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I got to play a game of WHFB tonight with a borrowed army, and I'm sold. It was a fun game: complex but fast-paced, with a neat magic system. I really enjoyed the sense that the magicians were duking it out in the ether while the armies tried to kill each other. So it looks like my November and December budgets belong to Warmahordes, but January will begin the season of WHFB.

The faction I'm most interested in is the lizardmen. They have powerful magicians, a neat backstory, and I really enjoy the models. What advice can you give to a newbie lizardman player. What purchases should I start with? What models should I pursue and which should I avoid?

Thanks in advance.

Start small,just maybe a box of skinks,a box of saurus and an saurus hero.

I used to collect Lizardmen myself,fun army.

I'm too lazy to write it all again sooo:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/401561.page#3402223

Thanks for the basics article. Very helpful.

What about the Lizardman Battalion? Worth it or not? For whatever it's worth, the conventional wisdom I've heard is that cavalry is only great if you want to go in for a cavalry-heavy arm, and I don't want to.

Cavalry, in particular heavy cavalry, are quite underpowered, particularly in high point level games where hordes of infantry will overwhelm them.

Lizardmen Battalion would still be a good buy for you. From what I read you like the magic side of the game, Lizardmen can really excel in the magic phase, so once you start getting a bit of a collection together you'll want to field a Slaan, thus making the Temple Guard useful.

Id say the Battalion, a box of Saurus and another box of Skinks will really get you started as far as Core is concerned. Then add a Suarus Hero (which can be converted from spare bits from the Battalion), maybe a Stegadon and later on a Slann.

But the first step would be perhaps Buy the Army book, read thoroughly through it and decide what jumps out at you.

The Battalion, an additional box of Saurus and Temple Guard, and a Slann will be a good starting point. that and the book.

the Saurus Cavelry, so I'm told, can be made into Salamanders fairly easily(no riders, splay the legs out, add frills to their heads)

Get the book, build an army that appeals to you, and try playing it with proxies/borrowed figures. Test a couple variants until you find something that you like as a core to build from, only then make the purchases.

Can't give you current advice since I last played WHFB in 6th, although I was playing Lizards back then. Still have them, but am not current. A friend told me that cavalry of all stripes (except for Chaos Knights) was gutted by the 8th ed rules changes. He did say big infantry blocks are the way to go in 8th ed. Talk to your local group and see what they say.

(For what its worth, I usually ran two 20 fig units of Saurus, 1 of 16-20 Temple Guard surrounding the Slann Mage-Priest, two 10 figure units of Skink Skirmishers, 1 unit of three Salamanders, and two Stegadons. Balance of points was for assorted magic items and characters.)

Edit: Also, there were two units of 12? skinks and 2 Kroxigors each. Most people said they weren't worth taking but they seemed to work for me in 6th ed.

Ancestral Hamster wrote:
(For what its worth, I usually ran two 20 fig units of Saurus, 1 of 16-20 Temple Guard surrounding the Slann Mage-Priest, two 10 figure units of Skink Skirmishers, 1 unit of three Salamanders, and two Stegadons. Balance of points was for assorted magic items and characters.)

That is, creepily, almost identical to the list I have gradually put together with the help of Dakka and Lustria Online.

ElectricPaladin wrote:

Ancestral Hamster wrote:
(For what its worth, I usually ran two 20 fig units of Saurus, 1 of 16-20 Temple Guard surrounding the Slann Mage-Priest, two 10 figure units of Skink Skirmishers, 1 unit of three Salamanders, and two Stegadons. Balance of points was for assorted magic items and characters.)

That is, creepily, almost identical to the list I have gradually put together with the help of Dakka and Lustria Online.

Heh. Since you have played more recently, I guess that means that list is a reasonable starting point for a Lizardman army.

Starting with a box of Saurus Warriors and testing some paint schemes and the army book is the way to go. Work on some small army lists and think about what kind of focus you want. Then go with a battalion. Everything in it has use, the CoC have slightly less than the rest but can be important. CoC are grossly over-costed in the current book, esp when compared to CoK of Dark Elves... (sadness washes over me every time I do)