Hello everyone. I am a new Lizardmen player and the army I play normally is Dwarves. So naturally I know next to nothing about the magic phase unless its banging on an Anvil. I haven't played a game yet with my new models but I have been challenged by my friend to a 3k point game vs Orcs and Goblins. Can anyone give me any tricks to use in the Magic phase since normally I just pass this phase up and move on.
Well, the response to this question is going to depend on which version of your caster(s) you have and if you plan on being offensive with the magic, or if you just want to shut down the phase. Even the generation of Slann you take (If you take him at all) will be a determining factor in how the magic phase will best play out. Please specify which wizards you plan on using so we can better understand your capabilities.
I agree with everything NinjaSkink said, although I must ask why you have decided to jump in at 3k points?
Well as for the jumping in at 3k the people I play with all have large main armies (I have about 8-9k points of dwarfs) and usually 3-4k of second and third armies. Starting off small would have been nice so I could learn more but I enjoy the large battles also. I would like to be offensive with my magic phase since I have always been all defensive in the past. I'm just not sure how many points I should be looking into sticking into casters and leave enough left for other things. I would love to take a 2nd generation Slann out there and a couple of skink priests and just start casting spells but I want to be smart about it. So I guess my question would really be if you were going to field a 3k offensive magic list how many points would you sink into magic, and how would you try to use it?
If you go magic heavy you should go magic HEAVY, if you know what i mean. so spending around 1000 points in magic in a 3k point game is what i am talking about. a 2nd gen slann is of course a good start. give him the extra spell plaque (how do you write this? i have the german army book ^^) and maybe some other magic goodies. take 2 or 3 level 2 skink priests, 2 with 2 dispel scrolls and 1 with the diadem of power. The thing about the 2nd gen slann is the more spell he casts the more bonus dice he gets. so i prefer to cast several small spells rather then casting a few big ones. all these first spell magic missiles are nice. fireball, hand of death or how its called and the rule of burning iron are pretty good. the first light spell too. of course you can first roll on the magic tables to see if you get another spell you would like to have, but you can then always switch your result for a 1. the thing about those is that you will mostly be able to cast them even if you use only 1 dice because you get another free one. And it won't matter if your opponents dispel them because you will have plenty more left to cast. If your high difficulty spells get dispelled that might ruin your whole phase. If you want a dispel monster give your slann the staff that adds another +1 to dispel. with +2 on your rolls your opponents magic will have a hard time. if you play sacred host of quetzel your skink priests will also be able to take a magic missile per default, but the one with the diadem should always save the dice for the slann.
Hell, at 3k why even bother with skink priests -_-? As you cannot use skink priests as batteries for the slann, why not simply put 2 second generation slanns on the field? That would be 11 available spells (including 2 drain magics), and a potential 13 base dice if you take the diadem and plaque of dom. If you take 2 defaultseach from metal, death and fire, you can get off all 6 spells on 1 die with a likely chance of success, and still have 7 power dice to go (plus the 2nd gen rule and and power stones). Sure, it would be 1200 points or so, but my god. Im sorry if this post seems completely pointless but for some reason it never occured to me to fit 2 second gen in a 3k list.
I'd say two 2nd Gen are just cool for 3k in THEORY. As with two of those, that eats up 2 Lord Choices, 2 Hero Choices, and 2 Rares, unless I'm mistaken. I'd rather have other stuff.
Muahaha yeah two Slanns would be pretty mean *g* But i would not take 2 second gen slanns, because Dreq-Kai is right about the many choices that get eaten... but take a 2nd and a 4th gen slann maybe, that would still be cool. and you can take 2 skink priests additionally (i would not go without at least one to deliver LOS to the big guy) And SohCahToa, what do you mean by "you cannot use your skink priests as batterys for the slann"? I always thought if i give my skink the diadem and he stores some dice they go to the general magic pool, just like the two dice that you get per default...