So a couple weeks ago I was clobbered by my WE buddy in our first end time game. I'm looking at a rematch in a couple weeks, so I wanted to run my intended list by for some tips. I expect to see a list similar to last game. It consisted of bus of 17 Sisters with a Lvl 4 High mage, Lvl 4 Death, and BSB hero. Magic items included the talisman that gives +2 MR and the BSB had armour of Destiny, so the entire unit was at a 2++ vs magic, and a 4++ otherwise. It played pure avoidance while 2 eagles tried to chaff things up and every remaining point was squeezed into trueflight arrows. I ran Slannless in that one, so now I want to demonstrate the firepower of a fully operational battletoad. He could bring wild riders or warhawks, but I feel like they won't be much trouble with end times and magic missles. Slann: Wandering, Channel Staff, Harmonic Convergence, Reservoir Skink Priest: Lvl 1 - Beast, Cube Skink Priest: Lvl 1 - Heavens Scar Vet: CO, GW, Armour of Destiny, BSB 10 Skirmishers (Slann deployment bunker) 10 Skirmishers (priest bunker) 10 Skirmishers 10 Skirmishers 20 Saurus: Sword and board, Full Command (priest bunker) 4 Kroxigors (2x2) 5 Cham Skinks 7 Cold One Riders: Standard, Sword and board (Svar Vet Bunker) 2 Salamanders 1 Salamander w/snack This leaves 6 points leftover to work with. Deployment will see the Slann deployed on a flank next to the saurus block, a skink block, and the lone salamander under the general's leadership. The other flank will see the beast priest skirmishers, the cold one bus, kroxigors, and 2 salamanders all in the BSB bubble. Center will have the remaining 2 skink blocks to react as-needed. The chamelion are an expensive magnet for trueflight, but they will deploy to prevent vanguard forward in case there are wild riders. My plan is to move the slann from my corner towards center field that first turn and then plop him on a summoned fulcrum to dominate magic. The saurus and salamander will deter any wild riders or gutsy heroes that want to go for the toad. The other side will see the cold ones swing around wide with 2 salamanders and the krox unit to slam archers and close in on his mage bunker. The skinks will bubble his sisters and try to contain them. I want to use the channel+fulcrum and reservoir to try and pump out an extra average of 3 dice/phase. These are a buffer for the to-cast d6 for dwellers, transmutation, and pit. I figure if they turn up with 5 or 6 dice available I'll try and drop it, otherwise I'll burn one and move on to the next. The remaining will go towards magic missles and miasmaing the BS of the archers. What I'm worried about: True flight archers are evil, evil things. I feel like my slann is vulnerable on the fulcrum and I'm a bit concerned that turn 1 could see a volly that wipes him off the board. He likes to use them to focus down skinks and salamanders and panic nearby skinks/sallies, which is why I split the BSB from the general to provide a LD buffer. High magic. He always brings this for the free wound tokens on his sister bus. It may be a long shot, but that high magic ET spell would really put the hurt on. I'm a bit worried that he might think to bring a power scroll to shut the toad down for a guaranteed turn. A dragon. I haven't played against one so I don't know what to expect if he decides to do that. I think the protective blocks can hold it until reinforcements and with hexes I feel more confident about this than the other 2 situations. I want to shock-and-awe this sister bus so he doesn't think about bringing it again for a good long time. The no-save spells, salamanders, and CO bus hopefully will do the trick. ANY tips/suggestions/other considerations would be appreciated. Thanks for the help guys!
The list he seems to play is quite death star oriented, so if this is all he has simply try to get your unit of knights in it. Consider using High magic to walk between worlds your knights into position, this is in general a good way to get to long range bad in cc death stars as these, maybe try to bait dispell dice with unforge and tempest, he will want to dispell those, and then move in. Chaff as Eagles is then easily flown over. Some general thing, always take snacks with salamanders to stop them from going berserk after one shot. I would also take as i mentioned High magic, it serves your purposes against this enemy better, nothing more fun then Unforging a botwd. Seems solid for the rest, maybe take a Scroll instead of a cube because it is more reliable and cheaper, but it is something of taste. Maybe even take both in such magic heavy battles. Good Luck
This is all rather theoretical (I’ve never faced one of these wound tanking sister busses) but you could probably go one of two ways with your slaan (and don’t try to split them – from the games I have played with end times magic it feels like you have lots of dice, but still only end up casting a few spells each turn). You could either focus on bombing the rest of the army. Things like comet, banishment, fire ball, soul quench all kill lots of elves quickly. You could also use things like walk between worlds or bridge of shadows to teleport units into the elven backfield. While this is going on block the bus. Chain flee important units, double flee when you can get it on its own, sacrifice chaff etc. Do whatever it takes to stop it bringing in too many points. This could be hard given M9 fast cav with access to walk between worlds! The other option is to nullify the bus. If you plan for dwellers then apply some soulblight or enfeebling first, and if dwellers fails try a net. Even without any additional hex’s net will make them fail 1/3 of their spells. If you manage a final trans then follow it up with a doom and darkness (if they fail the following LD6 stupidity test they lose a turn for nothing). If you can lower their initiative then pits and purple suns could do some work as well. You could also try and get a touch character with a stubborn crown into them. The bus doesn’t deal much damage it breaks you through static res (mostly), so stubborn will bypass this. Once you’re in you just have to watch out for purple sun and doom and darkness (since arcane unforging can’t get you while you’re in combat). It will be hard to catch them, but the character with the crown projects a no go zone for them making it harder for the bus to hoover up points. Finally, miasma is one of the few things out there than can mess up tureflight shots since it’s not a modifier to hit it’s a modifier to their stat.