Post by knoffles on Jan 1, 2023 16:07:25 GMT
Another review taken from: paint-hammer.blogspot.com/2012/07/lore-of-life-party-slann-2012-slann.html
Main article copied here for completion.
Lore of Life
The lore of life is one of the best Lores for lizardmen for a number of reasons but is also one of the most boring to play against due to its absolute level of attrition and potential abuse through Dwellers below. The reason for this is that many of the lizardmen units have multiple wounds, kroxigors, stegadons, terradons, salamanders etc and so the Lore Attribute, Lifebloom, really never goes to waste. When ever a spell from the lore of life is successfully cast a model within 12” recovers one lost wound, this is obviously great at topping up the health of units nearby and when you are aiming to cast 3-4 spells at turn it can negate a cannon ball to stegs face pretty well. This is another reason why lizardmen synergise so well with life, due to rumination Slann can cast more spells than other races and life really benefits the more spells you cast as per life bloom and throne of vines. Lore of life can really make your units rock solid and never die, which with the lizardmen’s natural toughness and high armour saves it’s a great combination. Also since most Slann rock up with Loremaster you have no fear of missing out on throne of vines which is pretty much critical to the success of Lore of Life.
I’m going to start off with Throne of vines instead of the signature because it fundamentally changes how the rest of the lore plays out. Its an augment spell which targets the Slann and not only boosts other spells in the lore but also provides a 2+ miscast protection which needless to say is awesome. Because this spell boosts other spells so much and gives you this extra super protection against miscasts, you simply have to get this off if possible! It is also best to cast this first to get the most out of it so your instantly putting you opponent under massive pressure to dispel it. Its worth noting that if you 6 dice cast this spell and get an irresistible force off then you get the 2+ protection from the spell as the repercussions of a miscast are calculated after the spell effects. Don’t let people tell you other wise, they are wrong! I will list the beneficial effects of this spell in brackets beside the respective spells below to keep it simple.
The signature spell for lore of life is Earthblood and gives the Slann and his unit (usually temple guard in a life build) a +5 regeneration (4+ with throne) save for a relatively low casting value. The boosted version with throne of vines is obviously awesome but beware of flaming attacks which will negate it. In most circumstances it doubles the survivability of your temple guard and thereby make them stick around and protect your slann longer. Even mournfangs and demi gryph knights will think twice about charging headlong into a temple guard block buffed up.
Awakening of the Wood spell causes D6 S4 hits (S6 with throne of vines) on any target unit for a low casting value which increases to 2D6 if the target unit is partially or wholly within a wood/tree piece of terrain. With throne of vines up this is a sickeningly good spell against skirmishers traversing forests, naturally this causes sneaksie wood elves no end of trouble. It isn’t the best spell in the lore but it is very good in the right situations.
Flesh to stone is one of the hall mark spells of the lore, its an augment spell which increases the toughness of the target unit by 2+ (4+ with throne of vines). Toughness 6 Skink cohorts with T8 Kroxigors is naturally frightening and most things will be wounding you on 6s. Getting this off on your temple guard with the signature spell makes them all but unkillable. T10 Stegadons are also another sneaky way of defending against cannons and the like where your opponent's traditional means of killing them off becomes redundant or difficult at best. Other sneaky applications are casting this on terradons or skink skirmishers who are going to take a charge next turn, it will cause your opponent no end of head aches to deal with buffed skinks. It's also one of the few spells that I think can make Jungle swarms any good, T6 unbreakable swarms with 5 poisoned attacks are actually pretty decent!
Rejuvination the healing spell of lore of light can be absolutely fantastic in keeping that temple guard unit in the game or frustrating your opponent by bringing back upto 4 cold one cav a turn! The spell is an augment which restores D3 +1 models/wounds to a unit (D6 + 2 with throne of vines), cavalry models count as 2 for these purposes. Bringing back depleted units which were hard to shift originally, like chameleons or temple guard can really hurt your opponent's plans and bring back what was thought to be a written off unit. Obviously this just makes previously buffed units even harder to shift and nigh unkillable.
Shield of thorns is an augment spell which causes enemies in base contact with the target unit to take 2D6 S3 hits (S4 with throne of vines). Not amazing but when combined with Flesh to stone it can really make a potential charging think twice about charging your terradons with a light flank unit like pistoliers or dark riders. Alternatively chuck this on a razordon and let it get charged, 2x Artillery dice +2D6 S4 hits = silly damage, nice re-director too!
Finally we come to one of the most hated and feared spells in the game, Dwellers Below. Dwellers is a direct damage spell that causes every model in the enemy unit to take a strength test or be immediately slain with no saves of any kind.... Ouch! Now some tournaments and comp packs nerf this spell a little and allow characters in the unit to roll "look out sir!" saves which takes the edge off the spell and personally this is how my group of friends play as well. Other wise you have people 6 dicing the spell at their generals unit every turn until he falls down a hole. Even so this spell is still frightening, on a S3 target half the unit will die which is quite frankly awesome. Even S4 are losing 33% so use this to draw out dispell scrolls early and cast it on big scary units early on. Naturally this spell diminishes in effectiveness the smaller the target so don't waste it on small units, but even still it is usually enough to force a panic test if a target simply must be removed. If you can find a way to lower the targets strength through other lores (shadow or death) then this can really make your opponent squirm!
Main article copied here for completion.
Lore of Life
The lore of life is one of the best Lores for lizardmen for a number of reasons but is also one of the most boring to play against due to its absolute level of attrition and potential abuse through Dwellers below. The reason for this is that many of the lizardmen units have multiple wounds, kroxigors, stegadons, terradons, salamanders etc and so the Lore Attribute, Lifebloom, really never goes to waste. When ever a spell from the lore of life is successfully cast a model within 12” recovers one lost wound, this is obviously great at topping up the health of units nearby and when you are aiming to cast 3-4 spells at turn it can negate a cannon ball to stegs face pretty well. This is another reason why lizardmen synergise so well with life, due to rumination Slann can cast more spells than other races and life really benefits the more spells you cast as per life bloom and throne of vines. Lore of life can really make your units rock solid and never die, which with the lizardmen’s natural toughness and high armour saves it’s a great combination. Also since most Slann rock up with Loremaster you have no fear of missing out on throne of vines which is pretty much critical to the success of Lore of Life.
I’m going to start off with Throne of vines instead of the signature because it fundamentally changes how the rest of the lore plays out. Its an augment spell which targets the Slann and not only boosts other spells in the lore but also provides a 2+ miscast protection which needless to say is awesome. Because this spell boosts other spells so much and gives you this extra super protection against miscasts, you simply have to get this off if possible! It is also best to cast this first to get the most out of it so your instantly putting you opponent under massive pressure to dispel it. Its worth noting that if you 6 dice cast this spell and get an irresistible force off then you get the 2+ protection from the spell as the repercussions of a miscast are calculated after the spell effects. Don’t let people tell you other wise, they are wrong! I will list the beneficial effects of this spell in brackets beside the respective spells below to keep it simple.
The signature spell for lore of life is Earthblood and gives the Slann and his unit (usually temple guard in a life build) a +5 regeneration (4+ with throne) save for a relatively low casting value. The boosted version with throne of vines is obviously awesome but beware of flaming attacks which will negate it. In most circumstances it doubles the survivability of your temple guard and thereby make them stick around and protect your slann longer. Even mournfangs and demi gryph knights will think twice about charging headlong into a temple guard block buffed up.
Awakening of the Wood spell causes D6 S4 hits (S6 with throne of vines) on any target unit for a low casting value which increases to 2D6 if the target unit is partially or wholly within a wood/tree piece of terrain. With throne of vines up this is a sickeningly good spell against skirmishers traversing forests, naturally this causes sneaksie wood elves no end of trouble. It isn’t the best spell in the lore but it is very good in the right situations.
Flesh to stone is one of the hall mark spells of the lore, its an augment spell which increases the toughness of the target unit by 2+ (4+ with throne of vines). Toughness 6 Skink cohorts with T8 Kroxigors is naturally frightening and most things will be wounding you on 6s. Getting this off on your temple guard with the signature spell makes them all but unkillable. T10 Stegadons are also another sneaky way of defending against cannons and the like where your opponent's traditional means of killing them off becomes redundant or difficult at best. Other sneaky applications are casting this on terradons or skink skirmishers who are going to take a charge next turn, it will cause your opponent no end of head aches to deal with buffed skinks. It's also one of the few spells that I think can make Jungle swarms any good, T6 unbreakable swarms with 5 poisoned attacks are actually pretty decent!
Rejuvination the healing spell of lore of light can be absolutely fantastic in keeping that temple guard unit in the game or frustrating your opponent by bringing back upto 4 cold one cav a turn! The spell is an augment which restores D3 +1 models/wounds to a unit (D6 + 2 with throne of vines), cavalry models count as 2 for these purposes. Bringing back depleted units which were hard to shift originally, like chameleons or temple guard can really hurt your opponent's plans and bring back what was thought to be a written off unit. Obviously this just makes previously buffed units even harder to shift and nigh unkillable.
Shield of thorns is an augment spell which causes enemies in base contact with the target unit to take 2D6 S3 hits (S4 with throne of vines). Not amazing but when combined with Flesh to stone it can really make a potential charging think twice about charging your terradons with a light flank unit like pistoliers or dark riders. Alternatively chuck this on a razordon and let it get charged, 2x Artillery dice +2D6 S4 hits = silly damage, nice re-director too!
Finally we come to one of the most hated and feared spells in the game, Dwellers Below. Dwellers is a direct damage spell that causes every model in the enemy unit to take a strength test or be immediately slain with no saves of any kind.... Ouch! Now some tournaments and comp packs nerf this spell a little and allow characters in the unit to roll "look out sir!" saves which takes the edge off the spell and personally this is how my group of friends play as well. Other wise you have people 6 dicing the spell at their generals unit every turn until he falls down a hole. Even so this spell is still frightening, on a S3 target half the unit will die which is quite frankly awesome. Even S4 are losing 33% so use this to draw out dispell scrolls early and cast it on big scary units early on. Naturally this spell diminishes in effectiveness the smaller the target so don't waste it on small units, but even still it is usually enough to force a panic test if a target simply must be removed. If you can find a way to lower the targets strength through other lores (shadow or death) then this can really make your opponent squirm!