8th Ed. Should lizzies stay back or be aggressive?

[Pinktaco]

Lets look at this on two ways:

We go first.

And we go second.

What do you consider the ideal solution? I realize that it depends on the army (wood elfs, empire, dwarfs are all quite shooty so probably good to be aggressive), but there are also times I'm sort of not sure.

Our army doesn't have a good range with the exception of our regular stegadons bolt thrower, the rest is 12"-18" range, with the bulk of our shooting at 12" range.

However, we're an army that in some ways are more reliant on magic than other armies so utilizing that as much as possible is always great.

Here's the thing though: several months ago I played against my Empire friend in the local game store. Some random dude (who's also a lizzie player AFAIK) were like "woah you guys are really aggressive" - standing at close to each other as possible.

With cannons I just figured that would be the best to do.

Thoughts, opinions, experiences etc?

 

[n810]

I think I realy depends on the army build,
If you are going monster mash, then yea definately get into combat as soon as possible,
Skink clouds also tend to rush forward, but then dodge combat in favor of poison death.
Now with a magic based saurus heavy list you are probaly going to hang back a bit.

 

[LawGnome]

We have an army that desperately wants to be passive. Our main combat units (saurus and temple guard) are so slow that they cannot expect to get into combat before turn 3 without help like the swiftness banner or Tetto'eko (or both). Our best support units excel at dancing around and peppering units with poison shots while trying to avoid close combat at all costs. Our heavy support tends to outspeed our main units, but can't be expected to win a combat on their own, so they have to hang back until something is close enough for a combo charge.

Added to those factors is the fact that a lot of our army is built around the idea of having a slann, which is a great (if expensive) caster, but which is absolutely useless in combat. We want to keep our super pricey frog out of combat while he peppers the opponent with magic missiles.


Now, with all that being said, I think that we are far more effective when we go against expectations and play aggressively. I don't think that we should play passively, but should instead use our passive elements to fuel our aggression. Yes, our saurus units are slow, but that just means that the skinks have time to be annoying as the saurus waddle across the field. Move your combat blocks into combat as quickly as you can, while shooting down everything you can on the way. We have to be aggressive, because we are too short-ranged to be an effective gunline.

Of course, it does depend on the army you are facing. Normally we don't care if we get charged, but maybe try to avoid getting impact hits if possible.

 

[Eladimir]

I had an extremely experience player talk strategy with me and he was explaining that lizardmen (unless vs a gun line) should be a turn 5-6 combat army. Should be played more passive, let the enemy come at your as you stall and whittle them down before hitting with everything closer to the end of the game

I'm gonna give it a try.

 

[Kblock]

I have learned to play WHFB by using my friends Empire and HE armies until I got my Lizardmen. I have only played in one game with my army so far, so I do not have a lot of experience. I do run both Saurus and Temple Guard due to the models I have available, and in the game, I did hold back and let the enemy come to me. CC did not really start until the 3rd turn, and that worked well in combination with my Light Slann providing buffs.