I was hoping to start a discussion about new Slaan builds with the new Army Book. I'd like to get a take on what other people think are good combo's/builds for different play styles. For the most part the only combo I've seen that... I don't want to say feels like a must but atleast a very strong combo is Wandering Deliberations and the Channeling Staff. 3 Dice with a 5+. Any other input on how to build a good Slaan?
Convergence plus channeling staff plus becalming makes for a very powerfull mage both offence and defence. pick the lore/mystery/deliberation to flavor. In temple gaurd i like the jaguar banner to get a Scarvet or the unit where they need to be on slann bsb
What Ive seen as the new standard is Slann-Harmonic, Becalming, Soul of Stone, Channeling Staff, BSB, Focus/Wandering by preference
Add the Standard of Discipline to that. I like to run a Slann at 400pts or less (so I can fit an OB), so I run Focus/wandering (not sure which one to take yet), BSB, Becalming or soul of Stone, and Standard of Discipline, which comes out to 400/395.
What about Cube of Darkness, having 2 dispell scrolls in your army is pretty handy. You also have a huge chance to end all remain in play spells..
I'm planning on bringing 2 Skink Priests for the Cube/dispell scroll since they are needed to restrain PF anyways.
Oh duh. I had always skimmed it and assumed it added an extra channel die. I'm glad I was wrong. Thanks.
My 4 are going to be... Eldritch Energy - Save a dispel dice, becomes power die on 2+ Soul of Stone - +/- 1 to miscast roll Harmonic Convergence - Two extra channel dice, Slann also takes Channelling Staff Focus of Mystery - Loremaster of High Magic Also with this setup I'll have two level 1 skink priests with dispel scroll and cube of darkness, so that in the phases where they use a scroll, I should have more dispel dice than needed, so saving one for the casting phase won't be a big deal. Also with Harmonic Convergence, the Slann is bound to generate extra dice in the dispel phase anyway, so saving a freebie dice there shouldn't matter too much. The only question is whether I stay with Soul of Stone or switch it out for Becalming Cogitations.
I found I kept forgetting to reroll my first dispel attempt. It's new, and it happens. Also forgot to switch out spells, also a new ability I forget is an option. I did the channeling version and got off 3-4 power dice the whole game, and 3 dispel. With channeling staff. So it isn't exactly reliable but those were the phases I got spells off. Without the extra die per spell I can't count on magic going off based on overpowering, and my army is noticing it doesn't have the amount of buffs I used to have. I don't know if the rest of my army is up to facing top tier armies without magical superiority.
I feel re-rolling the dispel dice could be good, but with the bonus dispel dice, and 2 "dispel scrolls", Im not sure we need to put a discipline into it... I think the Eldritch Energy, Harmonic Convergence, Channelling Staff setup is good on average, and great when it spikes. It is not unlikely to get a phase or 2 with +2 dice from channelling and another saved with Eldritch energy. This gives you a total of +3 dice, making a bad/mediocre phase good and a good phase overwhelming.
As another point to consider, has anyone thought of what non-arcane items they might be running on a slaan? Weapons: Probably not a lot here but Fencer's could be helpful defensively, or perhaps shrieking Blade for making the unit cause fear for relatively cheap? Armour: Unavailable Talisman: already have a 4+ ward and can't get an armoursave of any relevance, that leaves magic resistance or the Dragonbane gem? Gem is probably of minimal use with the slaans auto-passing of Lookout Sir tests though...? Banners: The Banner of Discipline is probably the obvious and cheap option, but the option to include a BSB priced standard in a unit with relative safety could be handy, especially combined with the TG's ability to take a banner also... Skavenpelt + Razor standard for super-choppy? Jaguar + Banner of Swiftness to help keep up with a skink-heavy list? I can see lots of possibilities here. Enchanted Items: My first thought was OTS but the slaan isn't in base contact with enemies so its not really worthwhils. Crown of Command is probably of minimal use as I believe TG still get stubborn if a slaans in the unit, but potion of healing or toughness could be handy in case of emergencies, The horn of Kygor could be alright but I feel needs an army built around it, though if your fielding decent sized hunting pack units it could have a place? The other item I'm liking the look of is the Egg of Quango for potentially a nice "breath weapon" effect to really tip a combat in your favour. It may not be terribly cost effective to run many of these things, but it could be a way to get some more non-magic mileage out of the super-toads.