8th Ed. Considering Lizardmen - a 2000pt starter list

[laribold]

Hi all,

I'm seriously considering getting myself a cheeky little Lizardmen army going and would appreciate thoughts on the following list I've knocked up.

I'm looking to go quite big on foot troops in terms of total numbers, but not in a huge slabs of them. I'd be looking to hit frontally with one unit and get flanking support from the another one.

Not sure on character load out here, but I'd like it to be fairly character light, as I think the basic Saurus warrior is pretty decent. I'd welcome any thoughts on the character set up and amendments there. I've gone for Metal on my Slann to counter the 1/2+ AS heavy units cropping up as I think the list may struggle against high AS troops. Also +1 to hit will help my low WS troops, as will 4+ AS skinks, and Transmutation.

Slann (Metal)
Crown of Command
Higher State
Plaque of Tepok
Dragonbane Gem
BSB

Lords - 355

Skink Priest
Level 1 Heavens
Dispel Scroll

Scar Vet
Light Armour
Charmed Shield
Cold One
Halberd

Heroes 209

21 Saurus
Full Command

21 Saurus
Full Command

22 Skinks & 2 Kroxigor
Full Command

22 Skinks & 2 Kroxigor
Full Command

10 Skink Skirmishers

10 Skink Skirmishers

Core 1122

3 Terradon

5 Chamleon Skinks

Special 150

Razordon
Extra Handler

Salamander
Extra Handler

Rare 160

TOTAL 1996


So there it is. Tell me where I'm going wrong!

Thanks

 

[Scalenex]

There is nothing wrong with the list. It is fairly balanced. But I do have some suggestions and comments anyway.


Most people hear will tell you that while Razordons are not useless, Salamanders are clearly far better and many would suggest you take two Salamanders and no Razordons. Salamanders will kill and/or panic more enemy units than Razordons against almost any army. Assuming you are good at choosing your targets. There are three exceptions when Razordons will statistically kill more with shooting than Salamanders, all of them fairly uncommon.
-Ogre armies fielded sans Gnoblars
-Chaos Dwarf armies fielded sans Hobgoblins.
-High Elf armies fielded where most of the Special slots are taken up by Dragon Knights


In style of play Razordons don’t have much in common with Salamanders. They play much more like Skink Skirmishers that take up a Rare slot and are slightly less mobile (since Razordons can’t march and shoot at the same time) and are better protected against enemy charges by fast cavalry (the bane of skirmishers) because of their strong stand and shoot and much better close combat prowess than Skinks.


If you are expecting to fight high armor save opponents, I'd give the Scar Veteran a great weapon instead of a halberd, especially since you have 4 points left over.


My personal preference is to have bigger units. Skink skirmishers are a highly effective unit, unless I'm the one playing them. Putting those two preferences together, If I were using this army as a baseline, I would drop one of the Skirmisher units and use the points freed up to boost up the Saurus units. I’d keep one Skirmisher unit to provide cover for the Skink priest.


To save some points I would suggest dropping the Crown of Command from the Slann. I know this puts the Slann at risk for auto-dying if he breaks from combat since he is the BSB. I therefore suggest you give the BSB to your Scar Veteran. Your Scar Veteran will likely be near the center of your army giving you maximum BSB coverage. Slann without Temple Guard generally need to avoid combat at all costs so you won't get as efficient coverage with the Slann.


I would suggest taking Focused Rumination on your Slann. The bonus power die on every spell is very powerful. If you drop the Crown of Command you have already freed up 35 of the 50 points you need. You could swap the Slann’s Higher State of Consciousness for Focused Rumination and then take the Divine Plaque of Protection (and probably drop the Dragonbane Gem). That will give you nearly the same protection you had before with Higher State against mundane artillery. If you are playing versus Skaven, Dwarves, or Chaos Dwarfs the relative prevalence of magical shooting means that the Divine Plaque of Protection will help you more than Higher State of Consciousness. I rarely run Slann without taking Lore Mastery but that is a personal preference.


I generally believe people should run with whatever lore they feel like. If you are concerned with enemy armors saves, the Lore of Shadows might fulfill your requirements. The Withering will help you indirectly by letting you score more wounds. The Pendulum and Pit spells both bypass armor saves altogether. Mind Razor will let your Saurus hit at S8 wounding enemies easier and giving a 4 point penalty to enemy armor saves. Shadow is also a good lore for Slann running solo since it provides mobility. The Withering is also great when used in tandem with Salamander and Razordon attacks. Again personal preference is factoring in. Shadow is my favorite lore barely beating Light in my opinion. I rarely play the same lore on two lists twice in a row though. I have yet to take Metal. I rarely play highly armored foes myself. My local store has a lot of Empire players but they usually only show up on tournament days.

I wrote about using the Lore of Shadow in detail here:

http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/using-shadow-slann-to-their-maximum-potential.9537/
If you like that thread, you should consider poking around the Tactica index.