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8th Ed. Death Slann

Discussion in 'Lizardmen & Saurian Ancients Tactics' started by strewart, Dec 14, 2011.

  1. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    I was reading through the lores of magic last night trying to decide which one to use on a new VC build, and as I read the Death list I thought it could be rather useful for a Slann. Opponent's characters always seem to provide a lot of headaches for me, sniping off the BSB or general in the first couple of turns would swing the battle in your favour a long way, and not too hard to do. It was only poor rolling (6 dice, 3 needed to be 4+, only managed 1) that stopped me from killing a beast lord on turn 1 last night.
    The sniping spells are also good for destroying monsters and chariots if needed, again breaking the support of your opponent's army.

    Additionally, you could blast the opponent's archmage early, giving realy full control of the magic phase. Buffs and hexes from them are another big threat to our army. They would be relatively easy to pop. You could even save 50 points by not needing to take cogitation.

    Wounds have a chance to throw you extra PD to take even more control in the magic phase than the Slann already has. Soulblight (-1 S and T) would be awesome for making your units very hard to scratch and your opponents units easy to kill with Saurus, at its highest level effecting every unit within 24" it is quite possibly the scariest spell in the game, and a Slann could cast it without too much trouble.

    Combo Doom and Darkness with salamanders and you can make a unit flee very easily, especially if you are sniping the BSB or general early. Combo with Soulblight as well and the salamanders will kill mountains of models. Combo that with a Skink priest dropping iceshard blizzard, and whoever gets hit by the salamander is at -4 leadership. Even the hardiest unit becomes likely to flee, and keep fleeing in your opponent's turn since the -4 is still in play. Then in your next turn, charge the fleeing unit either with a flying priest or some charmeleons and push them off the board.

    What are people's thoughts? A much more offensive and potentially scary lore to throw around than the usual light or life, and focuses more or crippling your opponent rather than buffing your own army.
     
  2. HoverBoy
    Ripperdactil

    HoverBoy New Member

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    Death slaan is awesome just don't use purple sun unless you're really desperate.
     
  3. Arli
    Skink Priest

    Arli Moderator Staff Member

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    Hoverboy is correct. I have used Death lore 5 or 6 times. EVERY teme that I use purple sun (like 3 before I stopped using it), I have misfired and killed my own Death Slann.
     
  4. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    In my gaming group we don't use number 6 spells anyway because we find them too unbalanced in the game, so no worry there.

    I'm quite keen to try a death Slann then. Wondering if I should tweak my list a bit to suit it more. Possibly try to get another salamander in due to doom and darkness.
     
  5. Lord Tsunami
    Salamander

    Lord Tsunami Member

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    death is a good lore. the reason i chose life instead is that with such cheap spells the bonus power dice becomes incredibly useful. with my life slann i cast ~5 spells per turn. thats 5 extra power dice to dispel. with death, i doubt you could seriously try for more than 3 spells per turn, making you "lose" 2 power dice. sure you could gain extra dice from the lore ability, but will he really cause 6 wounds per turn? (with no purple sun?).

    obviously death is the "best" choice for a 2nd slann, since he can provide some power dice on his own. one hit with purple sun could power a whole other life slann just with the lore ability.

    i do agree that salamanders + doom and darkness sounds incredibly powerful. it might be worth trying it just for that :D
     
  6. Ejpok
    Temple Guard

    Ejpok New Member

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    Hello,
    Death Lore on a Slann is very good, because it combines well with our army. Maily because of D&D + Salamanders. It's only drawback it it Short Range of avarege 24" for a larger spell, that could cause a problem.
    A death Slann with Banehead is a good caunter againts many stupid things:). I once saw a Duel Slann build on a 2800 point value. One had Death and the otherone had life, but the life Slann hardly cast anything because you have to get throne, So most of the PD went to the Death Slann.
    To get it all up togeather, if you aren't afraid of getting quite close to your opponent, than go for Death:)
    Cheers.
     
  7. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Bane head is a great idea for a death slann! I think I will add it.

    Who would make the best target; general, BSB or lvl 4 wizard? I'm thinking lvl 4 for most games so you can destroy their casting potential early, but general for undead.
     
  8. Ejpok
    Temple Guard

    Ejpok New Member

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    Hello,
    It all Depends on your enemy, If you play VC than a lvl 4 wizard will be the general.
    I currently see that most players use Lore of Shadow on thier lvl4 mages, which is devastating vs Lizardmen. So I would go for the wizard:)
    Cheers,
     
  9. Arli
    Skink Priest

    Arli Moderator Staff Member

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    The heirophant in a TK army. I do not know if it will be a lvl 4 caster or not, but take it out and the battle is over.
     
  10. OutofIdeas
    Jungle Swarm

    OutofIdeas New Member

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    I am playing a few games tonight with a Death Slann against Tomb Kings so I will let you know how it works. I see a number of good synergies with the lore and often play more risk/reward type magic phase. Going to run it at 2 separate points values to see how it scales in larger games. I'm expecting to blow up my frog at some point in good faith to see how much chaos he can cause. Hope to give a report because I've wanted to test this out for some time now.
     
  11. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    I'm hopefully going to give it a go today as well. See wat happens.

    My list contains the Slann, a priest, 2 scar vets, 2 units of saurus, unit of TG, charmeleon skinks, skrox unit, skink skirmisher unit, 2 sallies, ancient steg. 2500 points.

    I worked the banehead onto the Slann, and now I'm thinking I could potentially get rid of cogitation since I will be sniping the enemy wizard very early on anyway. I'm even considering making the TG into saurus to save 80 points, giving the Slann ethereal, and then using the still remaining ~80 points to boost the saurus units and make them bigger. It relies a lot on the magic working as I want it to, so of course there is the risk that spells won't go my way in the first turn or two and I will struggle, but it has very deadly potential. I'll stick with the original list to start with since it is a bit safer and more rounded, but definitely keep these changes in mind for a more high risk/high reward army.
     
  12. HoverBoy
    Ripperdactil

    HoverBoy New Member

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    Taking out the BSB goes great with doom and darkness ;)
     
  13. Daneish
    Cold One

    Daneish New Member

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    I have been thinking about the death slann also. Anyone thought about giving him the magic carpet?
     
  14. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    FAQ says you are unable to do that unfortunately. He doesn't count as being on foot so cannot ride a carpet.

    I didn't get a chance to play on the weekend, but I'm lined up for a game Tuesday night.
     
  15. Daneish
    Cold One

    Daneish New Member

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    Damn you faq! Haha

    On the plus side it did rule that the misscast table is not magical damage, so a solo ethereal slann only has 2results to be worried about. That means you can throw around all the dice you like.
     
  16. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Really? I'm 90% sure that it did the opposite of that and said miscast damage did count as magical, which it certainly makes sense that it should.


    Here you go, bottom of p6 of the WHFB FAQ:

     
  17. Daneish
    Cold One

    Daneish New Member

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    OH bugger. Do you get magic res against them?
     
  18. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Nope. AFAIK there are only two protections from miscast a Slann can have. One is the Cupped Hands, the other is Throne of Vines if you take life. There is also one that allows a reroll of miscast result, may be useful but not that great.
     
  19. totzro
    Kroxigor

    totzro Active Member

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    Regarding that. What is peoples general tactic against miscasts? They seem very devastating and quite common in 8th ed. What is the preferred numbers of dices?

    Death seems nice for sniping out annoying enemy characters, but I think light is better to buff your saurus and neglect their disadvantages.
     
  20. Questioner
    Saurus

    Questioner New Member

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    No, I don't think so.
     

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