8th Ed. Struggling with 500 points

[Dean mottershead]

Hello I am in a local gaming club 500 points campaign we are allowed a 125 point hero and 25 point magic item for "free" and then a 500 point army and I am really struggling with my lizards I have played about 6 games now and had 2 very close losses and about 4 table wipes

I am taking

"Free" hero skink priest level 1 I am not allowed to make him level 2 yet due to club campaign rules
Power stone I normally don't even roll for which spell and take wild from from Lore of beasts

X21 Saurus and command with hand weapon and sheilds

Bastiladon with the death ray

Comes to 501 points

I am playing against wood elves, dark elves, high elves, chaos warriors, chaos dwarfs, ogre kingdoms with a possible dwarf player joining in

Problem I am having is the Saurus are to slow m4 I can't catch the dark elves and the wood elves shoot me to death the ogre kingdom charge was brutal I did not realise they were S7 Impact hits a lot of my Saurus died before I had a chance to attack back the chaos I was fairly unlucky but the bas was tied up for 4 turns with a champion

I don't have enough points for a steg or the flying units and I think the amount of BS4 shooting they would not last long

We are only allowed to change army list once we have played everyone else in the campaign

Please help

 

[Dean mottershead]

Sorry I also have a scar vet with light armour and two handed weapon

 

[meatpop_13]

In a low points game I would recommend prioritizing movement speed. In a larger points game where you would have more units, and some with higher speed, it becomes harder for the enemy to simply avoid you. But in a low points game, if all you have is 1 block of slow moving infantry, your enemy will always just shoot and run, shoot and run and you will never really catch them.

You want more units rather than fewer and you need units that can shoot (ideally move and shoot).
It's worth keeping in mind that you only need to spend 125 pts on core.

Here are my recommendations:

• For your free character take a saurus hero on a cold one (I'm doing this from memory but I think it fits under 125pts)
  • If you have enough points left over to give him a shield, spend the free 25pts on a magic 1 handed weapon
  • If you have enough points to give him light armour, spend the free 25 pts on a magic great weapon (this is the preferred option but I think might be over budget)
  • This is your oomph in combat. With a cold one he's mobile enough to get to where you need him.
  • Don't expose him unnecessarily to too much shooting. When he's not needed anywhere keep by the saurus unit.
• Take a small unit of ~15 saurus
  • You'll need some meat in the army.
  • Use them to tackle infantry that have been heavily weakened by your shooters
  • If they have to fight something that hasn't been heavily softened up by your shooters, make sure your other units dogpile into the combat (even if they are not traditionally fighty units).
• 2x salamander
  • Great shooting and help out in combat
• Unit of 5-6 chameleon skinks
  • Great in low point games
• Unit of 10-12 skink skirmishers
  • try and fit in a musician

Get up in people's faces with your skinks. Keep shooting and keep moving. If your opponent is all shooty, do this long enough for your fighting troops to get to their side of the table. If they have a more combat themed army, harass them with the skink shooting until they get to your side of the board.


Best of luck!

 

[Dean mottershead]

Hi there thanks for the advice I did try out a salamander in a practice game it's a good idea to drop some of the Saurus to get the points for one

Unfortunately I think it's to late to change the Skink and as the free hero is the one that gets to level up and become a lord it's my only real option to become a Slann

I will let you know my progress

 

[meatpop_13]

The Bastiladon really starts to shine in mid to large sized armies. It's a great tool in the lizardman army, but a lot of it's usefulness is in holding flanks (not relevant in small games), and in buffing the units around it. If it's buffing 6 other units, it's really effective! But if it's only buffing 1 unit...

Since it's not that effective at low points games I might look at replacing it with skinks and chameleon skinks (or other units of your choice) for now, and then bringing him back in once the games are at 1000pts or 1250pts.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

Personally I'm not that fond of salamanders in small point games. In larger games they are among the very best units we have access to. The salamander's primary targets are large blocks of troops, which are exceedingly rare in 500 point games.

I completely agree with @meatpop_13 's recommendation of the Scar-vet cowboy. That guy is rock hard in any sized game, but will completely dominate in small games.

Skinks as mentioned are always fantastic.

 

[meatpop_13]

Personally I'm not that fond of salamanders in small point games. In larger games they are among the very best units we have access to. The salamander's primary targets are large blocks of troops, which are exceedingly rare in 500 point games.
Skinks as mentioned are always fantastic.

That's a solid point. At least 1 of the 2 salamander's should probably be more skinks.