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My brother is starting Lizzardmen, and he is just learning how to play. i haven't played WHFB in almost 4 years (been playing 40k.) I may actually start playing WHFB so would like to have a good army for him for when he gets more into the game.

He has a skink priest and 4 cold ones (which isnt a legal unit) he also has a few old lizardmen models, so not much yet. i want to stay clear of metal models.

thanks!

Props to you for heling your bro out.
As for the tactics part there are several things that are common in most LM lists this eddition.
1. Saurus warriors, with spears or not they're a nice tough infantry unit that can take some pain and dish it out. Personal oppinion: spears aren't worth the extra point.
2. Chameleon skinks, being scouts and skirmishers gives them a nice way to get in close to enemy warmachines and let loose with poison darts. Regular skinks OTOH make for great support as they are mcuh cheaper but just as mobile even if less accurate.
4. Sallamnders are just great, the abilty to march 12" and then spew out a fire thrower template is just soo brutal, especially with partials having been removed.
5. Stegadons are IMO the awesomest thing ever, between impact hits thunderstomp and the comined profile protecting them from most spells they just plow into enemy units and start reaping, still the new shift to warmachines has made cannons a lot more common and thus dangerous for lone monsters so at least a pair is needed. The engine is still great for support, both deffencive and offencive, even if the priest is a bit fragile.
6. Avoiding metal won't work, the best LM lord choices come with metal, the slaan can be an overbearing pressence in the magic phase both your's and the enemie's, and the carnosaur is just awesome. Still you can put it off for quite a while, as neither can fit in low points games and you can convert a great oldblood from the plendora of parts that come with the battalion, he will probbably get demoted to a scar vet later on or only see use when the R-rex dies – so most games usually the main difference being weither it dies turn 1-2 to a cannon or turn 4-6 after chewing trough a whole bunch of enemy troops.
7. My fingers hurt now...

thanks for that, its really helpful. i don't mind getting metal guys, just want to hold off on those since i'm also helping him paint!! haha. he isn't that bad for being a young'un (12). He is catching on the game pretty quickly too.

I just want to try to build up a 500 point army, then move up, to 1000, 1500, etc. so metal guys would prob be gotten later def if they are needed so much. most of this army will be made and painted by me for birthday, christmasn presents etc. and the rest for whenever he decided to get them. i have my old orcs so i can use that till i get off my **s finish my many 40k armies and start my empire.

I understand you were asking for tactics but here's some additional advice that might help your brother out:

Magnetize your Stegadon to swap in/out the Engine of the Gods upgrade. I really like the Engine, but if he is playing lower points for a while this flexibility will help until he buys that second one.

Buy a skink box at the very least, using some for normal skink skirmishers, and converting 5 or more for the chameleons. No one will complain and you avoid an ugly metal model. You don't even need to convert them if you are new to modelling, a chameleon paint scheme will do just fine (or even camouflage, which is simpler).

BSBs are incredibly useful in 8E, even more so for cold blooded lizards. In addition, you can build one of these guys again from a box of Temple Guard or Saurus Warriors. I'd do the temple guard route because of their armor and helmets, but especially since they are great for gameplay.

Don't want to sound rude or anything but the Search Function has alot of LM tactics if used

Anyway good luck to you and your brother

thanks, i plan to convert up a SBS. so stegs are good? i assumed as much, but wasn't sure if they were a need in this type of army


and yes i can search on google or some such, but I find at times those to be less helpful then comments within dakkadakka. also since i am very new to warhammer E8 i don't always understand what these tactic guides are talking about. usually i can since i played a lot of E7 and a bit of E6. I also don't mean to be rude but just thought this would be more helpful to me, though i am also looking through forums for other ideas as well

No tactics exist yet in this thread.

Strategy: What the design of your army intends to do when you hit the battlefield: Example: You have 3 cannons, and 50 longrifles. Your strategy is to shoot your opponent to death as he marches towards you, or you have all khorne warriors on foot, in that scenario you clearly intend to hug your opponent to death.

Tactics: The things you do during the game to achieve your strategy. This can range from deployment to movement. Usually, though it involves movement of some sort.

I can't help you with strategy specific tactics, until I know your strategy.

Army Specific Tactics, though:

Get a unit of skinks with blowpipes behind an enemy unit, and follow/shoot/follow/shoot. If the unit turns to attack the skinks, back off, run like hell. If not, just keep on relentessly pouring poison into their backs.

Also, using a unit of 5 knights as a bait and flee unit so that you can draw your opponent into range of your salamanders is always a sexy choice.

Run 2 units of stegs together, and charge with one steg at a time. This way you mitigate the chance of losing and suffering the steadfast grind.

Some basic tactics. Get us the strategy, and we can assist with the tactics.

i was tryiing to think of basic tactics, but I guess i would want a well rounded army that had a low model count to some degree. a fast moving army would be nice.

Also Stegadons aren' AS effective as they used to be with the changes that where made to psychology but they still aren't useless. I personally only use one with an engine of The Gods.

@ Warboss Imbad Ironskull
Thats 7th ed talkin for ya back when stegs where able to basically kill whole units by running them down, now they can't brake stuff and people think they're weaker, and cannons are stronger so they seem more fragile. However with the right tactics they make it to combat, and with the addition of thunderstomp and if people use them as support rather than a main battle unit they are still quite devastating.

HoverBoy wrote:@ Warboss Imbad Ironskull
Thats 7th ed talkin for ya back when stegs where able to basically kill whole units by running them down, now they can't brake stuff and people think they're weaker, and cannons are stronger so they seem more fragile. However with the right tactics they make it to combat, and with the addition of thunderstomp and if people use them as support rather than a main battle unit they are still
quite devastating.

That's why I said that they aren't as usefull but still aren't useless

Stegadons are great but never take one alone. 2-4 is a good number

Also dont forget EoG basically costs as much as a slaan so think carefully on either smashing the enemy via magic or via monster

kenshin620 wrote:Stegadons are great but never take one alone. 2-4 is a good number

I don't buy these sentiments. You hear it a lot. The theory, as far as I know, is you want multiples of giant targets so one gets through. But their cannons are going to shoot something. It's not like if they kill your solitary steg the cannons stop firing to celebrate. You're throwing down 200+ points as a potential wrecking ball and damage sponge. Throwing down 400+ with the sole idea of having one survive means it would have to be pretty spectacular to earn those points back.

Monsters are better at surviving big attacks than most stuff. But if you're worried about it being wiped out with super spells or warmachines, having multiple should just make you twice as worried.

Hoverboy - on point 4) how are you getting the march and shoot? Didnt spot them counting as skirmishers still, but monster and handler, so no march and shoot.

Would love to be proven wrong on that though!

As above: couple of saurus blocks, life slaan and you have an anvil that is tough. T8 saurus makes most units cry....

They are skirmishers.

nosferatu1001 wrote:Hoverboy - on point 4) how are you getting the march and shoot? Didnt spot them counting as skirmishers still, but monster and handler, so no march and shoot.

Would love to be proven wrong on that though!

As above: couple of saurus blocks, life slaan and you have an anvil that is tough. T8 saurus makes most units cry....

There aren't any restrictions on shooting due to them being monster and handlers, so there's no conflict with them being skirmishers- they can march and shoot.

I've just started playing WHFB recently, using Lizardmen- the base of my armies have been Slann, 16-20 TG, and 2 blocks of 20+ SWs with HW&Sh. I've found Chameleon Skinks to be great warmachine hunters/harassment units, especially used in concert with Terradons. Salamanders are vicious- probably your best counter to giant tarpit units. Skink Priests have been hit or miss for me thus far. Haven't run Stegs or Kroxs yet.

Except I thought M&H stated the monsters move as, well, monsters - and monsters dont have any allowances to march and shoot.

Will check when i have time. So, not till the weekend...

The skirmishers USR is in the rules list for the sallamander hunting pack. Both in it's unit entry and in the force organisation section.

Edit: The book even explains which rules are specific in this case and which aren't, they read as follows:
Sallamnders: 5+ Scaly Skin; Fear.
All: Cold Blooded; Aquatic (which was FAQ-ed to be water strider); Skirmishers.

No worries, I know its there from 7th, just could have sworn somewhere else removed it.

Feels dirty doing it though....

There is a reason people complain about sallies you know, they are the lizardmen Teclis/Hydra, and are more spammable

Well i only have 3 currently, takes me waaaaay too long to paint them how i like them (damn water effects on bases.....), have been playing without the march and fire. Will do that in future.

Yes, sallies are great. 6 of them is just fun to use against horde armies

Big chunk of points, and no doubt theyll do what my unit of 3 normally do, which is entirely misfire for 1 round, panic and run off the board....

Stupid 'manders!

Uh no? If you think they are a big chunk of points you havent use dthem much. 6 is basically the point where people stop playing you. Even with 1 misfire who cares, they kill entire units.

Salamanders are like being able to buy units that do the same damage as dwellers below to MOST targets

Misfires do not cause panic :p no one dies from misfires. IGNORE HANDLERS for every single purpose in the game except they give you a free 5+ ward save and can always attack in close combat!

6 are insane.. Ive done 64 hits to a graveguard unit with 3 and murdered 2 other units with the other 3

PS. Please dont make me explain the 5+ ward save thing :( Read the handler rules

Yea I suppose 6 is cheesy

Maybe I'll mix it up and bring a bunch of the spike shooters

wow those sound amazing!

Salamanders anecdote- Playing against my friends Empire a week ago- he'd gotten super unlucky with some panic tests earlier in the game and was going to need to do some serious damage with his 47 man block of Swordsmen, with General, Wizard Lord, & Captain of the Empire(BSB).

I fired my two salamanders from 8 inches-8" on both dice. 46 hits. Only 21 died, but it was enough that when I got Dwellers off the next turn on the unit he conceded before we even started the tests.

Yea, salamanders are broken good right now. I didn't realize just how broken they were until i played against them with my high elves. I was able to take out 3 (out of nine) before the other 6 got close enough to shoot me.... then they reduced my block of 30 pheonix guard to a block of 5 pheonix guard in one round of shooting.

I suppose everyone needs to have one unit that is broken good in this edition, but don't expect to make friends in casual games by taking 9 every time (3k games) or 6 in 2k games.

Kirasu - enough with the condescension, please. Not warranted.

I've played with them lots, but i made a mistake in thinking the skirmisher rule was overridden by the M&H rule, which makes them significantly less manouverable, and thus less effective (and extra turns positioning, in effect)

And yes, I am aware of the 5+ ws. As I said, please dont condescend or, in fact, construct a semi strawman to knck over.

Kirasu, do you really not remove handlers on a misfire? That seems like a stretch. The rule does not read "Ignore handlers for every single purpose in the game."

I just faced two packs of three, and it was pretty scary (though they strayed close enough that I was able to throw some long charges back at them and bag their points before they did too much damage).