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So I thinking about my VCs and the new lore of beasts caught my eye. Do you think it is possible to take a vampire lord with Forbidden Lore (for lore of beasts) and spectral form and then to cast the number 6 spell to turn him into a big ethereal dragon? A T8, W8 monster that cant be hurt by mundane weapons seems rather good.

Well depends on the wording of the spell and what happens on the errata.

From what i can rember you don't get any of the rules, weapons or armour that wizard had on your dragon.

If that is not the case i feel this will be FAQ so that ethereal is lost ... Then again T8 dragons are only really going to be hurt by spells and magic weapons any way.

T8 can be wounded on a 6 by S3 bows just fine now, remember....

nosferatu1001 wrote:T8 can be wounded on a 6 by S3 bows just fine now, remember....

ah very true ... yet its not very reliable 4/6*1/6*2/6 ... 3.7% odds of wounding, only 52.9% chance of 20 archers causing a wound. Still something I'll have to remember: If that scary lizard is down to one wound i will definitely try hitting it with my archers.

Trust me, its great to take down a dragon that way.
In an 8th edition demo game just a few days ago with Ogres vs Chaos Warriors 3 units of 30 Gnoblars downed a Chaos Dragon in 1 turn of shooting sharp stuff

According to the wording you can, as although you lose magic items, inherent powers and "powers" are kept, it would be very nasty, however, you could only do it to your VC Lord as the forbidden Lord and Ethereal alone would be about 85 points, so do you really want your general flying off when he should be supporting the rest of the army?

You can easily have more than one lord, therefore you can have this one fly off, your raise general left behind...

you can have two lord, but if you take just Forbidden Lore and Ethereal, one lord will be 290 points, with no other items, so you might have about 335 in a 2500 point game for your general lord, not really enough to make him an efficient raiser in this new edition, I promise you that.


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Also, if you want that lord to be only 290, he has to be a level two caster, not likely to get the spell off unless he irresistables, make him a level three and he jumps to 340 points.

Basing your strategy around magic this edition is kinda foolhardy, methinks. Especially if you're VC.

Manfred von Drakken wrote:Basing your strategy around magic this edition is kinda foolhardy, methinks. Especially if you're VC.

theres ways to do it, but it can't be full on magic vamps anymore, you need to think of a way to make them survivable

Yes you can make an ethereal dragon.

As for Magic-heavy Vampires Necromancers are really nice now in multiples. You can one dice invocation with them repeatedly without fearing 1-2's, and you get a channeling roll for each of them. Only 55 points, 70 with Vanhel's. And they can hide in the back of big units now and still cast.

Nitros14 wrote:As for Magic-heavy Vampires Necromancers are really nice now in multiples. You can one dice invocation with them repeatedly without fearing 1-2's, and you get a channeling roll for each of them. Only 55 points, 70 with Vanhel's. And they can hide in the back of big units now and still cast.

How, pray tell?

Manfred von Drakken wrote:

Nitros14 wrote:As for Magic-heavy Vampires Necromancers are really nice now in multiples. You can one dice invocation with them repeatedly without fearing 1-2's, and you get a channeling roll for each of them. Only 55 points, 70 with Vanhel's. And they can hide in the back of big units now and still cast.

How, pray tell?

Because the new rules allow you to. Characters no longer have to sit in the front rank. Wizards no longer have to be in the front rank to cast if they don't need line of sight.

If you mean 1-2's, if you get a 1-2 you can just go the next Necromancer and keep one dicing.

Nitros14 wrote:
Because the new rules allow you to. Characters no longer have to sit in the front rank. Wizards no longer have to be in the front rank to cast if they don't need line of sight.

If you mean 1-2's, if you get a 1-2 you can just go the next Necromancer and keep one dicing.

Page 97 of the new rulebook tells that the character's position should be in the front rank if he fits there among the command group.

Chaoslord wrote:

Nitros14 wrote:
Because the new rules allow you to. Characters no longer have to sit in the front rank. Wizards no longer have to be in the front rank to cast if they don't need line of sight.

If you mean 1-2's, if you get a 1-2 you can just go the next Necromancer and keep one dicing.

Page 97 of the new rulebook tells that the character's position should be in the front rank if he fits there among the command group.

Further on you'll find the "I think I'll sit this one out chaps" sidebar where it says in close combats you may move characters to the rear if you so choose.

Which means:

a) normally characters must be placed in the front row
b) in combat they are given the option of retiring to the back, a change to 7th where this was only allowed if you refused a challenge (and the opponent elected to remove the character) or you were skaven.

Nothing in there suggests you can voluntarily place them in the rear ranks outside of combat.

If you turned your general into a dragon, wouldn't you have to start doing those stability leadership tests for your army?

Not unless it states the character loses their designation of "general" it doesnt.

Wouldn't there actually have to instead be a rule that STATES that this monster is still your general?

No, as once permission is given you need to retract that permission otherwise it still applies.

You determined the General, that character has not been killed therefore you still have a general.

@nos... raises some interesting possibilities for low-ld armies. The dragon is a large target and ld 9

Yep, however it does make it easier to kil said general with cannon et al, as he can no longer hide in a unit.

Something similar in the last chaos codex. If your chaos general ran away while wearing a gift of the gods, he'd turn into a chaos spawn - not dead, though, meaning he was technically still the general and now ld 10!

Spellbound wrote:Something similar in the last chaos codex. If your chaos general ran away while wearing a gift of the gods, he'd turn into a chaos spawn - not dead, though, meaning he was technically still the general and now ld 10!

Nothing more inspiring then making an example of some one ... After all any one else want to be a spawn?