Now I know for a fact that Non-ethereal characters cannot join ethereal units in VC army but I'm not sure if it works the same way the other way around, you might want to make sure he is not putting those wraiths in that horde illegally. Also, I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm pretty sure Sallies are able to flee and razordons are the ones who cannot. I would build my wizards towards denying his magic rather than out do his magic. Like Mage Priest Phoenix said gotta keep Becalming Cogitation on his lvl 4 (if your playing big games why not take 2 SMPs with BC?). Gotta caddy Cube/scroll. I like Diadem of Power, if you make sure you always save 2 power dice every phase there's a good chance that half the time he is casting you'll end up with a 1:1 ratio on dice (and some times with more than him if he rolls low). VC has a new item like Diadem of Power (but better and can be used to save dispel dice in the same way you save power dice for the subsequent magic phase) so you may not be equaling his dice pool, but at least the gap won't be bigger than it would have been. Remember, the point with this is to be able to deny his magic not cast a whole bunch of spells, that way your army muscle can handle the hordes of undead. I like the idea of using dwellers. If you are playing big games (and it sounds like you are) I would take 2 SMP one with life and one with light, both with BC and I would leave EotG at home to take Warchief on Steg. Just my humble suggestion. I'm looking forward to hear about what you went with and how it went on your next match. Keep us posted!!
Ethereal characters can join non-ethereal units. I think I may have discovered the reason you're finding it difficult to win, though. You mentioned that the enemy is getting '5 to 6' raise dead spells off per turn. By this I presume you mean Invocation of Nehek, the signature spell which raises models back from units (Raise Dead creates new units and is a separate spell). As a signature spell, multiple wizards can know it... but each wizard can still only attempt to cast it once per magic phase. He's casting it 5-6 times? Somehow I doubt he has 6 wizards, if he did there'd be nothing else in his army. If he is casting it more than once per phase with each wizard, that's illegal. Also, shut down his magic and your troops far far far outclass his, you should win no problem. Dispell scroll, Cube of Darkness, Becalming cogitation.
besides, how often do you let an opponent get through 5 spells of any kind in a single turn? you do have dispel dice you know
Thanks everyone, I have another game against him this weekend so will let you know how it goes. I'm aware that 5-6 spells per turn is unusual, but the cost is so low he can throw 1-2 dice at it and get it off with3-4 casters he doesn;t have to worry too much is 2 fail to cast, and like I said he has had a lot of luck with magic in the 3 games so far and seems to nearly always roll a 12-11 for the power dice + he has some kind of item that lets he store more dice too. I might be able to dispell 1-2 attempts to cast but with twice as many dice as me there isn't much I can do to that. I'll check about the recasting thing, it is possible there has been a mixup between the new and old book. I've played with the guy for years and if he has gotten mixed up it will be an honest mistake, I just don't see him cheating on purpose, but over the years we have both misplayed rules that have tipped a game. Games wise we do tend for larger ones - ironically to lower the effect of the magic phase, the "standard" size we play is 3000 - sometimes going upto 5/6000 though I've only played 3000 against the new vamps so far.
Well. played him last night, still lost but a much closer game. Things worked pretty much perfectly, the chief on steg and EotG both hit the skeletons with the Wraiths - managed to kill enough wraiths with the impact hits that I could impact, attack and stomp the skeletons to death and the wraiths died on combat res. - this left the 2 stegs to stampped down the side of his lines. Large 96 skink+1 krox unit managed to position itself directly infront of the GG, and though they constantly lost combat they remained stubbon for 4 rounds, and with the Slann in range to give his LD they were going nowhere, did eventually flee but by then the game was over anyway. I actually might have won, but he changed his tactics slightly and only took 1 vamp - on top of a Zombie Dragon, It tore appart more of my army than the 2 stegs did to his. Thanks for the useful tips though everyone - learned a lot and have some more ideas to build on now.
Hello, Yes in the old book toy could Recast the IoN, but now It is a signature spell, that means that every wizard can have it but they can cast it only once per turn. As for contoling his magic phase, Cogitation is a must i think, and As i already mentioned in the Armylists section, you could Try Plaque of Dominion (I don't know if the New necromancers are Undead or living so sorry If i'm wrong here)
Upon checking, they are indeed undead. They give up their humanity for the ability to call forth the dark powers that they use to raise the dead.
Good to heaer you did better man. You should be throwing your chief and steg at the vamp on dragon. I have seen GLaurauch the first chaos dragon die to a good stegiie charge. That woulda helped you out tons. Hope you can get him!