All, Take a look at this army list. I just recently altered this list but have played steadily with it and have gone 7-0-1 in 8 games so far. A friend of mine and I decided to stray away from magic items and we challenged each other to make an army that has zero magic items and see how effective it can be... I think I have been doing good so far. There is a local tournament next week and this is what I will be bringing. I have noticed that this army is incredibly effective against chaos armies (probably because of the magic). Led by a slann mage priest so everybody knows that magic is theme of this army. I just recently finished painting it completely and am about to finish the display board (pics coming soon! Stay tuned). Let me know what you think. Slann-Mage Priest 4 Disciplines - Focus of Mastery (pick any lore, knows all spells in that lore) - Focused Rumination (free dice to any attempted spell) - Becalming Cogitation (enemy wizard within 24" has 6's discarded) - Unfathomable Presence (Magic Resistance (3)) Battle Standard Bearer Skink Priest - Level 2 - Ancient Steg with EOTG Skink Priest - Level 2 Scar-Vet - Light Armour - Shield - Great Weapon 20 Saurus - Full Command 20 Saurus - Full Command - Spears 12 Skinks (blowpipes) 12 Skinks (blowpipes) 12 Skinks (blowpipes) 12 Skinks (blowpipes) 20 Temple Guard - Full Command Casting Pool: 11 dice Dispel Pool: 7 dice I choose the lore of metal (and sometimes lore of death depending on the opponent) for the slann and obviously lore of heavens for both skink priests. My basic strategy is to have the scar-vet in the TG and that unit is flanked by both units of saurus. I use the skinks to continuously pepper the enemy and double shots with poison is nothing to sneeze at. The might of the slann's magic coupled with the EOTG (and it's abilities) makes for a pretty deadly combo. My only concern with this list is that I do have the TG unit basically an "all eggs in one basket" unit, however, my thoughts are that if my opponent can bring down that unit with the scar-vet and the TG having immunity to psychology and unbreakble then i deserve to lose and they deserve to win... Thoughts please? Thanks in advance.
Just an update on this one... The tournament was this past Saturday (25th) and ended up 2-0-1 and faced Chaos armies in all 3 rounds. I ended up 2nd place overall (1st place was a Chaos army) and won best painted army. Surprisingly, the Chaos army that won first place also had zero magic items so first and second place had no magic items. I was pretty happy with the games and results and had an awesome time. I think I'm going to switch up my army list to be puretly hand to hand with zero magic items, I'll post it soon. Thanks again. Iggy Koopa
You ain't got no hammer units brah, some 'fings just ain't gonna get beat by saurus. The way you be a good playeh in dis grame is to outmanoova yo enemese, you blowpiping bros ain't gonna do nuffin coming on the side of somefing. If yah sends the enjun to foight sumfing the preest is gon get whack'd. Bring sum Krox, bring some cold ones, or take a detatchment of saurus in a pinch.
Its good. Really very good. Heres how I change it though. Make the Saurus Warriors 18 strong. Rank them 6x3. and GIVE THEM SPEARS, they totally own. Drop 2 of the slann's disciplines (keep Focussed rumination and Focus of Mystery, drop other 2) With the points that are freed up, get 2 razordons to bone fast cavalry. Drop the skink units into units of 10 and you will have enough points. Or to free up points you could drop the magic level of the skink priest on foot to one. Why? Because more than 10 power dice is pushing the boundries of good taste and because he's kinda crap, as is heavans magic. I would get at least one magic item, if only one. Cupped Hands of the Old Ones. Its win. I understand you are into the whole "no magic items" tech, and its cool to not spend a billion on characters, but CHotOO is "word on a stick", homie. Also.....ignore the "ain't got no hammer units brah!" guy. hesabad. Nice list man, best one ive seen on this forum so far.
Hey, thanks for the response. You know what the funny thing about your post is? I actually took a road trip and brought my lizardmen book and started redoing my list and it came out to almost exactly how you said I should change it. I lowered the skink unit sizes to 10, dropped 2 disciplines from the slann, and added the razordons. However, I also dropped second skink priest as well. After freeing up some points, I added 4 terradons. I'm yet to field it yet but when I do I'll post letting you know how it did. Thanks again for the pointers. Keep in touch! Iggy Koopa
Oh yea, sorry, I guess I should mention that I'm sticking with zero magic items. I thought real hard about cupped hand of the old ones but ultimately decided against it... You're right, I'm trying to stick to that theme. Thanks again! Iggy Koopa
Beh, I can't see why you'd avoid taking ANY magic items, I try and fit a war banner into every army I play, in any battle, no matter which race. +1 to CR is just good. Second, I'm sick of people trash talking the lore of heavens, it's a great lore, very wide ranging in it's application to a clever wizard, and has many infinite range abilities. Just wait until celestial shield saves a stegadon from a great cannon, or urannons thunderbolt re-rolls 3 dice into wounding hits with second sign of amul and kills 4 knights of chaos. Lore of heavens, take a chance, then take a different chance if you didn't like the first one. Thirdly, you may currently be balanced for comp of some sort, (though some places would knock you for having the 4 units of skirmishers, being non basic infantry) As I said earlier, some units will not be beat by saurus, and your army is all anvil and no hammer. You are pre-empting yourself into a very defensive game, which is fine if all you ever face is chaos, since they will use the typical "go forward.....win?" strategy typical to a WOC player, but what about a dwarven gun line? A team of terradons isn't gonna magically stop all their bolts and rocks from crushing your dudes, and good luck magicking them to death, even gooder luck beating their longbeards and other units with saurus, they can easily sit on a pile of +7 to CR with their ability to spam magic banners all over the place.
True. I like the lore of the heavens, I agree with everything you have said about it and you make some excellent points. Uranon's thunderbolt and the celestial shield are two excellent spells found within that lore... I understand what you're saying about the army and the truth be told all I really face in our local gaming group is chaos armies (though that's not what I intentionally geared my army list for) and have played against some dwarves and elves with lots of guns. I seem to be at a 50/50 percentage when facing those armies. I'll continue to play this list and alter it as I move forward with what I think I'll need. Again, thanks for your responses and input, it is much appreciated. Iggy Koopa
I'm really liking the list and i like your resolve to stick with no magic items As for not having a hammer: if you coordinate yourself well enough with EoTG it could be the only hammer you will need.. Maybe skive off some points here and there to fix up a unit of CoK's as they are great flankers or make a unit of skinks normal and toss a Krox or two.. Its really up to you though.. YOU play your army and YOU have your opponents so YOU would know what works best with them And dwarf cannon lines are already gay IMO so sitting back out of range and waiting for turn 6 is my favorite way to piss them off in return (never really done that, its just an idea..)
Good man! The only thing better than a good list is a better list. (Totally profound, ai?). Good to see your not beyond changing lists and taking advice. Good luck with your play. To those who were offended by me bagging heavans magic, let me make myself more clear. Its crap compared with other lores, and not worth counting on to do anything. And Celestial Shield is only good against armies with cannons or obscene shooting. Which is actually not that many. Even then, they can target another unit, not the warded one. Its far to situational to be actually straight up regarded as a good spell. Uranons is good, granted, but you have to roll it. If it had a magic missile as its 1st spell, it would be legit. Then theres the fact they nerfed second sign, making it quite, quite bad. And as for comet of cassandora, i don't even want to got there ;p
Spot on with all your points about the lore of the heavens. I think, like with all armies, all the lores have strengths and weaknesses, it all depends on how you decide to play it... With me taking the Slann and the discipline where he can choose a lore and know all the spells, I would never take lore of the heavens, it would definitely be the last one on my list, however, having skink priests that HAVE to take it means that they can still hopefully get a few of the good ones in there and offer some small offensive (or defensive) support. It's all in how you play it and, in my opinion, how the dice are rolling on that particular day... Iggy Koopa
Basically, yes. Im a fan of fire and death against horde armies or skirmish armies (choice depends on the opponents' weakness to psychology), and good old Metal for armies with knights in them. Spirit of the Forge, basically. Sometime you might even choose life as well, though I would prolly only against horde Daemon armies.