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I just got the $90 boxed set and put my dudes together. I am looking at the army book and there are units that I like a lot but am trying to get a idea of what is the critical units for my army. Kroxigor's, Stegadons, and teradon riders all look quite good.

What units are CRITICAL to a sucessful lizardmen army at 2,000 points?

Should Kroxigor's be used in squads or mixed with skink squads?

I've done some searching but a lot of tactics are from 7th edition not 8th. If someone could point me in the right direction so I can start buying dude that would be awesome, Thanks!

Yeah I think a lot of the tactical masters are still absorbing 8th.

I'm no master, but I played lizards in 7th and have dabbled in 8th. Lizards in 7th were always Slann, or Oldblood on carnosaur with various weapons. Now, all of the builds I've seen include a Slann. Lore of life is amazing. Lore of shadow is also pretty killer. Probably the must have unit, if any.

Salamanders are da roxxors, evidently, due to no partials for templates anymore. I have a hard time with the random range, though (just my own thing).

I think the mixed skink-krox thing sounds really good, but haven't tried it yet. Planning on running it once I get my unit built and painted.

Honestly pretty much everything in the lizardman book is a solid choice, except perhaps razordons.

This website is pretty cool but is a bit slow on posts and such... http://www.pyramidvault.net/forum/ Hopefully the master tacticians here on dakka will be able to help more.

old bloods on carnosaurs are extremely dissapointing.. I own one and I use it. It has never exceeded my extremely *low* aspirations for it.

Quite simply put you're paying 210 points for 5 attacks that hit 50% of the time and you might get to use it for 2 rounds before it dies. Better off using an old blood on a cold one if you must but a slann is always better

But the real criticals are Slann, saurus warriors and salamanders.. also camo skinks to a degree since theyre awesome vs war machines.

Get those units and you'll have a solid lizard army

I dont like kroxigors because they cost as much as 5 saurus but have less wounds and less attacks. If you want ranked skinks do 5x3 and use them to flank.

Stegadons are still good but you really have to playing a life-slann

Do people field just 1 slann or take multiples?

Slann need to be kitted-out to get their true benefits. A full super Slann can reach nearly 500 points.

I don't like Teradon riders. And I don't like Kroxigors. Both are too expensive, IMHO. I love Stegadons of all kinds. They get shot at a lot, but if you had to choose they are a good thing to let be shot.

-Slaan are about the best casters in the game. Period.
-Saurus warriors are one of the best (IMHO) infantries in the game, with amazing stats, 2 attacks, cold blooded, and very reasonably priced.
-Stegadons are nice and I like their options.
-Skinks are good tarpits and pray-for-6 poison troops.

Slann are almost a given in most lizardmen army now.

I've been playing around with lores and find that life and shadow are my main ones. The other lore that looks good is metal for glittering robes, throw glittering robes on a big block of saurus and you get a nice 2+ save.

Terradons are almost obsolete for warmachine hunting imo.

Chameleon skinks are way better because they will most likely threaten warmachines turn 1. They also are a great way for setting up charges and being an overall annoyance.

Stegadons are still great between the poison bow/blowpipe shots and the insane amout of damage they can do on the charge. They may not break units on the charge now but you can sure get enough wounds to win combat and make the opponent's unit take a steadfast check.

I would also make a point to add at least two salamanders in every lizardmen list. For a very reasonable cost you can get in good quality shooting that can also hunt warmachines if they get the chance. The only thing I wouldn't suggest is running more than 2 salamanders per unit. The reason is that they start becoming more of a point sink and can die really easy to magic missiles and shooting. Also they become less flexable in their movement as they have to stay in the 1/2 skirmisher formation.

Slann is very critical, as well as the saurus..the TG as a bodyguard is expensive but will go down to a lizard to protect the frog.

I still find regular blowpipe skinks to be a great annoyance unit as well as a source of mobile hard cover for the saurus. Camo skinks are good if you manage to scout them into a good position.

Salamanders are quite good, but take them in separate individual units, the extra skink handler upgrade is cheap and useful.

Very informative thank you all. This is shaping up to be a great topic for people new to lizardmen in 8E.

A few more questions to keep the topic going:

What is a good number of Temple Guard and what is the best way to equipt them?

What is the ideal size of a Saurus squad?

What is a good Slann set up for a 2,250 game?

Well for TG i run 20 cuz they can compleetly encompass a slaan, (1 rank front and rear, two rows on each side) and can take some casualties before going down, it is expensive however, so some people run between 12 and 14 to only protect the frogs front and flanks.
I personally adore the razor standard for them and Sword of the Hornet, (or Sword of Swift Slaying its all the same even in pts) so the champ can at least try to score wounds before his fail initiative in those pesky challenges.

Slaans are very usefull with most lores (aside from beasts since they can't transform) altho some are more popular (arranged by popularity – Life, Death, Light), for the disciplines the most usefull are the loremaster (focus of mystery), the free dice (focused rumination) and the drop them 6's buster (becalming), as far as items go many agree that cupped hands are awesome, whyle some use the feedback scrol & bane head combo, i miself like the channeling staff alot (i do have lore of life for miscast protection though) since its cheap and still usefull (a rare traint for arcane items, or items in general), oh and if you want to save on TG take the etheral discipline (higher state) and divine plaque of protection, for that immune to non-magical attacks 2+ ward vs shooting lone, slaan.

Edited several times to try and get the grammar right

I like focused rumination and the one where they can only be hurt by magic weapons. That includes siege weapons which can potentially bypass your temple guard. You already got 4 spells being a buddha frog. I'm not sure it's worth that many points to get the other 3 or whatever. IF you're trying to skimp points that is. If you can, load up on everything, he's your big shot.

Slann simply dominate the magic phase, so seem somewhat important in 8th. (due to it being so fething magic heavy)

Also, sallies are worth taking every game.
Never used to use them until i had a trial run, i now run max units every game.
Even dropped my steggy ancient for more.

Terradons seem to be pretty useful, moreso than before due to the constant warmachine spam being taken now.
going with 2 units of 3-4 seems to work fine, that way you can hunt down 2 machines per turn, rather than getting shot to death all game.
They can also be used to hunt down small skirmisher units and lone wizards.

Cham skinks are still great, even moreso than before due to no real restriction on 3 or 4 specials per army.
This way you can grab a small unit or 2 for hunting lone characters or pouring fire into large beasts.

How do the ancient and standard stegadons do in 8E?

What is an ideal skink squad size?

What is an ideal Saurus size?

Well i haven't run skinks yet so can't help there

For stegs i like the chief with war spear on ancient, and antcient stegs in general have the better deal IMO cuz of higher S and the better guns.

Saurus i've run with above average success with either a block of 20 (5 wide 4 deep) with hand weapon and shield or 30 (6 wide 5 deep) with added spears, both with FC.

Both types of stegadons work well still this edition. You just need to be smart with who you charge and when to charge or you end up giving victory points away. The weapons on top are usually just an added bonus and give you something to do in the shooting phase. They're not bad, just dont expect them to do alot (although the poison on them does help).

With skinks, the ideal unit size is still 10 for me. I've always run that many and have not tried any larger than that so I'm not too sure there.

I would suggest that saurus blocks be run 25+ for the minimum. With the shooting and warmachines being boosted you need the extra bodies to take some damage.

I played a game the other day against WoC at 2,500 points. I took 2 units of Saurus warriors at 30 each with spears. They were awesome in combat. A kitted out Slann with life in a unit of 20 Temple Guard also did well.

Salamanders are amazing. Template weapon with -3 to saves. LOVE my 2 Salamanders, might up it to 3 (you can do it, 2 in 1 unit while 1 on its own)

I also took a Steg with EotG. Was not impressed with it at all. Gonna try an Ancient Steg with the warspear, see how that works out. The Steg is still worth the points IMO as it will usually draw alot of fire, and if they don't kill it, your Slann can actually heal it pretty good if you have lore of life.

Most important unit really is the Saurus warriors. A couple decent sized blocks are really great. Just watch out for warmachine fire.

How many squads of 20-30 Saurus are suggested in 2,250-2,500 point games?

Two is best or three if you dont have TG too, otherwise you wont have points for much else.

HoverBoy wrote:Two is best or three if you dont have TG too, otherwise you wont have points for much else.

I agree..3 blocks if fine if you have other hammer units..if not then 4 can also be good....

I just noticed a particular weakness with TG...if they are brought down to less than 4 rank and file models, with the sacred duty really the slann canot leave them and thus could be a sitting duck for anyything since he now be targetted without a look out sir roll....at least if you get get regular saurus and equip the slann with a crown of command, any unit he joins becomes stubborn....so he can leave that block and join another one as needed....

I've had a few games in under my belt. Temple guard I wouldn't field less than 20 with a slaan. Namely it will be a target of lots of shooting / magic. A smaller group of TG risk loosing the unit to attrition. Regular saurus I field 24 with hw/s and they have performed admirably. Having a life slaan and using regrowth and flesh to stone make them hard as nails troops. They are one of the strongest core units in the game IMHO. Skink skirmishers and chameleons also have done very well for me. Skirmishers are stubborn in woods and I've used that to my advantage a couple times.

Salamanders as many have said are crazy good.

I've used a regular stegodon and it's done OK. When pointed at the right units it does a lot of damage.

I haven't fielded my Terradons yet. I think their usefulness varies greatly depending on what army you are facing.

I only used a skink/krox combined unit once and it died due to some pretty awful dice. I'm planning to take krox by themselves in my next game to get a feel for how they do.