8th Ed. Cowboy Bus list and magic lore for Slann

[WithCarbos]

Let's say I'm running the following (2400 points, ETC comp):

Slann with Staff, Reservoir, Cogitation and Convergence
3 Scar-Vet Cowboys, fully kitted, one is BSB
Skink Priest, Scroll, level 2 Beasts

4 x 15 Skink Skirmishers
40 Skinks in Cohort, std & mus

12 Cold One Riders, spears, std & mus
2 x 3 Terradons
Bastiladon, Solar Engine

What lore of magic should I give the Slann? I have tested this army, or something very like it, a few times now, and I feel totally let down by Life: if I roll both Regrowth and Dwellers, awesome – but if I don't have one of those, I'm handicapped, and losing out on both is crippling.

I play against high concentrations of characters and units with 2+ against Flaming, so Fire and Metal seem like they will come back to bite my ass.

Death creeps me out because Purple Sun can scatter onto my own troops. Beasts, well, I only really need Wildform, and my Skink Priest handles that.

Neither do I feel like High is good for this list. Since the entire army is Init 3+ anyway, Hand of Glory feels superfluous. The nicest spell is WBW, and Soul Quench thereafter, but none of the others appeal to me. I've played extensively with High and a Temple Guard deathstar, and I always feel let down after. Wandering Deliberations seems to me way better than changing spells via Contemplations, but WD itself lacks the big nuke spells.

That leaves Heavens, Light and Shadow. Should I go with any of them? If yes, which? Or am I totally wrong about the seven I've discounted?

 

[n810]

I would say shadow over light, since light works best with Saurus blocks.
and like best you could get heavens from your skinks.
and that leaves WD, nothing amazing here, but nothing terrible either.

 

[cyberhawk94]

I actually think Death would work really well here. You dont have a Lot of Saurus to really worry about Purple Sun, and you said you play in an area with many characters: Spirit Leech will be amazing.

The extra dice from death will also be helpful for some strong magic phases with what you have.

If you do go death, try to find 80 pts for a Salamander. Doom and Darkness + Salamanders is an amazing combo.

 

[Eladimir]

I'd say wandering deliberations.
Searing Doom, Death Snipe for those problem everything, and Wild form

Heavens on the priest probably is good might get the reroll 1's spell or comet, and the default is good.

Lastly why the bsb on the SV?
Slann sits safer and you can put the LD +1 banner for cheap

 

[Pinktaco]

Wait.. Beast is awesome.

Amber spear.
Wyssans.
Curse of anrahir.
Savage beast.

Just get savage beast off on those 3 scar vets and you'll be looking at 21 S10 attacks. Spear is good against big targets, wyssans is always good and more reliable to get off with lvl 4, curse can hold up a lot of stuff.

Pick lore of heavens for your priests and either hope for chain lightning or just get iceshard.

Also you appear to have a very fast army with the only M4 units being your slann and bastiladon. With two priests you don't really need the bast. Maybe dropping 2 scar vets, spears, the standard bearer and the bast can net you an ancient stegadon..

 

[LawGnome]

I actually wouldn't write Life off just yet. Even if you don't get regrowth or dwellers, you still have access to a 5+ (or 4+) regen, a decent direct damage spell that even gets better against things like wood elves or anyone that is unlucky enough to be in a forest at the time, a fantastic defensive buff, and a thorns effect that adds to your CR.

Cold ones are already nasty. Make them tough 6, and they are nigh unkillable.

 

[Pofadder]

All I can say is make sure you have wyssans wildform in some form, via WD or straight Beasts. I play regularly with 5 CoC with an OB, and scar-vet BSB. OB has AoD and Pihrana blade (challenges) and SV BSB has talisman for 4++. + GW.

I make sure I have wyssans on them and they have taken on savage orc hordes with all the characters inside and come out on top...

Good staying power. Good offense power with the saurus chars.

WD may win out imho, to clear chaff early game when beasts may be situational.

Then again I play Tetto and skink beast priest caddy. Wildform on my knights + iceshard on enemy is normally enough to seal the deal.

With the caddy I will 6 dice wyssans if needed to make sure it goes through and not feel sad bout a miscast.

Always feels risky doing it with an expensive Slann...

 

[WithCarbos]

I actually think Death would work really well here. You dont have a Lot of Saurus to really worry about Purple Sun, and you said you play in an area with many characters: Spirit Leech will be amazing.

The extra dice from death will also be helpful for some strong magic phases with what you have.

These are good points! Death doesn't really have any bad spells (Caress of Laniph is probably the weakest!) and I can of course hold back on casting Purple Sun ...

If you do go death, try to find 80 pts for a Salamander. Doom and Darkness + Salamanders is an amazing combo.

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), the rest of the list works together like peas and tomatoes ... no, that sounds wrong. Like carts and swine! No, that's not it either. Really well, is what! So I don't think I could squeeze one in ... and when I take them, they usually eat their handlers anyway.

I'd say wandering deliberations.
Searing Doom, Death Snipe for those problem everything, and Wild form

These are exactly the reasons I love WD in lower-points games. But there is a certain lack of oomph when you approach, and exceed, 2000.

Heavens on the priest probably is good might get the reroll 1's spell or comet, and the default is good.

Yeah, Blizzard is awesmooth. If I did take WD on the Slann, I def would give Lttle Skinky Heavens.

Lastly why the bsb on the SV?
Slann sits safer and you can put the LD +1 banner for cheap

I'm not so sure the Slann sits safer tacked onto the side of a 40-Skink Cohort. Giving the BSB to a Scar-Vet means he can take a point of static CR with him into combat.

All I can say is make sure you have wyssans wildform in some form, via WD or straight Beasts. I play regularly with 5 CoC with an OB, and scar-vet BSB. OB has AoD and Pihrana blade (challenges) and SV BSB has talisman for 4++. + GW.

I make sure I have wyssans on them and they have taken on savage orc hordes with all the characters inside and come out on top...

Oooh yeeeah. There's just no way I'm ever doing battle without Wildform!

 

[Pinktaco]

All I can say is make sure you have wyssans wildform in some form, via WD or straight Beasts. I play regularly with 5 CoC with an OB, and scar-vet BSB. OB has AoD and Pihrana blade (challenges) and SV BSB has talisman for 4++. + GW.

I make sure I have wyssans on them and they have taken on savage orc hordes with all the characters inside and come out on top...

Good staying power. Good offense power with the saurus chars.

WD may win out imho, to clear chaff early game when beasts may be situational.

Then again I play Tetto and skink beast priest caddy. Wildform on my knights + iceshard on enemy is normally enough to seal the deal.

With the caddy I will 6 dice wyssans if needed to make sure it goes through and not feel sad bout a miscast.

Always feels risky doing it with an expensive Slann...

for nearly the same points I'd take OB + piranha blade, charmed shield and 4+ talisman. SV could then have AoD and get the 1+ armour.

Not that it's what you asked for ._.

 

[Pofadder]

Sure you can change loadouts on chars

All I am saying is that even though I approach it differently hammer wise the game changer for me is wyssans. It wins me games...
There are many ways to skin this cat no doubt , as long as you skin it while buffed with wyssans lol

 

[GhostWarrior]

I think in your case the WD slann solves your concerns. Many different safe/cheap options that don't generally require a lot of dice to cast.

You also gain 2 chances at Wildform. There's real value to having more than one chance to achieve an important action (ask ETC organizers why they comp out Double Ironblaster or Double Skullcannon). Heck, if you decide to make your skink priest Heavens, you've got 2 chances at Iceshard - also a win.

Second best choice is Lore of Beasts, imo. Pinktaco's comments on the lore are correct. Though I will point out that it can be hard for a M4 Infantry character to keep up with a Cav unit well enough to get a good Savage Beasts or Pann's Pelt off. Not impossible, just hard (and tends to put the caster in a riskier position). The other spells in the lore help mitigate that drawback some (amber spear is an awesome DP killer).

 

[rantapanda]

Im about to run quite a similar list in my next tournament, since its ETC and tettos not allowed.
Death is comped so spells can be cast with max 4 dices. Every other spell max 5 dices, so the comp hurts the biggest spells as well. Its around 50-50% to be able to cast them. Wandering becomes a good alternative.
In ETC the DP is heavily comped as well so he probably wont be packing any flame defence so Searing Doom becomes a DP killer with Spirit Leech. I hope this works ^^

Im prob taking
Slann BSB, Becalming, Convergence, Soul of Stone, Wandering with Channeling Staff.
lvl 1 skink.
3 kitted out SV

Full Skink Core

12x Cold Ones
2x Terradon units

2x Salamander units.