8th Ed. Death Slann

i just work on each dice will get me 3 and then see how many threes are in the casting attempt minus 1 for the slanns level. works ok. and slanns got a 4+ ward regardless so hes got some save and i have the re roll one miscast result as it doesnt happen that often really. if you find it does though could always have soul of stone

And lore of life is good as you may be able to ignore it from vines and if ye lose some wounds you can gain some back just by casting some spells. and dont forget even if the opponent dispells it the spell was still successful cast so you get the lore attribute

 

Sadly, my game last night ended up being against VC so not really a good test for the army.. I didn't roll great for damage from the sniping, took his lord down to 1 wound in turn 1. He advanced with everything, I did a bit of flaming with salamanders and dropped his leadership.

Turn 2 I got charges off across the board; saurus units into ghouls on either side of our respective general's units, plus combo charges with the steg and flanking skrox units. My TG sat a little back to allow me to keep attacking the vamp lord with magic, which I did and ended up killing him. End of turn two he had a varghulf, around 15 GG, and a mostly full unit of ghouls with BSB and I had basically everything except 5 charmeleon skinks, a couple normal skinks, and 6 saurus so we called it a game.

The sniping spells aren't quite as destructive as I had originally thought. Anything with a ward save has a decent chance to live. I think against most armies (VC targetting the general is obvious) I would aim for their lvl 4 wizard first, the BSB second, then the general last if the chance was there. Once everyone reaches combat it becomes very hard to use the sniping spells so there is probably only time to kill 2 characters. I also think it would be useful against monsters and chariots, if there was time.

I think overall it is a little bit weaker than using light because when you are in combat the only real buff/hex is the -1 S/T. That is very useful and everyone in 24" for its charged state is insanely scary, but there isn't anything to boost my own units.

Still, I found it a bit more aggressive and fun, I think I will stick with death for a while.

 

Hello,
Yes, short ranges of our "snipier" spells limit it pretty hard. That is why I switched to Shadow Magic and a Lone Slann If i play aggresive/offensive. I sometimes miss Doom and Darkness but there are other spells that make it up.
Cheers.

 

Has anyone tried using a lvl 1 Priest with the cloak of feathers to get closer to your targets and make those 12" ranges more effective? The non-bumped up spell prices are very reasonable in death and with a well-placed priest even the fate of bjuna spell has a 36" range! The trick would be keeping the priest alive...

 

doesn't the channeling ability only work magic missles? i thought a lot of the death spells were direct damage. been awhile since i looked. congrats on the victory, and i'd agree with your assement of only really having the time for 1 or 2 characters before battle is met. i think you have an added combination of leadership modifier and fear/terror checks when you couple that with the plan to take out the bsb/ lvl 4. limiting their dispel ability and removing that re-roll can be pretty gnarly. just think, even with the best general leadership, they'd be at a 7 at best to pass ld checks . shadow is great too, but i find the ability to pick characters out of units pretty snazzy. o and i think warmachines are limited on the stat tests they are allowed to take (can take ld, all else-auto fail?), so you have a backup should your chamos fail.

 

All the snipe spells are direct damage and thus cannot be vassaled trough a skink.

 

Drat, forgot about that! Oh well, it's still a fun lore to play but competitively it would be very difficult to pull off against every opponent.

 

Death has some nice points, but its very killy focused and lacks buffs or hexes. 'Soulblight' is amazing, but its the only one aside from 'Doom and Darkness'. Printing power dice is nice in other armies, but Slann already get a free dice with every cast, so its less useful for us.

If you wanna snipe characters, I'd suggest the Blood Statuette. Works great against most Wizards, as typically people bunker them and load up on arcane items, neglecting giving them a ward save (which they usually reserve from combat characters). 'Dwellers', 'Pit' and 'Purple Sun' are actually better anti-character spells anyway, as you're not relying on rolls to wound, and he can't 'Look Out Sir' the hit. Also has the nice secondary effect of blowing up his attached unit too.

It's certainly not a bad Lore, but I'd only take it if you have a definite strategy. Just chucking it on and going 'meh, Purple Sun is all I care about' isn't going to work. Lizardmen need magic buffing, without it the army just doesn't work as intended. You can't just nuke everything, at some point their dudes will start chopping up your dudes and magic is what will swing things your way.

 

You make it sound like a LM army is weak without magic support... Not many armies get 4+ armour, T4 on their basic troops. Even less get to dish out 2 S4 attacks per model. The main thing that will drag down saurus units is combat characters and support like chariots and monsters. Lore of death aims to deal with both of them.

It requires a bit more work (but once you are in combat there aren't a lot of spells you can drop anyway) but make a unit cause fear, drop doom and darkness on the opponent and you will probably reduce them to WS 1 as well. Especially if you have previously removed BSB/general. And soulblight is awesome!

 

Well it is, and there is really no way around taking a Slann. Magic is our strongest trait as an army, and with magic being the balancer for armies without warmachines, we have to have it. Salamanders and the EOTG can only do so much, the Slann has to bring the magical buffs and artillery to plug our weaknesses.
Saurus will definitely chew through enemy Core easier with 'Soulblight' on, but they're still painfully slow (srsly, great weapons are just about the only thing they beat), and as you said there are plenty of things they can't handle without support.

Let me put it this way. In a list with a single Slann, I'd be hesitant as taking Death for his lore, as he's the only Wizard not forced to take Heavens in your army. In a double Slann list, Death has great synergy with almost every other lore, but especially Shadow and Light. So, with another Slann being the BSB+General+buff caster, you can head off with the Death Slann and his retinue to start killing stuff.

The biggest problems I have with Death are twofold.
Firstly, the short-range hexes and sniper spells are great, but they require you to move into range (to snipe the BSB etc). Lizardmen do want to close against certain armies (warmachine spam armies hit you from either distance, so the sooner you hit combat the better), but being forced into it is a bit dangerous, as it can hand your opponent the initiative (ie he begins to dictate where and when you can hit his battleline).
Secondly, 'Purple Sun'. If you miscast, or roll misfire on the scatter die, you can basically kiss the Slann and TG goodbye. Also, technically, it kills a couple of TG from the first rank when created (vortex has to start with the Wizard then flies away). Seeing as its the nuke of the Lore, and the ultimate (and the most feared nuke in the game), I'd rather take another Lore with a less suicidal ultimate.

 

Going to use douple slann in a ETC comped tournament in couple of days. One with light, another with death

 

ETC is interesting you can have two loremasters for the PD limit and then for the DD it's a choise between becalming or scroll+cube.

 

I'm having ethereal+ bsb + fireward on my light slann (also general), death slann has Rumination and banehead. Shaman carries scroll or cube, havent decided yet

 

for tourney style games ive gone for an un killable slann...or it has been so far...hes ethereal bsb general who has a 2+ ward against everything except close combat attacks that are magical and he still then has a 4+ ward to fall back on. 2nd time used him on me mate he got charged by a jugganaught riding lord with a magical weapon where i survived taking couple wounds over couple turns where i got a unit to just come in and win him with res he didnt like it when he saw how i used a jugganaught rider so well before...his hopes were set too high and underestimated us lizards

 

'Ethereal' is gimmicky, you're still just as susceptible to sniper magic (most common form of death for Slann), and there is no need to take the Dragonbane Gem, Metal magic can't hurt you as you have no armour save (so 'Hounds' is useless). Actual fire magic can't snipe you out, and it's not going to worry your Temple Guard much either (T4, 3+ armour against ranged attacks, and 5+ ward from EOTG).

I'd run them both 'Rumination' and 'Mystery'. Banehead only works on a single character, and given he's a Death Slann it's overkill (you'll usually snipe your target if it's not dispelled anyway).

Priest should roll with scroll and Blood Statuette, I'd only take cube if you really want it (it's situational, generic dispel scroll is cheaper). Blood Statuette is fantastic for sniping out an enemy Level 4 or BSB, and because it's a low-cast bound item, you can sneak it in after your opponent has burned out all his dispel dice and scrolls/runes stopping the two Slann.

 

ETC comps, both cant have rumination and mystery

 

Rumination is meh in ETC.

 

I finally got to test my death Slann against a mid-strong skaven army last night. It had 2 big units of rat ogres, a big unit of giant rats, abomination, doom wheel, and several large units of clan rats/slaves.

Overall I did find the lore a bit limiting for support for my whole army. My rolling with the snipe spells has been terrible. I think it took 3 turns just to kill a greyseer while dropping 2-3 spells on him each turn. If I had rolled better and killed him early, I could have focused on destroying other probably more important targets like the HPA.

Doom and Darkness is very good, and Soulblight is fantastic, the direct damage spells should be good if you roll decently for them. If you do well in the first turn or two, you should dominate the game. But if you struggle to kill characters/monsters early, you will struggle overall.

I managed to win, it was very close though. Whole TG unit was wiped again and the Slann was reduced to 2 wounds before another unit of saurus could jump in and save him. In the end the result was very much in my favour, but there were several points it really could have gone either way.

I now agree that overall, light is definitely far better for a LM army. But death is still fun and while I am just playing friendlies, I will stick with death for a while.

 

Really? How annoying. I suppose they penalise you for taking Salamanders as well

How so? It's easily the best Discipline our Slann can take

Bit unusual for Skaven. Did he have no other warmachines or weapon teams?

Weird that you couldn't snipe out the Grey Seer easily, unless he's on a bell. The D6 for wounds or characteristic tests will screw you from time to time, but he's not especially tough.

Light isn't something I'd run solely. Its on the opposite end of the magic spectrum; whilst Death is all about...death, Light doesn't have a nuke, and it's gun magic is good but nothing amazing. I'd still rate Shadow as our number one Lore choice, it just plugs so many holes in our armies and the lore attribute is hilarious and useful.

 

It was a molder themed army. So nowhere near as powerful as Skaven can get, but a bit of a step up from what he usually fields.

As I mentioned, my gaming group dislikes nukes anyway, we do not play with the 6th spells, so not having a nuke in lore of light is no problem. It is a fantastic support lore, has the potential to dish out s6 magic missiles, and works really well with LM. Shadow is a pretty nice lore, and I would like to theme a lone Slann army around it at some point. With smoke and mirrors it has amazing potential.