Saurus Warriors

[Krelios]

So I played a few Border Patrol games yesterday against a buddy of mine using Lizardmen. It was our first game of 7th ed, and his first game of Warhammer at all--and I got thrashed twice and managed a draw on the third game. There were two major problems I needed to deal with, and I've figured one of them out, but not the other.

1) Skink scouts
These little buggers started out in both terrain features between me and his sauruses, march-blocking me and hitting me with a dozen or so poisoned attacks if I got within 12". After the first game I just had my crossbowmen fire into them until they broke. However, the more useful tactic was for me to take Shades and claim some of the terrain as my own, allowing my Dark Riders to manuever around.

2) Saurus warriors
He had a block of 16 of these guys with spears and "predatory fighters," arranged into a block 6 wide. That meant that if I charged them from the front I was going to get 18 attacks in retaliation. Even from the side my Dark Riders could barely penetrate and the sheer number of them meant I was losing combat. I tried Bolt Throwers and crossbowmen, but I could never even kill half of them for the half victory points I needed to win.

How do you kill 16 Saurus warriors in a Border Patrol game?

[One-eye]

16 Saurus warriors should have been easy to kill as they would get absolutely no rank bonus if they were ranked up 4 by 4. it would help if we knew what you had in your force. However I would just recommend attacking from flanks and front at once... should do enough damage that their lack of rank bonus would cause them to run. Make sure you use a large infantry unit to gain numbers and combat resolution, your faster so you should be able to get the charge. Cheers, One-Eye

[Seawookie]

just one RBT should shred them. I have played LM exclusively for the past 3 years, just now going to Dark Elves.

The RBT, even at long range, should hit on 4's. with -2 to the save they should not even get a roll (unless they are blessed by Quetzl).

With 16 in a BP game he is not bringing a whole lot of other units to the game. Destroy the skinks with shooting, that much you got down. take a level 1 priest if you can and drop chillwind on the skinks. St 3 to T2 will get you wounds and the side bonus will be that unit can not shoot.

Once they are gone, your superior mobility should enable you to not engage the saurus until you get a flank shot. Saurus are very mean and nasty and not very many rank-n-file core units can take them square on...all things being equal...

E

[Kiaron hebleth]

I'm not sure about border patrol, but in a 750 point army a chariot/knight tag team works wonders, tons of hits and autobreaking most of the time.

As for beating them here, once the skinks are shot to bits you control the game. Start shooting them, even if you don't kill any if they're not in close combat the worst you can do is draw. If you can't avoid combat totally wait until you can set up a situation where you charge them with 2 units at once. Don't throw DR at them without support, thats suicide.

Also keep in mind they are on a larger base so there could be trouble getting all 6 into base to base contact. Remember the second rank only get 1 attack with spears, and spears can't be used on a flank/rear.

[Krelios]

Well, ranks of 4 aren't legal, and neither was his formation of 6, 6, 4. He should have been using 5, 5, 5, 1. The rank bonuses weren't really the problem though. I charged him with a unit of Corsairs hoping to do enough damage to prevent much of the retaliation and inflicted only 1 wound. He killed 4 of my corsairs in retaliation and had outnumbered me as well. I broke, and he ran them down.

RBTs managed to kill 2 sauruses with the single shot and 2 with the multishot before he was out of line of sight. They had the blessing that let them get a save versus the multishot, with scaly skin, shield, and the blessing they were at a 6+ (of course he made about 1 in 3, so luck was with him).

In Border Patrol you can only take 1 special choice, so Chariot/Knights is impossible.

What it came down to was I can deal with the skinks, but in doing so, he pins me down pretty badly, since his unit of 10 skinks proved they could obliterate my dark riders with ease (inflicting seven wounds on my unit of 5).

[Raneth]

6,6,4 is perfectly legal, I believe. And Lizzies are kinda easy to handle in Border Patrol: Skinkies will be shot up by DR and rxb-warriors, the slow Saurus can be combined charged at a time of our choosing (usually after 3 rounds of shooting Skinkies- they'll have disintegrated by then)

[Seawookie]

Krelios. so he had a sacred quetzel blessing in Border Patrol? that is one expensive unit. It is designed for close combat so deny him that priviledge and dance and shoot.

6,6, 4 is legal, the rank of 4 does not add to ranks however for rank bonus. You can make your frontage as you choose, you just have to be at least 5 wide to get rank bonus. The second rank is a complete rank (6 behind 6) and the third makes up what is rest of the unit...perfectly legal. I would not be suprised to see saurus units of 16 set up more often like this. The extra attacks, with quetzl for a hand weapon/shield/quetzl/scaly skin save in CC of 3+, and T4 of the saurus makes this a very tough unit.

With a unit champion that is 13 str 4 attacks; not something you want to tangle with.

with RBT against this unit, penetrating ranks would not (to me) be as good as 6 shots hitting on 4s at long range with -2 to save...but that is just me.

I would avoid this unit at nearly all costs and just shoot them to death.

e

[Raneth]

The smaller the game, the more powerful shooting is anyway... the Lizzies are kinda handicapped on that front.