# Finally started my Lizard army



## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

yup, finally decided to get round to at least starting a small part of my army. bought a regiment of saurus plus the hobby starter kit that came with a few basic paints. putting them together was tricky at first, but after the third one, i started getting the hang of it, although the standard bearer which was second to last was also a little fiddly.

so to summarise, this is how my regiment is set out: 
10 hand weapons
5 spears
1 standard bearer

going back into gw tomorrow to begin painting and will have pics when i'm done and home again  one question though, i'm going for an obsidian colour with some fiery hints here and there to suggest living on or near a volcano, what colours would you suggest for that?


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Its a small thing... but every model in a regiment must have the same weapon options- so if some of them have hand weapons they all have hand weapons... and the same for spears (you cant just give them to the 3rd rank to get maximum use of their bonus).


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

yeah i only learned that from someone else after i glued all the bits together, so i'll be rectifying that when i get another set of saurus. i don't really intend to get stuck straight into the gaming aspect just yet, so i have all the time in the world to correct this


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Sounds decent so far. As tim/Steve said all guys do have to have the same weapon, so that just means that you need to have one unit with spears and one with handweapons. 

Besides that I would suggest always having a full command for all units. the champion for extra attacks, and occasionally other stuff. And the musician because it will be the reason that you lose if you don't have one.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

ok, i'll probably get another regiment tomorrow and fit them at home while i spend the day painting the one i already have. am i right in thinking that a musician and/or standard bearer are allowed in with any units? 

also i noticed a little too late that on the picture you get with the sprues that the champions are supposed to get the shoulder armour as an optional extra but i've put it on all my units with hand weapons. is that a big deal or can i just do something with the paint or whatever to make a champion stand out from the others


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Raizer Sabre said:


> ok, i'll probably get another regiment tomorrow and fit them at home while i spend the day painting the one i already have. am i right in thinking that a musician and/or standard bearer are allowed in with any units?
> 
> also i noticed a little too late that on the picture you get with the sprues that the champions are supposed to get the shoulder armour as an optional extra but i've put it on all my units with hand weapons. is that a big deal or can i just do something with the paint or whatever to make a champion stand out from the others


Yes for most units standards and musicians are always available, and should always be taken.

As for the champion usually all you have to do is either model or paint them to stand out in some special way. For lizardmen Even just a slightly different skin color will work for the champion.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

Blackhiker said:


> Yes for most units standards and musicians are always available, and should always be taken.


Kind of depends on the unit, however. Ranged units don't really need standards or champions, small units don't need any command at all, however, for big units, you're certainly right.



> As for the champion usually all you have to do is either model or paint them to stand out in some special way. For lizardmen Even just a slightly different skin color will work for the champion.


This. Also, you could use bits from the Temple Guard kit, if you ever get it, to spruce up your Saurus.


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

As the Jackal said, what part of your command group is needed is based mostly on the unit type.

Banner for the units you expect to be in cc and want to win.
Musician for unit expected to move a lot and for cc units.
Champion for cc units and for a shooty unit if they allow for better shooting.


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

in one days work, you will most likely only paint 1 or 2 guys if you really take your time, and I dont mean a half hour, I mean 2-6 hours.


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## Durzod (Nov 24, 2009)

Flindo said:


> in one days work, you will most likely only paint 1 or 2 guys if you really take your time, and I dont mean a half hour, I mean 2-6 hours.


Unless you
assembly line your workaint one color on each model, and by the time you get to the 8th one or so, the first one's dry. The only way to do an army without getting depressed at how long it takes.

As for the obsidian, try your basic black with either white or ice blue highlights. Just don't overdo it. And with Saurus warriors a champion can be picked out by giving him a touch of war paint.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

little update, painted one saurus warrior and the standard bearer but haven't based them yet and will probably put pics up tomorrow. also bought another regiment of saurus so i can even up my spears and hand weapons


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Looking forward to seeing the pics.


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## Master WootWoot (Oct 17, 2010)

For the champion, the cold one cavalry box is really good. You get an awesome head in there.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

they're not the best looking but for an amateur painter, it'll do lol


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

hm, 428 points worth of Saurus eh? not too bad of a start, remember, your musicians and champions even tho they dont appear to be holding spears/handweapons, they are  so be sure to count those in your point calculation (I already counted 16 spears and 16 hand weapons with 1 musician per, 1 standard per, and 1 champion per which is what I assume you wanted)
next step I would take for you is to get a batallion, its always the best way to build up a new army


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

yeah i was thinking about getting a battalion with my next paycheck, depending on how much i get. i've also been told that i need either a hero or lord to lead my forces in order to play legally so i'll probably get a scar-vet or oldblood to fill that niche for starters


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## emporer of chaos (Sep 5, 2009)

im no expert on lizardmen, and your just starting out but from what i can gather a SLANN is ridiculously good as im sure others would back up, plus it gives you a wizard and general. and why nottemple guard for good measure?


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

A Slann is pretty much a must have for 1500pt+, but for less than that you'll be wanting a Scar Vet and a couple of Skink Priests.


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

A Slann is defiantely an auto-choice for Lizardmen. One of the best mages in teh game, plus its your army general? Its a no brainer.... Though, as mentioned, parking a Slann in a unit of Temple Guard is standard measure too.


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## Arli (Mar 4, 2010)

Don't forget to give make him the BSB as well. Give him the standard of discipline and he will be LD 10 with cold blooded. Also, I believe the slann is the only character that can be a BSB and have his equipment (That's just how he rolls).

Also, the disciplines he takes are very powerful. Becalming Cogigation is awesome now (denying your opponent 6s in the magic phase). Rumination give you the extra power die to each spell and mystery gives you loremaster. If you take TG, do not take the etheral on though.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

ok, here are pics of the first two i've painted, a warrior and a standard bearer. not the best pics but thats cuz i was using my phone there lol






the skin is simply black undercoat with a subtle drybrushing of skull white and black undercoat (though i bought some adeptus battlegrey today to prevent the mix drying in future), teeth and eyes are skull white, very simple lol. a few browny-red mixes on the shields with the teeth in drybrushed skull white, teeth on the sword and spikes on the standard are chainmail. the shoulder plate thats on the warrior (can't see it very well) is darksun with some watered down mechrite red to give the effect of lava. that pretty much sums it up, may have to borrow my dad's camera for better pictures lol


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

I approve of both the paint scheme, and the general level of painting skill. k:

Black saurus look cool.


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Arli said:


> Don't forget to give make him the BSB as well. Give him the standard of discipline and he will be LD 10 with cold blooded. Also, I believe the slann is the only character that can be a BSB and have his equipment (That's just how he rolls).


That's a LOT of points to risk on a model that dies instantly should it break from combat. even if he is cold blooded.

Nice paint job, by the way!


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## Arli (Mar 4, 2010)

True, but if that model is in a unit of TG (20 at least), you are looking at a LD 10 unit that will not break in most instances. I do not know the statistics, but the chance of failing that roll on 3 dice (cold blooded) is very low. Just to test that out, I just used an app on my phone to roll 3 dice. It took 73 rolls to get a roll that failed (I was looking for 2 6s and a 5 or 3 6s because of cold blooded). I rolled 3 6s. 

Sadly, yes, I do have that kind of time on my hands to test that.


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Yeah the probability of failing that Ld test is 4/218 which is just under a 2% chance of failing.

Also I am really liking the models so far from what I can see.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

thanks for the comments on the paint job so far guys ^^ although because of the light on my phone, the colours did come out so much brighter than intended and i don't get enough natural light in my room for pics normally lol. 

i will be basing them as well at some point, just haven't got round to doing it yet. plan on simply using some sand, painting over that and perhaps glueing some small stones here and there too.


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Not a bad paintjob mate , I wish camera was better quality tho


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

all lizards are now put together (apart from shields) although because of what i did previously, only 5 spears are painted, but i'll get pics of those up when i can get my dad to lend me his camera lol. my army now consists of 2 musicians, 2 standard bearers and 12 each of spears and hand weapons including a champion of each  i've also added some scratches on the shield of the saurus warrior i took a pic of previously for effect and fielding him as a champion


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

double post and huge pic list alert lol. i know some of you have said my paint job looks good so far, although i have to say the camera quality did not do them justice. so i have borrowed my dad's camera, proper one built for a job like this and took a few snaps, all far better quality than my phone could manage (5x quality to be nerdy and precise lol)

the whole army amassed:


one of the spearmen. only took a pic of one cuz they're all pretty much the same and in the same pose lol. haven't added shields yet cuz the shields were un-basecoated at the time though i may get round to that soon


unpainted spear champion. the difference here from the others being the little skull thing at the end of the spear and the shoulder armour


warrior champion who i took a pic of previously. note the scratches on the shield





clubs coloured in simple bleached bone, decided to leave the spikes in black


sword teeth in chainmail with adeptus battlegrey for the edge




axe teeth are in bone and there's a very subtle crimsony/dark brown on there as well. the two black shields are roughed up a bit to compensate for being too lazy to paint them lol



not sure if you can see but all of these (apart from the champion and standard bearer) all have hints of drybrushed adeptus battlegrey on them. all the shoulder armour as well as little bracelet/armlets are pure darksun. some of the shield trims are also darksun and others are bleached bone. all in all i'm rather pleased with my progress so far and will have more pics when i make more progress ^_^


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Those Saurus are freaking badass! Makes my green ones look like something out of a Christmas special...


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

thanks, coming from as esteemed a member as yourself, thats quite the compliment ^^ hopefully i should be getting the rest painted sometime today, had to respray a few where the gw guy missed it yesterday since they apparently have to do it at the shop


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Esteemed am I? I'm flattered!

I look forward to the rest.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

the advice i've seen you give, particularly your tactica on the slann magic disciplines and the hunting parties has given me reason to say so


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

I also quite like the look of your saurus warriors. So what are you going to get next?


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

i was thinking either a battalion or a set of temple guard and a slann. probably won't have enough for both slann/tg _and_ battalion though. then again, either a salamander or razordon hunting pack looks tempting as well (having read coke's guide on the two). choices lol


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## steamius (Dec 9, 2010)

nice man. Similar to myne in some way.
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77477&page=2


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Raizer Sabre said:


> i was thinking either a battalion or a set of temple guard and a slann. probably won't have enough for both slann/tg _and_ battalion though. then again, either a salamander or razordon hunting pack looks tempting as well (having read coke's guide on the two). choices lol


If possible I would suggest just the battalion and probably just a regular hero for now. After that get the temple guard and slann. That way you will be able to start playing immediately.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

yeah, getting an oldblood as my hero had crossed my mind, so i'll probably get that with the battalion if i have the money lol


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> yeah, getting an oldblood as my hero had crossed my mind, so i'll probably get that with the battalion if i have the money lol


go with a slann, it may cost more but I promise you will not be disapointed


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Slann over Oldblood every day of the week. However, as models go, then a Scar Vet would do your army good, especially a BSB.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

well in that case, slann it is, very likely a regiment of temple guard to go with it too. little update too, i only have 3 spearmen and 4 warriors to paint up and the next lot of pics i do will hopefully include the fully painted army as well as the 2 movement trays i've been making out of cardboard and emptied sprues


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Just thinking- how many temple guard do you have? because the battalion has ten in it... if you've already got ten then there wouldn't be any need to buy a second box.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

i have no temple guard, i have 32 saurus and thats it so far


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

wow your alot faster at painting then I am, how long did you spend on each model? I usually like to spend 2-6 hours per model, and 4-8 for the specail ones, with breaks in between of course.


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> i have no temple guard, i have 32 saurus and thats it so far


Right, then your plan sounds like a good'un



Flindo said:


> wow your alot faster at painting then I am, how long did you spend on each model? I usually like to spend 2-6 hours per model, and 4-8 for the specail ones, with breaks in between of course.


I imagine his choice of colour scheme has a lot to do with it. It's much faster when your basecoat is also your spray-on undercoat. It took me two days, with breaks, to finish my oldblood on carnosaur. Admittedly, it is by far and away the best paintjob I've ever done, and I still have to base it, but still.

That said, seriously, 2-6 hours per model? Do you batch paint?


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

Flindo said:


> wow your alot faster at painting then I am, how long did you spend on each model? I usually like to spend 2-6 hours per model, and 4-8 for the specail ones, with breaks in between of course.


it only takes me a few minutes per model, like coke said, having my main choice of colour being the undercoat with a quick slap-dash of grey on top does help speed things along. obviously because of this, i've spent most time on the weapons and shields and even on a couple of shields, i've left scales black because they look cool and i'm lazy lol. but yeah, including short breaks and drying time for glue to put shields on, i've spent 4-6 hours doing maybe 6 or 8 models when in gw, for some reason i'm more focussed in there, probably cuz its better light lol


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

right, well been a while since i last posted in here, but since i got paid recently i thought i'd best make a little troop choice known and get a few quick opinions before i do so. i plan on getting a battalion boxset along with an additional regiment of skinks and a slann. would this be enough to get me started into the game itself once they're all together?


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> right, well been a while since i last posted in here, but since i got paid recently i thought i'd best make a little troop choice known and get a few quick opinions before i do so. i plan on getting a battalion boxset along with an additional regiment of skinks and a slann. would this be enough to get me started into the game itself once they're all together?


yes that would be the perfect setup, you need 1 general, which is what the Slann is perfect for, and you need 25% core, which you clearly have more than enough of.
a personal suggestion of mine is to get more temple guard with it instead of skinks tho, so your Slann is better protected.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

fair enough. also, i was once told that its better, in the case of saurus at least, to rank them up 5 wide rather than 4 which i have been doing in order to get more fighting out of them. would you agree on this?


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## Durzod (Nov 24, 2009)

You need to be 5 wide to get a rank bonus. There's normally no reason to run 4 wide.


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> fair enough. also, i was once told that its better, in the case of saurus at least, to rank them up 5 wide rather than 4 which i have been doing in order to get more fighting out of them. would you agree on this?


yes I would, when you get the batallion, you should make 10 of them spears and 10 of them hand weapons, so you can have a rank of 26, so you could have them file up 6X4


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

Durzod said:


> You need to be 5 wide to get a rank bonus. There's normally no reason to run 4 wide.


ok, i'm kinda wierd in that i have this thing about being square in ranks lol. guess this means i need to remake my movement trays lol



Flindo said:


> yes I would, when you get the batallion, you should make 10 of them spears and 10 of them hand weapons, so you can have a rank of 26, so you could have them file up 6X4


sounds good to me. also, when you said about a second set of temple guard to better protect my slann, it reminded me about an earlier post by coke saying 10 is really all you need to surround the slann at the very least, but then i guess the extra fighting power is always handy


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> ok, i'm kinda wierd in that i have this thing about being square in ranks lol. guess this means i need to remake my movement trays lol
> 
> 
> 
> sounds good to me. also, when you said about a second set of temple guard to better protect my slann, it reminded me about an earlier post by coke saying 10 is really all you need to surround the slann at the very least, but then i guess the extra fighting power is always handy


yes, Temple guards are really good at kicking ass, and if you wanna own alot of ass, you want more than 10, I always feild them in 20s.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

ok, sounds like my next set of purchases is decided then


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

right, i've now got a battalion and a second set of temple guard plus a slann on the way from delivery. now my question is regarding skinks. i'm planning on making them a ranged unit of skirmishers, will i still need a standard bearer and musician in a ranged unit like with my cc saurus? currently in my points calculation, i'm on 1466 but thats just with 11 skink skirmishers and 1 skirmisher brave and not counting my slann since i don't have it yet. is it necessary to make 2 of these skirmishers normal skinks and have them be the musicianand standard bearer?


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> right, i've now got a battalion and a second set of temple guard plus a slann on the way from delivery. now my question is regarding skinks. i'm planning on making them a ranged unit of skirmishers, will i still need a standard bearer and musician in a ranged unit like with my cc saurus? currently in my points calculation, i'm on 1466 but thats just with 11 skink skirmishers and 1 skirmisher brave and not counting my slann since i don't have it yet. is it necessary to make 2 of these skirmishers normal skinks and have them be the musicianand standard bearer?


only normal skinks, skirmishers cant have musician or standard.


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## Durzod (Nov 24, 2009)

If you check your army book, I believe you'll find that sjirmisher skinks cannot have a standard. Problem solved. 

Oh well, that's whar I get for typing so slow. Must've been channeling my inner saurus.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

yeah, i figured that when i looked in the book. i guess i phrased my question rather badly, what i meant to ask was is it necessary to have full command (champion/brave, musician and standard) in a ranged unit?


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## Flindo (Oct 30, 2010)

Raizer Sabre said:


> yeah, i figured that when i looked in the book. i guess i phrased my question rather badly, what i meant to ask was is it necessary to have full command (champion/brave, musician and standard) in a ranged unit?


if your gunna run skink/krox its a good idea. because full command is more used for combat than shooting.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

ok, well i have no krox for now and i'm just gonna run these skinks as ranged, so i guess i need to run them as skirmishers and one brave in the same way i have a champion in my saurus units


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## coke123 (Sep 4, 2010)

Remember that Cohorts have Javelins- so all skinks are ranged. How are you arming your skirmishers? Also, there is no real need for Braves. I'd save the points.


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## Raizer Sabre (Nov 8, 2010)

well i've got 10 skinks with blowpipes cuz annoyingly, the battalion boxset only had 10 blowpipes but i've also got one with a sword and the other with a javelin and putting the shields on them after i've painted them


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