From out of the swamps of the Lustrian jungle come the Lizardmen. With several good special rules including minimum saves and 3d6 instead of 2d6 for all leadership tests the Lizardmen are here to stay. They appear to have no basic weaknesses apart from a smallish selection of troop types. This means that your opponent is likely to know what you are going to bring to the table and be able to tool up for it. Of course this isn't a problem in tournament games. However while your opponent might well know what troops you will field, he will not often know what you plan on doing with these troops.
Lizardmen troops are wonderful in that each can serve several functions. For instance, skinks can shoot, flank, provide cheap ranks for Kroxigors. Terradons can slaughter lone war machines or characters/mages or break skirmishing troops with base leaderships. Salamanders take out war machines or knights. Stegadons are the classic example of take 4 principles and mash em into one model. They are a very flexible army and very able to adapt to the unexpected.
In game play the Lizardmen are very like the Undead with a very powerful general who will be targeted by every nasty spell and warmachine that your opponent has and then several units of lower cost troops that are very hard to break / destroy. They also have several useful magic items that enable them to devastate enemy troops. The best of these is the Plaque of Dominion though surely this should be a one use magic item!!!! together with the Amulet of Xapati.
The Lizardmen are actually an extremely forgiving army because your troops can wear so many hats. Where it is not forgiving is if you oversee the limitations of skinks or sauruses. It is an army which is easy to OVER-ESTIMATE.
Talk about the speed of the army for one second. Great
ability to skirmish through difficult terrain and over water
obsticles but almost no hth troops that can pursue 3d6
Slann Mage Priest : The Lizardmen are unusual in Warhammer in that they can have a choice of 4 levels of General. You can go for the cheap option and just get a Mage Priest or spend all your character points on one model and go for a tooled up Mage-Lord. Personally I feel that a Master Mage-Priest is just about right for a 2000 point game.
One good tactic is to consider fielding 2 Slann, one for combat and one to protect the troops and cast. In a crunch, you can have the two Slanns on opposite flanks and double flank the opponent.
In smaller battles SMP's are cheap generals/mages and battle standard bearers wrapped in one (certainly cheaper than buying and tooling 3 characters + they have better stats in an extra wound and the shield of Old Ones)> It's like office equipment. . .a multi-purpose fax/copier/printer is a good idea on a budget. . .with some cash it makes sense to invest in all three.
A good option to take is the one that allows you make the General the Battle Standard Bearer as well. This only costs an extra 50 points but means that all units within 12" of the palanquin will be rolling 3d6 twice for any break tests that they have to make. This is almost as good as being able to give them all the dwarf Rune of Courage that makes them unbreakable. Due to the fearsome reputation of the Mage Priests your opponent will do everything in their power to kill him. Fourtunately the Priest comes with a built in special save that will deflect a lot of the damage. That coupled with his high toughness means that the biggest threat will come from War Machines such as Cannons and Organ Guns. Due to the size of the Mage Priest model he cannot benefit from the "Look Out Sir" rule unless he is with a unit of Kroxigors, so knocking out War Machines becomes very important. Still that's what Terradons are for. Remember that the Mage Priest has no armour and only at high levels does he get wonderful tougness. Thus, every x-boman in sight will be trying to wound him as well. This is equally as devastating as war machines.
As well as being the General your Mage Priest will also be your top magic user. This means that when it comes to choosing magic items you will have to choose between General type items (big killing sticks) or Mage type items. Still as you get one extra magic item per level over normal stats you do have more slots to fill. Remember that if you do take the Battle Banner option you can take a magic banner that DOESN'T count against your normal magic item limit.
You also need to remember that the abilities of the magic items carry over to the bearers. Again I come back to the point of taking two SMP's as it makes sense to have one for SMP specific mage items like plaque of dominion, amulet of xapati and other caster friendly items and the other to cut through enemy ranks.
One tactic that I have seen used with Mage Priests in tournament games is the Nuclear Bomb option. If you take the Heart of Woe with you priest you know that if he dies he's going to take a lot of the enemy with him. This is a good way of grabbing victory points off you opponent even if it all goes horribly wrong.
Saurus and Skink Heros : If you don't know what to do with these two characters then you might as well go back to Warhammer 101. Saurus heros are a nightmare to fight in H-to-H as they have a large number of attacks coupled with high Strength and Toughness. I would suggest a magic sword such as a blade of leaping bronze to increase the attacks even further. They can be your h-t-h general while the SMP can serve as your leader in the magic phase.Skink Heros are a lot weaker in H-toH (think Goblin) but as your Skink regiments shouldn't be doing any hardcore fighting this shouldn't be to much of a problem. However they are very good in Kroxigor/skink units. Make sure that the enemy decides what they want to attack before they know what kind of magic the skink has! Your opponenet will need to cause some wounds because for darn sure the Kroxigors will!!!
Saurus and Skink Champions : Well they're champions aren't they. Every unit that you create should have a champion if only to provide a bit of extra hitting power at a relatively low cost. Again Saurus champions are rather good in hand to hand combat.
Skink Championss are great for challenges to avoid catastrophic slaughter from such nasties as the flying character from hell attacking the skinks. Sure they wil flee but if you keep them close to their cousins (sauruses) the pursuing unit will have the unpleasant surprise of charging into a unit of spear bearing Strength 4 models.
Skink Shamans : Skink Shamans are your only other magic users instead of Mage Priests. They are only first level Battle Magic Magicians but can take two magic items. This means that each Shaman can carry two dispel scrolls leaving magic item slots free on your Mage Priest to take more offensive items. I would try and fit two of these characters into any army that I designed. They are some of the cheapest magic item slots around.
Try putting them in in Stegadons with offensive magic items. Randomizing hits first between the stegadon/howdah and crew and then amongst the crew memebers will keep them alive for most of the game. This is a great way of forcing the enemy to use up power cards and dispels. For instance a Skink shaman with staff of lightning/staff of flaming death and another shaman with staff of osiris and whatever else you want. Just add the banner of Wrath to the howdah and then you can cast 4 spells (using up opponents dispels) before you get to the magic phase proper. This is a great way to get the Plaque of Dominion off every round.
When it comes to regiments the Lizardman army is very similar to Orcs and Goblins due to the fact that you effectively have two races to pick your troops from. You can either go for the harder but more expensive Sauruses (Orcs) or the cheaper but far less effective Skinks (Goblins). Or you can do what all good generals do and take an army that is made up of the two.
Temple Guard : Elite Sauruses (+1WS and +1 I) armed with halberds giving them an effective strength of 5, enough to deal with all but the most heavily armoured troops. As with all the Lizardman troops they are Cold Blooded.
Weaknesses : These are your most expensive basic troops and your opponent will know it. They will be target by magic and war machines every turn. Make sure that you don't get caught into fighting unbreakable units.
Uses : Most of the Lizardmen players that I know take a regiment of Temple Guards, normally in a unit with the Slann Mage Priest. They are a very hard close combat unit and with their save of 5+ (min 6+) and high toughness you can be pretty sure of getting them into hand to hand intact. Toughness 4 on such high point cost troops should be protected from stray missile and x-bow fire so make sure you give them Light Armour and shields as well. 3+ saves are almost as good as knights! Make sure that you also spend some points on a decent magic standard such as the Jaguar Standard to get that extra charge distance when you really need it. The models look really cool as well which is always an advantage.
Saurus Warriors : The fighting core of your army will probably be made up of Saurus Warriors, if only because you have a load of the plastic ones from the Warhammer 5th Edition boxed set. They have decent strength and toughness which when coupled with their two attacks makes them very capable hand to hand combat opponents. They count as having heavy armour and are Cold Blooded.
Weaknesses: They are pretty expensive at 15 points per model so it's very costly to field them in big regiments. No magic standards.
Uses : Depending on what type of battle you like to fight you have two choices with your Saurus regiments. If you like to sit and wait for your opponents to come to you then equip your troops with spears and just wait. Your excellent save and toughness will mean that when the enemy arrive, your rank bonus will still be intact and they will be in deep trouble. If like me, you are a more aggressive player, then leave the spears at home and just deploy the Sauruses as they come. Unless you're a High Elf there is no point in having spears in attacking infantry blocks, especially when your basic troops cost 15 points before any extra equipment. I would suggest 2 blocks of around 20 Sauruses each with a champion and hero would make a comabt force that many generals will be scared of facing though other Lizardmen generals favour taking similar ammounts of Sauruses to Skink/Kroxigor units.
Skink Warriors : The Goblins of the Lizardman army. Very cheap so they qualify for the half price equipment discount. They can Skirmish and hide in water features. They get posioned weapons and are Cold Blooded. They can also include Kroxigor in their units, giving them some needed hitting power.
Weaknesses : Low leadership and pathetic toughness. In combat rolling 3d6 won't help these guys as they will be dying in droves against any half decent troops. Thinking about it, even a goblin could have a skink.
Uses : Don't get pulled into the trap of thinking of Skinks as frontline combat troops. Even if they have some Kroxigors in their midst the chances are that they will get their butts kicked in any halfway serious fighting (thats what you've got Sauruses for). Instead think of them as secondline troops for driving off enemy skirmishers, pursueing broken units and generally harassing the enemy. With their high movement Skinks are also very good deployed as largeish (20+) units of Skirmishers deployed on your flanks. As Skirmishers can always march these units can quickly get amongst the enemy formations. Your opponent will then do one of two things. He will either charge these (very cheap) units thus distracting him from his main advance or ignore them and thus enable you to reform to a fighting ie non skirmish, formation and then charge them in the rear. Either way its a win win situation for you. If you really want to use them as fighting troops then make sure the regiments contain as many Kroxigors as you are allowed as these are the figures that will end up doing most of the killing for you.
Always poison your weapons and remember anything that is a skirmishing shooter with str 4 hits for only 5.5 pts is not all bad! I like to make them force a charge with frenzied units then flee flee flee leading the frenzied unit way away from the real battles.
Cold One Riders : The Lizardmens only cavalry. The are Cold Blooded and cause fear due to the cold ones that they ride. Decent armour save (3+) for a relatively low points cost.
Weaknesses : Cold ones are subject to stupidity and Skinks only have a leadership of 6. Make sure you put a character with them. With a toughness of only 2 they are a prime target for any missile troops that your opponent might have.
Uses : Using their spears these mounted skinks have an effective strength of 5 so you would think that you could use them as medium cavalry but their pathetic toughness effectivley precludes that. I can't really see any use for these troops and would suggest that they didn't make it onto the battlefield. however Lord Brrrp says that as they have really good armor saves so toughness of 2 doesn't matter if they pick the right targets, and they do cost 1/2 of a regular knights cost.
He suggests that you use them in any of the following rolls : 3d6 pursuers, Flankers, Breaking skirmishers, Getting behind enemy lines and slowing the enemy down or Attacking war machine crews
Kroxigor : Giant walking crocodiles with two handed weapons and leadership 9. Scary, and the models just look great
Weaknesses : Watch out for characters with multi wound weapons as they will turn your Kroxigors into kebabs in short order. They never seem to leave their two handed weapons at home.
Uses: You can place Kroxigor in units of skinks and whilst this gives skink regiments some needed hitting power and leadership I feel that they are better off deployed in their own unit in the same way that Trolls and Rat Ogres are deployed. With their excellent leadership (rolling 3d6 as well) they will be able to take on all comers and still stand a decent chance of winning any fights that they get into. Using their big axes they get an effective strength of 7 so they can wound anything in the Warhammer world. If you haven't guessed I really like these guys and feel they should be formed up in a big unit, placed in the middle of the battle line and then just charged into the enemies big powerful units. Great.
Terradons : Relatively cheap flyers with a cool rock drop. Terradons are a bit wierd as the rules contradict each other. In some places they talk about them being like monsters and in other places they talk about them being used as cavalry mounts. I've assumed that they are cavalry mounts. (WDUK 208 supports this theory).
Weaknesses: Toughness 2 as they count as mounts.
Uses: Terradons are best used in the traditional flyer roles of attacking warmachines, lone characters and broken units. They are no match for any monsters though so don't be tempted to use them to attack that flying high dragon rider.
Dinosaur Chariots with a bolt thrower on top. The shear impact that placing a stegadon model on the tabletop will have on your opponent is probably worth the points cost alone.
Weaknesses : Magic Weapons that kill automatically ie Rod of Corruption are to be avoided. Attacking big blocks of enemy troops without any support is probably a bad idea as well.
Uses : Place a stegadon just to the side and behind of one of your big Saurus blocks. When the Sauruses charge the Stegadon will be able to make it as well, giving a massive combat boost and thus enabling you to destroy your opponents most powerful regiments with ease. The other option with Stegadons is to take two and place one on either flank. They can then advance down the edges of the board, and then hopefully charge enemy units in the flank whilst they are engaged by you main troop blocks to the front. Remember that if you are playing the "House Rules" from the back of the Warhammer rule book then Stegadons will cancel out a units rank bonus die to the fact that they have 5 wounds. It's probably worth giving them a giant bow as its only an extra 20 points and it gives you a decent strength missile attack to shoot at things like Treemen with. Well you need something to do in the missile phase don't you.
Salamander : A living artilery piece that gobs acid at it's enemies.
Weaknesses : It can't hit the side of a barn, even a very big one.
Uses : Despite the fact that Salamanders are the only form of artillery that the Lizzies can get I wouldn't suggest that you field them. They are very expensive for what you get and the damage that they are capable of doing just doesn't justify the cost. Spend the points on extra Kroxigor instead. It's a shame that they arn't more effective however as the miniature is very nice.
In more and more tournaments these days you aren't allowed to use special characters due to the perceived unbalancing effect they have on the game. I personally don't have a problem with using specials in your army provided you don't start switching magic items around as this just means that you want all the abilities that the characters tend to have but not the crap selection of items that they get. However in the Lizardmen Book you can't change items so its all or nothing with these guys. Overall the Lizardmen special characters seem to be a very fair set. There is no over the top cheese monster in there and once you get past the sad names them they all seem to be pretty good.
Venerable Lord Kroak : Lord Kroak has been dead for hundreds of years but don't let that put you off taking him as he's still a powerful opponent in h-to-h. He also still gets spells and that fact that he can't cast them means that you can use the Slann telepathy ability to dump all your crap spells on him and not worry about it. He gets a great special save (3+) and his magic items are pretty cool. Combining the Ceremonial Mace of Malachite with his save and the Amulet of Itza means that Kroak can give most things a kicking in h-to-h without any worries. If you are allowed to take special characters and you've got the points I would definately put Kroak in my army.
Lotl Botl : Bit of a sad name but a nice character. He has no magic items but has a couple of abilitys instead. His Blood Curdling roar is OK but it only means that he cause fear not the whole unit. Cold Blooded Determination is much better though giving an extra +1 to combat resolution. In these days of everybody having a Standard and a full rank bonus this is very useful, like having another standard bearer in the front rank.
Kroq : Another Saurus hero with a couple of abilities to make up for not having any magic items. To tell you the truth he is my favourite Lizzie special character as I just love the idea of him going up to a Khorne Lord and then biting his head clean off. I just hope that the miniature will match up to the one in my imagination.
Oxayotl : Oxayotl has the feel about him of a unit type that was going to make it into the army book but was dropped towards the end of the armies development cycle - a bit like Wood Elf Animal Handlers. This was a shame as chameleon skinks sound like they would have been fun. Again he has no magic items (what is it with these character, terminally careless or what) but a couple of nice abilities.He is excellent for taking out warmachine crews.
Inxi Huinzi : Another character that I'm looking forward to seeing the model for. However Inxi's only real use is leading a regiment of Skink Cold One riders and as I have already said that I don't think you should take cold one riders I can't see Inxi ever making to the battlefield. Shame really.
Itzi Bitzi : Itzi is a Skink hero with an excellent special ability. Once per battle he can make all enemy units within 8" take a panic test on 3 dice (pick worst two). This is great for destroying an enemy attack and handing the iniative back to the Lizzies. The best time to say the incantation is probably at the begining of your turn before charges are declared. This means that if you do cause any enemy units to panic and flee you can charge them hopeully killing them in short order.
Tenehuini : The prophet of Sotek himself. Unfortuneately, dispite his auspisious position in the scheme of things Tenhuini is a very poor character and I couldn't recomend anyone taking him.
Lord Mazdamundi : One of the greatest Mage Priests who rides a Stegadon instead of a palanquin. All the normal Mage Priest special rules apply together with all the Stegadon rules. Mazdamundi also has his own special geomantic spells. Sadly these spells, whilst very flavoursome are a bit useless in a warhammer battle. They could be good in a campaign setting however. Mazdamundi has his full selection of magic items but again they are more flavoursome rather than useful. Overall I wouldn't recomend using Maz though I bet the model will again be absolutely killer.