Skinks and Other Scalies

By Jedhead, in Warhammer: Diskwars

So I tried the Lizardmen out yesterday in a couple of games, and they were a pleasant surprise. A few reflections:

Chakax worked every bit as well as I'd hoped as a hero hunter. He is brutal in that capacity, and his threat bubble makes opponents hesitant to bring their leaders in close, at least in the games I played.

The skinks were an interesting experience. They were very effective for me, but I had rain of arrows and was rolling like a dice god, so their success was definitely inflated. They were fun to use either way, and definitely surprised me favorably.

I think in a normal game, though, they would be overpriced. The problem is, I think they will normally miss--a lot--with their ranged attack, and they are too weak to do damage in melee. Since they can't reliably kill anything, I guess you would go for the maximum amount of poisoning attacks possible. We were wondering if their poison applies on impact if you use the command card to give it to them. This could allow them to poison multiple units on impact, and then another with a ranged attack, and potentially another if it pins you in melee in an attempt to clear you off. On an army that bunches up, a couple of skinks could drop a lot of poison in one round.

The issue though, is that they don't trade well in most situations. Even if you hit and poison a few enemy units, they probably still don't kill anything, and if they go down, they have to kill a greatsword or higher to trade effectively. If I faced them, I would just rush them with boyz, swordsmen, militia spears, marauders, etc. I would trade well in points, and probably wouldn't even lose the unit at all as the skinks went down.

That said, for best use, I think you need to rush skinks up into some rough terrain, or hide them behind dangerous terrain, etc. with other units ready to support. That way the enemy either has to take the shots from the skinks as they go around, or has to move in to get them, in which case you have supporting units ready.

Salamaders seemed much better to me than the skinks, or at least much more reliable. Again, I was rolling like a god, but their breath-attack was devastating, and their toughness helped them survive engagements. They really need to be pinning, though, but that is nothing new. Overall, they were a tough, reasonable combat unit with a useful ability, and I think I would use them again.

Anyone else trying out Lizardmen? Any useful tips or experiences?

Edited by Jedhead

I had no chance to use them, since my expansions just arrived recently. But I´ll try to organize a game in the near future, and I promise to share my experience with Lizardmen as soon as I made them.

I too feel skinks are way overpriced. I think they should cost 6 (and still closer to 5 than 7). Poison is nice sounding ability, but of course you want opponents rather dead immediately. Low combat stats & low ranged damage rarely allows that. My view is that Poison works with Leaping Assault as Skinks have Poison as general word (not ability tied as Zombie Dragon).

Salamanders are ok. Basic dwarf unit has same stats, but no ranged attack. So to get your points worth, you have to make ranged attack to count. For the cost of 2 Salamanders dwarves get 3 basic units. 2 Salamanders do 2,5 * 2 = 5 damage with ranged attack on the average, so to kill one dwarf. Meaning surprise assault on dwarves works usually well. And dwarves are the most tough faction, so with other factions they should do better.

So I have used both Skinks & Salamanders behind my lines to do harashing work & Chakax to take the front line & suffer pinning, if I needed. Thus Chakax hasn't really shined as hero killer for me. Of course I have patched front line with other faction (mostly I play 2 regiment games). However I feel that lizardmen will do better when they get something to replace Sknink. Preferably a front line unit as one can't have a full harashing army and the job of Salamanders would become easier, if there was a good frontline. And then it would be easier to use Chakax to his job (= also deeper, waiting enemy heroes).