8th Ed. The official guide to using the 8th edition Slann!(Finished)

---------------------The Slann Mage-Priest--------------------


This blob of army destroying, hobby wrecker, tournament killer is a one reptile army! In this edition the Slann receives some powerful upgrades, but also we have some dangers to be aware of. The Slann is now an unstoppable force to any gamer, and as my fellow Dark Elf gamer said to me, “Dude, just before playing a game against you, I get headache thinking about that Slann!”

The Focused Rumination – This is an absolute must for any Lizardmen player! Always, always, always, always bring this! His ability to add an extra die to every spell he casts is AMAZING! This really allows you some flexibility in the magic phase and you don’t need to be rolling high for the 2D6 roll on power dice. For any spells 10+ and below, only throw one die, because you’ll be getting two AND a +4 to the roll! This on average will get you a 12, and unless you really need the spell to go off, roll that single die.

Focus of Mystery – The Focus of Mystery gives you the power to say go shove it GW, I get whatever spell I want when I want it, so you’re not relying on the luck of the dice to get that number 6 spell or whatever spell you want, like someone people do!

Unfathomable Presence – This wonderful discipline, which if placed in a Temple Guard unit, gives them all +4 wards saves against magic! That is the beginning of a tank unit of TG, which gives them a nice protection against magical missiles, and the tank temple guard unit, we shall delve into further in the future.

Higher State of Consciousness - This is essential for the player who likes to run the Slann alone, or just can’t seem to keep his Temple Guard alive and gets attacked in close combat and loses his Slann.
Transcendent Healing – This thing is crap now. Don’t bring it.

The Harrowing Scrutiny – A Slann that causes Terror? That got nerfed with the new BrB physcology rules, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Soul of Stone – This is a solid defense against miscasting, but there are some combos with magic items and spells that render this useless.

The Becalming Coagulation – Now, I saved this for last for a reason. When I first read the rules for magic, I was irritated. I thought, way to go GW, you just killed one of the best defenses a Slann can use. Truth be told, no they didn’t. This beauty is an absolute MUST in any game of fantasy you play with a Slann in 8th edition. The basic strategy that most people use these days is hope for a roll higher than 6 on the winds of magic and dump all their dice on that one spell that most Lores have. (Yes, the Purple Sun, Pit of Shades, and Dwellers below are all dangers to us.) Purple sun is an Initiative test, need I explain? Pit of Shades is another Initiative test, just what our Initiative 1 or 2 Saurus need. Blah. Dwellers Below is a strength test, where if you fail the test, you just die. If someone puts this on the temple guard, it won’t hurt the temple guard to much, but if you fail for the Slann there goes your game. In case you don’t know, the Slann is strength 3. But The Becalming Coagulation changes all this. Now whenever your opponent spams his dice and just throws them down, getting double 6s and says, “I’m a good player! I throw dice, get an Irresistible, destroy your 1,000 point unit and I win! I must be good!” Now you get the pleasure of watching his face die when you tell him those sixes are tossed to the warp, and watch as the Slann easily dispels the spell with a flick of a finger.

Remember: In 8th edition, survivability is much more important than offensive capabilities! When making a Slann, be sure to -
Bring the Becalming Coagulation, and watch as your opponent’s plans to 1 hit the Slann guarded by his Temple Guard is shoved back up their rears. This is your defensive attribute, which will keep that 1,000 point unit alive!
The Focused Rumination is your other must have. This gives the Slann potential for an onslaught of magical energies that will level the enemy’s army, while keeping yours around for the next round of combat.
The other 2 Lores, if you decide to spend points on, or you’re not playing a high enough point value game to use, are at your discretion. Personally, when I load up my Slann I bring the two above, Focus of Mystery, and Unfathomable Presence.

 

What magical items do I give my Slann? -
Another thing I must bring to attention is that with the new magic rules it is possible for an enemy wizard to overcome the Slann in the casting phase, while the Slann does his best to dispel the torrents of magical energy. I know it’s sad to say, but we will have to deal with best we can. And trust me, indeed we shall. Now someone posted earlier a combination of items on this forum that makes Cupped Hands of the Old ones not ‘cool’ anymore. The new thing is Bane Head and the Feedback scroll. Any army you come across will most likely have a level 4 wizard nowadays, it’s simply a fact. If they don’t then they have yet to play against a Slann and don’t know what a real magic phase is! If your opponent doesn’t have a level 4, go absolutely balls to the wall and level his army to help him/her learn that magical defense is now must. But remember, it’s only a game so do this all in good nature! Anyways, back on subject let’s discuss the combination of the Feedback scroll and Bane Head. When you start your game tell your opponent that you’re declaring Bane head on his level 4 wizard. Now when he throws 6 dice at that spell that’ll make the TG explode and either gets the spell off from the large amount of dice thrown, or from box cars. (Double Sixes) Now when he gets the spell tell him all his sixes are gone, so it’s no longer irresistible and that you’re scrolling the spell with the feedback scroll. Now what he must do is roll those six dice again and for every five or six he rolls, he takes an automatic wound, no save whatsoever. But if you have the Bane Head curse upon his level 4 wizard he takes two wounds per 5 or 6! Hell yeah! Statistically this wizard is now dead, because on six dice you’ll on average one 5 and one 6. Can’t touch this!
Now that your Slann has a solid defensive backbone to work from, let’s focus on the offensive. You’re probably wondering, what Lore do I bring, with so many choices and so many armies that will be affected differently by each Lore? The answer is the Lord of Life. Yes, the Lore of Life. Go read through it if you haven’t. This Lore is the biggest annoyance and hindrance to any enemy player. Now how to go about casting these spells is another story. Now let’s go through a quick rundown of the spells from the Lore of Life –
1. Lifebloom (Lore Attribute) Every time you cast a Life spell a wound is recovered from somewhere within 12”. This will help characters stay alive in those tough challenges!

2. I forget what it's called, but the spell gives you a 5+ Regen save and 4+ with throne of vines. This is a very good spell when you're getting into some rough combat!

3. Awakening of the Wood is a good spell for owning those damn scouts that are hiding in the woods, or for whittling down units with low armor saves.

4. Flesh to Stone is a +2 buff to toughness and a +4 when you’ve casted Throne of Vines!

5. Throne of Vines is your trump card in Warhammer. This spell buffs everything in the Lore of Life as well as making it so if you miscast, it’s ignored on a 2+!

6. Shield of Thorns is good for when you’re getting overwhelmed in a combat and you need some outside help, a nice 2D6 S3 hits on a unit will help.

7. Regrowth is probably the best spell here. It brings back D3+1 models or a whopping D6+1 with Throne of Vines in play! Your Temple Guard getting owned? Here’s your savior.

8. Dweller’s below is an amazing spell for blowing apart units. If casted, every model takes a Strength Test, if failed they just die. Win!



I will always recommend someone to the Lore of Life with a Slann simply because of how crushingly devastating it can be to someone who uses it right. Here are some rules to focus on.

Do I run my Slann alone or in a unit of Temple Guard? –

This really is all a personal choice on the user. Either way it’s very effective, just the way you kit the Slann out is going to differ. You probably will be spending points on defensive attributes on a lone Slann, on a Slann with Temple Guard more attributes to the offense.

- If you’re going to be focusing on a unit in an attempt to smash through the enemy’s lines, or stay alive through a round of combat; give EVERY spell possible to that one unit! If you’re going on the offensive, you might as well give everything you have!
- Don’t be stupid with the Temple Guard with the Slann. They’re very tough, but they can die, even with regrowth. Think about where you’re putting your prize unit, because if you lose it, it’s essentially game over.
- Try to play a defensive offense with a Slann in your army, because you need some time to pound the enemy with your endless barrage of spells before they’re fit enough to do battle to our Saurus

Slann Set-ups I run in games

The low points Temple Guard Slann –
Slann Mage-Priest (1#, 415 pts)
1 Slann Mage-Priest (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 415 pts (General; Battle Standard Bearer)
1 Bane Head
1 The Becalming Cogitation
1 The Focused Rumination
1 Feedback Scroll

He still isn’t very cheap, but it’s always worth it!

The Expensive Temple Guard Slann –
Slann Mage-Priest (1#, 515 pts)
1 Slann Mage-Priest (Battle Standard Bearer) @ 515 pts (General; Battle Standard Bearer)
1 Bane Head
1 Feedback Scroll
1 Focus of Mystery
1 The Becalming Cogitation
1 The Focused Rumination
1 Unfathomable Presence



The Lone Slann (There is no such thing as a ‘cheap’ Lone Slann)
Slann Mage-Priest (1#, 490 pts)
1 Slann Mage-Priest @ 490 pts (General)
1 Bane Head
1 Feedback Scroll
1 Focus of Mystery
1 Higher State of Consciousness
1 The Becalming Cogitation
1 The Focused Rumination


How do I use the Slann in battle? -

The Slann combined with our Temple Guard is a scary force to behold indeed, but we must be careful on how we use it. Never pit your Temple Guard against the other armies destructive deathstar unit. You always want to attack where they are weaker. Let's say I'm playing Dark Elves and my oppenent has a
Black Guard unit and an Executioner unit with a Death Hag, ASF banner, the whole deal. You want to set up and manuevour to engage with the Black Guard. Simply because the BG are a ton of points, but the Temple Guard could blow through them! But those executioners, no we don't want to play chicken with
that unit! Try to avoid units like those.

Using spells is a different story. Always use the spells where they are need most. Whichever Saurus/Temple Guard unit has taken the most damage, regrowth is to be used there. Whichever unit is about to be pummeled by something much stronger than them, cast shield of thorns, flesh to stone!
When you're dealing with a deathstar or some other scary unit, Dweller's Below is where it's at! Whether they're T4 or T3 they're still going to be getting hit hard! Use the regeneration spell wherever you think the regeneration will be found useful. Throne of vines...The amazing throne of vines spell. Try to cast 1 or 2 spells before you use this one,
as your opponent if he's smart may try to dispel this. He might be saving his dice for Dweller's Below which is good, because now we get to cast every spell we want while they save dice for Dweller's!

That concludes the guide on the Slann Mage-Priest, but if you’d like to see the details on exactly how to use him, I’ll be posting a Lizardmen pocket in a few days once I’ve finished writing it!

 

Feedback scroll is no armor saves, ward saves and regen still work. Most level 4's are going to have the 4+ ward save trinket.

 

Most wizards only have 2 wounds statistically he will fail 1, in reality he will save both or fail both and by the look of the rules they still count to miscast as it says they do not count towards irresistable no mention of ignoring miscast.

 

Great guide! Thanks for posting.

I think our index is going to need a bit of an overhaul now that 8th ed is about. We're pretty much going to have to start from scratch, and the great thing is there seems to be so many arguments about what is the best setup for everything that there is going to be lot more variety in our army.

 

Just a quick one, for the lone slann, i would seriously consider taking the item for a 2+ ward vs. shooting.

Oh, and that feedback scroll strategy is harsh!

 

Very nice. Personally I'm going to take half way between the two TG Slann (dropping MR3 from the expensive one). IMO another 50 points on 4+ ward against magic is not needed with Scroll and Becalming already exponentially decreasing incoming magic (and the chance to give your unit 4+ regen anyway!).

 

Becalming Coagulation? Sounds like a healing spell!

What I'm going to use with my Metal Slann...

Slann BSB with Lore of Metal (Banner of Eternal Flame)
Focused Rumination, Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation
Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Bane Head, Obsidian Amulet

In my opinion, the 3 best disciplines are Rumination, Mystery, and Becalming. Especially with the very real possibility of casters spamming dice, Becalming becomes a must have ability. You really can't have those insta-kill spells going off against the Slann's unit, as that will cost you the game. But even against high level enemy casters who cast a lot of spells on two dice, there is a very real possibility that you can cause them to fail to cast their spell, which in 8th ed means MAGIC PHASE OVER.

Cupped hands is obvious, and bane head can pair well with cupped hands as well as with the hounds spell in metal. It may stink that the enemy gets look out sir against the D6 hits, but if you have bane head on your hero target it only takes one failure. Sniping an enemy BSB would be the best possible outcome of course.. Also if anyone is foolish enough to take a unit of knights, you can target the character and then you won't care much if the guy makes his look out sir test, as you're still killing knights per LOS test. Once less than 5 rank and file knights remain though, the character is hit automatically.

Finally you have the Obsidian Amulet, for a 5+ magic resistance for the TG unit.. and also it turns the Slann's 4+ ward into a 2+ ward against things like the Death magic sniping spells.

 

great post very helpful. i never thought of the feedback scroll bane head combo i personally like the forbidden rod on my slann giving me more power dice on a weak magic phase, which combined with the lore of life gives me back the wounds i lose from it

 

I would add the other lore tactics as you can, I have played a bunch of games with life and honestly, i dont like it that much. I rarely get throne off cause it gets dispelled 90% of the time. and without throne the lore is decent.

I tried Lore of Fire the other night just for fun and wow... Talk about firepower. Gave the ruby ring to a skink priest and would onedice it to try to hit a unit with it so the slann would get the D3 bonus. Lots of pain from that lore...

Im going to keep playtesting all the lores as i can, but so far im really liking the killing power of fire.

 

You'd be amazed at how many people will let throne go through after you hit them with a few 6 dice dwellers.

 

My current and favorite Slann build is as follows:

Slann
-Lore of Life
-3 Disciplines (Focus of Mystery, Focussed Rumination, Becalming Cogitation)
-Cupped Hands
-Curse Charm of Tepok
-BSB
-Standard of Discipline

So basically, since the miscast table is so much worse now, I figure Cupped Hands and the Curse Charm of Tepok will be more devastating. Also, I'm a stubborn, cold-blooded, re-rollable LD10, so you can pretty much take fleeing out of the equation.

 

This is win. If you smash people a couple times with Dwellers and bring Temple Guard back to life a couple times, no one is going to waste dice on the Throne. Just won't happen!

 

Ok, i have a few problems with all of this...

1.) the standard of discipline states, that unit having this standard cant use generals Ld. Now, its rather confusing. If Slann(havind st.of Discipline) and the unit he is in count as 1 unit (like if u gave the standard to a normal bearer), technically this unit cant use his "inspiring presence leadership" and would have to use their own - now 9 instead of 8 - Ld (Slann having ld10 since it says ALL models in the unit)!
U could say Slann counts as a "unit on his own" inside another unit, therefore >>he couldnt use his own Ld, which is ridiculous and is discarded<<, but cuz the unit doesnt count as having the standard (slann has it!--> and he is a unit on his own), they still can use slanns new ld10... This is soooo beyond fishy and rule bending, with this possibility of Slann being bsb and a general! 0o

My point might be totally wrong if theres somewhere something written about this, but i didnt see it yet.
Incidentally, I havent noticed any "point price" for making slann, or scar vet a BSB! Who can be the bsb anyway? Slann, scar vet, oldblood..??

2.) Now, i left WH alone for a few years and now bounced back with the new edition out. Im currently reading (and refreshing my mind) all of the new rules and theres a matter of BSB. Do i understand it correctly that BSB dies if he breaks from COMBAT? If he flees as a charge reaction or panic, he, well flees, but units cant use the re-roll from him?

3.) the matter of feedback scroll and TBC. This is fairly logical, but i just want to make sure... So, when opposing wizard rolls, say, 6 dice, and some are sixes (for example: 6 + 6 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 19 for a 10+ spell), he has to discard both sixes leaving him with 7 (instead of 19), miscast (since TBC states it prevents IF not the miscast), and broken concentration? Only NOW should u use the feedback scroll to potentially kill the wizz. Otherwise (if he rolled 6+6+5+5+4+2+2 - 12 = 18) the spell would go off (scroll can be used INSTEAD of dispelling) and ur slann (or a tough unit...) would end dead even if bane head finishes the other dude...

I might be catching smoke here, but above really bothers me...

 

the unit doesn't technically use the inspiring presence leadership, but the one of the character in it, i.e. the highest Ld in the unit, so wihle stil la single unit, another rule is being used than that wich can't be used in teh banners description.

 

Hey all,

I would just like to point out that taking the higher State of Consciousness, Unfathomable Presence disciplines AND Divine Plaque of Protection is pointless, as the first discipline doesn't allow mundane close combat or ranged attacks to have an effect on the Slann. Just take Higher State of Consciousness and Unfathomable Presence, and save yourself 30 points. I failed to see past the pointlessness of taking the Magic Item until my sister pointed it out to me. It seems like a no-brainer, but I'm just warning you

If there is a loophole with this strategy, please tell me, as I am blind to it

 

dwarfs. allmost all their war machines are magical. basically as long as they got 1 rune they are magical and sometimes flaming, 1 of those will rip your slann apart if you fail a 50% chance save. you're better off without the higher state since pursuing troops can still cut you down with the same weapons that couldn't hurt you 1 minute earlyer.

divine plaque and MR 3 and you only have to keep the slann out of CC, wich really shouldn't be that hard unless troops show up from random table edges. lore of life has a nice range. ofcrouse, if you run a lone slann you lose the regen spell but i digress.

 

Divine plaques is still useful since as you say, the discipline is against mundane attacks. Dwarfs can put a rune on all their warmachines and have magic shooting, most Skaven shooting also counts as magical, any character with magic long range weapons will also count.

1) When a character is in a unit the unit can automatically use his leadership, or as mentioned by Bibamus yeah the unit uses the highest leadership. The bonus just won't go out to other units besides his own. We do have a unique situation with the general also being the BSB though.

2) Yeah BSB dies if fleeing from combat, very nasty isn't it. And yeah units won't be inspired by him if he is fleeing from something else.

3) Not quite sure what you are asking and sorry if you are well aware of this (you did say you had been away from the game a while) but you know double 6 is a miscast now not double 1? The feedback scroll can be used instead of dispelling, so in the first case the spell did not go off so you cannot attempt to dispel it.

 

Depending on how you set it up, any army can benefit from the standard of discipline. All it takes is having your general in a unit that can carry a magic banner. SoD only says that the unit carrying it cannot benefit from the "inspiring presence" rule (page 107, brb). If your general is in that same unit it wouldn't be using his inspiring presence, it would be using highest leadership in the unit rule (page 10, brb). The bonus actually would carry out to other units since they are not in the unit carrying the SoD.

 

no chance we can milk the former large target los the slann got with TG to get an 18" general and BSB range right?