Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Does anyone use this Lore effectively? I tried it the other night, and became disenchanted by it's lack of range. I have the feeling I just wasn't using it properly. Comet of Casandra was pretty much the only spell I could use all game.

I'm playing Empire with a level 4. Any thoughts or suggestions to make the lore work for me?

Hmm..okay I'll give it a try
While Lore of Heavens spell got rather "short" range some of them offer an double range with the boosted version.
Also, what type of Empire army are you using? Since range are an issue I would guess its a gunline or otherwise shooty army list?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some general ideas for all the spells
*EDIT* Keep in mind the Lore of Heavens Lore Attribute Roiling Skies(inflict a d6 strength 4 hits on enemy fliers targeted by any spell from the lore), even an otherwise harmless spell can hurt fliers, and the harmfull ones will have a greater chance to kill stuff, I see this most useful against things like harpies and other flying units that are short on toughness and armour save.
Iceshard Blizzard:
Use it to lower the damage a unit with ranged weapons can inflict, longbows that outrange handguns, repeater crossbows that are just nasty etc. Keep in mind it still in effect your next movement phase so you can choose a target you want to charge next turn to lower the impact of their stand and shoot. It also affect things that don't use bs, like warmachines, cast it on a warmachine that is threatening your units and hope for some it to fail the dice roll.
Also keep this spell in mind against skaven weapon teams that manage to survive and are in range of an important unit, they are already quite unreliable and with an 4+ to shoot(for most of them) or a - 1 to hit to the ratling gun it might very well save a unit though don't use it on doomflayers, since they are melee only.
Against warmachines you will most likely have to use the boosted version for the 48" range.

Harmonic Convergence:
A decent enough augment spell, either use it to improve the performance of a unit you "need" to do its job, main targets I can see is either a larger block, or a group of knights since they got rather good strength(Either with lances on the charge or with great weapons) and a really nice armour save so 1:s are more of a curse for them than things with more average stats. You can also used the boosted version to buff your nearby units, useful if you place the wizard in the center of the army.

Wind Blast:
I see a lot of potential with this spell, place your wizard on a flank and blow a screen unit out of the way from a juicy target, or just use it to slow down a nasty unit. You can also use it to blow stuff into magical rivers/forrest they just managed to get out of thus forcing them to suffer from its effects another turn, if its the bad kind of terrainn that is.
The boosted version enables the unit to be moved further with it always good.

Curse of the Midnight Wind:
An hex version of Harmonic Convergence more or less..(forcing an enemy unit to re-roll 6:es), main target for this would be things with killing blow, poisoned attacks and things with more than one save(tzeentch warriors I am looking at you!). The boosted version is rather pricy with its 20+ to cast but could sometimes be worth it.

Urannon's Thunderbolt:
While only a d6 hits it got an impressive strength of 6, the boosted version are rather cheap and enables it to reach out 48". Prime targets for this would be small units of skirmishers, lone characters that thought they were safe in the back field, monsters(not dragon ogres! they eat lightning for dinner) and warmachines.

Comet of Casandora:
A truly wonderful spell, cast it on slow moving units, things you want to move(useful for breaking up gunlines) or a huge mass of units. Could be used together with Wind Blast to move a target back to the markers if the comet won't land and they try to run move towards you. Boosted version got its uses with enabling more markers to be placed.

Chain Lightning:
I like this spell, great against skavens(since it can kill off a large number of weapon teams and Skaven usually have deploment issues thanks to all those units) also rather effective against any army that deploys units close to eachother. Keep in mind where to place the first hit and how to bounce the lightning so as many units as possible will be hit by it.
*EDIT* Its range is rather short so either you have to use the wizard up front or use it to "force" the enemy to keep more than 6" between units close to your wizard, still useful against weapon teams and such though.

Hope some of this helps, I'll add more ideas if/when I can think of any.

Well if anyone is who youre asking for then lizardmen do all the time.
Iceshard blizzard is a pretty good hex, and can halve the effectivnes of a warmachine up to 48" away.
Wind blast, combined with a cheap priest inside a skirmishing unit can result in massive disruption to enemy plans, most notabli jamming up ennemy charge lines by getting terrain or even their own units in the way.
Harmonic convergence – do you want to maximise the effectivness of a unit that already has great WS, Str and armor, then this is the spell for you.
Curse of the midnight wind can combine with iceshard blizzard to give you a massive edge in close combat, especially if you can get Pha's protection in there as well.
Comet and thunderblot are pretty self explanatory, and as of current RAW chain lightning can jump to units that are locked in combat, how cool is that

Chain Lightning's range can be doubled? My Battle Magic cards must be missing that and I'll have to double check the BRB.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My wizard is stationary in a unit of Crossbowmen. I omitted that because I wanted to get unbiased reviews on how to properly use the Lore.

Reason youre being dissapointed is because heaven is a level 2 lore (IE its good for wizards who are level 1 or 2)

For level 4s you want the lores with the uber spells, IE metal, death, shadow or life

For level 2s you want fire, beast, heavens or light (or the others, but dont give your level 4s these lores)

Actully slaan with heavens gets really funny, especially if you get enough priests to cast two comets a turn. And then theres the vassal rule which lets you shoot thunderbolts from across the board from you skirmishin priest units, with rod of the storm and 3 priests (for getting all them spells) you get 3 thunderbolts a turn.

Comet seems to me to be a great thing to use as area denial in front of units that you want to just stand and shoot, and who can be relied upon to survive a round of combat. Plop it 13" in front of your gunline and anyone who moves into that to set up a charge will be in danger of getting tagged, more so as turns go by. As multiple can be cast, just keep plunking them down as "Don't go near here!" signs.

Wehrkind wrote:Comet seems to me to be a great thing to use as area denial in front of units that you want to just stand and shoot, and who can be relied upon to survive a round of combat. Plop it 13" in front of your gunline and anyone who moves into that to set up a charge will be in danger of getting tagged, more so as turns go by. As multiple can be cast, just keep plunking them down as "Don't go near here!" signs.

It'd also be useful against units that do want to stand and shoot. They'd have to move or eventually take a comet. Placing a comet at the back rank of shooty units would be a good way to force them into charge range.

I name thee "the sky is falling" doctrine fo war.

I was going to suggest it be known as the "Chicken Little Defense/Offense", but I like what you've dubbed it. lol

The fresh smell of massive-intergalactic-raining-fire in the morning?

Lol i made a list.

Kirasu wrote:Reason youre being dissapointed is because heaven is a level 2 lore (IE its good for wizards who are level 1 or 2)

For level 4s you want the lores with the uber spells, IE metal, death, shadow or life

For level 2s you want fire, beast, heavens or light (or the others, but dont give your level 4s these lores)

Really? I find it's better to give the lower cost spells to the high level mages, because when they're casting three spells a turn that +4 really starts to count for something. On the other hand, when you're dropping 6 dice for a mega spell then +2 or +4 is swallowed up by the randomness of rolling that many dice.

That and multiple low level casts are harder to stop, while thoriwn buckets of dice on that one spell hoping for IF is something only HE can pull off reliably.

HoverBoy wrote:That and multiple low level casts are harder to stop, while thoriwn buckets of dice on that one spell hoping for IF is something only HE can pull off reliably.

Or dark elves, where I could throw all 12 dice at one spell if I really really wanted to.

Them too yes, my bad.

HoverBoy wrote:Lol i made a list.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccckkkkkk. I love it.

Kilgore19d wrote:Chain Lightning's range can be doubled? My Battle Magic cards must be missing that and I'll have to double check the BRB.

Just rechecked the rulebook and you can't boost the range of Chain Lightning, my misstake. I'll edit my post to fix this.

Heavens totally rocks.
Using the signature spell to limit shooting is a waste.
Drop that sucker into combat. Having a -1 to hit (or -2, -3 if you have multiple wizards with signature spells) will turn the tide of a fight.

When you do win, the -1 (or -2, -3) to leadership will make it much more likely that they fail the steadfast.

Windblast is likewise a game winning spell.
Why? Push the enemy general and/or BSB back D6+2", and you have a good shot at taking them out of range for a fight.

I've run heavens on my warriors of chaos and found that the -1 leadership and the ability to push the enemy around turns that unit of 80 crap infantry into a single fleeing mass.


-Matt

I've been wondering about Wind Blast. Seems like so much potential, but haven't ever read about it in any Batreps. I'd love to experiment with it, but don't have a casting army.

RZ