Double 5 on ST 3 Skink and Saurus

habasta · Post by **habasta** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:46 am

After the 4th game i skilled up my first Sauri with double 5, could you help me which skill i should take?
I think MV is not the best choice.

For the skink, he is my ballcarrier. Should i take block or better the MV or, perhaps, dauntless?

Please help me.

Thanks

habasta

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:44 am

ST skink would greatly benefit from Block.

I'd probably ignore the 5+5 on the Saurus and go for Block.
But if you want to use the double then Leader or Side Step (then Block, Frenzy).

Brokje · Post by **Brokje** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:19 pm

Hi there!

Lucky you! I have some experience with taking skills on Sauri. I found Dodge on a Saurus fun, but not worth it. A better choice was Diving Tackle. Really annoying in combination with Tackle.

Apart from Sidestep or Leader I think there is not really another option. Sure Feet or Sprint are not worth the extra TV (to me).

It depends a bit on how developed your team is. Do you already have skilled Sauri? I mean, if you already have 3 Block-Sauri and a Break Tackler, you could go wild and take Sidestep (really nasty with Guard). Only Lizardmen really need their Sauri to get skilled, and Sidestep, Dodge or Diving Tackle dont help there. First you need some Block and Break Tackle. As it is your 4th game I assume you dont have other skills. In that case I would ignore the Double roll and go with Block.

For the Skink there are a load of options. With Str 3 Strip Ball might be really good. But Block (or Wrestle) is always worthwile, as is Sure Hands.

Cheers!
M

fen · Post by **fen** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:32 pm

I'd probably ignore the doubles on the Saurus unless the rest of the team were very developed.

The skink should get Block, no contest. Protect that +ST!

habasta · Post by **habasta** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:24 pm

It´s my first sauri that skilled up.
My skinks have 1 side stepp, 1 sure feet and the othe is the ST 3.

So i think i need blocking sauri and the skink would get block, too.

Quadrasonic · Post by **Quadrasonic** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:00 pm

I would definitely go Strip Ball on the +ST Skink. Your opponent will rightly fear him every time you kick off.

Block could keep the little bugger around longer, but not necessarily. My +ST skink was killed two games ago by a wizard's fireball and Block of course would not have saved him.

Strip Ball on a ST3 Stunty all but guarantees you one or more defensive TDs every game.

tenwit · Post by **tenwit** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:55 pm

Block on the Skink. Ignore the 5+5 on the saurus, get Block, unless you're finding Lizardmen suit your playstyle well. I'd get the MA with 5+5 even on my first skill, but that's because I'm well used to playing with skillless sauruses, and the extra range will make Break Tackle even more useful as a second skill. If you've played lots of Chaos or Lizardmen, get the MA, otherwise, Block.

Magictobe · Post by **Magictobe** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:31 pm

Skink. I would go for block. It helps you to survive and with assistents of another skink you can get the dice with block and player of the other side.
In our league my AG4, magic helmeted, side stepping skink rolled double and got also block.

I just rolled movement on my saurus. In our league we are not allowed to ignore the movement so movement it was. It was not a big problem because it was my saurus with break tackle.

When you have the option like you do, I may ignore the movement as well and go for a normal or double skill. I like frenzy but we had this discussion already in the wardancer topic

Jural · Post by **Jural** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:52 pm

For my Saurus, I'd get either Break Tackle or Block at this point. Once your team has developed more, Dodge and Diving Tackle are awesome Saurus doubles choices. I never take +MA or +AV on my Sauri.

The lizardman team is completely about how you position your Sauri, and with 6 of them, the extra MA is simply not worth it (in my mind.)

By the way, Dodge is only good if it can be coupled with Break Tackle. So if you have a Mighty Blow, Block, Guard, Grab Saurus who is very far away from his 6th advance, don't pick up dodge as your 5th advance.

The ideal time to pick up Dodge? On your fourth, fifth, or sixth Saurus's first advanace, or on any advance for a Saurus who has already chosen Break Tackle.

With that in mind, what does the rest of your team look like? If you have a whole bunch of Sauri within 1 or 2 points of 6 skill points, you might want to just choose Dodge on this player.

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:00 am

For the Skink, I'd go Block. MA9, ST3, Blodge, Stunty means he can blitz anywhere and hit the guy you want (great for nailing Throwers). Strip Ball is too easy to counter, esp for Throwers, who are your primary targets and tend to either start with Sure Hands or pick it up early, but are less likely ever to take Block than are other players.

For the Saurus, I'd go for Side Step and make him my "blitz-me" linebacker. One such player allows you to run a 3-3 defense, putting him in at middle linebacker. This gives you a nice safe to stash your ST3 Skink (at the "nickelback" spot, behind the middle linebacker), where he can do whatever you want him to do, because nobody will blitz the Side Stepper so nobody will mark him.

Brokje · Post by **Brokje** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:01 am

Hi Habasta!

I rarely give Sure feet to my skinks, as I think MV 8 is enough. They dont need help with moving IMO, but they do need help with Ball handling, so my choices there focus on Catch and Sure Hands on doubles.

Are you playing PBEM? I am not a fan of Sidestep in PBEM. It still does not prevent you from going down. Maybe a good choice for further Skink skills might be Diving Tackle. I find it really helpful against Elfs (against bashy teams only Block or Wrestle helps, and the skinks should not be in contact with opposing players anyway).

Cheers!
M

Storch · Post by **Storch** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:55 pm

If you can currently handle the strength curve of your league, you can always consider Side Step for the Saurus.

I will say up front, it is not ideal, and for staying alive, the synergy with Dodge and Break Tackle is far superior once he gets developed, but Side Step works especially well with Guard so it opens up another interesting development path.

Now, it would have been a lot nicer had you already had block and guard and then rolled the double, but you play with what you got.

Block on the skink, as everyone else said, is a no brainer. If you have one, he can pretty much protect the backfield with only a little help. Once you get a second one, they can cause havoc.

whitetiger · Post by **whitetiger** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:34 pm

Sure hands or block on the skink. Either save rerolls on your ball handling or help keep him alive and able to hit ballcarriers.

The saurus. Hmmm, hard to give up a doubles roll, but he needs block.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:53 pm

Saurus skill up so slowly unless you are in a really long term proposition (like 40+ games) then anything other than their normal progression probably slows them down. So I think the Saurus ignores the doubles and the 10 and takes block, break tackle or whatever else you would have taken anyway.

Skink has 3 options. Block, Sure Hands or Strip Ball.

Sure hands is best if you are worried about lots of leaping strip ballers and need both the S3 and sure hands to adequately protect against it. You don't want him to be a TD hog either and often Sure Hands does that. So I think there is better value elsewhere unless you've got a couple of wood elf teams to compete against.

Strip ball is really good against lots of teams. The only ones it isn't that useful are running teams. So Dwarves, for example, often pick up the ball with the runners and never let go. So SB doesn't help. However lots of teams either don't start with sure hands or only have it on thrower types and want to give it to other players without sure hands. In which case SB is great on safety players. Longer term most teams end up with enough sure hands Strip ball is negated - and they'll do so faster when playing against him!

Block is really good at keeping him alive longer and helps with blitzing ball carriers without block. Those won't be too common after a while either. Probably the best utility skill.

Wrestle is worth a mention. the downside is that a S3 skink on the ground is asking to get fouled, but its better than block for getting the ball free, and if you have a swarm of skinks you can possibly exploit the loose ball more easily.

Jural · Post by **Jural** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:30 am

ianwilliams wrote:...You don't want him to be a TD hog either and often Sure Hands does that...

I haven't had that problem with my Lizardmen teams, if only because catch ends up as a fairly popular skill (Side Step, Catch, Diving Tackle... the rest of the AG skills aren't great on a standard skink... Too expensive to foul with for Sneaky Git, Leap is too risky, Sprint and Sure Feet are great, but are marginal additions to a team with so much MA 8.)

But I totally agree with other teams.

By the way, consider Kick Off return on a Saurus for a third advance, it is a great choice. You can set up balanced and then move to an overloaded set-up or even get some help around the ball. You only need 1, but it ends up being quite useful, in my opinion.