A Matter of Life and Death. Part One.

Hej folks. Here today for yet another magic article. This time the infamous Lore of Life, and the Lore of Death ft. the infamous Purple Sun of Xereus. These lores have worked up quite a reputation for themselves. Personally I'm of the opinion that Life is the best of the BRB lores. So, to the spellbooks!

Article One is Lore of Life and Article Two is Lore of Death. So, to the forest!

The Lore of Life
LA: Lifebloom *****
This is a spell you want to build up slowly on the tanks, or if you're on raid healing spread around the raid- Wait what? WHFB? Oh sorry. This is your lore attribute. It is awesome. In my opinion one of the reasons the Lore of Life is so damn good. Every time you cast a life spell you get a wound back. This goes very well in a friend's Lizardmen army with an EotG, an Ancient and a Slann (who, because of this effect is immortal, by the way). It's good because you don't even need to work to get this effect off. Watch Warrior Priests glower at you in envy. Seriously, this is one of the reasons the lore is so god damn good. Always remember to use this.

#0 Earth Blood ***
WOW, another warcraft joke (ho ho!). This spell isn't cast often because it works only on the wizard's unit. And you do not want your wizard in combat. However this is another brownie point towards Slann using the lore as they can happily sit in their T8 regenerating shield of thornsing regrowing temple guard unit, while remaining safe from retaliation. So if you're a combat caster or a Slann, fantastic. Otherwise gtfo. Shout out to Brettonia here, who can make effective use of this within their knight units. OH NO WAIT A SECOND IT DOESN'T STACK WITH WARD SAVES. Ugh, that's one of the main reasons I dislike this spell. Too hard to cast for what it does imo.

#1 Awakening of the Wood ***
This spell is Not Safe For Work. It's best cast in the morning. I'm actually just trying to fill space. It's a magic missile, what can you complain about? I mean, it only has an 18" range but it has a nifty little condition to hit harder. So erm, cool? However this spell becomes absolutely brutal with Throne of Vines up. Very easy to cast.

#2 Flesh to Stone ****
This spell kicks arse. It's not 5 stars in this article just by comparison. And the fact it can sometimes be no help at all, for example if they already wound on 6s (I laugh at people who cast it on monsters to make them T10, when the monster is in combat). However, if an infantry v infantry slugfest is occurring, then this spell, even without throne of vines will usually push your opponent to wounding you on at least a 6. With throne of vines it's almost guaranteed. Very good spell for buying yourself time or swinging a combat in your favour. Also very easy to cast.

#3 Throne of Vines *************
Over rated? Yes. Honestly I feel the best thing about this spell is what it does to regrowth. It turns it from a few models in to a rank resurrecting monster. The second most important is bumping Shield of Thorns up to S4. After that it makes Flesh to Stone T4 (which I find is better vs shooting than vs close combat, as heavy shooting is usually high/good strength) in addition to making Earthblood a 4+ and raising Awakening of the Wood to S6, which is nice admittedly. This spell is fantastic and you should get it on every life wizard you have, by any means necessary. It just raises your magic to a whole new level. Absolutely no reason to not have this running, and if you have a Slann/powerful wizard and your opponent dispels this in their own turn, you should absolutely recast this all the time.

#4 Shield of Thorns ****
Sleeper hit of the lore. This is probably a 4.5 if that exists. It's not a powerhouse spell. It's just damn damn damn good. This spell is underrated, and very very powerful. It's a magic missile that works every magic phase, as long as whatever you cast it on is in combat. I've seen this take units down, over a scarily short period of time. It's brutal because most people let it through then forget to dispel it. You should always have this running if you have it. Awesome spell in an awesome lore.

#5 Regrowth *****
Yeah, this spell. Now let me say, it's not very good without Throne of Vines. It's not bad, just not good. With Throne of Vines up however this spell is awesome. D6+1 models back for 3 dice is a kickass deal on elite units like White Lions and Temple Guard, as well as stuff like Bloodletters. It's a very good spell and tends to be the key factor in making elite armies with lore of life so hard to shift. That and Lifebloom. Not much to say about it, other than it's very good. It also works well on ogre sized things, remember that.

#6 The Dwellers Below *****
This spell is good for clearing out hordes. It's good for taking out small elite units (like Black Guard and such). But most of all, yeah most of all, it's best for assassinating wizards. I'm sure you've all discovered that. This is one of those spells that doesn't need much explanation. It's as subtle as a (primal concrete) sledgehammer and it does it's job admirably. Almost always worth the extra range.

So in general, the average rating of the Lore of Life is 4.375. It is in my opinion one of the best lores in the game, and definitely the best lore for high elves, wood elves, bretonnians, chaos daemons and lizardmen. It just suits elite armies down to the ground. It has everything. Honestly, it's pretty point and click. Use spells where they're effective, assassinate wizards with dwellers, and keep your life wizard near multi wound models and you'll do fine.

Next magic article is the Lore of Death, of course.