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I've evolved my list a long way from the laser light show of Teclis (lore of light), and 6 other level 1 wizards with lore of light, given me a strength 10 Banishment spell, to a list with a lot more combat elements. I'm looking for the best overall set up, at least from a magic perspective based on what I am fielding.

Teclis - Lore of Metal
Lore of Metal with Teclis is particulary devasting to elite high armored choices such as choas knights, or really anything with high armor value, even steam tanks. There are a few debuffs and augments that help my infantry in combat, and with Final Transformation, I've got horde control (abiet, its not as devasting as it needs to be against a horde army like orcs and skaven) However, I'm not seeing particulary easy methods of dealing with high armor units without taking lore of metal on Teclis.
Thus I have a back up spell caster, who needs to deal with the hordes, thus I'm considering:
Level 2 Wizard, Lore of High Magic, and the item that lets me pick two spells, I'm considering curse of arrow attraction, and flames of the phoenix.

The rest of my list is
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, Great Weapon, Armor of Caledar & Guardian Phoenix

Troops:
40 (8 ranks of 5) Spearmen, Champion, & Banner Bearer w/ War Banner
31 (6 ranks of 5) Lothern Seaguard, Musician, & Banner Bearer

Special:
12 (2 ranks of 6) Sword Masters, Banner Bearer w/ Banner of Eternal Flame
12 (2 ranks of 6) Sword Masters
10 (2 ranks of 5) Sword Masters
5 (1 rank of 5) Dragon Princes
5 (1 rank of 5) Dragon Princes
10 (2 ranks of 5) Phoenix Guard, Banner Bearer w/ Banner of Sorcery

Rare:
4 x Repeater Bolt Throwers


My back up mage, is the real question, there are just too many lores of magic to choose from, and too many situations where I want x vs. y. I am sort of lost on what I want. I tried lore of beasts last nice and it was nice to have, I had him configured to get 3 random spells, I got wildform, Aidens Spear, and the Dangerous Terrain spell, I got a few spells off, but I wasn't impressed with the results. The battle was against Ogre Kingdoms, you'd have thought that with hardly any armor, that Teclis wasn't useful, but those lore of metal augments and buffs stack up nicely.

Thoughts on spells or lore for my back up mage? Mostly I'm concerned about being overwhelmed with volumes of bodies, and chaos demons (but I'm not seeing lore of light as being my big savior)

I have had tremendous succes with lore of life. But I like it on a level 4. Frankly Teclis is such a power dice hog I am not sure you will ever really get to use this guy. I might stay with high magic to throw out the obligatory drain magic spell against VC, dark elves and lizardmen who will be able to overwhelm most armies with low casting spell spam.

I hadn't thought about drain magic, the ogre kingdoms player was spamming low cost magic and I was having a heck of a time locking him down. Excellent suggestion. So probably drain magic and flames of the phoenix. My shooting is accurate enough, and I can get a +1 to hit with one unit with Blades of Aiban from lore of metal.

Teclis can pick his lore before the game. Read the High Elf FAQ so pick a lore based on your match up. Lore of Life is pretty good though. Throne protects against miscasts, Regrowth Bring back dead elves, Dwellers is pretty good vs Str 3 infantry and increasing your toughness to 6 or more is good.

Teclis will do most of your casting so the second level 2 really should just be there for shield to give teclis a ward and drain magic. Give the level 2 maybe a scroll or the annulian crystal for magic defence. Cast drain magic on 2 dice every turn unless you think you need shield.

Caradryan makes a good bodyguard for Teclis in a large 20+ block of Pheonix Guard. 10 is too few as you need bodies for shooting casualties and to stick around.

I been thinking of the Banner of the World Dragon on the BSB to put in the Pheonix Guard with Teclis to solve the gets pwned by Dwellers problem but then you have a really expensive unit that isn't good in combat and can't bring back guys if you chose lore of life.

Dunno about small units of Swordmasters. Shooting really hurts them. Maybe consolidate into bigger units of 20+ and buy command with standard. There is a missions breaking point where you need banners.

Dunno about dragon princes. Eagles are faster for killing warmachines and you need a rank to negate ranks in the flank. With the larger charge ranges for infantry some infantry might get lucky and charge them which is bad because they depend on lances. Lion Chariots look decent now that they don't get instantly owned by Strength 7+.

Bolt throwers kinda suck for 100 pts with only 2 wounds. With larger unit sizes they aren't as good. Dump 2 and get 4 Eagles for redirecting and attacking warmachines. You might actually want 6 Eagles or more at Ardboys level.

Don't all HE wizards know drain magic? Or at the very least even if they take two spells they would still know Drain Magic? I thought it was an innate HE spell.

Also for Teclis choosing his lore before each game, ask your TO. I've read arguments against Teclis being able to do that. Its better to be safe then sorry.

If I remember right your mage knows drain magic automatically in addition to your rolled spells if you take high magic as your lore. Since you don't always pick high magic with Teclis you want a level 2 with high magic for drain magic which your opponent has to save dice for and if you have the annulian crystal to steal one of his casting dice it hurts even more.

Infreak, I skipped 7th edition and have gotten in about 7 games so far this year in 8th edition. I can believe I missed that, but you are absolutely right!! I may have drain magic in addition to the other two spells I think I want.

I might want to invest in a power stone?

Kirika, I do like the annulian crystal, but at 40pts, I'd rather have 3 more sword masters, and I really want to choose my spells, both items compete for my one arcane item selection. And I generally have a lot of dispell dice thanks to Teclis giving me an additional d3 each defensive magic phase. At this point its more of an "I win more" thing than needed. If I didn't have Teclis, I should take it though. Oye Vey, you've given me a lot to think about.

Your level 2 isn't going to get much off if Teclis does his job and gets irresistables so your opponents dispel dice all go at the level 2. Taking the anulian crystal and rolling for spells is a better bet if you just going to cash one spell in for shield to give Teclis an invulnerable and drain magic is what you really want anyway. You really want to shut down your opponents magic phase because Dwellers on Teclis unit really sucks. Hell you could make 2nd mage a level 1 to save points but +1 to cast helps.

Power stone probably isn't worth it. If you have the points a dispel scroll might be better. Dwellers on Teclis = bad.

Another thing to watch out for with Teclis is the feedback scroll. I've gotten pwned by it before since Teclis has no save. So maybe your right taking seer staff and high magic on the level 2 for shield and vauls unmaking might be the way to go.

I'd suggest taking some eagles to get a better change in destroying opposing warmachines (I'd rather have 3 eagles than that 10 swordmaster unit for example) . Also definetly take the iron curse icon somewhere, as it makes big units bit more survivable vs stone throwers and the like when icon-character joins them.

As it turns out I changed the list slightly just before Ard Boyz. I got myself a minor victory, then was massacred, and then another minor victory. I did put in a single eagle, but found that either swordmaster, or my spearmen blocks ended up in wawrmachine faces pretty quick, without taking too much damage before I got there.

My level 2 mage, did in fact do... nothing. I had no need for drain magic, even aganist the VC player who massacred me. I never once used curse of arrow attraction, and every flames of the phoenix that I did cast was handily dispelled. Her best use was holding the ironcurse icon, and saving the lives of 4 lothern seaguard, in 3 games.

Warmachines weren't nearly as scary as I was expecting, and my eagle was useless as it turned out, maybe if I had more eagles, but I also found that my RBT's were only decently useful. I think I could run 2 eagles, and 2 RBT's and thats all the points I should spend on them.

I lost to the VC player, I think mostly on being outplayed, due to my limited exposure to the new VC book, and my total lack of knowing how 8th changed their playstyle.

I don't know about you, but if you rank up the spearmen so they have 4 ranks, they could all potentially attack at once, with Always Strikes First, that could prove a killer maneuver. Are you letting your sea guard shoot more or get stuck in CC? I would suggest having wider ranks but less deep so they can all shoot at once, if they're acting as your archers.

Also, you never used drain magic against a VC army? Unless they had no Wizards at all, that could prove fatal, since after all, it makes it harder for them to use things like Invocation of Nehek or Curse of Years or any number of annoying spells. Curse of Arrow Attraction could have also worked well, since you seem to run a bunch or shooting.