Total War: WARHAMMER III How to Lizardmen

Introduction

Lizard. Lizard. Lizard. There’s more to the Lizardmen than this, but not much. They are not the simplest faction, but have a varied roster, most of which is useful, and some of the meanest late-game stacks available. This guide will help you get there.

Normally I’d explain why you want to play this faction, but they’re Aztec dinosaurs, they don’t need a sales pitch. They are my favourite faction, and each of the Legendary lords plays differently.

Also nearly all the names are either puns or dumb references. What’s not to like?

Starting Out

The most important thing to get right starting out is the composition of your first army. This will depend on your Legendary Lord, but for Gor-Rok, Kroq-Gar and Mazdamundi, it can be summarised as follows: Saurus. That’s it.

To go into more detail, you can get Saurus from your starting settlement, and they will smack any other early-game unit into the dust. The rest of your first army should be whatever good units you start with, and any blessed units you get.

Oxyotl should fill up with Chameleon Skinks – Stalkers are not suitable – while Tehenhauin can use any kind of skinks, but is best off with a mix of Stalkers and Chameleons. Tiktaq’to should fill up on Terradon Riders and drop rocks on everyone. Nakai wants Kroxigor, but he starts with enough to fill the rest with Saurus and still slaughter everyone.

Your second full army should come from the Rite of Primeval Glory, which gives you 13 dinosaurs. Fill the rest up with Heroes and either Stalk units or cavalry, and make sure you don’t let the big lads get shot up. Try to give everyone the Pompous (-4 enemy leadership) trait, because it stacks. If you’ve got Lord Kroak, and the Quest battle is not too hard, put him in the second army – your first should be good enough to get on without him.

This should get you to a stage where you can start thinking about a proper army. While in this stage, it’s important to perform the Rite of Awakening if you don’t need to do any of the others. You want to build up a store of unrecruited Slann for later, and makes it more likely to get the better traits.

Building Up

The key to the next stage is Star Chambers! Look at them:

The second and third will let you recruit Slann with all of their spells unlocked, and Heroes already riding their dinosaurs. It’s third-level, but sadly you can no longer build it in minor settlements. Build one in every major settlement you get.

Apart from their effects on the battlefield, you also want to do this for the following Saurus Scar-Veteran skill, available at level 20:

This will solve all your public-order problems, so think ahead and start building Saurus spawning pools as you go along.

For income, the Geomantic Web is important, but the key building is the Temple of Sotek line:

The key bit there is the income from post-battle loot. This stacks, and late-game enemy armies are worth more in the first place.

You also want to strengthen the Geomantic Web for the Alignment of War, which at levels 4 and 5 is where you get extra Global Recruitment slots.

Late Game

So what do you want your late-game armies to look like? You want a Slann, because you can recruit them at high level. Life is probably the best, but Fire is killy and is on fire, and High lets you summon a flying fiery bird, so who’s to say. Light has Net of Amyntok and nothing else to recommend it. More on this in the Lords section below.

You want a Skink Oracle and Chief, for their campaign skills. After that, you want a mix of dinosaurs and little guys – pure dinosaurs will work, but it’s more expensive and not much better. Four units of cavalry or Chameleons will let you pick off enemy war machines more safely. The heart of your army should always be the dinosaurs.

The last difficulty the Lizardmen have is confederation. If you get the Geomantic Web to level five, the commandments give +relations with fellow Lizardmen, but this is rarely enough. The better trick is sending a bunch of Skink Priests to steal technology from their enemies: this helps you and improves relations at the same time.

Technology

(note that I have not followed my advice, and failed to unlock the Saurus row)

The Lizardmen have an appropriately straightforward technology tree. You need certain buildings to unlock the techs at the very top, and you’ll need to remember to build a Scrying Pool specifically for the first one, Interpreting the Old Ones’ Meaning.

The most important line of technologies is the top one, which gives you +recruit rank. Oxyotl gives extra bonuses for high experience so needs this more.

After that, Sequence of Marching in the second row is worth picking out, but it’s the last column that has the most important ones. Sequence of Geomantic Healing, in the second row, will give you enough replenishment to hit the 50% cap, and Sequence of the Global Plan in the fourth row lets you global recruit all your basic troops in one turn.

Otherwise, Tiktaq'to needs to get Sequence of Exotic Weapons in the bottom row for his Terradon Riders, and the Saurus line, second from bottom, is powerful early on. Read through the tech tree (not actually a tree, more like a set of fence posts) before you begin, and it may be worth sending any spare Skink Priests off to Steal Technology from someone you don’t like.

Nakai has his own tech tree, which is notably more tree-like, but doesn’t really need them as much. The top line gets him an extra army, but he’ll be more limited by upkeep than army capacity, at least in my experience. Do pick up the several techs that give a few extra % of replenishment – it really adds up.

Battle Tactics

Rush B. Your melee units are very good, and only Oxyotl and Tiktaq'to should have many missile units. Use any vanguard or fliers to pick off missile troops, and slam your line into theirs. Your dinosaurs can effectively charge through most infantry, but you have to order them to charge the first line, then move through. Concentrate your forces, and don’t let your dinosaurs be picked off one-by-one.

Oxyotl should use his dinosaurs to pin down enemy cavalry and fast monsters. Everything else can then be skirmished to death.

Tiktaq'to drops rocks on everything small, then stomps big things with dinosaurs or Temple Guard.

Now let's go through the units with which you'll be doing the stomping.

Lords

Your Lords are all decent, but the Star Chamber bonus means that late game you'll only want Slann, plus the high number of Legendary Lords available.

Saurus Oldblood: Generic melee lord, but gets a dinosaur! Nothing really clever, gets a Blessing at level 10 with useful effects; Honoured Elder at rank 20 like Scar-Veterans. Quick and vicious in battle; never wrong.

Kroxigor Ancient: Starts out killier than an Oldblood, but never gets a dinosaur; equally unsubtle. Better if you have to recruit a 1st level lord in an emergency; gets some skills for Kroxigor to make a nice stack.

Red-Crested Skink Chief: I regularly forget these guys exist. Good for Tehenhauin, not too much for other factions. Like Skink Heroes, weak until he gets a dinosaur; only Lord with a flying mount. If you’re using Skinks you want this Lord.

Slann: Oooh! Starts out slow but at high levels the best of your Lords. All have decent health but poor MD and speed, so protect them from flyers and missiles. Red-line skill gives ward save not MD. 2X Banishment as a bound spell at level 16. High inherent missile resist, and Telekinesis gives them another 15%, so can be worth giving them items for even more. By Lore:

Life: Generally the best, even after Dwellers Below got nerfed. You have dinosaurs, this keeps them alive. Use Earth Blood to trigger Life Bloom as often as possible to get the most healing from your winds.

High: Skink Oracle can use Earth Blood, so these guys are now usable. Apotheosis is less efficient at healing, but has high range; useful if a dinosaur rampages off. Fiery Convocation, in addition to looking very cool, is good against lines of troops. Arcane Unforging is expensive, but useful for the last bit of damage on a fleeing Lord. The main reason you take them is for Tempest to murder flyers, and Shield of Saphery.

Fire: Killiest. Add two Ancient Salamanders, a few Salamander Packs, and any Banners of Eternal Flame you have for best effect. Flame Storm is good in dinosaur armies because you take very little damage from it; Burning Head doesn’t do as much damage but lowers leadership. Bolts of Burning has lower possible damage than Flame Storm but is more reliable and less fratricidal.

Light: Weakest; Banishment is more expensive and less killy than Flame Storm. Net of Amyntok is mainly useful for pinning enemies so you can shoot them, but Lizardmen are more of a melee faction.

Heroes

Your Heroes get dinosaurs, which is most of the point. If using them as agents, don’t forget to remove their mounts to save on upkeep.

Skink Chief: + replenishment, so one in each army. Weak until they get their dinosaur, then very good. Stegadon vs. Ancient Stegadon is a matter of taste. Gets Stalk on a dinosaur, which is entertaining. Can theoretically stealth-cap in sieges, and has the capture weight to do so.

Skink Priest: Spellcaster; Heavens and Beasts are both ok, but I prefer Heavens for pulse damage. Curse of the Midnight wind can compensate for your poorer MA/MD. Late-game, with a Skink Oracle and a Slann you don’t need a third spellcaster, but they get an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods, which is enough. Worth using as agents early, for Steal Technology and Block Army.

Saurus Scar-Veteran: Carnosaurs++. Missile resist, no rampage, better melee stats, and you can stick items on them. Good even before they get their dinosaur. Expensive upkeep but worth it. Kroq-Gar makes them even better – get as many as you can.

Skink Oracle: Increase Mobility is very powerful; try to get one in each army. Can heal perfectly well for armies without a Lore of Life Slann. Free Comet of Casandora 1x per battle; miscast damage is minimal. Not as tough as you’d hope, but quick enough and slinky enough to dodge missile fire. Enemy thinks they’re a vulnerable spell-caster, and will target them accordingly. Flock of Doom is surprisingly good against massed weak infantry.

Units

The Lizardmen have one of the larger rosters, including a unit or two they didn’t have on tabletop. Of them, only three are never worth using: Skink Skirmishers, Skink Cohorts, and base Terradon Riders. Skirmishers are terrible, and the other two have better units recruitable right next to them.

There are a few general themes:

Skinks: Doing their own thing, the rest of this list doesn’t apply to them. Quick, not too tough, but useful army fillers and pursuers.

Health: Your units have high health, but poorer MD. This is good against magic which does constant damage, but makes high-MA units more dangerous.

Fear: Most of your army should cause fear. This makes stacking additional leadership penalties that much more powerful.

Rampage: Only applies to the feral dinosaurs; your Lords and Heroes have a skill to cancel this out. Not too much of a problem now that it doesn’t apply to Saurus.Now for specific units:

Skink Cohort: Basic tier-0 unit. Not good, but cheap, and shielded. Javelin version is simply better.

Skink Cohort (Javelins): For an extra 25 gold a turn, you get javelins, which I obviously love. Never worse – have exactly the same stats. Tehenhauin can do some work with them. Missile damage is better than it looks because there’s a lot of them. Useful against large, unarmoured targets like Giants.

Red-Crested Skinks: AP attacks on a low-tier unit don’t really work, and their melee attack isn’t great. Tehenhauin can use them, but for everyone else there are better options

Chameleon Stalkers: Should be really good, but don’t do quite enough damage. Tehenhauin loves them, while Oxyotl would rather use Chameleon Skinks. Excellent for taking out enemy war machines, and sneak-capping in sieges.

Skink Skirmishers: Rubbish. Lose to other missile units, don’t have Stalk so they aren’t much use taking out war machines. Skip in favour of…

Chameleon Skinks: One of the best units on the roster, especially for how early they’re recruitable. Fast, hard to beat in a shoot-out, and Stalk and Vanguard Deployment lets them murder enemy war machines. Otherwise use them like horse archers in historical games: the slow from their poison means enemies struggle to catch them. They’re fast enough to chase down fleeing infantry, and fire while moving makes them effective at this. Notably vulnerable to chariots, at least in my experience. Much more effective shooting when stationary. Oxyotl wants himself, a full slate of heroes, maybe one more dinosaur, and the rest of his army should be these guys.

Kroxigor: Good, armoured, solid monstrous infantry, and that means they need to be paired with regular infantry for best effect. Form up your line, slam into the enemy and you won’t be disappointed. Quicker than infantry, so good in pursuit. Sacred are slightly better but harder to recruit. Nakai can murder with them.

Saurus (all): Good solid infantry that will carry you early and stand up late game. Excellent morale, good health as opposed to armour which means that AP doesn’t hurt that much, and loose formation makes them less vulnerable to area attacks. Only weakness is relatively low MA/MD, so will struggle against Ironbreakers or similar high-end melee troops. Mix dinosaurs or Kroxigor in and they’re unstoppable. Pick spears or clubs based off what you’ll be facing; I tend to go for clubs and use my Heroes for anti-large. They’ll be fine either way.

Temple Guard: Not as good as you’d hope; won’t beat Chosen on their own. But they don’t have to – they’re there to beat the big armoured stompy units that can go right through regular Saurus. Generally, I’d prefer spending the recruitment time on more dinosaurs. Mazdamundi makes them cheap in his army.

Feral Cold Ones: Not terrible, but if you can recruit any other cavalry, do so. Rampages at the slightest provocation.

Cold One Riders: Slow for cavalry, but nice and killy. Pin with Saurus, use these guys to kill. Entirely overshadowed by the next unit. Spear are great against cavalry-heavy factions.

Horned Ones: One of the few things that endangers your lovely dinosaurs is sustained AP missile fire. These lads are perfect for removing missile troops. Melee cavalry, not shock cavalry, so don’t be afraid to leave them in melee if it’s not safe to cycle-charge. Slightly harder to get, so not always worth waiting for.

Terradon Riders: The Fireleech Bolas versions are better in every way. If you’re using these, you need eliminate any enemy melee flyers. If you do that, they’re good at adding in damage, chasing routers, and dropping rocks on massed infantry. Tiktaq’to makes them brilliant. Goes well mixed with the next unit.

Ripperdactyls: Have all the problems of flying units getting stuck on the enemy, but AP anti-infantry makes short work of missile infantry and war machines alike, and they’re good enough to pick off mages and some lords. Won’t beat a dragon 1v1, so bring several units if you bring any. Very good to recruit from outposts.

Coatl: Weirdest of animations; rarely worth it. The bound spells are nice enough, but Ripperdactyls are killier. Also can’t beat a dragon 1v1. Good at knocking infantry off walls.

Hunting Packs: Salamanders are anti-large, Razordons are AP. Both are very good for eliminating enemy monsters, and they have enough speed to do a decent job chasing routing enemies. Poor melee stats – they aren’t cavalry. Good against monsters and large targets where they can sit behind your Saurus and shoot; out-competed later on.

Ancient Salamander: Slow projectile speed means it’ll miss too many of its shots. Goes well with a Lore of Fire Slann and a few Salamander packs. Can hide in forests because it’s slinky. Not worth it generally. Looks cute.

Carnosaur: Different from the other dinosaurs in that it’s anti-large. One of the best units in the game, mainly because it’s so simple to use. Point at enemy monsters and kill. MA/MD not brilliant, so they’ll struggle against Lords and Heroes riding monsters. Any army is improved by adding a pair, but the other dinosaurs are better against infantry.

Bastiladons/Stegadons: Lots of variants, but all are dinosaurs. Big, tough, killy, but don’t let them get surrounded, so pair with infantry, and keep away from AP missiles and elite halberds. Engine of the Gods is devastating against neat lines of infantry; Revivification Crystal works best in pairs so they can heal each other; Ark of Sotek is better than the base, and also not feral; auto-resolve hates it for no real reason. Solar Engine and base Stegadon are artillery, which you don’t much need – you want to be up close. Can be useful for getting the enemy to come to you, or destroying towers or walls in sieges.

Dread Saurians: People tend to be disappointed in these, because they assume twice as big means twice as killy. They key is: don’t let them get surrounded. They are anti-infantry in effect, but need to be paired with their own infantry so they don’t end up fighting three units at once. Very vulnerable to AP missiles (e.g. Darkshards/Handgunners), but have the mass to smash through infantry to get to them. Probably not worth it for how hard they are to recruit, but look Very Cool. I like them.

Troglodon: Weirdo. A decent melee dinosaur, but you’re paying for the anti-large missile, which will miss more than you’d want, and doesn’t do quite enough damage. Very good at running around the sides and shooting into melee, against elite armoured infantry such as Chosen. Generally, the Skink Oracle’s will be enough.

Legendary Lords

As mentioned above, the Lizardmen have a profusion of Legendary Lords, all of which work slightly differently. They’re all powerful, at least once they get their dinosaurs, and on higher difficulties you’ll really appreciate the public order bonuses from their item sets.

Mazdamundi: Extremely good as a combat lord – powerful spellcaster on a dinosaur with two different bound spells. In the campaign, need to decide if you’re going to go and hunt down the Cult of Pleasure; they will attack you eventually, but the climate is inhospitable and the corruption makes matters worse. Try not to get into a tangle with Eataine – they will keep sending army after army against you, because once Ulthuan is secured they have no-one else to distract them.

Gor-Rok: Cannot be killed and starts with Kroak. Needs no advice. Can do this with zero effort:

Tehenhauin: Tricky start because you have to use Skinks; use the sacrifices, especially the one that gives you Jungle Swarm as an army ability. Don’t march near Skaven, and use Astromancy army stance if you’re particularly worried. The final stage of the Prophecy of Sotek causes war between all Skaven and all Lizardmen, which will help you confederate.

Kroq-Gar: Saurus and nothing more. Don’t befriend Teclis, murder him; you need that territory. You need to decide early on if you’re going to grit your teeth and conquer the Southern Chaos Wastes or keep a stack to kill any armies that wander out. Avoid discovering Kairos for as long as possible so he can’t mess with you (n.b. this is impossible). Build lots of the Saurus recruitment buildings, but that’s obvious.

Oxyotl: Go east, my son. Seriously, fill up on Chameleon Skinks, add a few RoR dinosaurs, and march east until you hit ocean. Ignore any Visions of the Old Ones you can’t do, and once you’ve secured the Southern Chaos Wastes, you should have lots of friendly lizards near you. At this point, you can teleport around the world sniping evil-doers, even if you occasionally have to fight a half-dozen Greater Daemons at the same time. No climate penalties makes the late-game a cinch. Even on Legendary, the Visions are winnable if you use your dinosaurs to pin the enemy units while your Chameleon Skinks shoot them. Khorne’s is the hardest because his are armoured; Nurgle is the easiest because they’re slow and have no ranged attacks.

Tiktaq’to: You absolutely must recruit as many Terradons (Fireleech Bolas) as possible. Use the rock-drops to eliminate enemy infantry, swoop down on war machines, and bring Saurus Spears for the big lads. Rite of Tzunki is powerful but don’t get trapped in march stance. On the Campaign map, try to keep Kroq-Gar alive long enough to confederate, and go south first rather than north.

Nakai: In combat, is half an army on his own. Get a Skink Oracle to heal him and his Kroxigor, and they’ll be almost impossible to kill. Raise a second army early rather than late. Start with the east coast, so you have fewer borders to defend. Devote to Xholanka last; the other two are both good. Try to ally with either the Northern or Southern Provinces; kill everyone else in Cathay. Then mosey over to Lustria and kill all non-Lizardmen there.

Random Tidbits

Playing as the Lizardmen, you will have lots of heroes, so the skill queue mod is helpful. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2789864490

As always, get a +replenishment hero ASAP. Skink chiefs are not very good until they get their Stegadon, at which point they are a Stegadon.

Your replenishment is really good. Make the most of it.

Nakai can get a Razordon summon from Itzl, which is great for summoning on top of war machines, or behind infantry scrums.

The Rite of Primeval Glory gives you a good army, but also a Feral Cold One summon army ability. They’ll go berserk as soon as they take damage, so summon them in the right place, usually right behind war machines.

Blessed Units are all strictly better, but are particularly important for letting you get a Stegadon or Carnosaur earlier than you should be. The Stegadon and Saurus Clubs have perfect vigour. Try to complete any Blessed unit mission that gives you anything other than Skink Skirmishers.

Most other factions won’t be fond of you, so if you start out isolated, it’s worth sending a Hero out to make contact with the other Lizardmen factions. Do try to avoid Kairos’ notice.

Skink Oracles get a free Comet of Casandora once a battle, increase army movement range, and are a decent dinosaur unit to boot. They’re worth beelining the relevant building.

Thinking about tactics is a bad idea. You have so many special abilities to use, which will take up most of your time, so keep your plans simple.

Heavens is probably better than Beasts on a Skink Priest, especially because you can get Flock of Doom from a Skink Oracle.

Most of your units cause Fear or Terror, so any decrease to enemy leadership is powerful. Especially against Skaven.

Similarly, because you find it easier to make enemies flee, catching them in a situation where fleeing = death, such as forced march stance, is extra helpful.

Speaking of Skaven, their only units you need to worry about are the artillery, weapons teams, and maybe halberd Stormvermin. Kill those and the rest will run, but don’t chase them. They will have more units than you, so you can’t chase all of them. Let them rally, come back, slaughter them again, and then chase.

Dwarfs can be difficult – their troops have enough melee defence to make attacks miss. Focus on their ranged units with your dinosaurs, and then worry about the infantry. Charge cycling is worth it for any unit that can manage it.

Elves will annoy you with their missile troops, so either bring cavalry, or smash though with dinosaurs.

Against the Empire, you need to be careful around Huntsmen. They are a real danger to your dinosaurs, and Stalk means you can’t spot them early. Cavalry or Stalkers are your best bet, but chasing them with a dinosaur also works.

Ogres are, being largely unarmoured, very vulnerable to Chameleon Skinks. They're also vulnerable to Carnosaurs, but so's almost everything.

You match up very well against Cathay; if you have infantry you need to be careful about Fire Rain Rockets; if you have dinosaurs be careful about Celestial Dragon Guard. Use Stalk for the first, magic or infantry for the second.

After you win a battle, if you have any healing, use it. Your dinosaurs aren’t healed by devouring captives post-battle, so heal them. If you have a Revivification Crystal, it can resurrect models; it’s more efficient to heal them with spells first.

For this reason, if you beat an army but your dinosaurs are damaged, it can be worth fighting the mop-up battle manually, so you can heal them back to full health.

You can attack in Astromancy stance, which gives Saurus Vanguard Deployment. This is useful against artillery-heavy armies, especially if much of the rest of your army has Vanguard naturally.

Look for opportunities to spend a turn in channelling stance, when you’re more than 100% of your movement range but less than 190% from a target. 15 extra winds is three more casts of Earth Blood, or a Dwellers Below.

The Rite of Sotek makes your territory cause attrition, but the +50% ambush chance is also powerful.

The trade good Obsidian’s level-3 building gives -3% Saurus upkeep faction-wide; Exotic Animals does the same for dinosaurs.

When you recruit Heroes at high level, they may not end up with the correct mount. Check before their first battle.

They also end up at level 49 not 50, no matter how many Star Chambers you build. Oh well, close enough.

When in doubt in battle, charge. When in doubt on the campaign map, go into ambush stance and wait for the AI to mess up.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941805225

How to Lizardmen