In 6th ed, most armies either went with heavy magic (one 4th level and two+ 2nd level) or just a scroll caddy. Anything in between was not very effective, you were outmagicked by the magic heavy armies and you couldn’t get much off against magic defensive armies.
In 7th ed, I’ve seen a lot of army rosters with two or three 2nd level wizards, although I haven’t seen any play. Are these armies much more effective now? I can see how you won’t get so outgunned by a magic heavy army, but there doesn’t seem to be any difference against the scroll caddy armies.
I have and always will stick to the two Lv 2 Wizards in my 2000pts games. They’re nasty enough to cause some impact but not expensive enough to cause a massive lose on your part should they blow up.
The way the power and dispel dice are allocated may make 3x2nd lvl mages more useful and resiliant to spell disasters.Caddy in all comers for me and 4th level for fun (never on lammassu tho i have one):hat
my play environment is more relaxes than most, and i usually get by with 2 lvl 2s(even in 6th i took 2 lvl 2s). i never bring a scroll caddy, though my CD have a scroll and stone each for lack of other magic items. has worked just fine for me. occassionally i get into a magic kick and start pulling out my lvl 4 + lvl 2 magic lists, but those are for friendly games where the opponent knows what they are getting.
i use a level 4 with metal and a level 2 with shadow, if im fighting horde armys will swtich to fire with my level 4.
i use 4 scrolls and 6 levels of magic, i think its fine, although i frequatly fight against armies with lots of magic
i played a skaven with a level 4 and 3 boss’s that are level 1 but have a generater that gives him more dice. he ended up having like 13 magic dice, i won him though, little bastard. he also took 10 jazails and a warp lighting canon
I play Tzeentch and Khorne chaos so this isn’t really a problem for me. For a power game, a dark emissary, 1 lord of tzeentch and two aspiring champions with the champions mounted in chariots of Tzeentch is an interesting combo
DE: 265pts
Lord of Tzeentch: 350pts
2x Aspiring Champion of Tzeentch: 300pts
3x Chariots of Tzeentch: 420pts
Total: 1335pts - so you’ve still got 665pts to play with in 2,000pts. I suggest screamers and more chariots