[Archive] Playtesting 8th ed. Lore of Undead

Malorndk:

Playtesting 8th edition Lore of Undeath

Lore of Undeath = LoU or LOU henceforth in this post.

Hi again CDO

I know our community is spread across multiple game systems now, but I will continue to make some tactic threads for WFB 8th ed. from time to time. Not only to help players who play 8th ed., but also just for the fun of it. Most of you will understand the discussion as you have played it at some point.

This thread will be a continuously updated playtesting of how LOU works for Chaos Dwarf players, as I get some game under my belt. I previously made a post about LOU and the rules from End Times Khaine that drastically altered the magic phase. In THAT THREAD I had a quick introduction to the lore, which I will rewrite here for the topic:

What is the Pros and Cons of LOU?

LOU is the first lore introducing Summoning Spells, which lets you conjure units onto the battle field, which doesn�?Tt grant the opponent any victory points and can�?Tt be dispelled after the unit is placed. To be able to summon unbreakable chaff is pretty strong, but the lore won�?Tt let you delete units like a Dwellers or Purple Sun. The Lore has 4 summoning spells, and 3 spells which doesn�?Tt do a lot, but gives you a chance to generate Raise Dead Counters for the Lore Attributes, which is counters that let you summon more points. Without Magic of the End Times, this makes taking the lore very chancy, since a bad roll let you get stuck with some downright bad spells. The summoning spells are limited to a range of 12�?o and are kind off limited in the points value (between 50 to 200 points). At the same time, the casting cost for the summoning spells range between 9 and 24. Some of these high casting costs are neigh impossible to achieve without Irresistible Force, which hurts Chaos Dwarf extra hard due to Sorcerer�?Ts Curse.

My overall impression is, that the Lore isn�?Tt in any way �?othe best choice�?� but it certainly brings a lot of versatility and utility to the player who understands how to use it.

Obvious pros in the hand of a CD player

The point you summon doesn’t scale with the size of the game, making this lore deadly in smaller game and more obsolete in larger game. My estimate is that LOU is strong below 2000 points, decent from 2000 to 2600 points, and somewhat obsolete at higher points.

When bringing a gunline, the chaff summoned can act as redirectors, while ethereals can straight up lock people up.

Malorndk:

Playtesting

My gaming group are keen on house rules, and they have allowed me to make my own special character; Zhuul the Forsaken. He is able to summon for approximately 20 points more per spell and is somewhat reliable when miscasting, making 6 dicing less catastrophic. But as this only applies to myself, I will ignore this when reporting on the playtesting, and instead tell you what I would have summoned if he had been a regular Sorc-Prophet.

Assume 2000 pts games, where the opponent has a lvl 4 and a scroll, while I abuse Chalice of Blood and Darkness unless I have specified otherwise.

Game 1: Duo Hellcannon gunline vs Infantry heavy Elven army

Turn 1: Necrotect to make my bunker core unit blog somewhat fighty + scroll

Turn 2: Spirit Host + Tomb Herald BSB (Had saved 187 pts on my own bsb and traded my scroll for crown of command to get stubborn - this allowed me more warmachines but is somewhat chancy).

Turn 3: Terrorgheist

Turn 4: 3 Vargheists

Turn 5: 5 Hexwraiths

Game 2: Duo Hellcannon gunline vs Nagash with Hierotitan, Casket and som blocks.

Turn 1: Heirotitan

Turn 2: Necrotect

Turn 3: Terrorgheist

Explanation: Shot Nagash in turn 1 and cleaned the table in turn 2-3. Not the best game…

More playtests will follow later, and it is to late to make any conclusion on viability, although game 1 was quite impressive.