8th Ed. Engine in 8th?

[Wolf]

Fellow Lizards,

I have a 2400pts tournament coming up and have been considering fielding an Engine. My question to you is whether anyone has any experience with it in 8th and what your take is on this bad boy. For those of you who haven't fielded it yet, let loose your theories and blow me away!

Thanks

 

[n810]

Best piece of advice I can give you is try and keep it
from geting shot by cannons and template weapons.

 

[Arli]

If you take it, pray for the first turn. That way, you can use the engine's ward ability vs shooting. Also, that way you can get your chameleons and/or Terradons in position to shoot some war machines. Take two priests as well. That way, you can get 2 iceshard blizzards off (shutting down two war machines as well). Lore of Light can help as well with Pha's protection (everything in 12 inches of slann) and net of amyntok (strength test to even fire).

Other than that, you can offer up other targets. But, the time your opponent takes shooting at your stegadon is time that he is not shooting at your other troops.

As far as the effectiveness of the Engine. It depends on who you are fighting. I enjoy taking it, but recently, I have gotten better use from the skink chief with a warspear on an ancient stegadon.

 

[Leokill27]

You cant have the same spell in your army more than once. Says in the magic summary before the lores, Unless you have a loremaster. So a slann wth heavens and a Spriest would work. But light has a similar spell (no book to hand) that you could possibly get off in tandem with.

Be savvy with terrain, use hills and buildings to run in behind.

Also, Ive found that the A.steg and skink chief with warspear does way more damage, as long as you get the charge

 

[Benny6Toes]

signature spells can be known by as many wizards in your army as you want. they can always be selected. it's the third exception to the rule that only allows each spell to be taken once.

conceivably, you could have 6 skink priests (which i've done for fun) who all know Iceshard Blizzard; not that you would likely get the spell off that many times. cast it on 3 or 4 different units though, and you could probably ruin somebody's day...

 

[Arli]

conceivably, you could have 6 skink priests (which i've done for fun) who all know Iceshard Blizzard; not that you would likely get the spell off that many times. cast it on 3 or 4 different units though, and you could probably ruin somebody's day...

That would actually be a fun thing to do.

 

[Wolf]

Great! Anyone have any suggestions as to how to equip him?

 

[n810]

One of the better ward save items would be a good idea.

 

[Arli]

When taking the engine, I usually go for the plaque of tepok and the amulet of itzl (lvl 2 caster as well). That gives him a 2+ward save vs the first wound. You could also go with the amulet of protection for a 5+ ward for the priest.

Another note: If you take lore of life on the slann, you could cast the signature spell on the engine. That would give the entire model a 4+ regen (if throne of vines is in play).

I would also take at least one other priest (lvl1 as he may die when you use the rod) and equip him with the forbidden rod and the Opal amulet (4+ vs the first wound). I would roll for his spells as normal, but probably take the signature spell on him.

I cannot endorse this combo enough! It works so well that my primary opponent (High elves or Brettonians) started taking a throw away mage for this purpose.

 

[Benny6Toes]

conceivably, you could have 6 skink priests (which i've done for fun) who all know Iceshard Blizzard; not that you would likely get the spell off that many times. cast it on 3 or 4 different units though, and you could probably ruin somebody's day...

That would actually be a fun thing to do.

i have a standing thursday night game with my buddy (he runs Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos). i doubt i'll try it tis week (already have an army idea), but if i try it next week, then i'll let you know how it worked out.

 

[venom_x51]

Another note: If you take lore of life on the slann, you could cast the signature spell on the engine. That would give the entire model a 4+ regen (if throne of vines is in play).

Unfortunately the Regen spell can only be cast on the wizard himself (and his unit if he's joined one).

My advice is to keep the engine close to the Slann (with Life). That way you can heal a wound back on the Steg. everytime you successfully cast a spell. That should hopefully give you enough time to get the engine into Close Combat and remove it as a shooting target.

It's always worth giving the Skink Priest a ward save; Once he dies, you can't use the EoTG's abilities. If I have a Slann in my list as well, I'll just go for the 4+ ward save, just keep him as a Lvl1 priest, and not bother with the plaque (the Slann is almost always able to burn all of the power dice by himself).

 

[Arli]

Unfortunately the Regen spell can only be cast on the wizard himself (and his unit if he's joined one).

Wow, I have been playing that wrong. I thought it was any unit within 12 inches.

 

[Leokill27]

I got pulled up for casting regrowth on my stegadon recently. As the spell says models slain you cant heal wounds lost without the lore attribute.

I checked the errata however and it has been changed to wounds lost. So dont let some keen eye'd player try swindle you out D6+1 wounds back on the stegadon!

 

[venom_x51]

Unfortunately the Regen spell can only be cast on the wizard himself (and his unit if he's joined one).

Wow, I have been playing that wrong. I thought it was any unit within 12 inches.

Yeah, would be nice, but it's "is an augment spell that is cast upon the Wizard and his unit (if any)"

 

[forlustria]

to the poster a couple posts above. regrowth says in the spell that it cannnot be used to heal characters or their mounts. although not sure how that would effect a regular stegadon with just skinks on the top

 

[Leokill27]

Its counted as a ridden monster with multiple riders, as long as there is no skink chief / priest on top. I wouldn't think there would be a problem as long as you have him with just the normal skinks

 

[forlustria]

yeah sorry i misunderstood. I thought you ment with a priest and EOTG. My bad

 

[Benny6Toes]

conceivably, you could have 6 skink priests (which i've done for fun) who all know Iceshard Blizzard; not that you would likely get the spell off that many times. cast it on 3 or 4 different units though, and you could probably ruin somebody's day...

That would actually be a fun thing to do.

i have a standing thursday night game with my buddy (he runs Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos). i doubt i'll try it tis week (already have an army idea), but if i try it next week, then i'll let you know how it worked out.

so i sort of tried this out this past Thursday. I only took two priests, but they both had Iceshard Blizzard. Unfortunately one of his two hellcannons misfired in the first or second round and caused all three of my wizards to roll on the miscast table. one of the priests died.

but I was also running Mazdamundi with Lore of Light. So that meant I could cast Pha's Protection and Ice Shard Blizzard in the same phase, and, I've gotta say, it worked brilliantly. Smacking a big -2 to hit onto one of his units really, really frustrated him.

My opponent needs a 6 to even hit my saurus in most cases? Yes, please!

With a few more preists a good magic phase would really ruin your opponent's day. Fun? Damned right.