Kadzik's Savage Skinks from Karak Zorn

I'd like to make a band of skinks for Mordheim....not to play in this town, but to our own setting in Southlands.
As original Lizardmen warband is quite strange and I don't realy like Saurus, I've decided to do a pure Skink forces using Skaven rules.
Why Skaven? Both spieces use speed as their main weapon. In Mordheim Skaven warband is from Eshin clan, so there are no strange weapon from Skryre (yea, warplock pistol, but some equipment is forbidden in my list), just agile rats with swords, maces and slings. Skaven heroes are quite strong, but I place my skinks in Southlands and treat them as much more agressive. I will write somechanges in rules for my warband soon.

There is my first mini; chief, leader of the savage Skinks:

NICE LOOKING Lizard Lad...quite a striking/attractive choice of colors. Dropping the Oh-So-Stupid Saurus is rather like my All Goblin approach to the Orcs & Goblins...the little Guys getting by on their wits & agility is appealing. Doing the Southlands frees you of G.W.'s fluff...sounds good to moi. Keep up the FINE WORK!

Thank you for comment
Placing the setting is Southlands I actually follow official GW fluff. Saurus (how to make plural form; Sauruses?!) are spawned very rare here, Slanns are only from 4th and 5th generations, and Skinks are forced to fight open warfare. They are much more warlike, so I assumed, they are stronger and tougher. With these assumptions I've llooked on official warbands and Skavens looked very similar. I play Mordheim not as often as I'd like and don't have time for extensive playtesting a warband build from scratch, so using existing band and modify it lightly is only viable option.

I've prepared some changes and limitations:
1. Skinks from Southlands are more warlike. This is followed with tougher and stronger individuals, than their lustrian kindred. Toughnes 3 on every member, and high WS and S on heroes is justified.
2. Changes in racial maximas: WS=5, T=3, Ld=8. The last one is quie unfair. Skinks are as brave as humans, and their heroes are one of the bravest guys in the world (from mechanic point of view ) Major drawback of the Skavens is their cowardiance and changing that will result with great unbalance. I won't change Ld values, nor use 3 dices. I justify this with barbarisation of Skinks in this part of the world and lack of Slann's influence.
3. Some weapns are forbidden: fighting claws, warplock pistol, flail, morgenstern, double-handed weapon. I'm considering use of Weeping Blades, which count as blades covered with blood of toxic frog;i and halber, cause double-handed weapon is too much, but angry skink will willingly grab any heaviere blade
Hearoes can use shield now. I don't know what to do with throwing knives...
4. Limits in the skill lists. Strength skills are forbidden. These skinks are berserkers, but this is rather weak race. Youngsters (night runners) gains acces into Speed list
I don't have any idea what to do with Special. Infiltration fits perfectly, but others not at all.
5.Magic has to change lightly; all spells, except Black Fury stay without changes, and mentioned spell is canceled. In its place comes Luck of Shemtek from Lesser Magic. Black Fury is so much unfinese (even for savage Skink) and luck is quite fluffy. This spell on hired warlock sucks, but sorcerer is more offensive and will find thiis buff usefull.

Friends from Polish forum drew attention to the lack of some aquatic skills. I've thought about this, but my city will be like Venice; built on small islands and crossed with canals. Just imagine warband with high speed and initiative, which treat them like mix of highway and trench. They can move fast, out of enemy's sight and then climb up wherever necessary. Pure horror. IMO some special skill, which allow a hero to do this is much more better.

Please write any comments and proposition, how to make this even better!

The throwing knives can and should be left. Very skink. Also in the heavily maritime campaigns my group does Skaven do very well because of their high Initiative.

Also my Lizardman warbands tend to be skink heavy because I can't seem to keep a saurus alive, but skinks are cheap.

Good to see something different for a change. And that lizard is beautiful!

Very rich blue and Orange colors. Love it love to see more.

5 other skinks. Two Night Runners with sling-blowpipes and maces, and 3 ordinary guys, two with same equipment as NR and one with shield and mace.

I have to highlight claws, gold and tiles on bases. I will also piant cests to easily identify groups, but I'm going to only wash this lightly; I don't want bold colour here.
This skinks are in fact darker, a tone darker than the chef. I'm also very suprised, how tall he is in comparison with ordinary skink.

Nice work on the scaled ones! I tend to make the bodies of different henchman groups a different color and keep the crests uniform, but I bet your way looks better.

Scale.
GW and nearly all fantasy miniature companies seem to be struggling with the concept. These days rank and file troopers are smaller than the heroes and lords accompanying them. Also there are differences in scale between metal rank an file and plastic rank and file although as more ranges become plastic that difference has ceased to be a factor.

Great ideas about the Count-as-Skaven, and beautifully executed in the miniatures!

COOL LOOKING Lizard Lads! The colors you chose work well together.

Really love the idea of using (a limited) Skaven warband rules for Southland Skinks!

The paint job is beautiful - can't wait to see more!
I'd like to see your Southalnds terrain too, if you have some.

WarbossKurgan wrote:

Really love the idea of using (a limited) Skaven warband rules for Southland Skinks!

The paint job is beautiful - can't wait to see more!
I'd like to see your Southalnds terrain too, if you have some.

Thanks!
Sadly I don't have any terrain for Mordheim now. I have to buy some aquarium plastic plant and start to make jungle city

I don't know the retail selection of Warsaw but here in the States the big box stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael's have a great selection of plastic and silk plants that make great cheap jungle. Out pet stores don't seem to cut that deep when they have sales.

The only source of plastic plant that I am aware of are pet stores. We have lots of stores "repair and build" but there are only live plants.
In pet sthops prices are quite high. I'm not sure what is the normal price for plastic plant, but for my budget it's too much.

Amazingly GW's plastic jungle plants, at £25 for four fairly big sprues, are actually about the same as pet store plastic plants in the UK!

Edit: check this tutorial out!
http://corbaniaprime.blogspot.com/2010/03/scenery-tutorial-making-heavy-foliage.html

Kadzik wrote:

The only source of plastic plant that I am aware of are pet stores. We have lots of stores "repair and build" but there are only live plants.
In pet shops prices are quite high. I'm not sure what is the normal price for plastic plant, but for my budget it's too much.

Ah, we have home decor and craft stores that cater to such pastimes as making floral arrangements, jewelry making, bead work and such. The plastic and silk plants seem to be permanently on sale.

WarbossKurgan wrote:

Amazingly GW's plastic jungle plants, at £25 for four fairly big sprues, are actually about the same as pet store plastic plants in the UK!

I haven't looked for a few months but back when the GW 'jungle' came out we could buy the same product in pet shops for about half the price. I don't have health insurance but I've got cheap plastic plants! Woot!

I've glued 4 more hench-skinks: 3 with mace and shield, 1 with mace and blowpipe:


I've started work on priest and brave with halberd. I love the look of old priest and temple guard with helmets made of big skull of ceratops, so I want to make one myself. It's just WIP, but helmet will be bigger and with horns.
Brave was painfuly hard to convert. Skink's hands are so tiny that hardly pinable. Cutting hands and gluying them again takes me 15 minutes of fury. I'm happy with effect, so it was worth, but propably never again
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Von Kurst wrote:

I haven't looked for a few months but back when the GW 'jungle' came out we could buy the same product in pet shops for about half the price.

I thought that but all the packs in pet stores round here were about half the size too.

@Kadzik: your fury was well spent!

The "counts as skaven" is a brilliant idea... although, I did hammer out a quick "Skink only Warband", if you're interested:

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/rules-and-gameplay-f1/wee-warband-skink-warband-t4539.htm

If you're doing Southlands, may I also recommend the Zoat hired sword I came up with for Kurst's lustria campaign:

ZOAT WARRIOR
100 gold crowns to hire, +35 gold crowns to upkeep.
Zoats are reptilian creatures found in the Southlands and in Lustria, but were never completely enveloped into the plans of the Old Ones. Before the appearance of chaos, these solitary beings were generally ignored by the Lizardmen societies, and left to wander about as they willed. But since the collapse of the Northern Gate, the Slann have taken a more zealous approach towards anything 'outside' the Old Ones' machinations. The Zoats have been hunted down, till they are nearly extinct. However, the Zoats can live for hundreds of years, and have gained more experience on avoiding capture than an entire city of skinks and sauruses. Perhaps what disturbs the Slann the most is that the Zoats are one of the few other creatures in the world that communicate solely with their minds... do they fear that their 'godlike' position will being undermined?

May be Hired: By Amazons & Pygmies.
Rating: A Zoat increases the warband's rating by +30 points, +1 point for each additional experience he has.

M WS BS S T W I A LD
7 5 3 4 4 3 5 1(+1) 7

Weapons/Armor: Either a doubled handed weapon, or a combination of Mace and Shield (you may choose which upon hiring.)
Special Rules:
Cold Blooded: For any Leadership test, the Zoat rolls 3D6 and discards the highest result.
Scaly Skin: Has a natural save of 5+. This cannot be reduced below 6+ by Strength modifiers, but any result of "no save" on the injury chart will negate this 6+ save. A shields adds +1 to the save.

Stomp: The Zoat has a stomp attack, in addition to its normal weapon attack. The Stomp attack suffers no penalty for being unarmed. Unlike a Saurus bite attack, it attacks at the same time as the normal Zoat attacks, following the normal rules for attack order. (If this causes the Zoat to deliver two attacks that different times, he cannot knock-down & stun a model with one attack, and 'automatically' hit it/injure it with the second... it must treat the model as though it was uninjured, assuming it was uninjured before the Zoat's initial attack.)

'Mounted': While not a Mounted creature per se, the Zoat is an impressive large Quadroped creature. It suffers +1 to hit against missiles, cannot go in doors, and counts as a 'Large' Model (this does not increase his rating any further.) Also, he cannot traverse terrain that a mounted animal would be unable to traverse. He rolls on the injury table as normal, not on the 'Whoa Boy!' Table.

Jungle born: All Zoats can move through jungle terrain without penalty.

Skills: The Zoat may learn skills from the Combat and the Strength skill lists. They may also learn the Zoat Special Skill, Mental Shield.

ZOAT SPECIAL SKILL:
Mental Shield: Any time the Zoat is targeted by a spell, you may roll a D6: on a 4+, the spell fails. Likewise, if a spell is cast that affects the Zoat and several other models, you may roll 1D6: on a 4+, the Zoat himself is unaffected (though other models may be affected as normal.)

Maximum Stats:
M WS BS S T W I A LD
7 8 6 5 6 5 8 3(+1) 10

I also had a Pygmy Scout HS, if you're interested.

Loving the skinks and feeling inspired for something a bit different too - if I didn't have so many other projects to finish first. They're like a little pack of raptors!

I played the normal Lizardmen rules and I enjoyed it. Although I never got a single blow-gun. I didn't think they were worth it, my guys had short bows.

I bought some different Quivers from High-elf, Undead, Empire, and Goblins. I added them to the normal skinks, so they where a skink with a sword/club/spear, a shield, and a quiver. I liked the look because it made them more rag-tag, and like they had jumped a bunch of Undead or Goblins and stole their weapons.

Edit here are a couple of my skinks.

Nice concept and painting! Being a WHFB Lizardmen player I have amassed a hefty bunch of skinks, and I really like to play no-sauri lists, so I understand the leaving out of those bigger guys. You've managed to get a glowing, vibrant blue on your skinks, which looks really good. Well done!

ISome new stuff

Brave with halberd and priest:



Kroxigor:




Whole squad painted utill today:

Your vivid color choices backed up by some fine painting & very cool bases make for one UBERCOOL war Band. VERY WELL DONE!

Nice job, and fantastic fresh idea of using the skaven rules for your skink warband, like it!