I'm leaning towards either Shadow, Light or Life. What have you guys had the most success with? I'm just getting back into fantasy and getting spun up on 8th edition. So far I have had a few smaller games (1k) with Warriors of Chaos, but we are looking to expand to 1500. There will also be a new Tomb Kings player shortly at around that same level. I figure the only way I can possibly compete in the magic phase will be to take the Slann, but so far I have mostly managed to just miscast and fail a lot. Any advice is appreciated.
Take life and make sure your first spell is Throne of Vines. That way, you can ignore miscasts on any roll of a 2+, and I'm pretty sure even if the throne spell was a miscast, the effect will work for it.
Tbh, all are really good. With shadow, being S4 basic with saurus taking down someones toughness really brings the hurt and Mindrazor is great too. Life is fantastic, T8 saurus T6 skinks and the like can be crazy. Aswell as dwellers But personally I find that light is the best for saurus. The two problems with saurus is low WS and Initiative. Oh look, WS10 I10. Thats winsause on an 8+ for one unit. And Timewarp, +1 attack and ASF is stunning considering we have 2 attacks each already. Get them both off and thats re-rolls to hit on those. People will have a hard time choosing which one to dispel. And a slann with rumination might just help you push those spells out too!
What he said, and effects of spells do happen before miscasts so you can ignore a miscast thrones on a 2+. Best lore is life, especially with loremaster, in fact having loremaster is probably more important than the lore you are master of. Definitely if you have the extra die per cast. Second is light, it only gets close to live versus daemons and undead as it has extra strength but daemons has an anti lore of life banner you have to watch out for. Reason why light is good is that it corrests the weapon skil and initiative disadvantages of lizardmen. It becomes difficult to choose third amongst the rest as their benefits and disadvantages are situational.
Thanks for the tips! I was leaning towards life for the benefits mentioned; although light can make temple guard insane in CC I have a hard time imagining an opponent letting us get off a good combo. If I can keep bringing them back from the dead it will probably keep up with the casualty rate in close combat. Also, Life lets me save points on Cupped Hands. My planned build is Rumination and Loremaster, with a battle standard and 20 TG. Is a 6x4 block enough these days, or should I plan for more? I am hoping Life will make them really hard to eat through. Quick tangent; with magic being as powerful as it is these days would it be essentially suicidal to not take the Slann? My playstyle is less magic and more Carnosaur, but I'm not so sure that will work out.
A skink priest with a Diadem of Power can do a descent job of shutting down a magic phase. Add another with cube of darkness or a dispel scroll and you should be set for about 200 points. If you luck out and get Comet you can hide the skink anywhere and still be at full effect.
I tend to switch between Life and Light, depending on the abundance of enemy war machines. Life lets you restore a wound to a model within 12" each time you cast a spell, which I find invaluable in keeping my Stegadons alive before they can get in combat (in combination with the 5+ ward save from the EoTG it's brill). If I'm facing an enemy that I know won't have much in the way of destructive shooting (like Beastmen or WoC) I tend to favour Light. It's worth mentioning that a lot of the buff spells can be upgraded to effect all friendly units within 12" (unlike Life, which only effect single units), and that can be a lot of WS10, I10 + extra attack units. Can be quite game winning, not to mention keeping you quite safe against Pit or Purple Sun. Shadow also has some nice benefits. You can use Steed of Shadows on a character + his mount (never could in 7th, but the spell effects characters + mounts since 8th). Flying a Steg or Carnosaur behind enemy lines (or on the flank even better) can be quite unexpected.
I'm a Light guy myself, I find that buffing all of your battle line within 12" to WS10, I10, +1A and ASF is just too delicious to resist. I've used it on a Sarurs Cav unit that promptly hacked it's way through 20 Chaos Chosen in one turn (something that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside). However, as most opponents know how horrible that is now, you MUST take the discipline that allows you an extra dice. Even when using 3 dice per spell on average, I rarely miscast more then once a game, and if you do it's all cool as you just "give" it to an enemy wizard with the cupped hands!
I just tried Light against the new Tomb King book. 1-shot killed a colossus with +burning gaze, whittled away at the king's bodyguard with banishment, and kept the mean sphinx from using its template attack by staying at WS 10, making too big of a risk for it to try. If there's a good chance my opponent will bring undead, my choice will now be Light every time.
Regardless of whether I think I'll see VC, TK or DoC as an opponent, I really like Light. While you're right, it is difficult to get combinations off, it is not unheard of. The trick I find is not to use boosted versions of the spells, with the exception of Pha's Protection, which has a relatively low cost and is a great spell to lead with since most opponents then have to make a tough choice about how to use their dice that phase (or course Rumination also helps with this strategy since the more spells you attempt, the greater your PD advantage). Life is also a great lore, with miscast protection, Dweller's and Flesh to Stone, and while I have used it very successfully as well, I just feel like Light does a better job complementing the Saurus and TG I prefer to run and gives me more tactical options.
Add another vote to the Lore of Light column. I've had terrific success with it; especially when coupled with a couple of skink priests with Iceshard Blizzard. Pah's will give your opponent -1 To Hit, and Iceshard will give your opponent -1 to their rolls (and Leadership). What does this mean? The vast majority of the time, your opponent needs a 6 to hit if you get both off. Anything but a WS10 is 5+ to hit, and then they have to subtract 1 from their roll (in close combat). If you're lucky enough to get Pa's off and two Iceshards off on the same unit, then they can't hit you at all (effects from augments and hexes are cumulative unless noted in the spell).
I am running light right now. Life is obviously real solid as well. I think Shadow can be really solid though and I have had some fun with Beasts too.
I was running a list with 5 Scarvets. Boosting Savage Beast made them all dragons Amber Spear is a great way to deal with monsters and such. Wyssans is always solid too.
That must have been hilarious! But not being able to cast Kadon has always put me off beasts. I'm afraid I need to throw my two cents in with the lore of Life. The miscast protection, toughness boosts and regeneration just make it the perfect lore to get your murderous lizzies into battle in fighting condition! Though I often play vs Vampire Counts and the lore of Light just terrifies them! Zombies are one of the few units out there still slower than saurus so ASF can make a devastating difference!
Yeah, when it goes off and you have all 5 saurus in combat it wrecks stuff I am thinking of trying something similar with chiefs.