8th Ed. 1000 Points, Skink Skirmisher Army MK IV

[ShasOFish]

Little bit of background first:

Went through the first couple iterations of the list here:
http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/1000-point-adepticon-list.6008/

Things seemed to be in a pretty good spot; they still are that way, given the way battles played out here:
http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/1000-points-lizardmen-versus-high-elves-update-2-21-2011.6018/

Now, the thing I'm pondering is the Skink Chief in the most recent list; in the three battles, there was only a single occasion where the reroll facilitated a hold where I wanted one (mostly because the nature of the list finds a hit-and-run philosophy of battle in order to work), and the Chief himself had only a small number of casualties to his credit in any given game.

At the same time though, my Priest performed far beyond his worth; with well over a dozen kills to his credit in each game, and the delay or hexing of a melee unit allowing for another half dozen to be killed, and survived 4 different miscasts, with only slight decreases in casting power, and a single wound upon him.

Now, with the points available for heroes, I could potentially field two Skink Priests, at the price of the Skink Chief. This would cause my leadership to suffer somewhat, but at the same time, that is a relatively minor loss, under typical circumstances. Gaining the second priest would not yield the same increase in firepower as the first, but would offer a greatly increased chance of having particularly effective spells (The chances of not rolling a 4, a 6, or doubles on 4 dice compared to 3 is significantly reduced, and even more so with 5 dice). It would also mean that a catastrophic miscast would not mean the end of the magic phase for me, which that sort of survivability is very useful (it would also apply to an opponent killing the priest as well).

Now, part of the experimentation would be to play around with the fitting for the Priest; with about 40 points to spend beyond the naked skink (as the points are laid out; a unit of skirmishers could, in theory, lose a model or two, allowing the two priests to be fitted to maximise the 250 point allotment for them), which gives me a variety of options: I could simply upgrade him to a Level 2 Wizard, and call it at that; this has numerous benefits, foremost being the extra point to cast and the extra dice for generating spells. Alternatively, I could keep him a Level 1, and look through the lovely list of magic items available in order to find a suitable and useful tool.

I suppose I have a lot of theory and testing to do. Any advice from you guys/girls/fellow skinks?

 

[sevensevensare49]

First off, congrats on your victories. I've suffered 3 straight losses (some due to ineptitude, some due to extremely crappy dice rolls) but the two times I've brought the Priest out, he's decimated the enemy and been the only survivor twice.

If you're looking for the 40 points option I would suggest the Plaque of Tepok for 15pts & Ruby Ring of Ruin, for 25 points. This'll give you an extra spell from Heavens (i use Blizzard and Chain Lightning) and the Fireball, great on big flammable monsters (like the Hell Pit Abomination hehe)

49.

 

[Khakorlot]

This'll give you an extra spell from Heavens (i use Blizzard and Chain Lightning)

Is this just because you've been lucky with spell rolls? Because you're not allowed to pick which spells you use unless you roll a duplicate (mostly talking about Chain Lightning, since you can default to Iceshard).

 

[sevensevensare49]

Because you're not allowed to pick which spells you use

You're not? Crap I didn't know that. On the plus side, neither did the guys I've played! (or they didn't care)

49.

 

[Khakorlot]

Because you're not allowed to pick which spells you use

You're not? Crap I didn't know that. On the plus side, neither did the guys I've played! (or they didn't care)

49.

Next time get them to look over Pg 490 under Spell Generation

You pick a lore (lores have to be picked whilst writing the army list, so make sure they're doing that too and not just picking a different lore at the start of each game, because that was removed with 8th ed.) and then you roll a D6 to decide which spell you get from that lore, with each roll corresponding to spell that matches that number (So for a level 2 skink priest, I might roll a 5 and a 6, so I get the Comet and Chain Lightning).

You can't duplicate spells unless you have no control over what spells a character has (so a character that starts out with Spell ABC from Lore XYZ won't stop another wizard in the army from having the same spell if the wizard rolls it) or the other characters are loremasters (so a skink priest will still be able to have the same spells as a heavens Slann who took Focus of Mystery, but if the Slann didn't take focus of mystery then he wouldn't). If you do roll a duplicate (So a level 2 priest rolls a 4 for Urannon's Thunderbolt and then a second 4) then you get to choose which spell you take for that slot.

No matter what spells are rolled, a wizard can choose to default it to the lore's signature spell (the spell that isn't numbered 1-6); signature spells are the only other exception to duplicates, so every wizard in your army may have the same signature spell.

 

[ShasOFish]

If you're looking for the 40 points option I would suggest the Plaque of Tepok for 15pts & Ruby Ring of Ruin, for 25 points. This'll give you an extra spell from Heavens (i use Blizzard and Chain Lightning) and the Fireball, great on big flammable monsters (like the Hell Pit Abomination hehe)

I've enjoyed the Plaque of Tepok so far; it's helped my Skink Priest get that third spell. Giving it to the second priest instead makes sense, as it would give them each two to work with (without dropping the full points to make him a Level 2 Wizard), beyond any other items.

The Ruby Ring is definitely a possibility; while not as powerful as, for example, Urannon's Thunderbolt, it's not entirely unreasonable to attempt to cast it with only a pair of dice, or even (if desperate) a single dice. Were this the case, I'd probably put the ring on the General, giving him that slight abilitive edge in comparision to the other priest.

On the other hand, while making him a Level 2 is slightly more expensive (given that the current list gives the PoT to the first Priest), he still gains the additional spell, and has that extra +1 to cast that comes in handy every so often.

I really wish there were other generic items with bound spells, or at least practical items with this price range; everything else seems to be geared for higher points games (granted, 1000 points is rather small).