Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen

This is the tactics page for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Lizardmen.

Why play Lizardmen

They're dinosaurs riding dinosaurs into battle. Some of those dinosaurs also have magical lasers strapped to them.

Pros

• A Multitude of Monsters - The Lizardmen have the largest diversity of massive monsters at their disposal. Between the various Bastilodons, Stegadons and Carnosaurs you can field, you won't be wanting for big beasties.
• Fearsome Beasts - Unsurprisingly, the average man will struggle to keep calm and collected when facing down a stampede of hungry carnivorous dinosaurs many times larger than he is. Virtually every monster in this army inspires fear and terror in the mortal hearts of men; a few well timed Carnosaur charges can break and rout forces not outright immune to psychology. Conversely, this also renders your monsters immune to fear/terror effects as well.
• Resilient Frontline - Saurus Warriors, even unshielded, are among the most durable baseline infantry units in the game. Though their damage output is rather low, their good armor and leadership will ensure they'll hold the line. Of course this isn't even mentioning higher tier units like the Temple Guard.
• Mastery of Magic - Debatably only second to the High Elves, Lizardmen have reliable access more schools of magic than any other race. Skink Priests, Slann and the mighty Lord Kroak offer not only some of the most reliable casting in the game, but have consistent access to the Arcane Conduit skill.
• Flexible Artillery - Where most other factions have to slowly wheel siege engines into place and are vulnerable to attacks in melee, Lizardmen give no fucks. Due to their solar engines and bastila being strapped on the backs of mighty Bastilodons/Stegadons, they can easily reposition themselves and hold their own in melee combat.
• Cavalcade of Cavalry - Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Terradons and Ripperdactyls, oh my! Though not as fast as some other faction's cavalry, you have a very diverse selection of fast-moving dinosaurs that can flank enemies
• Predatory Senses - As your army consists heavily of predatory animals that excel at sniffing out prey, your enemies will be hard pressed to remain hidden from them. Enemies that rely on stealthy abilities like Stalk are revealed to you far more quickly than others, giving you far more time to react to (in battle) ambushes than other factions.
• Poisonous Assaults - Many of the weapons wielded by your skinks are poisonous, inhibiting the mobility/combat performance of enemies afflicted by their noxious attacks. Despite poison no longer deal constant damage like on the tabletop, their debuff is still useful for weakening the enemy for your frontline troops. Thank to the recent update that removes any form of poison debuffs that can apply to the player units through friendly fire, skink's poison darts are even better.

Cons

• Slow - A majority of the Lizardmen list, namely Saurus infantry, take their sweet time to cross the field. Though there are exceptions to this, namely the various cavalry and skink units available to you, this particular weakness is exacerbated by...
• Vulnerable to Range - ...their dearth of viable ranged units. The only ranged infantry available to you are Skinks; particularly squishy infantry that, though nimble, have pitiful range and DPS against anything shielded/armored. Defensively, though your Saurus are quite tanky, they are very vulnerable to being kited by ranged (cavalry) due to their rather slow movement speed. The same can be said about most of your monsters, with some minor exceptions.
• Expensive Roster - As you can imagine, breeding and training massive dinosaurs and mounting arcane instruments of war onto them isn't cheap. All of your high tier units can get crazy expensive both in initial cost and upkeep. Even the bog standard Saurus Warriors come at a premium compared to some other factions options, though this is only particularly notable in competitive multiplayer.
• Rampage - A majority of the Lizardmen list is prone to going berserk and rampaging towards their deaths if they take too much damage too quickly. Though the Lord/Hero Cold-Blooded ability can help keep this in check, it is in limited supply. That said, though rampaging units will end up dying more often than not, the silver lining is that these rampaging units can still tie up enemy units until the bitter end, which can buy the rest of your army some time.
• DLC Locked Content - Though a con for virtually every other faction in the game, this is a particularly notable one for Lizardmen. Many, if not most of the Lizardmen's better units are locked behind DLC lord packs. Though these DLC packs are definitely worth it for dedicated players, they can get expensive rather quickly and certainly might be a tough sell to players who aren't fully invested in the respective armies included.

Lords

The scaly faces of the Lizardmen. Compared to a few of the other factions in game, Lizardmen generally have solid lord choices and their legendary lords aren't an exception.

Legendary Lords

• Mazdamundi - The last second generation Slann (lore-wise), Mazdamundi uses magic primarily from the Lore of Light to act as a hybrid support/offensive caster. The two main selling points of Mazdamundi over a generic Slann Mage-Priest are his stegadon mount Zlaaq and his signature spell Ruination of Cities. Zlaaq allows Mazdamundi to actually engage in melee, something no other Slann can safely do, and makes him substantially more durable against most forms of attack. Ruination of Cities, especially when combined with Banishment, makes Mazdamundi an excellent AoE caster capable of tearing infantry focused armies to shreds with relative ease without chewing through your Winds of Magic reserve. These spells are limited however, being bounded spells, so make sure you wait until the right moment to utilize them.

• Kroq-Gar - Your dedicated duelist, Kroq-Gar is an offensive powerhouse that shines when seated atop Grimloq, his faithful Carnosaur mount. Though expensive, Kroq-Gar/Grimloq can tear through virtually any foe with ease and can go toe to toe with almost every other lord and come out on top. Though a monstrous force on his own merits, Kroq-Gar is something of a glass cannon however and as a larger target is prone to getting mobbed by multiple units or getting focused down by ranged infantry/artillery. Another notable shortcoming is that he provides limited support for the rest of your army (a bit of a problem for all Saurus Oldbloods), and as such is not recommended for dino-heavy builds.

• Tehenhauin (DLC) - Your only Skink-Priest lord choice, Tehenhauin is something of a niche pick. He's can deal surprising damage against footlords/cavalry lords in a fight (particularly if on a Ripperdactyl) and is also capable of dealing notable damage to swarms of infantry (with his Lore of Beasts and/or with his Engine of the Gods), but he's extremely frail for a Lizardmen lord.

• Tiktaq'to (FLC) - Another somewhat niche pick, Tiktaq'to is a dedicated flier who excels in lists built with Terradons and Ripperdactyls as the focus. Though mounted on Zwuup, Tiktaq'to is arguably your squishiest (legendary) lord and lacks the support/damage options available to the rest of your lords, but he's inarguably the swiftest of the bunch. He excels at tying up enemy artillery and ranged infantry and is easily able to dodge incoming fire on the approach. Playing him requires far more finesse than is required for virtually every other lord; prolonged combat will invariably whittle him down and may the Old Ones help you if he's surrounded while grounded.

• Nakai (DLC) - The largest and oldest of the Kroxigor Ancients, Nakai is an infantry mulcher who (thanks to his enthusiastic animations) will literally sweep his way through the thickest blobs of infantry. Nakai possesses a few notable traits over his competitors; his ability to grant perfect vigour to nearby allies ensures they're in peak form throughout the entire battle while his Miasma of Dispair can cripple enemies within his presence; a potentially nasty combo that can ensure your forces slowly but steadily chew through enemy frontlines. Unfortunately, Nakai has a few major weaknesses: As a large entity, he's vulnerable to anti-large weaponry (which does abound among baseline infantry) and is an easy, defenseless target for ranged units to snipe. He also struggles to properly duel opposing heroes/lords due to his size and janky animations making him lunge about haphazardly while they continue to poke him to death. Because of this, he tends to work best as a force multiplier for infantry builds.

• Gor-Rok (FLC) - Where Kroq-Gar is the spear, Gor-Rok stands as the shield. Gor-Rok is a dedicated footlord, among the slowest of them, but makes up for it through sheer, unbreaking resilience. Gor-Rok can stand neck-deep among hordes of angry infantry and walk out seemingly unscathed. When equipped with the Mace of Ulumak, Gor-Rok can also prove a competent duelist in his own right, even if it's only in temporary bursts. Gor-Rok does falter against mounted/monstrous heroes/lords and is vulnerable to duelists with good AP values

Lords

Your generic lords are no less able than their famed counterparts, and in competitve multiplayer, are often preferable.