Tell us all wich Lore you prefer for your slann. My personal favorite is death. Because of the effect of it.and the spells are great as well
i quite like beasts and shadow, except the lore attributes are terrible. i quite like life and death mostly because they have awesome lore attributes! i think i'll probably have a go with all of them before i make my mind up. fire seems out and out bad though. any fire supporters? metal somehow seems to have taken a big knock too (imo), but i'm not really sure why... oh, and light seems hilariously good against undead/daemons. perhaps not for us, but imagine an empire army with 2-3 light wizards next to each other and they go for banishment.... much?
Life is amazing, hands down. Being able to bring back D6+1 models/wounds to a unit is amazing. being able to force a ST test or be removed is amazing. Thorn shield is also really good, especially once buffed with Vines. The T buff is also really good.
Light has some decent stuff in it, but the best is the Amynotok's Web. Pass str test every time the unit tries to move for any reason, shoot, or cast spells or else take D6 str4 and IS UNABLE TO PERFORM THAT ACTION. Since it is a hex, you can cast it on something you expect to break in combat to make it much more likely to catch them. Or you can cast it at something you don't want charging you. Or something you don't want shooting at you. Really the potential for it is huge. Why bother casting something that makes that huge deadly line of darkelf repeater crossbows suffer a -1 to hit? With this spell, they have a 50% chance of not shooting that phase, getting themselves damaged instead. Let's talk about flee reactions.. cast it on something you are going to charge and they have to test to be able to stand and shoot or to flee! Last but certainly not least... you must pass a strength test to cast spells! Cast this hex on a unit containing the enemy's big caster, and they have to test for every spell they cast. (Potentially racking up lots of D6 str4). Slanns beware of this spell! Possibly one of the most underestimated spells at this time, makes Light a bit more tempting. Light is a pretty solid lore otherwise as well, with a couple of magic missiles, and some excellent buffs. It also combines well with heavens magic on a skink priest. WS10 troops, then cast portent on em = lots of hits.
So far, my views on the lores: Fire - good offensive lore, especially if you need to bombard 1 unit (due to attribute) all flaming brings its own pros (no regen) and cons (5pt 2+wards against fire) to the table. Beasts - Augmentive Lore, signature spell is excellent but better served on Beastmen and the like who can spam it. the thought of a slann with +3 strength and Attacks makes me seriously consider giving him a magic weapon, as I couldn't see anywhere that denies weapon bonuses (except the dragonform spell, but to me thats more of a last-ditch effort) as Bears anger used to... Amber spear is also tasty, go-go cannonslann! Metal - very specialised, anti armour spells, another lore that looks more suited to a lower level auxillary mage unless your certain of facing a lot of armour. Light - some excellent auxillaries and anti-daemon/ undead spells. the most offensive spell benefits from having multiple Light mages so less effective in Lizardmen lists but with 1 augmentive spell to give WS/I 10 and one to give +1 A and strike First, this lore I believe still has huge potential for us slow lizzies. Life - The generic go-to lore for Slann, Throne of vines makes Cupped hands unnessessary and regrowth for your saurus and krox anf TG is awesome. Shadow - I'm starting to like shadow a lot. De-buff spells combined with powerful spells that can exploit them... Also, being able to decrease elite enemies WS and/ or I can make a huge difference to our Saurus blocks. I'd be very tempted to run him as the 2nd slann to support Dwellers below and add some nice debuffs. Death - Character sniping and potent but with fairly short ranges. Seems to be the classic "2nd slann" choice so far. Heavens - Unfortunately my 2nd least loved lore (after metal) tends to do a lot of small buffs and hexes and a couple of decent offensive spells (Chain Lightening and the Comet) but I can't really think of a reason to use it on a slann, if you happen to roll something for your Skink Priest that is usable, then so be it, but being unable to have the comet cast twice (only 1 of each RIP spell can be active at a time) and being unable to hit the same unit twice with Chain Lightening I see little benefit of the slann using it as well.
I think Light has legs in an army like mine featuring 3 or so big Saurus/TG units. Being able to boost all of them to the sky makes it viable IMO.
I ran Life yesterday and it was AMAZING. It is clearly our best option, but I want to experiment around with some other lores just for fun too. I am looking to run death next time as there are many great options to run powerful combinations with this lore. Here are a few ideas: Cast Doom and Darkness on a unit you are in combat with, then cast aspect of the dreadknight on your unit. You now cause fear and the opponent must take a leadership test at -3 or have their weaponskill reduced to 1 (hitting you on 5s now). Cast doom and darkness on a unit that you are planning to flame with your salamanders. If 1 wound gets through, odds are very good that they will panic and flee! Cast Soulblight on a unit to reduce their strength by 1 (and toughness). Then cast caress of laniph or fate of bjuna on a character in that unit. Caress is more powerful with lower strength and bjuna with lower tougness. Life leeching is a great attribute as well!
Life is the safe choice for us, it means that we can spam PD and not really care too much about consequence. You can happily throw 6 dice at the first spell of the phase (Throne of vines obviously), roll double sixes, no worries, now I can ignore on a 2+. Then proceed to buff some skinks to T6 or do something else equally amusing. The Dwellers Below is an excellent spell when used against the likes of Elves which I expect people will see even more of these days. T3, 50/50 chance of killing them, a block of 50, good chance of 25 going under. Light is nice if you want to make saurus even nastier, throw in a few Vets or OB's and some strategic casting and you could have a unit that marches 10 inches, has ASF and could have 15 attacks in the first rank alone (5 wide just R&F) or if you're me, 13 from the rank and file, 5 from a SV, 6 from an OB giving a neat 24 attacks at varying strength that have ASF, not to mention the 12 from the 2 ranks behind. Who doesn't want 36 attacks? (Which could also be hitting at WS10, with re-rolls...) Pha's protection is also nice if you want to advance as a battle line with blocks of saurus flanking your Slann-TG unit. Even with the slap in the face that is the LM FAQ that states that a slann cannot use the Transformation of Kadon spell I do feel that Beasts should not be underestimated. S5 T5 saurus cavalry is not to be laughed at, The Amber Spear is great for taking out beasties or even cannons. S6 against average T6 means wounding on 4's, typically 3 or 4 crew, you roll well enough you could topple a cannon outright. Let's not forget the things one could do with a S8, A8 OB. Give him the Gold Sigil sword and he'll have I10 aswell, wont go first against things with ASF but against everything else he will be. Depending on how you gear up your Slann this is a combo that could be seen in games of 2500. Death spells are a bit lacking in range. Heavens is ok but a bit dull considering how little it has changed. Shadows is a bit meadiocre aswell if you ask me. Metal sucks... -Eagle