9th Age Which path of magic do you like?

[The Hunted]

As the title and the poll suggest;
What is your favorite path of magic to choose when you are using your Cuatl Lord?

I like White magic a lot, it has a good mix of offensive and defensive spells and also a magical-move spell. Something I always find a use for. It's flaw is that it has no spell to deal with monsters effectively, which is a responsibility for the rest of the army.

After White Magic, for me, there are a lot of options. Nature because of the rock that your army becomes, Shadow for good debuffs and again a magical move, Fire for all-round destructive-ness and Light for great buffs.
Also, I do like the Path of Heavens a lot for my support caster/scroll caddy. I always get a good use out of him.

So, do please cast your vote and feel free to elaborate!

The Hunted

 

[Mr Phat]

I seem unable to build an army where Nature + Veteran of the Cataclysm + Book of Arcane Lore isn't the optimal choice.

PROS
-The attribute benefits my expensive characters and monsters VASTLY.
-The spells keep my expensive combat blocks alive and well
- Master of Earth gives me range the Saurian army normally lacks
- Dwellers tears through blocks I dont want to deal with

CONS
- It lack offensive spells ....
- it only prolongs grinds against heavy protected units....OH WAIT

back to PROS
-Veteran gives me a solid Magic missile, which attribute shields my expensive characters and monsters
-Veteran gives me me a vicious offensive buff spell to deals woth heavy protected units...and has a S5 AP(6) wound attached to it.

I never find myself missing anything.

 

[Niarg]

I like contemplations for the extra spell and the ability to switch over to the Metal lore to combat high armour saves and also the fact that the unit killing spell is remains in play so it kills my opponents magic phase as well.

@Mr Phat how would you combat a steam tank or high armour cavalry without the metal lore?

 

[Mr Phat]

@Mr Phat how would you combat a steam tank or high armour cavalry without the metal lore?

I know the list, and I hate it. Skinks dont work here
haven't played against Empire in 9th yet, so dont have any fresh experience,

But in theory

VS a Steam Tank heres a few things

- Veteran on Carnosaur - 2+ / 4++
Magic: Heal and shield the bastard and for offensive gain put Moraec’s Fury on it.

- Caimans with Hardened scales and GW
Magic: heal and stoneskin (again: Moraec’s Fury ...if you absolutely insist)

- The Engine might also come in handy:
Flames of Xiteqli In owner’s Shooting phase pick an enemy unit within 9" that is not in close combat. That unit suffers D3 Metalshifting Hits. All friendly units within 6” of an Engine of the Ancients have a Ward Save (6+).

VS Armoured cavalry

- If I can nip of a wound here and there with skinks, great. (dont commit them to it though)

- Small units: whatever its TG or Caimans they hit in the flank, be my guest, they wont survive.
And if magic played right then I dont take casualties that matter.

- Bigger units: Dwellers....dwellers dwellers dwellers preferably through a magic beacon
ALSO: dont forget that you have this guy now too:

Salamander
This is a Catapult (3”) Artillery weaponwith Range 18”, Strength 1, +1 to wound, Armour Piercing (6).
if you roll a 5+ to wound, you kill.

I have feeling that Spearbacks will do pretty well too!

 

[Rettile]

vs steam tank? Spear warriors. If i'm right they have lethal strike

 

[Niarg]

Ah, it's a chariot, nice but spears are pretty expensive and the tanks should be able to stay away from the lumbering saurus.

I guess that combo of Nature and dark magic spells are pretty good for grinding down the tank, for the carno do you sacrifice the great weapon for the extra armour?

I tried the caimans route in my last game but I only used a small unit, and 3 made it into combat (one wounded) after all the cannon fire but he rolled a 9 for his grinding attacks and wiped them out in one go! Pretty lucky but I'd need a really big investment in them to take that sort of thing on.

 

[Mr Phat]

for the carno do you sacrifice the great weapon for the extra armour?

I tend to find that a carno rider doesnt need s7, so yes.
The carno is there to deal against tough targets and the rider to score combat res against Higher numbers like infantry.
You could invest in a lance to get both armour and s7 on the charge.

For caimans you always need 8+ for size (imo).
If you have them for combat and not flank pressure, you better invest for just that.
With Nature you can also heal them back, or even just stoneskin them to keep them intact.

 

[Pinktaco]

I tried Path of Fire due to all the magic missiles, but I'm not sure it compliments my army the way I need.
So now I'm trying path of shadow since:

• It can deal with high toughness/strenght units
• reduce WS/BS/I/M
• The orb of darkness (3" hard, obscuring dangerous terrain) can be effective to protect flanks or reduce threat from ranged units
• Razor spell is sick

Other reasons as to why I'm trying out shadow is because it can give my saurian warriors an edge in combat. If I'm up against high strenght guys I can weaken them and high toughness as well.
I always have Veteran of the Cataclysm and have the Rending Banner on my TGs. If I get off Moraecs Fury on those guys they have S6 AP2 so.. yeah.
Illuminating bolt is a good medium fireball and as phato said it give you a 1 time save which is very effective for our monsters.

With that said I've been quite happy with Wandering Path since it give us a bit of everything. It's very flexible, but it lack that uber spell that might sometimes be needed.

 

[themuffinman873]

Fire, because crushing the chaff war is the most important thing to me. Oddly, fire did crazy well against my skaven opponent. Light is great but when you commit your saurus to battle and roll snake eyes for wom, a star somewhere in the universe explodes to commemorate your misfortune.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

With that said I've been quite happy with Wandering Path since it give us a bit of everything. It's very flexible, but it lack that uber spell that might sometimes be needed.

75 points is a bit too steep for my liking and you still have yet to do anything to dominate the magic phase.

I'm still undecided on my favourite path, but I think my discipline load out will often be...

• Wellspring of Power
• Unconquerable Will
• Shielded Soul

 

[Pinktaco]

That's 405pts with wellspring of power. Add at least 1 priest and you have 8 spells, +1 to cast and channel on 2+.
I think I usually payed around the 400 mark in 8th so for me it's ok. The BSB is currently on mt carno hero. When I'm tired of that I'll try a BSB ancient caiman. No need to put that thing on the Cuatl

 

[Deusvult]

So hopeing this is not threadmancy. I have been kept away for a while.
I am loving the changes to Heavens. Full re-roll manipulation, wind blast is better now and the attribute can help me not die so much when I have to roll bloody armour saves.

With Comet, I know we have portents and seers etc, but I don't really like the flavour of knowing. Still cool though.

 

[airjamy]

I really have not used enough of the lores to give my final verdict, but i found Light underwhelming, and White Magic is my favorite up to now, its just like the good old High Magic. Still really on the fence though.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

What is the general consensus on the path of metal?

 

[Deusvult]

What is the general consensus on the path of metal?

I think that path is much better than before. There will always be something to use the attribute on (well nearly). It has five (1-3, 5, 6) spells that will be usefull in every game regardless of opponent. The casting values are low enough for 2 dice to be 'safe', and three dice is plenty.
As for the other 2 spells, against anything with armour they are smashing.

The only issue is we cant have it on a skinky wizard.