2000 points VCs vs Lizardmen... any tips?

[Bensjammin]

I will be playing a 2k point game against lizardmen in a few days, im fairly new to vampire counts (after collecting a beastman army) but i have won a fair few victories in smaller games already. My friend is likely to be using a slann and probably a lot of skinks but i cant be sure. just wondering if anyones got any tips or sneaky plans that i could use, any help would be much appreciated

 

[bebopasorus]

good trick: 50 zombies 5 wide ten deep charge them headlong into largest skink group you can find, break them w/ your 4 static(YES BANNER) combat res (7 attacks max from them,hitting on 3's and wound on 4's,and in h2h no poison/armor save- unless they have spears) your gonna win probably first time, definitely sooner/later. than the d6 attacks per rank s2 v t2 i got 22 hits(6 ranks) and a slightly better than math should suggest 13 wounds last time i did this, needless to say upset lizard man.
stegadon try to tarpit- again huge zombies GOOD.

this is all v 6th edition LM i should note we've not got the new one yet.

beware the comet it get irresisatiabled a lot and is worth dispelling in your own subsequent magic phase if it hasn't already gone boom. generally i avoid the slann/temple guard complex altogether, he doesn't seem to mind and once i get his telepathy skink he's only got half a table to cast on.

combo charge = good v infantry go figure! i like knights better than wolf, and why wouldnt i with a fresh (err) dozen black knights, but wolf/march-gulf work too.

 

[Karl Ritter]

Aint no new one yet. Good, im stuck in battles of attrition vs Lizardmen
to in our campaign here..beurk.

Btw, dont forget outnumber= Static CR is 5!

I dont know, Lizardmen can be surprissing, but all in all, their
units scatter quick. Good hitter units that charge, smash trough those lines
in no time. Again, Wraiths and banshee are sublime.
So is all types of cavalry, and huge chunks of wights.
All your core stands good chances of performing as they should, Ghouls slightly less due their lack of armour, and in my experience the amount of poisonous darts can really cripple them..badly.
Its as bebopasorus said, large block and well suppoprted, and small elite units
are what you need to break those lines with ease.
Of course..with a Slan in play, things change drasticly, they can really shut your magic of and cast unchecked if you dont take precautions.
Against a Slann, I propose take a pair of scrolls along, corpse carts with Balefire(At least two!), Forget the Wight king and go all out for Vampires and make certain your Lord is at least a Level 3.This way guarantees most disspel die, Slan magic is to tough to ignore.
Against their magic, dont bunch your characters up, nor your important units to much, Make sure you're up to the task to fill huge holes appearing in your rank and file formations. Well, If you're not cursed with bad luck, nor your opponent with to much good, you should with this be able to contain most of his magic, and overcome his units rather swiftly.
And with two Viasmas that may go of, 4 casters perhaps..you'll be able to get sufficient spells of in your own magic phase. If not, cast some more IoN with the characters who hold the appropriate abilities. Good luck!

 

[Trevy the Great]

Query: Is this against new or old Lizardmen. As far as I can tell tactics against each edition will be fairly different.

 

[darebear]

Many of the local players play lizardmen (as do I). I can honestly say I dont have a hard time against them. Their army is strong but their main body (Saurus) is slow. Ethereal units vs. the skinks will work well. Have some flyers to deal with any Terradons they will field. A vamp lord on a zombie dragon or abyssal terror with the deadlance works well. Use him to engage and cause the flanking skinks to flee then charge/dance him into the flank/rear of Saurus or Kroxigor. Once the fast moving forces have been eliminated then it is just a mop up. Dance will be (as is always) the game breaker here. Slann magic is tough, but, if you focus on small elite units you should be able to negate the amount of time you will face these guys. Two corpse carts with balefire and necros with IoN & Dance, a lvl 3 lord with MoTBA, forbidden lore and mannfred the acolyte is a good combo here. That lets you cast Dance 5 times a turn which should be more then enough to get your elite units into combat quickly. Last week I played against the lizzies and the this proved devastating.

 

[JoshoW]

Hilarious spell to use use on a Slann: Pit of shades ^^

Since that's probably going to be dispelled here's what I think you should do:

If the Slann is on point (As in, nothing in front of him), the answer is simple: Slam a hard core unit of 5 blood knights straight into him. On the charge, that's hits on 3's wounds on 2's no armour save for his temple guard. (Watch them fold like a paper bag!). To make sure the blood knights don't get intercepted, try some spells to speed them up (I'm thinking dance macarbe or unseen lurker.

If it so happens that the Slann is behind a screen of skinks (Likely), there's no point in charging knights into them, so let something like ghouls do the fighting (hits on 4's, wounds on 3's, poisoned, 2 attacks each!), and then slam your knights in.

As for his magic, ignore magic missiles and save your dispel dice for spells cast on ethereals or instant death spells (Like pit of shades.)

Inthe unlikely event of a stegadon, try using cairn wraiths on it. The steg can't stike back and has a bemusing Ld 5.

I think that's most of the big stuff, did I forget anything?

 

[Cromenon]

Well, I think Cairn Wraiths against Stegadons sounds nice at first, but honestly, the main two types of stegadons you're going to see are:
1) Engine of the Gods
2) Mount of a Skink Chief with funnylance.

Both of them are a serious threat to your wraiths, since they can deliver a massive amount of magical killiness... However, if you got a banshee with 'em and make a good scream you can kill it in just one blow. If you get in range, obviously.

 

[Fodderboy]

The problem with taking wraiths is that the steggy has US 10! You need 5 wraiths just to break even. With the high toughness, I can't assume I'll do to well on the wounding side of things.

 

[Cromenon]

Assuming you take 4 wraiths and a banshee (which as a side note eat a huge amount of points) and that you make 1-3 wounds with the banshee's scream, you have 12 ws3 st5 attacks, which impact 6, wound 2. If it has a 2+AS he saves 1, if a 3+AS he saves 0.67.

So you are making the screams wounds + 1 (if ancient or EOTG) or +1.33 (if !ancient).

Tough.

 

[TMS]

Also, Fodderboy, 5 wraiths would still only have a combined unit strength of 5 as they are on foot, therefore their multiple wounds will not help them there.

 

[N.I.B]

Well, I think Cairn Wraiths against Stegadons sounds nice at first, but honestly, the main two types of stegadons you're going to see are:
1) Engine of the Gods
2) Mount of a Skink Chief with funnylance.

Both of them are a serious threat to your wraiths, since they can deliver a massive amount of magical killiness

You're assuming that hits from Engine of the Gods are magical (perhaps because they are applied in the magic phase). That's far from clear. In fact, going by RAW they aren't magical more than a Banshee scream is.