The Lizardmen couldn’t miss out on the shiny new toys some teams got in their post-2016 updates and in doing so, gained the Chameleon Skinks. For 10k more than your regular Skink, you drop 1 point of Movement and earn On the Ball and Shadowing. On the Ball is essentially a combination of Pass Block and Kick Of Return from the old rules and Shadowing lets you attempt to stick to another player should they try to dodge away from you.

These are both fairly niche skills and if you wanted to grab them on a normal Skink, you’d need to acquire them from your secondary skill selection, so a fairly decent chunk of spp has been “saved” by buying the Chameleon Skink instead. Their primary purpose seems to be that of a disruptions player, either by forcing additional dodge rolls or making out-of-turn movement to either intercept or make pass/catches harder or just get nearer the ball.

The value of them is going to be, is that 10k worth dropping into MV7 and how often Shadowing/OTB are going to crop up? MV7 isn’t actually that good for Shadowing as we briefly discussed in our article on the changes between skills in BB2 and BB3. Against a regular, MV6 Lineman, the Chameleon needs a roll of 5+ to actually follow the player, or a 6+ against anything with MV7 or above. Therefore a regular skink with Shadowing is actually better than the Chameleon vs MV7 and below, and considering you usually want to use Shadowing against faster, more agile players, it can be a little hard to justify. That being said, a Skink with just Shadowing is 100k (or 80k if you randomly roll it), which probably isn’t worth the investment, so getting the Chameleon is probably better value overall, especially seeing as you’re getting two additional skills for your money.

On the Ball is, fine. I’ve never really found much value in it, but additional movement is definitely not a bad thing and again, it’s a secondary skill you’d probably never take on a regular Skink. It probably has a little more worth in the new rules with the Passing Interference rules. You’re still only deflecting Accurate passes on a 6+ but on the occasion, your opponent rolls poorly, you can move into an interfering position and get 5+ for an inaccurate pass or 4+ for a wildly inaccurate pass. It won’t happen often but again, it’s basically a free skill and it’ll crop up now and then.

It’s also worth mentioning they are the best throwers on the team with PA3+. Lizardmen aren’t known for their passing but it is a nice option to have as a last, last, last-ditch plan.

They’re still good for what they are, but they boil down to slower skinks that have few tricks up their sleeves.

Build List:

• Random Skills
• Ball Disruptor
• Kick Off/Interceptor

Chameleon Skink Base Stats:

Randomised Skills:

There’s not an awful lot on either the General or Agility categories that you could go wrong with for the Chameleon and with the Skinks doing most of the scoring, it’s going to be hard to get SPP anyway. That being said, not a lot really helps them do their job well, really you’re looking at rolling Wrestle or Tackle in the General column, in which case you probably should’ve bought a Primary skill anyway.  Agility skills are a bit better for some cheap skills but, even so, I’d rather pick those.

Ball Disruptor | Chameleon Skink Build

Primaries: Side Step, Diving Tackle, Jump Up, Diving Catch, Sure Feet
Secondaries: Wrestle, Tackle
Characteristics: MV, AG

The primary plan here is to utilise Shadowing as much as possible, get the Skinks attached to the ball carrier and make complete nuisances of themselves. Side Step is your biggest friend here as most of the time you’ll be able to stick to the carrier, couple this with Diving Tackle means your opponent will need to think twice about Dodging away which makes their screen-play much better as well. DT and Shadowing together can be very potent if the rolls go your way, but DT is definitely the bigger value skill of the two, so don’t rely on Shadowing too much on anything MV7 and above.

If you can afford it Wrestle gives them some nice protection vs Both Downs and in a pinch you can use them as a sacker. More importantly, you can potentially drag down the ball carrier should they attempt you block you in an effort to escape. Tackle is of course a nice bonus in terms of Secondary Skills too, but is quite the investment and you should have a few Saurus with this skill anyway to make up for it.

Jump Up is always good on fast players, especially Stunty ones, so you can recover from an advanced position or continue to track down the ball. Diving Catch can be fun as well, if you manage the knock the ball loose (ideally by blocking the carrier towards the Cameleon), you have a decent-ish chance of at least making the catch roll. Sure Feet of course gives them a little more range.

As for Characteristics, Movement is your best bet here. It makes Shadowing that much better (4+ vs M6, 5+ vs M7 and 6+ vs MV8+). The others are pretty good too, I’d put agility over Strength in this case as it’ll allow you to get adjacent to ball carriers much easier and Stunty players with AG2+ will always make their opponents cry a little.

Kick Off/Intercept Skink |Chameleon Skink Build

Primaries: Catch, Diving Catch, Sure Feet, Sprint
Secondaries: Wrestle, Sure Hands
Characteristics: AG, MV

Rather than focusing on Shadowing, this time we’ll do a little more with On The Ball. This Chameleon serves two purposes:

• Retrieve the Ball from the Kick Off and hand-off to a scoring Skink.
• Attempt Intercepts

The first role will see more play during the game, so we grab both Catch & Diving Catch to help with this, giving you a pretty decent range across the backline to attempt to catch the ball, then move up and Hand Off to your Scoring Skink. Sure Feet & Sprint later on can help too for particularly deep kicks, but most of the time you’re probably safer just holding on and bringing some regular skinks back to screen/protect. Sure Hands can also help you scoop up the ball should it be out of range, or even attempt to grab loose balls during the game.

Sadly there’s not much you can do to improve Intercepts, but you can still use On the Ball + Catch to attempt it anyway. Getting AG2+ will certainly help, making Interceptions vs an Accurate Pass, a 5+.

I’d look to give them Wrestle as well for some added sacker utility and general protection.

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The Chameleon Skink is kind of an oddball in the Lizardman team. The regular skinks are cheaper, faster and have a little more flexibility in where they can develop and for most roles are the better basic option. The Chameleon can find some use for sure and I think grabbing 1 to play that harasser/disruptor role is a good idea, leaving your faster Skink Runners to recover balls from fallen opponents or screen off areas of the pitch while the Chameleon does their thing.

That’s it for the Chameleon Skink builds! Check out our guides for Saurus Blockers, Skink Runner Linemen build and the Kroxigor.