2500 Lizardmen for upcoming tourney

[Cypher the Fallen]

Made this list for an upcoming tourney near me. Wanted some feedback on what you guys thought. Keep in mind this list was made in a bit of a monetary mind set because I'm currently in college and money is a bit of a problem sometimes haha.


Lord

Slann – Cupped Hands, Focus of Mystery(Life), Focused Rumination, General, Battle Standard Bearer 395

Heroes

Scar Vet: Burning Blade, Enchanted Shield, Bane Head, Cold One, light armour: 160
Skink Priest: Dispell Scroll lvl 2 125

Troops

Saurus Warriors 24 FC 294
Saurus Warriors 24 FC 294
16 Skinks: 2 Kroxigors 190
10 Skink Skirmishers: 70

Special

6 Chameleon Skinks: Stalker 78
9 Cold One Cavalry: Standard, Musician 345
20 Temple Guard: FC Razor Standard 416

Rare

Salamander Hunting Party 2 Salamanders 150

I am mostly new to fantasy, I have really only played one game a while back in 7th, and have only played 40k since then. My concerns were if I had enough shooting, if I needed bigger units, as I took out a Stegadon I originally had in this list, if Cold one Cavalry are worth the cost, and if Temple Guard are supposed to get into combat, because I clearly put a lot of points into them. Also, I'm not sure if I should keep the burning blade on my scar vet, or switch it to a great weapon because of his low initiative.

[Wildeybeast]

I don't play Lizardmen, but have played against them so I can give you a few suggestions. Temple Guard aren't great at killing stuff in combat, but they are very difficult to break, same with your standard saurus, providing you have more ranks than they enemy to make them stubborn. So my advice is the bigger the better for those units. 24 sounds like a good size.
Big units and magic are the order of the day now, so shooting, is never going to win you the game, but used correctly it can really hamper your enemy. Use your skinks to try and pick off lone characters & small vulnerable units (fast cav etc.). Failing that, use them as chaff and fling them at your enemy to slow him down a bit. As for your salamanders, I've experienced the damage they can do and for the points cost you can afford to use them really aggressively. Send them running forward as fast as you can to spit at the enemy (as it's a template and they are skirmishers they can march and fire with no penalties to hit!). You'll likely do some damage, particularly if you target large blocks of standard infantry. Your salamanders won't last long, but they should spook your enemy either into shooting or charging them. You can always flee from the charge knowing you are likely to rally next turn. Whatever happens to them, for the points they cost you needn't worry.
If you are worried about low initiative values hampering you, go for lore of light. It has one spell that makes you WS and I 10 and one which gives you always strike first and an extra attack. Both are fantastic for turning tough but low I units (like saurus) into killing machines. I use it on my greatswords to fantastic effect.

[pgarfunkle]

Hi I started playing Lizardmen last year and in my experience you can't go wrong with nice big blocks or Saurus, unbuffed they are a nice tough basic troop choice that can hold up more powerful units. Once you start buffing them with spells from the lore life or as Wildeybeast suggests light they can be very tough to put down.

Using a combination of the two spells wildeybeast mentioned gives you another little bonus in that your initiative is so high it will beat most other units and so give you re rolls to hit on top of the 3+s you'll probably be hitting on.

Do not worry to much about getting your temple guard into combat as with your slann in the centre of it your opponent will likely come gunning for it on their own. The unit can hold their own with some buffs but if it looks likely you'll be charges try to have another unit nearby to charge the rear or flank of the attacker, your cold ones suit just this purpose.

The cold ones are an expensive unit and are best suited to distracting your opponent with flank and rear charges against units he would rather not have in combat. A lot of people do not like this unit or the models but I am apparently one of the crazier ones who does!

Your salamanders are another great distraction unit as after a shot or two from this unit they will likely have your opponents full attention as they particularly like marching forwards and putting the pain on big blocks of high save troops thanks to the template and big modifier they carry (also great for targeting lone models in buildings such as in Storm of Magic).

Your skinks, skirmishing and chameleon skinks should be sent after small units, lone characters and war machines. As they are skirmishers they are able to manuever round enemy units to remain out of their front arc while shooting them with poison shoots, these are especially usefull against war machines. Both units do need to get close to fire to their full effect so be careful about whose charge arc they approach!

Your krox and skink unit is a great flanking unit, it has higher speed that your saurus and the hitting power of the kroxigors. It does not have the staying power of a unit of saurus however and where possible you should avoid charging front on with it, the fear the krox cause will help you occasionally and especially against lower leadership units. Also if the skinks are all killed in combat the enemy gets a nice surprise in the form of the kroxigors being able to stomp again.

Hopefully thats been helpful, I've found the folks at Lustria-online have also been great for Lizardmen specific advice

Good luck in your tournament