Vallek said:
Actually, Raithial, the very fact that what you just described is VERY magic dependant it makes it less effective versus an ogre deathstar. Please remember that if the slaughter master has a greedy fist and lore of death then every HIT he is causing against your slann causes him to lose a level of wizard and one spell. Lore of Death has two different spells that have the sniper rule and cause automatic hits. So after a few rounds both of your slann will be turned into rather expensive floating toads.
Most of the good buffs from the lists you just mentioned are either A) Not remains in play and thus if the caster can't recast it every turn you're gonna burn out fast, or B) Have low casting values and are easily dispelled on the ogre player's turn by simply using his power dice. In addition, those huge base sizes make use of a hellheart quite funny, since there is a good chance your own slaan is now going to blow a chunk out of his own unit.. or potentially vanish.
If defeating an ogre deathstar was as easy as "throwing more magic into the game" then it would be a non-issue. The fact the deathstar can handle casters and melee fighters alike is what makes it so incredibly formidable.
I know wouldn't be that simple, but I none-the-less think that those two lores combined make for an excelent magic-phase, especially when you phase-out 6's on two mages, and atop of that have one hell of a magical defence.
I recently beat a deathstar to death with that build and it only took me a single turn of combat to shatter it completely. to the point where he was taking losses so fast he couldn't possibly keep up with it.
While this might have been a lucky break, I did deck out to deny him his magic-phase nearly completely, and in turn boosting my own magic phase so that he couldn't possibly keep up with the numbers being cast.
it's not neccesarily adding "more" magic as you put it, but to use the magic you have to greater effect. And just for the record; I have yet to find a slann that died of a miscast on my side of a battlefield. So far I've hardly ever come short of my casting value and decking out with the Cupped Hands and the Lore of Life's Throne of Vines, I make sure that Irrisitible force isn't as much of a problem should things go haywire.
Surely those things come as no suprise to a Lizardmen player.
My strategy has always been straight-forward; take controll of the battlefield using your skinks, then bring in the Saurus/slann. using an advance squad like terradon-riders, skink skirmishers and the likes to take out enemy warmachines, mages and other juicy targets, and let the saurus handle the bulk of the core while your slann will face off in a magic duel against the opponents magic phase (and with the right build this will for 75% result in a victory for you)
I just went to the extreme with my strategy against the deathstar by overbuilding it into a giant hedgehog.
My Terradon Riders and Skink Skirmishers went and took out his warmachines, while I confronted his mage with my own. Knowing full well he had Lore of Death at hand, it seemed like a good shot to really kill anything I could find. This resulted in the giant-buffed Saurus Horde as described and my opponent took so many losses that he was unable to sustain combat for more than a single turn, fighting Horde with Horde.
After that, it was a simple job for the Terradons and skinks to clean up the board.
by all means I did have a lot of luck here, but I stopped him in his track whenever he tried something, by not hessitating and striking with determination at his most vital organ; his Deathstar. I hate waiting around and harassing hordes for extended periods of time; anyone who has seen me play my High Elf Cavalry list will know this, so I want to see each combat last no longer than 2 turns.
I have now seen what this strategy will do, and I will continue to use it against this Ogre Death-star untill it backfires on me.