🎱Total War: Warhammer II

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Lizardmen

Many millennia before the Vortex War, during the creation of the world, a civilization of space travelers known as the Ancients created what would be the first and oldest of all species to help them shape the world. Together they settled in Lustria, where they built the first cities. Other races call these reptile-like creatures Lizardmen.

Lizardmen are mostly large, extremely robust, and incredibly long-lived creatures. Their society, strongly inspired by the folklore of pre-Columbian civilizations, combines different types of saurians, each with specific tasks.
Their armies make use of ferocious giant beasts from the depths of Lustria, thanks to which they keep intruders away from their sacred temples and ancient cities, and a faithful but saving infantry.

Strategy in the Campaign

Characteristic traits of the faction:

Geomantic Network:
The first generation of beings created by the ancients, the venerable Slanns, have erected over the millennia a complex network of temples capable of channeling the magical energy of the earth to fuel their own rituals.
Each provincial capital represents a hub of the geomantic network, the level of which depends on the buildings built in it and on the intensity of the connections with the neighboring capitals.
Each of the provincial edicts that can be issued gradually becomes stronger the more the network is intense at that point.

How exactly the intensity level of the knot is determined is not specified in a crystalline way. We make it clear for greater clarity: to reach a certain level, the settlement must at the same time satisfy the relative requirement present in the level legend (or one higher) and be connected to another settlement of that same level.
Settlements of other factions also have a level, and are valid for establishing the aforementioned link.

Special Progenitures:
During the campaign, secondary missions will appear which, if fulfilled, will allow the recruitment of a “blessed” variant of some units. These will generally have some stats increased and may not suffer from fatigue during battles.
Primitive Instincts:
Most of the terrifying monsters of Lustria can lose control if excessively exhausted by battle.
When a unit with this ability takes damage for more than half its health, it enters fury mode, and no longer responds to any commands. In addition, it attacks in a disorderly manner the closest enemy unit, dispersing its formation.

Army Mode:

Marching
Ambush
In the camp
Channeling
Astromanzia: At the cost of a reduction in movement allowance, Saurian armies can enjoy increased range of vision, ambush defense, and interception of enemy armies using the underground route. Additionally, some units will gain the Vanguard Deploy ability.

Recruitment Mode:

Local
Global (when in a Settlement or Camp Mode)
Blessed progenitures

Settlement conquest mode:

Occupies
Raid
Raze to the ground

Initial game phase

The early stage of the game offers the best low tier troops in the game, which gives you a clear advantage over your neighbors. Lizards have excellent weapon strength, and can wreak havoc on norsmanni (if you started the campaign with Hexoatl) or skaven (if you started with the Last Defenders). Either way, you'll need to keep your legendary lord alive, as you may receive attacks from multiple factions, and you'll need a capable guide who gets experience and keeps the borders safe.
In this first phase, you will not have great business opportunities, nor important alliances to maintain. Once you have developed your main army in a solid way, you will have to manage more than anything else the order in which to conquer your neighbors, so that you never expose yourself on more fronts than necessary. Keep in mind that port settlements could be plundered by enemies from the sea, and that they will certainly be more difficult to defend than those inland.

Development

With the initiation of the first rituals, your geomantic web should have timidly begun to flourish. The biggest obstacle may be not being able to widen the borders due to the numerous incursions of small enemy factions, which will continue to take away the control of the suburban settlements. One at a time, face your enemies in order to secure your coasts. The medium-large factions will invest more in the quality of the troops than in the quantity of armies, so they will paradoxically be easier to deal with. Fortify your cities by giving them walls, so that they will last until your armies arrive. Perhaps the provincial capitals will independently repel less aggressive opponents with the help of manual combat.

It is highly recommended that you take control of Lustria, the southwestern continent as soon as possible, as it is home to numerous cities of interest for the Lizardmen building chains, and could make a difference in the final phase.

Final phase

In the final phase, when your capital in all likelihood will have reached the maximum level in the geomantic network and you will have a large rooster of monsters at your disposal, you can provide for the enhancement of all your armies with the maximum tier units.
The backbone of an army of Lizardmen will be the Temple Guards, the infantry most determined to defend temple cities. Unfortunately, these veteran saurians have generally mediocre armor and lack good combat skills, which generally puts them at a disadvantage against their counterparts from other factions. In the final stages of the campaign it will be necessary to use the main line as a swamp in which to get bogged down the enemy troops while being torn apart by monsters and the spells of their wizards.
Compared to other factions, Lizardmen have a more solid economy, which allows them to be arguably less fragile when developed properly. You shouldn't have any problems with the campaign at this stage of the game, and you can focus all your energy on the final battle for the vortex.

Battle Tactics

Strengths:

Monstrous options with high performance and resolution
Excellent starting infantry
Good flying options
Different lore of magic, but not exceptional, while the most destructive spells are available only to lord mages (Slann)

Weaknesses:

No heavily armored infantry
Missile infantry limited to short-range skirmishers
Limited artillery, partly supplanted by monsters

Use the Lizardmen

The Lizardmen are an all in all linear faction on the strategic aspect of the campaign, devoid of shocking twists.
Different scenarios can occur on the battlefield. Often the front line will not match the main line, and will be occupied by mighty armored dinosaurs thrown with fury at enemies without blunt weapons. Just behind there will be the infantry soldiers, ready to engage the disrupted units. Don't just recruit temple guards - while nominally better equipped than other saurians, it can be disadvantageous to have only halberdiers in the main line.
If your strategy contemplates the use of skirmishers, these can easily be deployed in the woods for sudden attacks, and then make them disappear as soon as the enemy has organized for the counterattack; Unfortunately, the range of the skirmishers is not as high as that of the archers, so do not distance the shooters too far from the other infantry units.
Smaller tier armies will make use of smaller monsters or simple naggaronti, and may replace the front slam maneuver with a simpler flank maneuver.

Confronting the Coldbloods

Lizardmen armies are slightly disadvantaged in fighting between fully developed armies, due to their lack of qualitatively effective small-sized troops. This also exposes a well-equipped army to extreme vulnerability to halberdi lines.
If you have an accurate ranged shot, you should target the enemy lord as soon as possible, who will likely be an easy target due to the mount or could even be a Slann, notoriously vulnerable to shooting in many of its configurations.
If you face an army of saurians early in the game you will suffer a similar disadvantage, and it is better to face the army if possible in defense of your own settlement with walls or during an ambush. With monsters being their workhorse, it can be enough to drive units affected by primal instincts into half the damage, and then face them on your terms.

Best Units

Speed

Infantry available with both mace and spear, and both have a shield version that increases melee defense. They are very solid, and have impressive weapon strength. Simple, strong and effective.

Temple Guards

As mentioned they represent the best coldblood infantry. They have penetrating damage and a bonus against large enemies, but sadly they are unable to compete with the best swordsmen of other factions. However, they can last for a long time due to high discipline, if not exposed in an excessively disadvantageous way.

Skinks Chameleons

Chameleon skinks are the quintessential skirmishers. In addition to throwing poison darts with their blowguns, they are nearly invisible on the battlefield, shoot on the go, and have 30% resistance from shooting damage. A trump card to play during attrition battles, but they do little in siege battles due to the low range and straight line trajectory of their darts.

Kroxigor

To partially compensate for the lack of breakthrough troops come the Kroxigor, terrible giant anthropomorphic saurians similar to crocodiles. As monstrous infantry they cannot scale walls and are not very thick, but they do devastating damage and are heavily armored.

Ferocious Carnosaurs

Carnosaurs are the creatures at the pinnacle of Lustria's food chain and the most disruptive strike force of the Lizardmen. In addition to being recruitable as a single unit, they can be unlocked as mounts for some lords and heroes, losing their primal instincts. Even on their own they enjoy a lethal move pattern to execute enemy line monsters, but perform at their best when ridden by a character.

Stegadonti

It may not be the most aggressive (it is probably herbivorous) but it has a size and armor worthy of a tank. It is available in different variants, from the first unlockable (the wild one with primal instincts) to the two skink rides with shooting power (single shot and long range or wide shot and short range). All the variants are worth their price only considering the melee, even if with the shot they reach a decisive level even in the clash with single opposing units.