New to Warhammer and looking for an army to start? Warhammer vet looking for a new army? Considered Lizardmen but still undecided about the choice? Well, look no further my friend, for you have found a compacted summary of the grand Lizardmen army! Here I will cover the more commonly used army, Lustria, and may do another later for Southlands if you DO happen to decide to play Lizardmen.
Fluff: So, long ago, there were powerful, god-like beings now known as the Old Ones. These beings had massive capacity for creation, and their servants, the Slann we all know and love, were their most talented. With the aid of their powerful masters, the slanns were capable of lesser works of creation. Well, making a long story short, the Old Ones stumble upon the world on which Warhammer takes place and rebuild it, altering its orbit and such other things. The first sentient race of the world was the Lizardmen. The Old Ones created a killing machine to use as warriors and protectors of their temples and cities. Around this time a huge band of saurus was patrolling the jungles, committing genocide to those creatures that did not fit in with the Old One’s meticulous plans, while defending others fiercely. Eventually, the Old Ones needed nimble, intelligent servants to help run the day-to-day activities in the temple-cities. Thus the skinks were born. The Old Ones also manipulated other jungle beasts to be servants and, if need be, powerful warriors. And so the Kroxigors appeared fr!
om the festering swamps of Lustria to serve the Lizardmen. Eventually, however, the Old Ones were driven off/killed/left of their own accord/whatever, and disappeared for ever, because of Chaos. The remnants of the Old One’s forces sought to end the Chaos insertion, and with the help of a noble sacrifice from the Elves, they were able to stem the tide. Since the departure of the Old Ones, the slann became dormant and thought the best ways to fulfill the Old One’s plans.
Strengths: This section deals with some of the more noticeable strengths of the Lizardmen.
- Magic. Despite the fact that they don’t have their own lore, the Lizardmen have arguably the greatest amount of magical power. The Slann Mage Priest is barely short of god-like in magic terms, and is an absolute must for magical dominance. They get so many bonuses and some great magical items, not to mention the banners they can get, that it’s just disgusting to not at least consider getting them. That is unless you hate magic. If this wasn’t enough, the lesser Skink priests access to one of the best lores in the game: Heavens.
- Troops. Lizardmen have some of arguably the most cost effective infantry in the game, in the form of Saurus Warriors. With two attacks each, a decent strength, and some high-ish leadership, these guys are meat-grinders and can more often than not stand up to almost anything, with the exception of Chaos Chosen and heavy cavalry.
- Dinosaurs! That’s right my friends, dinosaurs. Big, ugly, powerful, scaly beasts ready to absolutely crush everything in their paths. From tyrannosaurus-like carnosaurs to stegosaurus/triceratops/anklyosaurus hybrid stegadons, to raptor-like cold ones and demitridon-like salamanders (who spit fiery luegies!), and finally to the flying reptilians known as terradons, we have an army list that smacks of Jurassic Park. This, my friends, is beautiful!
Weaknesses: No matter how good I made you think this army list is, it still has its weaknesses, as follows.
- Nearly useless magic items bog us down. Dragonfly of Truesilver and a lot of our pendants and such absolutely suck. We actually have a very small selection of useful stuffs, consisting of little armor and little beyond some good cc weapons. It’s sad really…
- Short ranged. Let’s face it, no true war machines and access to weapons who’s highest range is a foot, we are a very short ranged army and rely on speed and positioning to be effective.
- Crappy special characters. Kroak is sweet, but he costs an army on his own. Unless the battle is huge, forget him. Kroq-gar is practically useless. Wish we had some access to some more powerful cc characters, but, alas, no cigar.
- No lore. We don’t have our own lore. That’s pretty self-explanatory.
- High points costs. We will be outnumbered and we will suffer from bad roles because of it.
While I am not the most “experienced” lizardmen player, I do know a fair deal of tactics. Now, I know that some consider word of mouth tactics with little experience is very illegitimate, but the following are agreed on by a large sum of lizard players, so I’ll go ahead and try this anyway. I will try to break down some well-used tactics as well as good force-organization considerations that I do not doubt will be useful to not only the newbie lizard player, but also the moderate-good player looking for some tips. Without further blabbing, here’s the Tactica.
SPECIAL RULES:
Blowpipes are a fun addition to what our skinks can do, making it so we can hail even more poisoned death upon our enemies. Javelins and blowpipes have been found to be nearly equal in effectiveness, depending on the given situation, and it is advised that at least one unit should have them.
Cold-blooded: This is a fun little rule that will make some inexperienced opponent cry cheese at times. This gives a little extra staying power in much needed close combat, so those who enjoy saurus armies will usually love this rule unanimously. Personally I love it
To be continued...