Yes skinks! It seems they've found great popularity since the new book. I among others seem to really like the idea of larger cohort units, and the skinks clouds are still active. now skink chiefs are also being used, albeit mounted, as cheap alternatives that in many areas are better than a full sized unit of other fliers. i personally like this newfound love for the little guys if it isn't apparent from my currently planned list - but are they worth it? If we take the core choices as examples, does the 4 points less per skink make up for the fact that saurus outdo them in almost every stat? opinions, thoughts? I'd like to think skinks do well, but i still think saurus are the better choice... then again, if you are going to get a larger but useful tarpit i don't believe cohorts w/ poison are a dumb move anyday. It'll be cheaper than going for a large saurus unit. on that note, if we only want to tarpit, do we want to buy 50+ skink cohorts without poison, and monster mash them to death? i think there's loads of fun we can have with the little guys!
Im a big fan of poison-skinks. I don't generally think it's fair to compare them to saurus though. Saurus are an anvil, they're there to stick around and take punishment, they are a solid, dependable unit that you (and your opponent) go into battle knowing exactly what they are capable of. Poison-skinks are a tarpit with teeth, they're there to whittle down your enemy with shooting followed by poisoned attacks, and/or to bog down some of the enemies combat troops whilst the rest of your army gets into position/ deals with the enemies other threats and support elements. You can take your big block and decide how to field it once you reach the table. Facing off against an enemies deathstar? go five wide and hugely deep to hold them up. Against multiple smaller threats? Go horde and mangle whatever hits you to the point it won't be able to effect the rest of the game and can be plinked off by poisoned shooting/ magic missiles. The advantage of Saurus blocks is: - stats: WS, S, T, A (plus Predatory Fighter), LD, save The advantages of poison-skinks are: - stats: M (plus aquatic), BS, I - cheaper per model - smaller base size - shooting attacks - poison With this in mind, I feel you can't rely on poison-skinks as your only combat blocks. However, they do in my opinion fill the role of "secondary combat unit" better than saurus, as they can fight things that say your Temple Guard would fear, where saurus have all the same inherent weaknesses as TG. To put my experience in context, I've been running a horde of poison skinks and a big unit of razordons as my mainline units in sort of a "combined arms" style list and it's been having a lot of success. It's also a blast to play as you can actually make an impact on the game in almost every phase of every turn.