Yep, the lore of metal pretty much screws what is now a 300pts paperweight. Slann should take it against the Empire! Many other spells are "okay", but as a lore it'll blow away, the Stank and knights. Then, final transmutation will wreak havok with the big blocks or spearmen and halberdiers. Phil
The only downside to metal is that it's far less than ideal for an 'all comers' tournament type list. But, if you end up playing Empire, Brettonia, or WoC, you're in for a grand old time...
So far though most people/organizers aren't requiring the lore to be on the army list. That may change once people are comfortable with 8th, but we shall see.
So far I've found that Lore of LIfe and Lore of shadows work well with my slann. The lore of metal does seem kinda situational. The enchanted blades spell works well, and final transmutation isnt terrible, there are just so many other things/combos that work so much better. Especially with the combination of "Enfeebling Foe" from shadows and "Dwellers Below" from life. The only problem I seem to have so far are armies that take massive numbers of small units. They are kinda hard to track down, and since I dont have any magic missles, or alot of shooting, it becomes a problem. Then again, lizards seem to always have had that disadvantage.
Form the current Empire faq: Q. Can the spell Pit of Shades from the Lore of Shadows affect the Steam Tank? (p51) A. No. So no pit of shades.
Heavens magic has some damaging spells that are good for dealing with many small units. Comet is a scary good spell now... adding strength to its impact every phase.
well reading this i will look forward to playing my friends empire assisted with lore of heavens lvl 2 skink priest and leval 4 lore or metal slaan mage priest
Instead of worrying about using a Slann or Skink Priest, why not use an Old Blood with a Blade of Realities? Steam Tank has no Leadership value, ergo when you hit it in close-combat...poof, no more tank! Tack on Jaguar amulet so he can catch it, and lol. I'm thinking Lore of Light is a pretty good lore to take. WS10/I10 Temple Guard and/or Saurus will curb-stomp his infantry blocks, the Cage of Light is good for trapping cavalry (like Knights) or light skirmishers (like mounted hand-gunners), and the direct damage spells hit pretty hard. Stack Banner of Eternal Flame on the Temple Guard, and his cavalry and monsters are going to avoid them like the plague.
Tank does have a leadership value now; you'd use the engineer's LD 10, since they can't be targeted separately.
Unfortunately, the stank still passes all leadership tests automatically except for initiative. The nerf it got was that it can be targeted with spells aside from spells with a given strength value. So searing doom will work now.
Damn thats annoying. Ah well, Blade of Realities still one-shots plenty of other monsters, so I'll still run my Old Blood like that. Assuming you didn't take Lore of Metal, what other counters (as in non-magical) do we have to a Steam Tank? T10 is a real pain, but I'm guessing enough blowpipe hits would take it out. Can you snipe the Engineer with Chameleons, or is he considered part of it?
He's part of it... So, with skinks double-shooting blowpipes, you would need over 350 shots to take it down (with no magic involved). One ever 36 will get a "6" to hit and see him miss his 1+ armour save! Add the odd 5+ to hit, 6+ to wound, miss the 1+ AS... Apart from magic, I haven't yet found an answer... An oldblood with GW and potion of Strength will put a few holes in it... If only we could give the potion to a carnosaur Phil
Lore of shadows has a couple tricks up its sleeve. Penumbral Pendulum will wound it on a 4+, and do D3 wounds while the mindrazor spell cast on some saurus will put a bunch of str 8 hits on it. Sure it will still take a 6 to wound, but at least you will be getting through most of the armor. Combining mindrazor with withering the toughness of the stank by D3 will help your saurus put more wounds on the thing.
Stegadons would probably be better used attacking elsewhere. If you can't deal with the stank from range, the best bet is probably to bog it down with skrox. The stank will kill saurus about as easily as it kills skinks, so might as well feed it garbage. The kroxigors can safely hide in the second rank and hack away at it, with their -3 to armor save they might put a wound on it.