# Lizardmen skink army.



## coolkid (Sep 17, 2011)

Hey just a small question. Is there any way to make a pure sking army that's still competative in tournaments?

If so any tips and/or unit suggestions would be nice.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Depends on 2 things:
1- what do you mean by competitive.
2- what do you mean by pure.

Me and a partner are going to a doubles tournament in a few weeks with a dual skink list and we're not intending to get the wooden spoon... but we're also not going to win. Skinks can be decent, but aren't going to be devastatingly brilliant.
Having said that not everything in the army is a skink: we're taking terradons, salamanders and kroxigor as back up to the little guys, but then that is entirely fluffy (as would taking stegs, although we have decided against them).
If you mean would taking nothing except skinks, skinks and skinks then no, they make horrendous lists- I've played a few recently and my mixed skink list just tore them to pieces in combat... something that other armies would find far easier (too many skinks to avoid all the enemy's combat units, and too short a range to engage from afar).

The only part of our lists that isn't quite so fluffy is that I've added a unit of 10 saurus with skar vet to give us something to use in watchtower games to hold the tower... which is such an absurd mission many tournaments drop it because of its sheer bias (some armies almost can't lose, others almost can't win).
Without watchtower skinks would be a lot stronger, allowing you to build a true denial list that just declines to fight all those big combat blocks that dominate 8th, surrounds them and starts gradually pummeling them to death.


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## coolkid (Sep 17, 2011)

1- As in would be viable in a tournament setting. 
2- By pure I mean skinks, slann, there monsters, and kroxigars. So basically a Southland list.

Also is your skink list fun to play?


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Yeah, my army is great fun to play... less fun to play against. Although taking a slaan isn't really very fluffy. Skinks go to war with skink priests leading and skink chiefs directing (general). I'll take a slaan (once painted) at 2k every once in a while but I'm doing it as an 'observer' of my sotek dedicated skink force.

Having said that, taking slaan makes you a hell of a lot more powerful and I would very much recommend it, especially if you take shadow. Okkam's makes a skink/kroxigor unit awesome and if you take javalin skirmishers you get a unit with S6 poison ranged weapons, not to mention lowering enemy S by D3 counteracts skinks terrible toughness... not to mention smoke and mirrors to keep your slaan away from the enemy (which at M4 will be quite hard).

You still aren't going to win, but you'll have fun and should win a few games (if you know how to use the army). Some opponents aren't going to have fun: I was playing a 1k game against someone who had 40 WoC with blasted standard, MoK, shields and halberds, a combat hero and 2 units of doggies.... I killed the doggies and gradually ate away some of the Woc, but was never going to destroy 40 with 3+/5++ against shooting. But from his view he just spent the game reforming to face as I ra behind him- but then serves him right for taking an 'uber' unit that will normally walk through other peoples' armies.


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## cranvill (Jul 20, 2008)

you menstioned terradons above and i was wounder what role you played them in durring your game ? and aslo how many in a unit ?


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## coolkid (Sep 17, 2011)

Yeah hte Slann I would use for bigger games.

Any tips on what models are should buy or shouldn't?


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Terradon are awesome: they can drop rocks (once) which seriously racks up damage quick if you use enough terradon, are fast cav (march 20" and shoot) and are monstrous cav so the terradons themselves get to stomp... which means that despite being WS2 overall they are pretty nasty on attack (1 WS2 S3 I4 attack, 1 WS3 S4 I2 attack plus a S4 stomp each).
Usefully they are also skirmishers and forest striders, so you jump into a forest and its an instant -2 to shoot them along with any other modifiers that might be there...

Personally I use 3 units of 4 as they are mobile at that number (either 4*1 or 2*2) and still do significant damage with drop rocks (average 8 S4 hits) but I tend to keep the 3 units close together and try to drop rocks on a single enemy unit in a single turn- ~24 S4 hits is not something many units can shrug off with ease.


My terradon are the main strike force of my army: they encircle the enemy and drive him nuts by just flying round in circles avoiding getting charged and if I am given a nice easy rear charge against a weak unit I'll take it (best so far was a rear charge downhill against an ironblaster: +4 combat res before attacks meant I had pretty much already won, and its low Ld gave me a good chance to break it, which I did).


Should buy- salamanders, salamanders and kroxigor.
Shouldn't buy- razordon

Salamanders are great units that can march 12" and fire a template weapon. They do plenty of damage against everything, even heavily armoured things and cause panic checks to sweeten the deal. Easily the best LM unit.
Kroxigor sit in skink units and deal the real damage. You need enough skinks to stay steadfast since at WS2 T2 you'll lose most fights, but with enough krox you'll out-attrition the enemy and win through.
Terradon are very exspensive and incredibly annoying to put together and move, but they are a great unit.
Skinks- well you'll need plenty of them. I wouldn't necessarily equip them right away... wait till you know if you want skimishers or block and if you want to give your skirmishers javalins or not (I wouldn't advise this unless you have a shadow slaan).
Stegs- solid monsters but nothing special. I've bought one and have built it as an ancient for when my skink finally make it to 2k (they are half of a 2k doubles list, need a kroxigor or 2 more to finish the 2k list). Stegs fill an important counter-assault role in my view. You don't absolutely need them... they are just very helpful. Don't build it as an engine of the gods, you almost certainly won't have the points to fit it in, and while they were immense in 7th the engine has lost almot all of its usefulness in 8th with the ease with which template attacks (such as cannons) can kill ridden monster crew.

Razordons- these guys are decent enough but tend to fill the same roll as skinks do (short ranged low-mid strength shooting). They also compete with salamanders for the rare points %, and salamanders are much better.


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## coolkid (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks so much dude. You were great help, and now I think I know what I want to buy in the near future.


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## cranvill (Jul 20, 2008)

just orded three terradons £35 for one unit lol think il get some salys next then some razordens as i think they look so cool and for me its mostly about the painting and models and then gameing.

thanks buddy


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Yeah, I scoured eBay for my 13 terradon (12 normal and 1 OOP with character on top to be a skink chief). Took me ages but I was paying about £5-8 average rather then the ~£12 asked by GW.
I'm trying to get a couple more krox now... but they are so rare its silly. I might have to end up ordering them from GW (I normally only buy what I can see from GW, which ends up being plastic model sets and books).


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

i agree with everything tim/steve says, i was just alittle late  and me and a friend used to play a duel lizard list, me with pure skins and her with all saurus, was so fun to play


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## Troublehalf (Aug 6, 2010)

Depending on your points, if you can I would do this:

x1 EotG Stegadon; Priest with Plaque of Tepok
x1 Ancient Stegadon, Chief with Stegadon Warspear

Then fill up with Skink with Blowpipes and some with javelins. If you're not taking a Slann, I wouldn't bother with javelins because the blowpipes have x2 shots.

Then get some Chameleon Skinks. Terradon Riders are great, even greater if you throw Tiktakto in with them, trust me, making the entire group -1 to hit, 3 attacks (or is it 4?) with no armour saves then Zwupp gets killing blow after dropping it's rocks, a nice bonus to it's 1 attack.

If you take a Slann, get a huge group of javelin throwers than use Razor on them to make their attacks S6(?).


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

EotG just isn't worth taking anymore- used to be that cannonballs might take out the crew, a few wounds off the steg and only hit the priest if you were very unlucky... now it hits everyone seperately so 1 hit will kill pretty much all the crew and might take out the steg to boot.
Add to that that its powers really aren't as damaging as it used to be (only really useful power is the 5++ vs shooting)

... overall, its ~350pts that are much better spent elsewhere.


Skink chief with warspear is pretty damn good, but again you need to avoid cannonballs (hide behind buildings if you are playing a gunline), which makes it much less efective against some armies.


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## Arli (Mar 4, 2010)

Tim/Steve said:


> Yeah, I scoured eBay for my 13 terradon (12 normal and 1 OOP with character on top to be a skink chief). Took me ages but I was paying about £5-8 average rather then the ~£12 asked by GW.
> I'm trying to get a couple more krox now... but they are so rare its silly. I might have to end up ordering them from GW (I normally only buy what I can see from GW, which ends up being plastic model sets and books).


That is what I have done for most of my army. I have gotten really good deals on:

27 chameleons (including Oxytyl)
14 Kroxigors
16 Cold one Cavalry (3 without riders)
1 plastic steg (in pieces)
1 metal steg
Carnosaur (for $25)
a total of 177 skinks
47 saurus
4 salamanders
Lord Kroak
Slann
7 terradons (1 without a rider)


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## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

Unless you are playing above 3000 points, you have way more Krox and COC then you could ever need but could use up to 2 more sallies (two units of 3 is maxed out and a lot more saurus (one larger TG block of converted saurus up to 35 to 40 and one large saurus block of up to 40 or mroe). Also, a decent oldblood/scar vet model and a couple skink priests (assume some of the skinks may get there) might be in order.


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## Troublehalf (Aug 6, 2010)

HQ:
x1 Lord Kroak
x1 Krok-Gar
x1 Chakax, Eternity Warden
x1 Tiktaq'to, Master of Skies
x1 Oxyotl
x1 Tehenhauin
x1 Skink Chief
x1 Scar-Vet on Cold One (I think)
x1 Battle Standard Bearer
x2 Scar-Vets on Foot
x2 Skink Priests
x3 Slann Mage Priests

Core:
x160 Saurus Warriors (x30 Hand Weapon, x40 Spear, 90 unmade - 2 missing I know so far....)
x120 Skinks (x30 Blow Pipes, x18 Javalin, 72 unmade)
x2 Skink Bearers (assume same rules for rank and file banner + musician) 

Special:
x35 Saurus Cavalry (19 Made, 16 unmade)
x60 Temple Guard (40 Made, 20 unmade)
x18 Kroxigors (4 Made, 14 unmade)
x4 Stegadons (3 Made but no weapons yet, 1 partly made, weapons might be missing)
x4 Terradon Riders (All unmade)
x11 Chamelon Skinks (One Stalker) (5 made, 6 unmade - Might only been 10 in total, can't be sure)

Rare:
x3 Razordon Packs (All unmade)
x3 Salamander Packs (1 partly made, 2 unmade)

That's my current army. I say army, but it's more of a set of boxes lol.

Anyway, the EotG is great when combined with the Sun Standard of Chotec Banner..... 

"Missiles fired at the bearer [of the Sun Standard of Chotec] or any unit he has joined suffer a -2 to hit modifier if they are fired at a range of up to 12", or a -1 to hit modifier if fired at a range of more than 12."

Combined with the +5 Ward Save from EotG, you can pretty much lock out a unit from damage. If you put it on a Slann, then surround him with Temple Guard (I know it's not Skink army, but yeah) with EotG behind the Slann, it's pretty hard to kill either.

I still think putting Tehenhauin on a EotG Stegadon is a good choice. This is because he then gets the bonus to casting, he can channel a Slann, he has +5 Ward Save, when he charges he get's +1 Strength (and because the wording says so, he gets a passive +1 Strength as well, so 7 S on a charge) and the default Armour Save from the monster, you can cause mayhem. Because Tehenhauin knows all Lore of Beast spells, becomes Lv.3 on EotG, he can therefore either buff himself with +3S +3A buff, or throw it onto a Warspear Chief on a Steggy.... Or something.

I get your point thou. The cool thing I like about Carnosaurs as mount is the following, not only do they have S7, A5, D3 Wounds but it isn't considered a Large Target. Therefore, it isn't as easy to hit as, say, a Dragon. Furthermore, you know I was talking about the new monsters in Monsterous Arcanium, there is the Dread Saurian, which is more powerful than a Carnosaur and is bigger, but it too does not have Large Target.... Meaning it's harder to hit (and since one of it's upgrades make it Ethereal, hard to kill) it's very interesting. Shame it's not mountable.

Furthermore, if you check the FAQ, GW say the Horned Cold One is not a magical item, but a mount upgrade. Therefore it does not count towards point usage in the magic item points.... The cool thing is this, if you read it, it says Saurus and Skink only, therefore, you can put a Skink Priest/Chief on it, then give them 50 magic points on top of that!

A great idea is a Skink Priest with the Staff (forgot the name) but it counts as a Short Bow x3 shots, the thing is, it's M8 and isn't Stupid.... which means you can put him on it's own and run close to the foe, channel a Slann and cause massive damage, then shoot the Staff and maybe get 3 kills, then run away... Not to mention you get +2 Armour Save for being on the Horned One..... Great excuse to use.......










Amazing work here, but using Tichi Huichi on a Cold One as a model for the Horned One Skink would look amazing.

Yeah, long post, lots of stuff, sorry if this is wrong or not allowed or whatever, don't hurt me


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Problem with skink on horned one is that you don't get a look out sir roll, so 1 round of shooting kills you- cloak of feathers gives better movement and better longevity... but you can't use such cool models (I have 6 skink cold ones sitting on my desk stairing at me: they are waiting to be paint-stripped so they can be CoK in a skink list).

I think the FAQ means that a horned one can't be targetted by things which remove magic items, I'm not so sure about its points not counting for magic item limit or for no 2 enchanted items... the ruling doesn't say treat it as a normal mount option, just that it acts as a mount.


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