Post by mrburp on Jan 5, 2019 16:40:43 GMT
Hi guys,
Back in my days on Ulthuan.net I’ve written quite a good Coven of Light guide (even if I say so myself, and I did get a lot of input of the community). Would there be any interest here for a (edited) repo? If not I’m not gonna bother, otherwise I’d gladly post it.
Edit 1: since there are at least some people interested, I’ll copy paste it, and try and do some edits along the way. Note that for some reason I can’t log in on my computer, so everything is done on my phone.
The original article:
Hi everybody,
I'm gonna talk about a Coven of Light. A Coven of Light is basicly an army that is build around shooting down the enemy with the Magic Missile Banishment, supported with more Shooting during both the Magic and Shooting phase. Coven of Light based list will invest (even) more points in Magic then the average High Elves army. If you are unfamiliar with the Lore of Light, Sackree has written article about the Lore of Light.
So the basics are quite simple. You'll need a Lvl 4 Wizard with Banishment, and 2 (or more) support Light Wizards. If the points allow you to do so, it is even adviced to take a 4th (Lord) caster with Light Magic. Let's start by the 3 good possibilities High Elves have to offer for our Banishment caster:
Alarielle the Radiant:
+ Whatever unit she will join is pretty close to unkillable (defenitely when she joins White Lions)
+ She has more freedom in spell choice then an Archmage (well, not more Lores, but she can combine Light with High or Life)
+ Stave of Avelorn (cast Banishment twice in the same magic phase)
+ Banner of Avelorn becomes available
+ Comes at almost the same cost as my default Lvl 4 (Book of Hoeth + Talisman of Preservation)
- Special Character
Alarielle seems a perfect fit. Her abilities are basicly perfect for protecting a Character bus. And since you'll probably want to have all your Light Wizards in the same unit to keep them all within 12", this is a great start. The possibility to combine Light with High Magic makes her Shieldstone of Isha ability (the 5++) even more potent. Casting Banishment 2 times in the same Magic Phase (once per game) can be game changing, and the Banner of Avelorn makes your Lvl 1 or 2 Wizards virtually Lvl 5 or 6 Wizards (Light is basicly all Augment spells), thus this is a nice addition, but not game breaking.
Teclis:
+ Certainty you'll have Banishment
+ Other nukes and utility in his 7 other spells
+ Moon Staff of Lileath (more power dice)
+ Possibility to spare points in dropping Dispel Scroll
- Fragile and no protection what so ever
- Special Character
- Expensive, verry expensive...
Although Teclis himself defenitely is worth it in my opinion, I feel his fragility is quite a big weakness. He is designed is such a way that you'll make it true a game without a second Wizard what so ever, and you'll probably have been the dominant player in the magic phase anyway. Therefore putting extra points in more casters makes your list certainly really heavy in Magic. I think he can be a good addition to your Coven of Light if we are talking about a big game (well, at least 3200 points), although I'm not sure this is nessesary (if not to say this might be overkill, and your opponents will kick you straight in the nuts).
Archmage Lvl 4:
+ Can use the Book of Hoeth
+ Isn't a Special Character, and therefore more accesable
+ The cheapest option (and therefore more easy to get a second Lord caster in your list)
- Is "limited" to 4 Lore of Light spells
- Does not give any benifits compared to both Alarielle and Teclis
Although he's defenitely not my favourite option, he is certainly viable, and for some of you guys (who play at tournaments) probably the only option avaible. As pointed out by some of you in the comments, he becomes at his best when combined with a Loremaster of Hoeth. The arsenal of the Loremasters combined with the reliability from the Book of Hoeth and the support of 2 Mages will make your Archmage a force to be reconed with.
As far as items for the support casters go. I feel a Dispel Scroll and a Forbidden Rod are the best options. Dispel Scroll is needed for magical defence. If I'm running the Book of Hoeth, I don't feel a Dispel Scroll is needed that much. But without the Book, a Dispel Scroll will help you alot. Forbidden Rod is for the times your dice let you down, or for the times you really need that killer magic phase. Channeling Rod I'm also considering, although I don't have any experience with this item (and my guts tell me Forbidden Rod is just better).
So, if you are to take Alarielle, how do you let her generate her spells?
And what about those support casters, both Lvl 1, a Lvl 1 and a Lvl 2, or what about 2 Lvl 2's?
These are probably the hardest questions, as everything I've mentionned so far is quite obvious. So because I saw other people asking the same questions, I did some math, and came to the following table, showing how big your odds are to have Banishment on Alarielle if you first roll your support casters and then Alarielle (the number behind Alarielle stands for the number of Light spells she knows):
(Actually, I did not do any math at all, I made a JavaScript that simulated every possible dice roll, for those who are interested, or are questioning my skills and reasoning, feel free to check the sourcecode.)
I'm not gonna jump to conclusions, as the table speaks for itself; there is more then one relatively safe way to let Alarielle have Banishment. And these decisions depend on more then this table. If more points are avaible, you might go for a safer, more expensive option, if points are tight, or you don't care for Alarielle having High (or Life) Magic, you can save points on support casters and at the same time keep an eye on how your odds of getting Banishment are.
I hope this topic and more specificly the table (and the time I've put into scripting) might come in handy on your decision-making.
If you find a mistake in the script, in this topic (both on content and spelling), have any suggestion or a question, or you want me to add something, feel free to respond or send me a PM.
Updates:
23/07/14:
- Added a link to Sackree's article about the Lore of Light
- Reworked the Archmage Pro's/Con's and write-up
- Reworked the lay-out a little bit.
Thanks to everybody for suggestions and responding so far, keep it going!
—-
Note that all the links are missing, as well as the layout. I see what I can do from my phone to make it a bit more readable
Link to the original post and discussion:
www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=66563&p=882757#p881923
Back in my days on Ulthuan.net I’ve written quite a good Coven of Light guide (even if I say so myself, and I did get a lot of input of the community). Would there be any interest here for a (edited) repo? If not I’m not gonna bother, otherwise I’d gladly post it.
Edit 1: since there are at least some people interested, I’ll copy paste it, and try and do some edits along the way. Note that for some reason I can’t log in on my computer, so everything is done on my phone.
The original article:
Hi everybody,
I'm gonna talk about a Coven of Light. A Coven of Light is basicly an army that is build around shooting down the enemy with the Magic Missile Banishment, supported with more Shooting during both the Magic and Shooting phase. Coven of Light based list will invest (even) more points in Magic then the average High Elves army. If you are unfamiliar with the Lore of Light, Sackree has written article about the Lore of Light.
So the basics are quite simple. You'll need a Lvl 4 Wizard with Banishment, and 2 (or more) support Light Wizards. If the points allow you to do so, it is even adviced to take a 4th (Lord) caster with Light Magic. Let's start by the 3 good possibilities High Elves have to offer for our Banishment caster:
Alarielle the Radiant:
+ Whatever unit she will join is pretty close to unkillable (defenitely when she joins White Lions)
+ She has more freedom in spell choice then an Archmage (well, not more Lores, but she can combine Light with High or Life)
+ Stave of Avelorn (cast Banishment twice in the same magic phase)
+ Banner of Avelorn becomes available
+ Comes at almost the same cost as my default Lvl 4 (Book of Hoeth + Talisman of Preservation)
- Special Character
Alarielle seems a perfect fit. Her abilities are basicly perfect for protecting a Character bus. And since you'll probably want to have all your Light Wizards in the same unit to keep them all within 12", this is a great start. The possibility to combine Light with High Magic makes her Shieldstone of Isha ability (the 5++) even more potent. Casting Banishment 2 times in the same Magic Phase (once per game) can be game changing, and the Banner of Avelorn makes your Lvl 1 or 2 Wizards virtually Lvl 5 or 6 Wizards (Light is basicly all Augment spells), thus this is a nice addition, but not game breaking.
Teclis:
+ Certainty you'll have Banishment
+ Other nukes and utility in his 7 other spells
+ Moon Staff of Lileath (more power dice)
+ Possibility to spare points in dropping Dispel Scroll
- Fragile and no protection what so ever
- Special Character
- Expensive, verry expensive...
Although Teclis himself defenitely is worth it in my opinion, I feel his fragility is quite a big weakness. He is designed is such a way that you'll make it true a game without a second Wizard what so ever, and you'll probably have been the dominant player in the magic phase anyway. Therefore putting extra points in more casters makes your list certainly really heavy in Magic. I think he can be a good addition to your Coven of Light if we are talking about a big game (well, at least 3200 points), although I'm not sure this is nessesary (if not to say this might be overkill, and your opponents will kick you straight in the nuts).
Archmage Lvl 4:
+ Can use the Book of Hoeth
+ Isn't a Special Character, and therefore more accesable
+ The cheapest option (and therefore more easy to get a second Lord caster in your list)
- Is "limited" to 4 Lore of Light spells
- Does not give any benifits compared to both Alarielle and Teclis
Although he's defenitely not my favourite option, he is certainly viable, and for some of you guys (who play at tournaments) probably the only option avaible. As pointed out by some of you in the comments, he becomes at his best when combined with a Loremaster of Hoeth. The arsenal of the Loremasters combined with the reliability from the Book of Hoeth and the support of 2 Mages will make your Archmage a force to be reconed with.
As far as items for the support casters go. I feel a Dispel Scroll and a Forbidden Rod are the best options. Dispel Scroll is needed for magical defence. If I'm running the Book of Hoeth, I don't feel a Dispel Scroll is needed that much. But without the Book, a Dispel Scroll will help you alot. Forbidden Rod is for the times your dice let you down, or for the times you really need that killer magic phase. Channeling Rod I'm also considering, although I don't have any experience with this item (and my guts tell me Forbidden Rod is just better).
So, if you are to take Alarielle, how do you let her generate her spells?
And what about those support casters, both Lvl 1, a Lvl 1 and a Lvl 2, or what about 2 Lvl 2's?
These are probably the hardest questions, as everything I've mentionned so far is quite obvious. So because I saw other people asking the same questions, I did some math, and came to the following table, showing how big your odds are to have Banishment on Alarielle if you first roll your support casters and then Alarielle (the number behind Alarielle stands for the number of Light spells she knows):
(Actually, I did not do any math at all, I made a JavaScript that simulated every possible dice roll, for those who are interested, or are questioning my skills and reasoning, feel free to check the sourcecode.)
I'm not gonna jump to conclusions, as the table speaks for itself; there is more then one relatively safe way to let Alarielle have Banishment. And these decisions depend on more then this table. If more points are avaible, you might go for a safer, more expensive option, if points are tight, or you don't care for Alarielle having High (or Life) Magic, you can save points on support casters and at the same time keep an eye on how your odds of getting Banishment are.
I hope this topic and more specificly the table (and the time I've put into scripting) might come in handy on your decision-making.
If you find a mistake in the script, in this topic (both on content and spelling), have any suggestion or a question, or you want me to add something, feel free to respond or send me a PM.
Updates:
23/07/14:
- Added a link to Sackree's article about the Lore of Light
- Reworked the Archmage Pro's/Con's and write-up
- Reworked the lay-out a little bit.
Thanks to everybody for suggestions and responding so far, keep it going!
—-
Note that all the links are missing, as well as the layout. I see what I can do from my phone to make it a bit more readable
Link to the original post and discussion:
www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=66563&p=882757#p881923