I was looking for info on this as well in the rules help section. Dwarf canons can still pew pew to death. Don't remember if the divine plaque helped for this or not. Magic (haha!) Skaven shooting.. I'll be monitoring this thread closely however!
Ranged attacks means anything that's not in hand-to-hand (war machines, bows, guns, most magic, etc), so basically as long as they aren't touching the Slann you get the 2+ save.
a nice note on the subject. ALMOST everything that has ranged and magical attacks also happen to have flaming attacks. a 5 point talisman will nullify those, making the plaque a bit redundant. It is not fool proof, but then again, nothing really is.
Hellcannons aren't magical. It sounds silly but it should be mentioned: anything with Flaming Blade and/or the Metal Lore augment (that I forgot the name of). They're not much of a threat, but something to pay attention to. Dark Elves have a spell (Blade Wind) and an item (Hydra Teeth) That are used at range, magical, but specifically list their attacks as HtH attacks. Seems weird but it will effect the ethereal slann and you won't get the plaque's 2++. Oh! And Treemen have a short ranged attack that is ranged, would hurt like hell, and I think is magical because of the Forest Spirit rule. Pyre
A very good point! Problem is that dwarf canons can be given non-flaming runes, such as rune of forging, or armor piercing, and they still count as magical attacks. Irrelevant if you don't play against dwarves though
In the end the answer is nothing competitve will threaten the ethereal slann with dragonbane gem.... Especially when he is near a block of infantry. 4+ look out sir Massacre win last night with Slann Shadow Cupped hands Dragonbane Crown of command Ethereal +1 dice Becalming Learned that loremaster and 2 more scar vets will be more useful than a stegadon...
I like that build, but I still disagree with the bolded. Dwarves are definitely not a non-competitive army, and their warmachines can still shoot you. You do have a 4+ ward save and LoS roll to help though. So Dragonband is probably fine.
dwarf warmachines CAN have runes that makes them magical and not flaming. however, if you assume an all comers list (and i tend to do that) they will almost always have flaming rune on the cannons, but not on the catapults. so his catapults can hurt your (still have a 4+ ward though), but if he choses to shoot his S5 catapult at your lone slann instead of your sauruses... id be happy to let him do that tbh.
Is Divine plaque still safer then? I realize the point difference, but I play against a lot of dwarves, and divine plaque works the same against flaming magical ranged attacks as non.
well... it does help a bit, but it seems very extensive to reduce the hit chances of BS shooting with magic attacks. thats like jazzails and flamers and nothing else, right? sure you want to spend 40 points on that?