8th Ed. Help? 2250 Lizardmen army list vs Vampire Counts

[Tarendal]

Greets! I'm new here, just returning to the games (Warhammer and 40k). I've got a match coming up and am looking for some advice. This is going to be my first game of Warhammer in over a decade, and is against a person who plays regularly. I'd like to give a good showing.

Here's what I know about my opponent.. He plays Vampire Counts. I watched him play a match recently, and he loves his ghouls. What he fielded was a horde sized block of ghouls, a unit or two of skeletons, a small unit of mounted wights, a 20 or so strong unit of grave guard. A vampire lord and 2 other vampires, one tooled up for magic, one for combat.

After the battle, he talked a lot about how awesome the ghouls were in a horde, so I expect to see that popping up again. I also know he focuses on the raising dead and danse macabre spells.

Here's what I've got for a list so far:

Lord
Slann
Focus of mystery, Cupped hands of the Old Ones

Hero
Skink Priest
Dispel scroll

Skink Priest
Plaque of Tepok

Saurus Scar-Veteran
Glittering scales, extra hand weapon

Core
Saurus Warriors
24 with full command, hand weapons and shield
Saurus Scar-Veteran with this unit

Saurus Warriors
25 with full command, hand weapons and shield

Saurus Warriors
20 with full command, hand weapons and shield

Skinks
10 with javelins and shield

Skinks
10 with javelins and shield

Skinks
10 with javelins and shield

Skinks
10 with javelins and shield

Special
Temple Guard
16 with full command
Slann with this unit

Kroxigor
3 kroxigor

Salamanders
2 salamanders with handlers


Thoughts? Suggestions? Any idea as to what I should be watching out for in a Vampire Counts army?

I have the following miniatures, so any changes would need to be within what I've got available:

159 saurus with hand weapons
180 skinks with bows (they're okay with these proxying as javelins or blowguns)
2 lizard swarms
2 snake swarms
1 stegadon
2 shaman
2 salamanders
2 slann
3 kroxigor
4 chameleon skinks
1 saurus lord
Tichi Huichi's Raiders (boxed set)
Tiniquini
2 terradons
40 saurus temple guard

 

[jormi_boced]

I would drop the skink wiith tepok and give your slann rumination

 

[vapor]

Combine some of your skinks and krox into a Skrox unit-- 22 skinks +2 krox with command. This will help keep your krox alive longer and it actually a great flanking unit.

Drop the third krox to add rumination to your Slann.

Drop the second skink priest with tepok to add becalming cogitation, and to make your Slann the BSB (it will help cut down his magic phase and BSBs can now be used for ALL leadership tests, including fear and panic!)

Split your Salamanders into two units of one.

You might want to consider dropping the third unit of Saurus to beef out the other two units and give them spears-- the more ranks you have the better off you are in 8th.

 

[Khakorlot]

Considering he mentioned the Danse, I have a feeling he won't be reaching for his forbidden lores and will be sticking with the vamps lore (though I may be wrong); I doubt you'll need the scroll in this case, since one failed cast means his wizard loses the rest of that phase, you can't reliably cast Invocation on 1 die anymore, and to be safe his casters will need to use 2 unless he's feeling lucky. Whatever's left for the danse should be simple enough to counter with dispel dice.

Instead of the scroll, consider adding the bane head to your Slann (if you're taking LoLight on this Slann, the extra punch against VC + Bane Head on his General could mean an early crumble, or at the very least a fatally wounded vampire (well, as fatally wounded as the living dead can be).

I agree with nuking the tepok priest, two heavens priests really aren't worth it, especially since they're so fragile. Grab either Rumination or Cogitation on your Slann, the former can make it easier to cast, the latter can make sure that you can throw dispel dice at the becalmed caster all day long.

I dislike Krox units that are simply just krox, especially when they're up against poison units. Ghouls will simply drown them in poisoned attacks and drag them down. I would either stick them in a skink unit for a bit of potection, or drop them (my personal choice).

 

[Tarendal]

Definitely appreciate the advice. Following is a revised list. Look a bit better?

Lord
Slann
Battle standard bearer, Focus of mystery, Focused Rumination, Plaque of Dominion, Cupped hands of the Old Ones

Hero
Skink Priest

Saurus Scar-Veteran #1
Sword of swift slaying, light armor, shield

Saurus Scar-Veteran #2
Gold sigil sword, light armor, shield

Core
Saurus Warriors
24 with full command, hand weapons and shield
Saurus Scar-Veteran #1 with this unit

Saurus Warriors
25 with full command, hand weapons and shield
Saurus Scar-Veteran #2 with this unit

Saurus Warriors
25 with full command, hand weapons and shield

Skinks
12 with javelins and shield

Skinks
12 with javelins and shield

Special
Temple Guard
20 with musician and standard bearer
Slann with this unit

Rare
Salamander
Salamander with extra handler

Salamander
Salamander with extra handler

Based on feedback here and on other sites, as well as my thoughts while tweaking the list, I made the following changes to the original:

Dropped the dispel scroll on a skink shaman.
Ditched the second skink shaman with Tepok.
Beefed up both the temple guard, and the third unit of Saurus.
Dropped two groups of ten skinks, raised remaining units up to twelve.
Dropped the three kroxigor.
Split the salamanders into two units of one.
Added a second scar-veteran, and gave each magical weapons to get initiative against his vampires.
Made the slann the BSB and beefed him up a bit.

It's sounding like I should be using Lore of Light, is that going to be best for this? I considered putting the skink priest into a unit of the skinks to help keep him safe, but I shouldn't be facing any missile weapons. Good idea? Bad idea?

 

[vapor]

Overall a much better list.

I would trade out the Plaque of Dominion for Becalming Cogitation. Vampires have high leadership (the lord is LD10, even heroes outside of his bubble are 7) so you probably won't be making them stupid very often, but becalming can really tone down the magic phase (which is very important for them!). You might also consider giving the Skink Priest the Cube of Darkness-- acts like a dispell scroll but has a 50% chance of ending his magic phase entirely.

Light is a good lore choice, but if you go that route I would change your load outs on your scar vets-- Time Warp gives you ASF and Speed of Light gives you WS 10 and I10 (and if you have the extra powerdice you can boost them to effect everyone in a 12" bubble) so the Gold Sigil Sword and Sword of Swift Slaying are a bit wasted. I would actually go the cheap route and give them both halberds in exchange for the magic weapon and shields.

 

[Tarendal]

It looks like it'd be a perfect swap to take out the plaque, add becalming, take out the magic swords, and add the cube. It'd be sticking with hand weapon and shield for the scar veterans, unless I drop a couple of skinks, but at least I'd keep the ward save.

I'm thinking light'll be the best bet, solely for the damage capability against undead. Knowing I've got to completely wipe out his units to get victory points, I want to be able to tear them up quickly. Thought about life, but am hoping I can do enough damage to his units to isolate his vampires and either overwhelm them with ranks or get off a good direct damage spell.