8th Ed. Countering Warlocks

[airjamy]

What does my fellow lizard do when he is faced with this particular nasty breed of DE? Their Doombolts hurt like hell on Skinks and even Sauri, and their other spell is devastating for all our characters and monsters. They are to fast to catch with most units if your opponent is savvy enough, and shooting back just does not really work because they have a 4++ save! Most miscasts also do not hurt them, because they can use their 4++ against it, which is just stupid. They are the best light cav in the game in my oppinion, and they are not even that expensive! Most DE lists run 2 units of these guys, how do people generally deal with them?

 

[Mr Phat]

Here is a couple of statments that works for me
(Note: I play 9th Age, but it more or less is the same if you are still hanging with 8th )

• Warlocks ARE fragile, dont respect their wardsave. It will fail them 50% of the time.

• Massed Skink fire IS dangerous to them (a single unit of 20 Core skinks are a serious threat to their standard 5-7 unit)
• They are the best target for magic missiles, and DE players will fears it.

• Treat Doombolt targeted on skinks like any other magic missile targeting them.

I remember a tournament I was at just after the 8th DE book came out.
My opponent was power drunk from his new unit and send it straight for my right flank.

My reaction was to send two units of 16 skirmishers to fire.
One got on short range, one on long.

after that they were worth nothing, and my opponents face was priceless.

• Warlocks biggest strength is that people overrate their survivablity.

The second you try to overpower them, they vanish.

 

[Mr Phat]

Long story short: Their own pointcost in skinks kills them. Add in a magic missile for good measure.

 

[airjamy]

Here is a couple of statments that works for me
(Note: I play 9th Age, but it more or less is the same if you are still hanging with 8th )

• Warlocks ARE fragile, dont respect their wardsave. It will fail them 50% of the time.

• Massed Skink fire IS dangerous to them (a single unit of 20 Core skinks are a serious threat to their standard 5-7 unit)
• They are the best target for magic missiles, and DE players will fears it.

• Treat Doombolt targeted on skinks like any other magic missile targeting them.

I remember a tournament I was at just after the 8th DE book came out.
My opponent was power drunk from his new unit and send it straight for my right flank.

My reaction was to send two units of 16 skirmishers to fire.
One got on short range, one on long.

after that they were worth nothing, and my opponents face was priceless.

• Warlocks biggest strength is that people overrate their survivablity.

The second you try to overpower them, they vanish.

Seems like you thought that trough, so you just focus them? Would you really call them a direct target? In my 2400P list i only have 40 Skinks, so it feels like a big investment to send all my Skinks after them. If they field 10, that would take up all my Skinks, and i tend te deploy my Skinks first as they have the lowest impact, so i do not think it is that easy. I mean, focussing them seems to be an easy task, and their 4++ may not be as bad as it sounds, but they are still only 12.5 slaves each, so any sort of focus you give to them quickly overreaches them for the ammount of VP you get. Do you have an easier solution then just focussing them? I mean, doesn't that work on every unit to a certain extent?

 

[protector]

I agree with sending all skinks to kill them, for two reasons. One, they provide the best cost ratio target for skinks meaning an equal amount of your core can remove the enemies rare, that is always a solid trade. Second, DE players tend to plan around warlocks, the faster and more aggressive you remove them the earlier you ruin the plan. Also 6 dice bastiloblast is a good way to kill them or a solid sally salvo.

 

[Scalenex]

Basically +1 to what was said before. They are pretty fragile despite their Ward Save. Skinks can soften them up with shooting. Close combat with anything north of a Skink and they are toast.

Banishment will dust Warlocks easily. Now you aren't guaranteed Banishment but Light is a very solid lore to take against Dark Elves (or any Elves). Speed of Light and Biorana's Time Warp will both nullify the enemy's rerolls to hit. Shem's Burning Gaze does pretty good at removing mobile chaff though I guess the Dark Elves don't have Eagles like their cousins but it's still handy.

I'd either take a Light Slann or take a High Magic Slann and load up on Light like crazy.

 

[Mr Phat]

Did it work?