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Hi guys

I've Posted a similar question in the WHFB Tactics section and getting really good feedback and its helped me Narrow down which army i want to play to these two armies.

I wanted a magic heavy army with the occasional monster (more a centre piece then damage wise) and the ability to do a death star.

And i've narrowed it down to these two. Now its just deciding which? Can anyone give reasons pro and con either army?

Thanks

Well with high elves you'll 100% be able to play them in 9th.

Right now with Lizardman it isn't so certain.

 Bottle wrote:
Well with high elves you'll 100% be able to play them in 9th.

Right now with Lizardman it isn't so certain.

Sorry i dont think i understand what you mean by not playing in 9th?

The way things have worked out in the End Times has left people uncertain about whether there will still be a Lizardman army in 9th.

Personally, I don't believe that they're going to drop the lizards, but High Elves are a certainty, so they might be safer.

That said, I like the Lizardmen's monsters, so...

Ahhh I see. Yeah I doubt they'd drop an entire army :/ seems a bit drastic don't you think?

People mainly spam stegadons from what I can see from battle reports. Don't you think the frost heart phoenix is much. Much better?

It would be very stupid for GW to drop lizardmen. They've been part of Fantasy since day 1 and are on the more unique side as far as what can be said to be unique to GW's universe. Lizardmen almost fill the niche that classic High Elves do in the classic Tolkien based Mythology(ancient crumbling civilization with advanced magic and/or technology)

They're not going to squat them unless they intent to completely destroy Fantasy and start over from scratch.

I get lizardmen being strong in magic. I get the magical upgrades are strong. But I feel like they're on par with high elves. Temple guard are one of the strongest melee units lizardmen have. And they're babysitting a powerful mage that sucks in combat unless boosted by magic for that purpose.

I think a lot of lizardmen monsters can be outshined by the frost phoenix, or even the flame phoenix. I also think saurus warriors are a little overpriced when a unit like sword masters would mince them. But this is what I can gather from battle reports and videos. If someone can tell me otherwise I'd love constructive criticism

At this stage, it's impossible to second guess GW and, even if they were to drop a certain army, I'm positive that, if you have a decent playerbase, people will be happy using 8th rules and armies.

To be honest though, I can't offer much more help in distinguishing between these two armies, since they both fit your criteria very well. Whilst Elves are probably a stronger army, I'd say Lizardmen have a shallower learning curve, since they can take more punishment and require less finesse with positioning and support.

Ultimately it comes down to whether or not you want a resilient army, or a fast army. And which models you like best, of course.

Lizardmen are well and truly below par when compared to High Elves. High Elves are currently one of the powerhouse Army Books of 8th Edition.
Temple Guard are great for babysitting a Slann, their relatively durable and usually don't give up a lot of points, I'd caution you to not expect too much from Saurus Warriors as combat specialists. At first glance they seem like a strong unit, S/T 4 and 2A is all well and good but WS3 and I1 are the major drawbacks.
Don't be concerned by the fact that Lizardmen monsters are outclassed by the Frost Phoenix. Frosties are candidates for the best monster in the game currently.

I have played both in 8th (i did trade my lizzies for tau, which i actually regret. I wish i had kept the lizzies as in my estimation 40k isn't half the game fantasy is).

Lizardmen are a very forgiving, new player friendly army. They can participate (and well, depending on build) in every phase of the game, if perhaps some builds are a little bit light on shooting. THey have very forgiving morale, and can do horde-like (skink cloud) or more elite model count armies with ease making tailoring them to how YOU like to play lizzies a relatively easy task. Not all armies are capable of such and have them still remain effective (as in, it's possible for me to play an ogre army as a horde, but it will suck balls if i do so...)


Mono High elves are an elite, borderline "urber elite" model count army. They have very good shooting, extremely good to Pants-On-Your-Head-On-Fire-slowed Good magic, and their close combat can be devastating. They are very, very glass-hammery.

RIght now, the meanest, nastiest things elves can pull off are from End Times. If High elves have very good shooting, End Times Elves have amazing shooting. If High Elves have extremely good to Pants-On-Your-Head-On-Fire-slowed Good magic, then End Times Elf magic is over 9000. Their close combat gets even more insane. What really seals the deal for End Times Elves is that if you know what you're doing, and done right, you can also make them tough as nails and an absolute bear for your opponent to kill. Either / Both Alarielle's should have a rule stating Comp: Opponent gets to hit you in the junk with a crowbar.

Thing is, no one knows if End Times elves as we know and love them right now will remain and continue to be a thing into the future in 9th edition. THen again, no one knows if Lizardmen will be a thing in 9th either. Most people think they won't be an army choice at 9th's skirmish level launch, but probably will be a sleeper "gotcha" and be released into it later. ALl conjecture.

If you're intending to keep playing 8th, you really can't go wrong with either, and i slightly recommend elves more (as though the learning curve will be higher, ultimately as you get to know them there are more options, more methods of playing them due to sheer options available with End Times). If you're looking for an army that will carry you into 9th ; the short answer is no one knows what that looks like yet.

If you're looking for a fun as hell, unique to paint, beginner friendly army, go with Lizards. If you want something with a higher learning curve and ultimately more options to build a truly impressive and massive collection (potentially... if there's time...), go with elves.

You can't go wrong with either if you're planning on playing 8th ed.

Well I'm confused of what you want
What is more important? Strategy or Fluff?

Well Lizardmen are fun to play and received good new models in 8th edition. High Elves received many new models over the years.
Both can have pretty cool magic stuff and both have big Monsters as well.

Since this is background section and not tactic, lets examine it from a fluff pov.

High Elves nice beauties, super magic, Teclis, Tyrion, All white and Shiny.
Lizards Dinosaurs, magic toads and damn DINOSAURS. Enough said.

So do you want a Tolkien Elves look alike Defence of Light and Rightous? OR ...
Do you want to defeat the enemy with ancient nature magic and dinosaurs.

For me it is clear: Dinosaurs.

Get back to the rumour part: Looking at GW Behaviour patterns, I have seen armies being eradicated: Chaos Dwarfs and Kislev and I have also seen them being revived (Tharmurkhan Chaos Dwarfs) But I think it is unlikely that Forgeworld will revive something again. Warhammer Forge didn't work out obviously. So yes, lizardmen might be gone in the End Times. BUT as rumours say, 8th Edition will be still there, you can still play it. Lizards will be there too. So no harm. Besides 10th Edition in 4 to 8 years will have 8t and 9th combined as did the 6th with Fantasy and Mordheim (somehow, it did include skirmish though).

So if you are not going to join to glorious Waagh! of a true nightgobbo then go for Lizards, fighting dinosaurs is fun. oh yeah, lizardmen too ...