Using/Fight Spellcasters: Multi-Purpose Will Mages, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our series of revisiting old posts and updating them for the new rules set. We recently revisited discussions on Combat Mages and Auxiliary Mages. In this post, we turn our discussion towards mages who use Will both for casting magic and for fighting/staying alive/other things. As a reminder, here’s our magic taxonomy:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets "free Will," has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.

Multi-Purpose Will Mages: What’s New?

While we looked at Ringwraiths in the original version of this post, the actual list of magical users who qualify is much larger. Behold, 13 profiles that fit this taxonomy:

• Tom Bombadil & Goldberry (available in the Wanderers in the Wild list)
• The Witch-King of Angmar (available to Angmar, Barad-Dur, and Mordor)
• The Tainted/Dwimmerlaik (available to Angmar and Mordor)
• The Knight of Umbar (available to the Corsairs of Umbar and Mordor)
• Khamul the Easterling (available to the Easterlings and Mordor)
• The Betrayer (available to the Serpent Horde and Mordor)
• The Dark Marshal/Shadow Lord/Undying (available to Mordor)
• Ringwraiths (available to Barad-Dur and Mordor)
• The Necromancer of Dol Guldur (available to the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur)

While most of these models are Ringwraiths, there are several different spells that are available to some of these wraiths (and how difficult it is to cast said spells varies). So let’s get into it and start cracking on their strategy. For those who are keeping score at home, we’re also updating an old post I did during Riders in Black month where I went through each Ringwraith spell and talked about how to use it. Much of what was written there is still accurate today.

Before we dive into the spells themselves, let’s take a quick stop and talk about one other preliminary topic: apportioning your Will when there’s so much it can be used for.

10+ Will: Allocation of Scarce Resources

It’s a little weird to think of Will points as “scarce” resources when you’ve got 10+ of it lying around. During the first few turns of the game (assuming you don’t maelstrom deploy too near an opponent), you’re probably thinking, “Hey, I’ve got 1 Will each turn for the rest of the game – what can I just take a chance on casting today?” This leads to our first rule of multi-purpose casters:

Thinking you have Will to spare is how Multi-Purpose Will models are killed.

When you look at your Will store, you need to see it in 3-5 categories (depending on who you’re using and who you’re facing) – let’s take the Shadow Lord (14W, not bad at casting, not bad at fighting, has a special rule that require spending Will) facing an army without a spell-caster in it:

• Combat Store: 3 Will (I may not actually fight with him, but let’s assume that I’m either charged when I don’t want to be or that I come swooping in to help some of my grunts get an edge over someone else);
• Casting Store: 7 Will (let’s assume that I want to cast 4-7 spells during the course of the game, each time spending 1 Will – or 2 Will if the spell is difficult – to cast);
• Special Rule Store: 3 Will (let’s assume that I estimate it will take me three turns to run my army across the field and I need to provide cover fire with my Pall of Darkness special rule – each turn, I’ll need to burn 1 Will);
• Resisting Store: 0 Will (it’s important to note that if I was faced with an enemy spell-caster, I’d need to stock this bin, but when the game began, I noticed I don’t actually need anything here – I’d probably borrow from my Casting Store since it has the most resources in it);
• Life Store: 1 Will (because most of the time, staying alive is a good thing)

Lest you think that casting 7 spells in one game is basically the same as infinite Will, think again: let’s assume that you’re playing against a Minas Tirith army with a Mordor Army and for the first two turns of the game, the armies are positioning themselves and you’re just popping Pall of Darkness to keep the enemy Rangers of Gondor and Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows (or maybe Citadel Guard with longbows) from tearing through your ranks.

When Turn 3 hits, you know you’re going to pop Pall of Darkness in the Shoot phase, but you also decide to cast Drain Courage on an enemy captain (lowering him from Courage 4 to Courage 3 – note that this assumes they had the Minas Tirith army bonus of +1 Courage to cancel out your Harbinger of Evil penalty of -1 Courage). With 1 Will each turn left for rounds 4-9, you feel confident that your hero can cast forever.

Turn 4 comes around and with Minas Tirith holding priority, King Aragorn on his mighty steed comes smashing into your right flank. You, not wanting him to break your lines, decide to throw a Transfix spell his way: while a single die will probably succeed in being cast, King Aragorn has 3 Will points, so you decide to mega-throw it and roll two dice at the spell (upping your likelihood of getting a high result). Aragorn needs to spend some serious Will to keep it from succeeding, but you’re now down 6 Will points (3 for Pall of Darkness during Turns 1-3, 3 for spells cast on Turns 3-4). Your reserves now look like this:

• Combat Store: 3 Will
• Casting Store: 4 Will
• Special Rule Store: 0 Will
• Resisting Store: 0 Will
• Life Store: 1 Will

“Not to worry,” I hear you say, “I’ve still got 8 Will to my name – plenty to deal with this new threat!” Aragorn then proceeds to cut through two men in the front rank and catapult into the two spearmen behind them, chopping a big fat hole in your battle line (because he’s Aragorn). As Turn 5 starts, let’s assume you get to move first (not a guarantee, considering there’s that free Might point Aragorn has each turn – but bear with me): what do you do?

Dealing with Aragorn is always hard, but let’s assume that you throw 2 Will at the problem and try to root him in place with another Transfix (because that Horselord rule Aragorn has is going to keep his mount alive if you try to Black Dart it). You’ll probably get it off, but Aragorn will probably shrug it off (even if it requires a Might or two to do so). 

The Shadow Lord then does the next reasonable thing: he flees and lets some other grunts surround the King and try to force him to the ground with a press of numbers. Having spent 2 more Will points, here’s how your reserves are looking at the end of Turn 5:

• Combat Store: 3 Will
• Casting Store: 2 Will
• Special Rule Store: 0 Will
• Resisting Store: 0 Will
• Life Store: 1 Will

Assuming you don’t get slammed by Aragorn, you’re looking at 1 more turn (Turn 6) or possibly 2 more turns if you single-die cast to sling magic around before you’re cutting into your “you’ll-need-to-charge-me-for-a-while-before-I-die” reserve. And that, dear children, is why Will on these kinds of models is such a limited resource. Consider what would happen if Gandalf the Grey (an Unlimited Caster that we'll cover next time) was in the same scenario:

• Turn 1: Spend your free Will point +1 Will to cast channeled Blinding Light (because it’s better to spend 1 extra Will than 1 extra Might);
• Turn 2: spend your free Will to cast Terrifying Aura - note I didn't have to pay Will in order to get Blinding Light up again like the Shadow Lord had to with Pall of Darkness;
• Turn 3: spend your free Will point to cast Strengthen Will on himself (hopefully getting back to 6 Will points in his store)
• Turn 4: spend your free Will point +1 Will to cast Immobilize
• Turn 5: spend your free Will point +1 Will to cast Immobilize

Going into Turn 6, Gandalf (who only starts with 6 Will) has the following:

• Combat Store: 0 Will
• Casting Store: 2 Will (3 Will if he got Strengthen Will off on the free Will point)
• Special Rule Store: 1 Will (because we want to keep Blinding Light/Terrifying Aura alive)
• Resisting Store: 0 Will
• Life Store: 0 Will

Gandalf can be charged as many times as he wants and can easily sling two more spells with nearly-guaranteed success of casting before he can still attempt to cast and run the risk of occasionally failing to get the spell off by rolling only one die. By the time the game ends (assuming he’s not cloven in two), he’ll still be able to pop spell after spell (or at least try to), while the Shadow Lord would be sent to the darkness prepared for him and his master.

So what do you do? The answer is simple: you treat your Will as a scarce resource, choosing to do one thing for the entire game with it and focusing on that. In our example, the Shadow Lord was torn between two things: draining the courage of a Captain so he wouldn’t stay around when the fighting got bad (and would be unlikely to be able to complete a charge against the Shadow Lord and any Terror-causing troops nearby) and stopping a powerful hero (Aragorn). 

Split focus is often the bane of a Ringwraith – which is why I recommend never leaving home without two of them, allowing one of them to focus on weakening lesser heroes and the other to neutralize power heroes/monsters. Being able to focus on one thing makes them far more effective (and makes their Will last a lot longer).

So with an understanding that we’re limited on resources, let’s understand what kinds of spells we’ll be dealing with in this post.

Spell Taxonomy: What Do Magical Powers Do?

As we discussed in the old post I did during Riders in Black month back in 2013, there are several kinds of spells that you’ll see on casters like this (we’re adding one new category): “augment” spells that make a friendly model better, “weariness” spells that reduce a part of the target’s statline, “enfeebling” spells that make the target more limited in what they can do/what rules they can use this turn (or permanently), and “red button” damage spells. For the models we’re covering today, here’s how their spells fit into this taxonomy:

• Augment
• Refreshing Song (2+ for Tom/Goldberry)
• Shroud in Shadows (4+ for the Necromancer)
• Weariness
• Drain Courage (2+ for most Ringwraiths/the Necromancer, 3+ for some of the named Ringwraiths)
• Sap Will (5+ for all Ringwraiths, the Necromancer)
• Curse (4+ for the Necromancer)
• Enfeebling
• Transfix (2+ for the Necromancer, 3+ for most Ringwraiths, 4+ for some of the named Ringwraiths)
• Compel (3+ for the Necromancer, 4+ for most Ringwraiths, 5+ for some of the named Ringwraiths)
• Instill Fear (4+ for the Necromancer/Witch-King/Dark Marshal, 5+ for all other Ringwraiths)
• Your Staff is Broken (4+ for the Witch-King/the Necromancer)
• Red Button
• Black Dart (5+ for most Ringwraiths, 6+ for some of the named Ringwraiths)
• Chill Soul (5+ for the Necromancer)
• Banishment (3+ for Tom Bombadil)

A few things about this list: first and foremost, you’ll notice that the Necromancer of Dol Guldur crosses the lines into all four categories – he’s able to augment friendly models with Shroud of Shadows (including himself), he has access to all of the Weariness/Enfeebling spells (reducing enemy Courage/Will/Fate, rooting one person/scattering lots of people/breaking a staffs of any kind), or dealing damage (dealing a Wound without having to roll for damage). That’s some incredible power right there (and lots of flexibility).

Some Ringwraiths - these guys are a joy to paint, though I will say that the Finecast versions are more brittle than the metal versions...sad.

The second thing that you probably noticed is that not all Ringwraiths are created equal: while most of the Ringwraiths behave the same, others are just not that gifted at casting spells as well as the others. If you’re looking for a good long-term caster, normal Ringwraiths are pretty good (and sometimes find it easier to cast certain spells than some of their named variants). While Ringwraiths can’t augment with their spells, they can do all three of the other categories.

New arrivals! My daughter saw Goldberry in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book and said I needed to get it. Let's just say I have a hard time saying no. ;)

Finally, Tom/Goldberry will find it very easy to cast spells – which is good, because they don’t have any Might points to boost their rolls. While all of these casters have spells they can cast easily (2+ difficulty), Tom and Goldberry are the only ones blessed with only spells that have a 2+/3+ difficulty. This makes them very reliable casters (and they can often cast much longer because they can choose to throw 1 Will each turn at their spell and be reasonably certain it’ll go off).

Ok, so with that in mind, let’s look at the spells we have access to with each of these characters…

Augment Spells: Refreshing Song, Shroud in Shadows

Neither of these spells are available to Ringwraiths. Tom and Goldberry are blessed with plenty of Will, but like the Shadow Lord in the scenario above, they’re going to be distracted between casting Refreshing Song (or Banishment), fighting opponents (who they will automatically beat), and staying alive. For our purposes today, let’s assume they will look something like this (this is for Tom/Goldberry respectively):

• Combat Store: 5/3 Will (you automatically win fights – you want some here);
• Casting Store: 9/6 Will (this translates into 5-9 spells with Tom or 6 spells with Goldberry depending on what spells you try to cast and your tolerance for passing said rolls);
• Special Rules Store: 0 Will (no special rules that need Will);
• Resisting Store: 0 Will (spells have no effect on you – you don’t need anything here);
• Life Store: 1/1 Will (because most of the time, staying alive is a good thing)

While you can cast a good many spells during the game, it’s likely that after casting 3-4 spells, you’ll be playing stingy with your Will. Tom and Goldberry are blessed in that they can’t be charged to death (since no one can enter their control zones unless they allow them to), but this actually means you have to be more careful with how you spend your Will – if you don’t save your Combat Store of Will for the end of the game, you may not be able to charge models who are racing towards objectives at the last minute without dying yourself. As with the Ringwraiths above, Will is a scarce resource and it’s possible that no one feels this more acutely than Tom and Goldberry.

As far as casting goes, Refreshing Song is a beautiful spell – cast on a 2+, you can grant lost Might/Will/Fate/Wounds back to a friendly model that’s standing near you, so you can use Goldberry and Tom to puppy-guard important heroes to make sure they stay in the game longer. It’s important to note that if you spend a single Will point on casting this, you’re basically transferring the Will to the target character (and granting them other stuff). While there are certainly times when you might cast this on someone JUST to get one of their stats boosted, recall you can only do this a few times each game, so use it when it will do the most good (ideally regrowing a mixture of Might, Will, Fate, and Wounds).

Shroud in Shadows is a great spell that the Necromancer can cast quite easily (assuming he kept his army bonus). Since he gets a free Will point to cast so long as he spends 1 Will from his store as well, you can easily get 2 dice to cast this spell, giving you a 0.75 probability of success (which is about as good as it gets in this game). Whether casting on a friendly model trying to get away, on a friendly model in order to half an opponent’s Fight Value, or if you’re trying to make the Necromancer immune to magic/archery, this spell is awesome. I will note that since the Necromancer has both Drain Soul AND Fight 7 (and Curse), if the Necromancer casts this spell on himself, he’ll automatically win ties AND will outright kill someone if he doesn’t have any Fate. With 25 Will in his store, you can afford to cast this early in the game to protect yourself and make yourself stronger mid-game.

Weariness Spells: Drain Courage, Sap Will, Curse

These three spells reduce different stats for an opponent: Courage (Drain Courage), Will (Sap Will), and Fate (Curse). ALL of these stats are needed when fighting Terror/Harbinger armies, so the fact that they come on Ringwraiths and the Necromancer are great at providing some protection for themselves and any Terror-causing allies they may have in tow. Let’s look at each one for a bit.

Drain Courage is the staple Ringwraith spell for me – it’s easily cast on 1 Will, it can be used on targets who are far away, and it’s a cumulative penalty as you continue to cast it. I’ve recommended in a previous post on magic that against targets with Courage 5+, you should always Channel this spell (simply to save yourself time). While I have my opinions of spells that only get boosted to D3 when channeled (since 33% of the time you won’t get anything from your spent Might point), Drain Courage is easy to cast and can save you lots of Will in the long term if it goes off right. In the Shadow Lord example we did above, let’s assume we have another Ringwraith (call it a generic Ringwraith) to tie down Aragorn for a bit and the Shadow Lord is free to cast Drain Courage against the Captain of Minas Tirith – the result is pretty devastating:

• Turn 3: C4 Captain of Minas Tirith (becomes C5 thanks to Army Bonus, becomes C4 because of Harbinger of Evil) gets hit with Drain Courage before he’s able to charge the Mordor ranks;
• Captain could spend 1 Will to resist – will be out of Will unless he rolls a 6 to resist?
• Captain chooses to let it go because he fears being Transfixed once he’s fighting
• Captain becomes Courage 3
• Turn 4: C3 Captain of Minas Tirith gets hit with Drain Courage on the turn he charges
• Captain isn’t in any danger of failing Courage tests, but knows he’s probably got two rounds of combat before he cuts through the lines – likely 3-5 rounds of combat before Aragorn saves his hide
• Captain chooses to let it go because he fears being Transfixed on a later turn
• Captain becomes Courage 2
• Turn 5: C2 Captain of Minas Tirith gets hit with Transfix
• Captain is happy he saved his Will and blocks the spell (spending Might to do so if he has to)
• Captain remains Courage 2; Captain is out of Will
• Turn 6: C2 Captain of Minas Tirith gets hit with Drain Courage
• Captain can’t resist
• Captain becomes Courage 1

It’s important to note that on Turn 6, the Mordor player has two options: keep Transfixing the guy, or make it all-but-impossible to charge Terror models. For an army that runs Black Numenoreans/Trolls, this is huge (and would be even more lethal if this was an Angmar team where all the Orcs probably cause Terror), but is also important if your Harbinger of Evil models move out of range of the Captain. The Captain is a good piece early in the game to keep an army marching towards their opponents, but late in the game he’s also valuable because he’ll keep models on the field. When his Courage is lower than that of the Warriors around him, he’ll be a high-cost piece that runs away pretty quickly.

There’s probably merit to just Transfixing the guy until he does, but there are probably other models (like Aragorn) that could use doubling up cast spells from the Shadow Lord and the generic Ringwraith. While most power heroes are great at killing things, they’re not great at fighting off magic (and two casters working together are brutal against anyone).

I will leave the discussion of Drain Courage on one other note: the Shadow Lord is unlikely to have models in his army list with Blades of the Dead, but you can field lots of Dead Marsh Spectres with the Angmar list - and so you can use the Tainted, the Dwimmerlaik, and the Witch-King to drive lower heroes down to Courage 1, allowing your Spectres/Barrow-Wights to wound on 3s - pretty effective way to kill them!

Sap Will got harder to cast and like I said years ago, you really only want to cast this against heroes with 4+ Will. If the target loses D3 Will points, they’ll likely lose 2 Will from the spell. If they only have 1-2 Will, they’ll probably spend 1 Will trying to stop the spell (since they’re losing it anyway). It’s kind of a waste to cast it here to be honest. Against people with 3 Will it might seem to make sense, except that the spell will be cast on a high roll of a 5/6 for the units we’re viewing here, so they’re probably going to try resisting it on 2 dice anyway, so if it succeeds, you’re removing 1 Will. Not great.

The ideal target for this spell is someone with 4+ Will, since they’re unlikely to spend 3 Will resisting a spell. When making this determination, I always include free dice they get to resist (Heroic Resolve, Resistant to Magic, Fortify Spirit effects), so someone like Elendil who gets 2 free dice to resist a spell and has 3 Will counts as having 5 Will. I wouldn’t channel this spell not only because it’s cast on a 5+ (and you run a real risk of wasting a Might point if it doesn’t go off) and because there are very few targets (besides other Multi-Purpose Will casters) who will have 8+ Will that you can burn through with the spell. I’m personally of the opinion that casting Sap Will on a Ringwraith is just bad form, but there it is…

Curse is a special kind of spell: channeling this spell is great against targets with 2+ Fate (especially heroes with Elven Rings of power), since the channeled bonus isn’t a D3 Fate point loss, but an “all remaining Fate points” loss. Against targets with lots of Fate, this is gold. Even against targets with 1 Fate, this can be cast normally and it’s REALLY devastating – no better way to get your opponent to stop a spell when he’s far away than by taking a pot-shot at his Fate (kind of like shooting the guy BEFORE people can shoot at the guy). While Chill Soul is a very similar spell in effect, it’s harder for the Necromancer to cast (5+ on 2 dice has a 0.55 probability of success without Might, while 4+ on 2 dice has a 0.75 probability of success without Might) and there are times (like against Elven Ring heroes) where it’s better to swipe away all of their Fate and be able to Drain Soul their Wounds than to pluck a Wound or two while leaving their Fate intact.

Taking out Fate points is great and all, but it should always be followed up with some kind of damage flow to make sure those Fate points can’t be regained before you can do any additional damage (Blessing of the Valar, Galadriel’s Mirror, Refreshing Song). This is a great spell to cast the turn before the Necromancer comes smashing into a hero (you want a channeled Transfix/Shroud in Shadows on the turn you charge) – don’t cast it too quickly though!

Enfeebling Spells: Transfix, Compel, Your Staff is Broken

Enfeebling spells are the spells we normally think about when we think about mages: they make a single target weaker. While Transfix/Compel lost a lot of their teeth, they’re still quite useful (I’ve said this a lot and will continue to say it). We’ll go through these briefly.

Compel is one of those spells I almost never cast – if I need to draw a banner away from the fighting or pull someone from the frontline closer so I can charge him, I’ll cast Compel. Otherwise, I’ll pass and go with the reduced difficulty of Transfix. Since most Ringwraiths cast Transfix on a 3+, a single die is often good enough for the job. The Necromancer casts it on a 2+ and if you keep your army bonus, spending 1 Will from your store gives you 2 Will to cast – that’s a 0.97 probability of success and a 0.75 probability of getting a 4+ as your high value (which will likely precipitate the spending of 2 Will to resist – which will wipe out all of the Will on a hero. Compel isn’t great for what it does – it’s great for what it makes your opponent think it does (“He’s going to move my hero? Where’s he going?”).

Instill Fear is a unique kind of Enfeebling power: you’re really only affected by it if you fail Courage tests (which is easier to do if the Ringwraith is casting Drain Courage as well) and it makes you scatter directly away from the caster. This is really hard to pull off effectively (always test for the spearmen first) but it causes all kinds of havoc because no matter where you move (or whether you move), you can’t move after that (which can cause bottlenecks in chokepoints, render spearmen ineffective against your battle lines, trap friendly models, or push models closer to the enemy ranks). I like to employ this on the flanks, scattering models left and right so that they are hopelessly out of position and not supporting each other. This is best done by a mounted model (Fell Beasts work great for this thanks to their large bases and the ability to fly over an enemy rank and spring it from behind) and where there is lots of room to move (and ideally on a turn when you don’t have priority). Besides the Necromancer, the Witch-King, and the Dark Marshal, I don’t recommend you cast this spell at all.

Your Staff is Broken is a niche spell but very useful against teams with Wizards. Gandalf the White is the bane of both Ringwraiths and the Necromancer (Banishment + Fortify Spirit + Staff of Power = Ouch-time), so being able to take out his Staff of Power is a start to breaking him – or at least, making sure Banishment doesn’t come out as much. It’s a good spell for both the Witch-King and the Necromancer because each can cast it reliably on a single die (the Witch-King if he has the Crown, the Necromancer if he keeps his army bonus). Good to cast on the approach to get your opponent’s attention, not bad if you never have to cast it at all.

Red Button Spells: Banishment, Chill Soul, Black Dart

These three spells are simple (and fun at first blush): they do Wounds. Damage is hard to come by in the MESBG magic system, but these three spells sit near the top for precision damage (and damage in general). That said, while I’d definitely cast Banishment if allowed with Tom Bombadil and probably cast Chill Soul a few times with the Necromancer, Black Dart is easily the worst of these spells (and I rarely cast this one anymore). Let’s look at the math:

• All Ringwraiths cast this spell on a 5+ or a 6+, so you’re probably throwing 2 dice at it (0.31 probability of pass on a 6+, 0.55 probability of pass on a 5+);
• Once you cast it, you still need to wound (which is generally on a 3+, so a 0.67 probability of success);
• The probability of wounding with this spell is the product of these two probaiblities (0.55 x 0.67 = ~0.37) – or more simply, one in every 3 turns you’ll do a Wound without spending any Might to assist you. With 1 Might point, you can bump this up to once every 2 turns, but that’s still really bad.

Chill Soul by the Necromancer has the same probability of casting as the Ringwraiths have on Black Dart, but the Wound is automatic, so he’ll always have a better chance of doing damage. Banishment also automatically wounds, but unlike both of the spells mentioned above, Tom Bombadil casts it on a 3+, so he’ll have a very good chance of doing 1 Wound each turn against Spirit models – perfect for cleaning up Warriors of the Dead, Spectres, Shades, Barrow-Wights, and (of course) Ringwraiths.

While it’s certainly easier to cast Chill Soul/Banishment than it is to cast Black Dart, there are times when a well-placed Black Dart is useful (e.g. when your opponent has 1 Wound/0 Fate left on a hero, on a banner-bearer who is not touching a friendly model who can pick up the banner, against a model bearing a War Horn, or when your opponent is only 1 model away from being Broken). Even in these cases, you need to be ready to spend Might to make it work (which means this one spell could drain your hero of later effectiveness – so it had better be worth it).

This actually goes back to why I like Drain Courage so much: Drain Courage is often not blocked, it can cause enemy hero models to flee the field, it can make charging a model with Shroud in Shadows all but impossible (even when they’re right next to the model), and it can keep a Terror model (especially Terror-Harbinger models) from being charged to death. It’s a great spell – but the best benefit is that it rarely eats through your Might (unless you’re channeling it).

Final Thought: What About the Betrayer/Khamul/Knight of Umbar?

If you’re familiar with the named Ringwraiths, there are three (the “Eastern” Ringwraiths) who have a harder time casting spells than their brethren (they’re the “some of the named Ringwraiths” in the casting chart above). Since these guys cast Drain Courage on a 3+, Transfix on a 4+, Compel on a 5+, and Black Dart on a 6+, these are three spells that aren’t that great to cast with them (except for maybe Drain Courage). Anything else will just sap their effectiveness. In many ways, this frees them up to be more useful to your army (albeit in a non-spell-casting-kind-of-way). Consider the Knight of Umbar (who can spend 1 Will to copy an opponent’s offensive combat stats):

• Combat Store: 7 Will (fighting is what this guy does – unless the game you’re playing is a deadly grind, you probably don’t need more than 7-8 Will here, though you’ll want to save a few to prevent yourself from being charged to death);
• Casting Store: 0 Will (don’t even bother);
• Special Rule Store: 4 Will (notice we don’t have that much to use here – so only fight “big dang heroes” when you have to – charge in on a horse/Fell Beast when you can);
• Resisting Store: 0 Will (you’ll want to stock up Will here if facing an enemy spell-caster – it’ll come at the expense of fighting/mimicking stats);
• Life Store: 1 Will (because most of the time, staying alive is a good thing)

Note that Khamul plays a very similar game to the Knight of Umbar, except that:

• Assuming the Knight of Umbar spends 1 Will to copy an opposing model’s combat stats, while Khamul spends 1 Will boosting one of his combat stats;
• If the Knight of Umbar wins the fight, he spends 1 Will for boosting his stats (but not for being in a fight) – note that this becomes 0 Will if you didn’t need to boost your stats;
• If the Knight of Umbar loses the fight, he spends 2 Will for boosting his stats and for being in a fight;
• If Khamul wins the fight, he spends 2 Will for boosting his stats and being in a fight, but can regain X Will so long as he does X Wounds – note that this can become quite large if you’re mounted on a horse and got the charge into the fight;
• If Khamul loses the fight, he spends 2 Will for boosting his stats and being in a fight.
• Result: you want to fight basic warrior models with both of these guys (with Khamul so you can recover more Will each turn, with the Knight of Umbar so you run the chance of not losing any Will when you fight).

Playing an entirely different role is the Betrayer (who can spend 1 Will to grant Bane of Kings to all poison weapons nearby):

• Combat Store: 3 Will (mostly you want to stay alive when charged, but it’s not bad to fight with this guy if you’re on the charge and mounted since you have Bane of Kings);
• Casting Store: 0 Will (don’t even bother - though if fielded with the Golden King of Abrakhan, you could consider casting Drain Courage a few times to save him some bribe money);
• Special Rule Store: 10 Will (we can throw this into the Resist/Casting/Combat stores if we want to, but the more we do this, the less we want to be facing big-bad-heroes);
• Resisting Store: 0 Will (you’ll want to stock up Will here if facing an enemy spell-caster);
• Life Store: 1 Will (because most of the time, staying alive is a good thing)

10 rounds of Bane of Kings on your poisoned weapons is HUGE – whether it’s archery as the armies begin to close or poisoned axes/war spears on your Haradrim (see my post on weapon swaps for how hand axes get into the picture), this can do tons of damage. You may not fight much, you may not cast much, but the effects of this Ringwraith will be felt for sure…

Hopefully this was enlightening for you – I love playing with Ringwraiths, so talking about how to get the most out of them is a bit of a passion of mine. While I hope to get the Necromancer someday, I can say that these kinds of casters will always have a special place in my heart. Our final chapter in this series will cover the "unlimited" casters – who pull narrowly into first place for me in caster standings. It's nice to be able to have the Will required to continue to do things as the game goes on (allowing you to be a little more reckless and have more presence in the late-game). While I've done five posts recently on Unlimited Casters (Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Gandalf the White again, Saruman, and Galadriel), we'll be covering these powerful heroes as well as a few others. Until then, happy hobbying!