i see a lot of love for skinks, I don’t usually go for skinks. My questions, why are they so good? How do I get the most out of them?
They are cheap wounds in masses. They are more resilient than they look like because of their wary fighters ability. They have movement like cavalry so they can move quickly over the board to claim objectives. They also look cool. They have small bases so you can place them on terrain better. They can shoot. Not great but well enough. Example in points: 200 points gives you 40 wounds and 40 ranged attacks at 3/5/-/1 That's pretty awesome. They also synergize well with Stegadons and Kroxigor. And in our best Starhost, the Shadowstrike.
They can be an army on their own when saurus only have less versatility. They combine great with saurus. Provide more range for Slanns Can use multiple weapons/monsters (and of course various range attacks) Fill multiple rôles.
Yeah in groups of 10 or 20 they are just not that good. If you have only a few yoy can only use them to fill Battleline requirements or as chaff, for everything else they are just too weak.
indeed, 40 + 10 is a good amount for 1K armies, but the rest must be solid, mobile and deadly for each actions performed. They are so fragile you must deal damage each turn and never let the ennemy come to close. Unless you play a monster only army (with stegs and Krox). From previous editions, Skinks were very strange to fight against, because they always run away. Most of units are close combats units which had few chances to do anything against skinks. Frustrating.
10 skinks are pretty good. For just 60 pts, you can pick a battleline unit with high move, that can pick objectives and can act as screen to protect most precious models. THey won't help in combat, but hey.
All in all, I'd say that: 10 skinks are good: cheap battleline with nice utilities for just 60 pts 40 skinks are good, because they exploit the horde bonuses and discount middle ground, especially a 20 skinks unit, is kinda meh, because they are more costly than the minimum required, without giving you the goodies of the high numbers
40 skinks with mystical terrain buff near an astorlith pump out a surprising amount of wounds as well. An average of 12, decent for an unassuming unit
Around 20 Wounds indeed. But it's a pretty rare situation. Normal 40 guys unit deal 9 Wounds And 12 Wouds in Astrolight range. So with 5+ armor around its 6, 3 and 4 dead. The regular 10 guys units go for 1 wound. "you can do it ". Sorry for the easy warmath stuff. The only answer should be, play what you like, as you like.
Two words: tactical flexibility. And mobility. Four words, tactical flexibility and mobility. Maybe that only counts as three words? Does "and" count towards total words? Anyways, they move a lot for infantry and can escape charges. They come in great numbers for low cost and have decent range with their blowguns. In numbers, their shooting is actually pretty accurate, and all that dakka adds up. They can act as decoys, punish flanks if ignored, fill holes in your battle list for cheapsies, force your enemies into unwanted melees without costing you much resources, and generally just frustrate attempts to defeat your core. They're not STRONG, but strength is not the only asset one can leverage in battle. They are versatile and expendable, and like most Seraphon, very difficult to scare off. Definitely a good support unit.
As most people have already said, Skinks greatest assets are their mobility and flexibility. They're generally poor melee combatants, and they'd be turned into a bloody mist by any proper melee force like Khorne troops or Ogre troops, but the whole point is that they're never supposed to be in combat for any length of time (Which is why boltsplitters and shields are our most popular weapon combination for basic skinks). Even if they do get caught, they're surprisingly resilient with their Star Bucklers, and they can pull out of combat easily. Whats more, as with all of our models, they have impressively high leadership, way higher then most chaff units, like skaven. They can take objectives quickly, screen others units, and are generally just really useful generally, which can be good in a competitive setting where you may need a model to serve in a large number of roles.
Last weekend during a game, I mentioned in passing that I could field 81 Skinks in 500 points (2x 40 Skinks + Starpriest), and my opponent agreed to later fight me in a small experimental game using that list (I think he'll be playing Khorne Bloodbound). I've no idea if my Skink swarm will be effective, but it should at the very least make for an interesting game. I'll try to remember to post a short batrep afterwards, likely next weekend.
Mm, please do. Sounds that it'll be an interesting game. Is a he fielding a similar army composition, like an army of Bloodreavers and a Slaughterpriest, or just a regular force?
No idea yet. Given that it's only 500 pts, perhaps we'll have time for two games so he can try two lists. Anyway this can serve as a test run for the huge Shadowstrike Starhost (80 Skinks, 6 Ripperdactyls) I've been itching to try out.
Here's my battle report on the Skink swarm. It looks very effective; at least against a fast, offensive, lightly-armored army (Spiderfang Grots in this case). It also seems to be quite forgiving of tactical mistakes: I made a few in the beginning but won anyway.