TOW My Slann is going to be taking

Just a shame that the rest of the spells are mostly underwhelming.

I am tempted to run a Slann with Elementalism and a level 2 Skink Priest with Illusion and lore familiar to guarantee the spell but its still a bit of a "you gotta get lucky" to get it off. Getting both Column of Crystal and Miasmic Mirage is pretty nice, but they are both not that easy to cast with a level 2. There is however the option of trying to move out of dispel range with the priest which might be doable.

But I do lose the Lore Familiar on the Slann which is a shame because guaranteeing both Curse of Plague and Wind Blast is important for that lore in my opinion.

 

I agree. I'm surprised everyone aside from me is onto elementalism. I knew it would be most popular and most wouldn't like necromancy but last time I checked a lot of people were advocating for high. I might do a deep dive of elementalism v necromancy with a lore familiar if I get a few spare moments.

 

I think Necromancy is pretty damn good with a big caveat: it won't do much against those nasty Dragons. I think in general a good player will make it very hard for you to win combat with static res and countercharges versus a Dragon. In theory reducing the leadership of those model and trying to run it down is pretty good but probably hard to do in practice.

I can see it working though if you play veyr agressive with a bunch of monsters, but the mobility of those Fly(8/9/10) is just so good. Something us lizards have issues with.

Imo Elementalism trumps High Magic and Necromancy because of Plague of Rust working with shooting, and can be cast in combat. Pick a target, try and get Plague of Rust off; shoot it with poison shots / giant bows / Wind Blast and other Magic Missiles (Beam of Chotec comes to mind with its range).

But don't get me wrong; you will have succes with Necromancy but I think it will really depend on the matchup.

 

Consider also that high magic signature spell obligate you to don't take Moonson that is REALLY a useful one. Tempest in high magic is similar but doesn't block the view

 

I agree completely but do you mean to say that elementalism has answers for dragons?

Imo using Necromancy to stop dragons is more of a case of the vortex spell hopefully causing movement issues (charge through is now the lower dice or going around) and the magic missile is the best in the game for dragons that I think would average 1 wound off. Which is all peanuts of course but I can't see how any other magic school does it better unless I'm missing something?

 

I did my deep dive on magic. It basically goes

Vortex - Edge to necromancy. Vortex has the potential to be game breaking whereas Elemental might deal damage. Necro is hard to cast but also at 11 it will stick around a bit more. 12 inches range is the big draw back although you don't need to cast it in a sensible spot if you just crave the -ld aspect

Magic Missile. Evens. Wind blast messes with movement which is great. Spirits can be ground breaking in the right circumstances. Also should take a wound off a dragon unlike everything else in this game.

Hex (spirit leech) edge to plague rust. It's a fantastic spell and can be cast into combat. Yes spirit leech can as well but then it becomes win more. Leech is ideal combined with vortex when you're flashing around terror.

I don't think either fourth spell is taken over Monsoon. Probably the biggest takeaway (and this related to a battle report too) is that curse of the years is fools gold. 15 inches, lasting a turn, unable to cast into combat. It just won't go off that often.

 

Yeah you miss that the dragon charge much more than your spell range. And other spells can block the view of the dragon rending him useless. Every other school have something similar except necromancy. Some vortex doesn’t move or move as you like other move randomly, so not everyone is as good as other to block the view

 

A 5 inch template that doesn't scatter but is difficult and dangerous terrain will block a charge more often than a 3 inch template that will scatter d6 before the dragons turn. I think.

 

That's why in my next list I will try a level 2 illusionism mage with lore familiar and power scroll taking both the Column of Crystal and Miasmic Mirage.

Keep the Skink Priest in the backfield so it is more likely to be out of dispel range, when the Dragon comes close or tries to flank I then try to cast Miasmic Mirage first (hardest to cast but longest range, but also impacted by MR). After that I can still try and drop a Column of Crystal but that is basically if the opponent ends up being fairly close to the model eg aggressive Dragon movement on a flank or something. Both of these are relatively hard to dispel with a Fated dispel, Power Scroll will help to get that one cast off that is crucial to block a charge.

I also see some nice potential for a Necro Slann combined with a Skink Priest running Confounding Convocation and Mind Razor

 

The dragon will fly on it…simply
You need to block the view. And necromancy doesn’t

 

Necromancy is good because of Leadership based spells ... It works nice with most armies . and we have a lot of Terror causing units ...
Illusion is very important lore ... and after you end with "theoryhammer" and actualy take some taste on battlefield. you will se the difference.
Illusion have 3 spells that are very good ...
1 . Miasmic mirage - This spells keep "the Dragon" locked and away from you ... which is important cause Chaos Lord on dragon is like true molester in this edition ...
2. Spectral Doppelganger - only thing that can take CL on dragon down , if you equip your etheareal Slann with Dragon slayer sword ...
3.Column of Crystal - only Vortex that is blocking line of sight and it is impossable terrain .... if u cast this in first round in face of some hard hitting unit ... lets say he will have a lot of difficulties ...

Rest of spells in Illusion is pretty situational and not worth mentioning , but this 3 spells are very good and make a big difference for our units...

 

Hi, I always see you all speaking about vortex as something inevitable, but, even if it's casted, isn't expected to be dispel at the beginning of the opposite's turn? So it's not going to afect really his movements. Or I'm missing something?

 

Enemy wizzard must be in range for wizardly dispell ... otherwise it is Fated dispell and you must score 10+ for that attempt ...

 

Not so hard at 10+ due many having level 4 caster or bonus to dispel. Dispel at the start of the conjuring phase require also the same result (10+) and not an higher one as in his own dispel phase. It’s good for one turn but vortex can be also dispelled before charges, so don’t forget that.

Miasmic is very good if you are out of range but cast it at 9+ with a second level is hard. Power scroll may help but it’s just once use.

Thats the main reason I personally don’t like to base all my magic on control/block but want some buff and damage.

 

I did miss the fact that flyers can ignore the difficult terrain. Damn.

 

I've got to disagree with this. MM is 15 inches. A Hex is cast before movement. How often can you really get this into a dragon?

And I'm not in favour of chasing dragons into combat with your Slann.

I think we're all ultimately stuck where TOW fails, these dragons are ridiculous...

 

I agree completely with you. TOO MUCH herohammer... To give ward save to dragons was just a big NO

 

Well it is hard to dispell if you are out of range with Slann casting spell using Vassal ... 27" is pretty nice range ... beside positioning of mages is probably one of the important things in this edition ... specially for us ... (that ethereal and fly rule for Slann is having so much sense after few games...)

 

Dragon is coming to you ... so yeah ... you have one chance before charge ... And i agree Dragons are hard to kill ... unfortunately Lizardmen need to be very creative for killing Dragons...

 

Personally I can understand how linehammer happened - they just didn't think of exploting the rule. But I can't see how no one ran a dragon in playtesting.

The more I think about our magic to combat a dragon, the more I think I'd prefer an extra old blood on a carno with a magic weapon charging in...