Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

Why Play Lizardmen

Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models. Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:

• Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
• Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
• Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
• Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• Lord Kroak: Story wise, he used to be the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell Deliverance of Itza. However, he's 400 points, only knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome Counts As Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

• Lord Mazdamundi: Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi sounds pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping 780 points, meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

• Kroq-Gar: The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

• Chakax: Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

• Gor-Rok: Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

• Tehenhauin: The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

• Tetto'Eko: The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell Comet of Cassandora, you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

• Tiktaq'To: A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

• Oxyotl: Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.

Alternative: No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.

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Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Slann Mage-Priest: Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
  • The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast through friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
  • The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen. While TG benefit defensively from teaming up with a slann (and so does the slann itself) they also lose on the offensive side as the slann replaces two Guards on the second rank, and the Slann's meager single attack carried out by a skink retainer is pretty pitiful.
  • The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is among the most expensive lords vanilla, and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on it: most notably be comes stock with a 4+ saves, which you would otherwise need to grab with an expensive amulet, putting his effective points cost to 250.

• DISCIPLINES
  • Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
  • Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
  • Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
  • Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just take this because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. Good luck finding anyone who wants to talk about the End Times nowadays, though.
  • Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
  • The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 10 points and get Fear instead. While it can be very good when facing low LD tarpits and chaff, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker, skink spam is already good enough at keeping things you don't want near your TG away from them.
  • Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
  • Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
  • Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. Are 35 points worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is absolutely worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
  • Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

• Saurus Oldblood: Killing machine, specialized in wiping units for breakfast with his 5 str 5 attacks and predatory fighter. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either): the main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. While excellent in all other fighting aspects, Oldbloods suffer from a low WS of 6 which could cause one to suffer in a challenge against a duelist character. Consider investing in the sword of striking or the fencer's blades to shore his hitting rates up. Since Oldbloods have a natural 4+ armor save, taking the glittering scales is also adviced in conjuction with a cold one and the talisman of preservation will also make for an extremely hardy lizard.

• Saurus Scar Veteran: A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

• Skink Chief: Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Requires thought and purpose to his use, but can be very helpful. Can go on foot, or take a Stegadon, Ancient Stegodon, Ripperdactyl, or Terradon. On foot, his use is quite limited; he's just too frail to hold up in combat, and making him more durable usually just makes him a more expensive, but still worse Scar Veteran. He's fine as a BSB (and is our go-to to cheaply add one) or support item caddy, just don't expect him to actually contribute besides his items and reeling in Predatory Fighter. Terradons or Ripperdactyls are the most interesting; these gear him up to run interference, tie up monsters, and assassinate vulnerable characters or warmachines, with the Terradon being more annoying and disruptive, while the Ripperdactyl makes a good assassin platform, with extra items. The Stegadons are either to get a nice, juicy 18 inch command range for your BSB, or else just to smuggle a Stegadon into your command budget, and use it accordingly. He requires a plan to be used effectively, and won't bring home the same MVP status as your Saurus characters or Slann, but can put in serious work as a team player.

• Skink Priest: Good low-level Wizard. You are almost always taking them, with or without Slann. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. Can alternatively stay nice and cozy in a big ball of Saurus, or be shuttled out deep by Skink Skirmishers, all are good options. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but these are very good lores for Lizardmen anyways, and they can cast the important spells well. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat, and can shoulder some of the weight of the Arcane items this army craves so much. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines. As of The End Times, they can also technically take Undeath. While rather jank overall, finding an extra unit of disposable chaff or archers can always be handy, not to mention surprising, and dinospam armies might appreciate the chaff.

Core Units

• Skinks: Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be shot thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do. Most any army comp is benefitted by a bare bones unit or two of these little guys, or their commando brothers below.

• Skink Skirmishers: Can keep the javelin and shields, or replace them with blowpipes. Both have their pros and cons- 'pipes are longer ranged and multiple poisoned shots are devastating, but javelins are quick to fire which greatly bolsters the mobility and threat range of the unit and the shield affords them a much appreciated defensive bonus. Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. Most elite infantry units run from 12-16 points, and heavy cavalry or monstrous infantry are even more expensive, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units. Skink spamming is surprisingly viable at competitive levels, since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death and beautifully supporting your heavy hitting saurus cowboys. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings lulz

• Saurus Warriors: The backbone of many Lizardmen armies, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. They can freely swap between hand weapons & shields, or spears; the former is better for MSU or units you otherwise do not plan on supporting very much due to the shield, while Spears shine when the unit is going to recieve a lot of attention from your Skink Priests or Slann. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size, or support their R&F infantry as often or extensively as we can. Saurus being able to go toe to toe with elite infantry isn't some unreasonable pipe dream, but a very real possibility with one of the several spells you will be casting every turn. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't get through cleanly or untouched.

Special Units

• Jungle Swarms: 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

• Temple Guard: Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds, and are very good at bringing down tough targets with their 2 ws4 sr 5 attacks each. When combined with a Slann (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale, although luckily their 2 base attacks and predatory fighter can salvage some of it. They do tend to accrue decent static combat resolution - BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - but don't think this means you should waste their time chewing through skavenslaves and trying to break hordes.

• Cold One Cavalry: Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

• Terradon Riders: Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

• Ripperdactyl Riders: Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

• Bastiladons: First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

• Kroxigors: Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. They can make pretty handy use of the buffs your wizards are slinging to hit some downright heroic statlines. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them. These guys are very handy catch-all answers to monsters or lone characters out to perforate your flank or trying to clap Papa Toad's cheeks, and are often best deployed late as a result. They'll get their scaly asses handed to them in any sustained combat against infantry, but they can act as a quick haymaker to put down something threatening (or perhaps distracting) while leaving your Saurus cowboys or Fuck-You-Asaurs free to concentrate on their jobs. Their lives are likely to be short and brutal, though, so make the time you have with them count. Make sure you don't skip the unit champion. 10 points for a statline like that is incredible, the Kroxigor Ancient can occasionally pull off some downright impressive wins in challenges, and can absolutely clobber a Hero BSB or wizard, while often escaping the notice of players due to his lowly status as a unit champion.

• Chameleon Skinks: Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from "just bringing more skinks".

• Stegadon: The main Lizardmen monster, it's cheap enough that you can afford to bring it alongside other large threats. Not that warmachines won't be gunning for your Slann since turn 1 anyway. (they won't, if he's in Temple Guard, as he should be, he's immune to artillery) Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks with poisoned javelins who also man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving, making it a rather well rounded monster. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster, chief among which is the combination of Impact Hits and Thunderstomp. As such their most common role is flanking and hitting a unit that's already engaged in combat, hopefully smashing right through it.

Rare Units

• Ancient Stegadon: You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots from the giant blowpipes replacing the ballista. Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
  • Engine of the Gods: In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. Taking it replaces the blowpipes, trading away most of the stegadon's firepower. It has 3 different effects:
    • 1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save. This is solid if you're relying on big Saurus blocks to get the most out of that ward save, just mind the price you're paying for this support.
    • 2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket, and it's murder vs Treekin.
    • 3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus. Can be nice for some lores of Slann to vomit out even more spells per turn, but you're not usually hurting for casting value on your Slann anyways.

• • • Overall, it's good for what it does, but you have to actually be making good use of the Ward save and casting buff to make it worth the cost and loss of the blowpipes.

• Salamander Hunting Packs: You know the dwarven flame cannon? Now it comes with legs! This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating targets; amphibious just like their skink handlers, so moving them into the perfect position is rather easy. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. Bring enough of them and they can halve a unit's size with a single shot.

• Razordon Hunting Packs: The organ gun to the Salamander's flame cannon, each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

• Troglodon: Ah yes I was wondering what was wasting so much spruce in the new Carnosaurus' kit. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.)... but it doesn't actually make the rider a wizard, nor you can put a skink priest on top of a Troglodon. The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. It only really needs a little more to be a neat addition to a list, but for now, it's best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

• 2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
• The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

Army Composition

They key to winning with lizardmen is learning to make wildly different units work for each other. You'll be probably begin with two infantry blocks- one saurus and one TG to go with your Slann. That said, some people have run succesful lists with literally only skinks and a Slann with saurus cowboys, so there is certainly room for creativity as long as your magic toad sticks around. Securing the magic phase is something the Lizards can and will do if given the chance, so don't be afraid of bringing extra skink mages- cheap and efficient access to Wissan's Wildform plus additional power for the Slann and control over Predatory Fighter's obligatory pursuit- to wrestle control of magic from other casting-intensive armies. Killing their wizards is something you can and must do, and luckily lizardmen have a bevvy of ways to snipe off vulnerable targets. Both your flying units pack a meaty punch and so do chameleons who manage to get a firing lane on an unprotected wizard, but before you start thinking of your specials you really wanna stuff your core allowance (and then some) with skinks. Minimal size skirmisher units flooding the battlefield- so MANY poisoned attacks! Skinks are the proof that there is definitely quality in quantity, and unlike cheap throwaway units like skavenslaves and ungors, your enemy will be forced to recognize the existance of your skinks or pay very dearly for it. A larger size unit can be devastating with walk between worlds, setting up volleys of multiple poisoned shots.

This is the base of the army and there is really little that you'll be forced to add save for one, but if possible two, saurus characters on cold ones. Saurus cowboys are terrifying in a fight, lodging themselve sin a unit's flank like a bunch of extremely obstinate thorns, and work wonders with your skink spam and the blocks of saurus. After this, your go where your heart tells you. More dinos? Carnosaurs and Stegadons of both kinds are terrifying flank units and you can reliably field more monsters than many armies can warmachines. Skinks can pick off the cannons and catapults, but otherwise the same rules as for killing mages apply- get something on it and do it quickly. Even Kroxigors and Cold One Cavalry can be a decent pick, albeit ovecosted, if you need a large, multidamage hammer, and they can work in small flanker units like smaller but less cannonball-attracting hammers.

Salamanders and Razordons are in a weird spot: both work well with supporting skinks- who doesn't- but in different ways. The salamanders lost traction from their glory days of 7th edition, where large units of them rained terror on the battlefield: if you pick them, committ to large packs (4+) and use them to burn large units to the ground, blanketing them with templates. Razordon are more of a defensive unit, but nothing will want to charge a flank defended by these goons.

Magic Items

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

Magic Weapons

• The Blade of Realities: A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
• The Piranha Blade: Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.

Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

Magic Armour

• Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza: The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

Enchanted Items

• The Cloak of Feathers: Yes, the same old thing that was in the Codex Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
• The Horn of Kygor: A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
• The Egg of Quango: Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

Arcane Items

• Cube of Darkness: Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
• Plaque of Dominion: A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

Magic Standards

• Skavenpelt Banner: This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied: 3 attacks per model will let you have a stupid amount of fun with your Temple Guard, however, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your deathstar if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
• Jaguar Standard: Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

Summary

The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

Rulebook Items

Magic Weapons:

• Fencer's Blades: WS 10 for 35 points, but you can't use a shield with it. Our Saurus have pretty bad Weapon Skill, so this is nice for us. Makes us killier, and a bit more resistant in one package. Also a nice pick for a Skink Priest you want right in the front lines to cast through so he doesn't instantly die. If you have 35 points left over on a Slann, it's a hilarious pick, and might actually save some wounds on him. Combo this, the Crown of Command, Dragonbane Gem, Transcendent Healing, and Higher State of Consciousness for a very unorthodox, yet oddly effective Slann tarpit.

• Sword of Swift Slaying: Grants Always Strikes First. Our Initiative is so low that we're not getting rerolls with this without magic support, so basically just a premium paid for a second Gold Sigil Sword. Better if you have magical initiative support.

• Gold Sigil Sword: Grants Initiative 10. Our Initiative is trash, our damage output is great, we like sending Scar Veterans and Oldbloods to murder characters, this is often the difference between our Scar Veteran walking away triumphant, or dying before he lands a single hit. Very useful.

• Sword of Striking: 15pts for +1 to hit. Good, simple weapon, to hit modifiers are nice for our Saurus. If you don't know what else to take, this is a good one.

• Giant Blade: 60 points for +3 Strength. Bleh. 8 vs 7 Strength is barely noticable, and those 20 points are painful.

• Ogre Blade: 40 points for +2 Strength. This is better. 7 Strength is generally the sweet spot for most purposes. A bit pricey on a Scar Vet, but an Oldblood can easily take this and still be very durable.

• Sword of Might: You're paying 20 points for the ability to take a shield on your Saurus over a Halberd. Situationally useful, otherwise just take the Halberd. Better pick on a Skink Chief, who can't take a halberd anyways, and appreciates the punch.

• Sword of Bloodshed:' 60pts for +3 Attacks. Our Oldbloods generally have much better things to be doing than blending, and usually have enough attacks to win fights with other characters as it is, and would probably like other, more supportive items more anyways. Pass unless you're insisting on a unit babysitting Oldblood. Then only probably pass. Worth noting for this, and all the other +Attacks items, though is that you CAN proc Predatory Fighter off of the extra attacks. Probably not enough to take them when you otherwise wouldn't, but a nice tiebreaker.

• Sword of Strife: 40 points for 2 extra attacks. Nearly as nice for 2/3 the price, this is actually worth a look on an Oldblood leading a unit, since there's plenty if budget left for other stuff. Scar Vet still probably wants something else more, but a Scar Vet with this and the Seed of Rebirth is a very present and active force in a unit.

• Sword of Battle: 20 points for 1 extra attack. See above, but a bit more flexible since it fits neatly on a Scar Vet, too.

• Berserker Sword:20 points for Frenzy. basically the above item, except we very nearly get ItP from a Cold One, Carnosaur, or Ripperdactyl anyways, which will most certainly be in use if alone. Strictly worse than the SoB above... but such a small difference that you can take it if you want a second. The forced charge can be disastrous though.

• Sword of Anti-Heroes: 30pts for +1S & +1A for each enemy character in base contact with the wearer or his unit. Not too bad, we're usually kitting our Saurus for ramming into units to kill a character anyways. Worst case, it's two decent weapons wrapped into one at a conveniently priced discount, and in the event they have two, be that a Wizard hiding in with the enemy general, a magic item stooge supporting a unit leader, or anything else, this bumps up to an absolutely terrifying weapon. Respect the cost, and remember that it does nothing at all if you're attacking a unit with no characters. Must-have if you know you're fighting Brettonia.

• Relic Sword: 10pts for wounding anything on 5+, unless you need less. Might be funny on a Skink Priest or a Slann with points left over. Two more Skinks mean two more poisoned attacks, which are very nearly as effective... but it IS pretty funny to see your Skink shank an Ogre or something. Your Slann has much better ways to spend the points, even if the boost to their offense in a Temple Guard unit might actually be handy.

• Shrieking Sword: 10 points to cause Fear. You have other sources of Fear, your own troops are damn near immune to it, and it's expensive as "any old" magic weapon. Just take a Cold One if you want Fear in a unit.

• Tormenter's Blade: 5pts for granting Stupidity to a character/monster wounded by this. If your Saurus wounds something than hopefully it's dead, if you got killed by a Vampire Lord, it probably attacked first so it didn't get wounded anyways, and your Skink Priests and Slann ain't wounding shit, captain. Might have niche use on a Skink Chief on a Terradon or something to damage something Ethereal, but you probably have enough magic to not even worry about that.

• Warrior's Bane: 5pts. A monster of character who takes wounds from this weapon loses 1A per wound taken. See above. Almost always better, though, and can add a secondary purpose to a Skink character. Actually worth more than that extra Skink in most games.

• Spellthieving Sword: 25pts and each time you wound a wizard, he forgets a random spell. If a wizard is still alive after combat with a Saurus, something has gone very wrong. Niche utility on a Skink Chief hunting for big, beefy named wizards... but this is half an MSU of skinks pissed away on a terrible plan.

• Obsidian Blade: 50 points to ignore armor saves. Overpriced for one, Strength 5 is already decent against armor for two, and for the knockout third, if it's gimmicky enough to even consider this, we have the Blade of Realities to just say "fuck you" to *EVERY* layer of defense a character has, not just their armor. Hard pass.

• Biting Blade: 10pts for Armor Penetration. Unlike the above, this is cheap enough to play with a bit. Pretty much useless on a Saurus, just take a halberd or Sword of Might if you're considering it, but has a place on a Skink Chief to let him hunt tougher targets. Might be useless in some games, but in others, can make the difference between a useless Skink character and an effective assassination.

Magic Armor:

• Dragonhelm:. 5pts for 2+ ward save against flaming attacks, as well as +1 to your armor save from the helm itself. You know it, you love it, and if you have a Scar Veteran on a Cold one or Carnosaur he may well already be wearing it.

• Enchanted Shield: 5pts for essentially double a normal shield's effect. Cheap. Good. Definitely take it if you don't have other armor plans.

• Glittering Scales: 25pts light armor that grant -1 to hit against attacks targetting the wearer. Fantastic choice, shores up our resilience to great levels nicely. We like this item a lot, especially since we don't do mundane heavy armor. Combos well with Fencer's Blades to make a Saurus character seriously hard to hit, on top of being tough as nails.

• Armour of Destiny: 50pts for heavy armor with 4+ ward save. We don't get mundane Heavy Armor, making all three of these items a bit better for us, and worth taking over the amulets if magic item allowance allows it. Rock solid choice on an Oldblood leading a Saurus block, but a proper Saurus cowboy probably wants a few more points for other slots, unless he's expecting zero magical support.

• Armour of Fortune: 35pts for heavy armor with 5+ ward. Might be nice on a BSB Scar Vet, or an Oldblood character hunter. Scar Vets really hurt for those 15 points over the next one for character hunting.

• Gambler's Armor: 20pts for heavy armor with 6+ ward. Very nice for keeping a Scar Veteran protected while still taking a good weapon, which is what you probably want anyways.

• Trickster's Helm: 50pts to cause the enemy to re-roll successful wound rolls. Also a helm, so bring on the armor save. On a unit babysitting Oldblood, this turns him into a nigh unkillable monster. More mixed results as a character hunter.

• Armor of Silvered Steel 45pts for 2+ armor save which cannot be improved by any means. Nigh worthless on Saurus, less so on Skink Chiefs, but still almost always outclassed by Gambler's Armor and Armor of Fortune for us. Barf.

• Helm of Discord: 30pts. Helm which makes a single character in a unit in base contact with wearer's unit check Ld each turn. If a character fails his Ld test, he cannot attack and is hit (not wounded) automatically that turn. Not reliable enough to put on your Saurus characters... but might be worth putting on a stooge Skink Chief primarily holding another item, more for fun. Might be worth it if you're committed to leadership shenanigans, Lizardmen aren't great at it, but anything is possible with a Slann.

• Shield of Ptolos: 25 points. Grants 1+ armor save against shooting. Also a shield. Meh. Your characters are definitely being shot at, but you generally want armor that will keep them alive once they actually get into combat. Might be worth running on a Skink Chief on a Terradon.

• Charmed Shield: 5pts for a shield which allows you to ignore the first hit suffered on a roll of 2+. Meh. Cheap, so it's easy to fit, but your Slann is drawing most warmachine fire, so it probably won't block a cannonball. Fine for a Scar Vet on a budget, I guess.

• Spellshield: 20pts for a shield with Magic Resistance (1). Eh. Tax you pay if you want two Obsidian Trinkets. Can fit on a Skink Chief caddying other items too, I guess.

Enchanted Items

• Wizarding Hat: 100pts for becoming level 2 Wizard who uses a random school. Also your new wizard gets stupidity. The Slann spend centuries locked in deep, unending contemplation of why the absolute fuck you want this item as Lizardmen. (If he could speak, Lord Kroak would tell them the answer is if you ever play Storm of Magic, an Oldblood on a Carnosaur with this is damn near THE best way to defend an Arcane Fulcrum in the entire game. But alas, Kroak can't speak, so Slann continue to ponder in vain.)

• Fozzrik's Folding Fortress:100 points to create a tower during deployment. This is a janky, gimmicky item in armies that can actually use it. We... can't really use it.

• Arabyan Carpet: 50 points for flying. We have this, but cheaper for Skink Priests already, Slann are too fat to get the safety harness on, Skink Chiefs can already get flying mounts, and it is, sadly, incompatible with mounts, so alas, no flying Carnosaur that shows the enemy a whole new world of pain. Can create a janky flying Oldblood (consider using the Stegadon Helm if you do so), which is funny and can catch people off guard, but isn't especially good.

• Crown of Command: 35 points for Stubborn (which extends to the entire unit). Actually really good for us, on account of the way we use our characters. Remember that Temple Guard + Slann get it by default, as do a few of our monsters. Otherwise, damn near essential on a lone Slann, and can help a Carnosaur mangle a unit by itself, or help a flying Skink Chief survive combat to take down something essential.

• Potion of Speed: 5 points, drink it and get +3 initiative for a turn. Dirt cheap, has a good chance of letting a Scar Veteran swing first, and frees up the weapon slot for something else. Not terrible, though mind the characters that will still outspeed you and pick targets accordingly. Probably better than drinking a skink, usually.

• Potion of Foolhardiness: 5 points. Drink it for Immunity to Psychology and Devastating Charge for a turn. Your Saurus is already probably immune to Fear at the minimum and has great ld besides, and is already plenty killy. Probably not better than drinking a skink, usually.

• Potion of Healing: 35pts for restoring d6 wounds. Has its place on a Slann not running a Lore it can heal itself with. Expensive for what it does, but if what it does is let you Slann survive to cast for one more turn, then it's worth it. Skip it on an Oldblood, invest in survivability instead, and 100% not worth it on Heroes.

• Potion of Strength 20 points for +3 Strength for a turn. Can be handy on an Oldblood you want to be able to wreck a Chaos Lord in combat without magical support. If you DO have magic support for your Saurus... use it instead.

• Potion of Toughness 20 points for +3 Toughness for a turn. If it were a *bit* cheaper, it might be useful for keeping a Skink character alive for a turn. But as it stands, the only other case, a Slann running solo, probably wants the Crown instead. Pass.

• Featherfoe Torc: 35pts to make flying creatures and their riders re-roll successful to hit rolls against the wearer and his unit. Too expensive for what it does, especially since our Saurus are facing harsh to-hit math. Maybe if you know you're going up against birdspam, a Skink could caddy it.

• Ironcurse Icon: 5pts for a 6+ ward save versus warmachine attacks for the bearer and his unit. If only we had a fatass magnet for every single warmachine the opponent owns. Needless to say, if your Slann has the points after buying whatever else you want, take this. Might also be worth it on a Carnosaur mounted character, though they may have actual competition for the slot. Do note that this doesn't stack with the protection from an Engine of the Gods Stegadon. A Skink Chief or Priest can also carry it for a unit, though this isn't worth a whole Skink caddy by itself.

• The Other Trickster's Shard 15pts for forcing enemies in base contact with the bearer to re-roll successful ward saves. Yes. You want this. This is how your Saurus cowboy kills characters with layered defenses. Take it.

• Ruby Ring of Ruin: 25pts for a bound Fireball. Probably not better than a Solar Engine, but can fit onto someone to burn leftover magic dice if you're running Slannless. Between being starved for banners and our only other non-magic fire options are expensive, keep this in mind if you notice your army has none. Obviously skip it if you have a Fire or Signatures Slann.

• The Terrifying Mask of EEE!: 25pts for Terror, at the additional cost of disallowing allies from using this model's Ld. Would be overpriced even without the downside. Pretty bad, we have Terror at our fingertips. Only for mindgames, where you run this on a unit otherwise without Terror, so your opponent sends their units vulnerable to Terror at them, so they get afflicted by Terror, because no Lizardmen player would ever choose this item. Just as planned.

Talismans

• Dragonbane Gem:: 5pts for 2+ ward save against flaming attacks. Cheap, but useful. My favorite kind of useful. Extra defense on a Slann or Carnosaur character that wants armor besides the helm, since they're definitely drawing fire. Groovy.

• Talisman of Preservation: 45pts for a 4+ ward save. Useless on a Slann, and your Oldblood would rather wear Armor of Destiny. Still has its uses, especially on an Oldblood that wants other armor. Can make a very hard to kill Scar Vet or Skink Chief that can still use a (niche) magic weapon, or protect a Skink Priest that isn't carrying your scroll.

• Talisman of Endurance: 30 points for a 5+ Ward Save. We usually want Armor of Fortune more, but has a sometimes convenient price point, and again, lets us pick other armors.

• Talisman of Protection: 15 points for 6+ Ward Save. Again usually outclassed by its armor equivalent for us, though the price point means it's easily layered with other armors. Not super dramatic, but fits easily on a load out, and can definitely make the difference between your Scar Veteran successfully killing something or dying trying.

• Seed of Rebirth:* 10pts for 6+ Regen save. Your Slann or is already ground zero for many of your opponent's Flaming attacks, so, avoid giving this to him. Otherwise, actually a bit better than it usually is for the same reason, almost nobody will bother hitting that Skink Priest over there with their Flaming hits as long as Papa Toad and that Carnosaur over there are still on their feet. Keep track of where your opponent's fire attacks are, though.

• Obsidian Lodestone: 45pts for Magic Resistance(3). A Slann wastes a point of it, but still provides maximum protection to his Temple Guard, which can be worth it. Too expensive for a Saurus, but can be caddied by a Skink.

• Obsidian Amulet:30pts for Magic Resistance(2). Provides the most efficient magical protection for your Slann and his unit, though the protection IS more for the unit, anyways. This can also fit on a Saurus while still letting him do his job, or on a Skink Priest using a cheaper Arcane Item, making it much easier to actually use.

• Obsidian Trinket: 15 pts for Magic Resistance(1). This can fit on the Skink Priest that took your Scroll, and STILL leave room for something decent, making it easy to find a home for. If you can get better, take it, but this is fair enough.

• Dawnstone: 25 points, reroll failed armor saves. We can easily get 1+ or 2+ on Saurus characters, making this incredibly potent for a Saurus in a unit that simply won't die. Less incredibly for character hunters, as they can often face strength high enough to put their armor save at only 6+, which is much less good.

• Luckstone: 5pts for rerolling a single failed armor save. I'd say just buy the Skink instead, but there's actually a bit more of a case for this. Our Saurus characters have low initiative, so this can actually make the difference between them surviving combat and killing the other guy, or dying before they throw a single hit. Ideally you have a better plan than this for surviving combat, though.

• Opal Amulet: 15pts for 4+ ward save against the first wound suffered. Usually too expensive for the chump change effect. Niche use if you're relying on a Skink Priest to use Arcane Vassal and cast a critical spell.

• Pidgeon Plucker Pendant: 5pts for 5+ ward save against wounds caused by fliers in CC. Normally pretty useless unless you're tailoring, it actually has a sliver of conventional use for us. Skink Chiefs on fliers can very cheaply gain a nice bit of resilience against enemy fliers, which are reasonably likely to be what the opponent tries to use to stop him from killing whatever you want him to, while still being able to afford a good weapon or armor, or decent options for both. This plus Shield of Ptolos makes for a surprisingly difficult to cost-effectively deal with little bastard. If on a Ripperdactyl, this can allow your humble Skink to actually pose a very real and hard to ignore threat to characters FAR above his weight class. I wouldn't consider it on anything else, though, outside of a tailor.

Arcane Items:

• This is a hotly contested category for our Slann, much more than some entire armies care about this category besides the omnipresent Dispel Scroll. Spellcasting is very important for us, our Slann are tough enough to sacrifice a lot for more spellcasting, and while already expensive, every single point put into a Slann can be repaid at a premium. The 1 item limit is likely a bigger factor than the cost, consider what your choice does for your Slann, your Lore, and your army.

• Book of Ashur: 75 points for +1 to casting and dispel attempts. Useful, but very very expensive, meaning your Slann is a bit vulnerable and one-note. Better if you are planning on playing a very spammy Slann, like Lore of Signatures or Fire. If you just want the dispel half, the Staff of Sorcery does that.

• Dispel Scroll: 25 points, automatically dispels something. Don't think that just because we're incredible at magic we're leaving this at home. If you ever think about not bringing it, just imagine the evil glint in the other guy's eyes as he announces Purple Sun, and you having nothing to dispel it with. You will likely have an abundance of Skink Priests, one of them can definitely hold it, and it is worth every last hide of the five Skinks sacrificed for it.

• Feedback Scroll: 50pts to roll a dice for each power dice rolled. On a 5+, the casting wizard takes a wound with no armor saves allowed. Unlikely to kill most wizards, eats the entire allowance of a Skink Priest, and your Slann wants something else for sure. Any mage important enough to cast the kinds of spells needed to make this worth it is also probably sporting a hefty Ward Save, meaning it does even less. Pass unless you know you're fighting Nagash or something.

• Scroll of Leeching: 50pts to gain dispel dice equal to the power dice used for the spell they just cast. Almost worthless, even if it were half its price. Doesn't actually stop that big spell, and requires the opponent to cast multiple big spells per turn. Your Slann can be built for spooky levels of dispel control every single turn for around the same price as this one item that often does nothing.

• Siverjir's Hex Scroll: 50pts to attempt to transform a casting wizard into a toad. He has a chance to resist by testing on his wizard level. The irony and fun of this item aside, this is pretty useless, and expensive to boot. High level wizards will usually resist it, low level ones aren't worth the trouble, you can dispel well enough anyways, and your cowboys are hard at work making sure anything with a name is dead already anyways. Pass.

• Scroll of Shielding: 15pts to get the target unit of enemy spell a 4+ ward save against that spell. "We have Dispel Scroll at home", more or less. Not terrible, can easily save well more than its cost in strapping lizard lads, and can fit on a Skink Priest caddying something else easily. Definately don't accept it as a substitute for your Dispel Scroll, though, it's extra, throwaway protection against something else.

• Power Scroll: 35 points to halve the casting value of a spell, but you can't boost it. Slann are good at making their casts, but might be handy if you desperately need to get Mindrazor off. Has slightly better use on a Skink Priest of Beasts that you want to be able to get Savage Beast of Horros or Transformation of Kadon off. Power Stone often accomplishes the same thing for cheaper, though, even with the greater miscast risk.

• Earthing Rod 25 points to reroll a miscast. Might be worth taking on a Slann not taking Life or maybe Signatures. You do *not* want your 400+ point toad to croak over a miscast. Buuut... just take Soul of Stone. If you're paranoid enough to take both, spellcasting might not be for you anyways.

• Trickster's Shard 25pts for an item that can be used before a bearer's magic phase, causing a wound to each dispelling wizard on a roll of 5+ for each dispelled spell. Can be worth it on a Slann, especially one taking a cheap lore like Fire or Signatures, or with a lore that has spells an opponent MUST dispel, like Purple Sun. Your Slann is going to be casting spells at a rapid rate, and can easily fry all the wizards an army has, or else secure an uncontested turn to violate the board, either way is a win for you.

• Forbidden Rod: 35pts for d6 additional power dice, causing d3 wounds to the wizard. Actually very decent for us. Slann have a fair chance of not taking any damage at all, Slann can survive even the worst case with room to spare, and may well have ways to heal off the damage. Risky if the opponent has a lot of war machines trained at your frog's head (if they have them, they probably do), but can result in a devastating Magic Phase that can win a game outright.

• Power Stone: 20pts for two bonus power dice, must be used before rolling for the spell. Safer, cheaper version of the Forbidden Rod. Can make for some spooky magic phases, which you can absolutely take advantage of. Nice in the pocket of either a Slann or a Skink Priest, though your Slann likely has better options.

• Wand of Jet: 35pts for what amounts to an additional power dice, after attempting a cast. Basically insurance on a spell. Slann shouldn't have too much problem making their casts, but can be handy on a Skink that *needs* to get off a high end spell... but the Power Stone does the same thing, more reliably, for cheaper, for the cost of potentially being wasted on that critical spell you needed to cast either way. Pass unless you're swimming in Skink Priests with empty pockets, somehow.

• Sceptre of Stability: 15pts for adding a dice to a dispel attempt. Insures a dispel, like the Wand of Jet. Handy if you're running only Skink Priests, Slann are good enough at dispels to leave this at home. Also, just take Becalming Cognition, bro.

• Staff of Sorcery: 35pts for a +1 to every dispel attempt by the bearer. Make sure to practice your regal, dismissive hand gestures if running this and Becalming Cognition on a Slann, because your opponent ain't casting shit. Bring your straw to drink the salty, impotent tears of the Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings player who is locked out of the toolbox that keeps their army working. Additional side benefit for Slann over other casters, because everyone was gunning for him anyways even before he locked up the fun cabinet. Niche use on a Skink sitting in the back. Half of the Book of Ashur, for just over half the price.

• Channeling Staff: 15pts for a permanent item, which adds +1 to channeling attempts. A solid pick for most armies, you simply ARE taking this if you don't have a specific item in mind if you take Harmonic Convergeance with your Slann. Cheap cheap cost for the magical sexual assault charges your toad is about to be arrested for. Don't bother if not taking Harmonic Convergeance, your Arcane Item slot is worth way more than this without the combo.

Magic Standards:

• Worth noting off the bat, taking these is a bit of a special challenge for us. Temple Guard are the only standard unit that can take them, and nine times out of ten, they're shacking up with a Slann anyways. This means you're almost always taking an Oldblood, Scar Veteran, or Skink Chief to hold one, and only the Chief really wants to spend their allowance on them, meaning these cost a premium that is coming out of their kit. A banner has to be doing something big for a unit in general to be worth it for us most of the time.

• Gleaming Pennant: 5 points to reroll one failed leadership test. Cheap, but unnecessary with our Leadership and Cold Blooded. Only if you know you're going up against Leadership shenanigans, and even then. Keep going.

• Lichbone Pennant: Much beloved source of magic resistance. Great option if you have no better ideas, protecting our pricy Saurus from being fucked with is important. But... the main benefit of Magic Resistance without needing a character is essentially lost on us, and a Skink Chief can take an Obsidian Trinket to get the same effect, saving a banner. Might be worth it on the Temple Guard your Slann is embedded in, to share a few points of love with your frog.

• Ranger's Standard: 50pts for ignoring all difficult terrain. Very very expensive, usually not worth it, especially since CoC is also too expensive. Fine if you are committing to CoC for some reason.

• Banner of Swiftness: 15pts for +1 Move. Nice and cheap, and much appreciated on your Saurus or Temple Guard, and definitely worth a Skink caddy.

• Banner of Eternal Flame: 10 points, gives the unit Flaming Attacks. Cheap access to Flaming Hits, definitely consider this if you don't have any other sources of fire. Be cautious of putting it on your only Saurus character though, since it will seriously blunt their attacks against whoever the opponent gave their Dragonhelm to. Handy on a Skink Chief.

• Rampager's Standard: 55 points to let the unit reroll failed charges. The price means it's BSB only. Anything that extends our threat range is good, but the Banner of Swiftness very often ends up having a similar effect for a fraction of the price. This is an entire MSU of Skinks, plus 1, by the way.

• Standard of Discipline: 15pts for 1+ Ld, but the unit cannot use General's bubble. Actually not a bad pick on Slann or their Temple Guard, ld 10 is nice for some spells, too. Consider it, at least. Might see use on a Saurus Cowboy with a posse.

• War Banner: 35pts for +1 Combat Resolution. Can be nice on the odd Slann-less Temple Guard, or maybe on an Oldblood if your Crown of Command is spoken for.

• Razor Standard: 45 pts for Armor Penetration. Fine choice for Temple Guard to cut through the toughest armor, could be worth a Skink Chief on a big block of Saurus, but mind the cost.

• Scarecrow Banner: 5 pts to cause fear to Flying units. Trading something we never have enough of (Magic Standards) for something we have in abundance (Fear) would be a terrible deal even without the hilarious limitation. Would almost never be worth it even if it was free.

Magic

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom. If not taking High Magic, generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you. Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

Lore of Life: While Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook, Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

Lore of Light: Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

Lore of High Magic: The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off. We get a unique Lore Attribute that lets us swap out a spell for a spell from another list, that we can then also swap for the signature if we roll something we don't like. This is a fantastic because it lets you get a spell from a lore that might counter something currently in front of you, like Metal for Warriors of Chaos, or Light for Daemons. You do need to actually cast the spell first, though, so you might need to cast something mediocre just to get rid of it; this isn't quite the same as having every spell right at your fingertips as a result. Special mention fkr swapping goes to Vaul's Unmaking, since you probably had a target in mind when you cast it, and the spell immediately becomes far less useful after it's gone. Light and Life are probably better in their own areas, but if you just want a flexible, fun Slann that you can slap just about anywhere, High Magic is a good way to go. Especially if your scene plays End Times, this gets even better then.

Lore of Signatures: (Requires Wandering Deliberations) If playing End Times, this gives you every single standard Lore for 30 points... so just do that instead of taking a standard lore, unless those 30 points are really breaking your army. Outside of end times... it's decent? The signature spells and lore attributes of most spells are pretty good, even if some of the attributes don't really work under these conditions. Getting all of them lets your Slann cover a ton of specialized bases decently, without ever feeling like they have a useless list. However, part of what makes a Slann so good is how reliably they can cast the big guns, and this keeps them from doing that. You're certainly still going to be able to get your money's worth on your magic phase, few wizards can rapidfire spells quite like a Lore of Signatures Slann, and it might be worth running especially if you have a very active game scene, and want just one Slann to handle all of it, but you definitely feel the lack of power.

Lore of Shadow: The Lore Attribute is interesting as it allows the Slann to leave the unit on a succesfull cast.. this will free up space for the TG to pile slightly more damage in, if you really need that boost. On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game; most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units, which can help letting the Saurus survive the brunt of a first combat turn and retaliate safely or even let Skinks tie up an enemy for a long time. Of course, Mindrazor can be fantastic, Lizardmen usually have massive Leadership, with Jungle Swarms having 10, but don't fixate on it. And if needs be, lore comes with yet another template spell, and a line spell helpfully able to be aimed by an expendable Skink, so...

Lore of Death: Bit of an odd relationship. On the one hand, Lizardmen are arguably the best casters of the lore; few armies can make quite as good of use as the massive surplus of power dice you'll be generating as Lizardmen, and the chief drawback of the lore, the short range on most of the spells, is more or less entirely mitigated as your Slann can just cast through a Skink, rather than get within spitting distance of that Bloodthirster himself. On the other hand, the lore excels at character sniping, and if there is one thing Lizardmen really don't need help with, it's murdering characters. Additionally, while Purple Sun is tantalizing, one even slightly bad scatter, and you will fuck your own army far harder than you will the enemy. It's not a dead lore for us, but it's not something you should just slap on a standard army list; you need to build your army with consideration for the lore. In very large games, where you can run more than one Slann, a Death Slann can generate absurd amounts of dice, that the other can absolutely violate the board with.

Lore of Metal: Situationally good pick. The Lore itself is kind of hit or miss by matchup, and if you're dropping points for a Slann, you really don't want that investment to just sit there, but it's not like there aren't spells to cast. It can be handy against Warriors of Chaos specifically, but Lizardmen actually generally do alright against most moderately armored armies, making this already situational lore even moreso. If you know you're fighting Warriors of Chaos, maybe you can make a tin foil hat for your frog and convince your opponent your Slann was always a Metal Lore caster. Not bad by any means, but a bit less flexible and generally useful than other picks.

Lore of Heavens: One of your choices for your Skinks, so you will almost always have one or two on the board. Actually pretty handy, the signature spell can mess with war machines something fierce, which we always appreciate, the Lore Attribute is nice for consistently chipping off flying units or characters, which is always welcome, and Thunderbolt might be able to finish off a character that your Scar Vet barely missed a kill on, and the buff and hex are okay for Saurus. Never take it on a Slann, though; if you want a high level Heavens caster, it's probably for Comet of Cassendora, but Tetto'ekko gives bonuses to that spell specifically, and is cheaper to boot. His bonuses to Comet make us significantly better at hitting with it when we want to, making the spell jump from a gimmicky toy to a genuinely threatening move. Just take him if the thought of a Heavens Slann crosses your mind, or leave the Lore to your Skinks otherwise.

Lore of Beasts: The other Skink lore. Generally quite decent. You'll almost always have a monster for the Lore Attribute and a cheap scroll caddy Skink can get some consistency from it, but the real draw is getting Wildform off on a big block of Saurus Warriors, Temple Guard, or maybe a Scar Vet to shovel some coal into the Saurus rape train. The Amber Spear is neat, as it can fill a niche Lizardmen sometimes struggle with. Impenetrable Pelt and Savage Beast can help a Scar Veteran or Oldblood survive or kill a Vampire Lord or Chaos Lord in combat, but the rest of the lore is kinda meh. Don't bother taking it on a Slann unless butchering a Vampire Lord is something you anticipate needing to do regularly, even then, Light is probably the better counterpick. Skink Priests can cast what we really want in most cases. In case you wanted to try it, unfortunately Slann uniquely cannot cast Transformation of Kadon, because the fat bastard refuses to get off his mobility scooter due to the Palanquin rules.

Lore of Fire: A bit straitlaced, this lore can help fill the gap of long range firepower that Lizardmen have, and put down fast, long ranged units. Flaming Sword of Rhuin can situationally make your Skinks a good bit more dangerous, aiming through a Skink Priest means lining up perfect Flaming Heads has never been easier and your own units generally have high enough Toughness and Leadership to mitigate friendly fire, and Fulminating Cage can straight up delete problematic units that could otherwise harass and stay out of range of your Saurus blocks. Don't let the associations of the lore being mainly used by lower level casters discourage you from the raw blasting power a Fire Slann offers, but do be aware that blasting is pretty much all you're doing, and besides the ranged units, Fire excels at killing things your dudes already great at butchering.

Lore of Undeath: Kinda funny meme pick. RAW you can take it on Kroak for maximum lulz, but the lore actually isn't terrible. You don't really have much use for zombies and skellies besides the odd flank or fear test, but Lizardmen as an army tend to have a lot of niche holes that the raised units can handily plug. From proper archers, to cavalry that isn't the hideously overpriced Cold One, to doubling down on the monsters, to getting a Necromancer or Liche Priest just to flex on having access to even more "unique" lores, the extra units this can get you are surprisingly synergistic with the Lizardmen. Taking a full Undeath Slann is probably overkill, but a Skink Priest or two can add some decent utility and counterplay to your army. Also gives you an excuse to kitbash that Relic Skink Priest you've always wanted. Not exactly a great choice, but better than it deserves to be. A High Magic, Loremaster Slann with the Book of Ashur and a Heirotitan spawned from this Lore can achieve some truly disgusting spellcasting capability, should you get the combo off.

There are many viable Lores, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6, and you're definitely feeling it if you miss Throne of Vines. You can't count on a Slann getting that one spell that makes your army work every game.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah, they can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the Entire Lore.

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Tactics

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control the most phases in the turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. While we don't have truly dedicated fast moving units or long ranged artillery, we can use the ever powerful skink spam to try and control the movement of our enemy and deal at least a respectable amount of short ranged shooting to facilitate cleanup to our meatier units.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all either skinks, which means they're dead if your opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows, or fliers (technically also skinks but marginally sturdier), available at premium costs in small units. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way. Mathammer: Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way it's not unheard to run 5 COC with characters to flank charge an existing combat.

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement... but on the other hand, water does nothing to stop your skins and you have fast fliers and walk between worlds to even the odds.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus but you can't afford to have your good units tied up doing nothing for the whole game.

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine. Kill the wizard with the lore of death. Kill it or you die.