I am perplexed as to why you outright reject/ignore everything I write and still continue to post the same points. I have faced many of them, and won. Using death magic sniping no less. It seems as though you want me to provide answers that don't lean on the other spells of lore of Death - the situational spells. They are situational because you don't always have a target - but often anything that can't be dealt with by sniping can be slaughtered with a purple sun or soulblight/d&d + shooting.Scyloc wrote:I am a bit perplexed as to why you seem to disregard or downplay the many matchups were death magic sniping is not very effective. I am sure you must have faced many of them.
Scyloc wrote:Just to name a few common armies you often face in a tournament:
DE: CoB 5+ ward + MR 2/3 (as previously explained)
HE: Loremasters Cloak or Banner of the World Dragon
Lizzies: Becalming Cogitation (You move within 24" of the Slaan, and with the slaans banehead and inherent ward save your more vulnerable to his spells (maybe death sniping) that he is to yours)
Ogres: Rune Maw Banner on their Gutstar
Brettonia & Empire have easy access to MR though characters
WoC usually have 3+ ward on most characters
TK often field their own hardcore Death Sniping team
VC often show up with well protected deathstar build of some kind
Demons have a blanket ward save on all models and characters
DE: I already wrote about how easy it would be to break through this setup.
HE: Loremaster's cloak is no problem - I will target the 99% of models in the army which DON'T have it. Sure, banner of the world dragon bunker units limit sniper options. However, they will be slow, none of their characters will get to do anything useful all game and I can clean up the rest. I may also be able to set up a combat threat such as hydras - it doesn't take much to kill an elven BSB - and then suddenly sniping is incredibly effective again.
Lizardmen - Becalming cogitation is annoying. Fortunately you can stay outside 24", with a familiar within 24". So you can snipe him and avoid him simultaneously. Not that you really need to, as a well placed purple sun will end the game by wiping out the rest of his army, and my build allows you to get that placing. Again, one model being protected, even by a 24" bubble, is not the end of the world. He may have other characters to snipe, or stegadons, or salamanders. Not remotely scary.
Ogres - Rune maw banner. Again, im not going to pretend I don't have purple sun. If he does this, he also can't buff his main unit - which I find hilarious. There are again plenty of other targets to snipe in between purple suns - and I'm sure as hell gonna generate the dice to do it.
Bretonnia & Empire - "easy access to MR". So probably no better than 3+ ward saves? That can be penetrated. Many things won't be protected. He will likely have war machines. He doesn't like purple sun. Again I can't see myself losing to these two.
WoC - Sure they're tough. They can be beaten though, often 1+ characters will have a 5+ or worse ward. Personally I like to take advantage of their low Ld with doom and darkness - frenzy baiting anything khornate. WoC are my other army, so foruntealy I know how to break them.
TK - Not scary. Again purple sun wipes them, many unprotected characters, very slow.
VC - Not scary. Purple sun wipes them. I actually killed out vampire lord + wight BSB bunker using sniping - third casting of Fate of Bjuna rolled 10 or 11 and he got crushed.
Demons - I dislike playing demons, purple sun breaks their ward if they are under I5 and the rest of their army can be avoided.
My opponents won't be in combat with me if I don't want them to be. Quite simple really. My opponents are not the simpletons you seem to think they are, I just build a maneuverable army.Scyloc wrote:And when facing a reasonably sensible opponent with little sniping protetion, he will press to engage his vulnerable characters/units in any combat, so they cannot get targeted. Again limiting sniper spells potentiel.
When going to a tournament, you need to build your army to face most of these builds, as its generally a bad idea to rely on luck in your matchups. Most likely you will face several of the builds above in a strong tournament.
Kindly stop insulting my opponents. I am glad you acknowledge death magic sniping as a "cannon". And maybe a 100-150pt war machine/monster is a "sparrow". I'm fine with killing that if there aren't other targets. I'm also happy killing 400 point lords, if I can. As long as I rack up 600-800 VPs with my mage I'm gonna win the game.Scyloc wrote:Death magic Sniping has some good matchups, especially against inexperienced people. Its true that in most matchups, even if your opponents characters are well protected, you will often have other targets who are vulnerable (Ironblasters, warmachines, some monsters), but in most cases you are resorting to shooting sparrows with a cannon.
Better and more efficient options are quite simply available.
We clearly understand "situational" differently. I am saying the sniping spells, when used my way, always have a target, are not situational because they are usually an effective casting option. While with shadow most spells are useless without being in combat, and pit of shades/ pendulum are not universally effective.Scyloc wrote:This leads to the next point. While Death Magic is a great lore. Shadow is even greater, and without having half of its spells being situational.
Believe it or not I've used that before and it isn't as effective, for the reasons you falsely say my build is ineffective. If you have numerous blocks of infantry then you're gonna be in combat and fail. As I have said hundreds of times, it is about being able to target any model in their army, at the lower value: 98% chance to cast with 2 dice.Scyloc wrote:And lastly regarding the Grim Reaper build. (Lv4 with PoK, focus familiar on dark steed/pegasus.)
Its a fine build, but a lv4 build with the Sacrificial Dagger is leaps and bounds better.
Being unable to reach 98% chance to cast is a major drawback between her and the lv.4. I am curious about her though, as the speed is still there.Scyloc wrote:With that bing said, a lv2 on dark peg with ToF + PoK and Death Magic is an interesting option.
But you have to remember that a character like that is vulnerable to BS shooting and many magic missiles (with low or no str).