To introduce my Lizardmen army I could think of no better model that the Slann in charge!

My starting steps in to the Warhammer hobby was the 5th edition Fantasy box with Bretonia and Lizardmen (an odd combination to be sure!). While I no longer have the Bretonian army, the old lizards are still part of my favorite fantasy army. I mean who wouldn’t want to take an army that has angry toads as the lord and dinosaurs as their pawns?

Before 5th edition 40k sucked me away from fantasy, the Lizardman army was my rock solid force. Saurus are dependable, between their cold-blooded leadership tests, toughness 4, and 4+ armor saves they could take a beating and return it in kind. And the skinks! I have an entire army of them and man can they do some damage. With the changes to skirmishers they may have a tougher time, but that is yet to be seen.

Any way, I’ve lost myself on a tangent… the Slann Mage Priest! I do agree that the latest army book nerf’d the Slann a bit though I think it also added a great deal of versatility. In the previous army book you needed to “upgrade” the Slann to older generations to increase his power or get certain abilities, now you get to pick an “upgrade” for free and can mix and match up to 3 more. One that I often used in the past, and will become even more helpful now, is Becalming Cogitation where the Slann points out an enemy wizard within 24″ and any power dice that roll 6’s get thrown out!

My army is lacking any Temple Guard to protect the Slann, and while they are on the wishlist I will either use normal Suarus to protect the lord or give him another great discipline, Higher Stat of Consciousness that ignores all non-magical attacks. I can then float him around the back of the battle field firing off spells and keeping the skinks in line.

I really wanted the Slann to stand out from the rest of the lizards so I painted him with the warm shades of orange and yellow. After taking these pictures I noticed that there is still work that needs to be done and parts that need rework. There are at least two small lizards that never got painted… anybody see them? 🙂