Razordons are a new arrival in the Rare section of the new Lizardmen army book. When considering this valuable property (two slots in a typical 2000-3000 pt game) you have to look at the competition. The first is an Ancient Stegadon, which is OK to go without since you can have Stegadons in both the Special and Hero slots, which are more open. The other choice is the rather comparatively anemic Salamander, which works on a similar premise, but has a much less reliable weapon.

.

The Razordon is the best Rare choice in my estimation.

.

And on top of that the Razordon model is incredibly cool.

.

The Razordons shoot barbs, an artillery dice worth every turn. On a misfire, they will eat 1d3 attendants. That means that a full complement of them will be chowing down on an average of one skink a turn. I definitely recommend getting the extra skink handlers (you can upgrade from a squad of three to a squad of four per Razordon for 5 points). To make the misfire problem even less of a drawback, the unit does not need to test for panic for spiked skinks.

.

There is no other downside to the event of a misfire, so your twelve skinks should last the entire game quite easily.

.

On average, each Razordon will belt out a machine-gun pace of six shots per turn, eighteen for the entire pack. They are S4 with armor piercing. They still need to roll to hit, and with BS3 that would be a rather un-impressive one or two wounds a turn. However, they do not suffer from penalties to hit from moving, long range, multiple shots or stand-and-shoot charge reaction. This makes their accuracy considerably greater.

.

They are more than a match for the typical skirmishing units, or fast cavalry that come up the flanks. They are astounding trouble-shooters as they can take out a wide variety of targets with both ranged attacks and in close combat.

.

In close combat they can reliably lend a hand with a flank charge. The Razordons always form the front rank, and with Toughness 4 and a 5+ save they can take a bit of a punch. Did I mention that they have three Wounds? They are shred-tastic with two S5 attacks, making a pack of three the equivalent of a cavalry charge.

.

Where’s the downside?

.

Their only limitation is a 12″ range. But that’s not a significant drawback. I’d take them even if they had a 6″ range!

.

If you use them right there isn’t one. Their abilities just keep adding up. If a unit charges them, they must stand-and-shoot (OK, a minor downside: they can’t flee). However, they get two dice worth of shots, on average double the number of shots. That is enough to keep most predators at bay. That would be an average of THIRTY-SIX shots at no penalty. That’s an average of eighteen HITS at S4 armor piercing.

.

I like to park a unit in a forest and create a zone of death in a foot radius. This makes a flank very dangerous, and flank protection is what the Lizardmen need most as many of their bulk-heavy-hitters are a bit slow. If things get dicey, they can charge out with an impressive 6″ move and lend a hand or chomp on some stray unit.

.

Personally, I’d like to give a go with two units. That would be razor-tastic!

.

PS- I think I got my math wrong. It’s five shots on average per turn per Razordon; fifteen for a group of three.