This question comes up a lot, and I couldn't find a good post on it so thought I'd start the conversation. The question is (in one form or another) "Here's my army list, I've got a L4 Spellweaver, should I take Lore of Life or Lore of Beasts on her?"
The answer is not simple, which is why it comes up so often. I'll start by giving a summary of the two lores, and then discuss the army archetypes that might best suit each lore. I'm also going to touch on the Lore of Athel Loren as an alternate, why it works well with the Wood Elf army, and what the shortcomings are vs the rulebook lores. I'll give my personal ranking for the spells (stack ranking), and give some notes on why you might want one spell vs another.
Lore of Beasts
Beasts is an aggressive lore. It works best for armies that want to get into close combat, with a range of spells that will augment your units or characters. Most of the spells have quite a casting value and a short range, which means your caster and end up being a little more at risk. The lore attribute makes each spell easier to cast on Monsters, MI, MC, Cavalry, Warbeasts or Beastmen (value drops by 1), so your augments are easier to cast on your own units of this type, and likewise easier to hex / magic missile your enemies.
Lore of Life
Life is a defensive lore. It works best for avoidance or 'come and get me' armies, and aims at keeping your army alive for as long as possible by increasing toughness, healing and so forth. The casting values across the board are lower than for Beasts, which means you can occasionally get one extra spell in with the same number of power dice. The lore attribute is fantastic, allowing you to restore one wound to any wounded multi-wound model, but it has a short range (12") which is why it works best with highly mobile avoidance (because your Wizard can move where she needs to be) or 'come and get me' armies where most of your units are close together anyways.
Lore of Athel Loren
Athel Loren is a more balanced lore, but from an older book. This mean that it only has six spells including the signature equivalent (vs six + signature), has no lore attribute, and the benefits from the spells are somewhat muted compared to the BRB lores. It is the only lore available to hero-level spell casters. All the spells have the same range (18") and low casting values, although none of them can be boosted. However, no other army has access to these spells and therefore your opponents frequently won't be familiar with the spells you have available.
Using the spells
Just quickly: when you roll your four dice, don't forget that if you roll a double and you get to trade one of those away for the spell of your choice - you should never choose the signature spell with the first of those dice, because you can always trade away the second of those dice for the signature if that's what you want. Some people forget that, so I though it worth mentioning here.
Lore of Beasts
godswearhats stack ranking
- Wyssan's Wildform (signature)
- Amber Spear
- Savage Beast of Horros
- Curse of Anraheir
- Flock of Doom
- Transformation of Kadon
- Pann's Impenetrable Pelt
I always want #1 and would swap any of #4-#7 to get it. I think that every battle you'll want to boost the S/T using
Wyssan's Wildform.
Amber Spear is the closest that Wood Elves get to any kind of artillery, and is the most reliable way we have of dealing with high Toughness and Armor Save (Oldblood Cowboys, Daemon Princes, and so on) and it's unlikely I would take any other spell over it. If you're playing an army with a good portion of close combat characters,
Savage Beast of Horros is a heck of a weapon. Even with only one or two combat characters, this is the equivalent of two turns of combat (yours plus your opponent's) with 120pts of magic weapons.
Curse of Anraheir is the only long range spell in the lore (and so of more use in Turn 1 than pretty much any other spell), and is great to help dominate movement/shooting in the early game, and close combat in the late game. It's often underestimated by opponents (who fear Wildform more), but it often means saving 1/3 of the number of casualties in your unit (turning 4+ to hit to 5+).
Beyond these spells, we get into spells whose usefulness is curtailed by the situations in which they can be used. I had originally rated
Flock of Doom lower down, but several comments have led me to believe that it is very useful vs armies with T3 crewed War Machines (such as Empire, Bretonnia, other Elves) due to its long range when boosted.
Transformation of Kadon is limited in that you need to be on foot to use it. It also remains in play, which has its own weaknesses. However, late game, it can literally change the balance of the battle, giving you a flame template to shoot and/or a rampaging amount of attacks (if you're already in combat, choose the Mountain Chimera over the Fire Dragon, and vice versa if you want the breath weapon). If your opponent rolls unluckily for Winds of Magic in their phase, you are getting a 300+ point monster to rampage with for a while :-)
Pann's Impenetrable Pelt can be useful in rare circumstances (for keeping a Treeman Ancient alive, or a squishy for example), but it's somewhat limited by range and that it must target characters.
WizzyWarlock also wrote up some commentary on Lore of Beasts
here.
Lore of Life
godswearhats stack ranking
- Throne of Vines
- Flesh to Stone
- Regrowth
- The Dwellers Below
- Awakening of the Wood
- Earth Blood (signature)
- Shield of Thorns
The obvious difference here is how low I've ranked the signature spell,
Earth Blood. A good portion of our units already have a 5++ ward, and the sorts of attacks we worry about are flaming anyway, so having a 5++ regen is not a huge advantage. Eternal Guard are the only close combat unit in common use that don't have a ward save, and they are frequently accompanied by the Rhymer's Harp to grant them a 5++.
Throne of Vines is the #1 choice as it gives you both miscast protection (making it safer to throw more dice at other spells) and makes most of the other spells better. It has two big downsides: everyone knows it's the best spell in the lore and needs dispelling, and because it remains in play it's easier to dispel than normal. However, every time you start your magic phase by throwing two dice at Throne of Vines, you are usually drawing out three of their dispel dice. I rated
Flesh to Stone second because it is the spell in the lore that will keep your units alive for longer than pretty much any other spell. In combination with Throne of Vines it can make your elves T7, or your Treeman T10! Having your units wounded only on 6s even by very strong units can make it much easier to set up flank charges and win combats. I've cast this on a unit of 8 Dryads and watched them bring down a K'Daii Destroyer.
Regrowth is the spell that resonates most with the lore - literally bringing your models back to life. This spell can be used to heal Treemen, or bring anything back that has taken damage.
The Dwellers Below I rank in the middle of the pack. It's another possible way to take out units that we otherwise can't (1 in 6 chance to kill pretty much any model in the game) but it needs a lot of power dice to work, and will almost always draw a dispel scroll - with luck, it can be devastating. However, the threat of Dwellers is almost as good as casting it. If you get 8 or more for winds of magic, 2 dice for Throne of Vines leaves your opponent with only three dice to try to dispel your Dwellers below, meaning that
they may not even try to dispel Throne. I've used this tactic and then went on to cast Flesh to Stone on 2 dice before throwing only 4 at Dwellers (or none at all!).
Awakening of the Wood seems like it works well for Wood Elves, who get an extra forest to help ensure the 2d6 hits rather than just d6. However, it's only S4, and you're often better off spending your power dice on the Treeman's Tree Singing bound spell to do d6 S5 hits if the unit's in a Forest. If you happen to also have Throne of Vines, this spell is quite good, but the chances of having enough dice for that and getting them both through is slim. Finally,
Shield of Thorns suffers from being a "remains in play" spell and from being very low strength, even when boosted. However, it does happen each magic phase, so not all bad.
WizzyWarlock also wrote up some commentary on Lore of Life
here.
Lore of Athel Loren
godswearhats stack ranking
- The Call of the Hunt
- Ariel's Blessing
- The Hidden Path
- Fury of the Forest
- The Twilight Host
- Tree Singing
It's important to note that I only rate
Tree Singing last because you will usually have a Treeman or two who will have this as a bound spell, and so you're better off not taking it if you can avoid it. The spell itself is excellent, allowing you to move Forests to your advantage (dangerous terrain tests for cavalry is my favorite, as well as getting them in a spot so that your Treeman's Stangleroot stand and shoot is S5 instead of S4), and doing direct damage to units in Forests. This spell single-handedly has made my gaming group fear the trees! So, great spell, just not needed on your spell casters.
The Call of the Hunt, is actually one of the best spells in the game. The combination of low casting cost and utility (it can move or buff) makes this the best spell in the lore.
Ariel's Blessing is like Throne of Vines + Earth Blood, and thus is quite highly rated. Very useful for keeping a squishy unit alive, or when facing magical attacks (like Daemons).
The Hidden Path is likewise excellent for keeping your units alive, particularly against mundane artillery like Empire cannon (useless against Skullcannon though). The only magic missile spell is
Fury of the Forest, which is boosted when units are near forests. However, it's effect is so similar to the direct damage version of Tree Singing that I've rated it quite low. Finally, most of our good close combat units already cause Fear, making
The Twilight Host probably the least useful. Although the Fear gets upgraded to Terror, with the change in rules to Terror it's a lot harder to use this spell properly as you'd need to cast it in your turn knowing that you'll charge the following turn (and Ld tests are so easily passed these days).
Having now played with 2 L2s on Athel Loren a couple of times, I think it's not as bad a lore as people make it out to be. I certainly don't feel it's the optimal choice vs our other two options, but I also wouldn't be afraid to run it if I wanted to run a 4 Treeman list :-) Ooo, now I want to run a 4 Treeman list.
Lores for archetypes
In a 2,500 pt army, this is how I think the lores stack up against each other for some common archetypes. This list is by no means comprehensive (and in fact needs a tactica all of its own!). AL is just shorthand for Athel Loren.
- Any Forest Dragon list: AL (enforced due to points)
- Eternal Guard bus: Beasts, Life, AL
- Wild Rider bus: Beasts, Life, AL
- Triple Treeman: Life, Beasts, AL
- Glade Guard Gunline (70+ GG): Life, AL, Beasts
- Sethayla (all mounted): Beasts, AL, Life
I'm looking to make this as useful a resource as possible, so please comment with your own experiences, particularly around Life magic (I've not had much success with it, so I think it doesn't suit my play style). Also looking for other army archetypes, hints and tips for spells and so forth.
Thanks for reading,
~gwh
Edit History
2013-12-12: moved Flock of Doom up in stack ranking
2013-12-13: added references to WizzyWarlock's write ups
2014-01-16: added some further reflections on Lores of Life & Athel Loren