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G'day All,

I was wondering about magic in 8th and started thinking about the lores for the Empire wizards.
I wanted to know which lore would be the best for a general close-combat army filled with deep ranks of State Troopers.
I was going to run two Wizards, one a lvl 4 and one lvl 2. The lores i was thinking that would work fairly well were;
Beasts, Life, Shadow and Metal.

What are your thoughts on suitable lores, and what combinations do you know that are effective?

Cheers,

Old Sledgeaxe

Life and light are a very nice combo, stacking those augments can get brutal and life can get you'r big blocks back to full streinght, maybe take shadow instead of light for hexing the enemy. In any event the lvl 4 must be the life mage if you run this, makes it more lykely to get the good spells, and there relly are no bad spells in the lore.

Life should be the default lore for level 4 mages in the hope of throne of vines. Stick a steam tank within 12 inches so you can replenish its wounds for fun and giggles.

Shadow is my second pick as all the hexes and okams mind razor will make your average troops, much improved vs enemy.

Thanks for the suggestions,

I like the idea of the life/light combo, HoverBoy and i may run that.

I think that if i run the steam tank within 12", Gonads, my local group will lynch me as they are are fairly balanced group, though, that said, it gives me a good idea for an upcoming tourny.

I was thinking of using a Radagast the Brown model for my Life/Wild wizard. Do you think that he would be allowed in a tourny, if i convert him a bit and add a square base, coz i really like the model.

If anyone has a good Empire combo with the new lore feel free to say.

Thanks again,

Old Sledgeaxe

Yes he would be useable.
Most players at Brisbane tourneys use WOTR models or models from other companies (myself included).

Knights and high armour save models are a real pain for empire as the helbaster is rubbish and mortars are usually hard to wound toughness 4 or more. And missile weapons took a hit 5's/6's to hit will be most common and then vs knights they still got there 2+save etc so metal on a lvl 2 with the signature spell is a must have.

I havent tried a light mage because i just use my war altar in combination with a level 4 life mage and it works very well.

Cannons will deal with knights. If you're tailoring a list then take a BSB with a razor banner on a block of 40 swordsmen, couple that with life/light lvl 2's in the backfield and you'll put the owie down. Throw in a 20 man detachment of halberdiers and now it's scary. You can actually run three blocks, with detachments, like this and be secure in the knowledge that your opponent is going to hate you.

If I played empire I'd definately be running 2/3 warpriests as they add a dispel dice each and they have a very nice buff/heal spell set.

And a Stank (aren't these an auto include in empire lists yet?)

Shadow Absolutely. The Signiture Spell makes the opponent slower (-D3 Movement) and Mortars are incredible when you have an enemy unit with T1 or T2 (-D3 Toughness) Also who cares if you are only T3 when your enemy becomes S2 (-D3 Str)? And then you get to laugh at slann, lizards, orcs, and dwarfs with your pit of cheeze, and Okkam's Mindrazor is just NASTY!

I have to say, despite trials and tribulations at the hands of purple sun, I think I'm a believer in Shadow. De-buffs and Okkam's!

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Life should be the default lore for level 4 mages in the hope of throne of vines. Stick a steam tank within 12 inches so you can replenish its wounds for fun and giggles.

Shadow is my second pick as all the hexes and okams mind razor will make your average troops, much improved vs enemy.

Basically this for any wizard that can get these lores, which an empire wizard can.

LucasLAD wrote:
And a Stank (aren't these an auto include in empire lists yet?)

You can get 3 cannons for the price of a Stank and they pound for pound hit harder. Add that to your 3 mortars and now your talking. I can see why taking the stank is good though, its still nasty and takes a lot of heat off the rest of your army. On topic wise I've seen a lot of guys running Shadow lately at my FLGS.

I have a soft spot for lore of metal, its great against dwarves and warriors and its final spell can criple large units

Have you really found it to be that awesome against Dwarves? Besides my characters, my most heavily armored units are 4+ armor...

I find that Metals hexs more useful than the direct damage. Plague of Rust (-1 Armor Save) + Armor Piercing in some form does wonders for my Dark Elves.

I think the best lores for low-level wizards (1 or 2) are Beasts, heavens, and Light. I'd argue that when you take a level 1 or 2 wizard, you MUST take a lore where the basic spell is helpful, or else you end up with 100 points or so just sitting around all game when you don't roll what you want.

Each of these lores has a basic spell that is incredibly useful. Heavens works best if you can stack it with the War Altar and lore of light... then -2 to hit means that even a bloodthirster is only hitting swordsmen (or whoever) about half the time.

Beasts isn't quite as good for survivability with only +1 T, but it's also basically the only way your state troops are going to do any killing.

Finally, light gives you access to a powerful flaming attack (to burn hydras or hellpits), and just by existing, that wizard can buff the str of the banishment spell on the war altar. However, you really take this guy so you can use the upgraded version of burning gaze.

Empire has (or can have) LOTS of state troops, so you get a much better return, point for point, on things that buff cheap troops. Shadow is also slightly helpful here, because it nerfs the other guy instead of buffing you, but the basic is not really very helpful.

Metal is too situational. Life loses most of its effectiveness without enough slots to fit in throne of vines. Fire is too heavily focused on damage output and its casting costs are too high. Death requires you to get too close, putting your wizard (who will normally be totally unprotected) in harm's way, and also its basic sucks.

Those are some things to think about. good luck!