8th Ed. How do you construct your core?

[Putzfrau]

the most popular way to build your core, at least in competitive tournament armies, seems to be one reasonable sized of saurus with full command, and 5 units of skinks. all skirmishers if you want, or you can make the saurus block bigger and run 1 or 2 cohort groups to free up some points.



I find lots of skinks to be a little "unfun" to both use and play against because you're mostly fleeing and redirecting so I tend to run a second saurus block and go a little more combat heavy.

but that's just personal opinion!

really any combination is going to be moderately effective. if you're trying to be super competitive i'd run 1 block of saurus alongside your skirmisher squads. it adds a good combat unit with solid leadership that's going to balance your plethora of skirmishers that are most likely going to be avoiding combat at all costs.

the saurus block is especially worthwhile if you don't run temple guard. if you run a large block of temple guard the core becomes a lot more flexible because the temple guard fill the solid reliable combat role.

 

[Kharn The Betrayer]

I wonder if a horde of krox could work as the combat block. Of course I don't have enough krox to try it but I wonder......

 

[Hebus]

My favorite way to fill core requirement is the following (on a 3k army) :
-30 saurii full command w/ lance
-2x11 skinks musician & banner + 1 Krox
-2x10 skirmishers

A huge block of saurii can destroy almost any base without magic and every base and even some special with magic.

The cohort are chaff killer and redirector : with 2 ranks, 1 banner, 3 S6 attacks, there is very few chaff units that can try to beat those. Moreover, the Ld accorded by Krox is a very nice boost.

Skirmishers, well... we love them!


Edit : on the debate about Skrox units against Saurii units, my vote is definitely for saurii! Skinks just die so easyly that even base unit can defeat them, and the few S6 attacks won't make it (WS3...).
It evens up with saurii against big strength unit which rape ours anyway...

 

[VampTeddy]

Edit : on the debate about Skrox units against Saurii units, my vote is definitely for saurii! Skinks just die so easyly that even base unit can defeat them, and the few S6 attacks won't make it (WS3...).
It evens up with saurii against big strength unit which rape ours anyway...

What s6 attacks?

why would i ever want to pay 50 pts for 3 wounds and no ranks when i can get 10 wounds and 2 possible ranks?

I will forever be a proponent of skinks. I don't nessecarily think they are better - but they have always done better to me than saurus

 

[Kharn The Betrayer]

I am a huge fan of the 11 skink with one krox unit, they are cheap and will easily handle any enemy chaff unit

 

[Putzfrau]

Edit : on the debate about Skrox units against Saurii units, my vote is definitely for saurii! Skinks just die so easyly that even base unit can defeat them, and the few S6 attacks won't make it (WS3...).
It evens up with saurii against big strength unit which rape ours anyway...

What s6 attacks?

why would i ever want to pay 50 pts for 3 wounds and no ranks when i can get 10 wounds and 2 possible ranks?

I will forever be a proponent of skinks. I don't nessecarily think they are better - but they have always done better to me than saurus

why do you think that is the case? my limited experience has been the opposite of that, and most experiences I've read on other forums seem to fall in line with that opinion.

what armies do you commonly face?


just to be clear i'm specifically referring to large (40+) blocks of poison cohorts and larger (24ish) blocks of skroxigor units.

I love skinks and think the lizardmen army is entirely dependent on them, but I've always found them to be most effective in many small controlled groups. I haven't brought cohorts in any size over 20 for some time.

 

[Morewar]

Saurus are likely the most solid core in the game since the warriors of chaos nerf. Iron guts are better but can't think of any other core better than Saurus. I prefer to take skirmishers as my skinks

Witch elves, IC knights, savage Orc big un's, plague bearers(debatable).
Not saying saurus aren't good, but they are outshined by TG and you need to take skinks anyway(chaff, redirectors, monster and warmachine hunting, pains in the arse) so why not leave the core section for them and take the large blocks in special?

 

[VampTeddy]

Edit : on the debate about Skrox units against Saurii units, my vote is definitely for saurii! Skinks just die so easyly that even base unit can defeat them, and the few S6 attacks won't make it (WS3...).
It evens up with saurii against big strength unit which rape ours anyway...

What s6 attacks?

why would i ever want to pay 50 pts for 3 wounds and no ranks when i can get 10 wounds and 2 possible ranks?

I will forever be a proponent of skinks. I don't nessecarily think they are better - but they have always done better to me than saurus

why do you think that is the case? my limited experience has been the opposite of that, and most experiences I've read on other forums seem to fall in line with that opinion.

what armies do you commonly face?


just to be clear i'm specifically referring to large (40+) blocks of poison cohorts and larger (24ish) blocks of skroxigor units.

I love skinks and think the lizardmen army is entirely dependent on them, but I've always found them to be most effective in many small controlled groups. I haven't brought cohorts in any size over 20 for some time.

I regularly face Elves, He and WE, and recently started facing WoC as well - i think the reason my skinks do well would be the numbers they fight against. My opponents like Smaller numbers and more units (around 20ish), where 40 man strong units really shine is when they get to be steadfast for a very long time.

What surprised us though was that a 40 man Skink cohort, beat a 25ish man Seaguard unit, toe to toe, the extra combat res was merely graving. They kicked them hard, even though we agreed it should probably have been only by 0-1 up, i do believe it's a match-up they aren't poorly suited for due to more ranks.

Besides that point, i like the speed, a lot!

If not using TG though, i'll use saurus any day! i need that one unit with toughness 4, i'd just rather have skinks be my secondary unit, than saurus ^^

 

[godswearhats]

Saurus are likely the most solid core in the game since the warriors of chaos nerf. Iron guts are better but can't think of any other core better than Saurus. I prefer to take skirmishers as my skinks

Witch elves, IC knights, savage Orc big un's, plague bearers(debatable).
Not saying saurus aren't good, but they are outshined by TG and you need to take skinks anyway(chaff, redirectors, monster and warmachine hunting, pains in the arse) so why not leave the core section for them and take the large blocks in special?

(slightly off topic but ...)

Wood Elf Dryads are still one of the best core units in the game.