8th Ed. skinks vs skink skirmish

[Fuquan Smith]

so i have been using skink skirmishers a lot but lately i am wondering if (considering you use them with 10 ) it is worth the 20 points vs a block of 10 normal skinks. you are able to shoot in 2 ranks so 2 ranks of 5 would work i think. also you lose moving all directions so it needs a bit more planning but you are able to negate ranks in a close combat situation.

so 70 points for skirmish with -1 to hit when getting shot at and more movability
or 50 points for negating ranks when nececary and 20 points cheaper

what do you think and excuse my english =)

 

[Arli]

In 8th edition, you cannot move in any direction. You only have the forward arc, not the 360 degree view. That said, you can reform as many times as you want within their movement distance. I favor the skink cohorts now. Mostly because I face skaven alot (damn Storm banner). Since the banner shuts down their poison shots (hitting on like a 7), I would rather have the 10 javelin shots and the small chance of lasting more than one turn of combat if they are charged (never happens though, unless you put a krox in there).

 

[Chahlie]

I say it depends on what the rest of your army is. I personally use cohorts for the cheap flank charge rank denial (assuming the enemy is fighting a lot of saurus), though skirmishers are nice for the march and shoot.

 

[Arli]

I am disapointed in the shooting potential of the skink skirmishers. Their power is in the poison shots. I find that in most cases, I want to stay out of the 6 inch range (to be able to stand and shoot). This makes double tapping much harder due to the negative modifiers putting them on 7s to hit (negating the poison rule). So, then I end up only single tapping (which is the same as using javelins). That is why I opt for cohorts.

 

[Carnivorous]

I'm still trying to get a feel as well for skirmishing skinks.
Last game my whole unit was fried by a fireball in turn one.
It's not that I expect them to survive but considering how easy it is to kill them, 7 points is a lot for one little skink. And even though they technically have a range of 24", considering that you have to roll 7s if that happens (and thereby the poison shots don't count), it has got to be the most miserable shooting unit in the whole of the warhammer world. In my opinion if I take a shooty unit, I want them to shoot stuff; I don't take them because they are skirmishers. Granted, at closer range they can do more damage but then who wouldn't charge the lot the following round? WS2 and T2!!
I still want to try and take a larger unit of skirmishers to see if the added survivability will make a difference. 10 seem to few.
So far I've had a better experience with regular skinks. They still die but they do so for cheaper.

 

[Pwidget]

The good thing about skinks IS the skirmishing in my opinion. If you play it right you can annoy the piss out of a unit for a long time. I played a game against Beastmen that I spent the first 4 turns of the game running around and peppering a unit of 6 minotaurs. I killed a few, but the thing was, he kept trying to turn them around to charge me until it was too late for them to get into combat with a unit worth hitting.

Exact same thing happened with dwarves. I went up the flank and started poisoning his warmachines, and when he aimed his block of warriors at me I would just move out of their charge arc and keep shooting. Yeah, they'll eventually die if he tries to shoot at them or cast a spell on them, but if he wastes a turn or 2 of a good combat unit chasing them, I think they did their job.

 

[Hiv0r]

Granted, at closer range they can do more damage but then who wouldn't charge the lot the following round? WS2 and T2!!
I still want to try and take a larger unit of skirmishers to see if the added survivability will make a difference. 10 seem to few.
So far I've had a better experience with regular skinks. They still die but they do so for cheaper.

Lots and lots of people wouldnt charge them. Skinks are 6 points a model meaning a unit of 10 is 60 points. They will often be off to the side aswell so here are the reasons:

1. They will be misdirected overrunning facing the wrong way (true they can test to restrain now)
2. They might not be able to charge you (warmachines)
3. Using 200-300 point unit to kill 60 points means they get to you a turn later if your off to the side which is a great trade off
4. You can use them to block charges or even just so you present a flank etc
5. They are low toughness but still are minus 1 to shoot and with a 12 inch march they are more based around avoidance then high toughness/high armour save for survivability.
6. If they are getting shot at/charged at/magic'd at they are not shooting the rest of your high point important army pieces!!

 

[wolfmage]

If you face a tonne of lightly armoured foes I'd take skirmishers if you face small number of heavy Infantry take cohorts with Kroxigor. If you are facing something weird like Skaven it comes to personal preference.

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

I have to agree with Hivor. This of course doesn't negate oddball situations or personal play but Hivor does bring up some very good points