8th Ed. Bastiladons Beam and General Bound Spells

It's all about when you choose to cast it, if you attempt a few 'must dispell' spells (look at high magic) then the opponent will use all of his dice to dispell the aforementioned spells leaving 1 or 2 power dice to use the bastiladon's beam. Invariably there are more power dice than dispell dice and if your opponent is scared of one or twooif your spells he will probably roll a number of dispell dice equal to or greater than the number of power dice used to cast the spell. This leaves you at the end of the phase with around 2 power dice an no opposing dispel dice; more than enough for the bastiladon.

 

Here's my take. You almost always will have more power dice then your opponents. The magic phase is always about forcing your opponent to have to choose one bad thing over another bad thing and then try to get him to take the right bad effect. In other words if he wasting 2 dice to dispel a bound spell that means maybe your wysaans or a boosted hand of glory gets through which btw the boosted HoG is the same cast as wysaans. The other choice is you save that bound spell for last when your opponent can't dispel it. But then you might lose a different spell. Either way it's always about making it a lose lose situation. Which is a win for you. Plus you opponent could be dumb and think that he is lucky and you will roll a 1 for what it does maybe it goes through.

 

Thanks for all your input and I will try the bastiladon next game.

But I still have a few more concerns.

Our MUST cast spells are generally HoG, Wyssans, or even the regeneration spell from lore of life. Perhaps walk between worlds as well. If you noticed they are all unit buff spells that help us in close combat a majority of the time. Smart opponents wont bother spelling those early on in the game since they arent in close combat. Who really cares if I get Hog Or Wyssans off in turn one on a unit. They arent fighting anything for at least another turn or two. Therefore he will let those go and just dispel the beam.

Later on in the game when things are in close combat vice versa is true. THe beam wont be able to target anything since most things will be in close combat and the opponent can just focus on dispelling the buff spells.

Any thoughts on that?

 

I think all the "don't really care" spells in High Magic turn into early game "must cast" spells becasue of our Lore Attribute.

Early in the game you should be casting Tempest or Arcane Unforging or Soul Quench and trading them for more useful spells against the army you are playing. The earlier and more often you can try to trade into a school of magic, the more likely you will get the spell you need AND have a magic phase left to cast it in!

Also, when you get late in the game and are engaged in close combat, you can replace the Bastilidon's lazer with the Stegadon's Burning Alignment to force the same sort of decisions on your opponent.

 

^------I totally agree.

 

With 3 more games under my belt, I'm keeping the Bastiladons but mixing up my magic phase.
Tetto Eko has been so stupidly good, I'm no longer using him. He's become target #1 for being comp'ed out, and taking him will hit your comp score hard.
Instead, I've switched to a channel slaan, priest with cloak of feathers (level1beast) and priest with forbidden rod (level 1 beast).

For the slaan, I've switched from loremaster high magic, to plain old death magic.
Death Magic has 3 direct damage snipes, only 1:1296 games do I get a single direct damage spell.
Death Also has 2 very good hexes.
Death is lacking magic missiles, which is filled nicely with the Beam of Chotec.
Finally, with init 3 temple guard (thank you bastiladon) I'm not afraid of throwing a purple sun. With the slaan in a corner, I can cast it while only touching 2 temple guard.
For Buffs, I have in the two skink priests, both would have wild form (unless the flying one rolls up transformation).

It's made for a very balanced and effective magic phase. 2-3 direct damage snipes, 2 magic missiles, 2 augments and 1-2 other death spells. 3 channels on a 5+ and 2 channels on a 6, gives a pretty solid edge in magic. Add to that the +D6 power dice (1 use) and the dice generated from death it seems to play out really well.

-Matt

 

Bit off-topic; but you say Tetto'eko is stupidly good, could you elaborate please as I'm considering taking him in 1000 points.

 

I thought the stegadons burning alignment was a magic missle and therefore doesnt work against enemy units in close combat

 

Burning Alignment is worded oddly, and probably needs an FAQ. It is classified as a direct damage spell, targeting ALL units within range. Normal direct damage spells can't target units in close combat, but this one mentions it targets all enemies within the bubble. Who knows what GW will decide.

 

Just for clarity: the "not in CC, frontal LoS" restriction is not a property of Direct Damage spells; it's a property of all spells that things like Hex and Augment types have exceptions for. However, given with those rules it states:

(emphasis mine)

I think it's pretty clear that by stating "targets everything within..." the spell is saying otherwise, and therefore the spell's targeting instructions override the BRB, as explicitly allowed.

I'm really looking forward to the FAQ on this for clarity, but I believe the current wording is pretty unambiguous, if obtuse.

 

That definitely sounds right.