Core
Saurus Warriors
Saurus are a good solid unit with a great stat line. An average
Weapon Skill and abysmal Initiative are their only major faults in terms of
stats. In general you want at least one block of Saurus in your army. They are
regarded by many as one the best core infantry in the game. They may not be as
hard or dangerous as Chaos Warriors but they are much more reasonably costed.
In terms of wargear they come equipped with a hand weapon, shield, and the equivalent of heavy armour through their 5+ Scaly Skin. For options they can take spears for free and full command. Considering the magic support that they have access to and taking Predatory Fighter into account, I favour the spears over the “sword and board” load out for these guys. The extra rank of attacks you get can be pretty substantial.
Speaking of their access to magic support, three of the four
Lores you are likely to take synergise exceptionally well with Saurus Warriors (and
the fourth is not exactly bad either). High Magic, Light, and Beasts all work
really well with Saurus blocks. Skink Priests with Wyssan’s Wildform pumps your
Saurus up to Strength and Toughness 5 and you are guaranteed to have it as it
is the Signature Spell. That allows them to put the hurt on all but the hardest
units while also increasing their survivability. Lore of Light and High Magic
both have access to spells that address the Saurus’ relatively low WS and I.
Light in particular is great at this as the effect is more powerful, bumping
them to 10 rather than just increasing them by D3. Lore of Life does not
synergise as well with the Saurus but can still work. Flesh to Stone can make
your Saurus Toughness 6 which really ups their resilience to harm.
This leads onto some of the weaknesses of the Saurus. While Predatory
Fighter can gain you a handful of extra attacks, it also means you have to pursue
unless there is a Skink character nearby. That makes the Wyssan Skink Priests
even more important to allow you to hold your line. Another weakness is in
their wargear and match up options. With a 5+ Scaly Skin and a low Initiative,
the ability to take armour or great weapons would really help the Saurus, who
otherwise tend to not have the staying power or strength to harm other elite
units. Units such as Chaos Warriors with halberds or Elves with great weapons
will decimate your Saurus without a care in the world. Saurus are also
relatively expensive compared to many rank and file units so they will likely
be outnumbered. Due to the low Initiative of Saurus units beware Purple Sun. If
that hits on of your Saurus blocks you can kiss most of the unit goodbye.
For unit formations in Fantasy there tends to be two
approaches. The first is to “win” by static combat resolution and these units
tend to be 5 models wide and relatively deep. It doesn’t usually matter if they
win or lose the combat, as long as they are steadfast they can hold up a dangerous
enemy unit for several turns or until another unit can flank them. Units that
like this tend to be cheap. The second is to “win” combat through the number of
casualties inflicted. These tend to be either slightly wider than other combat
blocks in your area or deployed in horde mode. For example if your opponent is
running his blocks 5 wide, running yours 7 wide will allow you to maximise the
number of attacks that you can add to combat efficiently. This assumes a few
things;
- Firstly, that you are using the same base sizes (easy enough to work out how wide you should be running instead)
- Secondly, that your opponent is too lazy to reform during the game (in my experience they do tend to be as a result of movement tray sizes)
- Thirdly, that you yourself are not too lazy to reform during the game
- And fourthly, that you run your units big enough to actually have a few options for your formation.
For handiness, many just go 10 wide although I have read of
some running their units 12 wide to counter this. Units that prefer this method
often pack a punch through number of attacks or a good strength, although other
units often go horde mode for the extra attacks (particularly spearmen as it
allows them to attack in four ranks). As Saurus have 2 Attacks on their profile
and can get more through Predatory Fighter (potentially only in the first rank)
you will generally want to maximise your frontage while not having any files
going to waste. Don’t be afraid to make use of combat reforms where applicable
to achieve this.
The smallest unit I’d suggest would 24 with spears in a 6 x
4 formation. This maximises the unit frontage when facing 20mm bases while allowing for
some casualties (which you will take due to Initiative 1) before you lose
combat effectiveness. 48 in a 12 x 4 formation is the absolute maximum in my
opinion but that is pushing it. 40 in a 10 x 4 formation would be more
reasonable as a large block if that is what you want.
Skink Cohort
The cheapest rank and file that Lizardmen have access to,
they come equipped with a hand weapon, shield, light armour equivalent through their
Scaly Skin 6+, and a javelin. For options they can buy poisoned melee attacks, full
command, and add Kroxigor which to the second rank.
I am not a fan of large units of these without the Kroxigor.
Even then, I would rather take the Kroxigor alone but that is just personal
preference. The Skinks can provide some ranged protection and static combat
resolution for the Kroxigor but as they are only Toughness 2 they just give
away too much combat resolution to work well. A “Skrox” unit could potentially
work as a flanking unit but you cannot always rely on outmanoeuvring your
opponent. It is a unit that you can definitely make work so feel free to use it
if you can.
A minimalist unit of 10 can work well as chaff and is my preferred
use for them. After adding a Saurus block or two to an army, I would generally
use the rest of my Core requirement on these guys. Their javelins are short
ranged but have the benefits of quick to fire and poison so can cause some
damage to low armour save targets.
Skink Skirmishers
A skirmisher version of the Skink Cohort that loses the ability
to take Kroxigor. They can take either the javelin and shield combo, or
blowpipes. The only command they can buy is a champion.
They cost slightly more than Skink Cohort models but gain a
lot of manoeuvrability in return. While the blowpipes multi shot ability is
great combined with poison, in practice you will very rarely be able to combine
the two. As they are only BS3 the modifiers to shooting will often prevent you
from double tapping with the poison effect. On the other hand, javelins and
shields do not have this issue. Even moving their full distance and shooting at
long range they are still hitting on 5’s on targets in the open. In addition to
this, the combination of Scaly Skin 6+ and a shield provides them with a 5+
save. The skirmish to hit modifier and this make them surprisingly resilient to
enemy archers.
When you take these, expect them to die. Their short range puts
them in harm’s way and the nuisance they cause usually means that your opponent
will divert a unit to deal with them. This is great as the resources spent
getting rid of the Skirmishers would usually be better spent elsewhere. If they
do not take the bait then it allows the Skinks to harass war machines, monsters,
and generally continue to be a thorn in the opponents side.
Summary
- Saurus Warriors are great and you should generally always take a unit or two of them. Spears are preferred and the unit should try to maximise its frontage to get the most attacks possible.
- Never take large units of Skink Cohorts without taking Kroxigor. Small units work fine as chaff.
- Skink Skirmishers work well too. I would favour the javelin and shield load out as you will often not be able to take advantage of the blowpipes multiple shot ability.
Next up is my take on the Special choices
No comments:
Post a Comment