8th Ed. Lizards are slow...wth?

[SouthlandLizardman]

I lived in Florida for a while, and there were many lizards and various reptiles which lived their. All of them were fast, crocodiles and alligators can run faster than horses. And there were these annoying little black lizards which always ran around my lawn, and I could never catch them. Not even my cat could catch them (all though it is good that he didn't, because people say they are poisonous if you eat them).

I feel as though the low initiative and relatively low movement rate really misrepresents lizards. I hope in the next book the lizardmen feel more like actual lizards.

 

[Raijing]

Im gonna quote my friend on this one. "each army has a downside for a reason. otherwise we would all play the same army then it would get boring." Mike manager of the games workshop near my home.

The whole point of Lizardmen having low Initiative is to offset our good stats and our powerful magic.

 

[NamTaey]

I agree with your reasoning but remember, Saurus aren't using all four legs. They have to use both hands for their weaponry and they are heavily armored. Not to mention the Temple Guard are lugging around a fat guy

 

[kroxigor01]

Also; skinks.

 

[SouthlandLizardman]

To me handicapping lizards with a low initiative is a poor way to make the game balanced. GW could have come up with something better than that. And not using all fours doesn't really explain it for me either because following that logic other anthropomorphic races in the warhammer world such as Skaven and beastmen should in theory suffer the same consequences.

 

[strewart]

There are many many types of lizards, some are incredibly fast and agile while others are slow and rely more on scaring other animals. Skinks represent the fast type well. Remember also as a cold blooded animal, most lizards and snakes need a few hours in a hot sun before they can actually move very much at all.

Personally I think the LM army is represented rather well. The skinks are the fast and agile creatures, but since they have speed they have thin skin, not great scales, and die easily. Saurus are a larger, slower, better armoured type of lizard, they lumber across the field but once they reach combat, 2 attacks is another way to represent warming up and getting fast and aggressive really. Speed is often shown with initiative, but when you think about it a saurus is attacking twice as fast as most other infantry since they can attack twice for every one attack from most other core troops. A good way to represent the lizards being slow and lazy until they placed in a threatened position, then they go nuts.

Thats the way I see it. If you think the rules are a poor representation of lizards in general, thats a personal opinion and there is really no problem with that. I am quite sure things will not change in the next book though; saurus have been slow since they were first introduced.

 

[TheRolfgar]

If they were to make them faster, they would need to make them more expensive. Basic warriors of chaos are 5ish points more per model, but have better I and WS.

The game has to be balanced around unit power and points cost. The cost for a Saurus is fairly reasonable for what you get in my opinion.

 

[SouthlandLizardman]

What specific reptiles in particulair are slow? The only "slow" reptiles I am even aware of are turtles/tortoises.
I would defenitly pay 5 more points per saurus (saurii?) to get better I and WS.

 

[eppe]

What specific reptiles in particulair are slow? The only "slow" reptiles I am even aware of are turtles/tortoises.
I would defenitly pay 5 more points per saurus (saurii?) to get better I and WS.

It's a game, in the end fluff comes second.

 

[kroxigor01]

In my area I commonly see geckos, skinks, blue tongued lizards and Australian water dragons. Twice I have seen a Goanna.

Geckos and skinks are very aware of what is around them, you can't sneak up on them at all, but they are slow enough to catch because they are small. (these are Lizardman skinks)

Blue tongued lizards and water dragons are very slow witted. Basking in the sun in the morning they won't move unless you are right in front of them or literally touch them. The blue tongue is medium paced (Saurus), the water dragon is fast (Kroxigor)

The Goanna is similair to those last two but much larger and faster. If you annoy the bugger you better run (Cold One! Run!).

EDIT: Compare this to the mammals of the region. Possums, they notice you 20 metres away and run into a tree, unless they are city Possums and you have food . Kangaroos, will notice you. Even lazy Koalas will notice you before you notice them if they aren't asleep. Lizards are slow and don't give a f***. Which is why they are awesome.

 

[SouthlandLizardman]

Thank you kroxigor01, that is actually an answer satisfactory enough for me to let this go. I think the main reason it bothered me was because rules are meant to represent something, and if they don't accurately represent what they are supposed to it just doesn't sit well with me.