The Rise of Sotek

So, I have been looking through the new Lizardmen Army Book.

It is very nice, with a wonderful background section filling in some of the gaps in the Lizardman life time with interesting little stories.

A lot of this time has been spent painting Skinks and writing army lists.

After some fun trying to find a balanced army list I have decided to go for a Skink theme. No real reason, I have a Saurus regiment ready to paint, but I guess the whole Rise of Sotek and Tehenhuain character from the Lustria book has captured my imagination. I will at some point branch out into Saurus land with many Cold One Cavalry, but Skinks first.

Here then, is my initial 500 points. This will hopefully be painted ASAP. Although I do have some old painted models available as stand-ins so at least I will get a couple of games played soon.

Hero: Skink Chief with Dagger of Sotek and Shield

Core: 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields led by a Brave

Core: 12 Skink Skirmishers with blowpipes led by a Brave

Special: 5 Chameleon Skinks

Special: 3 Kroxigor

The idea is a skirmishing force (obviously) just to see the limitations of these skink units. I would like to include some ranked skinks with kroxigor in the units eventually and this might be the next step forward, but unitl then, these will do.

The Skink Chief is a fiesty little character. With 3 strength 4 attacks at initiative 6, he can compete with most Heroes in combat. The Dagger of Sotek gives him Killing Blow, just to add a little extra to his attacks. Backed up by 3 Kroxigor they should be able to take on most units at 500 points. The skirmishing skinks provide a little shooting, all poisoned weapons. The Chameleons can scout and will cause problems early on for stationary enemies. If they can stay in cover they could distract a shooting unit for a couple of turns.

Here is the first unit of Skinks so far.

Very simple paint job. Enchanted Blue basecoat. Drybrushed 50:50 Enchanted Blue and Ice Blue followed by a drybrush of just Ice Blue. This was given an Asurmen Blue Wash. The scales were painted Scaly green, highlighted with a Scaley Green/Bleached Bone mix.

They are in the process of being tidyed up ready for the gold and stone to be painted. This will be a Dwarf Bronze Base with Burnished Gold Highlight with a Ogryn Flesh Wash. The stone is simply highlighted with a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey and the Eye is Golden Yellow.

The Brave was painted about a year ago and is probably how light I want my Skinks. This first unit are probably the tone required by Saurus. The Kroxigors will be darker still.

Will post up pictures of these when they are finished.

And Now for something...

Has it really been six months since I last put anything on here?

Wow!

Well, the 500 point Tyranid army is nearly there. Just need to paint the Broodlord and Retinue and then do all the details on the horde. Not much left.

However, I have come across a problem. Well, two problems.

Problem 1: For the next 250 points I want to add a Lictor (I have one nicely converted ready, pics to follow) and some Gargoyles. I was warned that these beasties were notoriusly hard to put together. Those warnings were true. They will be some time coming.

Problem 2: Lizardmen. My first every Fantasy army were Lizardmen, back when they were released in the box set for 4th ed? with the Bretonnians. Now I did have a nice army and about 5 years ago when their army book was released I bought the army set. I painted one skink. New army book came out this weekend. I had it on advnace order anyway, but still got down to the store. I will post a review up soon with my thoughts.

Why is this a problem? Well, I have dusted off the models and have embarked on a 500 point Lizardmen army. I now have more than one skink painted. I will put pictures up hopefully, tomorrow.

Anyway, I will post a more complete thing later.

One final thought. I had to check this out stright away in the army book.

Saurus Old-Blood on a Carnosaur with the Carnosaur Pendant, Sword of the Hornet and Maiming Shield with Light Armour. This guy and his mount will go Frenzy if they kill anything and neither will lose it for the rest of the game. So when they are frenzied they will get 7 str 5 attacks from the Old-Blood that always strike first at WS 6. 5 str 7 attacks from the Carnosaur that inflict D3 wounds. They cause Terror and the Old-Blood has a 2+ Armour save, the Carnosaur is T 5 with a 4+ save.

More on him tomorrow.

Bloodthirster