I figured we could use a thread where we debate the possibility of having an army without the all-mighty Slann Mage Priest. The reason is, that while I'm a complete newbie at the game anyone and their mother can see that just fielding the damn frog will cost quite a substantiial amount of points and then comes the Templeguards. In 2000 pts games I find it rather limiting that you'll have to throw at least 1/4 of your total amount of points just to field one character. There must be other ways. I'm not saying that we'll have to come up with be all end all army compositions for tournaments because lets face it - most of us will be playing to have fun in less competitive games. On the other hand I'm not saying potential suggestions should be totally gimped just to make something work, I just find it incredibly hard to make sense that we cannot field an army without the frog and still have a shot at actually winning. The point of the thread is thus to, as mentioned, debate the various possibilites we have. Special characters have suddenly become more usefull, scar vets can ride a carnosaur and skink priests can now choose between heaven and beast lore. Surely some of that can be usefull considering the amount of points we can use for other things, by not having a slann. Suggestions with pro/con would be awesome and hopefully we can change things up a bit with the new book. This isn't just a personal tool to learn something since I suspect it would be healthy for all of us to think outside the box. At leasts that's just the way I see it. So any suggestions are welcome
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw The good thing about the Slann is his Ld9. Ld9 cold-blooded is just very, very good. Also, the Slann is pretty much always in the center of your army, providing maximum coverage in his bubble. The old-blood (or scar-vet general, for that matter) is more likely to be running around chasing things. Thus his use of leadership bubble is somewhat less. Now with our skinks being 1 less Ld, that becomes an issue. Secondly, If you want to go No-slann; you have to have some priests for magic. Now that isn't an issue, but you also need a scar-vet BSB and then you probably want a 'real' combat hero as well. Count up those points and you could buy a Slann of off that. Also, with all those Heroes, you might being tight on points as far as equipment goes. These are some inherent weaknesses of your army when you do not field a Slann. Ofcourse, and this goes without saying, your magic phase takes a hit too. But that's not even the biggest issue. Now I'm not saying that it can't be done, but you got to think about this first. With and oldblood leading the army, 2 priests and a scar-vet BSB, your goal is most likely to dominate the combat phase. You use your skinks and other light units to get your units safely into the combats you want. So you can chop the enemy up with your SCOR, stegadons, oldblood, Saurus warriors and kroxigors. You sacrifice the all-round utility of a Slann and go arm yourself to the teeth with the heavy hitters. The results will vary a lot I think, a Slann is all-round solid. The combat-build seems like more of a 'win big or lose big' army. It also seems like a lot of fun to be playing! This isn't a really specific build or anything, just some things you have to think about when going No-Slann. The Hunted
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw I actually toyed with an idea of a "no casters" list. It consisted of my old blood on the carno with the 4+ ward and the stegadon helm, and two scar vets on carno's as well. the only thing in the army that used magic are my two "venusaurs" and i had two ancient stegs for my poision darts. It seems pretty hard hitting, but I wont know until monday how it actually works
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw I had great success yesterday with a slannless army,it was only 1400pts mind you but it worked nicely. Took an oldblood and scarvet with saurus and the rest being 2 priests, skirmishers and chamos. Worked out great vs my mates empire army. I think it will be even easier this edition with priests having beasts and heavens making them much more viable and if you didn't want to run a slann with TG you can always run him solo with ethereal plus MR2 to keep him safe. Pleanty of options out there IMO. It will be interesting to see how things play out in the next few weeks as people get their heads around the new books and all of the new builds staring coming out.
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw I am definitely doing this, no Slann for me, the plan is to try and design a competitive red host of Sotek, using Tehenhauin as my primary caster, with a Sotek ark Bastilodon or two and plenty of jungle swarms, Skinkrox units as core backed up by plenty of stegadons, and perhaps a scar vet on carnosaur just for lols, might make him the BSB with the skaven pelt banner too, just for kicks... I have considered a double priest strategy, either both with beasts (for wyssans) or one of each lore for versatility.
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw I was thinking about putting Tehnhauin on an EoTG but can't decide if it would be worth it. I am thinking if the EoTG gets shot out from under him he would be able to join some Swarm. Am I reading the rules correctly where this would be an option? Kind of like an OldBlood on Carno with the Carno getting shot with a cannon.
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw Personally, I like the idea of an army with two Beast Priests As your magic instead of a Slann. Especially with Wyssans as the signature, and our new need for skink characters. For some extra utility I would try to work a heavens caster in there, maybe as the main caster with both the Briests being Wyssans spammers.
Re: No slann 8th edition - suggestions to be different or aw Actually with the points drop in skink chiefs, I was thinking about three level 2 skink priests on Lore of Beasts, along with a spamming of dual handweapon, cheap-o skink chiefs in skrox units. If you manage to pop the bubble-effect savage beasts, each of those cheap chiefs gets 7 str 7 attacks at initiative 6... hahaha. They also wouldn't be too bad with just Wyssan's on them, or just the toughness buff. Also, it will be neat to transform a skink priest into a mountain chimera or great fire dragon. If only I had the models for those. EDIT: Of course, what would really make this work is... a Slann to back them up with Ld and BSB. Heh.