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I've been working on my lizard men, and I realized I have enough saurus for a 3rd large block. If I drop all the skinks, chameleons and terradons, I can squeeze in 24 more saurus and a steggadon.
So what do you think, can lizardmen work with 5 infantry blocks and 2 monsters and completely skip all the fast moving poison goodness?

-Matt

Skinks have a lot of uses. A lot of monsters are way better than steggadons. I think it's easy to take out terradons. But the little guys are very useful. You might be able to get most of the same cover if you simply added a small unit of Kroxigor. If some super elite or monster unit comes (think Mournfang or buff DP), your Saurus are going to bounce off them unless you can Mindrazor or something.

Ancients look pretty solid.
I've seen them take a charge from mournfangs and hold.
4D6+1 S3 poison shots isn't something to dismiss.

I don't know what I'm going to do about the nurgle prince. I most likely will be running shadow so I'm thinking debuff and try and grind. Miasma (WS) + Enfeeble gives temple guard a shot without taking too much damage. Or Miasma and Razor.

Skins are, in my experience, very effective.

I remember running a HE list with a small number of really tough units, and hardly any chaff-killers to spare. I went up against tons of skins and got beaten rather comfortably. Although I wasn't using a great list for the job, it certainly shows the power of skins. I'd try and take a unit if you can, they certainly have their uses.

I think you give up a huge amount of the capability of the book by going skinkless. Skirmishers, Camos and Terradons all help you gain a huge advantage in terms of positioning, counter chaff etc. which allows your blocks to better pick and choose their combats. In my experience a Lizardmen combat list only really needs the block of 2 Saurus. It depends what the rest of the list looks like.

I find myself making armies without skinks reasonably often. At least, no blocks of skinks. THOSE are useless.

HawaiiMatt wrote:
I've been working on my lizard men, and I realized I have enough saurus for a 3rd large block. If I drop all the skinks, chameleons and terradons, I can squeeze in 24 more saurus and a steggadon.
So what do you think, can lizardmen work with 5 infantry blocks and 2 monsters and completely skip all the fast moving poison goodness?

-Matt

You could always give it a shot (or not i suppose since your guns are gone mostly ;P). Hopefully you still have the magic to do all the work that you lose in movement and shooting though.

Trying new things is always good. Who knows maybe you'll find some awesome combo that differs from the norm. That's always fun to take the less travelled path. Better than run skinks and slann and collect your win.

I've very rarely used ranked skinks. I really can't imagine much of a use for them, other than to have a place for Krox to beat face from. That said, I don't really ever use Krox.

Skirmishers, on the other hand, have been the MVP in more than a game or two. Between poison, great mobility and cost, they've managed to aggravate and harass my opponents to no end.

 Veritek83 wrote:
I've very rarely used ranked skinks. I really can't imagine much of a use for them, other than to have a place for Krox to beat face from. That said, I don't really ever use Krox.

Skirmishers, on the other hand, have been the MVP in more than a game or two. Between poison, great mobility and cost, they've managed to aggravate and harass my opponents to no end.

I've seen the skink uprising and it's been effective. 6 krox, in with some 60 skinks (12 wide, 7 deep). It was run with lore of light slaan, and it made a pretty effective death star. 12 to 18 S6 attacks, along with 14 to 25 S3 attacks adds up.
@ 600 points (with full command) it's cheaper than a death star.

-Matt

One of my main opponents plays Lizardmen, so I can give a humble opinion from the viewpoint of an opponent.

I think Skinks are the bees knees. They are one of those dinky units that seems so pathetic and then always always manages to do something useful. So much so that we developed an inside joke with me where I always yell "SKIIIIIIIIINKS" (like Captain Kirk yelling KHAAAAAAAN) when I play against him cause those little turds are always the bane of my existence.

You undoubtedly know better than I do that those poison attacks and good movement can make those little guys such a nuisance. If I were to ever play LM, I know my first purchase would be a box of Skinks.

Saurus on the other hand, they certainly are a tough nut to crack, but if I am not worried about some kind of Skink harassment chicanery, then I am going to go to town with magic and setting up combats in my favor.

So, in short, I would be less worried about a LM enemy who had just big blocks of Saurus, than I would be about an enemy who fielded a more diverse list that still included a block or two of Saurus.

Simple answer he'll yes, poison is awesome, great chaff killers, brutalize high toughness w armour troops, redirecters and extra drops in deployment. Take them

As just about everyone else has said. Skinks are damn good. Although they can certainly be blown to bits or run through easily, their quickness and poison help a great deal. I cant tell youvhow annoying it is to have a group of Skinks run up on a flank and shoot out a war machine and then just run away. Chaff, support, and cover, and of course the flanking, is what they are best for. I have found they are even better when there is a Salamander following up behind the group.

Skinks are not manditory of course, I have played armies with none, and against armies made entirely of Skinks. It is up to you, try them out and see.

Everyone must have far better luck with poison and failed armor saves than I do. The only thing I have ever had any success with skinks against are Marauders.