I'm with Gaidal Cain, though Pitsu makes some good points. Since Marksmen are so dangerous, and since as long as you protect them they won't take melee damage (they will though from spells and other ranged creatures) they are the superior creature. Their weakness in defense is compensated for by the difficulty in hitting them. Lizard Warriors aren't bad creatures, but the only times when they clearly outshine the Marksmen are when they're getting hit, and you don't want your Ranged creatures to get him.
If it were I choosing 7 creatures to put in my ideal town, I'd definitely rank the Marksmen a lot higher than Lizard Warriors, though of course I'd prefer my Marksmen all shapeshifted into Lizard Warriors when attacking a town (and shapeshifting back after)
I think wimfrits put things into perspective with his comment from long ago - Marksmen are much superior
so long as you aren't getting hit (which you shouldn't be), but once defense comes into the equation Lizard Warriors are better.
Pitsu wrote:I did not mean the full armies here, but early game mainly. As also JJ said in previous post, lizard warriors are rarely an early priority for fortress player, because he has access to better units. At the same time upgrading archers to marksmen is a high priority to castle player. Hence the impression that marksmen are great, but lizard warriors next to useless.
Well I remember when I first started trying Fortress seriously in multiplayer games, I always went for Lizard Warriors first (that's primarily due to my experience with Castle / Rampart's strong ranged creatures). It wasn't very successful though; the rate of creeping was significantly slower than Castle / Rampart. I'd say that this 'impression' that Marksmen are great but Lizard Warriors next to useless
is because Marksmen are great and Lizard Warriors inferior.
If you look at the ratings then you'll see that a single Lizard Warrior is better than a single Marksman in overall stats. If you put them against each other the Marksmen win, though, mainly because of their +1 in speed which gives them the 1st shot.
You have it backwards. On even ground, in equal numbers, Lizard Warriors > Marksmen. There was a page with the calculations somewhere, I've forgotten where it is though.
I'm a hypocrite because I suggested that all life is sacred and should not be wasted without good reason.