8th Ed. contemplating frost phoenix

[pendrell]

quick question: you need to deal with frost phoenix and your slann is on high magic. Which lore will you switch a high magic spell for? would you try to snipe her out or would you try to outwin her by combat?
thanks for the input!

 

[n810]

Hmmm.... well the heavens attribute does extra damage to fliers...
so maybe hope for one of the thunderbolts ?

 

[SilverFaith]

quick question: you need to deal with frost phoenix and your slann is on high magic. Which lore will you switch a high magic spell for? would you try to snipe her out or would you try to outwin her by combat?
thanks for the input!

Death, Spirit Leech, supported by heaven priests.

Spam Iceshard on it, and follow up with spirit leech. Remember that iceshard still deals damage because of the attribute.

Or just throw an oldblood with piranha blade at it. it'll crumble quite fast that way, and it's not really a threat if he's on a coldone, with or without a bus. A scarvet cowboy with GW will probably do the job as well if you want a cheap way to deal with 240 points of phoenix.

Of course, there's also the old copy-pasta advice that works on pretty much any problem you can think of: Skinks with poison. Shooting or not, it'll crumble ridiculously fast with enough shots/attacks aimed at it, since it's armour save is worse than standard Saurus warriors.

 

[Ixt]

Hand of Glory + Giant Bow has done well for me. *shrug*

This strategy requires minimal effort, and landing even one multi-wound shot will probably get into your opponent's head (regardless of whether it wounds).

It's pretty low-risk, too... it only involves one spell, has a 36" range (42" effective), and you can probably use it from turn 1 onward.

If the Phoenix hangs back, keep shooting at it.

If the Phoenix comes forward for your Stegadon, shoot at it until you feel that you can charge it - the Impact Hits should easily take care of its remaining wounds.

To answer: CR is probably your best bet, especially if you can make your opponent play the phoenix conservatively.

Those things are ridiculous... it seems like we have few reliable strategies for dealing with them.

Maybe a ton of Razordon shots?

 

[pendrell]

thank you for the inputs! I am reluctant to throw a cowboy at it because of the -1 strenght and always strike last debuff.... Piranha blade doesn't work because you are looking at hitting on 6's, always strike last... embarassing...
Even a great weapon hits on 4s which is quite embarassing. I think that a classic scarvet with 1+ rerollable armor save and great weapon would crumble in close cobat against the phoenix. Maybe an Oldblood can do it, but not with piranha blade.

 

[Ixt]

Yeah - getting into combat with them is dreadful. :/

 

[n810]

How about a scar-vet with dualing blades and a potion of strenght on a cold one.
(and whatever armor you want)

 

[KingCheops]

I pretty much exclusively play against my buddy with his HE. I've found my Oldblood on Cold One does well enough. Great Weapon, Armor of Fortune, Dawnstone. 1+ re-roll, 4++ and S6 even against the chicken. ASL doesn't matter when you have a great weapon. It can be a grind but you'll win pretty much every time. It's a little unfair actually since they are both pretty even in points.

You do 5*0.5*0.5*4/6 = 1.67 wounds on average
It does 4 * 4/6 * 0.25 * 0.5 = 0.3 wounds on average* if my maths are correct

* depending on what the HE player rolls for WoM

It's that god damned dragon that I have trouble dealing with -- especially when he double charges with the chicken. Grrr.

 

[rantapanda]

I cant see any reason why a WD Slann could not handle a bunch of dragons or frost phoenixes with boosted shems, searing doom and spirit leech ; ) high magic on the other hand .. meh

 

[Pinktaco]

GW oldblood will do 1,2 wounds each combat phase. Biggest issue is the -1 strength and the 5+ Ward. With piranha blade and potion of strength we'd be looking at an average of 3 wounds for first round of combat.
I'd try and get off wyssans wildform regardless of what you choose. Ancient steg at S7 (6) will do an average of 3 wounds on charge. GW OB at S8 (7) will do 1,6 wounds.

The thing we have to keep in mind is that it'll hit back at S6 so if you choose the piranha combo you'll probably want wyssans since it'll bump you to T6 as well. Piranha combo With wyssans will btw do an average of 4 wounds with the potential to do 6.

A frost phoenix have.. 5 attacks at WS5 right? It would do 0,3 wounds against a T6 1+ AS with dawnstone OB .0,4 wounds without wyssans.

It'll take an average of 55 poison shots from javelin skinks to do 5 wounds at close range. That really isn't too bad tbh. 10 skinks with javelins will do an average of 0,9 wounds at close range so if we can move just a single unit within close range, shoot and do a stand and shoot of 10 shots so close to 2 wounds isn't bad. We usually have enough skinks so if they want the bird to get into action it wouldn't be too hard to get a,couple of wounds off on it with skinks. If we can pick off 2 wounds and charge it with an ancient steg it'll easily die.

So in summary: use skinks. Not an unnecessarily excessive amount, just a couple of units.

 

[Mr Phat]

Skrox units...


for +30pts of a Frosthearts cost you get 24 skinks with 3 krox.

They are fast enough to catch it
They have way better combat ress
The krox will hit and wound on 4's leaving him only with his wardsave.

Am I really to tell my "That one time 32 skinks and 4krox held up a Stardragon to the face and a frostheart to the side for 4 combat rounds" story again!?

 

[rantapanda]

Skrox units...


for +30pts of a Frosthearts cost you get 24 skinks with 3 krox.

They are fast enough to catch it
They have way better combat ress
The krox will hit and wound on 4's leaving him only with his wardsave.

Am I really to tell my "That one time 32 skinks and 4krox held up a Stardragon to the face and a frostheart to the side for 4 combat rounds" story again!?

this should work, and a thing to note that since skrox+skink group is "unique", they cannot be thunderstomped/stomped.

 

[rantapanda]

So in summary: use skinks. Not an unnecessarily excessive amount, just a couple of units.

seconded

 

[Ixt]

Skrox units...


for +30pts of a Frosthearts cost you get 24 skinks with 3 krox.

They are fast enough to catch it
They have way better combat ress
The krox will hit and wound on 4's leaving him only with his wardsave.

Am I really to tell my "That one time 32 skinks and 4krox held up a Stardragon to the face and a frostheart to the side for 4 combat rounds" story again!?

this should work, and a thing to note that since skrox+skink group is "unique", they cannot be thunderstomped/stomped.

I think the Skinks can be stomped, unfortunately.

Nevertheless, a good piece of advice.

 

[Mr Phat]

since skrox+skink group is "unique", they cannot be thunderstomped/stomped.

This is sadly incorrect

The "Spawn Kin" rule specifically states that stomps are resolved against the skinks.

 

[rantapanda]

since skrox+skink group is "unique", they cannot be thunderstomped/stomped.

This is sadly incorrect

The "Spawn Kin" rule specifically states that stomps are resolved against the skinks.

oh right. damnit

 

[KingCheops]

Chicken is 4 attacks unless a 4 was the highest WoM die in the HE player's turn in which case it gets +1 attack (which is awesome because you really don't want him rolling a 5 or 6).

 

[GreenMachine]

It depends a lot on your army. More likely then not you're going to need to use a handful of things to outright kill it. Boosted Shem's burning gaze words well to knock off a few wounds, or Amber spear. The Iceshard Blizzard and Spirit Leech sounds tempting, but honestly getting two spells off in succession like that is difficult.

As for the Stegadon they'll do their impact hits at strength four (five if an ancient) so it's not that reliable. A good HE player isn't going to put their precious bird in charge range of it anyway.

Shadow would be helpful too either with Enfeebling foe in combat or wither as you shoot at it.

So honestly, after thinking a bit more, lore of beasts would be my definite choice if I had a Cowboy. Along with Amber Spear, Wyssan's, Savage Beast or at the very least, Pann's Impenetrable Pelt would be able to tip the combat in your favor. With four attacks and unable to thunderstomp it really hurts the bird.