TV1000 Lizardman Starting Roster

This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it. You might still find it useful until an updated version is available.

Please check back and a link will be here to the new one when it’s ready.

Lizardman Starting Roster Overview:

For a starting Lizardman team you don’t have many options to choose between though you have some important things to consider. The team doesn’t really have much in the way of core starting skills beyond Dodge on the Skinks. Due to that having more rerolls for both ball handling and blocking becomes a priority. The other thing to consider though is that some of your players are very slow to develop and so the earlier you have them, the greater chance of them getting SPPs, either from a random MVP or through performance on the pitch.

Full Saurus TV100 Lizardman Starting Roster:
QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
5Skinks300k
6Saurus480k
3Rerolls180k
Total960k

This roster lets you get the full compliment of Saurus onto the team right at the start. Having all that strength can be very helpful though the lack of Block can let them down or burn through rerolls. You need eleven players at the start so five Skinks fulfils that requirement and lets you get three rerolls and have 40k left over. I would use that to get an Apothecary after game one as you are certain to get at least 10k in winnings. There is an option to get one Assistant Coach and one Cheerleader to help get extra rerolls from the Kick Off table. That does run the risk of not being able to afford the Apothecary and might make no difference to your match as well.

From there it depends on your priority and any injuries that occur. Another reroll would be helpful though you may find you need more players. If you feel fine with just the five Skinks then save for the Kroxigor. Getting Skinks is cheaper and having some reserves is a great thing to have, you may also need them as replacements.

Reroll Heavy TV1000 Lizardman Starting Roster:
QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
6Skinks360k
5Saurus400k
4Rerolls240k
Total1000k

As Lizardman teams tend to go through rerolls rather quickly it might be a good idea to start with one less Saurus and go for an extra reroll. It doesn’t leave you any money spare towards an Apothecary though. The advantage is fairly obvious from this roster in that you can be a bit more liberal with your dice rolls, though don’t go overboard. Having five ST4 players will still be stronger than most opposing teams in a new league.

Having six Skinks on the pitch also isn’t that big of an issue against other starting teams. A lot of their players won’t have Block or Tackle and it is usually very hard to prevent them from being able to hit a Skink every turn anyway. If one does get injured than you can feed them a Journeyman Skink in the mean time and still come with Dodge so aren’t totally rubbish.

After getting an Apothecary, start saving for either the last Saurus or a Kroxigor. As you started with the four rerolls you won’t need to worry about those for a while if at all. Having six Skinks at the start should also hopefully not leave you needing to get more in the short term. In a short term league the first roster is probably better as you don’t have the time to save up for as many players, or the games to get SPP on your slow developers. Either way I would probably lean towards this one to my preference for having plenty of rerolls.

Kroxigor / Full Strength TV1000 Lizardman Starting Roster:
QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
4Skinks240k
6Saurus480k
1Kroxigor140k
2Rerolls120k
Total980k

You do have an option to max out on your strong players and having seven ST4+ players on  a team isn’t something any other team can offer. It makes it harder for other teams to be able to out muscle yours and only having four Skinks makes it easier to try and protect them. The flip side of that is though that if you don’t manage it, you are going to be left with a team that is going to struggle to pick the ball up. You can also only afford to have two rerolls so turnovers may be fairly common.

You have 20k left over which you could go for the Coach and Cheerleader option to hopefully get that extra reroll. I think you are best off saving it for the Apothecary though with your more expensive players all on the team from the outset. Rerolls are obviously a concern with this roster, so saving for them is priority though they now cost 40k more than a rookie Saurus. It is this fact that I don’t recommend starting out this way, a Kroxigor will always be 140k for you to buy, though you are losing an extra 60k by starting with the reroll you need to drop to afford them at the start.

TV1000 Lizardman Starting Roster Summary:

As you can see starting out a Lizardman team really requires trying to work out what the best balance between strength and rerolls is. As well as the length of the league you are going to play, you should also probably pay attention to the other races you are likely facing towards the start. If you have a lot of Block + Tackle to face then perhaps starting with less Skinks might be better to help try and protect them. Though if you do this, there is the risk that they have less of them to try and eliminate as well. Against fast and agile opponents ball handling becomes a bit riskier, so if facing a lot of this type of opposing sides, you might want to opt to get more rerolls. That will allow you to have less of a concern about using them for picking up or catching early in the half, at the expense of having none left late on.

11 thoughts on “TV1000 Lizardman Starting Roster”

  1. I like to go with 1 krox, 4 saurus, 6 skinks and 3 Reroll. Think the kroxigor is an exelent big guy and having prehensile tail is very usefull in early league play.

    Reply
  2. I always start with the Full Strength line-up. If you have fewer strong players on the field than the maximum, you are willingly giving the opponent free leave to roam where they want, since they will only be facing skinks.
    Not to mention that when a Saurus gets hurt, it is tolerable if you have 7 ST4+ players, but a disaster with fewer. Seriously, IMO you need all the muscle you can get on the field, to keep it under control.
    Also, the more games the big lizards are playing, the more likely they are to get MVPs, their easiest way to level. Having many skinks just puts the MVP onto skinks more often, and they really don’t have anything useful to do with it (unless they roll doubles or +stat).
    Skinks are there to be sacrificial lambs.

    Reply
  3. I recently played in a 4 player league (the Crunch Cup) where each team played the others twice and used the Krox/Full Strength starting roster. The other teams were Delf, Skaven and Gobs, so I was by far the bashiest team. I found my team build to be really good and won the comp with 4W, 1D, 1L. 2 rerolls is tough, but you just have to change your gameplay to take it into account. For example, on receiving you would put a couple of skinks next to the ball before doing anything else. You also need to limit handoffs and other risky plays.
     
    By only having 4 skinks on the pitch it makes it much easier to protect them. I found the opposition taking unnecessary risks to try and injure them, which further increased the chance of a turnover in my favour and put some of their players out of position. Many opponents also don’t know how to attack and defend against a team that has 7 players with S4+ and they generally seemed unable to stop me when I caged.
     
    I really like the Krox and as the league was a dodgy one I couldn’t pass him up. If I was going into a bashy league, I might pass up the Krox for a reroll instead. He is good already, so you don’t have to worry about him skilling slowly (which is likely what would happen if you purchase him during a season). But I would definitely start with all the Saurus, as they can be slow to skill, even when feeding them TD’s.
     
    N.

    Reply
  4. I’m definitely for starting with full strength. Even with 3+ rerolls you are going to be turning over a lot early on. Starting with 7 ST4 (+) players makes it very hard for your opponent to capitalise on those turn overs.
    Keep the rerolls for picking up the ball and suck up those both down results. Always try to block opposition blitzers last if you can.

    Reply
  5. Am I the only one playing at the end with the Krox , 5 saurus and 5 skink. I find that 6 strong guy and 5 player who can score is a very nice combo if played well.

    I started with the first option listed here, then bought Apothecary, then went on to buy the Kroxigor (I had no injury) and switched one of my saurus for the Krox. With one saurus as sub, I bought 2 more skink to sub next.

    Any thoughts on that ?

    Reply
  6. @Vince: Krox, 5 saurus and 5 skink isn’t a line-up that makes sense in my world. You can still afford only 2 RR’s and if I go down that road I’d much rather have the sixth saurus on my side. 🙂

    Reply
  7. For those leagues that continue on I prefer the Pure bash and smash start team.
    Kroxigor
    6 Saurus
    4 skinks
    2 rerolls.
    Yes you have to protect them skinks a bunch but the Apothecary comes after game 1 and save up for the 3rd reroll. Than add 1 or two additional skinks. I love the Fouling skink with Sneaky Git and Dirty Player.

    Reply
  8. What version of rules are the GW Almanac’s on? I got the 2019 SPIKE Alamanac and they had a new player for Lizardmen called a Chameleon Skink? It’s not in Blood Bowl 2 or on here, only on their plastic team and also in their SPIKE magazine.

    Reply
    • That’s the latest version of the rules, though I’m not convinced Chameleon Skinks are worth the extra cost over normal ones. There is so little passing in the game that paying extra for Pass Block and Shadowing doesn’t strike me as a good deal. If your playing environment sees a lot of passing though then give them a shot.

      Reply
      • Are they supposed to be an answer/counter for elf teams and those who enjoy the passing game? Even an Elf can 2 die block a Chameleon Skink. How would you use them effectively? You’d have to double mark every possible receiver just to get them to a 1 die block…and even then they might just say yolo and doink your guy anyway lol.

        I legitimately can’t think of how to use this skink?

        Reply

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