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I am thinking of getting into WHFB, and have heard about a Skink army (Lizardmen).

What is the best way to run them?  Does it comprise of all Skinks, or is there a little variety typically?

Also, why do you want to roll 6s with them?  Do they have rending or something?

Thanks!

Mez

I honestly wondered if you were putting us on once I got to the 'rending' question, but I'll answer seriously.

The Lizardmen Army Book has two legal lists in it. The standard list, which is typically 0-50% skinks, and the Southlands list which is typically 50-100% skinks. You can still field a great variety of other units. The primary list is universally accepted as stronger.

Skinks use the poison rule with thier shooting attacks which means that a natural '6' rolled to-hit automatically wounds regardless of the target's Toughness. Saves are still allowed.

I believe the only way to run a succesful skink list would be to use one of the legal sacred spawning lists. These are on the GW website, basically all heroes and any unit that can must take a spawning, skinks are also allowed to take this spawning.

I recommend the spawning of Sotek, if you give your skinks this spawning they get 2 attacks each on the charge and would be able to cause alot of damage if you give them javelins and shields.

Now here is a basic list, that is very very fast but will have some major issues with leadership. .

1 Skink chief with scout and movement 9.
3 skink priests with scout, 1 with the feather cloak (because of the spawning of sotek they will get a different lore than heavens, Fire I think)
3 20 skink squads with scout ad the spawning of sotek, with javelins and shields.
3 maxed squads of terradons
2 Stegadons with bolt throwers

The list will have elements of terror, flyers, and a strong magic phase, and all but 5 units will be scouting so you should get the bonus.

Skinks are very viable as a core choice, but need backup. Salamanders and Kroxigors do this well. I wouldn't worry about a sacred spawning list. Try something like a jaguar scar vet, 2 skink priests (lv 2, 2 dispels, cube), 4 units of 10 skinks (1 chameleon), 3 units of kroxigors, 3 terradons, 6 salamanders, and a stegadon. Or drop the steggy and take more krox.

Basically, the skinks and salamnaders thin things out while the kroxies/Steggy/saurus slam into things. The chamels and terradons march block and shoot stuff, (only charging fleeing units for cleanup). The priests mainly just keep magic off your back. Since everything moves 6 or faster and most of them ignore terrain, this is a very fast list. It cannot do straight up engagements with ranked infantry, though. You must pick your fights.

People often overlook skinks, but 80 poisoned shots can really tear stuff up!

I'm participating in Helsinki Fanatic next weekend with the kind of Lizardman army you're talking about.

I'm taking:

Nike Oldblood
Scar Veteran (general)
2 x Skink Priest
3 x 10 Skink Skirmishers (one scouting)
5 Saurus Cavalry
2 x 4 Kroxigors
3 Terradons
2 x 3 Salamanders

Usually I wouldn't take two melee heroes in a list like this but there's a mission where you have to designate one hero or lord other than the general who is the assassination objective. That model also has to enter play from the opponent's table edge. I rather send my Oldblood there since he's virtually unkillable, rather than a Skink Priest. This also allows me to keep one LD8 model with the army's core giving Skinks, Kroxigors and Salamanders better LD.

Anyone have luck using the Red Host lists?

i love the red host list. i made a very nice 1k list. its

(genral) cheif w/ light, enchanted sheild, sotek, red crest and blow pipe. 90 pts

cheif w/ b standard, light, red crest, sotek and skaven pelt banner 117 pts

red crest skinks (20) w/ full command and sign of sotek banner 187 pts

red crest skink(15) w/ full command 127 pts

skinks skirmish(10) w/ sotek 70 pts

kroxigors(3) 174 PTS

terradons(3) 105 pts

salamanders(2)

pretty straightforward tactics, put b. standard w/ unit of 20 skinks. the genral could go w/ either unit of skinks. the kroxigors and unit of 15 skinks are used mainly for support for the unit of 20. the frenzy the b. standard gives could put you into a bad situation, so be careful, but that unit breaks almost everytime ot chages or is charged, least it holds (8 empire knights charged me...it broke the next turn)

6 Salamanders? That's just plain obnoxious.

Welcome to Finland. All Your Cheese Are Belong to Us. Comp = "Is it a legal army list per the book? Yes? You're all set then."

I like Tenehaieuhamm a lot, great model and unique swarm action. All the same, the skink blocks seem pretty worthless to me. You get CR sure, but WS2 T2? Even being frenzied seems a bit silly for skinks IMO, still get smashed up by most anything ...

All said I still like the list, was contemplating it the other day.

- Salvage

Another good choice for an all skink list is the Sacred spawning of Quetzl. +1 scaly skin means that skinks armed with shield/javalin get a 4+ save in CC, 5+ againest shooting. You can run a lot of skinks, plus Krox, terradons, salamanders, you name it. Also, spawning of Quetzl means you get Death lore for your skink priests.

Citadel: Spawning of Chotec gives fire lore (its what I run). Sotek uses beasts lore.

Red Host Skink blocks have hand weapon and shield, + WS 3 and +1 A on the charge. They also get some good magic banners at 25 pts, are immune to poison and can move through forest/jungle/water without penalty. In a terrain intensive board like the Lustria tables (and the lustria campaign) they do very well because they don't sacrifice CR for movement. They still need Krox backup to tackle heavy armor, and in engagements without lots of terrain they suffer from ranged weapons.

I've had trouble dealing with Cav heavy lists like Brets and gunline Scaven. The Brets can take a charge from large blocks of skinks and come out without a scratch due to the 2+ saves, and Scaven have an equal number of troops plus lots of shooting. I've done well against the Nurglitch list though, which is fitting as the two are natural enemies.

Hi, just joined up!

In my experience playing lizardmen, the army fares better on average using the Skinks in conjunction with Saurus. As skirmishers they do great to shield the path of the slower moving CC intensive Saurus and Kroxigors. Their poisoned darts and javelins are great for taking care of other archers, lone mages, and generally unarmored troops. The best ratio I've found is to take 24 skinks for every 16 saurus. Break the skinks into two groups and use them to harry your opponent and protect your meatgrinder.

The skinks are essential in any lizardmen army IMHO, but I wouldn't really consider relying solely on them unless I was facing a very specialized army or very intensive terrain. There are certain armies in particular I would actually refuse to take more than a handful in, specifically Undead. Whole skink armies have their place and can be extremely effective, but on average you want to relegate them to tactical roles and not your brute force.

I will say that my single greatest victory in a 1500 point battle was using an all skink army against a Goblin Horde army.

Therion- wrote:I'm participating in Helsinki Fanatic next weekend with the kind of Lizardman army you're talking about.

I'm taking:

Nike Oldblood
Scar Veteran (general)
2 x Skink Priest
3 x 10 Skink Skirmishers (one scouting)
5 Saurus Cavalry
2 x 4 Kroxigors
3 Terradons
2 x 3 Salamanders

Usually I wouldn't take two melee heroes in a list like this but there's a mission where you have to designate one hero or lord other than the general who is the assassination objective. That model also has to enter play from the opponent's table edge. I rather send my Oldblood there since he's virtually unkillable, rather than a Skink Priest. This also allows me to keep one LD8 model with the army's core giving Skinks, Kroxigors and Salamanders better LD.

*thread necromancy*

Hey Therion, would you mind posting a bit more details on that list? After a long divorce-related pause, I've started putting my lizardmen together again (roughly based on what I think was the list mentioned in this post), but I've managed to lose my notes on the list itself...

Some compulsory equipment for that list:
The Oldblood needs at least charm of the jaguar warrior (duh), aura of quetzl,mark of the old ones and immune to psych. spawning. Good armor save and gw are also needed for him altough the latter can be upgraded for magical weapon if you have points. The Scar-Vet general doesn't need much except gw and a good armor save. You could add dispel dice spawning for him for extra magic defense, though. Priests are lvl1 & want scrolls/cube. You can add 2nd level to both of them, if for some reason you have 70 pts, but that's not a priority. Saurus Cav needs Huanchi Banner also.

Chaoslord wrote:Some compulsory equipment for that list:
The Oldblood needs at least charm of the jaguar warrior (duh), aura of quetzl,mark of the old ones and immune to psych. spawning. Good armor save and gw are also needed for him altough the latter can be upgraded for magical weapon if you have points. The Scar-Vet general doesn't need much except gw and a good armor save. You could add dispel dice spawning for him for extra magic defense, though. Priests are lvl1 & want scrolls/cube. You can add 2nd level to both of them, if for some reason you have 70 pts, but that's not a priority. Saurus Cav needs Huanchi Banner also.

Thanks, the armory gear is the most useful to me, as that's really the tough part to get right putting together a new army.

How useful is the +1 str/ignore armor saves magic weapon compared to, say, a gw? Metagame knowledge is really my weak point in fantasy, as I'm just getting in to it. I realize that on a high-strength model armor penalties mean "ignore armor saves" isn't as valuable as my pre-existing 40k bias screams, but it's still more kill-power and lets the model take a magic shield for better armor saves.

Lowinor wrote:How useful is the +1 str/ignore armor saves magic weapon compared to, say, a gw? Metagame knowledge is really my weak point in fantasy, as I'm just getting in to it. I realize that on a high-strength model armor penalties mean "ignore armor saves" isn't as valuable as my pre-existing 40k bias screams, but it's still more kill-power and lets the model take a magic shield for better armor saves.

The thing with the supersword is that it costs too much. Mainly it prevents you from taking the charm & aura of quetzl which both are mandatory. If you want magical weapon, the basic sword of might is probably your best option. A good combo with basic gw is the maiming shield, as you can go for 7 attacks (on the charge with +1 a-o-c blessing) and still get a good save, or choose to go with str7 vs chariots & some heavily armored stuff. Couple of example oldblood kitouts:

Example 1: GW,Light Armor,Maiming Shield,Aura,Charm,Blessings of Sotek & Tlazcotl,Mark of The Old Ones
Good all-arounder, as he has the option to go for str7 or lots of attacks in melee if needed.

Example 2: Light Armor,Enchanted Shield,Sword of Might,Aura,Charm,Blessings of Quetzl & Tlazcotl, Mark of The Old Ones
This guy exchanges some of the hittyness for more durability (with the 1+ armor save).

Granted it has been awhile, but I've run a very successful Southlands skink list.

Maxed out on the heros, themed marks + wargear;
Two priests with marks of Tepok, staff of sorcerery, diadem of power
Chief with Old Ones and Stegadon Helm
Chief with mark and dagger of Sotek plus jaguar charm
Chief with mark and blade of Chotec, mounted on a Stegadon (which used a carnisaur as the model)

Unit of Salamanders
Unit of Chameleons
Two groups of I believe 15 skinks with short bows
Rest was 10 skink groups with javelins

Everything that could scout did scout.

The only thing that really gave it problems was Bretonians, because of their high armor. It's weakest opponent was ogres, due to their higher toughness that I ignore with poison and their lack of armor. The heros are granted not maxed out in their effectiveness, but they're really fluffy and cool. The Assassin of Sotek earned a particularly nasty reputation. The blade of Chotec was mostly an excuse to model a flaming sword.

ive got a buddie whos running a all skink list in our escalation league. played that bad boy the other day with my goblins list and those blowpipes tore me a new one!! go with blowpipes that posion is no joke, neither is the facy that they get two shots!!

I started out with blowpipes on all the skinks, but ended up taking them all off. I found all too often I was moving around, not quite close enough, and with firing two shots, usually ended up hitting on 7s, which means no poison. What worked a lot better for me was taking two units with short bows to function from a longer range, and gave all the others javelins for the significantly increased chance to hit as they were running their laps around enemy units.

I used to play an all-Skink army Southlands on a regular basis. Javelins on most Skinks, 1x blowpipes, and 2x shortbow units created a good variety of fire choices. With poison, block troops died faster than they could catch you, and even cvalry went down with satisfying regularity. Kroxigors cleaned up the mess, and Salamanders served in both shooting and CC to bolster the Skinks' and Kroxigors' efforts. Skink shamen kept magic off your back and took out annoying fast cav, non-BS war machines, and opposing skirmishers (although Eshin lists gave me nightmares).

Then Cavatore screwed all skirmishers in the new edition by marchblocking them. The effectiveness of my army dropped by a third. Worse yet, I play Beasts too. Man, do I hate that favor-my-own-armies nitwit of a designer. Getting rid of skirmishers pretty much nerfed harassment tactics for Skinks. I quit playing fantasy, and got back into 40K. Now that 5th ed there looks lame, I think I'm going to sell and go for AT-43. Grumble.

But yeah- they're doable. Just less than they used to be, so be careful if folks giving you advice haven't played in a while (since last edition).