Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen (section)

===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 [[God-Emperor of Mankind|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.''
----

====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.