AoS If you can summon skinks, why bring them?

[geographer]

Title summarizes it. I see many lists bringing skinks, but why do so if they are the easiest to summon? I love skinks (ran a skink cloud back in 8th and they are my favorite lizard models) and I think they are reliable objective holders. But why not maximize damage output by bringing other units (razordons, ripperdactyls, etc), and as the game progresses, summon skinks to hold the objectives? Or if you really want first turn objective holding, why not bring chameleons and follow up with more summoned skinks? Thanks for your advice. I haven't played much AoS.

 

[LizardWizard]

People bring Skinks if they want a unit of 40. Also they are a cheap battleline that leaves more MPP for Razordons, Riperdactyles, big dinos, ect.

Also, I love Chameleon Skinks. They are very undervalued. Bring them they are strong and you won't regret it. Normally when I bring them it is one unit of 10. That seems to be about the mark where they can snipe off some enemy heroes.

 

[Killer Angel]

Title summarizes it. I see many lists bringing skinks, but why do so if they are the easiest to summon?

Because you need to have battleline units in your list ( the old "core units" in WHFB).
Skinks are useful and are out cheapest battleline, to the point they are not even a tax

 

[GuaDan]

Because you need to have battleline units in your list ( the old "core units" in WHFB).
Skinks are useful and are out cheapest battleline, to the point they are not even a tax

This

And they can move, screen and avoid being killed like no other small cheap battleline

 

[Asamu]

Screening. You want something cheap that you don't mind sacrificing to block alpha strikes.

 

[Blitzkriyg]

Cheap mandatory units and I'd rather not spend my points summoning them

 

[WarbossLincoln]

Cheap mandatory units and I'd rather not spend my points summoning them

This, if I can bring 20-30 skinks depending on points then I don't need to summon them turn 1-2. I can summon a bastilodon turn 2 instead, or a carnasaur. When I have no more skinks left turn 3-4 I can summon more then.

 

[Canas]

Cheap mandatory units and I'd rather not spend my points summoning them

Also, summoning still has restrictions. You might not be able to summon skinks in a certain place while an already existing unit can simply walk there.

 

[Putzfrau]

Screening. You want something cheap that you don't mind sacrificing to block alpha strikes.

This is my reason. I bring one or two 10-man units of skinks in my FoS list just to screen my saurus blocks from getting destroyed before they can do anything.

 

[geographer]

Great responses! Thank you. My thinking was, overload on saurus/cavalry for my core and get as many damage output units on the field for turn one. Then summon as many skinks as possible for bubble wrapping later...

 

[Blitzkriyg]

I don't know if it recommend any of our battleline for real damage dealing, this is another reason to take skinks to have room for our dinos to come in and dish out hurt

 

[Canas]

I don't know if it recommend any of our battleline for real damage dealing, this is another reason to take skinks to have room for our dinos to come in and dish out hurt

Warriors do significant damage, but only at horde size.
Guards do good amounts of damage, and in an eternal starhost they can do obscene amounts of damage with 2/3+/3+/-1/D3 attacks per model, but are so incredibly suspectible to mortal wounds they'l rarely get the chance to.
Knights deal a decent amount of damage, and become quite good when you stack command abilities on em, especially the scar vet on cold one's in combination with the star priest's venom.Unbuffed however they're our only battleline that'l reliable achieve some damage at minimum size. They don't need the hordes of warriors, and they're not as suspectible to mortal wounds as guards.

 

[Blitzkriyg]

I do agree our other battleline can be OK and I do run a minimum unit of knights, but if rather spend those points on bastiladons, ripperdactyls or carnos

 

[Canas]

Also, especially Knights have the benefit of not having a giant bullseye painted on em unlike rippers & carno's. It gives you some stuff that will actually get in range to do stuff, which has its uses.

Beyond that, yeah our battleline will never really be the star of our army as it stands.

 

[Lizard_Lad]

Because you need to have battleline units in your list ( the old "core units" in WHFB).
Skinks are useful and are out cheapest battleline, to the point they are not even a tax

Very true, they are only 60 pts for 10 of them

 

[TheadTheOgorSlayer]

I played only two games with seraphon so I’m not exactly an experienced player... but with my summoning list the ones I put down were much more useful then the ones I summoned, they are uncanny survival wise in situations where they are attacked by multiple units, and since they have high bravery no other armies horde (except death... oof) can reliably ignore casualties. They are also pretty fast if I remember right. So basically what I’m saying is use them as sacrifices to alpha strikes, it’s extremely difficult to be overwhelmed when you start with a bunch of minimum or max sized units and can replace them 30 at a time lol, and 40 skinks with rerolls to hit will out damage a lot of battle line. I also see them as superior to Saurus although I may be wrong? On paper they seem much better and I don’t like paying 10 points for something that resembles a skeleton but with less damage over all... (400 possible attacks with a command point re summon is brutal #nerfpleaselol)