or rubbish? Terradons? Saurus? Kroxigors? Stegadons? ARG!?!

So I was hoping maybe if I listed the models I already have someone could give me some advice about which directions to expand in (although I appreciate that's a very general kind of question, no real answer).
At the moment I have:

Skinks x 35 (about 50/50 shields + javs and blowpipes)
Saurus x 16 w/ HW (I'm aware I need more)
Kroxigor x 1
Salamander x 1
Terradons x 2
Saurus Cavalry x 8 (no command)
Skink priest
Scar-Vet on Cold One
Tiktaq'to (who I bought back in 7th ed, when Terradons seemed to be the Cat's PJs)

I've played a few battles at about 1000pts against Empire (gunline style, Handgunners and cannons), Skaven (Clan Skryre style) and Brets (do they have more than one style?)....none of them put together or commanded by experienced generals. All I've been able to work out is that a) it's taking me a while to get used to 8th ed rules b) one unit of 16 saurus is useless, can never pin anything in combat, c) Saurus Cav are kinda expensive if you don't know what you are doing with them and d) my favoured tactic is basically running amok around the board until my opponent gets bored and does something silly.

So......any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for reading, hope this makes sense!
Walker

 

[erians]

You have a pretty good starter force. There are a few ways to expand your force right now:

- Slann. Pretty much a must have if you can take one. Very safe buy, you will use this model a lot at higher pts.

- More of what you have. Imo Saurus does best at 30, but there are plenty of people who thinks 25 is the way to go (either way you need more). A good base for a list is 3x10 blowpipe skinks, maybe less if you take a lot of cammos. A 2nd krox could make a nice Skrox unit. 1-2 more salamanders is never wrong. Terradons needs to be 3 to be a unit so a 3rd terradon would be a good buy.

- Stegs. Pretty much the only thing you don't have. Stegs aren't very resilient tho (no ward or regenerate to protect them against war machines) despite their save and high T, so either get 2-3 or 0.

- Cammos. You can pretty easily convert cammo skinks from regular skinks so if you buy 24 skinks you can either make 3x8 cammos or 2x5-10 cammos and get some extra blowpipe skinks from whats left.

The good and bad units is the list is pretty much the same as in 6th & 7th even though the unit sizes has changed. Cold one Cav, razordons, temple guards, swarms and skink chiefs are the weakest choices and you rarely see most of them in competitive environments (that's not to say you can't make a strong list with any of those choices, but they are unpopular choices for a reason).

Edit: Also you should build a 2000 or 2400 pt force and build towards that list rather than buying stuff at random or stuff that maybe only fits your smaller pt battles. Everyone feels lost when they are trying to build a list in an edition they are unfamiliar with but if you keep playing and checking around the forum what kind of lists other players use you will quickly get a good feel for it.

 

[walkertexasranger]

Thanks for that. Slann, Chammos and Steg (in that order) will probably be what I go for, then a few more Kroxs.

Saurus: are they really worth bothering with in 8th ed? With units striking in initiative order they seem to me to have gone from a top tier CC unit to something that can't beat any infantry fielded by most teams in the game (HE, Dwarfs, Beastmen, VC, TK, hell even Empire swordsmen come out ridiculous favourites in a match up).
Given LM haven't got the shooting to sit back we are virtually forced to charge Saurus to their doom or have them shot to pieces outside combat (or that's what I found). To be honest I'd rather take a bunch of Kroxs, at least they move with some pace.

Can you give me any help here? Am I thinking about this wrong, or not taking something into account?

 

[Turtleneck]

building your army depends on what you like to play

wanna go with stegs, saurus, tg and large combat units, go light or life

wanna go skirmish, with skinks, and annoying little units, death, shadow and maybe life would be more of the squestion, its all about testing

 

[erians]

Saurus are still one of the stronger fighting units there is. They are tough as nails, hits like a mack truck and are extremely hard to break due to cold blood. Initiative became more important in one way (always strike in In order regardless of who charges) but less important in other ways (you always get to strike back).

I play with 60-90 Saurus, most people fields at the very least 30. At the 2011 ETC tournament every single LM player had at least a block of 20 saurus, most of the players had a block of 30.

Saurus has good synergy with our magic as well. My list is combat oriented so I play a Party Slann with lore of light. WS & In 10 Saurus with ASF and +1A are pretty neat. Even better when enemies are at -1 to hit. With life you can buff them up to T8, who cares about In when great weapon wielders wound you on 6s?

 

[walkertexasranger]

I hadn't thought of any of those points, thanks for that. I suppose I really need to play some more games with 8th ed, so much stuff doesn't occur to me.

I've bought 2 extra boxes of saurus and one of TG (TG was cheap, old edition.......otherwise might not have bought it, but I figure it's still the premier option for a Slann bunker no?) then just need that Slann and I can try out some of the Saurus/Slann magic buffs combo you mentioned.

Anything that's particularly useful against Empire, Brets and Skaven? They are my most regular opponents