8th Ed. Slann: Lore choice

Some lores csn compliment some types of units. For instance lore of life have a lot of ways to heal, you can use that with monsters to keep them alive.

Lore of beast is a character lore, so have several character on one unit to properly use it. Don't take it just because of wyssans wildform because we can get that other ways.

Some lores such as heaven don't have these "unit destroyer" spells such as life or death (dwellers and purple sun) so you may consider having salamanders in case of hordes. Heaven is also a great tool against dwarfs because we can take care of their cannons and force them up the board.

Fire is weak and metal is highly situational.

Light might be good with big blocks because of the augments.

I've never used shadow much but the hexes csn be nasty same with pit of shades.

Death is quite popular due to the ability to snipe characters and take out either whole units of big chunks of them.

Hope you can use some of it
Generally just consider why you want a lore and how you can make it work in tandem with your army.

 

I'm thinking of the comet. A boosted comet will be S6 and can on average kill 2 models from a piece of artillery, but a S6 comet have the potential to hit a lot of stuff nearby. This will force the dwarfs to move forward or risk a comet to the face.

Imagine getting a range of 10 with the comet. You can hit quite a lot of units and take of several models from each unit. Afterwards you can continue to cast the non-boosted comet since it's of low casting value.

 

If you haven't read this tactica yet, give it a look.

You asked for an example. Here are two examples. One of building a lore around the army and one of picking a lore based on an army. I generally prefer starting with a lore.

Example One

Normally I start with a lore. Let’s say you are playing Orcs and Goblins and let us say you drew “Shadow” out of a hat and that you are thinking a Traditional Army.

Shadow is a good lore for a solo Slann and Orcs and Goblins don’t have a lot of magic attacks so Higher State of Consciousness will help you a lot. So I would run the guy without Temple Guard and I would give him. I hope I get Steed of Shadows, but I can live without it. I’d recommend the standard Channeling Staff plus Higher State of Consciousness pair up. I’d recommend Becalming Cognition too if you can afford it. If you have more points beyond that the Crown of Command will let your Slann tar pit anything.

I’m generally of the opinion that solo Slann should not serve as BSB, so I would take a Scar Veteran. Since you don’t magic attacks against O&G I’d just go Armor of Destiny and a shield or something similar defensive loaded.

You probably want a Skink Priest. Since the Lore of Beasts best two support spells Wyssans and Anaheir overlap with lore of Shadow, I would go with a Heavens Priest. You’ll want to keep one of the three attack spells if you get it because that’s what Shadow lacks, but otherwise Iceshard Blizzard is nice for slowing down warmachines. Becalming Cognition will help you, but it’s hard to beat a dispel scroll so I’d give your Skink Priest that. With Shadow there isn’t much to channel so you don’t need more than one Skink Priest.

Next I’d look at the basic Core. Saurus Warriors will beat most Orcs in a straight up fight and they fair very well against things with Shadow hexes (or when given Okkam’s Mindrazor) so take at least two decent sized blocks. Because you are going to be casting Mindrazor or various hexes you want as many attacks as you can get so I suggest spears in this case. You’ll want a unit of Skirmishers to bunker your Skink Priest. If you haven’t paid your 25% Core tax yet, you can add more Skirmishers, a small block of flanking Skroxigor, or a 20 strong cheap Cohort if you use terrain generators with lots of buildings to be a cheap roadblock.

Shadow doesn’t have crowd control, so we’ll skip Special for now and go straight to Rare. I’d take two units of Salamanders, either single or paired. They can thin out blocks even better when paired with Withering.

Okay you have your bases covered. Now take a look at how many points you have left over. These are what I would call electives.
-Most Orc and Goblin armies take Night Goblins and/or Mangler Squigs. An ethereal Slann can kill Night Goblins by walking through them, but you may want some extra Skirmishers, Chameleon Skinks or Terradons to try trigger them when they aren’t near you main blocks. Any of our Skirmishers can also shoot them down if necessary or even deliberate kill them by walking into them. An EOTG can zap fanatics very well if you can get them into position.

-Most Orc and Goblin armies take Savage Orcs on foot or on boars. They are strong foes, but Shadow spells will even the odds. A few Skirmishers to pull redirection duty with Frenzied units would be good.

-Most Orc and Goblin armies take some fast chaff units (Wolf Riders, chariots, etc). That’s something Shadow is not well-equipped to handle, especially if you have to defend Salamanders. To counter this I would take some Rippers, Saurus Cowboys, or Razordons. Maybe give someone the Ruby Ring of Ruin, take the EOTG or a Solardon for simple blasty spell.

-Most Orc and Goblin armies take some war machines. That’s why you are taking a Heavens Skinks Priest. Might want to make him level two so you get Iceshard and have a better chance of also getting one of the good attack spells. Terradons and Chameleon Skinks or even regular Skink Skirmishers can be thrown at war machines.

-Many Orc and Goblin armies have large monsters. With Shadow spells in play, your Saurus blocks should be able to handle the larger greenskin monsters. For extra insurance take Kroxigor or Saurus Cowboys. Chameleon Skinks are good at softening up the low armor save monsters, especially Giants.

-Many Orc and Goblin units take Trolls. The Ruby Ring of Ruin might be a good idea, but you already have Salamanders. You only need to do a single wound with the template to prepare them for a dart or javelin bath from our Skinks.
-Orc and Goblin Magic isn’t super potent. You should be able to handle what they have with a Becalming Cognition Slann and a single Scroll caddy.
-Taking more characters on foot to give your Slann someone to switch places. You can swap the Slann in to tarpit something or swap the Slann out to save his butt or swap the Slann out to put a badass Saurus character (you really need a tooled up Old Blood because Scar Veterans on foot aren’t super killy).
-A Scar Veteran Cowboy with a great weapon or a Skink flyboy with the Egg of Quango for some low tech killing power not reliant on the Winds of Magic.
-An Engine of the Gods Stegadon to give you a cheap attack spell and a casting bonus to Shadow.

Withering is the spell you want most. Followed by Steed of Shadows and Melkoth’s Miasma. The Penumbral Pendulum or Pit is the spell you want least.

You should now be set to handle anything the Orcs and Goblins can throw at you.

Example Two

Sometimes I pick an army element I want and then figure out a lore.

I’m on a Kroxigor experimental kick right now. So let’s say I’m playing VC and I happen to be dead set on taking two units of six or seven Kroxigor. That’s about half your Special allotment in a 2500 point game. Kroxigor have lots of killing power but they don’t have much defense, so they will want some buff spells. That means Life or Light.

Life would suggest a solo Slann floating behind the blocks healing and toughening them up. Light would suggest a Temple Guard bunker flanked by the two Kroxigor. I’ll go with Light. Higher State of Consciousness is very little protection against the undead given they have magical shooting attacks and fast ethereal units. Between the TG bunker and Kroxigor that is pretty much all of my Special allowance. Slann aren’t cheap so that doesn’t leave much room for characters or Rare.

Light has some decent magic missiles that have an extra effect against undead so I’ll want a Skink Priest or two to channel them. I don’t see the boost from Wyssans adding much to Kroxigor so I’ll run with Heavens and hope I roll the lightning spells (I really loathe Terrorgheists).

Core I’d want some Skirmishers to bunker my Skink Priest(s). I would make sure the unit sizes are 13 or even larger to give some protection against panicking. Then it’s a matter of personal preference. My Saurus blocks tend to get chopped to mince by Blender Vampires and a Temple Guard flanked by lots of Kroxigor doesn’t need much offensive help. In this hypothetical matchup I would probably spend the rest of my Core tax on Cohort Skinks. I’d probably use between 40 and 50 to tarpit a tarpit (zombies, skeletons). I’d probably want 80 or so to tarpit a “wraith wall,” Black Knight Bus or whatever monstrosity the Vampire Counts blender is leading.
Any points left over? Let’s look at what VC tend to do and what we might be missing. Probably not a lot of points left over to play with.

-Terrogheists are my top concern as they are in most list and very good at killing Lizardmen. I think this matchup is set up well. Kroxigor can pulverize them. You can also hit them with magic, but I wouldn’t try without a very favorable Winds of Magic roll given that the Lore of Vampires lore attribute can heal them up pretty easily. Ideally you want Searing Doom followed by Banishment and/or (ideally and) one of the Heavens Lightning spells. Because of Terrorgheists I would suggest NOT taking any lone characters, Stegadons, or Bastiladons. That’s free points for a Scream Attack.

-My second concern is enemy Blender Lords. I tooled up Vampire Lord or Strigoi Ghoul King with Blood Fury and ASF is a killing machine. That’s what the tarpit is for. If you can’t use a Tarpit, hopefully your Temple Guard will hold the line with Light buff spells. If you have points to spare, a Saurus character with lots of defensive gear can hopefully buy you a round or two of breathing room with a challenge.

-My third concern is ethereal troops. Ethereal chaff units should be your top concern for your magic missiles early in the game. Giving all your characters (and your TG champion) a cheap magic weapon means you have at least some response to embedded ethereal characters. A Saurus character with Sword of Antiheroes is your best counter to this tactic.

-My fourth concern is Mortis Engines. They start out weak but get stronger each turn. They need to be killed quickly. A Kroxigor will make short work of them, but charging them is the hard part. Fortunately, most VC lists with Mortis Engines don’t take Terrorgheists.

-My fifth concern is vampire chaff. Fell Bats, Dire Wolves, Vargheists. If there aren’t ethereals threatening you, the Lore of Light direct damage spells will erase them. Otherwise Skink shooting will do a respectable job.

-The rest of the stuff is not a big deal. This hypothetical list has units that can bog down or cut down Vampire tarpits. Knights, Grave Guard, undead Core and Black Coaches will not fare well against the elite center of Kroxigor and Temple Guard (assuming you don’t let your dream team get separated). Vampire Counts have lots of Regenerating troops so the Banner of Eternal Flame is a good idea.

That should hypothetically be able to handle VC, but take it with a grain of salt, my win record against VC is relatively poor.