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Aside from Pegasus, I'm wondering what the favourite strategies for mounted sorceresses are. Items, solo vs. in a unit, magic lores, horse or cold one?

I've never used a mounted sorceress other than Morathi before. I'm considering a MR/Defense maxing build. Dark Steed Death SS, RoH, ToP with 5 Warlocks. What have others found success with?

Steed Sorceress is golden.

5 Warlocks are pretty resilient and can soak up wounds for her, as well as present a threat with their own spells and CC ability. On the downside the unit becomes a fire magnet!

9+ Warlocks and Dark Riders are more hardy options, and the even more powerful (and more of a fire magnet) approach is the multiple-masters build.

In terms of equip: RoH is a great item, but the alternative of a 4+ ward can also come in handy, including the Black Amulet for rebounding wounds if something does actually catch her.

For a Cold One mounted Sorceress, the army really needs to be setup to support i.e. mitigate stupidity with a supporting BSB, and use a lore that fits with the strengths of a Cold One unit i.e. Beasts, Dark, Life.

I found that combining your warlocks and ss limits the warlocks to large extent and also concenctrated your magic caster too much. Enemy has no target saturation and therefore don't have to choose.

There are a multiple of set-ups for a variety of roles. I like to put her in a unit of cold ones with an offensive master and defensive BSB master. This way she sits in the 2nd rank and is relatively protected from combat. I usually give the crown of command when she sits in the 2nd rank.

But, I have also run her alone in a unit of warlocks with MR and a scroll to good effect.

There are very few armies with mages on light cav. This is a major advantage for the death sniping spells. She can be relatively well protected from combat and can provide MR to the whole unit instead of just a ward on herself.

Best to use a Dark steed as she will most of the time be out of combat anyway so you don't need the cold one. It is a liability with its stupidity and lack of movement compared to the DS.

I use life well with her as she is close enough with the combat cold one unit to do damage with her spells and is also close enough to heal up the fighty characters infront of her.

I normally mount my Sorceress on a Manticore, and there are a few others around who sometimes do the same. The modelling possibilities are amazing.

Now, before you stick up your nose to that idea, think about what one poster, anglais, said: the Manticore is basically a bunker. For 150 points, you get a flying bunker that can threaten the light units that normally are the only ones who can catch a flying character. Killing Blow can even deter lone, flying combat characters sometimes as well.

Pros:

a) 3++ "Ward Save" against BS shooting due to randomizing hits with the monster - arguably just as good as the protection you get from putting her on a steed in a 5 man unit of Fast Cav and better than being alone on a Pegasus. Combine with a normal 4++ and a str 3 bowshot hitting on 4's wounds the sorceress about 3.5% of the time.
b) Has a chance in combat, unlike being mounted on a Pegasus or alone on a Steed. I sometimes "hide" her from cannon fire in combat.
c) Large Target has LOS over other, non Large Target units. (at least we play it that way in our group) and Fly allows you flexible movement, even more so than Fast Cav, to get in optimal spell range.
d) Don't need to "sacrifice" a unit's true potential to babysit her.

Cons:

a) Not great against cannons and poison shooting like skinks, and vulnerable to Terrorgeists and things like Daemon Princes. Though, you can out-range and hide by playing very defensively (especially when using a lore with many augments/hexes) until the threats are dead or in combat.
b) Large Target gets no cover from other, non Large Target units.
c) Uncontrollable rule can screw you. (or benefit you!)
d) Must kit her out in a certain manner to ensure survivability on her own.


That's a basic summary, but there are a lot of nuances to this chick which is why I love using it.

As for Lore, I typically use Beasts because it fits my army and play style (very aggressive and flying character/cavalry heavy) but if you want to use her defensively as a "caster blaster" model who tries to avoid combat and kill with magic, then I think Dark, Shadow, Death, Life, and even Metal or Fire could work pretty well. I've also used Undeath and that worked pretty decent as well though I need more practice. My preference would be Dark, as the Lore fits nicely with some of the Manticore's advantages.

Possible Kits:

Offensive: Dispel Scroll; The Black Amulet; The Other Trickster's Shard + Blind Fury
Defensive: Earthing Rod; Cloak of Twilight; Obsidian Trinket + Iron-Hard Skin

I put my Level 2 Life Sorceress in one of my 5-model Dark Rider units. She can get to where she needs to be, shes not worth casting a number 6 spell at, she has 5 Dark Riders to soak up wounds for her, and she can swap between units as needed. If she dies...not a big deal because she's so cheap. I usually equip her with a dispel scroll or the Hex Scroll.

Overall I find magic to be a bit to unreliable to invest a lot of points into so that and my Doomfire Warlocks is really all I seem to need.