8th Ed. New battalion, what to make?

[magma796]

Hey guys, I've recently bought a lizardmen battalion and was wondering what i should make for them. For those of you who don't know what's in it:

1. 12 skinks w/ hand-weapons blowpipes

2. 20 saurus w/ hand-weapon shield

3. 10 saurus temple guard w/ halberd shield

4. 8 saurus cavalry

also, I will be playing a dwarf player soon so i would imagine I need something to help me in close combat.

For when my army starts growing I was planning on having a balanced all round army, which is my other question. I'll be playing the dwarf player a lot so if there's any suggestion on units good against them It'd be appreciated

 

[Guardian of Hexoatl]

I recommend taking the cold one cav champion and using him as a mounted scar vet for your first few games since the battalion normally lacks any heroes

 

[Shaslain]

I use the temple guard champion as my scar vet and oldblood on foot. One more thing you can make out of the battallion are jungle swarms. The little snakes on the Cold one Riders sprue can be stuck on 40mm bases to make skirmishers. Also, I use the unmounted cold ones as salamanders, I just put the head with a mask on them and place them on a 40mm base as well. One more thing you can try is using the Temple guard standard bearer as a BSB, you should probably just use the rest of the TG as saurus for now until you get a slann.

 

[strewart]

Yeah overall the battalion is a decent enough start, but the TG aren't worth it until you have a Slann (as mentioned use them to fill in the back of saurus units), cold ones are a pretty weak unit choice, and don't bother with swarms as they are very useful.

Saurus equipment is mostly up to you. Spears will give you a more defensive unit, hand weapons will be a bit better at attacking though they are still slow. Both are about equal in effectiveness. Same with skinks, either choice works, though while you only have 12 of them it is best to give them blowpipes and use them as skirmishers.

One of the first things you want extra is salamanders, whether you convert them from something else or buy the actual model either way they are a very effective unit. Specifically against Dwarfs they will be pretty good. You will also want good warmachine hunters, either terradons or charmeleon skinks (both can be converted from toher things to save money) or both.

Keep your saurus units at 20 minimum if you can, so you have a unit already or you can add a few TG and have a unit of 24.

Welcome to Lustria, and good luck with them!

 

[magma796]

alright thanks for the replies everyone, I'm building my models right now.

 

[magma796]

Alright! I played my first game today with someone who was showing me the ropes so my list was:

1. 12 skinks w/ brave

2. 20 saurus w/ full command and spears

3 scar vet w/ maiming shield, burning blade of chotec, and light armour

total: 500 pts

his is as follows (he also played lizardmen)

1 salamander w/ 3 handlers

2. 20 (or so) saurus w/ full command

3. scar vet w/ great weapon

so the summary is, first turn salamander ate all of its handlers and everyone else moved forward. then my skinks shredded the salamander with poison shots the next turn and the saurus units met. then his scar veteran punched mine in the face and my block of saurus managed to tie combat despite the loss. turn 3, skinks are still shooting at the salamander whilst the saurus continue to duke it out, with his barely winning combat.

result: the store was closing soon so we had to end it early but it was getting to be a somewhat close game


tell me what you guys think of how I did tactics wise or if there was anything wrong with my list

thanks for the replies