Slann w/ Focused Rumination and Loremaster, - cupped hands - Lore of Shadow Saurus oldblood Terrifying mask, ogre blade, shield, dragonhelm Tett'eko 41 saurus warriors w/ spears and FC 28 skinks w/ javs & shields 20 temple guard /w champion -bane head 1 stegadon 1 salamader + handler 2 razordons + 2 handlers I double miscast the first magic phase and didnt used my cup because i Knew he had hellheart. powerdrained tetteko to a level 0 wizard and the slann nuked 10 temple guard. All of my units were dead at the top of turn 4. his sky cannon ripped me apart and his ogres aren't woundable. some horrendous rolls on my part, but still. any suggestions?
Throw less dice in your first magic phase?? Haha actually that seems very unlucky, I would just stack it up as bad luck, to get such unfortunate happenings early on is just a freak occurrence. How about swap old blood and tettoeko for 2 scar vets and 2 skink priests, gets some more versatilitity
If you are running Shadow I would recommend going with a solo Slann. There are 3 spells from Shadow that can't really be used since your Slann can't leave the TG, so having Loremaster is a waste. But overall I'll echo what Rhodium said. Seems like bad luck with all those miscasts. Sotek clearly had his back to you that day.
If I'm not mistaken you cannot use cupped hands against the hell heart. It doesn't cause a miscast, just makes you roll off the chart.
Jarb is right about the Hellheart, you can't use Cupped Hands. As for playing Ogres, you should be able to to very good against them. Basically, one Ogre is 3 Saurus but that is it. They have low armour except for some characters and Mournfang Cavalry. They are highly mobile and you don't want them to get the charge on you. Their shooting is really good and their canons are chariots once they have nothing left to shoot. You should have more units then your opponent so try to feed him some chaff to get the combats you want. Initiative test will be troublesome for Ogres (just like they are for you). Their magic is good but you should still dominate with your Slann (unless you miscast). Their Mournfang Cavalry will tear through your infantry so feed them small skinks units or something. If they don't get the charge, ogres are a lot less problematic for you since they lose their impact hits. Lore of Light is probably the best Lore if you are aiming to decimate Ogres. Striking before them and rerolling to hit means you will probably kill some Ogres before they get to attack. Lore of Life and Lore of Shadow are also very good choices against Ogres. T8 Saurus will make sure you stay in combat for a long time and Regrowth will allow you bring some models back on the table. I'm not sure your army set up is ideal for fighting ogres. Take smaller units of 10 skinks to act as roadblocks. I'm a big fan on Steadfast and agaisnt ogres, 10 wide is pointless since more ogre units are 3 or 4 wide. Steadfast and buffs allow you to grind them down. They will never be steadfast against a unit of 40 deployed 5 wide and 8 deep... I could go on and on but I hope you get the general idea. I play both armies so .
The hellheart item description says that you can use items or special rules that affect rolls on the miscast table though. I know its debated, but I only read that text one way.
First off. I have not played ogres, so this is theoryhammer. Second: you have 800+ points (more than 1/3) in characters. This is a lot, especially since they are rather poorly protected. Even though an oldblood is mean as heck, then having him going into battle with 2+ AS and no reroll/ward save? Third: Banehead on temple guard champion. Is there any character in an ogre list that he can actually kill?+ fourth: What about skink sirmishers instead of cohorts. The smallish (for a 5pt unit) cohort block wont last long against ogres. Their size means that not all of them gets to fire their poisoned shots and they are not poisonous in melee. Maybe subdividing into 2 units of skirmishers ? fifth. You currently have 2 combat worthy units and a steggie: The saurus block and the temple guard. The saurii are good and strong, but reactive, you want to receive charges rather than give them out. I am not sure this is a good idea, especially since Ogres will probably outfight you and thus it is important that you get to choose the battles. Your steggie is a good flanker, but he is so alone and a tempting target for the iron blaster(s). Without lore of life or some sort of "target saturation scheme" I would consider not running him against an army with artillery like ogres. Your temple guard is mean as heck, but smallish - I am not sure how it holds up to ogres. 6th. In case you play watch tower. None of your units can actually enter a watchtower at the moment... to sum up: Lizards are good at magic and combat, I think you overdo the magic and underdo the combat aspect. As a rule I like to have 2-3 really solid combat units in addition to a strong flanking unit. If I were you I would lose one of my hero choices and either boost the templeguard up to size, or maybe add another Saurus block (perhaps reduce the big one to make to 30 saurii blocks) Another fun idea could be to add a cold one to your old blood and som saurii cav as a delivery system. At the very least I would give your old blood light armour (to make him 1+) and use skink skirmishers instead, possibly with blow pipes instead of javs. You could have a unit of 12 and a unit of 13. Only two bodies less and loads of wounds.