8th Ed. death slann 2500

[vict0988]

Hey all.
im a pretty young player, but have played quite a lot of warhammer anyway. At a point i got tired of playing lizardmen over and over again, and tried some new armies (almost every single one). and as i needed to use small bases most of the time, and my most regular opponent used skaven i borrowed his miniatures as stand ins, and so he had to use my lizardmen. He however did not like the most common lores used by lizardmen players (life and light), and so used death. he played some games with them, and won every match but one, out of maybe 12. So i chose to try them out, and now i only play death slann. Heres the list that im using at the moment.

Lords 460
Slann mage-priest 275
the focused rumination
focus of mystery
the becalming cogitation
battle standard bearer
standard of dicipline
cupped hands of the old ones
bane head
total 475
lore of death
general

core 780

30 saurus warriors
spears
standard bearer
musician
total 390

30 saurus warriors
spears
standard bearer
musician
total 390

special 680

stegadon

stegadon

8 chameleon skinks stalker

8 chameleon skinks

rare 580

2 salamander hunting packs

2 salamander hunting packs

ancient stegadon

lords 460 core 780 special 680 rare 580 total 2500

i use the stegs to go into my enemies units and hold em up and to counter/sidecharge.
my slann picks off enemy chars and give ld and bsb.
saurus simply go head on into the fray.
the salamanders spit fire and try to keep out of combat.
chameleon skinks pick of large targets and war machines.

i hope to get ideas to improve the list and just show people that death is a lore that actually is quite viable for lizardmen players.

 

[Putzfrau]

i hope to get ideas to improve the list and just show people that death is a lore that actually is quite viable for lizardmen players.

Viable is different then optimal.


Also, hw+shields are better then spears. You're only getting 1 extra rank of supporting attacks, it's not worth it when compared to the parry save. It just helps their grinding capability so much, and that's what you're using them for.

 

[vict0988]

my most regular opponent (almost only) is skaven and agains following units spears are better

the first one is the most offensiv spear formation possible the next is the most offensive hw shield and the last one is the rank bonus formation armed with hw shield
2,1/1 vs 2,1/1 vs 2,75/1 0,46/1 0,47/1 0,56/1
pumped up skaven brew stormvermin in horde slaves in rank bonus formation

my calcuations have led to these answers against some skaven units

if im right against the storm vermin the spears loose 2,1 point every time the stormvermin loose 1
and the offensive hw shield guys do just as bad
and lastly the rank bonus formation are way behind the rest however they and have more rank bonus than the others

if im right against the slaves
the offensive spears do best
the offensive hw shield do second
the defensive hw shield do worst.... again but again have more ranks

this leads me to the conclusion that it pretty much is a matter of taste
and i like ot roll lots of dice and smash things up and dont really care about my own troops...... and furthermore all my saurus were build with spears
but im not sure all the math is right
and you might be able to steal ranks with defensive saurus then smash with steggy and thereby win
against other opponents shields might or might ot be better but the prime reason why i use spears is because have the models for that

 

[Putzfrau]

To be honest i have no idea what you were trying to say with the numbers, i'm sorry. A unit of 30 saurus, is gonna only give you 5 or 6 extra attacks (assuming 5 or 6 wide), at the cost of 30 points per unit. Hw and shield give you a 6+ parry save against every wound you suffer.

Nothing i've read makes it seem like spears are worth the points. Saurus are a grinding unit, and especially against slaves who are essentially there to tarpit you and are going to do that anyways unless you hit them with something else, you just want to be able to grind better.

With 6 extra attacks against slaves with average dice rolls you're getting maybe 2 or 3 extra kills (3 is quite generous). Against a unit of 40-50 slaves, which I imagine he's running since its fairly standard, It's not gonna matter, especially when they are steadfast anyways and it doesn't matter how many of you they kill or how many you kill of them because the slaves aren't there to kill anything. They are just there to tie up your saurus so the stuff in the army that can actually kill you can without worrying about your saurus.

I'm sure there is mathhammer out there, but i'm not experienced enough to feel comfortable doing that. You could be right, this is all just in my opinion of course. and of course if you have models with spears then by all means go spears! they aren't bad by any means, i have some spears for the same reason (have the models), i just think they are the inferior choice (if you had to choose).

And with 3 stegadons you're not exactly lacking in killy units. Tarpit with saurus and smash flanks with stegs.

 

[vict0988]

yeah tarpits would probalbly be better
should i maybe go for ranks instead of width with the saurus?
the math did confuse myself alot too...........

 

[Putzfrau]

yeah tarpits would probalbly be better
should i maybe go for ranks instead of width with the saurus?
the math i did confused myself alot too...........

i'd probably roll 5 ranks of 6. 5 ranks is still gonna be pretty solid, and with 6 across you're getting 18 attacks. You can always just swap between the too with free reforms with a musician lol.

 

[vict0988]

Totally forgot bane head. With it i only need 2 wounds on enemy lord chars with my death magic.