I played a 1000pt list against Dark Elves. I had: 1 Priest with Cupped Hands 1 skink chief with sword of swift striking, charmed shield (think amulet of itzl), and toughness potion (+3 toughness for one round) 10 saurus with spears 24 skink cohorts (with 3 krox) 10 skirmishers 3 salamanders with extra handlers. 3 Terradons (Make sure that you pay attention to the area you are facing these guys when they land, failure to do this cost me a charge in turn 2) He had: 2 sorceress' (ring on hotek on one-didnt know it or get near it) the other had a nasty crossbow that always hits on 2s. 2 units of like 20 crossbowmen 1 unit of spearmen (25 models maybe) We rolled for scenarios, got the one in which to win you have to kill the general and all but one banner. For terrain, we rolled up 5 pieces. flaming baricade blood tower (makes chaos units frenzy)-in his deployement zone regular baricade sorcerers tower (in my deployement zone-wizard within 3 inches knows all spells in lore) haunted mansion Note: on the Scenery/Terrain-this is an amazingly fun thing to do. It adds alot to the game and makes it much more interesting than 7th. We could deploy 5 inches from each side and no more than 15 inches in (again, this was awesome). He got first round. His magic was very strong. I lost 6 skink cohorts and 2 saurus to his magic. Shooting took another 4 skink cohorts and 2 skink skirmishers. Luckily he ignored my priest this turn. On my turn I turtled a little to try to hide the cohorts(failed, true line of sight anyone). I also move the saurus sideways as they did not need to charge with weapons skill 1 (DE spell). Terradons dropped rocks on unit of DE crossbowmen killing one. I moved the skirmishers up and over to the left flank. Moved the salamanders 6 inches to the burning baricade. I put my skink cohorts (with the chief in the front rank) in the center of the field 15 inches in. The Saurus were to their right. The priest I put in sorcerers tower. Magic phase for me: I rolled 8 (2 rolls of 4). I had all of the spells, I chose comet of cassendora. Since I had the cupped hands, I rolled all 8 dice for the higher level spell (needing a 24+). I rolled poorly! I ended up with a 21 when I needed 22 for it to go off. No irresistible force for me . Shooting: Skirmishers were able to single shot the blowpipe (5 of them) for one wound on 6 kill. Salamanders x 3 –hit 13 times and caused 9 wounds the first time! OMG! This was awesome. Blood tower’s frenzy canceled the panic check though. Dark Elves next turn. Magic: tried and failed to kill my priest. Killed almost all the skink cohorts and 2 more saurus warriors. Shooting: Killed my priest . My turn: Try to declare a charge on group of crossbowmen (to tie them up until I can charge with my saurus or skrox). Fails because I did not turn my terradons around to face the unit they were behind. Moved to the unit I will charge the next turn. Shooting: skirmishers shot 5 more shots (double tap would lose poison). Killed 1-2 crossbowmen. Salamanders x 3: 12 more shots killing all but 2 models who charge my skirmishers next turn. His turn. He charges my skirmishers. That is about it. Casts lots of magic and fails to get most of it off. Close combat: surprisingly, I only lose 1 skirmisher. I lose combat, take a leadership and pass (Cold blooded ftw). My turn: Declare charges on rear of crossbowmen and front of cross bowmen. Crossbowmen stand and shoot. Kill remaining skink cohorts as well as the general (ending the scenario-I lost). Overall thoughts: It was a lot of fun! The terrain is awesome. Salamanders are amazing now. Magic is good, but you need more than one caster to really function at it.
If I had another caster, I could have put him into the sorceror's tower and continued using magic. One caster is a huge target. Two would spread that around a bit.
Bah I screwed up the quotes. How did you get all the heavens spells with 1 caster? And you couldn't have rolled 8 dice for that spell because I thought 6 was the max?
I got the spell due to the tower of socery. It gives a single model within 3 inches all the spells of their lore. I did role 8 dice though. We goofed on that roll. Not that it mattered.
Against elves I wouldn't bother casting the big comet, just go for the regular. They are mostly toughness 3 anyway.. with not too much armor.