OK. So I had a game against HE on Wednesday night as was pretty much dominating, however, 1 spell changed the game. Purple sun!!! He had pretty good magic the whole game averaging atleast 7 dice +. I had a scroll and cube of darkness (used them both on 2 previous attempts on purple sun). On turn 3 he managed to 6 dice purple sun and wiped out my Slann (I only had 4 dice due to failed channels), 21 TG, and a bastilodon. WTF can we as lizards do against that?? I am not sure I know of any tactics/way of mitigating this damn spell.
Dispel Scroll and Cube of Darkness should get you 2 turns of defense. He's unlikely to be in range turn 1, unless he goes balls out throwing his level 4 wizard at you. So now you have ~3 turns to figure out how to kill a T3 model with 3 wounds and at best a 4+ ward. The solution comes down to, kill the wizard. Dead wizards can't cast purple sun. You want a dirty wizard killing trick? Take 2 scar vets. Mount both on cold ones. Give one the stubborn crown. Have the one with the stubborn crown join the other, making a unit. Deploy them 1 wide. Charge into the wizard bunker, touch the wizard. Scar Vet in front issues a challenge. If he accepts, the guy in back is making supporting attacks on the wizard, and the unit is stubborn. If the guy in front is killed by the ASF (or init 5 great weapon) attacks, then the stubborn guy in back steps up and makes full attacks on the wizard (and is still stubborn). If he doesn't accept the challenge, all the ASF attacks can only hit the character in the front, as they aren't touching the rear scar vet during their initiative step. Now you're making attacks and supporting attacks (or just the attacks from the rear guy if the front dies). I used to do this with a goblin big boss and a goblin warboss, both on wolves, scar vets are more expensive, but it should still work. Another option might be a chief cube. 4 Chiefs with extra hand weapons is 42 points each. They could join up 2x2 and do the same type of thing. Init 6 would mean you swing before the great weapon elves. The whole key is that you're basically sacrificing the front hero so the back hero can swing. -Matt
Before the new army book I took Light most of the time. Bubbled Speed of Light is great for keeping the Purple Sun away. EDIT: I guess Hand of Glory works too but you can't bubble it.
Wasnt he in the TG? Then he should autopass his LOS even without the slann dying it also seems pretty unlucky, the templeguard 3 initiative with the bastilodon nearby and the bastilodon is rocking ini 4
Good point, unless you had.a huge unit of TG then you rolled really badly Slann should have been in TG if purple sun is about, then he is safe Does a bastilidon not give himself +1 I too? Just says all friendly units so that is unlucky to lose him too But as lizardmatt said, HE casters are squishy, so if he go all out and puts him in your face, kill him with characters or death snipe him back, if he sits back and is defended, just keep back and hope he doesn't roll a ten! Other things include, if he casts it early and need a high roll, risk it or take a feedback scroll to try to kill him, don't waste your scroll turn one in a PS that might not hit you, wait until turn three when he is 10 inches away and going to ram it right down your throat
I did that in a brief lived campaign where we had lots of points but severe limitations on what we could build so I fielded an army with a unit of 4 Skink Chiefs. It did not do well.
Another option, depending on the wizard bunker, is suicide charging rippers with toad rage the unit. Against anything short of swordmasters or WL, a couple rippers will survive and can dish out a pile of S4, KB attacks with re-rolls to hit. They are even better if they can be buffed with wyssans or HoG or both. The improvement to T4/S5 with a 4+ AS makes them reasonably survivable against S4 or less and really deadly against squishy elves.
Get Oxyotl, place him strategically and/or hope that u go first! Tried him once for fun and .. he was a lot of fun untill a volley of achers nailed him but he sniped the mage before that
I asked one of our more senior players (major tournament player) about LOS for purple sun, he informed me you do not get a look out sir because technically purple sun isnt a template "bomb" its a spell so you dont get LOS. Something like that, I was too busy being angry at this point. The basta unfortunately wasnt within 6 inches of the TG so couldnt benefit from the +1 to initiative, but when the damn sun moved it killed him too.
Rightio, well that would have changed everything I am actually playing the said senior player tonight so I will discuss this with him. Hopefully Karma will come into play and I will pummel his girly Druchii into the ground..........I hope!!
Gotta love major tournament players getting such an important rule wrong, losing or not losing a slann can make or break a whole game, makes you wonder how many tournament games have been played wrong (unless he doesn't run death so just was inexperienced with the situation) Anyway the ruling is in the FAQ Q: Does the ‘Look Out Sir’ special rule apply against all spells that use templates? (p93) A: Yes.
Nah way... I have played against too many experienced players who... *forgot* certain aspects of their own rules or units... until it suited them of course. Like the guy who said the only thing that happens to dragon ogres when hit by lighting is they become frenzied... then as soon as I fired a WLC at them they were suddenly invulnerable to it. The number of cheats and bad sports out there is ridiculous... you would swear their life depended on them winning. I play skaven... but if I incorrectly tell my opponent something about my units then I wear it if it turns out to be wrong and not in my favour.