So at the request of many of my local friends who read my blog, I was recently asked to compile a list regarding magical synergy with each individual army for my way to ease back in to blogging regularly as I was in October and September. Keep in mind, I will be speaking from the perspective of a magic heavy player and this will be in the context of a 3000 point army. So, without further ado, let's get started.
Beastmen:
Beastmen are in kind of a shit spot right now in terms of everything but magic. They have access to their own signature lore, but if you do play Beastmen (all three of you people out there) just rip that page out of the book or take a sharpie marker to it, because Lore of the Wilds is not worth the paper it is written on. Beastmen do have access to three other good lores though that more than make up for this. Beasts, Shadow, and Death. They also have a special item called the Herd Stone, which is pretty much an auto-include in any Beastmen army. However, we're talking about magic and not special items in this post! On your Level 4 caster, always take Shadow. Out of the three usable lores you have access to in this army, this is really the only one you want to spend the points to get extra spells for. Okkam's can solve a lot of the Beastmen's problems with Strength values and apart from Steed of Shadow, there are no bad spells in this lore whatsoever. Pendulum and Pit of Shades will nuke Lizardmen, Undead, and Ogres. Miasma is very scary when you're in front of a horde of Bestigore. On your level 1's and 2's, use Beasts and Death respectively. Death-sniping can really help take out enemy casters and combat characters that will go right through your severely under-powered troops. A Bray-Shaman rocking Wyssan's Wildform is also a great way to bring Beastmen up to speed with the more competitive troops. So, in conclusion, I would suggest a Level 4 on Shadow dancing around the Herd Stone, and two Level 1's or 2's, one on Death and one on Beasts. Level 1 Death with a snipe of some kind or a Level 1 Beasts with Wyssan's if you want to go that route. The Death caster should, in my mind, be dancing around the Herd Stone with the Level 4 or by himself picking off characters. The Beasts caster should be in a unit Augmenting the shit out of your infantry blocks.
Bretonnia:
Bretonnia is in a really weird spot for magic because the lores we have access to are very good, but not necessarily for the Bretonnians specifically. However, we'll be looking at what I think, as a relatively expierenced Bretonnian player, is the best magical lores to roll with. So first off, unless you're wanting to rock the Damsel in the Men-At-Arms horde with the Prayer Icon, I must thoroughly suggest you mount your casters and put them in a Lance of knights (preferably not Errant Knights). Barding is optional since they're already rocking a decent Blessing Save comboed with their MR, and a 6+ armor save is about as useful as a bucket of warm spit. On your Level 4, bring her in the lance that's going to be the one with the most damage output, since that will inevitably be the on with your 1+ re-rollable armor save, HKB Knight Lord. The best option for the Level 4 is to run on her Life with the Verdant Heart to make her a baller caster. Regrowing knights can be a really pivotal if you play Bretonnia, so make sure you can Throne of Vines up before anything else. You can give her a better Ward Save, but personally, I feel she's got enough protection for her price, so either spend those points elsewhere or give her some other really wicked equipment. As for your Level 1's and 2's, running them on Life is a waste, so you're pretty much locked into rocking out with Beasts on your Damsels. Wyssan's is a must have, kit them out as scroll-caddies and the Ruby Ring is pretty nice to have as well. Running the Level 4 on Heavens is kind of a waste, but if you need to clear chaff out of the way and take care of artillery pieces, than I would certainly rely on that. So in conclusion, Level 4 on Life with the Verdant Hear, and Hero-Level casters on Beasts magic. Level 4 on Heavens is a viable option, but I do not believe it's an option that's every bit as effective as a Level 4 on Life.
Daemons of Chaos:
So most people would think that Tzeentch, being the all-powerful Chaos God of Magic, would have the best possible Lore out of all the magical lores out there. That is regrettably not the case. In fact out of the three Chaos Lores, I argue that the Lore of Tzeentch is the worst of all of them. So, Chaos casters act a little differently then most casters. There's no base casting lores for Chaos. Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh each have a caster that has access to different lores. For example, Tzeentch casters can cast from either the Lore of Tzeentch or the Lore of Metal. Nurgle casters can cast from either the Lore of Nurgle or the Lore of Death. Slaanesh casters can cast from either the the Lore of Slaanesh or the Lore of Shadow. So for Daemons, the rule should be to keep all your stuff as singular as possible. Thus, if you have a lot Nurgle stuff, take a Nurgle caster. Nurgle means getting up close and personal, so both Death and Nurgle are great for this. Nurgle has a lot nice Hexes and Augments like Curse of the Leper and Fleshy Abundance and Death has some really nice sniping spell and more great Hexes. Considering that Nurgle is already -1 to-hit, anything that targets WS or the to-hit spectrum of Nurgle is really, really scary. However, taking a Level 4 Slaanesh or Shadow is also very dangerous. Cacaphonic Choir is perhaps the most dangerous spell in all of Warhammer Fantasy, and the rest of its spells are pretty damned nice too. However, if it's down to my personal recommendation, I would run one Level 4 Keeper of Secrets on Shadow with two Hero-level Nurgle casters, one on Lore of Nurgle, and the other on Death.
Dark Elves:
As with all the 8th edition Elf books, Dark Elves are now rocking access to all 8 lores and have kept the Lore of Dark Magic in addition to that. Their special rule for their casters makes taking a Sorceress of some kind on Dark Magic a very preferable choice for a competitive army (gives them +1 to cast when using Dark magic). The Sacrificial Dagger now also helps them push magic down their enemies throat at the expense of some of their own units, offering a unique tactical choice. What are my recommendations? Well first off, you should only need two casters because you will have a unit of five Doomfire Warlocks in every 2000 point list and above. They are perhaps the best addition to the Dark Elf Codex ever to make into the book. Doomfires now make it possible to cut down on magic users and conserve some extra points for more Executioners or perhaps another Master. First off, take a Level 4 on Dark Magic and always make sure you have her rocking Dark Magic. Being a Level 5 caster is a huge boon to anybody who wants to have a strong magic phase. You will also make sure she is well protected within a bunker of elite troops, (Black Guard work the best for this in my personal opinion) has the Talisman of Preservation (4+ Ward Save), and also must have Power of Darkness as one of her spells. That spell can allow the Dark Elf player domination in the Magic Phase every single time. As for your secondary caster, I'd be rocking her out in a bunker of Dark Shards with the Sacrificial Dagger and have her rocking Shadow magic. With the ability to just trade bodies for power dice, spells like Okkam's and Pit of Shades become a lot less difficult to put up, and Okkam's on LD 10 Elves is a nightmare from which there is no escape. You can skimp on keeping the Level 1 or 2 safe since she'll be far away in a block of troops you really don't care, so miscasts and even casualties. Just use the Brolocks to pick off lone characters and troops. The rest is just you deciding what spells to use when they need to be used.
High Elves:
Very similar to Dark Elves put instead flipped. Same as Dark Elves, you should have a Level 4 on High Magic put in a brick of Phoenix Guard or White Lions carrying the Banner of the World Dragon equipped with the Book of Hoeth. This makes the unit next to immune to miscast results and actual physical attacks, meaning your caster, coupled with the Shield of Saphery (Lore of High Magic's Lore Attribute), you'll then have a super high Ward Save with the potential to withstand direct shots from even Chaos Knights. After you set that up, you can then turn to your support casters. If you want to run two support-level casters my recommendation to you would be the following. First, look at what your Level 4 is running. High Magic has some really badass Augments and utility spells, but really lacks in the ability to Hex and put down large numbers of troops in a single phase. A simple fix to that would be to take something a lot more direct than High Magic. High Magic is like an air compressor, most often used to power other tools or provide energy for other tasks. Other lores, say Fire or Metal, are jackhammers. You need to take down a boulder made out of solid granite. You will use the jackhammer and most likely not an air compressor. I myself would certainly suggest Metal because S3 Elves can find it very difficult to get through high Armor Saves. A Level 2 on Metal, and this one may be a bit biased, but I don't see why every High Elf list does not have at least a single Loremaster of Hoeth. There are no bad Signature Spells, and the sheer amount of spells and flexibility that this character gives you allow you a tactical edge that is not seen by too many other armies. So, Level 4 on High Magic with a book of Hoeth in a brick of White Lions or Phoenix Guard, Level 1 or 2 on Metal magic, and a Loremaster.
Empire:
When the discussion comes to magic and the Empire, the first obvious conclusion is the infamous Light Counsel with the War Altar of Hysh. I understand the power of the Light Counsel, but to me the tactic is too selective and narrow to make it useful in a tournament scene where you will run into opponents who are not Undead and Daemonic in nature. An Empire Gun Line is better built to deal with a variety of threats than a Light Counsel is. So my suggestion for building a magic list for the Empire is kind of complicated, so try to follow me here. When building an Empire list, save your magical selections until you figure out what kind of list you want to run. I'll give you three examples to prove my point here. So let's use the Gun Line as our first example. In a Gun Line build, you'll want to reduce the # of casters in your heroes category to make room for Imperial Engineers. So I'd be taking a Level 4 on Life or Shadow, or pretty much any lore filled primarily with Augments and Hexes, and putting him in the biggest, meanest, toughest unit that you have in the army and make it a super unit that can fend off any encroaching opponent. If you were to take a hero level caster, I'd be rocking Beasts, because Beasts and Gun Lines go together like hot dogs and mustard. Why? Two reasons, Wyssan's on your troops and Curse of Anraheir on the enemy. Let's say you're running an infantry list, what kind of magic build would you do for that? Well, my best recommendation is this. Only take a Level 4, because loading up on War Priests is completely worth the effort and is much better than any Level 1 or 2 just in terms of boosting your units. This Level 4 should be in a bunker, well protected, and should be carrying the Dispel Scroll. What should you be rolling with this guy? My best suggestion is a Lore that will deal massive, massive, damage to the enemy. Your Warrior Priests will boost your units well enough by themselves. The Level 4 should have two primary purposes in this build. One, they add +4 to all your dispel attempts, which in and of itself pays for the cost of him. Two, he allows you to do the work that cannons would normally do in the shooting phase. So what kinds of lores should the Level 4 be taking? Well, Empire has a pretty weak stat line all in all, so you should probably be leaning heavily on Lore of Metal or Death. Use Metal to help deal with all the high armor save stuff out there, and Death to take out enemy characters, nuke the enemy's stat line, and just blow the shit outta stuff with Purple Sun. I have heard some arguments for Shadow, but Shadow relies on a lot of stuff that just doesn't deliver enough punch in my mind (sans Pit of Shades of course) and you have no need for Okkam's since you have Warrior Priests in the units anyway. Finally, we get to the final example and it comes in the form of the official Empire tournament list. You've all seen it. A Steam Tank, a horde of Greatswords, a horde of Halberdiers, two Great Cannons, a Hellblaster Volleygun or two, a brick of Demigryph Knights, some Pistoliers, and of course a random scatter of characters, casters, Warrior Priests, Engineers, and Witch Hunters. From what I've seen several of my Empire buddies run actually makes a lot of sense to me. Metal seems to roll really well with Empire, so usually I see a mini-Balthasar Gelt (Level 2 on Metal mounted on a Pegasus) and a Level 4 on Light carrying the scroll and some other stuff. Net can slow down some nasty stuff so it can get blown apart by artillery, Timewarp gives ASF and extra attacks, Light of Battle allows you to spread your battle lines thin as you please, the list goes on and on. I haven't found a better combo of magic for a balanced Empire list, so I'm rolling with it. Just remember that the Empire is the jack-of-all-trades army, it can do a lot of things but it doesn't do them better than others, and magic is no exception.
Lizardmen:
After spending what felt like hours on the Empire, I finally get to the army that I know like my own bed. So for Lizardmen, there's only one way to roll for your Slann (Level 4). You take him on High Magic and you give him the Discipline of the Ancients that makes him a Loremaster of High Magic. Why do this? Because the Lore Attribute for Lizardmen High Magic is fucking awesome! I won't go into too much detail, but it basically allows you to drop a spell you cast for another spell out of any of the 8 standard lores. In a tournament, magical flexibility like this is the best tool in a magical toolbox that you can have. Dealing with Ogres? Change for a Death spell. Dealing with High Elves? Try your luck at getting Dwellers Below. If for some reason you don't want to do that (a reason that would be beyond my mortal comprehension), then my suggestion is to take either the Discipline that makes him a High Elf Loremaster with a +4 casting value, or run him on Life magic. He's also pretty well defended in a brick of Temple Guard and a 4+ Ward Save, so don't be afraid to run him as the BSB. As for the support casters, adding Lore of Beasts to the Skink Priests repertoire was the single best thing that the new book granted the Lizardmen apart from perhaps dumping the point cost of Saurus Warriors. Putting a Skink Priests in horde or brick of Saurus Warriors has two key advantages. First, it allows you to spam Wyssan's, which is how Lizardmen win in this day and age. Second, it allows you to prevent the required overrun clause in the Saurus Warriors' Predatory Fighter special rule. As for the second Skink, put him on top of a Ancient Stegadon with the Engine of the Gods and have him run Heavens. That way he can be all-purpose mage who's very well protected and uses a lore that has got a lot of variety in terms of spell types. So, in total this is what the optimal Lizardmen magic layout looks like. Slann BSB who's a loremaster of High Magic in a brick of Temple Guard, Skink Priest on Beasts spamming Wyssan's on Saurus, and a Skink Priest on top of an Ancient Stegadon with the Engine of the Gods rocking out with Heavens Magic. Pick casting levels for your Skinks as you see fit and make the one in the Saurus brick carry the Dispel Scroll. Now, onto the next one!
Ogre Kingdoms:
Ogres are certainly fortunate when it comes to the contents of their 8th edition book. Even though I hear a lot of people say it's aging, I think the Ogres are still as powerful as they were when they first came out! And their magical prowess is testament to that. So much like Tomb Kings, the Ogres do have a magical regulation that they must adhere to. Commonly called the Gut Tax, this rule stipulates that at least one of your casters must cast out of the Lore of the Great Maw. However, fortunately for the Ogres, this rule has two key factors that make it not so much of an issue. First off, the rule specifically states that at least one caster must take Gut Magic, but it doesn't specify what level, meaning you can have a level 1 caster (most likely the scroll-caddie) take it and go play with himself for the rest of the game for all you care. However, due to reason #2, that might not be the case. See, unlike the Daemons, Ogres actually have a signature lore that's pretty damned good. Gut Magic is a very versatile lore and filled with all kinds of spells that can be useful in a variety of situations. The have a snipe spell, a Magical Vortex spell, a couple of Augment spells, hell they pretty much have at least one of every kind of spell out there! So honestly, if you want to take your Level 4 on Gut Magic, knock yourself the hell out. For your Slaughtermaster (Level 4), you can take Gut Magic or Death Magic respectively, just remember that if you take Shadow then you're support caster will have to take the Lore of the Great Maw. Note that Ogre stuff is expensive though, so in a 3K point list, I'd say a Level 4 and a Level 2 are all you'll really need. As for the hero-level caster, I'd suggest taking either a Butcher on Beasts or a Firebelly (Ogre Fire-Mage character) so you can boost your already rock tough units or punish anyone who brings a Banner of Eternal Flame, which is effectively everybody in a competitive tournament. Heavens on Ogres is pretty damned fun, but in comparison to Gut Magic and Death, it doesn't stand out enough to warrant attention.
Orcs and Goblins:
Oh boy, here is one I've been waiting to do for quite some time indeed! So without further ado let's get started. Orcs and Goblins are one of the two armies that are specifically locked (not counting special characters) into their own signature lores. They also have two distinct lores, which we will refer to as Orc Magic and Goblin Magic because I refuse to type the word 'Waghh!' over and over again. Both reflect the natures of the creatures that use them, and thus both have their practical uses. Orc Magic is very, well let's say direct. Much like the Orcs there is nothing subtle about the spells in this lore. Look no further than their #6 bomb spell, the Foot of Gork. As strange as this may sound, despite the fact that I think Goblin Magic is better, I would suggest taking a Level 4 Savage Orc Shaman (in a horde of Savage Orcs with the Lucky Shrunken Head). Why? Because that way you have more of a chance of rolling up Hand of Gork. Hand of Gork is basically the win button. Think of it as a way better version of Walk Between Worlds. While out of the two lores, Orc magic has the best spell, Goblin magic has the most usable spells of the two. Every spell in their lore is useful and their lore attribute just punishes people who try to save their dispel dice for the big spell they know is coming. In fact, there's a lot of synergy between the two, like casting Hex and Magic Missile spells from Goblins and then using the stolen power dice to ram Foot of Gork down the opponent's throat. The best strategy I can see is the Level 4 Savage Orc Shaman mentioned above, and then either two level 2 Goblin casters, or a singe level 2 Goblin Caster on the Arachnorock (Giant Spider) with the kit that makes him a loremaster of Goblin magic. Seriously folks, Goblin magic is that good!
Skaven:
So much like Greenskins, Skaven are locked into their own two signature lores, Ruin Magic and Pestilance Magic. To be honest, my experience with Skaven magic is very limited because all the Skaven players in my corner of the world all play about the same way. They have a Level 4 in a bunker in the back who's just there to play with himself, give +4 to dispel, and provide a Leaderhsip bubble. What's he running? Fuck if I know! The only spells I ever see cast by the Skaven are done by two support casters. One from each lore, and even then the only spells I can ever really recall them casting are Blessed With Filth, Scorch, Skitterleap, and an occasional Dreaded Thirteenth from the Level 4. Now I say this because it was explained to me why the play that way, and for once the explanation of why Skaven players do what they do made sense to me. See, the Skaven army is already random enough as it is what with Warp Lightning Cannons, Hellpit Abominations, Doom Wheels, and other such random-as-fuck-shit that most serious players are trying to find ways to mitigate the amount of SIW's (Self-Inflicted Wounds) that they have to deal with. Magic, especially when you roll double 6's, is very dangerous to your army. So, they seek to play as conservatively in the Magic Phase as they can, because once shit starts rolling it just starts rolling down hill. Plus, if I could conceivably run two Lightning Cannons, a Hellpit, a Doomwheel, and three hordes of fifty models a piece and still have some room to add more nasty shit, I wouldn't necessarily see a real need for too much magic either. Don't get me wrong, Skaven magic is still very dangerous (seeing as their spells have no spell types allowing for some pretty ridiculous shenanigans to go on) and should be stemmed as much as possible. However, I can't offer any advice on it one way or the other, so regrettably this is the best I can do guys.
Tomb Kings:
To say Tomb Kings rely on magic as crutch would be an understatement. Magic to a Tomb King is as necessary as carbon is for life to form. However, unfortunately for the Tomb Kings, they are not the biggest magic users on the block as they were intended to be, and they only get more and more weak in this regard with each new army book that comes out. Now, a little disclaimer for the audience out here. I do not take End Times rules and army remixes from End Times into consideration. We don't play it here, and thus I don't take it into consideration. This will be a pre-End Times observation for both the Tomb Kings and the Vampire Counts. So right off the bat, the Tomb Kings are hit very hard with a nasty magical tax that they cannot under any circumstance get out of. They must take a Level 4 on their standard lore, the Lore of Nehekara. The bad thing is if he dies, your army crumbles and there's no stopping it, so the Hirophant is a real Achilles Heel in any Tomb King army. However, this isn't exactly the worst thing in the world since their signature lore isn't all that bad really. Its lore attribute brings back models, it has a couple of really nice Augment spells, my two personal favorites being the spells that allow you to move again and get Killing Blow respectively. In addition, Tomb Kings have access to the lores of Light and Death respectively, and this is huge! Death magic allows you to pick off those really scary characters and casters, and Light can really make the flimsy Tomb Kings a lot more tough to deal with. If I were to suggest a build with the Tomb Kings in relation to magic, I would have your Hirophant (Level 4 on Nehekara) kitted out as a defensively as possible and put very safely in a big unit of Tomb Guard. Either put a secondary caster on Death to pick out characters or on Light to buff up the Tomb Guard and Skeleton Warriors. Also, I would suggest taking a Casket of Souls because no Tomb Kings army looks good without one and when in doubt, 6-dice the casket. If you have the points, I would also consider taking a Hirotitan, the big monster-thing that GW doesn't have a model of for the Tomb Kings. Modify a War Sphinx or something, because getting as many dice in your power pool as possible is always a good thing. However, that's more a secondary addition, and a tertiary one when it comes between this and the Casket. Tomb Kings are in a very odd spot where they have powerful magic, but not much access to it, which makes them very unique and dangerous to deal with.
Vampire Counts:
Just like the Tomb Kings, the Vampires kind of have a tax when it comes to their magic. The General of your army must be a caster on the Lore of Vampires. Just like the Hirophant, if he dies, the whole army begins to crumble. However, there are two advantages that the VC's have in comparison to the TK's. First, if the Vampire Lord dies, the army crumbles that turn. But if you have a back up caster on the Lore of Vampires, then your army is fine unit he dies. So you can have a back-up caster to prevent crumbling from happening, which is really, really nice. Secondly, the Vampire Lord is about a hundred times better than the Hirophant. Even casting vampires are still very tough and very nasty to tangle with in close combat, much less kill outright! In addition, they have access to the lores of Death and Shadow, two very nice lores. There's also a Bloodline Ability that Vampires can take that allows them to be a caster from any of the other standard lores apart from Life, but I've never actually see it implemented, because Vampire Counts rely very heavily on the Lore of Vampires. Of course you're going to have a Level 4 on Vampires, and then for your secondary characters, you're going to want another one on Vampires as a back up for your Level 4, and then the other support caster should be rolling with either Shadow or Death, and in my personal experience I have seen more of the latter then the former. Vampires rely on their own lore to boost and/or increase their plentiful and shitty troops so they can win combat through attrition. No other lore, not even Light if you wanted to take it, can do this better for them then their own signature lore. I wouldn't mount your Level 4, because you kind of need him so that your unit can actually march and if a cannon takes him out your at a big disadvantage. But the secondary on Death magic when mounted does have a lot of potential going for it. Your secondary caster on Vampires should be in a tar-pit unit, so that he can constantly massage himself all over it with spells like Van Hell's and Rigor Mortis. I don't actually play Vampires, so please keep that in mind when you read this, and if you have a better alternative, then please list it below.
Warriors of Chaos:
Warriors are kind of like Robert Downey Junior cleaning a fake gun when it comes to magic. They aren't too certain what in the hell they are doing with their Magic Phases. Are they there to be magical war machines? Are they there to turn their already hard as balls troops into absolute gore machines? Are they supposed to mount themselves on a Chaos Dragon or a Disc of Tzeentch, fly up the enemy's flank and then 6-dice the Purple Sun? Well, since I don't actually play Warriors of Chaos, I can only talk about what I've seen played commonly in my particular corner of the world. More often then not, excluding the Daemon Prince(s) of course, I see Warriors of Chaos rolling out with more offensive-based magics like Metal, Death, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch. Warriors have some pretty badass units already, so unlike Elves or Empire they don't need magic to make their troops better. Chaos Warriors are already pretty goddamned hard core. So they can use these pseudo-magical artillery pieces in the form of Wizards. This way they can save points in the Rare section that would normally be allocated to a Hellcannon(s) of Chaos. This serves a two-fold use, as Hellcannons are expensive and unless you take Chaos Warhounds or Marauder Horsemen, then Warriors of Chaos do not deal with chaff all that well. So, lores like Tzeentch and/or Metal make clearing those annoying little shits out of your way so that the Warriors can just smash whatever they run into. Besides flying the Daemon Prince up and 6-dicing his bullshit spell, this is the most common way I see Warriors of Chaos being used in terms of magic. In my experience, the bread and butter spells for Warriors are any spells that are Direct Damage or Magic Missile spells, with a healthy scattering of Hexes and the occasional Augment spells thrown in the mix.
Wood Elves:
In terms of magical flexibility, Wood Elves are sitting at the top of pyramid right now due to the fact they have access to more lores than any other army, with their Lord level casters having officially 10 lores to choose from. This means that they're going to be able to tailor their magic to their army build very well. As usual, lore of Shadow is a serious standout lore for Elves, but I tend to see a lot of Life and Beasts in Wood Elf armies which I suppose is a norm considering that was what Wood Elf players were formally using. The one thing I haven't seen, and I am quite surprised that I haven't seen this, is Wood Elves running Lore of Metal. I know it isn't all that fluffy, but if Dark Elf players can get away with rolling with Lore of Life well then Woodies can become tech geeks! It just seems like having access to Lore of Metal would solve like 90% of the Wood Elves problems in terms of dealing with units that actually have armor saves. If you actually play Wood Elves and know why Lore of Metal is never taken by the army, then please drop a comment below. All I can say is pay attention to what particular build the Woodies player is using, and then go from there. Expect Shadow, High Magic, Dark Magic. and a distinct hinting of Beasts and Life in the mix. That is all my hommies, peace out until then.
