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So I'm building a Lizardmen army for my debut into Fantasy, I just can't make my mind up about what way to build my Slann, and subsequently build my list around him.

What I was thinking was either:

a) Life Slann is a 20 man block of Temple Guard
b) Solo Light Slann
Both of which running with the Loremaster Discipline

I think it's plain to see the open benefits of taking Life on a Slann, sticking him in a Temple Guard unit, giving them a regen save, ressurecting random models, it'd be a sweet ass hammer. However, the Light lore seems as if it would work very powerfully with the Lizardmen also, with the Strength test hex, the WS/Initiative 10 buff and the ASF/+1 Attack/Double Movement buff that could even be used with an unburnt Cupped Hands to *try* and miss-cast, adding insult to injury. I've had limited play testing and I plan on trying them both I'm just trying to gauge the communities thoughts.

I can post the list I'd be using and show the different idea's about how the lore would affect each if I need to, I'm just away from my Army Builder computer atm.

All comments welcome!

I think both are rather good, and it comes down to Life is more defensive, while Light is more offensive, so it's just a matter of taste.


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Oh, and I'm currently in the Life camp myself, though I have not actually used Light yet.

Both are good, and reallly depend on your tactics and playstyle.

shadow slann + salamanders is amazing. Honestly anything with shadow is great.

I just played my first 2 games of 8th ed, against an empire army with slight mods between each game, as my opponent was trying things out for a tourney.

I ran a slaan with BSB and 4 'powers' and cupped hands in a unit of 16 temple guard.

1st game tabled him, 2nd game he had 3 models left on the table.

Life magic was the key.

Throne of vines is simply insane, the 2+ avoid miscast is worth the 8+ casting alone, but the buffs it does to other spells is so OTT it isn't funny.
All I used were augment spells, and tried (and got off) the dwellers below twice.

+4 to T and the regen spell kept saurus or TG in the game with almost no hurt, and the regroth spell saved a unit of 15 saurus in the first game and the TG in the second.

But MUST remember to throw a wound onto salamanders/stegs/heroes within 12 if the have taken a wound.

Am going (at some stage) to run 6 kroxigor next to the TG unit and keep throwing wound on them when I cast a spell, and with regrowth as well they should be nigh on unkillable.

The racial for light does nothing.

The racial for life heals 1 wound from a slaan/hero/stegadon/kroxi/salamander, etc. and can happen multiple times in a turn.

For any army with models with 3-5 wounds that do take damage (not one with a 3 wound mage hiding in a unit.) the free healing potions from life in addition to +4 toughness, 4+ ward save, bringing dead people back, and doing like 2d6+ hits in combat are just too good.

Even the less important stuff like Shield of Thorns is amazing. 2d6 S4 hits in magic phase your turn (before enemy attacks in combat.) 2d6 S4 hits in magic phase his turn (unless he uses his power dice dispelling it! Free magic defense!) And stays up forever until dispelled.
That's a minimum of 4d6 S4 hits if he doesn't waste a bunch of dice dispelling it. (Average 7 per round.)

I only got off shield of thorns a couple of times, once it took out 6 spearmen (they broke in the combat phase) and the other it put 2 wounds on an arch lector on WALTER. It works great vs very small units, characters and also if you are up against multiple units.

I am tailoring my list now to look at Life more in depth, by that I mean I'm sticking in an Engine and an Ancient and seeing what happens. I just tried to avoid Life to begin with because to me it stank of 'every noob and his dog is going to take this lore and win with lucky spell casts' so I've been trying to get Light to work. I feel if Light is played correctly, it can compete as well as beat Life magic, just not found that sweet setup that compliments it.

The regen save that Earthblood gives is 5+ (4+ with Throne of Vines) and is only castable on the Wizard, and his unit, if one exists. I've seen alot of people play it as if the mage is handing out 4+ saves to everyone, not so.

The wizard can hand out +4 toughness to some other unit and give a 4+ ward save to himself and his entire unit. Then for free heal 2 wounds back to a stegadon.

Light's simply has no attribute at all against armies who aren't Demons or Undead. Whereas Life provides free healing potions against every army.

WS10/I10 is vastly inferior to +4 toughness in most situations. It wouldn't matter for skinks or anything except Saurus. And the enemy will be attacking saurus with large blocks where you striking first might not reduce any attacks back, or just a few.

Light of battle does nothing for lizardmen because how reliable cold-blooded Ld9-10 is, especially if there's a flag around.

You can't have more than 1 Light wizard for lizardmen so Banishment is a mediocre 2d6 S4 as opposed to S5 or S6.

If you want to buff combat troops, Lore of Shadow can make S8 saurus or S6 skinks. It can reduce enemies D3 toughness so skink arrows or salamander flame does much more damage. Pit of Shades is a better damage spell and can instantly destroy war machines.

characters with ward saves will usually be hidden inside units so all Light has is 2 mediocre magic missiles, no ordinance templates, and no spells "kills 1/3rd of entire enemy unit." Etc.

Death, Fire, Metal will probably do much more damage.
Shadow is far better at changing stats.
Life does the same damage as Light, yet it can make units nearly unkillable, protect from miscasts, and for free heal giant dinosaurs.