Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Lizardmen

Why play Lizardmen?

MAGIC! You love magic, kid? Good, you came to the right place. No elf or daemon shenanigans here: let me teach you the gospel of the magic frog.

Lizard players will be served with extremely powerful mages and great control over the magic phase, and units who make teamwork their greatest strenght. Lizardmen are without a doubt one of the most consistent armies ever. They have always been around high tier without being overpowered, always had some powerful gimmick without feeling outrageously cheap, and always had a good chance of winning matches if you knew what you were doing. Their 6th edition incarnation sports a very lean and limited choice of units, but like everything lizardmen, the underlying depth is exceptional.

Plus you just love visually stunning armies with a vibrant color palette. Lizards are easy to paint for the beginner with their large flat surfaces, but at the same time enjoyable for the expert painter as they offer a great looking canvas to experiment upon.

Army Special Rules

Cold-blooded: All leadership test are taken with 3D6 and the highest value is discarded. What an amazing rule. Never forget your whole army has this. Banshee or Casket of Souls can still hurt you bad since they are not Ld tests, those are attacks which use your Ld as an attribute.

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 whether 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) 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. Subtle. It's CHEAP, the cheapest in fact, and makes you laugh at rivers and marshes, which depending on the map is either a non factor or a game changer. Would be more worth it if other options weren't as strong and we weren't hurting for Rare space already. Also your saurus 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 being a thing already but who am I to say no to no panic rolls? This is an edition where Fear and Terror are strong, and for this price, a steal. Also makes you yellow? 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; would have been more interesting on a more mobile unit and if it allowed to bypass all non water terrain, which it doesn't. 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, which makes it attractive on a skink priest to help get rid of a wild 1 on a casting roll. Blessed characters 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 an additional 100 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 and even a 5+ cast will potentially lock them out of their highest value spells, 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. Some players swear by the 2nd gen Slann plus level 2 skink priest combo in every game and it's easy to see why when the comets start rolling.

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 still...) you forfeit 200 VPs and can't ever 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 shared by Grymloq, 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 6 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 suped 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 Charm of the Jaguar Warrior 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? Scouting is an option if you want it to go mage hunting in someone's backyard, but beware that there is not a dedicated melee unit for the role in this book to tag along with your Chief.

• 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 scariest monster. WS3 is kind of stinker when you are supposed to go after other monsters who will sometimes 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, frail defense at 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 S4 infantry on your own. Absolutely ruins lower WS monsters, though.

Core Units

• Saurus Warriors:

The almighty 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 Saurus 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. Obviously the sore points here are initiative and movement. 4 movement infantry is somewhat lacklustre in 6th edition, doubly so when it is a unit who desperately needs to charge in order to make an impact. If you field Warriors, consider investing into Lore of Shadows with your Slann to enhance their mobility and combat prowess through Fear.

• 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 attacks at strenght 5 and WS 4. 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 and if you take them they HAVE to stick together.

• 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. Would be more passable as a tarpit if each didn't cost as much as 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 call them 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). Two ranks is the minimum here.

• 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 three 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. They REALLY want to fight only a small amount of things : war machine crews, lone wizards, and small units of archers and skirmishers in a pinch. Their mobility allows you to use them to disturb movement, but with those stats at 35 points each, they will die against anything with actual combat stats. If only they could, I don't know, drop rocks or something like that...

• 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. They are expensive and frail, which is a very unfortunate combination, but fill a role that is unique to them and they do it WELL; that alone is worth consideration.

Rare Units

• Salamander:

Sweet dancing Chotec! Only 65 points?! Sure, they can misfire, in which case they just end up eating a few skinks (lol) but they operate just as efficiently with a single handler left anyway. What you are getting is a ranged 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? Depends. 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 good with toughness 6 keeping it out of range for most rank and file, a 4+, 5 wounds, and it deals a respectable d6+1 str 5 impact hits on the charge. This thing really just wants to charge into a block of spearmen from the side while they are already fighting Saurus from the front and credit where it's due, it is pretty decent at that. Not the worst choice, but stuck in a bad spot.

Magic Items

All magic items will be analysed here in details for the viewing pleasure of you voyeurs, but a more concise list of what is actually worth it will be found later in this article.

Sacred Plaques Slann only. Indestructible magic items, the book states out loud that not even Vaul's Unmaking can break them, so High Elf players can leave now.

• Cupped Hands of the Old Ones: 50 points to give the Slann's unit a 5++ against ranged attacks. Expensive and only useful against armies with strong ranged presence like Dwarves, which will try to gun down your Slann from turn 1.
• Sacred Plaque of Protection: 50 points to make the Slann 2++ against ranged attacks. Saving your 2nd gen slann is important but the points pile up very fast.
• Plaque of Dominion : Yet another 50 points for a free power and dispel die each turn. Expensive. Consider only after grabbing a 2nd generation Slann and if you still find you need magical firepower then your thrist for magic is truly unrivaled.
• Sacred Plaque of Tepok: 15 points, +1 spell known. Yoink!

Magic Weapons

• Blade of Revered Tzunki: +1 strenght and no armor saves allowed, feels a little like a runic item from the Dwarfs' book. Getting higher strenght kind of defeats the point of disallowing armor saves when you start at strenght 5 (however it does help to wound better as you're now wounding T4 on 2+ and T5 on 3+ so there's that). Pass.
• Scimitar of the Sun Resplendent: Two more attacks. It's 50 points, otherwise it would be a must have. As it is, a little expensive but still strong.
• Staff of the Lost Sun: 35 points for a strenght 5 shortbow which fires 3 times a turn. Only skink chiefs realistically want this, and the stenght of a chief is being cheap, and I think you know where I am going with this.
• Blade of Realities: Back when it wasn't 100 points. 35 points to negate Ward saves and deal 2 wounds against demons. I mean... pick it against demons...?
• Dagger of Sotek: 25 points, Skinks only. Grants Killing Blow and causes Fear against Skaven. Skaven beign plagued by low leadership and a skink chief's high Initiative do give this weapon some merit. IF you are fighting skaven. Otherwise don't.
• Piranha Blade: Every wound you inflict becomes 2 after saves, for 35 points. Potentially good against monstrous infantry and characters, which tend to have 2 or 3 wounds, meaning your character has to hit one less time to get a kill. Useless against regular infantry, cavalry, and most other things, though.
• Sword of the Hornet: 25 points for Always Strikes First. While low initiative does plague Lizardmen, charging tends to fix it and lizards prefer something to make their attacks count more.
• Burning Blade of Chotec: Inflicts Fire damage and -2 to armor save, for 25 points. Trolls hate this. Not the worst actually, helps you make the most of your many attacks against high armor targets and plow through Warriors of Chaos. When your starting strenght is 5, this is basically the same as ignoring armor saves.

Magic Armor

• Sacred Stegadon Helm: The mainstay of later edition started out not very attractive, being 40 points and restricted to skinks, granting +1 armor and Leadership. Yah, no.
• Shield of the Mirrored Pool: A magic shield, so it works like a mundane shield while also deflecting magic missiles back at the caster on a 4+. It's hilarious for 35 points, but situational. You don't needs protection from spells when you have a slann!
• The Maiming Shield: 30 points, +1 save, +1 attack. Elegant, simple and deadly.

Enchanted Items

• Gleaming Pendant of Chotec: An interesting item. It's one use only and 35 points to make an enemy unit Always Strike Last for a turn. Can really mess up some opponents who charged their heavy cavalry into a wall of Temple Guard only to get slaughtered before they can lift their weapons, or to keep the offensive up if you didn't break a unit on the charge. Consider it in high points game, where such trickery could win you an important fight.
• Blood Statuette of Spite: 30 points for a Bound item that can Curse an enemy character to start taking Toughness tests, losing a wound every time they fail one until they pass. Meh. Even on a frail elf wizard this has a 50% chance to do nothing. Pass.
• Cloak of Feathers: Skinks on foot only, grants Fly for 30 points. Not an item to ignore, as it means you can position a Skink priest to give your Slann a perfect visual of the field. That said you are also sending a skink priest flying solo, which doesn't tend to end well.
• Charm of the Jaguar Warrior: There we go. 20 points to make a character Movement 9". 18" charge treath on a scar-vet is nasty. Classic 6th edition mainstay or overused meme, no two ways about it. Can really mess up screeners and low armored units trying to get around your army, though. Remember that Chariots explode if they take a strenght 7 hit, which is about as much strenght as a Scar Vet with a Great Weapon has...
• Curse-charm of Tepok: Do you feel lucky, punk? 20 points, one use only to force an enemy wizard who miscasts to roll again and take the second result. Not a first choice really, and kind of useless agaisnt an enemy who did not pack a wizard General. But it's cheap I guess?
• Bane Head: Choose an enemy character when the battle begins, all wounds you deal to them are doubled. 15 points means it's cheap to take but against most characters it is only worth a wound, and if the characters with the head never meets its target then it's wasted. The one application of this is on a flying skink chief as a pseudo piranha blade to scalp the head off of a wizard general with a little luck, and even that is more fun than competitive.
• Dragonfly of Quicksilver: 15 points, +1 to Scouting roll. Pass. Even IF your opponent HAS scouts (and if they do not, congrats on wasting 15 points), you don't really care as your scouts are either very versatile regarding where you can put them, or can literally hide anywhere. The only time this is remotely useful is to stop a Wood Elf player from scouting half their board on your ass.
• Venom of the Firefly Frog: 15 points for magic, poisoned attacks. The high volume of attacks on a Saurus hero is remarkable, so this has merit as a budget option that allows you to still pick something like a great weapon to go with it.

Arcane Items

• Rod of the Storm: A 35 points bound item with a magic missile in it. Skip, you have all the magical firepower you need.
• Cube of Darkness: Might be the single most classic and ubiquitous item in this list. The priciest it has ever been at 40 points, but well worth it: not only it's an instant dispel scroll that kills every Remain in Play spell with no rolls required, but on a roll of a D6 it also ends the magic phase. Period. Stop. CEASE. Pick it if you can, always.
• Diadem of Power: 35 points is just a tad overpriced, something that GW realized in later editions. You get to keep 2 Power or Dispel dice for your next phase if you don't use them, which rarely happens as you will be slinging spells non stop with your Slann.

Talismans

• Amulet of Itzl: 40 points for a ward save of 2+ (neat!) against your first wound (oh...). Skip.
• Aura of Quetzl: 30 points for a 4+ Ward save (alright) against Strenght 5 or higher attacks (getting there). Neat, or...
• Glyph Necklace: 30 points for a 5+ Ward save. This is the one you want on your Oldblood if you want then to scythe through massed infantry.

Magic Banners

• Totem of Prophecy: Unit causes Fear. Alright, neat sure, Fear is decent in 6th ed- what? 75 points? Nope.
• Sun Standard of Chotec: Missile attacks are made at -1 to hit. 40 points are reasonable and it will stop most ranged units from even attempt it, but it doesn't work against, say, cannons. Choose wisely whether this is better than the Cupped Hands. Against Dwarves and the Empire, definitely no, against Elves, heck yes. The big upside is that it can be given to a Temple Guard or Cold One Cavalry standard bearer, freeing room for your BSB.
• Blessed Totem of Huanchi: Once per battle, move D6" forward in the magic phase. A little iffy for 40 points. Leave.
• Jaguar Standard: 25 points to Pursue 1d6" further. Basically Chotec's Spawning for Temple guards and Cavalry. Not bad.

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.

Alternative Army Lists

Southlands Army List

Oh boy.

During 6th edition, many books received alternate lists which shuffled back around all units, and in general did some very questionable changes to what is in which category. Most of them are... bad and instruct you to ask your opponent if you can play them. Lizardmen get the Southlands Army, a very fluffy list comprised of the often ignored lizardmen of the Southlands where saurus are rare and skinks more warlike. It was a rather interesting concept which made for.. A really bad army list. Let's take a closer look.

Characters

• Slann Mage-priest

About what you would expect, but only up to 4th gen. Solid.

• Saurus Scar-veteran

What is says on the tin... as a Lord choice. Yep. Don't even get me started. Other alternate lists? They get to give dwarf lords engineer rules and Cannons for core, or bring Empire units in a Vampire Counts army with Black Knights in Lance formation. What we get is Hero level characters as lords.

• Skinks

Interesting. You can pick 2 of them as a single Lord chice, which is at least a new take. All skink characters get Huanchi, Tepok, and Chotec as Spawnings in addition to Sotek and Old Ones, and Skink chiefs also get Itzl to ride on a Horned one, which makes them a better goblin boss and actually would be an auto pick if it was available in the main army. If it wasn't for... we'll get into it later, but remember nothing good can come from this list.

Core

• Skink Skirmishers

You know them you love them, you will buy them in droves.

• Jungle Swarms

Nope. Not here and not in the main list.

• Skink Cohorts

Here they are! These disappeared from the days of bow skinks in 5th editions and reappeared here... without said bows. And they are still ws2. No poisoned weapons either. No armor, shields and javelins cost extra. Same spawning options as the character versions but that makes them the saddest Specials ever. Would you ever pay 8 points for a skavenslave? Me neither.

Special Units

• Kroxigors, Terradons, Chameleons

Same as their main army list counterparts.

• Saurus Warriors

As Specials, no spawning options, and only one unit per Scar-vet. Needless to say you won't be fielding any.

• Horned One Riders

NEW unit! And unique: you will never find them in any other army list. They are skinks riding smaller, faster, smarter Cold Ones with no stupidity, 8 movement, and fast cavalry (monkey paw's finger curls) at 21 points each!... Still WS2. Those lances might as well not exist, and there is no option for ranged weapons either. Only shield and mounted status to grant a 5+. The only good thing about them is that they cause fear and can carry around a mounted hero; also they can get any Spawning as the characters, including Huanchi, which clearly states in its entry "only models on foot". Yeah this is the level of care that went into making this list.

Rare Units

• Stegadon, Salamander Hunting Pack

Same as the main army list entries, thank the Old Ones.

• Temple Guard

Ah yes, put it here where it competes for space with salamanders. About time you learned to play with a solo Slann hiding behind terrain while slinging spells that don't need line of sight or casting through a Skink Priest, I guess.

If it wasn't abundantly clear now, this list is a trap made by some bored GW employee on lunch break. If you ever feel like playing it, slam your head on the table and think again. Repeat until you stop wanting to try it, or pass out. About the only good thing it makes for is mounted skink chiefs, something we'll get to see in later editions with Terradons, and keeping Skink Cohorts alive for their reintroduction to the mainline in 7th edition.