[Tactica] Winning with a Magic-based Army in 8th

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

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Timz
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[Tactica] Winning with a Magic-based Army in 8th

Post by Timz »

ASDF
Last edited by Timz on Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Cam.ron
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Post by Cam.ron »

This is great Timz some really useful stuff in there, before reading this I was thinking that DE are really gonna smash people in magic this edition but after reading that it seems that there are quite a few armies who will be able to come up with really deadly magic phases.

It will be interesting to see the magic builds people will be using wizard levels + items as well as lore combos, although it seems that shadow/death will be most common
Il maestro
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Post by Il maestro »

Great post Timz!! Nice analysis of the magic phase and some of it's challenges to be faced, just a few things I want to mention.

With regards to Throne of Vines, it's a Remains in Play spell, so you can try to dispel it next magic phase at original casting value (8+).

I totally agree that there will be a few armies that can muster a large amount of magic, however I believe that we are one of the few armies that have the ability to not just shut down the magic phase, but make it dangerous for our enemy. Of course, I'm talking about the Ring of Hotek! :D It's pretty easy to see after a glance at the new BRB that magic is more devastating than ever to an enemy, however the drawback is that the more powerful spells still require a high casting value. In order to achieve success, an enemy must be prepared to roll a large number of power dice in order to get it off successfully, because a magic heavy army can ill-afford their lvl.4 wizard failing a cast, thus wasting dice and ending the wizards magic phase (broken concentration). This plays into our hands, because with the increased power dice thrown at a spell, there is a greater chance of suffering a miscast.

Sure, there are a few characters in the game that will laugh at miscasts (or even throw them at us!), but on the whole there aren't too many lvl.4 wizards that are going to be happy throwing 6 dice at a 'spell of ultimate destruction' given the odds you stated in your post.

Don't get me wrong, I think that over the next few months we are going to see an abundance of magic-heavy armies trying to capitalise on what you have correctly identified as the strengths of the new magic phase, but I think as long as we remember to bring 'the precious' along, we will be part of the select few who can have a devastating magic phase in either player's turn! :twisted:

Just a bit more food for thought...
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Killerk
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Post by Killerk »

I would like to add that a lv. 4 has a much better chance to pick the spell she needs, as opposed to a lv. 2
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Yourmumrang
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Post by Yourmumrang »

Timz, mind if I format this for you as it's hard to read atm.
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Darktan
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Post by Darktan »

Tomb kings can neither miscast, or fail to cast, not even a natural total of 1-2 stops them in the slightest.

also they only use power dice for bound items (such as the fireball ring) or dispelling RiP spells (not sure if you can do that, havn't read too much on dispelling) hero level priests count as a level 1 for dispelling, lord level priests count as lvl 3 for dispelling, can dispel with irresistable force.

casket works on LoS, and now more things will be able to draw some form of LoS to the casket, so thats nice, (it is a LD test however, so perhaps BSB will help against it, havn't got book on hand, can tell ye later)

however, they only have a single pretty poor magic missile.

magic-heavy is viable, easily. (don't take tooo much however, all the buffs can only be used sucessfully once on each unit, you'll eventually run out of things to cast at)
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Timz
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Post by Timz »

KillerK wrote:I would like to add that a lv. 4 has a much better chance to pick the spell she needs, as opposed to a lv. 2


Good point. Edited that in.

Anyone can feel free to edit everything to make it more readable if you'd like to go to the effort. I'm not good at organizing things, better at just putting out ideas for people to work with.
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Darktan
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Post by Darktan »

minor point against an otherwise very useful post, teclis still has to meet the casting value of the spell with his irrisistable with any doubles rule (other than a double 6) so while not quite as devastating, is still awesome.
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Dangerous Beans
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Post by Dangerous Beans »

and that WoC can have a small impact on miscast table rolls/when they happen thanks to The Black Tongue (an unsuccessful cast = auto miscast enemy) and the Infernal Puppet (modify ANY wizards miscast result by D3) - theyd make excellent slaves *ahem* I mean, allies, to pair with our 'Precious'... :twisted:

They also have a potential method to gain the lore of life through using the Third Eye of Tzeentch (gets to use 1 enemy wizards spells for a turn), assuming their opponent has lore of life/throne of vines...
I should note however that the 3rd Eye does not allow you to use spells which allow healing previous wounds (most Life spells thanks to their innate Lore ability) - however IIRC Throne of Vines does not allow you to heal previous wounds; moreover, the 3rd Eye says to treat Remains in Play spells as normal - ie. once theyve cast Throne of Vines, itd remain in play constantly (thanks to new RIP rules) until dispelled (thats my interpretation anyway).

Sorry to ramble on about WoC - I'm just pretty stoked about how well they complement the Druchii as allies!

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Post by Setomidor »

Timz wrote:
KillerK wrote:I would like to add that a lv. 4 has a much better chance to pick the spell she needs, as opposed to a lv. 2


Good point. Edited that in.

Anyone can feel free to edit everything to make it more readable if you'd like to go to the effort. I'm not good at organizing things, better at just putting out ideas for people to work with.


I would like to elaborate on that.

A lvl 4 Mage has a 90.7% chance of getting (or choosing) any single spell from a lore. This means you'll have that Purple sun of yours 9 games out of ten!

This can easily be increased to close to 100% simply by also having a Lvl 2 mage with the same Lore as the Lvl 4. If you roll spells for the Lvl 2 first and don't end up with, e.g., the Purple Sun, then the Lvl 4 mage is a 100% guaranteed to get it (as she gets the rest of the spells). If the Lvl 2 does get the spell you want on the Lvl 4, simply exchange it for the Signature spell and the Lvl 4 will be even more likely to get it.

Of course, a Lvl 2 sidekick with extra spell or a Lvl 3 with the same lore as the Lvl 4 will absolutely guarantee the Lvl 4 to get any single spell it wants.

Personally, I think a Lvl 4 Death with the Focus Familiar is an awesome combination. The drawback with Death is the short ranges, and the Familiar in effect gives you 6" on any spell but the Sun! Put the Dagger on a Lvl 2 sorc instead, if only to generate dice using Power of Darkness.
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