7th Ed. Hand Weapons vs. Spears

[Supersteggy]

To start off my army i am getting the battalion box and a few heros. The battalion has two units of saurus and I wanna know what you guys think is the best way to equip them. My friend is also going to be starting and I think he is starting ogres so I'm gonna be on the receiving end of most charges. Would it be better to take all spears to get the extra attacks, all hand weapons and shields for the save, or a mix of the two. I think a 2/1 hand weapon/spear combo sounds good. Bait your opponent with the spears and attack his flanks with the hand weapons. What is your opinion on how to equip saurus?
P.S. Catch me if I got something wrong I don't even have the army book or rule book yet but I do know the basics of the game

 

[Supersteggy]

Ahhh my bad my laptop was being slow so I accidentally posted this twice can someone delete it?

 

[Sammy the Squib]

Ahhh my bad my laptop was being slow so I accidentally posted this twice can someone delete it?

No worries, done

The spears vs. HW/shield is an age old debate. A lot of people will say that the price of spears is a little too high for what you're getting. You do lose the parry bonus in combat but if you're on the recieving end of a charge or locked in subsequent rounds then we really can pump out a lot of s4 attacks, which is good to get some wounds against most units. You can also supplement your combat troops with certain spells from the Slann. The lore of light has a pretty useful one which reduces the opponent's WS to 1. This is great as it means you will hot more often and also be hit less.

I usually run my saurus blocks with hw/shield to save on the points, but I've used spears as well and they aren't as bad as some people make out. Having said that though, I haven't used saurus for a while as my Slann list uses TG and Krox as it's main blocks

 

[Supersteggy]

Hmmm to start of I think I'll have one of the each to get the jist of how they work and to see which i prefer
Thnx!!!

 

[SohCahToa]

Pretty much have to agree with everything said above. IMO, the reason why spears never make back their points is that with a low I, one or two front rank saurus dieing to the enemy before they can strike will make you loose nearly as many attacks as a spear upgrade would benefit a unit. By having a parry bonus, you have the liklihood of keeping the saurus alive, and hence better able to dish it out.

 

[Origin]

Saurus Phalanx look awesome.

While giving spears to a block of 20 is expensive it better fits their role in the Lizardmen army, engage the main enemy body and grind their way through.

Victory goes to he who roles the most dice...

 

[Craken]

I fight a lot of Ogres (my friends army) and in my opinion unless you have a 1+ armor save or lower you won't be making too many saves against them even with the hand weapon shield. However a 4S is usually enough to get rid of most Ogre's armor also. So I usually opt for the spears, and try and do my best to make sure I have the charge. This will usually do the damge you need to finish them. However for fighting ogres you may want to make yourself immune to physcology and expand your frontage to get as many warriors as you can in base contact while still having a back rank. Also do your best to avoid bull charges, if that means to move close so they get the charge but not the bullchage sometimes its beter to give them that charge.

 

[Origin]

I really should work on having removable weapon arms for my Saurus, the problem with this debate is that it is so, final...

 

[Supersteggy]

I really should work on having removable weapon arms for my Saurus, the problem with this debate is that it is so, final...

That would make it alot easier being able to choose their weapons for each opponent the only problem would be ...well... pinning/magnetizing and painting all those arms.

 

[Origin]

A nice double pin in the weapon arm would work fine, not really difficult just time consuming. But in the long run it would be worth it.