Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm new to fantasy, but I do know the rules and fluff. I recently learned that orcs are most competitive as a gunline army , which surprised me a good deal. I also learned that the lizardmen skink cloud is often thought to be the most effective, which is surprising considering that in the fluff they are the artisans, and the suarus are the fighters. I was wondering if any other army was most competitive when violating the fluff....

Well Skinks are artisans when they aren't at war, and when they are, they have the dexterity to use blowpipes which I think is the big thing in the skink cloud list. So that's not really against fluff.

Skinks don't violate the fluff that bad. Skinks are proficient scouts & ambushers. Most fights in lustria are ambushes & not all out battles. The dense jungle makes mustering a coherent force difficult so usually some skilled sking patrols are enough to dissuade or destroy an opposing force.

As for O&G I don't know their fluff as well do I can't comment but goblins seem all too happy to be super tricksy & cowardly standing back & lobbing rocks.

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:
Skinks don't violate the fluff that bad. Skinks are proficient scouts & ambushers. Most fights in lustria are ambushes & not all out battles. The dense jungle makes mustering a coherent force difficult so usually some skilled sking patrols are enough to dissuade or destroy an opposing force.

As for O&G I don't know their fluff as well do I can't comment but goblins seem all too happy to be super tricksy & cowardly standing back & lobbing rocks.

Maybe it's not an extreme violation, but the lack of any Saurus in a list when they are supposedly designed for war is strange. Also, goblins may be happy to stand back and shoot, but in the fluff orcs are about charging and fighting, hence the animosity.

But lustria doesn't see war. War is very rare. Due to geographic isolation & dense jungles, actual battles are very rare. Skinks do the majority of the fighting.

Yes and most lists run Goblin heavy not orc heavy at least from what I've seen. Orcs are still decent in combat it's just Goblin wamachines and fanatics are more effective albeit more unreliable.

Also Orcs not Orks. Keep that 40K(rap) outta here

EDIT: You didn't need to correct it I was just messin with ya

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:

Also Orcs not Orks. Keep that 40K(rap) outta here

Corrected

If the army book allows it, I don't see how it's against fluff. It's not hard to make a fluff-friendly explanation for ANY list that you can make, anyways.

There used to be Lizardmen Colonies in the Southlands where there were no Sarus iirc

There still are IIRC.

Saurus are really only used when something serious is going down. Most of the time, its bands of Skinks that are protecting the borders.

A competitive army simply represents this type of force.

Skink patrol armies are totally fluffy. The thing that breaks away from fluff a bit with those armies is when they roll a Slann as well. It seems unlikely that Lizardmen would commit a Slann to battle without any Saurus or Temple Guard to protect him. But then I wouldn't think Slann would bother themselves with battles below 3,000 points anyways. Their lives are too important to be risked on minor skirmishes.

The Orcs and Goblins book has the problem of having the chaff and shooting elements of the army being miles better than the combat blocks. Orcs aren't necessarily bad in combat, it's just that those points could be more effective spent on other units. It's a shame because I think a proper Orcs and Goblins army would love to run up and smash face with goblins being tricksy from the backfield. You can totally do this btw, it's just not the "optimal" tournament build.

Keep in mind that the difference between fluffy and competitive lists isn't as great in fantasy as it is in 40k. A fluffy not-super-optimized list can still go toe-to-toe with some competitive builds. Is it an uphill battle? more often than not perhaps. Is it an auto-lose? No.