Best wizard to ally in for BCR?

[Lukecostin]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question, which wizards are best to ally in for Beastclaw Raiders? In my head, I have either a Firebelly, a Butcher or a fungoid cave shaman.

I worry the shaman might be a bit squishy compared to ogors so I think it might make an easy target. This will be in a 1000 pt list for now btw, want to mess around with some of the new endless spells

Thanks,
Luke

[heywoah_twitch]

If it's a wizard you want, far and away the Butcher. Hitting on 4s is one of the main problems that needs to be solved for bcr, and so even an expensive and random chance of a +1 to hit is worth it. I've been running two.

Firebelly spell is bad and he costs too much besides.

If you literally only want mystic shield, the shaman is the cheapest option, though moving into 2.0 you probably don't want mystic shield that badly ?

[Lukecostin]

Butch was my second choice but hearing this I think I might go with one.

[heywoah_twitch]

Also, as a standard disclaimer, the entire game is changing in 2 weeks so you might hold off until the dust settles.

[Wired4War]

The BCR faction focus talked about a firebelly. I think the white dwarf also highlighted a frost themed firebelly allied with BCR.

[PlasticCraic]

Butcher is good as mentioned above, you are getting a durable wizard who can buff and heal.

Fungoid is quite the bargain at 80 points, with Look Out Sir he will be at -2 to hit and with a 5+ everything save.  If you are interested in running Endless Spells I'd consider a couple of these, because they give cheap access to 2 spells in the crucial early stages (rerolling fails). 

For example one combo could be to put up a spell portal with Fungoid A.  Summon a Balewind with Fungoid B. 

Fungoid A puts Mystic Shield on your Frostlord with his second spell.  Fungoid B casts his warscroll spell through the portal, doing mortals to all units within 6+D3"

Your Allied Butcher then puts his Great Maw through the portal.

You might even have Fungoid C putting Arcane Bolt and a Pendulum through the Portal.  That is 80 + 80 + 80 + 140 = 380 points of Allies, and whole lot of Mortal Wounds right where you want them. 

This could work well in a Stonehorn army, where all your output is otherwise coming in the Combat Phase. 

It's probably pretty extreme, but while everything is up for grabs (and I want to use those cool new Endless Spells!) I'm tempted to give it a whirl!

[PlasticCraic]

By my reckoning, the 4 Frostlords and 4 Wizards build would leave you with 240 points for Endless Spells and bodies.  The 3 Spells I mentioned as examples would cost 140 points.

There are obviously ways to tone it down a little and make it less extreme, but it's an interesting starting point I think.

Or going the other way, the even more redonkulous version is:

FLSH 420

SH Beastriders 3 x 320

5x Fungoid Cave Shaman 400 (Allies)

Leaves 220 points for Endless Spells to chuck through the Portal.  Depending on how Realm Spell Lores pan out (i.e. whether they go the way of Firestorm) you could easily find productive use for all of your available casts - otherwise it might be slight overkill!

One other thing to point out is that the Burning Head could be a useful Buff for us.  If you are using the Portal, you could pop the head up near where you plan to complete your charges.  With smart positioning you should be able to get a couple of Stonehorns wholly within 9" of it (thereby rerolling their hits of 1), whilst preventing your opponent's units doing the same with their larger footprint.

[bonzai]

I'd also consider a troll gag from forgeworld.

[Richelieu]

1 hour ago, bonzai said:

I'd also consider a troll gag from forgeworld.

I second the troll hag.  With -1 to hit in melee, 16 wounds and a 1d6 heal every turn, she can be a tough nut to crack.   

[Soup Dragon]

21 hours ago, PlasticCraic said:

You might even have Fungoid C putting Arcane Bolt and a Pendulum through the Portal.  That is 80 + 80 + 80 + 140 = 380 points of Allies, and whole lot of Mortal Wounds right where you want them. 

I think the allies rules have changed, page 17 of the new rules reads "One out of every four units included in an army can be an allied unit." . So you would need 12 Beastclaw units in your army to run 4 allied wizards ?

[PlasticCraic]

@Soup Dragon word on the grapevine seems to be that is modified in GH18 for Matched Play.  I guess we'll know soon enough!

[Infeston]

On 6/21/2018 at 12:04 AM, PlasticCraic said:

@Soup Dragon word on the grapevine seems to be that is modified in GH18 for Matched Play.  I guess we'll know soon enough!

It seems like it isn't modified. So both restriction apply to the allies. First you can't have allies above 200,400 and 500 points and second you can only have 1/4 units as allies.

[Skabnoze]

32 minutes ago, Infeston said:

It seems like it isn't modified. So both restriction apply to the allies. First you can't have allies above 200,400 and 500 points and second you can only have 1/4 units as allies.

Correct.  There is a restriction in the core rulebook under the allegiance abilities section that explains that you have a 1:4 ratio restriction for allied units.  The pitched battle matched play rules in the generals handbook adds the point limit restriction on game size and says it applies on top of any other rules.  So those 2 are stacked.

[mcbrain]

On 6/21/2018 at 9:17 AM, Richelieu said:

I second the troll hag.  With -1 to hit in melee, 16 wounds and a 1d6 heal every turn, she can be a tough nut to crack.   

Troll Hag now has 14 wounds on her updated warscroll. 

[Gemzo]

Now that the new rules are here, what do you think?  Still butcher?  It's definitely appealing to get 2 Grot Shamans for not many more points than 1 Butcher.