7th Ed. Skink Chiefs. How, what, when?

[erians]

Recent comp changes in the tournament scene has made the chief a pretty decent choice, and I've always wanted to field one. I've never ever used skink chiefs in any edition as I never found them particularly useful (unless they're on a Steg, but then the steg does most of the work anyway). Ive created some basic set ups that I think might be useful, but as with everything in Warhammer there is a HUGE difference between how units looks on paper and how effective (or ineffective) they really are on the battlefield. The idea is to create a Skink Chief on foot or on a terradon, that is an effecient unit. My current army is not using any terradons (I'm trying to play without the Terradon-crutch for a while), so keep in mind that he can't join a unit of terries if hes mounted and his main rolse is supposed to be to replace the war machine hunting role that terradons usually take.

The set ups I was thinking of was either:

Chief, Spear, LA, Sh, , Terradon, Staff of the lost Sun (maybe Venom if I got the pts) 128 pt

Decent shooting and combat potential but he is incredibly fragile and with a penalty for multi shot and almost always for moving he's hitting on 4+, 5+ on long range. To be able to charge a war machine he needs to show himself for 1 turn, and anything but a catapult or cannon has 50%+ chance of one-shotting him.

Chief, LA, Shield, Additional Hand Weapon, Cloak of Feathers

War machine hunting is this skink only purpose. He can hide in a skirmish unit and be launched 20" into fast cav or war machines. Pretty decent chock value but I'm not sure how effectful he will be.

How are you guys playing skink chiefs? What set ups, if any, have you been successful with?

 

[n810]

Not sure if this combo is posible (no book at the moment)
But banehead, Dager of Sotec and Cloak of Feathers
might make a good mage killer?

 

[Arsenal]

Chief, Spear, LA, Sh, , Terradon, Staff of the lost Sun (maybe Venom if I got the pts) 128 pt

If you dropped the Staff of the Sun and went with Venom of the Firefly Frog and a Blowgun, you essentially have a major pest against any unarmored targets, especially if they are high toughness/high cost. Also if it's a large target, it's easier to hit. If he can take half wounds off a 275 point target, I'm a happy man.

The chief can fltter about, land within short distance by turn 2, shooting, rerolling his shots and march blocking.

Can the Chief drop rocks from his Terradon btw?

 

[n810]

Yea he can, because the drop rocks is a terradon ability and part of it's rules.

 

[erians]

Yea he can, because the drop rocks is a terradon ability and part of it's rules.

Hmm never thought about that, but if you look on page 91 in the LM book the Special rules listed for the terradon as a mount is; Hit and Run, Flying cav, drop rocks and the predator rule, so it would appear that he can drop rocks, move the turn he rallies if he flees as a charge reaction and fly throught forests. Thats pretty awesome, I just assumed that was part of the terradon rider rules, not the terradon rules, but it would appear I was wrong.

If you dropped the Staff of the Sun and went with Venom of the Firefly Frog and a Blowgun, you essentially have a major pest against any unarmored targets, especially if they are high toughness/high cost. Also if it's a large target, it's easier to hit. If he can take half wounds off a 275 point target, I'm a happy man.

I dont need to drop the staff to get venom, but it will only work on CC attacks then. I already have 116 ranged poison attacks, so adding another 2 doesnt really add too much to the list ^_^. 3x S5 shots on the other hand can damage chariots and other support units with save, and it gives him something to do when he cant charge anything.

 

[Arsenal]

. I already have 116 ranged poison attacks, so adding another 2 doesnt really add too much to the list ^_^

Wow 116, that's hardcore! I only had 2 units of skinks, and went Steg heavy when I used him.

What about using him as a mobile BSB to put the banner where you need it, hopping around behind units and even sitting in the woods to keep out of sight. I know some people play that way but i never tried it. Considering the cold-blooded rule, I don't know if it's really needed as breaking isn't the biggest problem facing the army.

 

[Bibamus]

probably terradon + staff is the best combo. it gives the priest a decent save and also the S5 hits can be handy. i'm not a fan of skink chiefs so my opinion is hardly close to objective and i suggest a saurus character unless it really damages your comp, or a war-spear chief, thats viable.

 

[erians]

i'm not a fan of skink chiefs so my opinion is hardly close to objective and i suggest a saurus character unless it really damages your comp, or a war-spear chief, thats viable.

Yeah, I've never played with chiefs (for a reason) but I'm gonna try it out and see what happends, but I agree 100% that a scar vet would be a far more effecient choice. If he just ends up giving away pts then I'll just take the comp hit and go for terries or a scar vet. Its also fun to try out bad choices and see how well you can use them ^^

What about using him as a mobile BSB to put the banner where you need it, hopping around behind units and even sitting in the woods to keep out of sight.

The problem is that if I put a BSB on him he starts costing a lot of pts, and if I were to face something with spells that doesnt need LOS. There are effective spells in both Big and Small Waagh, Heavens, Dark Magic, and Fire, while Shadow, death and Light has some not so effetive spells (12" range). If I have to hide him he won't really be able to be close enought to my fighty units and I already have a Scar Vet bsb.

Ill try the terradon rider in my next game, probably this weekend, and report what the results were, but I'll be up against a 8-9 PD orc army so chances are he's gonna get stomped by a Warpath in turn 1 xD.

 

[Bibamus]

when i used a chief on a terradon with the staff i placed him in a 3 terradon unit. they droped rocks on a cropse cart turn 2 and untill the end of the ame they tried to shot that corpse cart down. they didn't kill it. S5 is nice but aim for things without regen or ward saves, elite infantry should be the target with 5+ or 4+ save

 

[walach]

with the explosion of skaven due to the new book, is there any build with the dagger of sotek or skavenpelt banner worth trying? particularly the latter; big unit of saurus spears with hatred, yes please!

obviously from a tournament perspective, army specific magic items tend to look a bit shabby though.


other than that, i think all the useful items have been discussed already... - war drums? unless used elswhere, you could make a pretty zippy unit of skrox with that.


failing that, couldn't you just drop him altogether and get some more troops?

 

[camo-skink]

since my skink chief one terradon is my general, i gave him piranha blade, and put him a unit of terradon riders so would have a decent in combat. but do you think i should give it staff of the lost sun instead?

 

[Bibamus]

i think you should give him the sacred stegadon helm if he's your general, skinks taking terror tests at Ld 6 is not fun, same with panic tests

 

[erians]

with the explosion of skaven due to the new book, is there any build with the dagger of sotek or skavenpelt banner worth trying? particularly the latter; big unit of saurus spears with hatred, yes please!

obviously from a tournament perspective, army specific magic items tend to look a bit shabby though.

failing that, couldn't you just drop him altogether and get some more troops?

From a purely competative perspective; some more troops or a scar vet is much better. The thing is playing with what's best is rarely as fun as playing with some suboptimal choices and still doing well, and having a Chief on terradon makes the army stand out in a tournament environment. I wanted this to pe a discussion how to use skink chiefs, not how to better spend 120 pts.

About the dagger; almost all units that have characters in them have champions, so flying in with killing put blow will often result in killing a champ, giving the enemy a free persue move and risk getting killed in the process. Even with no champs you rarely hit with more than 1.5-2 attacks, which is a pretty small chance of scoring a KB on a character, and if you dont you'll probably get cut down.

Problem with skavenpelt banner is that is has to be on a skink bsb, and scar vet BSBs or Slann BSBs are soooo much better in every aspect, but frenzy and hatred on a unit with spears would be insane, resulting in 38x S4 attacks with hatred.......

since my skink chief one terradon is my general, i gave him piranha blade, andhim a unit of terradon riders so would have a decent in combat. but do you think i should give it staff of the lost sun instead?

Well as I never tried the chief I have no idea how effective the staff chief is, but I guess you need to think about what your terradons end up doing. Do you engage something with multiple wounds every game? Do they never see combat? I also agree with bibamus (iirc I gave you the same tip when you pm'd me a while back).

 

[JohnMavrick]

Perhaps if your interested in War Machine hunting you could give him the VotFF, AHW, glyph necklas, LA. That would give him 5+ Sv/WSv, 4 magical attacks. Pretty decent for WM hunting!

 

[erians]

Perhaps if your interested in War Machine hunting you could give him the VotFF, AHW, glyph necklas, LA. That would give him 5+ Sv/WSv, 4 magical attacks. Pretty decent for WM hunting!

If you were thinking that set up on a terradon chief then its impossible as you cant have AHW unless you are on foot. If you meant that this chief was supposed to be on foot then he will have problems connecting with war machines properly, a smart opponent deploys them in places with good LOS but without being unprotected. A foot skink with M6 won't be able to connect very well, and my opponents will get 3 shots off at least before getting to it. If you could take both cloak of feathers and Venom it would be any easy choice =/

 

[JohnMavrick]

eh, very true...perhaps the staff would be your best bet! Either that or taking the SotSR for the +2 attacks...but I'd rather give that item to a scar vet or Old Blood.

 

[Bibamus]

its not so usefull on a scar vet since h can get the same bonus from sword of battle + maiming shiled, while being better on the old blood.
also, why would you want poison on a chief? i get the auto-wound part bu you can get the cloak instead for an extra S4 attack, unless facing dwarf crew you should be fine. also maybe the jag charm + a slann to cast bears anger on him in he magic phase, that will probably take out any war machiene your oponenet can field in the 1st few turns (mostly 1 per turn) even if it might mean losing a magic phase or 2 beause of the RiP nature of bears anger
i know its not too smart, but you are the one wanting to use the skink chief. also, in less than 2k point games i have no ideea what to do with him (unless BSB+skavenpelt banner in a unit of COC or spear saurus)

 

[JohnMavrick]

Heh, I just had a funny vision of a Skink Chief on a horned one with a BSB riding around with a bunch of beefy and tough looking CoC...funny...

 

[erians]

(unless BSB+skavenpelt banner in a unit of COC or spear saurus)

Heh, I just had a funny vision of a Skink Chief on a horned one with a BSB riding around with a bunch of beefy and tough looking CoC...funny...

If he takes a horned one he cant take the Skavenpelt flag which kind of defeats the purpose of taking a skink bsb ^_^

 

[JohnMavrick]

Yeah I know...but it was a funny vision in my head. Not that it's legal, that's besides the point