Lizardmen Review: Special Tactica

Below is the fourth part of my Lizardmen Review/tactica articles series. Took a bit longer to get it typed up due to the amount of Specials we have.

Special

Temple Guard

The elite Saurus unit, for just 3pts more than a Saurus Warrior they gain a WS, an I, light armour, halberds, and gain Stubborn and Immune to Psychology when joined by a Slann. In return, the Slann gains protection through the ability to join a Temple Guard unit’s second rank. As a result you will want to attach your Slann to this unit if you are running one.

For options they can purchase Full Command and (uniquely among the Lizardmen) their Standard Bearer and Champion has access to Magic Items. While the Magic Weapon can be skipped most of the time, it is often a good idea to take a Magic Banner. At S5 base, the addition of a Razor Standard allows Temple Guard to deal with heavily armoured troops. Combined with any Augments or BSB effects from an attached Slann, Temple Guard can make a great anvil that only the most elite of units stand a chance of defeating. The augments in Light, Life, and High Magic are all great when placed on Temple Guard. With a higher base Initiative than Saurus, High Magic’s Hand of Glory is especially useful on them as they can potentially rival Elf and WoC Initiative. When near a Bastiladon with a Solar Engine they can even reach I6! On that note, units such as White Lions, Executioners, and Warriors of Chaos with halberds can absolutely slaughter your Temple Guard. Against these opponents you will be relying on your Slann’s magic capabilities in order to survive.

If you are running a Slann, I highly recommend taking a unit of Temple Guard and you will want to have a reasonably large block of these. The absolute bare minimum I would suggest is 20. With a Slann in the second rank this will allow you to deploy in a 6 x 4 formation. Without a Slann it is a bit murkier. On one hand Temple Guard are very reasonably costed compared to Saurus and are a great unit. On the other hand (like so many of the Specials) you won’t be taking advantage of all of their rules, they do much the same job as Saurus, and die just as easy in combat. If they were in the same slot as Saurus it would be a no-brainer but as you’ll probably be having a block or two of Saurus as part of your Core requirement you need to ask yourself if you need another block. I reckon that with the Razor Standard they become a viable use of points without a Slann as this slightly alters their role to include anti-armour duty.

Jungle Swarms

With a high cost and terrible stats these guys have one thing going for them and that is They’re Everywhere! This gives any of your units in combat with an enemy unit in combat with Jungle Swarms the Poison special rule. Every 6 you roll will be something special, causing an autowound from Poison and granting an extra attack from Predatory Fighter. This is cute but honestly it isn’t enough to make them viable. Being a T2 swarm with no save will likely result in them giving away more combat resolution than they provide through their rule. Most enemies will be going before you so you’ll need to take a fairly large unit to ensure you can make use of They’re Everywhere! Lore of Light may help in this regard, but I’d just suggest leaving these on the shelf. They aren’t great.

Chameleon Skinks

At almost twice the price of Skink Skirmishers you might wonder why you would want to take these. The answer to that is threefold; BS4, Scout, and Chameleon. BS4 allows Chameleon Skinks to do what Skink Skirmishers could not; take full advantage of poisoned blowpipes. Even with modifiers for moving, firing at maximum range, and multi shotting Chameleon Skinks are still hitting on 6’s against most targets. Chameleon gives enemy units targeting them a further -1 to hit penalty on top of the one provided by Skirmisher which provides great protection from most non-magic ranged attacks. Scout allows them to deploy forward and get into good positions to threaten lone characters, chaff, or war machines. 

Like Skink Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks fold quickly in close combat so try to use your Scout deployment and skirmisher manoeuvrability to avoid that. If you have gone overboard on Special choices and need to drop some for Core or something, Chameleon Skinks are a good choice to drop. Chameleon Skinks are great and well worth, but at the end of the day they just do what Skink Skirmishers do. They might do it better, but they also do it more expensively.

Running units of about 8-10 is a good number as this averages ~3 wounds which should be enough for most war machines.

Cold One Riders

With the wargear of a Saurus Warrior, the stat line of a Temple Guard, and mounted on one of the best non-monstrous mounts this heavy cavalry unit has lots of potential. They can buy full command and spears, although the spears are actually pretty expensive.

At 4 S4 attacks per model (2 S4, 2 S5 if you charge with spears) and a 2+ save Cold One Riders are incredibly grindy. They aren’t as impressive as most other heavy cavalry on the charge but are much better on rounds were they don’t. This is a similar issue to the Chameleons though. They don’t really add much that Saurus don’t already do. They do it better, but they also do it more expensively and we’ll be taking Saurus anyway. 

Something to be careful of is Stupidity and Predatory Fighter. As anyone who uses units with Stupidity can attest to you will never fail a Stupidity test until the turn that it matters. Then you’ll derp about guaranteed. Predatory Fighter is an issue as, unless you’re using the Cold One Riders as a hammer unit, you will probably be too far away from a Skink character to allow them to restrain pursuit which can cause issues.

Not a terrible choice, but not one I’d rate highly either. A small unit of 6-8 can work well as a bodyguard to an Oldblood/Scar-Veteran or a flanking unit (although they will not prevent steadfast).

Kroxigor

Striking at S7 thanks to Great Weapons, Kroxigors are the Lizardmens answer to heavily armoured troops. However, they are “only” T4 with a 4+ save. A high cost per model, mediocre WS, and Always Strikes Last accentuate this relatively poor resilience. The only option this unit has is a champion upgrade.

The main decision when considering Kroxigor is if you are going to take them in Core or in Special. I feel the answer to this decision should be based on your personal preference. Core Kroxigor have the benefits the Skinks provide (protection from ranged abilities and static combat resolution/steadfast) and allow you to spend some of your Core requirement on hard hitting models. However, the Skinks come with several negatives as well (Kroxigor do not get to Stomp, the unit can be Stomped themselves, and the Skinks are only T2 so they give away a lot of combat resolution as they die in droves). Special Kroxigor allow you to forgo the Skinks, meaning you can make use of their Monstrous Infantry status.

Overall, a decent unit. Against most units the same amount of points spent on Saurus will be more beneficial due to the extra attacks they provide, but against heavily armoured targets the Kroxigor will be unmatched as long as they can survive long enough to swing. They have some issues but provide Lizardmen with a response to something they otherwise struggle against. A unit of three or six will work well as a flanking unit in most lists.

Terradon Riders

Terradon Riders are a staple Lizardmen unit. They are not a terribly resilient unit, but they are Flying Cavalry which are incredibly useful. They come equipped with javelins and they can swap these for Fireleech Bolas. They can also buy a Champion upgrade.

The Fireleech Bolas upgrade is incredibly cheap but might not actually be much of an upgrade. You trade 6” range and poisoned for an extra Strength and Flaming Attacks. This can be useful as it allows you to knock Regeneration off of an enemy unit but you’ll need a fair amount to reliably cause a wound and our shooting isn’t that great for the most part so we can’t take advantage of it too much. I’d stick with the Javelins.

The Drop Rocks ability is great and it causes Terradons to be a great chaff remover. Drop Rocks enables you to, once per game, inflict D3 S4 hits per Terradon on an enemy unit the Terradons flew over that movement phase. This can remove most of a chaff unit and put the hurt on a lone character model.

As Terradons spend a lot of time outside the General’s range their low Leadership 5 can be an issue, especially considering how fragile they are. There is not much that can be done to avoid this so be careful.

A unit of 3-6 is a good choice for dealing with chaff, warmachines, and generally harassing the enemy. They fulfil the same role as Chameleon Skinks. Chameleons benefit from being cheaper and putting out more shots, but Terradons have the benefit of Flying and Drop Rocks.

Stegadon

The smaller of the two Stegadon variants we have, this one comes equipped with the Giant Bow. The Giant Bow is slightly weaker than a bolt thrower, but can be fired on the move and is Poisoned. It has two upgrade options; Unstoppable Stampede and Sharpened Horns. Unstoppable Stampede gives the Stegadon Devastating Charge and Sharpened Horns gives its Impact Hits the Multiple Wounds D3 rule. Unstoppable Stampede is not worth taking at all but Sharpened Horns is worth considering.

Like most of our monsters, the Stegadon works best supporting a block of Saurus. It is fast enough to keep pace with them as they march across the board, while firing its Giant Bow. Once combat is reached, it can charge in with its D6+1 Impact Hits and then contribute more though its S5 Thunderstomps.

The main reason to take the Stegadon is the Giant Bow. It is one of the few good long ranged options we have access to. Its combat abilities and Impact Hits are nice, but are overshadowed by its bigger relative. In a Monster Mash list you could also take a Stegadon or two, but even then you can spend 75% of your list on Ancient Stegadons and Carnosaurs, with the rest going to Core. It is not a bad substitute if you cannot fit another of the other two in due to points though.

Bastiladon

The Bastiladon is the better of the two new monsters added in the new book. It has very mediocre stats for a monster but does come with a 2+ save. For combat resolution Bastiladons do not count as having flanks or rear. In addition, one of their attacks is dealt at S10 and this attack gets +1 to hit against models attacking it in the rear. As there is no negative to being attacked in the rear for Bastiladons, by all means combat reform once in combat in order to gain the benefit of that +1 to hit bonus. Its other 2 attacks will only be striking at S4 so even with Thunderstomp the Bastiladon will not be dealing much damage. Bastiladons have two loadouts available to them; an Ark of Sotek which comes with 4 Skink Crew and a Solar Engine which comes with 3 Skink Crew.

The better of the two loadouts is the Solar Engine. This increases the Initiative of Cold-blooded models nearby by 1. Combined with Hand of Glory this upgrade can be significant, allowing Temple Guard to reach Initiative 6. The power within the Solar Engine can also be unleashed through the Beam of Chotec. This is a power level 3 bound spell magic missile with a 24” range. The amount of damage it can cause depends on an additional D6 result but half the time the results are great, dealing 2D6 hits at a decent Strength. 

The other option is the Ark of Sotek. You can add a Jungle Swarm base to a Jungle Swarm unit nearby on a 4+ and it can be used as a D6” range, Strength 2 shooting attack. This attack causes 2D6 hits against all enemy units in range and can be used in combat, but honestly the range is so small it may as well only affect units that it is in combat with. Even then it is only Strength 2 so it is not going to be achieving much. 

The Solar Engine is the way to go here. A Bastiladon equipped with one of these will provide great support to Saurus and Temple Guard blocks if it marches up alongside them, especially if it can manage to join the combats they get involved in. With a Slann, taking a Bastiladon and keeping it next to your Temple Guard bunker will allow you to make better use of Hand of Glory etc. while allowing you to throw the odd Power Dice at the Beam of Chotec. Without a Slann, running two can be worthwhile as you will have a lot more spare Power Dice to throw at Beam of Chotec.

Ripperdactyl Riders

The second new unit we come to, this was probably the most disappointing unit for me. When I heard we were getting a new Monstrous Cavalry unit I immediately thought of a unit of Saurus riding Theropods similar to the old Carnosaur model. Instead we got Skinks on close combat Terradons. They are one of the weaker Monstrous Cavalry in the game. Having said that, they are also one of the cheapest Monstrous Cavalry in the game, if not the cheapest. The only option they have is a Champion and they come equipped with a Shield and a Spear. Their stats are not too impressive (only ranging from 2-4) but the Special Rules and relatively low cost make up for it. 

The Ripperdactyls themselves have the Armour Piercing, Frenzy, and Killing Blow Special Rules. The models also have the Toad Rage Special Rule. This allows you to deploy a Blot Toad in an enemy unit for each Ripperdactyl Riders unit you take. When fighting against a unit with a Blot Toad attached the Ripperdactyl gets D3+1 Attacks from Frenzy and can re-roll their rolls to hit. This can be useful both in terms of increasing the hitting power of the unit and can be used psychologically as well. You can trick your opponent into thinking your Ripperdactyls will be looking to attack one unit when you don’t intend to etc. 

Frenzy can be an issue as well as they only have a Leadership of 5 (on the flip-side, it does grant you Immune to Psychology). Cold-blooded helps a bit with this but also remember that as they are Flying Cavalry you can reform them to just face away from any units you do not want to attack. With only 2 Wounds, Toughness 3, and a 4+ save there are a fair number of units you do NOT want to be attacking with these guys. War machines are the number one target for these guys, although they can do reasonably well against most chaff units as well.

A minimum unit of three can make for a decent warmachine hunter. A Skink Chief could be a better option for this role, but Hero allowance is often tightly contested due to Scar-Veterans and Skink Priests being so useful. In Special, Ripperdactyl Riders compete with Chameleon Skinks and Terradons for the same sort of role. I’ll admit that I do not have as much experience with Ripperdactyl Riders as I do the other two, but I feel that the Terradons and Chameleons have the edge over the Rippers here.

Summary

• The closest thing to an auto include unit we have in Special are the Temple Guard. You will usually want to take a decent sized unit of these with a Banner such as the Razor Standard to use as a bunker for your Slann.

• Chameleon Skinks, Terradon Riders, and Ripperdactyl Riders all fill much the same role. This is not to say that you cannot include a unit or two of each of them, but know what their Strengths are (Chameleons put out more firepower/Terradons can Drop Rocks and Fly/Ripperdactyls can Fly and are better in combat). You will usually want to take at least one or two units to deal with chaff/warmachines.

• Cold One Riders and Kroxigor both make great flanking units due to their speed, but they deal with different threats. Kroxigor deal with heavily armoured troops, while Cold One Riders get an extra attack and have more staying power.

• Stegadons and Bastiladons are both great at supporting Saurus blocks. Bastiladons should basically always take the Solar Engine. An Ancient Stegadon will usually be a better buy than a regular Stegadon.

• Jungle Swarms aren’t great. Their ability is cute but won’t amount to much.

That's it for Special. They took a while. I have no doubt missed many things and might have got some things wrong. Apologies for that and let me know if you spot anything or want anything added.

Next up is Rares and then Special Characters after that.