I currently own a slann and was planning to take him and temple guard.....but magic is terrifying and I feel almost compelled to take life just so I dont nuke half my army. so I was thinking about an old blood. but I cannot decide, on foot, on carnosaur, on cold one or stick with the slann. any advice?
I usually go with a slann. I will take either lore of life or lore of light. I always take cupped hands with the slann. In higher point games (2500-3000), I would either take 2 slann or a slann and an old blood (on foot at 2500 and maybe on a carnosaur at 3000-points allowing).
At 2800 you can reasonably fit an OB on Carno and a decently tooled Slann (BSB, two diciplines + some items) but your pretty close to maxing your lord percentage. It sort of depends on what type of army you want to field. I've found that when I run an OB as my General I play with more Saurus. Using Slann I take a balance beween Skink and Saurus. Also be very careful if you make an OB on Carnosaur your general. He's targeted by shooting and spells quite a bit. If you do take an OB on Carno you might consider a moderately tooled second OB as your General. I use a this quite often and place my second on a Cold One and I've not lost my General yet.
That is a good point. I may try that. I am hesitant to give up the slann though. I really enjoy using him.
Though an OB on a carnosaur is a pretty fearsome creature its not as effective as a Slann would be. With a slann you have a level 4 wizard. In 8th edition it is important to have level 4 wizard. Magic is such a dominating force in the game now. You can take a level 2 skink wizard and put him on an EOTG but that only gets you +3 to dispel. Where as the slann has a plus 4 and if set up this way can cause enemy wizards to ignore the roll of a 6. That is pretty powerful. Lore of life and lore of light are what I consider to be the best choices for a single Slann to take as life makes us much more survivable and tougher. Where as light counters the main weaknesses of the lizardmen, low weapon skill and init. With life you don't have to worry about miscats as much however with light you do. Thats what cupped hands is for. Now back to the OB on a carnosaur. He is going to be a major target. With cannon balls hitting both mount and rider or magic spells being cast at him its hard to have him survive long. However, like i said before get him into a flank as a hammer unit he will do a lot of damage. An old blood on a cold one could be a good option, I have never run it that way. Put him in with 9 cold one riders and that would be another good hammer unit. Finally an oldblood on foot would create more killing power in a unit of sw. If you have room for one lord I personally pick the Slann. However when I have room for two lords properly outfitted I switch between a double slann build or an OB on foot. Depending on what army I face I put my OB in my temple guard unit or a unit of SW. Ultimately if you are afraid of magic destroying your army because of miscats, the slann has good ways of avoiding them and stopping the enemy magic phase which can be just as devastating if not more.
in my group we play 2400p battles, hence you have 600p to spend on lords. i use a slann (rumination, bsb and +1 ld banner) plus an "immortal-road block" oldblood (1+ armour and 4+ ward with MR(1) and stubborn). That totals just under 600p so i dont really have to chose. ^^
The choice between Slann and OB are purely on preference and play style. It's undeniable that the Slann is effective in both casting and dispelling. He's (or perhaps she? heh) is truely a master and I do enjoy running him as his ability to cast spells is amazing and, as pehlman said, having a level 4 to dispel is invaluable. My own personal preference is to run Saurus. I just like the feel of them and the look and play style the Saurus bring to the Lizardmen army on the table top. I'm not saying I never use a Slann, quite the contrary! I use a Slann probably more than half the time. But I do so love to bring two OBs to the field, set down four or so units of Saurus Warriors and a couple of units of CoC and watch my opponents weep pitifully as my force thrashes theirs into a red misty haze! The truth is Slann and OB are both excellent choices for an army General. That's why, when we play in 2500 point games, I take both!
Don't feel compelled to take life magic if you go for a Slann, you can take cupped hands to negate your first miscast on a 2+. Life is a strong lore but it is very defensively oriented. If you are leaning toward a more offensive style you might consider light or shadow. No matter your lord, remember that Scar-Vets are nearly as powerful as the mightly oldblood, and are some of the best hero level characters out there.
Well heres my opinion on your quandry; Take a Slann. Like someone has already said, magic is incredibly potent in 8th, and the Slanns disciplines make it the finest wizard that any general can field (in my opinion). When your playing any army you have to look at that armies strong points, as a lizzie player you have 3 main ones. First - sallies, second - blowpipes, and third - the best wizard in the game (by far). So make sure you have all of these elements in your army. In my opinion if you prefer an OB to a slann, play a different army; there are several lists that can produce a similar but superior unit to the OB/Carnosaur. There are NO other lists that can make a caster as devestating as the Slann. You may want to argue that some armies are built to defend pretty heavily against magic, but they'll have to have spent a fairly hefty amount of points to try and nullify the Slann, and I've not come up against one yet which can hold the Slanns magic off for longer than a few turns.
I've encountered a High Elf player who ran Teclis and regularly out cast my Slann and dispeled my magic with a fair amount of ease. In fact I remember one phase with a sickness to my stomach in which he rolled 3 for winds of magic and then promptly pulled out 12 casting dice that phase. Believe me, the Slann is definately NOT the end all to magic. It's good, no doubt, but not the unstoppable beast. If a player knows your bringing or likely to bring a Slann they can counter. I've countered Magic heavy Lizardmen lists with my Brets. There is also Dwarves; masters of anti-magic. My buddy plays anti-magic and hardly ever has to worry about any magic slipping past except irrisistables. But...that's not to say it'll happen always, just don't lean on it. As for the OB, I've only seen two armies which can produce something as nasty or worse than an OB/Carno mix. Chaos Mortals and Beastmen. Of course they pay out the back side for those 'better' characters but I've not seen any other army that can match our OB/Carno in either sheer weight of attacks or damage value. Theirs a reason why the OB/Carno is feared WHF game wide! LoL But as I said before, it's all opinion. Many (including me) love the Slann and rarely leave home without it. I like the OB because in instances where I don't feel like magic or I'm Dwarves (magic's bane) you can't go wrong with the guy.