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Lizardmen Army list building 101
Introduction
I noticed that this forum doesn’t have a lot of stickied tactic topics from 7th and nothing about competitive army list building. In this article I will discuss how to effectively build army lists, especially all comers list for tournaments. I’ve been playing Lizardmen since 5th edition and been on the Swedish tournament scene for some time now. I also tend to keep myself updated on what the generic tournament builds looks like and what the top end players use. I spend a fair amount of time discussing and optimizing lists with other experienced players so my knowledge of Lizardmen and army list building is pretty decent. That being said, this article will hardly be of much use if you are a seasoned tournament veteran or if you have no interest in going to tournaments, but if you are new to the tournament scene and struggle with list building this will probably be helpful.
Basic Tournament list building
When building your list, always have a plan for every unit you take. Don’t just grab a couple of each unit type based on a hunch, always have a basic idea what that units purpose is and how it will complement your army. I will later give some good example of questions to keep in mind when building an all comers list.
There are two theories about list building that I find particularly interesting and inspiring; redundancy and complementing. Building an army list with complementing in mind you need to think about what each unit contributes to the army. For example a Slann build and a Carnosaur build looks very different, as you need different units to complement them. Building an army list with redundancy in mind is very important. Redundancy simple means you have multiple units that can carry out a specific task, and you can lose any unit in your army without greatly affecting your army.
Skinks for example are shooting support and needed to take out high T targets. If you only take 1 skink unit and face a skaven list with an abomination, he can simply focus all his fire power on that skink unit and his abomination can reach your battle line without risk of dying. If you on the other hand take 3 units of skinks he can’t deal with them all, and you can kill the abomination even if you lose 1 or even 2 skink units.
You don’t necessarily need to take the same choice multiple times to achieve redundancy as some units can take on multiple roles. For example Chameleon Skinks can cover parts of Terradons job and parts of skinks job by using their scout ability to marsh block and their high BS for effective shooting.
There are 5 roles that you need to fill in your army; Harassers, fighters, anvils, shooting support and hammers.
Harassers job is to marsh block, take out war machines, mage hunt, bait and redirect. In the Lizardmen list skinks, cammo skinks, terradons and skink cohorts are good harassers. Especially terradons and cammo skinks are useful harassers as they are very mobile and can marsh block from turn 1, while skink skirmishers can take their role later in the game. Skink cohorts are the best and cheapest redirectors we have, and since they are not skirmishing you can angle them and control pursue/overrun paths.
Fighters are close combat specialist who can beat full ranked infantry in the front without support and do well on their own. In the Lizardmen list there are only two really potent fighter unit; Kroxigors and Saurus, two very hard hitting units (one with good SCR). Cold One Cavalry could be placed into this category aswell, but are much better suited as hammers as they are only truly efficient on the charge.
Anchors, or anvils, are units they tie down an enemy while a hammer unit hits them in the flank or rear, standard tank and flank unit. There are two important abilities a anchor needs: staying power and resilience. Lizardmens best anchor is the temple guard with slann unit, as they are incredibly resilient with their T4 and 2+ save, while still having incredible staying power thanks to Immune to Psychology, Stubborn, Coldblooded and most of the time a BSB around. Other decent anvils are stegadons and saurus units. Stegadons, especially with a chief on it, have both resilience and staying power, and with stubborn LD6 and coldblooded they have 90% (96% with chief) chance of passing a break test if they are in BSB range. Saurus can also be good anvils when they are within BSB and Slann’s LD range, as they can lose combat with 3 and still have 90% chance of holding.
Shooting support is exactly what it sounds like, shooty troops. Lizardmen doesn’t really have any long range shooting except for the occasional Giant Bow, so they rely on their three main shooting troops: Salamanders, Razordons and Skinks. Salamanders can reach up to 6” (move) + 10” (artillery dice) +8” (template) but to be efficient they need to be at around 10” range after moving, skinks range is 6” + 12” or 8” and razordon are 6” + 12”.
Hammers are heavy hitters, units that can really dish out some pain on the charge. The hammers in the Lizardmen list are all types of Stegadons and Cold One Cavalry, due to their massive damage potential on the charge and high movement. Kroxigors are decent hammers as well but are usually too wide to be very mobile and good for flanking.
Here’s a short summary of the Lizardmen untis and their roles, units in bold are have their assigned role as main role, while those in non-bold can act as the role but are a suboptimal choice. As you can see most units have multiple roles. This is also when complementing comes into place, you can easily see what units can complement certain choices and act as support in their roles.
Anchors: Temple Guards, Stegadons, Saurus
Hammers: Cold One Cavalry, Stegadons, Kroxigors
CC Specialists: Kroxigors, Saurus, Cold One Cavalry, Temple Guards
Shooting: Skink skirmishers, Salamanders, Razordons, Terradons, Stegadons
Harrassing: Terradons, Chameleons, Skink Cohorts, Jungle Swarms, Skinks Skirmishers, Slamanders/Razordons
All comers lists
As mentioned before there are certain questions you need to ask yourself when building an all comers list. In a tournament environment you face very different lists, and even if it is impossible to make a list with no bad match ups or no arch nemesis list you can make a list with no impossible match ups. The questions you need to ask yourself differ depending on the tournament climate but here are a few examples:
Can I handle 11+ PDs Lists? Gunlines? Shoot & Avoidance lists? 2 Steam tanks / hydras / abominations / stegadons? 2-3 Great / Warplighting Cannons? 10-20 Wraiths? Chariot spam? High armor troops? Horde armies? Psychology? The regenerating Black Knight bus? Bloodthirsters / Dragons? Flying circus style armies?
Introduction
I noticed that this forum doesn’t have a lot of stickied tactic topics from 7th and nothing about competitive army list building. In this article I will discuss how to effectively build army lists, especially all comers list for tournaments. I’ve been playing Lizardmen since 5th edition and been on the Swedish tournament scene for some time now. I also tend to keep myself updated on what the generic tournament builds looks like and what the top end players use. I spend a fair amount of time discussing and optimizing lists with other experienced players so my knowledge of Lizardmen and army list building is pretty decent. That being said, this article will hardly be of much use if you are a seasoned tournament veteran or if you have no interest in going to tournaments, but if you are new to the tournament scene and struggle with list building this will probably be helpful.
Basic Tournament list building
When building your list, always have a plan for every unit you take. Don’t just grab a couple of each unit type based on a hunch, always have a basic idea what that units purpose is and how it will complement your army. I will later give some good example of questions to keep in mind when building an all comers list.
There are two theories about list building that I find particularly interesting and inspiring; redundancy and complementing. Building an army list with complementing in mind you need to think about what each unit contributes to the army. For example a Slann build and a Carnosaur build looks very different, as you need different units to complement them. Building an army list with redundancy in mind is very important. Redundancy simple means you have multiple units that can carry out a specific task, and you can lose any unit in your army without greatly affecting your army.
Skinks for example are shooting support and needed to take out high T targets. If you only take 1 skink unit and face a skaven list with an abomination, he can simply focus all his fire power on that skink unit and his abomination can reach your battle line without risk of dying. If you on the other hand take 3 units of skinks he can’t deal with them all, and you can kill the abomination even if you lose 1 or even 2 skink units.
You don’t necessarily need to take the same choice multiple times to achieve redundancy as some units can take on multiple roles. For example Chameleon Skinks can cover parts of Terradons job and parts of skinks job by using their scout ability to marsh block and their high BS for effective shooting.
There are 5 roles that you need to fill in your army; Harassers, fighters, anvils, shooting support and hammers.
Harassers job is to marsh block, take out war machines, mage hunt, bait and redirect. In the Lizardmen list skinks, cammo skinks, terradons and skink cohorts are good harassers. Especially terradons and cammo skinks are useful harassers as they are very mobile and can marsh block from turn 1, while skink skirmishers can take their role later in the game. Skink cohorts are the best and cheapest redirectors we have, and since they are not skirmishing you can angle them and control pursue/overrun paths.
Fighters are close combat specialist who can beat full ranked infantry in the front without support and do well on their own. In the Lizardmen list there are only two really potent fighter unit; Kroxigors and Saurus, two very hard hitting units (one with good SCR). Cold One Cavalry could be placed into this category aswell, but are much better suited as hammers as they are only truly efficient on the charge.
Anchors, or anvils, are units they tie down an enemy while a hammer unit hits them in the flank or rear, standard tank and flank unit. There are two important abilities a anchor needs: staying power and resilience. Lizardmens best anchor is the temple guard with slann unit, as they are incredibly resilient with their T4 and 2+ save, while still having incredible staying power thanks to Immune to Psychology, Stubborn, Coldblooded and most of the time a BSB around. Other decent anvils are stegadons and saurus units. Stegadons, especially with a chief on it, have both resilience and staying power, and with stubborn LD6 and coldblooded they have 90% (96% with chief) chance of passing a break test if they are in BSB range. Saurus can also be good anvils when they are within BSB and Slann’s LD range, as they can lose combat with 3 and still have 90% chance of holding.
Shooting support is exactly what it sounds like, shooty troops. Lizardmen doesn’t really have any long range shooting except for the occasional Giant Bow, so they rely on their three main shooting troops: Salamanders, Razordons and Skinks. Salamanders can reach up to 6” (move) + 10” (artillery dice) +8” (template) but to be efficient they need to be at around 10” range after moving, skinks range is 6” + 12” or 8” and razordon are 6” + 12”.
Hammers are heavy hitters, units that can really dish out some pain on the charge. The hammers in the Lizardmen list are all types of Stegadons and Cold One Cavalry, due to their massive damage potential on the charge and high movement. Kroxigors are decent hammers as well but are usually too wide to be very mobile and good for flanking.
Here’s a short summary of the Lizardmen untis and their roles, units in bold are have their assigned role as main role, while those in non-bold can act as the role but are a suboptimal choice. As you can see most units have multiple roles. This is also when complementing comes into place, you can easily see what units can complement certain choices and act as support in their roles.
Anchors: Temple Guards, Stegadons, Saurus
Hammers: Cold One Cavalry, Stegadons, Kroxigors
CC Specialists: Kroxigors, Saurus, Cold One Cavalry, Temple Guards
Shooting: Skink skirmishers, Salamanders, Razordons, Terradons, Stegadons
Harrassing: Terradons, Chameleons, Skink Cohorts, Jungle Swarms, Skinks Skirmishers, Slamanders/Razordons
All comers lists
As mentioned before there are certain questions you need to ask yourself when building an all comers list. In a tournament environment you face very different lists, and even if it is impossible to make a list with no bad match ups or no arch nemesis list you can make a list with no impossible match ups. The questions you need to ask yourself differ depending on the tournament climate but here are a few examples:
Can I handle 11+ PDs Lists? Gunlines? Shoot & Avoidance lists? 2 Steam tanks / hydras / abominations / stegadons? 2-3 Great / Warplighting Cannons? 10-20 Wraiths? Chariot spam? High armor troops? Horde armies? Psychology? The regenerating Black Knight bus? Bloodthirsters / Dragons? Flying circus style armies?
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