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.

Hi guys, I have been playing little bit of fantasy and I noticed I don't use magic....
well I do use the popular Shadow / Death / Heaven , but really nothing else.

Are the other Lores worth using? There has to be some nice combos and tricks?

Share the "magic" :3

First we need to know what army you are using but a good tip is if you need to take a level 1 for a dispel scroll caddy its best to go with fire and pick the signature fireball spell.

Having a magic missile that scales with the power dice you put into it is extremely useful on those turn dwellers etc is out of range aswell as some built in offensive otpions against hell pits and hydras.

Jubear wrote:First we need to know what army you are using but a good tip is if you need to take a level 1 for a dispel scroll caddy its best to go with fire and pick the signature fireball spell.

Having a magic missile that scales with the power dice you put into it is extremely useful on those turn dwellers etc is out of range aswell as some built in offensive otpions against hell pits and hydras.

Any, like if you are good at using certain less popular lores, it would be nice to know how you guys make it work.

For example, someone suggested Mindrazor ( not sure what lore that belongs to )
but apparently it can make High Elves str 8... something definitely worth trying on horde of spear elves

And thats an easy one to answer.

Any spell that buffs a unit offensive ability works well with troops with alot of attacks so the obvous one is mindrazor on elves that have alot of attacks like witchelves or HE spearmen.

There is no real dark art or hidden combos its all fairly black and white.

Jubear wrote:And thats an easy one to answer.

Any spell that buffs a unit offensive ability works well with troops with alot of attacks so the obvous one is mindrazor on elves that have alot of attacks like witchelves or HE spearmen.

There is no real dark art or hidden combos its all fairly black and white.

But why are spells like Life, Beast, Light etc etc so uncommon ?

Because the others lore are more focused and better at what they do. And life is perhaps the best lore in the game thanks to the dwellers below and regrowth.

A quick breakdown would be as follows

-Life,great buffs plus the best offensive spell in the game.
-Fire, ranged pew pew lore
-Death, character sniping lore.
-Heavens, ranged pew pew lore
-Beast, buff lore focusing on characters.
-Metal, Offensive lore designed to kill high armor units.
-Light, buff lore
-Shadow, buff,debuff lore.

Of those lores Life and shadow are the best at what they do and are the most commonly taken.

Fire and heavens are good for blasting from a range but why settle for 2d6 S4 hits when you can delete units with dwellers by throwing all your dice at the spell.

Magic is all about choosing one spell that dose something your army does not do and spaming the hell out of it for instance my high elves cant really deal with 100 strong horde units but dwellers covers that hole.

Infact I dont even field high level mages,archmages anymore prefering to take 1 level 1 with fire and and another level 1 with life and the staff that lets you pick spells. During the tuns that dwellers is not in range I throw all my dice at fireball and once dwellers is in range I swap over to spaming that.

Trying to get all tactical with magic and casting multiple spells leads to miscast Its the sad truth that its easier to just throw all your dice at a spell and most time your oponent cant do gak to stop it.

LunaHound wrote:But why are spells like Life, Beast, Light etc etc so uncommon ?

Because they aren't really that uncommon? Or rather, you see certain armies bring certain lores quite often, generally because they fix problems inherent to their units - which includes costing a lot of points individually (in the case of Life). OR because they have limited options. Light you see with lizards, empire and undead, because it gets around low WS and low I (and low M). Beasts you see most often with beastmen, because of general lack of lores, as well as brets for similar reasons, or on a level 1 wildformer in combination with a primary caster. Life I'd say is an extremely common lore, because it's the go to lore for lizards, high elves and brets. Heavens I see extremely rarely, actually, only on skinks (who have no choice) and warriors players who are feeling frisky.

True though, Shadow is extremely overused, for various reasons but most likely due to its wide availability, excellent signature spell, two 'game winner' spells (pit & mindrazor) vs many lore's #6, and just overall ability to counter about any threat in the game, through hexes or the incredibly hard counter to war machines / ultra-killers that is pit. As to Death, this guy was the #1 lore shortly after 8th edition came out, and I'll admit that I'm a bit surprised to hear so much about its upswing of late, though I have a suspicion that I simply don't play in a meta that has encouraged Death to flourish over the last 1.5 years - Thanks be to the Dark Gods!

- Salvage

Thanks for the wisdom as always Boss!

LunaHound wrote:Thanks for the wisdom as always Boss!

No problem Luna, though I think I pretty much avoided your original question Really though, what army are you playing now? I remember you had lizards going on at one point? I think the thrust of my post was that choice of magic lore is highly dependent on the army and its composition ... unless you just take Shadow

- Salvage

No problem Luna, though I think I pretty much avoided your original question

No you didn't :'P you explained it from another angle, which still works for me

Really though, what army are you playing now? I remember you had lizards going on at one point? I think the thrust of my post was that choice of magic lore is highly dependent on the army and its composition ... unless you just take Shadow :S

I played Lizard for a while, magic phase half covered by Engine of the Gods xD
Currently playing Ogre Kingdom.... still not really using magic, rather brute force....

Returning to High Elves soon, I played SilverHelm heavy army last edition with no problems at all... ( Silverhelms, mounted mages, maxed out repeaters. I would run in circles till i can set up simultaneous charge while
enemy chase me or get shot with 4 repeater throwers, while my mages casts Flames of Phoenix on large units )
but this edition + a changed army = Im starting to feel the need of some magic protection :x

I think that the lores that are in use get better when you mix them with the unique lores an amy has. For example

Withering -d3 T matched with Flames of the Phoenix. Unit will take a s3 hit that phase and a s4 hit during their magic phase since it happens at the start of the magic phase.

Daemon Lore of Nurgle works great with shadow as well.

I use a lvl 4 heavens in my woc, with spell familiar, and although I agree that tossing all dice and hoping for IF is easiest, I hardly think it's best. I find that a level four can out bully level 2's by casting many spells instead of a few. That way your static bonus is added more times... Think in terms of total casting value achieved over a single phase, adding +4 to 4 spells adds +16 to TCV. If the average magic phase has 7 dice, for an average roll of 45.5. So you are making your phase 33% more potent by attempting 4 spells over 1. The payoff for this is that your opponent will be able to attempt dispelling... This is where the player must have skill to outwit the opponent via casting order.

personally i have really started to like metal.

but i do agree that your picking a lore to either fix a hole, or boost your army.

I run 2 Tzeentch heralds, life and death.

Life to buff the T of my bloodletters and to keep them more survivable with regen.

Death herald has winged horror, he will fly next to a formation of low I unit(skeletons, lizzies and etc) and cast Purple Sun. Or he will fly around trying to snipe enemy wizards or lords.

And forgot to add that they both have master sorcery so they know all spells of the lore!