Lizardmen Lists - Kroak (& Cavalry)

Hi all,

So I've managed to let these 'regular' posts on my Lizardmen lists slip somewhat.  When I came back to write this I didn't expect to see that my last post was in September, nearly two months ago!

But then up until this weekend just past I hadn't had any further Lizardmen battles so I was still on the 11 battles mark.  But that changed a few days ago as my Lord Kroak list was rolled up randomly and so I'm now on 12 battles with Lizardmen since June 2015 began and thus I re-visited this blog to provide another list review (or two).  Kroak actually appears in two lists so I'm going to talk about them both in one go.

Lord Kroak, for all Lizardmen players, is as close to a God as any special character can be until we (if ever) get the chance to re-unite with the Old Ones themselves and I particularly am a big fan of his.  Not to mention that I really like his rules and at 400 points I believe he is very effective for his price.

Due to Kroak's single spell ability in both of the lists where he is the main man (Slann?) I team him up with another special character Tetto-Eko.  This little Skink is awesome and I can't speak highly enough about the rules he brings to the table.  Having Loremaster for the Lore of Heavens makes up for Kroak's lack of spell options and in the Kroak (non-cavalry) list I also bring Skink Priest Eko-Eeko for an extra Iceshard Blizzard and Dispel Scroll as well.

As for other characters the Kroak with cavalry list is fairly easy to explain as it has the four Saurus Cold One riders that I mentioned in the previous post; Phrau'ka, Zotaxyl, Xantoc & Ku'zaa.  Due to the obvious points issue that is building up, in the Kroak version of this cavalry list there's only a smaller unit of Cold One riders but it's enough of a delivery unit to unleash the Saurus characters on an enemy when the time is right.  Skink Chief Krako also makes an appearance with the cavalry list but he just sits with a Skink Cohort unit in the hope of holding back any unwanted Predatory Fighter overruns.

The non-cavalry Kroak list has a couple of Saurus Scar-Veterans on foot instead of the Cold One contingent.  Xeonidas and Xerxes (Spartan / Persian reference!?) join up with the big unit of Temple Guard protecting Kroak.  Xeonidas takes the Skavenpelt banner to make that unit super aggressive with Frenzy although I tend to find that he is targeted and killed extremely quickly, taking the unit's Frenzy with him.  Xerxes on the other hand just adds a Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield and Magic Resistance (2) to the unit.  Neither have a ward save which usually makes them the first to die but as the Temple Guard are unbreakable and -1 to hit thanks to Kroak the attacks they soak up before they go means it's even longer before the Temple Guard unit starts to deplete in numbers.

The actual lists themselves are fairly similar whether the Cavalry / on foot Saurus characters are there or not.  While one list has the 7x Cold One Riders the other list gets an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods.  Other than that both have a big unit of Saurus Warriors, a tiny Skink Cohort with a Kroxigor that serves as Tetto-Eko's bunker, Skink Skirmishers, the obvious big unit of Temple Guard and a couple of Salamanders.  Kroak's non-cavalry list also manages to sneak in two units of Chameleon Skinks as well.

And so all this rambling leads me to their battle records.  Unfortunately I can't remember much about the battle that the Kroak & Cavalry list had against Lucky-Sixes' Vampire Counts but the list did emerge victorious in their only outing.  Similarly, the Kroak without cavalry list came up against Lucky-Sixes' Warriors of Chaos who had Archaon leading them.  I should mention that this was the standard Archaon, not the End Times version, (if there is one) and whilst I can't remember much of the details but Kroak's Temple Guard proved the decisive factor as Lizardmen emerged victorious there too.

The battle that I can remember best for Kroak, which I should remember because it only happened two days ago, was against Stat-Rat's cavalry-heavy Empire.  In this, despite losing the Stegadon unsurprisingly to a couple of cannon shots in Empire turn 1 and then Tetto-Eko exploding the Skink Cohort unit and killing himself in my turn 1, they managed to ground out another victory.  Stat-Rat's artillery suffered from a particularly bold unit of Skink Skirmishers that took out almost an entire back line of war machines in combat and with overruns!  The Saurus Warriors saw off two units of Knights and a Captain on Pegasus while the various -1's to hit from Kroak's ability, the White Cloak of Ulric, Iceshard Blizzard and Curse of Anraheir left the Temple Guard vs. Stat-Rat's main Inner Circle Knight unit in an ultimate 'I kill one, you kill 1' affair that fortunately went the Lizards way in the final turn.

And so in 3 battles these two lists are at 100%.  Lord Kroak is the Slann to lead all Slann... even if he is apparentely long dead!

Hope you enjoyed reading.
Hyper-G

Lizardmen Lists - Elites

Onto the next Lizardmen list!

My Elites list is basically a Saurus only list (although a Slann sneaks in too of course!) and even at 3,000 points it only has a total of 5 deployment drops, including the characters.  Because of this it's easy to just list the units that's in it:

40x Saurus Warriors with Full Command & Spears
23x Saurus Warriors with Full Command
35x Temple Guard with Full Command & Warrior Bane on Champion
14x Cold One Riders with Musician, Standard Bearer & Spears

And then characters.

I've previously mentioned a couple of Cold One riding Saurus characters, those being Saurus Oldblood Phrau'ka and his bodyguard Saurus Scar-Veteran Zotaxyl.  Both appear in this list and they also have further Scar-Veteran Cold One support from Battle Standard Bearer Xantoc and Magic Resistance Rider Ku'zaa.

All four of these Saurus characters have 1+ armour saves and Phrau'ka and Zotaxyl also have 4+ ward saves too.  All four are absolutely awesome and only Xantoc doesn't have a Great Weapon (because he needs a Shield to get his 1+ armour save).  Speaking of Xantoc his Battle Standard has the Banner of Swiftness whilst Ku'zaa carries the Obsidian Amulet for Magic Resistance (2), a Dragonhelm and an Ironcurse Icon.

All four start within the 14x Cold One unit deployed 6 wide and are more than capable of leaving that unit to perform the 'cowboy' role and go a'hunting!  If the situation is right they could even deploy outside the unit although Ku'zaa with his Magic Resistance is probably likely to stay with them always.

But they aren't the only characters as this is also a list sporting the legendary Gor-Rok.  He's there to provide Stubborn to the block of 40x Saurus as well as some killing power.  Their ranks means they probably don't need Stubborn that much but the general plan is get to the enemy, take some charges and then grind it out.  The Cold Ones are my only mobile unit so it's essential to stick around long enough for them to help out where they're needed, hence the Stubborn.  If necessary Gor-Rok can always jump to the smaller Saurus unit as well who are less reliant on ranks.

And of course, a Slann Mage-Priest accompanies the Temple Guard.  His name is Quetzacotl (Final Fantasy fan, anyone?) and he carries a Dispel Scroll and has Soul of Stone to protect the Temple Guard from any miscasts, hopefully!  I tend to vary his lore of magic depending on the situation.  Although this is slightly tailoring, I haven't really come up with a permanent lore for him so that's the way it is for now.

I like this list for what it is... because Saurus are amazing and very typically Lizardmen.  There are obvious downsides as Skinks, Salamanders, Stegadons, Kroxigors, etc. are all very decent units and this list doesn't benefit from their abilities.  But that's the point!

And what about their battle record??

Unfortunately, they've only come out to play the once.  And despite having the Soul of Stone on Quetzacotl... he blew himself up and practically eradicated the Temple Guard in turn 1 of that battle against Lucky-Sixes' Vampire Counts!  Oops!  As a result I was always fighting a losing battle with no defence against Vampire magic and the very dangerous threat of a Terrorgheist on the Cold One unit was also paramount in the drubbing that this list received.

But it won't be the last time that the Elites ride to war.  I promise you that!

Kind regards,
Hyper-G

Lizardmen Lists - Morrzlaxyl

As mentioned in the last post, this entry is going to talk about one of my Lizardmen army lists that is a fairly new creation for me.  The list commanded by Slann Mage-Priest Morrzlaxyl, the Slann of Death.

Up until the last few months I'd never used the tactic known as 'Death Slann' and therefore in all of my Lizardmen lists, none of the Slanns used the Lore of Death for their magic.  I decided to change this and created a list revolving around this Death Slann.

I named him Morrzlaxyl.  I'm not really one to do much research into names, etc. as I like my imagination to do most of the work but I began with the word 'Morr', which I believe is related generally to death in the Warhammer universe.  Then I just finished the name with something Slann-like.  And ended up with Morrzlaxyl.

Morrzlaxyl's first battle was actually a non-proxy affair that took place at Warhammer World in Nottingham, England and therefore the rest of the army was bound by the models I owned.  He was accompanied by a couple of Skink Priests, one on an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods, a big block of Saurus, a couple of units of Skirmishing Skinks, a block of Temple Guard, some Cold One Cavalry, Chameleons and some Salamanders.  This pretty much covers the models I own and while I'm not going into great details of the list I can say that this list achieved victory against Lucky-Sixes' Vampire Counts.

One particular event in that battle led me to an idea.  Morrzlaxyl, who was Ethereal and the BSB with a War Banner successfully charged and evaporated a Varghulf.  Quite a feat but he was built perfectly for the job killing the beast by combat resolution alone (it had taken a couple of wounds previously!)

So even though this list was victorious, I changed it a little.  The idea of having an aggressive Slann intrigued me.  So I put the Terror discipline on Morrzlaxyl and a magic sword, plus the Egg Of Quango.  The hope was to break a vulnerable opponent through combat resolution with a couple of wounds from the Egg or the sword being a bonus.  They wouldn't be able to strike back due to the Ethereal rule on him.  The key would be to pick the right opponent.

I rolled up against Bretonnia.  Both Lucky-Sixes and Stat-Rat joined up to go against me and it was an utter disaster!  I advanced a unit of Cold One Cavalry within 11 inches of a unit of Knights of the Realm.  Obviously Lucky-Sixes rolled the dice and made the charge so I was immediately on the back foot as this Knight unit tore through my lines.  I ended up desperately charging Morrzlaxyl into the side of that unit and getting stuck there.  It was more an attempt at saving my army from a bad start than an aggressive Slann taking the fight to his opponent.

Needless to say, the battle was lost, and possibly a bit hastily I dropped the idea of the super-aggressive Slann.  The reason behind this was that I'd lost focus on the whole premise of the list.  It was supposed to be about being a Death Slann.  I'd barely noticed that I was using the Lore of Death and had just gone charging off about combat resolution for the Slann (I blame the Varghulf!)

So I tweaked the list back to what I know and love.  Morrzlaxyl kept the Egg Of Quango and his Ethereal War Banner BSB role but lost the sword I'd given him and gained Magic Resistance (2) and Harmonic Convergence.  This way he could still do some charging if he wanted to (like that first battle) but overall he was still mainly a casting Death Slann with extra channelling ability.

I also joined him up with my favourite Saurus Oldblood Phrau'ka and his bodyguard Scar-Veteran Zotaxyl.  You'll hear more about them in another post.  I also named the Skink Priest that rode the Ancient Stegadon Haadezl.  This is loosely based on the idea of the word 'Hades', i.e. Lord of the Underworld (I did say loosely!)

The rest of the list had stayed the same as the original battle and technically once I finish painting my Saurus characters on their Cold Ones and a few more Skink Skirmishers it would still be a non-proxy list which is pleasing.

But... in an unfortunate anti-climax to this post... the list lost its battle against Lucky-Sixes' Wood Elves.  I don't remember too much about the battle itself but I do remember that having an Ethereal General and BSB who can't join units doesn't work too well against Enchanted Arrows that don't suffer to hit penalties!

I'm yet to re-try the list as this series of 3 battles sparked me into going on a run with all the Lizardmen lists that I'd created.  The next few posts will talk about those lists and how they've been getting on.

Hope you enjoyed reading.
Kind regards,
Hyper-G

Blog Plans - Lizardmen

So...

... I've come to the decision to use this blog more regularly as a way of writing down my thoughts about Warhammer.  Whether each post will be themed on anything in particular is yet to be decided.  But this first one at least... and the next few... are about Lizardmen.

Lizardmen are my main army.  They were the first army that I decided to play and still to this day they are my favourite.

The three of us (myself, Lucky-Sixes and Stat-Rat) tend to have a range of army lists to choose from within our chosen armies when we come to battle.  Sometimes we specifically want to go to arms with a chosen one of these lists whereas other times we like to randomise between them.  We all have different techniques for choosing which one(s) we're going to use.

For example, Lucky-Sixes has been using a method recently where he puts all his lists together (20+) from all his armies and then rolls between them all until he's left with just one list which goes to battle.

Stat-Rat and myself have instead been focusing on one army in particular for a few months and randomising only between the lists of that army.

Recently, I've just finished a set of 5 battles using 5 different Ogre Kingdoms lists.  But the success of those will hopefully be the topic of another post sometime.  The fact that I've only just decided to use this blog more regularly means that a lot of what will be written may be summarising what's happened in the recent past!

So back to Lizardmen.  Between June and the present day this year I've fought 11 battles with my Lizardmen lists.

So over the next few blog posts I'm going to be talking through these lists and the battles I've had with them...

Up first... Morrzlaxyl and the Lore of Death!

Kind regards,
Hyper-G

Hello!

This blog has been a bit neglected over the last few months.  And quite possibly it hasn't mattered anyway if no-one except us is actually paying any interest... (not bitter, honest!)

Either way, I felt like writing something Warhammer related and as we have this blog why not just ramble for the sake of it!

So this post comes during a time where the future of Warhammer Fantasy is uncertain.  It's been about a year since the End Times happened to Warhammer 8th edition Fantasy (I can't really remember when it started).

The 3 of us didn't particularly get very involved in the End Times being honest.  We read a few bits online and looked on with interest but weren't really in a position to keep up.  All of us were busy moving houses, getting divorced / married (both of those were me!), and / or just focusing on other parts of busy lives.  Plus all this life stuff getting in the way meant that funds were (and still are) quite short.  We definitely didn't have the money to buy the story / rule books for the End Times or any of the models that came out and so in truth it passed us by a little.

And then... all of a sudden... Age of Sigmar happened.

PTG was initially quite excited as the free downloads meant that all our current models could be used in the new game.  We were still all very hopeful of a proper Warhammer Fantasy 9th edition but as the weeks went by it was clear that 9th edition wasn't part of GW's plans.

We tried a few games of Age of Sigmar.  I think we had 3 over the space of about 2 weeks.  It was alright.  I played in all 3 using as close to non-proxy as I could with my few Dwarf models.  With them I won 2 of the 3 against High Elves and Skaven but was absolutely annihilated by the summoning Vampire Counts.  We quickly realised that summoning was extremely powerful and perhaps we'd need to create our own house rules to tone it down a bit.

But then... we just didn't.

We lost interest in AoS.  Not because we hadn't enjoyed the few games or time became short or anything.  We just realised that AoS wasn't 8th edition.  It didn't give us the same kick.  There wasn't as much desire to play it.  And none of us cared much for the new models or armies GW were releasing either.  Nothing against AoS particularly.  It just didn't hold our interest.

And so in the summer of 2015 we returned to Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition.  We're keeping our eyes open online for various efforts in progress including Warhammer Fantasy 8.5 and fan-made 9th edition plus new army books made by non-GW sources.  All are very intriguing but for the time being... for us... 8th EDITION LIVES ON!!!

Hazzar!
Hyper-G

#3 - Warriors Of Chaos vs. Dwarfs

Hallo there!

Lucky-Sixes here for another battle report!

So on the back of playing against John’s Warriors Of Chaos Army (see Battle Report #2), I wanted to start building my own 2,500pts Chaos army with the models I had plus a few additions, based on what I had seen on the internet and in the battle with John. I had painted up some of the models that I owned (as you might be aware if you’ve been keeping up with the PTG painting challenge I set myself…) and so was eager to see how it would fair. Hyper-G duly stepped up to take on the Warriors list with one of his Dwarf armies that he had lists for – and rolled a newly created, special character heavy, shooting list at random.

The Generals line up to do a bit of rock/paper/scissors before the battle. Unfortunately they draw and decide it's best to battle it out…

We gave this battle a non-proxy rating of 5 / 10 as I had most of my models painted up, but the Dwarfs didn’t – mainly because it was a bit of a trial list. So the Night Goblins filled in for some infantry based support!

This would be good for both of us as Hyper-G was using a list that he had not used before, and I would see how my combat army would fair against a lot of shots!

The army lists are as follows: