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Howdy Dakities,

Ok, so as I mentioned in a response to a forum I made about a couple minutes ago. I and my cousin are just now starting to get into Warhammer Fantasy after several years of playing Warhammer 40k. We are both excited and interested in the diverse armies and races that appear in fantasy and we have each found one that appeals to us highly, he being the Vampire Counts, and I being the Lizardmen. Although we have both read the rulebook at least twice we have yet to actually play a game due to lack of models. So my question to you all is what units should I buy that will help my slowly growing Lizardmen army. I have already bought a Battleforce and an additional Saurus regiment mostly because I love Saurus and they appeared to be i,pressive troop choices. So, any advice is appreciated, and some tactics to help against the vampire counts wouldn't be harmful either

I tend to go with models I like, you're right to focus on Saurus. They pack a fairly decent punch and are pretty resilient too. Most would advocate some Skink skirmishers to harry your opponent flanks and misdirect his charges, but not everyone is a fan.

Stegadon's are great in 8th Edition (impact hits and thunderstomp means they'll really grind a unit down) and it's definitely worth dropping one into a 1000pt army.

The must have when you start expanding further is a Slann and against your cousin's Vampires, Lore of Light will be amusing.

Theres a very similar topic right below this one

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/333801.page

Yea I read the post, found it helpful, and I even commented on it. They seem to be of the opinion that skinks should be more prevalent in new lists, but I'm just not sure if I need them as anything other than a priest or as skirmishers.

There is nothing wrong with basing your army around alot of Saurus warriors. Especially if Saurus are what really interest you about the army. A few skinks doesn't hurt though.

TheHiveMinds wrote:They seem to be of the opinion that skinks should be more prevalent in new lists, but I'm just not sure if I need them as anything other than a priest or as skirmishers.

Lies!!!
None of the lists we suggested there had more skinks than saurus

Sorry, I didn't mean to misconstrue your words I guess I should clarify. As a beginner player I honestly do not know anything and so from what I saw it appeared that skinks had a hard time firing their blowpipes due to all the -1 to hit modifiers. I just noticed that in your forums you had a lot of skink skirmishers, (I think 20 if I'm correct), and it seemed like that was a lot of skinks to me. Way more than I had made in my original list do I really need that many to make them an effective fighting unit? Also, once again apologies on the misconstruement.

Naah i was just kidding.
Skinkless lists are a great option if you want more saurus or just don't like the models, it's not that skinks are a great fighty unit that can win you games they just bring a utility to the whole army that works well when used in conjunction with the saurusi(es?). They are just fast and the poison is annoying even if not usually able to multyple-shoot, having two small units of skirmishers (10-12 skinks) on each flank of your army is a great tactical tool, also the extra few units to drop down during deployment are a nice bonus.

I go pretty Saurus heavy typically. Sometimes I even sacrifice the magic phase and go Saurus-only... it's a great list that just runs across the board and beats face. I do like my skinks though. When I go more balanced I usually have a unit of 24 skinks with a banner, musician, and a Skink Chief in there for a nice 5x5 block. They're a sacrifical unit usually, but they do some decent damage. Giving the skink chief the potion of strength and sword of battle gets you 4 I6 S7 attacks... usually enough to take care of a Hero-level character.

But for Saurus I usually always have a unit of 20 with full command as well as Temple Guard (with or without Slann, I just love the models), and above 2,000pts I drop in a second unit of 20. I tried a unit of 30 with my Oldblood once in a game against Beastmen and they stomped his army into the ground almost single-handedly. You almost can't go wrong with them, and they make a nice, strong core for your army. And as an added bonus, in a 1000pt game, a single unit of 20 with full command is your 25% min Core!

Yea, Temple Guard are definitly something I want to field in my army. I put them together out of the battleforce I got, and found myself staring at how awesome these guys were. So while i see that Saurus are not only appealing but, from the looks of it, integral to my army my next question is what else do I need to help topple some of my cousin's skeletons? I know he wants to field a vampire that will summon the undead, but he is also considering taking a vampire with the Lore of Beasts. So in a 1000pt. game where I do not have enough for a Slann can I still manage to take him down magicaly or will I just have to resort to the brute force of my saurus.

Skink Preists upgraded to level 2 will be on par with his Vampires at 1000pts. He can't really afford to have a Vampire Lord and upgrade it to level 3, so he might not completely dominate you magically if you had a pair of preists, but at that point you wouldn't have enough for a Scar-Veteran. Sometimes it's better to go for combat strength and let a strong magic army have a decent magic phase, if negating that would cost you too much. You'll still have dispel capabilities roughly equal with one priest or two, especially if you get that magic item that lets you channel on a 5 or 6

Saurus work pretty well against skeletons, since they'll need 4's to hit and 5's to wound, whereas you'll need 3's to hit and 3's to wound, and with Coldblooded and leadership 8, Fear shouldn't be too big a problem. Scar-Veterans can typically go toe-to-toe with Vampires as well, they just need to survive his attacks with your lower initiative.

Saurus only is a fine list, as others have said. Just get used to one thing:

Getting punched in the face before you attack. EVERYONE is faster than you. It is usually worth making slightly larger units to soak some casualties before you get to attack.

I usually run 25-30 Saurus in each unit. I've thought of a Saurus spearmen horde, but haven't quite made that leap yet.

Mattlov wrote:Getting punched in the face before you attack. EVERYONE is faster than you. It is usually worth making slightly larger units to soak some casualties before you get to attack.

*cough* Lore of Light *cough*

HoverBoy wrote:

Mattlov wrote:Getting punched in the face before you attack. EVERYONE is faster than you. It is usually worth making slightly larger units to soak some casualties before you get to attack.

*cough* Lore of Light *cough*

If you play with enough points for a Slann, and if you feel like being boring and using the same Lore every time, sure.

Fire Slann are awfully fun though.

Yea the Slann is definitly in the foreseeable future, and yes the Lore of Light would definitly also have some advantages against the undead *cough* Excorcism *cough*. However, I have also heard that the Lore of Life is good as well, any other Lores that would be pretty reasonable for the Slann to use? (And btw the Fire Slann sounds kickass).

For lizardmen life and light are the best lores for many reazons.
Life – it augments our already impressive resiliance, can bring things back to life, protects our expencive slaans from miscasts, and features one of the uberspels of this edition, overall one of the best lores for all armies in general.
Light – this one is more based around sinergy and supports our forces surprisingly well (some suggest it was custom made, ala Beastmen and lore of beasts), it can remove the sourus's only weaknesses WS and Init, it can protect units from warmachines so its great for supporting monsters, has a high Str flaming spell for those regenerating monsters, and can allow stuff to move at double speed (up to a maximum of 10, 20 when marching), and it works surprisingly well in conjunction with lore of heavens (which i don't agree on being crummy), not to mention that four of its spells can affect multiple units, plus it has tha exorcism you mentioned
All in all, Life is more deffencive, while Light supports agressive play, the best way to choose a lore in genral is to test each out in game and see what fits you best.

Big fan of Light. WS10 Init 10 Saurus are just horrid things to face...and being able to get boosted, area effect versions can be devastating. Plus, in a game based largely in movement being able to march 16" not 8" can be game winning.