Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

I am starting this thread in the hopes of collecting a wide range of useful Lizardmen Tactics, both for the Lizardmen in general and against specific armies.

Feel free to post tactics you have used in this thread. Post your tactics related to a specific Lord, Hero, Unit, or even your effective tactics against other armies!

With your help, we can build a better Lizardmen Army!


Thread Contents:

Post #1
-Contents
-Unit Overview (By Godless_Mimicry)
-Lizardmen Term Guide

Post #2
-General Lizardmen Tactics

Post #3
-Lizardmen Tactics against specific armies


Unit Overview:

Lords & Heroes:

Slann

Easily the best non-SC caster in the game. The points drop for a Slann is huge, despite losing some abilities. The disciplines allow you to have the old equivalent of the 4th gen Slann without miscast immunity or the Drain Magic spell, but at a 150pt reduction. HUGE!!!

Now let's talk disciplines. I think it's needless to say that every Slann build will find the first discipline to be taken The Focused Rumination. A free power dice for each spell, with the Slann casting roughly three spells a turn, effectively gives the Slann 9PD to work with a turn alone(4 for level, 2 for pool, 1 each for three spells cast). Focus of Mystery, Soul of Stone, and Higher State of Consciousness seem next of the average players list. Knowing what spells you will have for a battle allows one to do something unusual and actually plan around magic. Lores of Fire, Death, Metal and Beasts will always be the most useful. We all know the key to winning is to plan ahead, and knowing your spells makes that easier. The other two are self explanatory.

There are two ways to really play a Slann. Number one is alone. If you are planning to have a Slann alone, then you are likely playing a Skink list, and rightly so, as a Saurus heavy list is less equipped to keep the baddies away from your fat frog. A Slann played in this way should really have the Higher State of Consciousness and Transcedant Healing disciplines just to be safe. And even then you will need to protect him. Having Skink cohorts to redirect charges away from your Slann will be crucial. Your lord may not be able to be hurt by most units that charge him, but he will stll lose if alone to SCR and get run down.

The other way, and more popular at that, is with Temple Guard. Making the unit stubborn and Itp, it's a huge roadblock for you opponent to deal with. But the list around them should be built accordingly. Your uber unit of death can still only move 4" and so is easily avoidable. You need maneuverable troops and good shooting/magic to make your opponent engage. You can also choose to take a small unit just to bunker the Slann in. 10 or 11 is fine for this.


Old Blood/Scar Veteran

Two of the best fighting characters in the game. Let's get straight down to it.

The most obvious thing that strikes people's mind is the old Nikey Saurus build. As we all know the Jaguar Charm is now a bound Steed of Shadows spells, which has it's +ves and -ves. For this reason I think that the Jaguar Charm should be solely chosen for a Scar Veteran and not for and Old Blood. This way you can take him in a Slann led list, and the heavy magic will allow your SoS off without being dispelled. For the Old Blood a good alternative can be the Horned One. A slightly slower movement rate, however fast and gives an extra S4 attack. The downside is giving up the 360 LOS and the S7 from a GW. However, you also gain +2 to your save, so it can be useful, but is a very double edged sword.

Weapon wise, the Blade of Realities stands out a mile. The chance to kill a big character or monster with one blow ignoring all their saves is HUGE!!! People may think that a high Ltd can prevent this, but they must test for each hit, which should be roughly four against most enemies. There is a good chance for even a Ltd Elf Prince to fail at least one of them. And if all else fails, you still get to attack with your respectable S5.

Another thing that springs to mind is the Cold One Hide, allowing you to get a 1+ save in combat. Combining this with a Slann using Beast lore could be devastating, casting Bear's Anger on your Scar Veteran, giving him 7A @ S7 with T7 and a 1+save in combat. WOW!!! Even a Dragon doesn't match up to that.

Skink Chief

Only one thing needs to be said about these guys, Stegadon War-Spear. Giving the Chief this makes a Stegadon he is mounted on do 2D6+1 impact hits. If you can afford it, an Ancient Stegadon is the best choice here, making those impact hits (average S6. It also means he will be S6 on the turn of the charge, as the SW-S is a lance. Nifty combo.

Lizardmen Term Guide:

Lizardmen Specific Terms:

BP: Blowpipe
Chamo: Chameleon Skink
CoF: Cloak of Feathers
CoR/SCoR: Cold One Riders/Sarius Cold One Riders
EotG: Engine of the Gods
FSoD: Flying Skink of Doom, a skink chief with a cloak of feathers, for warmachine and mage hunting
Javs: Javelins
JSoD: Jaguar Saurus of Doom, also known as the Nike Saurus, armed with the jaguar pendent and a great weapon
Krox: Kroxigor
MotOO: Mark of the Old Ones
Razor: Razordon
Sallie: Salamander
SoSR: Scimitar of the Sun Resplendent
Steggie: Stegadon
TG: Temple Guard
Terrie: Teradon
VotFF: Venom of the Firefly Frog


Armies:

BoC: Beasts of Chaos
Brets: Bretonnians
-RAF: Royal Air Force, a Bretonnian army consisting of a large number of Pegasus Knights
DE: Dark Elves
DoC: Daemons of Chaos
DoW: Dogs of War
Emp: Empire
HE: High Elves
HoC: Hordes of Chaos
LM: Lizardmen
OK: Ogre Kingdoms
O&G/OG: Orcs and Goblins
-NG: Night Goblins
SC: Scaven
-SAD: Shooty Army of Death, a Skaven army utilizing large amounts of magic and shooting.
SoC: Storm of Chaos
-AoS: Army of Sylvania, a Storm of Chaos army for Vampire Counts
-LSG: lorthern sea guard, a Storm of Chaos army for High Elves
-SCE: Skaven Clan Eshin, a Storm of Chaos army for Skaven.
-CoP/CoS: Cult of Pleasure/Slaanesh a Storm of Chaos army for Druchii
-DSA: Dwarf Slayer Army, a Storm of Chaos army for Dwarves
Stunties: Dwarfs
TK: Tomb Kings
VC: Vampire Counts
WE: Wood Elves


General Warhammer Terms:

AS: Armor Save
ASF: Always Strike First
B2B: Base-to-Base contact
BfSP: Battle For Skull Pass (7th Edition Starter Box, features Dwarfs and Orcs & Goblins)
BRB: Big Red Book
BSB: Battle Standard Bearer
Cav: Cavalry
CC: Close combat
CR: Combat Resolution
FC: Full Command - Unit champion, standard bearer and musician.
FLU: Few Large Units.
GW: Great Weapons or Games Workshop.
HA: Heavy Armor
HW: Hand Weapon
LA: Light Armor
LGS: Local Gaming Store
MSU: Many Small Units
R&F: Rank and File troops
SCR: Static Combat Resolution
SRB: Small Red Book
VP: Victory Points

Lizardmen Tactics: General


Chamelion Skinks:

Chamelion Skinks can scout, they work great for march blocking. Get them in close to slow down a large part of your opponents army.


Cold One Riders

Use small groups of 5-6 in a single rank with no command. Their WS and S are good enough to make them a a valueable unit for attacking your opponents flanks.

Take a unit in ranks of 6, +8 models & FC. This will be a strong enough unit to go toe-to-toe with many enemy units.


Gor-Rok:

Taking this guy down is like trying to move a mountain. Missile weapons and magic barely phase him. And he can take a full Britonnian lance, BY HIMSELF! Single handedly he can hold against almost any unit your opponent can throw against him!


Kroxigor:

Take a unit of Skinks large enough to hold 2-3 Krox. This gains you three things. 1. It allows you to take a unit of Krox without tieing up a Special slot. 2. Krox can fight from the second rank, allowing you to attack with more models when you engage the enemy. 3. Skinks act as a meat shield, this will improve your chances of keeping your Krox alive until they reach close combat.

Take several units of 8-12 Skinks (No command) and 1 Krox. This creates a 95-115pt Fear causing unit.


Salamander Hunting Pack:

Take these guys in units of 2-3. If you can afford it, fork out for the extra handler for each unit. These guys are devastating against rank-and-file units.


Scar Vet:

This requires you to have a Slann with Lore of Shadows and your Scar Vet must have a Charm of Jaguar Warrior & Great Weapon. Start the game with your Slann Directly behind the Scar Vet. Have your Scare Vet march 16", then move your Slann 4", then cast "Steed of Shadows" for another 20" followed by using your charm for yet another 20". The end result is a Hero that can move up to 48" in a single move! This strategy has the potential to completely disrupt your opponents strategy early in the game.


Skinks:

Skinks, taken in Regiments of 10 allow you to bait enemy units, opening enemy units to flank charges from your Saurus Warriors.

Taken in larger units, Skinks can take down Giants and other large enemies without poison resistance

Skinks are among the fastest rank-and-file unit in any army. Put them on the flanks and they can make a huge difference in your battles.

Redirect Charges. If you decide to flee from an enemy unit, that unit persues towards the nearest visible skirmisher! If you set them up in a rough line or half circle you can bait enemy units into position for some great flank charges!

Meat Shield. Take a small unit of Skink Skirmishers and spread them out in front of a larger unit (Saurus, Krox, Skink/Krox, etc) This will protect your parger unit from attacks as you move it to where you need it.

Skink Torpedo. Take 10 ranked up skinks and have them 1 per rank, they will be able to flank easily with 6 inch movement AND they will be dirt cheap at 50 points total.


Skink Chief:

Use a Flying Skink Chief to run down fleeing enemy units. This unit can cover a lot of distance in a single turn. If you catch the enemy unit, it cant rally and come back to haunt you later.


Slann Mage Priest:

Put your Slann in a unit of Temple Guard. Having Stubborn units surrounding your Slann will greatly add to his survivability.

Use your Channeling ability to its fullest! Take a couple of Skink Priests and use them to cast spells with a limited range from anywhere you can get them without ever exposing your Slann to the enemy!

Taking "Focus of Mystery" will give your Slann every spell from their chosen lore.

Taking "Focused Rumination" will give your Slann one extra power dice to every roll!


Stegadons:

Engine of the Gods: This is a brutal weapon, doing D6 St4 hits with no armor saves allowed! EotG also helps your Skink Preist generate extra power & dispell dice, giving you a significant boost during your magic phase!

Stegadon Battering Ram: Take a unit of 15 Skinks and 2 Stegadons (Both containing a hero, so it counts as a mount). The Stegadons will displace the entire front rank (Since mounts move to the front rank.) causing the Skinks to pile up behind the Stegadons. Give one a BSB & War Banner and the other a Stagadon War-Spear. Nothing will want to get in front of this unit.

Stegadons cause Terror. Use this to your advantage by targeting low Ld units when possible. Also taking several Stegadons in your army and spreading them out will create a string of Terror causing units. Watch your opponent flee before your mighty army!

If you are using EotG, use Portents of Warding to give friendly units a +5 Ward Save from any ranged attack coming from more than 12" away. Stegadon crew and characters are not subject to this sule.


Temple Guard:

Even if you have a regiment of Temple Guard protecting your Slann, your opponent will most likely try to take him out. If you can keep a heavy hitting unit near by you can use it like a detachment. When your opponent attacks your Temple Guard, swing your other unit around to hit it in the flanks!

Cango Line: Take a unit of 20 Temple Guard in a single or double file line (One behind the next instead of a wide rank.) Then use this unit to single out an enemy "Deathstar" character. This is a 130pt unit that can pen down almost any model for the entire game!

Terradons:

If your opponent is using a smaller unit for a shield for a larger unit try this: Fly over both units, dropping rocks on the front unit. Hopefully this will result in a panic test for this unit. This will result in a panic test for the larger unit if its within 6' of the panicing unit. If the larger unit fails this test it will flee directly away from its shielding unit, . . right into the waiting Terradon unit!

Groups of 3-5 Terradons make a brutally effective unit for hunting War Machines.

Hit & Run tactics. You can use your Terradons to run charge interference. Your unit can get in the way of an enemy unit then flee 3D6". Then in the following round they automatically rally using their "Hit & Run" special rule.

Lizardmen vs, . . . . .


Britonnia:

Gor-Rok: Taking this guy down is like trying to move a mountain. Missile weapons and magic barely phase him. And he can take a full Britonnian lance, BY HIMSELF! Single handedly he can hold against almost any unit your opponent can throw against him!


Daemons:

Stegadon/Engine of the Gods: This is specially good against Daemon units; doing D6 St5 hits with no armor saves allowed! EotG also helps your Skink Preist generate extra power & dispell dice, giving you a significant boost during your magic phase!


Dark Elves:

Use a Carnosaur to hunt Monsters.

Exploit your opponents "Hatred." Use small groups of Skinks to bait enemy units. Baiting flank units away from the main fight or baiting chariots into difficult terrain can buy you valuable time.

Samalanders can be used to devastating effect against many of the Dark Elves Infantry.

Use the "Lore of Metal" spell "Rule of Burning Iron" on an enemy character with the Ring of Hotec. With this spell you will be able to snipe key enemy characters from inside the safety of your own formations


Dwarfs:

If your opponent has a BSB, hit him as soon as you can with a "Rule of Burning Iron" Spell. This is a great way to criple a Dwarf army early in the game! All the better if the BSB has an expensive banner!


Orcs & Goblins:

Use Chakax to force any unit within 20" to tell him about any Fanatics in the unit. Then use your Chamelions or Terradons to lure them out.

Take Fear and Terror causing units (Like Cold One Cavalry, Kroxigors, Stegadons and Hunting Packs) against Orc & Goblin armies. These units will take a terrible toll on all their low Ld units.

Skirmisher units can be very effective against O&G armies.


Tomb Kings:

Stegadon/Engine of the Gods: This is specially good against Undead units; doing D6 St5 hits with no armor saves allowed! EotG also helps your Skink Preist generate extra power & dispell dice, giving you a significant boost during your magic phase!


Vampire Counts:

Stegadon/Engine of the Gods: This is specially good against Undead units; doing D6 St5 hits with no armor saves allowed! EotG also helps your Skink Preist generate extra power & dispell dice, giving you a significant boost during your magic phase!

A Slann with Lore of Light or Lore of Metal is an especially potent tool against VC armies.

If ingaged in combat with a VC unit (Especially Zombies) and a Lord, Hero or any other potent model (Seperate from the original unit). Throw everything you have against the weaker unit, counting on your rank bonus and standard to win the Combat Resolution. The wounds caused could be enough to kill the Lord/Hero unit without ever needing to attack it. If this character is the army General, your opponents army will start to crumble with his death!
-Zombie3883

Taking down the VC General. Using a Slann, take Lore of Metal and take the Bane Head. Then repeatedly pound him with Rule of Burning Iron.


Wood Elves:

Stegadon/Engine of the Gods: This is specially good against Forest Spirit units; doing D6 St5 hits with no armor saves allowed! EotG also helps your Skink Preist generate extra power & dispell dice, giving you a significant boost during your magic phase!

A Slann with Lord of Fire can crush a Wood Elf army. Not only can it dominate the magic phase, but it can also turn your opponents Treemen, Treekin, etc into a smoking ruin.

Take out Wood Elf cavalry with Blowpipes.

A unit of Cold Ones on each of your flank will help keep your opponent from getting at your flanks.

I'm not sure what type of db you are working on, but if you like, I might be able to save you some trouble. My website I have been working on that contains a wiki entirely devoted to warhammer tactics is almost ready. Feel free to check out what I have done so far. Right now I'm working on figuring out some user permissions, finalizing format, and writing more information to get people started.

Here is the site. warhammer-strategy.com/wiki

I'll be looking forward to seeing how your site developes once you get some tactics up on it! I bookmarked it and will check back when you start getting your tactics posted.

I'd like to share some thought in a similar vein to Guardian, unit by unit, army by army. Note I will not cover special characters as I don't use them.

Slann

Easily the best non-SC caster in the game. The points drop for a Slann is huge, despite losing some abilities. The disciplines allow you to have the old equivalent of the 4th gen Slann without miscast immunity or the Drain Magic spell, but at a 150pt reduction. HUGE!!!

Now let's talk disciplines. I think it's needless to say that every Slann build will find the first discipline to be taken The Focused Rumination. A free power dice for each spell, with the Slann casting roughly three spells a turn, effectively gives the Slann 9PD to work with a turn alone(4 for level, 2 for pool, 1 each for three spells cast). Focus of Mystery, Soul of Stone, and Higher State of Consciousness seem next of the average players list. Knowing what spells you will have for a battle allows one to do something unusual and actually plan around magic. Lores of Fire, Death, Metal and Beasts will always be the most useful. We all know the key to winning is to plan ahead, and knowing your spells makes that easier. The other two are self explanatory.

There are two ways to really play a Slann. Number one is alone. If you are planning to have a Slann alone, then you are likely playing a Skink list, and rightly so, as a Saurus heavy list is less equipped to keep the baddies away from your fat frog. A Slann played in this way should really have the Higher State of Consciousness and Transcedant Healing disciplines just to be safe. And even then you will need to protect him. Having Skink cohorts to redirect charges away from your Slann will be crucial. Your lord may not be able to be hurt by most units that charge him, but he will stll lose if alone to SCR and get run down.

The other way, and more popular at that, is with Temple Guard. Making the unit stubborn and Itp, it's a huge roadblock for you opponent to deal with. But the list around them should be built accordingly. Your uber unit of death can still only move 4" and so is easily avoidable. You need maneuverable troops and good shooting/magic to make your opponent engage. You can also choose to take a small unit just to bunker the Slann in. 10 or 11 is fine for this.


Old Blood/Scar Veteran

Two of the best fighting characters in the game. Let's get straight down to it.

The most obvious thing that strikes people's mind is the old Nikey Saurus build. As we all know the Jaguar Charm is now a bound Steed of Shadows spells, which has it's +ves and -ves. For this reason I think that the Jaguar Charm should be solely chosen for a Scar Veteran and not for and Old Blood. This way you can take him in a Slann led list, and the heavy magic will allow your SoS off without being dispelled. For the Old Blood a good alternative can be the Horned One. A slightly slower movement rate, however fast and gives an extra S4 attack. The downside is giving up the 360 LOS and the S7 from a GW. However, you also gain +2 to your save, so it can be useful, but is a very double edged sword.

Weapon wise, the Blade of Realities stands out a mile. The chance to kill a big character or monster with one blow ignoring all their saves is HUGE!!! People may think that a high Ltd can prevent this, but they must test for each hit, which should be roughly four against most enemies. There is a good chance for even a Ltd Elf Prince to fail at least one of them. And if all else fails, you still get to attack with your respectable S5.

Another thing that springs to mind is the Cold One Hide, allowing you to get a 1+ save in combat. Combining this with a Slann using Beast lore could be devastating, casting Bear's Anger on your Scar Veteran, giving him 7A @ S7 with T7 and a 1+save in combat. WOW!!! Even a Dragon doesn't match up to that.

Skink Chief

Only one thing needs to be said about these guys, Stegadon War-Spear. Giving the Chief this makes a Stegadon he is mounted on do 2D6+1 impact hits. If you can afford it, an Ancient Stegadon is the best choice here, making those impact hits (average S6. It also means that your Chief, if equipped with light armour and a shield, will have a 0+ save. On top of all that, he will be S6 on the turn of the charge, as the SW-S is a lance. Nifty combo.


Coming soon Skink Priest

Very nice little article Godless! It was an enjoyable read. I'll be looking forward to your next one!

my post is now updated, adding in the fighting characters available to the LM.

Re-did the early part of this thread. I also added a bunch of new information.

Post #1 now includes:
-Unit Overviews (Written by Godless_Mimicry. I will continue to update this section as new articles become available)
-Term Guide (A guide to commonly used Lizardmen terms as well as more general terms for Warhammer)

Post #2 now includes:
-General Lizardmen tactics listing different units and some of their uses.

Post #3 now includes:
-Lizardmen tactics relating to fighting specific armies.

All thoughts, comments, tactics & terms are welcome! Share your favorate tactics! The more feedback I get the better we can make this thread!

This thread will probably see a lot of updates in the near future as I find new tactics. So check back often!

Why would he ever release them towards his own army?

My mistake. I got it fixed.

Updated with some new tricks & tactics!

nice work Guardian. I'm not suprised you've been generating so much more interest recently.

Thanks. Its actually been kind of fun putting it all together. I just hope that people find it useful to have all this information in one place instead of needing to search for it.

After reading this i noticed a big mistake, a skink chief on a stegadon will not get a 0+ save as all crew and charchters get either a 3+ or 2+ save which can not be improved in any way.