8th Ed. solo slann vs empire

[nzkoston]

Im going up against empire in a 2.5k head to head tonight. Im planning on running my slann without any temple guard tonight. Heres how:

Slann Mage-Priest: 475
3 disciplines: Higher state, Focused Rumination and Becalming Cogitation
Items: Cupped hands, Obsidian Amulet(MR2)]
BSB and General.

I plan to run him solo because i have a feeling im going to see a lot of mortar/cannon fire and i dont think my temple guard will make it very far. My opponent hates the slann and i think he will focus on taking him out.
If he brings a mage with sniping spells im hoping having 2+ ward saves vs magic wounds will protect me. I dont know if empire have any magical ranged attacks in the shooting phase.

Still unsure of which lore to take as of yet. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Ejpok]

Hello,
Solo Slann >>>>> Slann+TG. He is just too good to waste him with TG. I'd Take Divine plaque of Protection rather than obydian amulet.(it also grants you 2+ ward from Magic and can save you from for example Metal Canons, or the new Light Laser That is if He will be playing with the new Rulebook. What lore are you taking? And I'd suggest Focus Mystery if you don't take Plaque of Tepok

 

[Taipan]

Solo Slann is going to be assassinated pretty easily. All they need to do is fly a hero over with a magic weapon (Pegasus, the new Griffon, 'Steed of Shadows' spell), and you're dead. Don't even need Shard to make you re-roll your ward, you're unable to cast, and dead in probably two rounds of combat.

Failing that, 'Pit of Shades', 'Dwellers' or 'Purple Sun' (all from Lores that are popular with Empire, and in general in Fantasy) all kill Slann very easily, and couldn't care less about MR or your ward save. It's bad enough when you're in a TG bunker, but even solo a Slann is such a linchpin to your army, your opponent won't feel bad for spending that many power dice to kill him.

Don't forget that solo Slann require so many points (Ethereal, 2+ against shooting, additional Disciplines because Ethereal uses up your free one), you can't fit in another Slann. Two Slann in TG bunkers are better than one solo and no TG blocks.

 

[Arli]

Try this build:

Slann
BSB (standard of Discipline)
Cupped Hands
Crown of Command
Rumination
Mystery
Higher state (etheral)
Becalming (if you need it)


Bunker him in a unit of about 50 saurus with one or two scarvets. That pushes him to the second rank(when the unit is 5-6 wide). The crown of command essentially turns the unit into Temple Guard. I have ran that build (or similar ones) for the last three weeks and it works extremely well. If you want, you could give the slann the plaque of protection (2+ vs ranged attacks) and one of the scar-vet the crown of command. Lore of life or Light would be my suggestion for the slann.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

for the price of 50 sauruses with full command, a scar vet (lets say he costs 100p) and the crown of command you can buy 38 TG with full command. i am not saying that you must play TG, but you are making a HUGE investment to avoid having to use TG. normally a unit of TG will be 20-25 large and thus being much much cheaper. the damage output will be fairly similar and the only thing you gain is the extra wounds for that sauruses. the thing you lose is the risk that if your unit champ OR the scar vet gets killled the slann will have to go in the front rank. it sounds like a very expensive and convoluted way to get protection for the slann compared to just using TG like "every one else".

 

[Arli]

You are looking at it from the wrong angle. TG are expensive (or more so than the saurus), what this allows you to do is use the saurus that you already have in the list (say 35-40) to bunker the slann. That way, you have the points that you would have spent on TG to put into other choices for the army.

Myself, I would rather take the TG. Someone that I was playing brought up the suggestion after a game and I tried it. I like the way it works. Will I stop taking TG, probably not in high level games, but in anything less than 2500, I will not take TG any more.

 

[SanDiegoSurrealist]

I stopped running my Slann in TG units and putting him into Warrior units just because I got tired of blowing up multiple 16 point models when I miscast when I could be blowing up 11 point models instead.

Plus I like running a Death Slann and can not use Purple Sun unless I want to take out the front rank of TG eveytime I cast it.

At 2500 points why not try running 2 Slann? (Is the plural of Slann just Slann or is it Slanns?)

 

[Arli]

The plural is still slann, I believe (could be wrong though).

 

[erians]

Solo Slann is going to be assassinated pretty easily. All they need to do is fly a hero over with a magic weapon (Pegasus, the new Griffon, 'Steed of Shadows' spell), and you're dead. Don't even need Shard to make you re-roll your ward, you're unable to cast, and dead in probably two rounds of combat.

Why is your slann standing in the open ready to get charged by a captasus? Just because a slann is "Solo" doesn't mean you can place him in a temporary bunker (any infantry unit in your entire army), or just place him where there is no room for the captasus to rank up. He is also able to cast while in combat, though he has limited LOS.

With Lore of Life he is able to cast most spells in combat: Thorns can kill off the enemy hero and between Lifebloom, Flesh to Stone, ward save, ethereal (protects against mounts) and 5 wounds it will take a million rounds of combat to take out a Slann with a single hero.

I played solo slann 99% of the time in 6th & 7th ed (and so far the entire 8th ed), and he has only ever died to miscasts.

Failing that, 'Pit of Shades', 'Dwellers' or 'Purple Sun' (all from Lores that are popular with Empire, and in general in Fantasy) all kill Slann very easily, and couldn't care less about MR or your ward save. It's bad enough when you're in a TG bunker, but even solo a Slann is such a linchpin to your army, your opponent won't feel bad for spending that many power dice to kill him.

And if any of those spells are present and threatening you can just place the Slann in a unit of 10 skinks. TG ties your Slann down in a huge expensive block that is an easy target for the spells mentioned. Running a Slann without TGs offers better protection and flexibility.

Don't forget that solo Slann require so many points (Ethereal, 2+ against shooting, additional Disciplines because Ethereal uses up your free one), you can't fit in another Slann. Two Slann in TG bunkers are better than one solo and no TG blocks.

I've never seen anyone play double Slann in a TG bunker, its hardly a very competitive choice. Your logic doesnt seem to make a whole lot of sense either, a single Solo Slann is expensive because he needs to pay 50 pts for ethereal and/or 30 pts for DPoP but paying 600 for 2 Slanns and paying 350-450 pts? In terms of effectiveness per point the Solo slann is far better than any other option.

 

[SanDiegoSurrealist]

I've never seen anyone play double Slann in a TG bunker, its hardly a very competitive choice. Your logic doesnt seem to make a whole lot of sense either, a single Solo Slann is expensive because he needs to pay 50 pts for ethereal and/or 30 pts for DPoP but paying 600 for 2 Slanns and paying 350-450 pts? In terms of effectiveness per point the Solo slann is far better than any other option.

You can only have a single Slann in a unit of TG.

Slann gets one discipline free. Having even just a naked Ethereal lvl 4 caster hovering around the board is still pretty menacing.

While I do agree you get more punch out of a single Slann; having two on the board certainly makes most opponents very uneasy and generally forces a re-working of their strategy and sometime that is just enough to throw them off their game.

 

[erians]

You can only have a single Slann in a unit of TG.

Slann gets one discipline free. Having even just a naked Ethereal lvl 4 caster hovering around the board is still pretty menacing.

While I do agree you get more punch out of a single Slann; having two on the board certainly makes most opponents very uneasy and generally forces a re-working of their strategy and sometime that is just enough to throw them off their game.

To each his own I guess, personally I always loved a fully kitted party Slann. 2 pretty much naked Slanns only provides some extra spells from a 2nd Lore, a single party slann is a stronger caster than 2x 300 pt Slanns and playing without Mystery is way too random for my taste. There were some double Slann lists at the last ETC but none of them used TGs.

Edit: I didn't mean 2 Slanns in 1 TG unit, I meant 2 Slanns and TGs in the same army (I just phrased myself poorly).