Anthony Reynolds

Like many people when they were growing up, I loved dinosaurs. Trips to the museum to gawk at the bones of those mighty creatures that once stalked the earth filled me with awe, and I used to have (and probably still do have, somewhere) an endless supply of plastic dinos that I used to battle it out with over the couch and rug. I guess doing the Lizardmen Army book is in a way just a (slightly) more grown up way of still playing with toy dinosaurs. Also, coincidently, I used to love lizards – where I grew up in Sydney, Australia, there were always thousands of little lizards (oddly enough, they were called skinks), and the bigger blue-tongues prowling around the garden, and I spent many an hour watching them, and rescuing them from the pool (those skinks were not aquatic).

I remember buying a copy of the 3rd Edition Warhammer Armies book, and being quite bemused by the Slann army and its models. "What's all that about?" I thought, as I looked at the strange units of froggy blokes. They just looked bizarre, though I really quite liked the overall Aztec feel. Over the years, I watched as the Slann army turned into the Lizardmen army (which in my opinion worked a lot better both in game terms and visually), and it really began to take shape. The Slann themselves moved from the basic warriors of the army to the obese, guiding forces behind the Lizardmen, which is the image that we have stuck with ever since (though I think Juan Diaz's new model is the most jaw-dropping version of the Slann I've seen). Now, a few years later, I find myself at the helm of the latest incarnation of the Lizardmen Army book.

THE OVERALL FEEL
Before work was started on any of the artwork, models or writing, the overall key design for the Lizardmen was finalised. This is basically deciding with everyone (Artists, Miniatures Designers, 'Eavy Metal painters and writers) what the Lizardmen are all about; making sure everyone knew the ‘feel' that we wanted with the army. The main points that came out through these meetings was a feel of what Lustria itself is like (it ain't a walk in the park), how the Lizardmen looked, how they fight and why, and what their place is in the world.

Below is an overview - produced to give a feel of what the Lizardmen are all about - which we used to let everyone working on the project understand where we were coming from.

THE RULES
I know many of you will be wanting to know what the deal is with the new rules, so I shall delve straight in. Well, the rules for the Lizardmen were already pretty good in the Annual 2002 preview (which first appeared in White Dwarf 256), and a major overhaul was unnecessary. That's what the preview army lists we print in White Dwarf, the Journal and Warhammer Chronicles are for; to give people an indicator of the way we are heading on each project and to get feedback before actually including them in the main book. All that I felt the Lizardmen needed were some tweaks to make the army more enjoyable to play with and to allow players more variety when picking their force. As well as my own opinions (and those of the other Games Dev team members, particularly Gav), I made sure that I kept an eye and an ear open to what gamers thought should be done. This feedback came from a number of sources, including letters sent in, speaking to people at conventions and tournaments, as well as regularly lurking around the many forums on the Internet.

With all this information together, I began to compile the points that I wanted to address. Rather than waffling on about this stuff generally, I'll give a quick run through of the army list, and mention the main changes that have been made.

Next: The Army List