[Archive] Lammasu in 8th?

Da Crusha:

what do you guys think about using a lammasu in 8th edition? I went to a tournament recently and was playing against a friend of mine who usually places extremely well in every tournament. I was telling him I originally planned on using a level 4 death wizard on the arabyan carpet to cast purple sun down the flank of my opponents. Im already aware of how risky this move is and he told me he thinks bringing a lammasu would be a better idea if I can afford it. well, we ended up going back to the game and now I keep thinking about what he said.

Lammasu would still only get 2 attacks but now he would also get thunderstomp. this helps justify his cost a bit. also anybody shooting at him will no longer get the +1 to hit large targets against him. if I use the cdofaq He will get magic resistance 2 which will stack with a ward save against damage caused by spells (purple sun prohibits any saves though), combined with talisman of preservation you get a 2+ ward save against damage caused by spells.

in case of a miscast with purple sun you are permitted to use the initiative value of the lammasu instead of the sorcerer Lords. this would bump his initiative from 1 to 2, not a huge bonus but improves the chances of survival from 1/6 to 1/3.

elrodogg:

You hit upon everything that makes a lammassu viable in 8th ed.   If your gaming area allows for power scrolls, then the lvl 4 scooting down the sides, casting the big purple sun and then ignoring that miscast because of the lammassu is total ace.  

I also think that a second level 4 is another viable option as well.

richard barby:

the lammasu is great  weather your useing the indy list or the old list

i have been useing it under 7th and 8th for about 25 games or so before i used it i chaos dwarfs i found where hard to use. i have won over half of these games and before i lost 80 percent

under indy rules the ignor first miscast is great and the best thing about the lammasu

on top of it.

3 attacks and thunderstomp

magic resistance 2 stacking with a ward save works really well

fly

range 18 on your leadership bubble

fear and terror

and you cant get killing blow on your mage

well worth it but costs a few points

Da Crusha:

under indy rules the ignor first miscast is great and the best thing about the lammasu

richard barby
I was talking about the RH lammasu but the indy GT one would work much better
and you cant get killing blow on your mage

richard barby
not too sure if the mage would become immune to killing blow though.

I don't know if I would use him as my general since I would likely fly him away from my army and I enjoy a leadership bubble near my hordes of hobgoblins. I would probably use a hero or a lord on foot as my general.

Im looking forward to trying him out though ;).

Da Crusha:

and you cant get killing blow on your mage

richard barby
not too sure if the mage would become immune to killing blow though.


Da Crusha
after reading the rulebook I really thought characters mounted on monsters were immune to killing blow, but after checking out the FAQ I found the answer to the question...

Q: Does Killing Blow work against a mounted character regardless
of what he is mounted on? (p72)
A: Yes, as long as the character would count as an infantry
model if it wasn�?Tt mounted.

on a different note, another benefit the lammasu grants the sorcerer lord is immunity to stomp and thunderstomp. I realized how important that was during a game recently.

dromar:

Well, i must confess that i’m not fan of the lammasu: very expensive, fragile and it’s a dick in close combat! S5, even with the thunderous stomp, isn’t enough.

Da Crusha:

I used this bad boy today and lost my sorc lord on the second turn, not due to purple sun miscast but getting sucked into the warp! luckily my lammasu flew away and hid for the rest of the game denying my opponent the victory points for the wizard. which brings me to another benefit of the lammasu in 8th edition.

you have to kill the lammasu and the rider to get victory points in 8th edition. it says so in the FAQ page 8.

Q: If I kill a character but not their mount, do I score victory points

for just the character, the character and their mount, or must I kill

the mount too in order to score any victory points? (p143)

A: You must kill the character and his mount to score any

victory points.

nitroglysarine:

That is a pretty sweet rule, make taking a monsterious mount ever more worth while, especially as shooting is that bit harder under 8th, as they removed the large target bonus.

Sweet!, i’ll get painting my dragon for Karl Franz that bit quicker!

Redhammer:

Ouch… Ny fiancée’s 3 dragon high elf list just got a lot tougher to beat…

I think that the lammasu is worth it for the flight and magic resistance alone. It makes your level 4 wizard hyper mobile and harder to take down through magic, meaning some of those nasty sniper lore of death spells won’t be quite as effective.

Thommy H:

Yeah, the Lammasu has always been principally about mobility and protection - you don’t take it to kill stuff. I wouldn’t use it unless you’re going magic-heavy, to be honest: in any other list, a Taurus is almost always a better option if you’re going to take a monster at all.

dromar:

Definitly agree with Thommy H, the great taurus is stronger than the lammasu and you can’t take both before 3500pts… the magic carpet can be a solution but i prefer the fozrik fortress^^

Da Crusha:

I’ve been trying it out because I was getting bored with running the same old Great Taurus list. currently I’m running a magic heavy list so the lammasu fits in nicely.

Da Crusha:

to help a Death sorcerers survivability I have recently tried this build:

Sorcerer Lord
Lammasu
Talisman of Preservation 4+ ward save
Potion of speed one use only, +3 Initiative, must activate at the start of the turn
Earthing Rod one use only, reroll on miscast chart

The plan is to drink the potion on the turn that you plan on casting purple sun. in case you miscast you will only fail the initiative test on a 5+ (unfortunately for me I had the potion and forgot to use it and then misfired with purple sun distance roll and killed my own wizard, and another time I drank the potion and then rolled 1,1 on the magic dice, and couldn’t cast purple sun anyway.) I think the earthing rod is a good choice because I always cast purple sun against a dispel scroll and I actually want to get irresistable force/miscast.

Da Crusha:

in case of a miscast with purple sun you are permitted to use the initiative value of the lammasu instead of the sorcerer Lords.

Da Crusha
I read the parts on characteristic tests and came to the above conclusion.

I was wrong about this, in the BRB section Templates pg 105 it says: "if you use a weapon or spell that uses a template against a monster mount, both the riders and the mount are automatically hit if the monster's base is touched by the template."

so they have to test separately......