8th Ed. Which list/advice 2250 Lizardmen vs Vampire Counts

[Tarendal]

Looking for some advice.. I've got a 2250 point game against a Vampire Counts player this weekend. This is only my third game in forever, and I've played this opponent once before. In the first battle..

I took:

20 temple guard with Slann (cupped hands, rumination, cogitation, mystery)
1 skink priest with cube of darkness
24 saurus w/music, stand, plus scar veteran
24 saurus w/music, stand, plus scar veteran
25 saurus w/music, stand
14 skinks with javelins
12 skinks with javelins
1 salamander w/extra handler
1 salamander w/extra handler

He took:

10 black knights
5 dire wolves
14 ghouls
14 ghouls
25 grave guard with vampire general
39 ghouls with vampire
1 solo vampire
And a host of banners/magic items (he didn't have the items listed, just the effects, and went over them quickly)

I know he loves his ghoul horde, one of the items he took allowed him to use the general's weapon skill for the ghouls, and one of the vampire powers was the one that let him raise more ghouls than he started with.


So in this match, I'm going to vary my list a bit (he may as well) and see if I can do some more damage. I have two options I'm looking at..

Option 1:

20 temple guard full command with Slann (cupped hands, rumination, cogitation, mystery) Slann is BSB, with War Banner for an the extra combat resolution. Using lore of life (I used light last time)
1 skink priest with cube of darkness
1 skink priest with dispel scroll
25 saurus full command (5x5)
25 saurus full command (5x5)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
5 chameleon skinks
5 chameleon skinks
2 salamanders
2 salamanders

Thoughts here are the slann's unit will start with 6 combat resolution, hopefully a tall order for his troops to beat. Hoping to do some crumbling of the undead with that one. Two priests means more chance of channeling an extra die, two auto-dispel items, with the cogitation he'll have a hard time casting to begin with. I'm also hoping to get chain lightning, comet, or midnight wind. The skinks are there partly to harass with shooting, partly to allow me to place them while he puts down his bigger units, so I know which side to plant my army on. Salamanders will try to blanket his blocks of troops, getting two chances per unit to land a decent flame spout.

Option 2:

20 temple guard full command with Slann (cupped hands, rumination). Using lore of life (I used light last time). Temple guard using War Banner for an the extra combat resolution.
1 skink priest with cube of darkness
1 skink priest with plaque of tepok
28 skinks full command with javelins, 3 kroxigor and a skink chief BSB (horde formation). Standard is Skavenpelt Banner to make unit frenzy
25 saurus full command (5x5)
25 saurus full command (5x5)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
10 skinks with javelins (5x2)
5 chameleon skinks
1 salamander
1 salamander

Thoughts here are lowering the cost of the slann, giving an additional spell to the priests in the hopes of getting chain lightning, comet or something else useful. Frenzy on the skink unit may result in a good amount of attacks, and if I can get the right spells (flesh to stone, shield of thorns, throne of vines) going, they should be even more dangerous.

Which list do you think is best? Any thoughts on either? Improvements?

Any constructive feedback is appreciated.

 

[Chahlie]

Take some sort of fire attacks (lore of fire, banner of fire, sword of fire, a barrel of white phosphorous, whatever.), in addition to some sallies, because a ghoul hoard will almost certainly have the Drakkenholf Banner (giving the whole unit regeneration).

 

[Hiv0r]

I dont think you need both skink priests, I feel your only taking them for the arcane items which makes them very expensive.

When you are getting rid of 6's with the slann you really don't need the 2 dispel scrolls, a level 1 with cube of darkness and the slann will easily see you dominate the magic phase. That would save you around 100 points =/

 

[Tarendal]

Chahlie - Good point. Maybe I should replace the war banner with the banner of eternal flame?

Hiv0r - Not so much interested in the arcane items, but in the spells. Though you have a point and I maybe should drop the dispel scroll on the one and take the plaque of tepok. I'd like to get the comet or chain lightning going and give a shot at some damaging spell effects. The curse of midnight wind helped me a lot last game also, as it make his ghouls reroll 6s to hit (far less poisoned attacks that way).

 

[Hiv0r]

Also one other quick note, you have written the formation of what you will be running in your list. This imo is bad habit to get into because in my opinion a huge part which elivates a good player to a great player is there use of reforming.

Often wider and thinner to avoid warmachine templates and then balancing your number of attacks vs rank bonus depending on who you are fighting or how much frontage you want incase of an overrun clipping and enemy unit.

I may however just be reading into it too much but you should never have set formations in mind as there are so many variables for the best frontage/ranks

 

[Tarendal]

Thanks, hadn't really thought about that. I do believe that with this opponent, I'll want the ranks more than the frontage, no war machines in the vampire army. But we are planning a campaign soon in which I'll be facing various armies, I'll definitely have to keep that in mind then.