Julian on Fighting the Skink-Heavy Lizardman Army

I actually think that this army isn't so bad for a Woodelf player to combat due to the fact that his units are all small. If they were bigger, (even say 15 strong) it would be much harder to cause the casualties required to panic them. And as they will undoubtedly skirmish that should be easier as they will be testing on Ld of 6, (even with 3d6 it isn't as good as us Elves). The other thing is that most of the troops are armed with Shortbows, whilst a 50-50 mix would have been better.

The problem lies however that if the Lizardman player dicates the terms of engagement. He must be shot at and redirected from the outset. If he closes to optimum range, the Elves lose. The Javelins will hit on a 4+ (no move or range penalty) and 5+ our skirmishes and single characters. He has S4 weapons so will be wounding on 3's and we'll get little if any save.

And he has a lot of shooting.

The best bet... is to hug scenery, preferably woods where his Terradons can't come after you. You'll get the bonus for soft cover from his shooting, (the only thing to prevent the Javelins making a mess of your day). Use fast moving hand to hand troops/characters to force him to split his offensive line. Wardancers/Glade Riders do this well, but try to stick to the Wooded/Scenery heavy areas. You will want to minimise the shooting that he can do at you as he will decimate you.

A Wardancer Champion with the Hail of Doom Arrow, the Bow of Loren on a Hero or the General and lots of Scouts are also useful as you will need to try and really hurt some units with missile fire. If you can send the fast moving hth units down a flank then he will either have to redirect his Terradons to take care of them, maneuver his Krox to intercept them, and he will probably also look to sending a few Skink units after them. The Wardancer champ with Hail of Doom can easily take out an entire unit of Terradons by himself, and a charge from Glade guard with the 18" means that most of his shooters won't be able to stand and shoot as they'll be in half range.

A Treemen with the fast movers would also be a good idea as it will mean that he will really have to concentrate on destroying them, else they will come around behind his army and get them in an old fashioned pincer move.

Whilst the enemy is splitting his force to take care of you fast movers and your static battle line, you should be able to rip holes in his force.

As for Magic, there isn't that much to really worry about from the High Magic Deck... exception:Fiery Convocation and Hand of Glory, the latter especially can really ruin your plans as the idea will be to cause as many panic tests as quickly as possible, disrupting his line. Hold a Destroy Scroll and ready it for either of these two little nasties.

I wouldn't bother trying to assassinate his general, (unless you get a good option too), as it will take too many resources, and with his slow move of 4"/8" he won't be a threat. The Level 1 Slann however might be useful for a couple of shots. I actually killed one with Warhawk riders the other week, so they aren't impossible to destroy, but it might take a couple of turns, and those longbow shots would be better served panicing his skinks, terradons or destroying Krox.

One slip up against this army however, and you'll find it difficult to come back. They really need to be hurt before the 3rd turn, otherwise it'll be too late as the Skinks will be ontop of you using their incredible speed and skirmishing to put you to the blade.

A shooting army would probably work better against this then an assault army.