Hey all. The Lizardmen have long been one of my favorite armies. Who can resist ancient, aztec-like reptilians who ride dinosaurs!? The modelling possibilities are huge. I’ve owned and played a few Lizardmen armies. I have a lot of fun with them because they:

A) have a lot of modelling and converting opportunities.

B) have cool dinosaurs and spell-casting frogs (on levitating thrones!).

C) they have good Leadership scores and special rules which make them reliable. This is a big deal in WHF.

Now I know it’s not for everybody, but here’s a color scheme that I really like for Lizardmen:

Here’s a Lizardmen army that I started a few months ago, but decided to shelve until the new release in early 2009:

Here’s a sneak peek at the new Kroxigor. This was originally thought to be a plastic kit, but evidently will be pewter. Which is all right, since you only need three or four in a given army. They are heavy-hitting support troops.

My comments and insights (who cares?) into the New Lizardmen
I’ve noticed a trend to open up army book selections. Meaning that Elites are turning into Troops, and Specials into Core. I think this is a very positive thing as it increases the options in making a themed army.

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It’s a dumb idea to make Core/Troops units obligatory. If they were simply GOOD then people would take them as a matter of course. And maybe not just good but have a proper role in the army. In Warhammer Fantasy this is more pronounced and achieved to greater effect. You really do need giant blocks of infantry and the massed ranks really do count for something. In 40K this is less so.

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For example: you don’t get any bonus for outnumbering in close combat in 40K. The press of the masses doesn’t count for that much. Actually, I take that back. The countercharge effect in 40K allows for almost all participants in a combat to strike, which is a rule that I’ve longed for. This effectively accounts for the “press of ranks” in the form of actual casualties, which are the only thing that counts!

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Another trend in Warhammer Fantasy has been to reduce the cost of the core troop. We saw this with Dark Elves (I think it was from 9 points to 6 points, which is an astounding drop). This makes that unit much more appealing. However, since this is accompanied by a shift of attractive troops to Core/Troops (as in the Chaos Space Marine codex with the movement of the marked infantry- eg Khorne Berserkers) it usually means that the grunts are sidelined again due to the proximity of the sexier choices.

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They made Baloney cheaper, but moved the Prime Rib to the same cooler.

It’s not a complaint, mind you, I think it’s a very positive move and makes the game more appealing.

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With Lizardmen it’s the same thing: Saurus Warriors are cheaper (and thankfully not being re-done!), and Temple Guard moved to Core. My prediction is that the Temple Guard will also be sexied up.

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I do hope that the Spawnings will no longer make a unit Special. This is one of those things where it is meant to balance out a power, but it really just sidelines it. I call it the “fly in the soup” effect. Soup is too delicious, let’s put a fly in it.

The Spawnings allowed for a lot of specialization and theming. I really liked them.

The Stegadon plastic kit: I predict this will be like the Carnifex kit. It will be awesome– bulkier and more detailed. Now that Stegadons can be taken all over the list (Heroes, Special, and Rare) it will be in high demand. The more dinosaurs the better in my book. I also predict this will result in a lot of “counts as” models AND the use of plastic dinos from toy stores. Just you wait and see.

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In short, I think this list will be very satisfying to play.

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from http://www.warseer.com/

The book is supposedly out in febuary 9th 2009. It is not known who is writing it.

New models:
– plastic Temple Guard, 10 per box, £12 / $25
– plastic Stegadon, 1 per box with options for all three variants, $40
– metal Kroxigor, 1 model per blister, $20
– metal Terradons, 1 model per blister, $17
– Barbed Razordon Hunting Party $25
– Scar Veteran wity army standard $15
– Tiktaq’To, Master of Skies $17
– Chakax, Eternity Warden $15

Blessed Spawnings
These seem to take on a bigger role in the list. It is not know how they will work, if taking them makes a unit more scarce or if it will be like Marks of Chaos in that it’s just an upgrade and doesn’t change if a unit is Core, Special or Rare.

Spawning of Huanchi: +1 WS and move through cover with no penalty
Spawning of Sotek:
Spawning of Chotec:
Spawning of Quetzl:
Spawning of Tlazcotl:
Spawning of Tepok:
Spawning of Tzunki:

Army-wide special rule – Cold-blooded
Rumoured to change significantly, though this is still unconfirmed. Supposedly they roll the same number of dice as everyone else for Ld tests (i.e. 2), but any double counts as Insane Courage and will be an auto-pass regardless of any other factors (modifiers, outnumbered by Fear, etc.).

Lore of the Old Ones
– Slanns only
– spells all of the high cost / high effect type

Magic items
Charm of the Jaguar Warrior is dropped

Lords

Slann
– speculated to get a spell lore of their own

Saurus Oldblood
– may be mounted on a Stegadon

Heroes

Saurus Scar-Veteran
– may be mounted on a Stegadon

Skink Chief
– may be mounted on a Stegadon

Skink Priest
– may be mounted on an Engine of the Gods

Character mounts

Engine of the Gods (Skink Priest only)
– if it is anything like it was in the Lustria book it is a weaker Stegadon with a war machine-like weapon on top
– takes up an additional Hero choice

Stegadon
– any(?) character may ride a Stegadon
– takes up an additional Hero choice

Core
There is much speculation on whether there will be additional core units (ranked skinks or skink fast cavalry), though nothing confirmed

Saurus Warriors
– 1 or 2 pts cheaper
– scaly skin save is rumoured to be going back to 5+, like it was in 5th edition

Skink Skirmishers
– can get Spawnings

Temple Guard
– cheaper
– can get Spawnings

Jungle Swarms

Special

Saurus Cavalry
– 4 pts cheaper
– can get Spawnings

Kroxigor
– new set of metal models (was rumoured to be plastic, but that appears to have been wrong)
– get light armour in addition to their scaly skin
– can get Spawnings

Stegadon
– new plastic model
– moved from Rare to Special

Terradons
– new (metal) models

Cameleon Skinks

Salamander Hunting Packs
– moved from Rare to Special
– now use the breath weapon template instead of the artillery dice
– stats of the attack not known
– not known whether you can still form units of more than one pack (having a monsters and handlers unit with multiple monsters is a bit tricky ruleswise) or if you might, say, get 1-2 independant packs per Special unit

Rare
Ancient Stegadon
– somewhat altered stats compared to the regular Steggy
– has a different weapon than the bolt thrower the normal Steggy has

Barbed Razordon Hunting Party
– a new kind of dinosaur unit, also herded by skinks
– fires spikes that has a number of shots equal to the roll on an artillery dice, that roll to his using BS 4, not known if it ingores any of the normal to-hit modifiers
– when standing and shooting it gets two artillery dice worth of shots

Special characters

Lord Kroak (Slann)

Kroq-Gar (Saurus Lord)

Nakai the Wanderer (Kroxigor Hero(?))

Tenehauin (Skink Lord/Hero)

Tiktaq’To, Master of Skies (some kind of Skink on Terradon?)

Chakax, Eternity Warden (some kind of Saurus Temple Guard character?)

2 more unknown characters.

Rumoured rules
Often talked about are:
– Spawnings becoming more widespread and available to more units (like in the Sacred Spawning variant lists)
– Ranked Skink units (like in the Lustria book) and possibly with Kroxigors added (like in 5th edition)
– Skink Horned One Riders (like in the Lustria book)
– a separate Lore for Slann
– more mount options for Skink characters (like in 5th edition)