Editing Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Lizardmen (section)

== Tactics ==

=== Know your Weaknesses and know your Strengths ===
Sure it sucks to be playing a balanced army! Luckily the almighty toad is here to deliver. 
In case it wasn't obvious,  lizardmen are kind of an incomplete army in 6th edition, with a rather small selection of units and lacking some options altogether, like light cavalry and a dedicated ranged units. On the other hand there is very little the power of magic cannot do and we are absolutely poised to rule the magic phase ruthlessly. Opponents who brought a fighter Lord might as well roll over and die immediately, those who brought an half decent caster are free to do so after a cast of Drain Magic. The power of a Slann with a backup Skink Priest is quite incredible and should persuade you to bring a frogelord instead of the Oldblood most of the times.
Movement is very important in 6th edition. Because we are lacking in the long range department,  it can be a painful proposition to slog your infantry through the field while your opponent rains fire on you unopposed. Movement 4 infantry is not going to cut it on its own, that's where all your 6 move skirmishers and Shadow slann have to pull their weight to control the battlefield and push your units forward.  Lizards are amongst the armies who really need an answer to backline artillery to be always present in their lists, be it chameleons, massed scouts, terradons or Heavens magic spam, and possibly a backup answer too. On the other hand we are uniquely poised to ruin the marching moves of our opponents through a strongly prejudiced use of scouts and fliers. Every turn your opponent's mainline is not advancing is one more turn of your salamanders raining fiery death on them. Remember we REALLY need our saurus units to do the charging rather than be charged. Use salamanders, skinks with javelins and a JSOD hidden in a infantry block to discourage light cavalry and chariots from getting around your sides, which should be clear at all times.

=== Army compositions ===
A combinations of Slann, Scar Vet and Skink Priest is a mainstay of lizards and for a good reason. There is very little discussion to be had about your characters, as the other two options are not as appealing as these. If you want an oldblood bring at least two skink priests, and put the standard on a cold one riding Scar Vet. If you want the carnosaur... we'll have to choose either no bsb or weak magic. Pick your poison and pray.
 
The magic your army should use is up to you and the situation you are in as your Slann's ability to pick any lore and even mix and match lores means your magic phase is a real can opener of custom options. Just don't gamble too much: if you really only need one Fire spell and you rolled for, say, the flaming sword, just exchange it for Fireball and move onto another lore instead of trying again. When in doubt, Heavens is the best lore in the game and you can guarantee not only knowing every spell in it with your two casters but also limited control on which gets what spells by generating them with the skink first.

Core tax is probably going to be filled by Skinks, which is going to allow us to grab spawnings for our Saurus. Temple Guards are a solid brick infantry who can really slaughter their way through their equivalent in points on the charge but being forced to guard the slann is both a blessing and a curse. That Guards plus Frog unit is going to be a basket of VPs in your opponent's eyes and you need to protect it well. 

Your specials are divided between more impact units and backline harassers. Blessed Saurus units have less scary charges than Cavalry but have better static resolution, and will be a better anvil.  Cavalry has Fear on their side and spears plus better armor, but smaller numbers, making them the perfect hammer. You can pick both by sacrificing the size of the units if you really want to, and round up with either Chameleons and more skinks, or Terradons. 

Finally,  your precious Rare slots are going to be between 3 and 6 salamanders. Don't shy away from slamming points onto these, even sacrificing some Specials for them; when both of your flanks are made of fear inducing flame cannons you will understand why.

===Outfitting your troops===

'''Characters'''

Let's start with magic items. They tend to be way too expensive to be bought in bulk, so games at 2000 points and below won't see a lot of actual magic items builds. Oftentimes it is simple better to gear up a saurus hero with a great weapon and watch it kill things regardless for a fraction of the points. That said, some items are a must or almost must have if you can bring them: the Plaque of Tepok, the Cube of Darkness and the Charm of the Jaguar Warrior. Other items to consider are the Enchanted Shield and War Banner in the corebook, the Cloak of Feathers, the Maiming Shield, the Aura of Quetzl/Glyph Necklace, the Jaguar and Chotec standards, and the ward save Plaques. The magic weapons are kind of gravy honestly, especially for their prices, but there are worse things you could do when kitting a fighter Lord for bears than grabbing the Hornet/Chotec' s Burning Blade. Heck, get the Scimitar with enchanted shield and glyph necklace, sotek's spawning and a Cold One and charge 8 strenght 5 attacks into someone's flank, what do I know?

The Slann is once again its own thing that plays be nobodys rules. In general, you should think of Generations as additional magic items that don't count towards your limit (not that you will ever get there) and are generally preferable to magic items beyond the Plaque and Cube. Aim for at least 4th generation always.

Skink priests: always pay for  level 2. Always. Don't even bother with level 1 priests. Skink chiefs... if you want to bring one, commit to a role. Give it the Cloak of Feathers and two hand weapons to be a flying assassin or stick in a unit to provide added firepower. Scouting it is a decent choice, too.

'''Troops'''

When outfitting your skinks, think of the role a unit is taking and whether you have backline harassers beyond your skink scouts. Blowpipes have a hard time hitting anything with their multiple shots if you move while javelins care absolutely nothing about range and moving, making them way the better choice on screeners. 

Saurus present a very interesting customization option in the form of spawnings. Generally the ones to consider are Sotek and Quetzl, with Chotec and Tlazcotl coming after them. Doubling up on blessings is unadvised as rare slots are THE most important slots in your army and you don't want to spend the equivalent of a salamander for the privilege of locking yourself out of a powerful unit or 2nd generation for your Slann. Not only that, but any spawning you pick also raises the point cost of any hero you want to deploy with the unit. Lastly, it is time to talk pikes. Don't buy pikes below 2000 points. The are expensive and do nothing for you on the charge. Only bother with them if you magically have points to spare. Always buy shields for your temple guard though, ranged units will target then from turn one and the added protection is worth 1 point a model.

There is no customizing your specials and rares beyond a magic standard option for Cold One Cavalry, which we discussed already, so consider yourself off the hook here.

=== Synergies ===

'''Skinks and Saurus''' kind of obvious really. Your skirmisher units are here to provide redirection, making sure charges that you don't want to happen don't happen. Enemies will not want to charge skinks with their strong units because it is a waste of time and resources and opens them to a flank charge from saurus units which is exactly what you should try and set up. Ignoring skink units is also a bad idea, for unlike skavenslaves these things have actually deadly ranged attacks.

'''Skinks and Kroxigor''' same as above but better because of the ability to charge through skinks. It is a shame kroxigors are too expensive to be a real option.

'''Charge and flank''' your ideal scenario. Anything you meet head on, you want something to slam into from the sides, be it Cavalry, Stegadons, Kroxigors or Salamanders who ran out of things to set on fire. All combat oriented units in this book have a massive number of attacks at high strenght, which means even traditionally elite units will take a lot of punishment from a double charge.

'''Why are you running?''' half the units in this book cause either fear or terror. Using fear inducing units to cover your flanks and charge from said flanks has the potential to be a real gamechanger, as you can force an ungodly amount of fear tests that only undead and daemons are able to replicate.

'''Jaguar Saurus of Doom''' worth a mention even though some people consider it a meme. A scar vet with the charm of the jaguar warrior and a great weapon can hide in a unit of Warriors and come out when the time is right to make a 18" charge move against anything that threatens to flank you, and have a good chance at flattening them too. The great weapon is meant for chariot smashing and monster flattening, but you can sub in something else if your meta is more keen on light cavalry and skirmishers. Mind you anyone familiar with the edition will expect this build upon seeing a footslogging Saurus hero, which asks the question of whether you are a bad enough dude to bluff it.

'''Picking your Lore'''
Slann can pick any lore so your choices are really only dependent on what you face. If unsure, fall back to Heavens. Heavens is the best lore for a reason, and its ability to snipe targets with no line of sight or maximum range will serve you well against pesky backline units. 

A very tempting choice in a saurus heavy army is Light: it shores up your combat by weakening the WS of opponents,  making your saurus' lackluster initiative and average WS less of an issue. Fire and Shadow are often talked about as well: shadow offers amazing mobility, plus fear and protection against ranged attacks, making it especially good to make the most of footslogging Saurus units; while fire deals with many armies fielding flammable models and handles large units with low saves well.

A side effect of your Slann's method of spell generation is that you can just cherry pick relevant first spells from any lore. This is mostly relevant for picking Heaven's first spell, which allows you to reroll d3 d6s for the turn and is kinda huge for a 5+ cast.

'''The Deathstar of Deathstars''' In most cases putting all your eggs in one basket is considered as a bad thing but Lizardmen can propably could succeed in doing it. A second generation Slann who has also the BSB with Totem of Prophecy, surrounded by a big unit of Temple Guard. The Slann has also Cupped Hand of the Old Ones. Now this block will cost about 1000 points at least and losing this block means losing the game. But who and how will be able to seriously harm this? 5+ ward against ranged attacks, stubborn, cold blooded. Also causes fear so fear-outnumber won't be a problem. The Temple Guard hit hard and can withstand much even in combat.


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[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition]]