I love me some Temple Guard with a Slann in it. The problem is, one miscast and I no longer have Temple Guard around my Slann. Because of this I have defaulted to Lore of Life on my Slann. How do you guys protect your Slann? Do you just plop him in the Guard and "whatever happens happens?" Or do you have him go it alone and ethereal? I cant decide on what Id like to do without the Cupped Hands Thoughts?
You can also put your Slann off on a Flank of the TG. So he has 4 less TG in base to base contact with him (and almost half less TG under a big template) Also, don't throw 5, 6 dice at a Spell if the results of the spell won't out weigh a TG destroying miscast. At 2 - 4 dice, whatever happens, happens. Before I make a Slann ethereal, I'd plop him in a unit of Skink Skirmishers. That mitigates a lot of the damage from Miscasts. And when models do die, they're just cheap skinks.
Recently I've been putting him in a skink skirmish bunker. The issue, however, is that if you don't have a backup nearby it can die quite easily, exposing your premium frog. IF you're putting him by the guards I'd definatetly consider a low casting value lore OR wandering deliberation + book of ashur. And put him on the side as others have mentioned.
I have been torn on this item and I've gone back and forth. The skink bunker seems great from theory crafting view but you gotta make sure hes close enough up front to be witin 24" range for alot of the best spells turn 1 turn 2. This exposes him a bit. With only 10 skink guards I lost my slann with a rock lobba hit that took out enough to lose the LOS and then plop on the head. 12 - 14 or stick the slann on the end is important. TG have let me down as of late as they dont hold their own vs any decent infantry in this game. But thats really an all over problem.
I've found that it really just depends on your list, your slann, and how you want to play. If you are playing a buff heavy slann, such as a beasts, life, or light slann, or if you are using a short range slann, like a death slann, you will definitely want the temple guard. They provide a very good combat unit, and the stubborn helps them sit and grind out combat while your slann boosts the crap out of them. If you are playing a long ranged slann that you intend to be throwing a lot of dice into, such as a heavens or fire slann, then definitely take him with skirmishers. They get hurt less during the inevitable miscast explosions, and are harder to hit because of being skirmishers. You will have more maneuverability, and it will be easier to stay out of combat. For mixed slanns, such as WD or high loremaster slanns, it depends more on how you want to play it. I tend to lean toward having temple guard, but that is because I think they are cool. Also, my standard core for 2500 is 4x10 skirmishers and 30 or so saurus, so it is nice to have a second, better unit of saurus to combo charge with.
That's why you have to run another skirmisher bunker with a Skink Priest in it! Then your 24" range turns into a 48" range (for MM and DD, at least)!
I tend to run a solo ethereal slann, but to be fair there isn't a huge amount of magic cannon fire in my local meta which swings the decision a bit. Keeping him within 3" of a block of something gives him the 4+ look out sir on top of his ward and etherealness makes him difficult to pin down by anything with a decent chance of killing him. Also I often run him with two skink skirmisher/priest bunkers for arcane vassal purposes, it gives a lot of flexibility to move him around for the optimum save/cover/avoiding charges whilst being able to still cast his offensive spells. I can honestly say that I have never lost a slann in this configuration that wasn't to a miscast result.
Thanks for the replies! Holy crap! I was unawares that the Slann could LEAVE the Temple Guard now! I could START the game out of the unit... Cast Fiery Convocation / Tempest / Both THROUGH a Skink Priest if needed... swap the spell then move back into the Guard..... Wow... that helps a TON! I also like the idea of having all the Signature spells plus the Book of Ashur in theory but I feel that Wandering D lacks something... anyone else feel that way?
The one thing that WD lacks is the A-bomb spell that other lore choices give. But this is also one of the attractive things about WD, because there isn't so much investment in the magic phase. It also make the slann a swiss-army pocket knife for what he can do in the magic phase.
That depends on what you define as "a-bomb". Spirit leech and killing a lord or high value monster can be considered "a-bomb" the way I see it. The same with searing doom. With a boosted version average will be 7 hits. Against AS1+ models that's roughly 6 wounds. That's quite nasty the way I see it. Obviously Purple Sun is a league by itself. Being able to destroy entire armies with a little luck, but that's just one particular spell from one lore. But that's just my point of view.
That was what I was referring to. Those spells are great, and also what make WD great, but there aren't any colossal "win button" spells like purple sun, dwellers, or pit. i'm personally not saying that this is a bad thing. Just for those who think something is missing, that's it. I really like WD on my slann because then it's harder for my opponent to prioritize for that "one big spell".
The play style with WD is different though, yeah you don't have access to a spell of mass destruction but you can spam loads of smaller spells due to the low casting value of the signature spells. So instead of tactically trying to get off a single 18+ spell you can 2 or 3 dice maybe 3 or 4 smaller spells ( at the same target if need be ). The net result is often the same for that unit.
Probably also more reliable, as your opponent cant say "no" to the whole thing with a single dispell scroll.
Yeah absolutely, you can easily walk away with 75% of the damage that your SMD spell would have achieved completely unchallenged as your opponent can often have run out of dice at that point and no-one scrolls a fireball cause its a complete waste. That is an interesting side effect of WD, scrolls become less useful for the opposition because there is no clear cut choice about what to scroll so I find many opponents just hang on to them looking for the 'optimum' spell to scroll which of course never turns up.
All good points guys. Thanks. I think Im leaning toward WD over Loremaster High Magic at this point... But a part of me still wants to run Life Slann
Yeah I'm certainly gonna give wandering a try next game. Life would be good still I'm sure but without loremaster you gonna get screwed over once in a while and end up without dwellers or throne of vines etc.
I rarely run my Slann without Soul of Stone. Helps immensely when he's with his TG-buddies. Also, if you don't push the TG forward, but play them behind your lines, as I have a habit of doing (depending on the MU) you can go single file with the TG, with the Slann as the only model in the back rank (barring a cowboy or two sticking their tails back). Also allows for some nasty reform-tricks to close the range of spells or get the Slann the Hell out of Dodge if need be. /Bele