Magic items for Black Guard Champion

Mustangtc · Post by **Mustangtc** » Mon May 30, 2011 11:43 pm

Has anyone ever tried giving the Tower Master either the Terrifying Mask of Eeeh! or the Ruby Ring of Fire?

Terror causing BG sounds nice as does fitting in a single flame spell for negating regen so that our dark spells get through.

Any thoughts?

-MustangTC

Phierlihy · Post by **Phierlihy** » Tue May 31, 2011 12:05 am

My mages have enough to do without having to share power dice for a little fireball. And Terror seems to be over rated against everything except Goblins. I'll stick with Crimson Death.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Tue May 31, 2011 1:33 am

Terror has very little game effect these days, so the Mask isn't worth its points. Likewise, having a bound spell isn't that great anymore since it competes for power dice from your regular spells.

I personally prefer the Ironcurse Icon since I face a lot of war machines, and even one ward save means I've made my points back on the item.

Setomidor · Post by **Setomidor** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:27 am

I'm thinking the Dragonhelm might be a suitable investment. Still cheap, gives the champ a 4+ AS against everyone and 2+ Ward against anything being on fire.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Tue May 31, 2011 11:34 am

If you are looking that direction, think Armor of Darkness for the 1+ save.

Prince fabulas · Post by **Prince fabulas** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:37 pm

Ruby Ring Of Ruin can be a really good against skinks, wraiths, shades etc.

Especially if you have a L4 shadow mage only (no magic missiles).

I find RoH can be good although it won't help last long it can really screw up the enemy as they never expect it.

It's a hit and miss strategy but can yield big gains for 25 points.

Make sure you won't be moving any of your wizards within 12" or you can give yourself a NASTY surprise.

Littleboyblues · Post by **Littleboyblues** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:33 am

Whip of Agony... You'll never want another magic item on him!

That's 4 str 5 AP attacks that reroll to hit. I usually take the flam banner on the unit so also flaming. Most characters are too scared to challenge him. I'll never take anything else personally.

Flash29 · Post by **Flash29** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:49 pm

if the flaming attacks come from a banner or somesuch, not the magic weapon itself. then the magic weapon doesn't have flaming attacks

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:17 pm

littleboyblues wrote:Whip of Agony... You'll never want another magic item on him!

I put the Whip on a Master who also has Armor of Darkness. Problem with putting it on a Black Guard champ is 1 wound and 5+ armor save. As soon as the champ uses the Whip, he gets a big target on his back -- it's effectively one-use-only.

C_freman · Post by **C_freman** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:18 pm

flash29 wrote:if the flaming attacks come from a banner or somesuch, not the magic weapon itself. then the magic weapon doesn't have flaming attacks

Excuse my ignorance but... where does this come from? Sorry if the answer is obvious...

Flash29 · Post by **Flash29** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:53 pm

p69...hehe 69.... special rule flaming attacks, 4th paragraph, in between brackets.

Often overlookt but still important

Maldor · Post by **Maldor** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:56 am

I'm personally fond of the Other Trickster's Shard to deal with rank-and-file ward saves.

L1qw1d · Post by **L1qw1d** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:45 am

AoD or OTS. The Halberd ups the S to 6 for the most part, so the thing I like is keeping him ALIVE lol

Tethlis · Post by **Tethlis** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:41 pm

I also like Whip of Agony. I'm alright with the champion being one-use-only, providing that he's able to inflict some key damage beforehand. This can be useful as well for keeping the Black Guard alive; depending on who the BG are fighting, an opponent may have to allocate quite a few attacks to kill off the champ, meaning that excess wounds are wasted and more of your unit is preserved.

I also like Ruby Ring for those rare instances when a magic missile or Flaming Attacks proves very useful at long range (the Hell Pit Abomination + Stormbanner is a good example.) Sometimes just having a bit of extra direct damage is useful.

Setomidor · Post by **Setomidor** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:20 pm

I'm a bit reluctant to spend so much points on the champ. +14 for the Upgrade and another 25 for the Whip of Agony (or AoD for that matter) makes him a quite expensive 52 pt model with a single 5+ Wound. A fully kitted BG unit is 330 pts (295 base +25 for the Whip / AoD + another 10 for flaming attacks), compared to 267 for only the Musician upgrade. Is the kitted up version worth the extra 63 pts?

Tethlis · Post by **Tethlis** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:41 pm

In situations where you're not fighting a massive unit that will step up and kill the champion, then yes it's worth it. The extra Strength and attack frequently makes a huge difference in the combats I find myself in, especially if my Black Guard are receiving a charge from heavy cavalry, monstrous infantry, chariots or monsters. The ability to attack with Strength 5 can be very decisive against any opponent.

Littleboyblues · Post by **Littleboyblues** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:18 pm

I also use lore of metal so most of the time my black guard champ has a 3+ AR 5+ ward save. I'm alright with T3 I do play elves.

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:58 pm

I like a champion so that I can issue and accept challenges. That ability alone makes a champion worthwhile.

Jadin · Post by **Jadin** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:51 pm

I generally take Crimson Death. I will have to try the Whip of Agony out on him.

Meteor · Post by **Meteor** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:12 pm

Like Dyvim, I too like champions purely for their ability to issue and accept a challenge. Especially against something very nasty that'll chop a huge chunk of your unit away otherwise. In such cases, my champion doesn't survive more than one round of combat, so I keep them cheap and preserve those extra points from magic items elsewhere.

Zenith · Post by **Zenith** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:15 pm

I leave my vanilla BG as they are.

Only a musical instrument.

No banner, no need to.
No champion, it only cost big points. Your champion with his Crimson death costs 39 points extra! thats almost a harpy squad

Tethlis · Post by **Tethlis** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:41 pm

Zenith wrote:No champion, it only cost big points. Your champion with his Crimson death costs 39 points extra! thats almost a harpy squad

And then a Bloodthirster kills 10 rank-and-file Black Guard because you had noone to issue a challenge with. That's more than two Harpy squads!

There's definitely something to be said for keeping Black Guard cheap, but champions can be useful when you're in situations where you don't want a nasty character obliterating rank-and-file bodies. A champion goes a long way when you have to use Black Guard as a Stubborn unit, and not as a killing unit.

Zenith · Post by **Zenith** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:48 am

Hmm, didnt looked at it that way, perhaps a towermaster with iron curse penant then

Post by **Calisson** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:15 pm

For the new Storm of Magic, a Ring of Hotek can be nice on a BG champ... :lol:

Post by **Thanee** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:32 pm

I generally use Armour of Darkness. It worked very well so far. In one game, the Champion stood alone (after the rest of his guys fell, precisely, so that the Champion was the last model standing from the unit) against a unit of Saurus for 5 or so combat rounds, holding them up for the rest of the game and denying them the points from my BG unit.

Of course, if the unit is annihilated, it might not be that useful, because the champion is removed as well, if the unit takes enough damage to kill every model (that is still standing). So far, this did not happen to me.

Calisson wrote:For the new Storm of Magic, a Ring of Hotek can be nice on a BG champ...

For Storm of Magic, the Ring of Hotek is so good, it is better passed on to someone higher in rank (i.e. a Master or Dreadlord).

Bye
Thanee