Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Lizardmen

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Army Special Rules

Cold-blooded: All leadership test are thrown with 3D6 and the highest value is discarded.

Amphibious: Skinks, Kroxigor and Salamanders. You count water bodies as open terrain and they grant you light cover, too. Never forget you have this, park your skirmishers in a swamp and blowdart away.

Blowdart: unique weapon, presented as a special rule. 12" range, multiple shots x2, str 3 and poisoned, you know the drill. Makes your Skinks really good at tearing through units if they don't move.

Sacred Spawnings: marks of chaos, in my lizardmen? More likely than you think! Units of Warriors and all your Saurus characters can receive 1 or 2 spawnings (3 for an Oldblood) which have a flat cost per unit and move Warriors from Core to Special or Rare, depending on whther you pick one or two spawnings. Characters need the Itzl spawning to pick a mount (basically it's a 5 points tax that also precludes 3-spawning carnosaur riding oldbloods or oldbloods) and can only join units of unmarked Warriors or Warriors who match their spawnings (so a Sotek/Chotec Scar-vet can join units of unmarked, Sotek, Chotec or Sotek/Chotec marker Warriors, but not units of Tepok, ot Sotek/Tepok marked ones).

• Tzunki: grants Amphibious, +1 Initiative. Meh. But it's cheap very cheap and makes you laugh at rivers and marshes. Also you become teal. 5 points (character) / 10 points (Unit)
• Sotek: the classic. +1 attack on the charge, which in this edition means Always Strikes First? Saurus were made for this- Skinks, not so much, though hilariously they can take it as well (don't do it). It is very expensive though, but probably worth it to make your Saurus red. 20/30 points.
• Quetzl: +1 armor save, basically giving your Warriors heavy armor and your characters Gomril. Not bad on a saurus pike wall. 15/30 points.
• Tlazcotl: immune to psychology. Not amazing with cold blooded beign a thing already, and doesn't apply to stupidity from Cold Ones either. Also makes you yellow? Probably a pass. 20/20
• Chotec: getting there. +1 dice and choose the 2 best results on pursue moves, guarantees you catch whatever is fleeing from you. Reasonably cheap, but is it better than Sotek? Orange scales pop well on blue Saurus, at least. 15/20.
• Huanchi: situational, but Wood Elves will throw models at you for making your unit go through woods and jungles as if it was open terrain. Expensive for this amount of satisfaction, though. 20/25 points
• Tepok: +1 dispel die. Ever wanted to be purple? Odds are if you have a Slann you don't need this, unless you are having a magic slapfest with a Tzeentch player. 20/30
• Itzl: character only, 5 points, get a mount. Yawn. You will need it and you will curse having to get it.
• Blessed Mark of the Old Ones: character only, 35 points. Lets you reroll D3 (roll before the battle begins) D6s but bans you from other spawnings and comes with a host of safety nets like one character ONLY per army. Skinks can get it as well though, and you can join whatever unit regardless of spawnings. Also chosen albino Saurus? I wonder where did this end up in later editions...

Slann Generations The grandad of Slann Disciplines. You pick what generation you want your Slann to be part of, pay the points tag, and get the benefit of all the lower ones as well.

• 5th: bog standard Slann. Gives the ability to mix and match from all BRB lores when generating spells.
• 4th: 40 points for ignore miscasts. A steal. You are bound to double 1 with all the spells you are going to cast and when it happens you're going to be glad you have this.
• 3th: 85 points, plus a Hero choice and granting 100 move VP if killed. Approaching a level where only 3000+ points games are going to cut it. On the other hand, the upsides are pretty sweet... +1 wound, and Drain Magic, an easy to cast spell that can absolutely shut down an enemy wizard. When you play against magic heavy armies a 9+ cast of this is going to completely ruin their gameplan, so know your enemy, as they say...
• 2th: 135 points, an additional Rare choice, AND 200 additional VP conceded if it dies. Holy shit. What you get is another wound, and a *free* power die on *each* cast, which is ridiculous. Sure it's 460 points naked, but you are paying for the best wizard in the game.

Units Analysis

Named Characters

• Venerable Lord Kroak:

In 6th edition Kroak is at the most powerful it's ever been, kicking it with Zacharias the Everliving and all the other old school costs-more-than-2-dragons lord choices. What this ludicrous mummified bundle of rules nets is the toad-father of all wizards, with 6 spells known that can be rolled from any corebook lore, plus 2 unique spells, one shared with all slanns that can shut down enemy casters hard, the other being a massive AOE that ruins units and outright destroyes buildings, and they all are cast at +2, provoke no miscast effects, and can be cast through any other Wizard in your army as if they were Kroak. Not satisfied? Try 2+ ward save, which becomes 3+ in btb; -1 to be hit; automatic str 3 panic inducing hit against anything on btb, which becomes str 5 against daemons; immunity to magic weapons; +2 to dispel; +1 power and dispel die; magic resistance 2; and all the other palanquin rules for Slanns. What's not to love? Well... At 1225 (!!!) points and occupying the slots of a Lord, Hero and Rare choice, Kroak is basically impossible to field outside of a gentlelizard duel with an opponent also rolling with some titanically oversized model. Not to mention that if you ever lose Kroak (unlikely, but stlll...) you forfeit 200 VPs and can't even win the current match. Period. So yeah, there's that.

• Kroq-Gar:

Way more reasonably costed than Kroak... which is not saying much as this sexy beast is still 573 points (220 are for Grymloq). If either of them dies, the survivor gets Frenzy, which in the case of Grymloq can never be lost for the remainder of the battlefield. Speaking of Grymloq, he lacks the Blood Frenzy rule for regular Carnosaurs... but has one more Attack stock, which is basically all the upsides without downsides. As for the rider, Kroq-Gar packs the triple spawning of Quetzl (+1 armor save, bringing it to 3+ when combined with scaly skin and light armor), Itzl (for Grymloq) and Xhotl (Unique to Kroq-Gar, bestows a 5+ ward save, which is very relevant in an era prior to the ubiquitos Ward Save BRB amulets, and slaps anyone who gets through with a str 5 hit.). Keeping in with a theme of the time where special characters do silly things to your army, Kroq-gar must be your general and wants you to build a mobile army, swapping Cold One Riders and Saurus Warriors around, making the former Core and the latter Specials (incidentally this means Saurus with one spawning are Rare, and you can't have Saurus units with 2). Not the most beneficial of changes, as it precludes you from bringing both a stegadon and a unit of salamanders if you have, say, Sotek-blessed warriors, and warriors are in general a very common building block for 6th ed Lizardmen, so beware. For gear, Kroq-gar carries the Hand of Gods, which is a ranged weapon in this edition that can target every unit in Kroq-gar's frontal arc in 8" range for D6 str 4 hits, and the Spear of Tlanxla, which gives +1 str on the charge and forces units who took losses from it to test Leadership and flee on a failure before combat results are determined. This is not as relevant against high disciplined units and mostly works on chaff and low leadership tarpits, things that Kroq-gar both mulches through already and shouldn't be wasting time fighting... but hey, sometimes it's worth it to see a unit of Chaos warriors win combat, roll a 9 and flee anyway. In other words: pricey, does weird things to your FOC, and a bit unsure of what role it wants to be in, but on the other hand durable (for 6th anyway) and at least as lethal as you'd expect an oldblood on carnosaurus to be without being forced to always pursue.

Lords & Heroes

• Slann-Mage Priest:

A large magical Kermit on a flying stone chair which fries everything with magic. What is not to love? Well for one, it's 325 points vanilla, but on the other hand tricked out 6th ed Lords ARE expensive and a vanilla Slann is basically a souped up mage from any other army. Pick spells from any lore, check. Mix and match them? Check. Free +1 to cast AND dispel? You bet. Cast through the eyes of a Skink Priest? Sure. Cast from melee? No problem, not that you would ever be in melee because of the palanquin rules putting you in the second rank of any unit you join (not a big issue in 6th ed where the second rank doesn't get to attack). Tack on 6 wounds and an in-built 4++. And unit strenght 5, sure. You can also make the Slann be both General (and they will because of their LD 9) and BSB (not as bad as it sounds if you are in a Stubborn TG unit with cold-blooded) for 25 points. Add generations and magic items and this frog gets mighty expensive. Your best budget option is probably 4th generation and Tepok's Plaque for + 1 spell at a comfortable (ack) 380 points.

• Saurus Oldblood:

Slaps hard, with 5 str 5 attacks, inbuilt heavy armor, and a good selection of fairly costed magic items. Units will be munched for breakfast on the charge, especially from atop a Cold One, and you aren't paying too much for it at 145 points base; the sticking point is obviously I3 and WS6, a dire proposition against dedicated duelist characters, which is what you SHOULDN'T be fighting if you can avoid it unless you kit out for bears. Mount options include a Cold One (yes) and a Carnosaurus.

• Saurus Scar-Veteran:

Oldblood -1, in basically everything but dat amazing base 5 str and in built armor; 85 points of carnage begging to be taken on a Cold One. Can be your BSB if you are slann-less, which is not a common occurrence. Still plows through units like a farmer through a field. Honorable mention to the Jaguar Saurus of Doom, a Great Weapon-toting foot fielded Saurus with the Jaguar Charm giving it a 18" charge range to keep small flanking units honest and tear through light cavalry.

• Skink Chief:

Well, it's cheap? Later editions have been kind to this honcho, as your only mount here is the stegadon which will LOSE the use of the greatbow! Leadership 6 means it's also not great at leading skinks either. The chief is fast, at least, and with I5 and paired weapons it can shred through light units... but why do that when the JSOD is a thing?

• Skink Priest:

Oh no, it's limited to Heavens! The best lore in the game! Whatever shall we do? Memes aside don't leave home without one of these small douchebags in your pockets, they do it all. Scroll caddy? Check. Heaven spam? Check. LOS extenders for Slann? Check. Love the small skink with a staff for they are shaped like a friend.

Mounts

• Cold One:

Saurus heroes on mounts have never been bad, and while the Jaguar Charm was a thing in this edition, sticking a scar vet in a unit of cold one riders WILL result in very expensive, heavy armored carnage. Grants a very sizeable save bonus of +2, swings as hard as a Saurus, cause Fear, and stupidity is less of an issue with Cold Blooded.

• Carnosaurus:

Obligatory monster mount. 210 points is not that expensive as far as monsters go, but neither is the Carnosaurus the most cost effective monster. WS3 is kind of stinker when you are supposed to go after other monsters who will probably have a higher WS (ahem, dragons...) than you do to cash in your D3 damage on Large Targets; but your 4 attacks at 6 strenght, 5 toughness, 4+ armor and need to kill a model to trigger Blood Frenzy (it's like frenzy but it never ends) means you are more suited to devouring heavy cavalry. That said, you ARE cheaper than a dragon, Terror is pretty good in this edition, and you carry a very scary rider... just don't get into fights with a large block of infantry on your own.

Core Units

• Saurus Warriors:

The almight blue lizard that could. Saurus Warriors are probably at their best in this edition, despite being at their worst point and statwise. Charging gets around their pitiful Initiative score, shields and hand weapons give +1 save (which means they are still 4+ in melee despite their scaly skin being 6+) and their 2 str 4 base attacks are very scary to deal with (3 on the charge with Sotek, mighty is he!). Because you want to charge so badly, pikes are a little less attractive than hand weapons: they cost 2 points each, you can't use them on the charge, they forfeit your save increase, and Saurus have a very funny special rule made especially to make sure rear rank Surus with pikes only get to attack once (thanks GW); however this IS 6th ed, where you can choose to not use pikes and switch to hand weapons if needed. Figure it out: pikes are better when charged, hand weapons are better on the charge. You want a block of them somewhere in your army, do well by them and they will do well for you.

• Temple Guard:

Halberd wielding Saurus with light armor on top of scaly skin, but shields come at one extra point. Halberds are pretty good on the charge as no one wants to trifle with 2 strenght 5 WS 4 attacks. Having a Slann in the second rank makes the unit Stubborn, pretty handy to make sure a skewed round of combat doesn't cost you your BSB. Also they fulfill core tax, freeing space for Spawning Warriors. Remember they are 0-1 per Slann you field, so you can only take them with one.

• Skink Skirmishers:

6 points each, 7 if Scouts. Blowdart or javelin&shield, both poisoned. No cohorts, no second rank kroxigors, no shortbows, no poison on melee weapons. And NO scaly skin. Are they still good? Oh old ones yes. You probably won't go about nabbing swarms of them for double your whole core allowance like in later editions but you'd be a fool not to show up with multiple small units of them considered how cheap and deadly they can be. Just beware for they are very vulnerable to shooting, having no armor save at all unless armed with javelin and shield, which is probably better on your screening units because of quick to fire, unlike the blowdart which should be reserved for scouts.

• Jungle Swarm:

Ahh, not really? Sure it's leadership 10 and a swarm, so it's impossible to break, but it's kind of easy to just slaughter through and each costs as much 2 whole cold one riders. They don't even break line of sight, so screening is better done through skinks. Hard pass.

Special Units

• Saurus Cavalry:

Hits very hard on the charge, has an amazing armor save, temple guard statline, causes fear, the mount is almost as vicious as the rider, why aren't we taking 20? Oh right, 35 points and stupidity. To be fair, LD8 and coldblooded is pretty good to make sure they move when you need them, and while people like to callt hem slow they are just as fast as any barded cavalry (elves nonwithstanding). Don't discount the lizard riding a lizard, for while expensive they deliver devastating charges and love to escort a mounted Hero. Just beware that 5-lizard units, despite often talked about, are very dicey outside of 1500 and lower points games (where they are in fact a slaughter waiting to happen).

• Kroxigors:

Not a dead unit, but the impressive 58 points pricetag is hard to swallow. That said we are looking at 3 str 7 attacks with those great weapons of theirs, and for once the pitiful initiative of non-skink lizardmen is kind of moot with 3 wounds each protected by a 4+ and Fear. Uniquely to this edition, Kroxigors have the ability to charge through units of skinks, including chameleons (the skinks have to test and probably fail Leadership when this happens, and on a failure they don't get to move this turn) and are only considered to be charging from the front of the Skink unit for the purpose of stand and shoot, which is situational but neat and really gives a new meaning to screening units. Units of 3 can bash some heads in, but don't expect them to survive too long. Units of 6 are Very Expensive.

• Terradons:

Your flying cavalry. Later editions really buffed them: here we are looking at a combined profile with 3 WS 3 str 4 attacks, javelins, a 6+ with 2 wounds, and the ability to charge, conduct combat, and then flee voluntarily without pursue move and with an automatic rally. All things considered there are better choices to kill small isolated targets and warmachines, such as...

• Chameleon Skinks:

You can put them *anywhere*. Anywhere! No really, they can be fielded either in open, anywhere 12" from your enemy, or in cover like normal scouts but with no restriction to distance from enemy troops. That is a nice fence you got there protecting the side of your mage bunker, would be a shame if it was actually MADE UP OF CHAMELEON SKINKS! Jokes aside, they come out of the box at 15 points a pop with blowdarts only, no armor save, and all the regular rules for skinks plus their scouting shenanigans and a natural -1 to hit modifier on all ranged attacks made agains them, which sums up to an impressive -3 if you are in light cover, like, I don't know, in a pond of water with your Amphibious trait. Don't ever let them get charged though, they will just die and they are too expensive and frail to be used as screening units like skinks. You can't even put a Skink Chief in their unit to shore their combat up a little.

Rare Units

• Salamander:

Sweet dancing Chotec! 65 points?! Sure, they can misfire, in which case they just end up eating a few skinks (lol), but funnily enough you only need a single skink to keep the entire unit going. What you are getting is a range beast with 6 movement who goes through water like it's not there, with a 5+, Fear, and shoots at strenght 3 with 15" inch range an armor penetration for an Artillery Die number of hits. And their melee? it's still good, with two strenght 5 attacks from each salamander! Unit size is up to 3, which is the only drawback as you really wish you could take more of them, instead of having to stuff your entire rare allowance with units of 3. Which you will do, because these things pop units open for breakfast. Did I mention they are skirmishers, so they are at -2 to hit in the water?

• Stegadon:

The only Dinosaur Monster sized unit in the book that is not (only) a character mount (Terradons and Salamanders are not in fact dinosaurs). A relic of a time when the Aztect Dinos where more Aztec and less Dinos. No Bastiladons or Troglodons in here, not even Ancient Stegadons carriying a Stargate reference, just the humble Stegadon with no upgrades and a makeshift ballista on its wooden howdah. Is it good? Eh. It's competent at 235 points, but it really wishes it was not competing for space with Salamanders (and in fact fares much better when it's a Special unit in later books). Discipline is low, and Stubborn is wasted on it. The five skinks on top get to throw javelins, but two of them can also man the Giant Bow, the only artillery in the book, which is a Strenght 5 Ballista. At least it ignores panic and its defense is pretty decent with toughness 6, a 4+, 5 wounds and unit strenght 8, and it deals a respectable d6+1 str 5 impact hits on the charge. Not the worst choice, but stuck in a bad spot.