8th Ed. Using Mazdamundi: the thoughts of a noob.

Hi all!

I’ve been fiddling around with my Lizardmen on and off for a while now and have settled rather resolutely on a Sacred Spawning of Chotec. As a hobbyist, I love to round off my army with a centrepiece leader, usually the uber character for that army. In our case that means Mazdamundi, which fits in with the Chotec vibe pretty damn well. I know due to his somewhat prohibitive points cost and his obviousness as a high-priority target combining the weakness of a solo slann without the tricks and stegadon without the crew he’s not what we’d call “competitive” (or “functional”). But he’s cool. And I want him. And I want to make the most out of the situation. So how the hell to use him? Here are my (somewhat inexperienced) thoughts.

Army Composition:
Taking up such a huge amount of points he rather terribly limits what else you can field, but having a lone Slann on a stegadon is asking to be cannon murdered. More monsters are needed – ancient stegs, vanilla stegs and MAYBE bastilodons, although I’ll probably want to use my power dice with Maz. An Engine of the Gods might be worthwhile depending on the chosen lore. Skink cloud as core, maybe with a Saurus block if running Basti/Engine but I’ll be looking at numbers here so the Saurus will be on the bench if it doesn’t fit.
NOTE: Given my Chotec theme I’ll probably be using both Solar Engines and an Engine of the Gods for more burningness.

What Lore to choose?
Given he’s on a Stegadon he will probably end up in combat at some point (or with a nice round cannonball where his face used to be), so I’ll want to keep the number of magic missiles to a minimum. My thoughts on Lores are below, but I have a few questions regarding magic that might end up changing this. For the time being I’m assuming the answer is “yes” to all of them until I get the chance to sit down and suss it out myself or someone answers otherwise. Firstly: can Maz cast non-Magic Missile spells while he’s in combat by himself or in a challenge? Second: Can a wizard cast augments that target “a unit within X” such as Wyssan’s Wildform or Flamin Sword of Rhuin on themselves? Third: Can you cast a Direct Damage spell while in combat on the enemy unit you’re in combat with? Fourth: Do Augments/Hexes that affect a “unit” affect both Maz and his dino?

Fire: Fair amount of Direct Damage but nothing overly impressive. I like Flame Cage and Fire-Cloak, and Flaming Sword would be fun on Saurus. Burning Head could be fun in combat.
Beasts: Leave it to the skinks I think. Most of the spells just seem wasted on Maz (feel free to prove me wrong!)
Metal: A favourite of mine. Only 1 magic missile, some nice direct damage (particularly against heavy armour) and hexes. Glittering Robe is pretty useless though and cast costs seem high.
Light: Some nice buffs and a hex that work well in conjunction with Saurus and Temple Guard. Not a fan of the Magic Missiles though.
Life: Healing wounds is always good, so Regrowth and Lifebloom are very nice things to have. Throne of Vines will stop you from killing off your wizard and stegadon and then there’s Dwellers.
Heavens: Good synergy with lizards but leave it to the skinks.
Shadow: I think the idea of Maz on his steg swapping places with a priest on foot to be hilarious! There’s no Magic Missiles and plenty of augments and hexes to help supporting units. Also Pit of Shades.

I’ve run out of time for now, my take on Death and High Magic will come soon.

 

I would actually rate Beasts highly, given that Maz is likely to get into combat (what else is the Stegadon for?), and Beasts could turn him into a decent fighter.

 

Shadow allows you to change places with a model of the same type, hence he'd need to change place with a amonster, since he's a monster.

some time ago i sent Scalenex a message about what mazdamundi is and does, but i am busy right now, might find it a bit later and edit it in, but using him requires a plan from your side, and a pts allowance to back it.

you need to know what you want to do with him, and you need to be able to protect him! or get him out of harms way.

This means - target saturation.

bring monsters.

Scar vets on CO's - mobile challenge absorbers. would probably want him to have a mate to follow him around to do just that.

chameleons and/or terradons, en masse.

oh and about the lore choices, magic missiles are defo a no go, as they can't be cast while he's in combat, anything that can be cast out of combat is a go.

Hence i'd write fire of right from the bat, Heavens off straight from the bat, light off, and beasts off, all of those lores have 2 magic missiles, and since you would want to use the steg part of him for at least something, those lores have 1 too many magic missiles to get your full dollar out of his loremastery, per my humble opinion.

I think Shadow is golden - not magic missiles, pleanty of goood stuff, though some badt stuff as well.

Death is golden - Plenty of good stuff, although it arguable whether purple sun can be used on the thingy your fighting, i in the no boat, but hey, you can aim away.

Metal is actually pretty solid, 5+ scaly skin for mazdamundi, with his 6+ from the beast, that's a 4+ save with a ward to go, who doesn't like that?

You need to think in protection too though, so Life comes into the picture, and death gets devalued some, because it's only real survivability goes through the leech, which can fail (or be devastating).

I think my selections would be either Life or shadow, with metal a solid maybe.

Life lets me be aggresive with the steg, and i'm able to heal up mazdamundi, and also gives safety from blowing up my massive investment! i'm gonna lack in single target destructiveness though!

Shadow let's me dictate where i strike, if i bring enough monsters, and can get me out of messy stuff if i have enough monsters, it protects me through a degrade in strength or WS or BS to my opponents, which is not to cuff at, sadly, it's only viable for up to 2 targets with differing effects!

Metal provides me that all important anti armor punch, and protection through a scaly skink save, sadly that protection dies easily against high strength attacks, which is why metal does not really win out on the other lores - another negative of metal is that the metal signature is a magic missile, and while skink's can cast it for me, i can't depend on them surviving forever, everytime.



is' personally go for Life here i think, although my entire body is akin to go shadow, life is simply the safe bet! Shadow is the fun one, and the demanding one.

Hope this makes sense!

 

Hmm it seems I didn't read the lore attribute of Shadows very thoroughly. Would need to swap with a carno rider or a character on a steg, both of which I think I'd have trouble fitting in (but I might be able to squeeze in a scarnosaur)

I know this is going to sound wasteful (or stupid depending on how much Trogs make you foam at the mouth), but I was actually thinking of running a Trog to channel DD spells while Maz is tied up in combat. I know a priest on foot could do the same, but I'm stinging for an excuse to field a Trog!

If Maz cast Glittering Robe on himself, would the steg get an armour bonus? I was under the impression multiple instances of Scaly Skin didn't stack but I can't find where I got that idea from.

More thoughts on lores:
Death: Doom and Darkness plus stegadon's terror sounds like a lot of fun! Given that there's most likely going to be a few beasties in my list this could be a good investment. Lots of short range snipes could be cast through a channeller (or Maz if he's not in combat with what he wants to snipe) to take out scary things. Soulblight seems useful too. Then there's Purple Sun, which everybody loves. My only fear is that being mostly pretty high cast value spells I have a bigger chance of miscasting my way into oblivion.
High: Only 1 Magic Missile which I could cast early and drop for the sig of another lore. Can also heal with Apotheosis and buff with Hand of Glory (although the target probably wouldn't be Maz himself). Arcane unforging is also very cool. I think overall not too bad a lore, but with the feedback you guys have given I'm more inclined to use Life.

 

I wouldn't be comfortable with casting purple sun... First of, the risk of miscast, and if that's avoided you can always roll misfire, and have the vortex sucking Lord Mazdamundi in.

Aside from that, death is a great lore. -1 to strength and especially toughness is just great if you have lots of S3-4 attacks. Elves especially doesn't like T2 and salamander flame... Had 2 salamanders flaming a soulblighted goblin horde (and yes, most elves are about as resistant to salamander flames as goblins are) killing 40 models...

 

I once won a game using Mazdamundi with life. Because it has all the self buffs (eg. Throne of thorns) it works very well since he is mainly a close combat dude. He managed to mow through 2 squads of Big'Uns easily.