Slann
Scalenex
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1500 points of LM with a team mate I frequently play against with 1500 points of Dwarves. We are expecting a wide variety of opposing teams possible to play. Here is the basic plan:
We hold back and make our foes come to us. While they are advancing we whittle them down with dwarven artillery, miscellaneous LM skirmisher ranged fire, and magic. When our foes get to us, The dwarves (ideally benefiting from augment spells courtesy my Slann) will absorb the initially attackers. Each dwarf unit will have a LM buddy unit (or two) to charge the flank of whoever is in the Dwarf unit’s front arc.
Must Haves we’ve established:
A Slann: I'd either take Light or Life. When I play larger games I usually give to my Slann the Battle Standard, two disciplines (lore mastery + power die), and Cupped Hands as a minimum, that’s 395 points. With a 375 point ceiling I have to choose to sacrifice lore mastery, the BSB, OR Cupped Hands. It’s basically Sophie’s Choice for me here.
I don’t want to get Life without Throne of Vines or Regrowth, but there are no Light spells I would cry without any single Light spell. Therefor if I choose to go without Lore Mastery I’d probably take Light. It’s worth knowing that over a third of the players at the gaming store the tournament is play something that Exorcism would apply to though. If I do take Lore Mastery I’ll probably go with Life because I like all seven spells.
375 points of LM Core: My teammate and I both figure Saurus warriors won't do as well as dwarves for holding their place or killing things, so I’m choosing to go without them. To this end we are thinking 10 javelin skinks and 24 Skinks with 3 Kroxigor with SB and a Musician: that's 379 points of Core. The Kroxigor are fast enough to be in a good position to support an engaged dwarf unit with a flank charge The skirmishers can harass enemy units or screen the dwarven war machines against scouts and light flyers. My friend says the people at his gaming store put far less priority to war machine hunting than I do, but I don’t want to take chances now that the war machines are on my side. A slight variation would be to take a 16/2 Skroxigor unit and 20 skirmishers.
At least one Stegadon: The idea is we tar pit a tough unit in place with dwarves then hit them on the side with the Steggy.
At LEAST 12-15 Temple Guard to bunker my Slann in: I know some people do quite well with solo Slann but I never tried it before, and and a competitive tournament isn’t the time to try something outside my comfort zone for the first time.
2 groups of 30-ish dwarfs with great weapons: Probably one group of warriors and one group of hammerers. If my dwarf buddy needs to cut points to get something else he can swap the hammerers into warriors.
A cannon, Grudge Thrower, Organ Gun: The basic dwarven artillery line. In case of hydras or treeman, the cannon will have a flaming attack upgrade.
Runesmith: An economically general for the dwarves.
Elective Choices we’ve come up with:
Salamanders/Razordons: I like both of these guys. Either of these fine dinosaur units could help the dwarven artillery thin out advancing troops.
Temple Guard Upgrades: I would feel justified in up to 21 Temple Guard instead of 15. I think a Banner of Eternal Flame would be a good insurance against flammable or regenerating creatures (though my friend is planning to take a cannon with a rune to make flaming attacks). If I take a Temple Guard champion, I could give him a Shrieking Blade to give the whole unit Fear. While not technically a Temple Guard upgrade, I can throw 15 points into Standard of Discipline for the Slann if I got them to spare.
Extra Stegadon/Boosted Stegadon: I can either buy a second Stegadon, or swap my current Stegadon for an Ancient Stegadon. Or I could swap the current Stegadon for a Heroic Stegadon and take a Skink Chief on a Steggy or Priest with EotG.
A skink priest: If I don’t take Cupped Hands on the Slann, I’d want to ration my Slann’s dice to minimize the chance of a miscast. When you ration your dice you have a chance failing an early spell and waste a whole magic phase. The skink priest assures that I get another spell to cast. Also if I get Chain Lightning or Comet of Casandora I could throw six dice at the priest to sacrifice the priest to get IF. If I take EotG that pretty much eats all my elective points, but it costs a lot more.
MORE artillery: Options include another cannon or organ gun and/or extra runes to make the first artillery more powerful or less prone to misfires.
Rune smith upgrades: Runes to slow down enemy magic phases or runes to make the rune smith tougher in a fight.
Infantry upgrades: Instead of a third unit, we can use my dwarf friend’s elective points to push his warriors and/or hammerers to 40 units each or make the warriors long beards (or if we were really concerned about getting good reactionary deployment, rangers)
A third dwarf infantry unit: Either dwarf warriors with shields to serve as an extra tar pit unit, or a small unit of quarrelers to provide supporting fire.
A Thane BSB: We kind of figured the Dwarves can live without a BSB because their BSB is more expensive than the LM and the two main Dwarf units will likely be more than 12” away from each other most of the time so only one unit would get the BSB at a time. That being said, we both like rerolls and are used to having are butts saved by BSB rerolls.
A gyrocopter: For herding enemy units that are fleeing units and harassing approaching enemies. Gyrocopters are arguably the second most unplayable dwarf unit (flame cannon being number one), but my friend has managed to deploy his gyrocopters very well against me. I am personally jinxed with Terradons, so IF we want a flyer, we are going with the gyrocopter.
We hold back and make our foes come to us. While they are advancing we whittle them down with dwarven artillery, miscellaneous LM skirmisher ranged fire, and magic. When our foes get to us, The dwarves (ideally benefiting from augment spells courtesy my Slann) will absorb the initially attackers. Each dwarf unit will have a LM buddy unit (or two) to charge the flank of whoever is in the Dwarf unit’s front arc.
Must Haves we’ve established:
A Slann: I'd either take Light or Life. When I play larger games I usually give to my Slann the Battle Standard, two disciplines (lore mastery + power die), and Cupped Hands as a minimum, that’s 395 points. With a 375 point ceiling I have to choose to sacrifice lore mastery, the BSB, OR Cupped Hands. It’s basically Sophie’s Choice for me here.
I don’t want to get Life without Throne of Vines or Regrowth, but there are no Light spells I would cry without any single Light spell. Therefor if I choose to go without Lore Mastery I’d probably take Light. It’s worth knowing that over a third of the players at the gaming store the tournament is play something that Exorcism would apply to though. If I do take Lore Mastery I’ll probably go with Life because I like all seven spells.
375 points of LM Core: My teammate and I both figure Saurus warriors won't do as well as dwarves for holding their place or killing things, so I’m choosing to go without them. To this end we are thinking 10 javelin skinks and 24 Skinks with 3 Kroxigor with SB and a Musician: that's 379 points of Core. The Kroxigor are fast enough to be in a good position to support an engaged dwarf unit with a flank charge The skirmishers can harass enemy units or screen the dwarven war machines against scouts and light flyers. My friend says the people at his gaming store put far less priority to war machine hunting than I do, but I don’t want to take chances now that the war machines are on my side. A slight variation would be to take a 16/2 Skroxigor unit and 20 skirmishers.
At least one Stegadon: The idea is we tar pit a tough unit in place with dwarves then hit them on the side with the Steggy.
At LEAST 12-15 Temple Guard to bunker my Slann in: I know some people do quite well with solo Slann but I never tried it before, and and a competitive tournament isn’t the time to try something outside my comfort zone for the first time.
2 groups of 30-ish dwarfs with great weapons: Probably one group of warriors and one group of hammerers. If my dwarf buddy needs to cut points to get something else he can swap the hammerers into warriors.
A cannon, Grudge Thrower, Organ Gun: The basic dwarven artillery line. In case of hydras or treeman, the cannon will have a flaming attack upgrade.
Runesmith: An economically general for the dwarves.
Elective Choices we’ve come up with:
Salamanders/Razordons: I like both of these guys. Either of these fine dinosaur units could help the dwarven artillery thin out advancing troops.
Temple Guard Upgrades: I would feel justified in up to 21 Temple Guard instead of 15. I think a Banner of Eternal Flame would be a good insurance against flammable or regenerating creatures (though my friend is planning to take a cannon with a rune to make flaming attacks). If I take a Temple Guard champion, I could give him a Shrieking Blade to give the whole unit Fear. While not technically a Temple Guard upgrade, I can throw 15 points into Standard of Discipline for the Slann if I got them to spare.
Extra Stegadon/Boosted Stegadon: I can either buy a second Stegadon, or swap my current Stegadon for an Ancient Stegadon. Or I could swap the current Stegadon for a Heroic Stegadon and take a Skink Chief on a Steggy or Priest with EotG.
A skink priest: If I don’t take Cupped Hands on the Slann, I’d want to ration my Slann’s dice to minimize the chance of a miscast. When you ration your dice you have a chance failing an early spell and waste a whole magic phase. The skink priest assures that I get another spell to cast. Also if I get Chain Lightning or Comet of Casandora I could throw six dice at the priest to sacrifice the priest to get IF. If I take EotG that pretty much eats all my elective points, but it costs a lot more.
MORE artillery: Options include another cannon or organ gun and/or extra runes to make the first artillery more powerful or less prone to misfires.
Rune smith upgrades: Runes to slow down enemy magic phases or runes to make the rune smith tougher in a fight.
Infantry upgrades: Instead of a third unit, we can use my dwarf friend’s elective points to push his warriors and/or hammerers to 40 units each or make the warriors long beards (or if we were really concerned about getting good reactionary deployment, rangers)
A third dwarf infantry unit: Either dwarf warriors with shields to serve as an extra tar pit unit, or a small unit of quarrelers to provide supporting fire.
A Thane BSB: We kind of figured the Dwarves can live without a BSB because their BSB is more expensive than the LM and the two main Dwarf units will likely be more than 12” away from each other most of the time so only one unit would get the BSB at a time. That being said, we both like rerolls and are used to having are butts saved by BSB rerolls.
A gyrocopter: For herding enemy units that are fleeing units and harassing approaching enemies. Gyrocopters are arguably the second most unplayable dwarf unit (flame cannon being number one), but my friend has managed to deploy his gyrocopters very well against me. I am personally jinxed with Terradons, so IF we want a flyer, we are going with the gyrocopter.
