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So, I want to put together a Lizardmen force, but since I hate buying my armies piecemeal (I'm going that now with my heavily converted Imperial Guard...takes a while), so I figured I'd take a look at the battalion box and use that as a good starting point for a 1000-point army. As it stands, the box comes with the following: 12 skinks, 20 saurus warriors, 10 temple guard, and 8 saurus cavalry.

Right off the bat, I can say I don't think I'll use the temple guard until later. At 10 figures, they are just too expensive for a 1000 point game and 10 figs just won't do much convincing stuff. So, here is what I have...

Skink Priest, Level 2 (General)
Plaque of Topek...115 points

Saurus Scar Veteran (BSB)
Cold One
Banner of Swiftness
Light Armour...115 points

20 Saurus warriors
Full Command...250 points

10 Skink skirmishers with blowpipes
70 points

10 Skink skirmishes with blowpipes
70 points

7 Saurus cavalry
Full command...295 points

Salamander hunting party
1 Salamander...75 points

=995 points.

For this army, I would need to buy the battle box, 2 sprues worth of skinks, a skink priest, and a salamander team. I could convert one of the Cold Ones to be my Scar Veteran.

Idea would be to use the Saurus warriors a a solid bloc, the skinks to harass and channel the enemy, and the Cold Ones for flank attacks or alternatively a secondary main h2h unit.
Plus, it would be easy to upgrade, as Lizard wizards are so expensive. To go to 1500, all I'd have to buy is a Stegodon and Tetto'eko and shuffle the points a bit. Or buy some more Temple Guard and field a unit of those.

Thoughts? Thanks!

The battalion box is great buy, I got 2 + a box of Saurus and a box of Skinks which pretty much got me a full 2400pt army. As I hate working with metal and they are incredibly expensive I didn't buy any Salamanders and instead I'm just using Saurus Cav to represent them. The only thing I have which is metal is the Slann, and I couldn't get around that very easily.

I would definitely suggestion you take some Chameleon Skinks rather than just normal Skinks. Just use standard Skinks and paint them up in camo patterns.

8 Saurus Cav (counting the Scar Vet) won't be that effective sadly. If all you want are some kills to add to another ongoing combat then you would be fine with 5-6 in a single rank, otherwise you need 10+ to cancel ranks.

Ideally you want 24 Saurus in a block but that would require more than you get in the battalion box unfortunately. Personally I wouldn't bother getting a Salamander and just get a box of Saurus instead (its only a bit more expensive). This would let you run two units of Saurus, some Skinks, a couple of Salamanders (using Cold Ones) and a few Scar Vets on foot (use TG for the moment) + a Priest.

Temple Guard definitely aren't worth it unless you are taking a Slann, Saurus do the same job at these points levels and are core. As soon as you increase the points level you play at you should probably starting using a Slann actually, much much better buy than any of the special characters even without all the toys. Just run him in a big unit of Skinks until you get high enough in points to take a TG unit as well.

Powerguy has some great advice! I think cold one cavalry are worth a look, but moreso at higher point levels- they're going to eat up a large percentage of your army at 1000 points. Not saying you shouldn't try it after getting the battalion, but it will be something to keep in mind when you add other options later, if you happen to go back to play a 1000 point game.

I'm wondering about the entry in the BRB that says the character with the highest leadership value must be the general. I guess BSB's would be exempt from this (since they can't be both, except for the slann) allowing the skink priest to be the general, even with a lower leadership value.