Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Auxiliary Mages, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we revisited the subject of combat mages in MESBG – how the heroes we covered in a post a long time ago have changed and what other heroes we failed to cover before. In the older post, we lumped in a discussion on Auxiliary mages who do a few niche things to help your army because at the time, the only one I wanted to talk about was the Moria Goblin Shaman. Today, we’ll be taking an in-depth dive on Auxiliary mages across the lists and explore how to get the most out of them. As a reminder, we’re following this taxonomy for casters:

• 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 fight 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.

Auxiliary Mages: What’s New?

Originally, we only talked about Moria Goblin Shamans (because that’s all we cared about). Today, we’re covering a whole lot of these guys, though many group together nicely in similar categories:

• Stormcallers (available to Rivendell/Lothlorien)
• Arwen Undomiel (available to Rivendell, probably don’t want to take Gil-Galad)
• Barrow-Wights (available to Angmar)
• Angmar Orc Shamans (available to Angmar)
• Orc/Moria Goblin/Uruk-Hai Shamans (available to Barad-Dur/Mordor, Moria, and Isengard respectively)
• Easterling War Priests (available to the Easterlings)
• Druzhag the Beast Caller (available to Moria)
• Ashrak (available to Moria)
• Moria Blackshield Shaman (available to Moria)
• Sharkey (available to Sharkey’s Rogues)

While this looks like a big list, it’s actually not – many of these models have similar functions (the most common of which is casting Fury), though the tie that really binds is the lasting impact of their very limited casting. They’re all also pretty bad at fighting (though Arwen isn’t terrible what with the ability to be mounted and being F6 and not NEEDING to channel). Let’s look at each grouping.

The One-Hit Wonders, Part 1: Most Fury-Casters

I converted this guy up a long time ago - shamans are great, but not worth spending $10/model on them...so I converted my own. See this old post for more info.

I’ll say this from the get-go: most casters who have Fury do exactly one thing well. For a good bunch of them, that’s casting Fury. Others only have one spell to cast, so they fall in this bin too. Heroes who really only cast Fury well include Orc Shamans, Moria Goblin Shamans, and Uruk-Hai Shamans (all of whom have Transfix as well, but they cast it on a 5+). While Fury on the whole has taken a hit (I’ve critiqued it in both my overview of the MESBG rules and my overview on how magic has changed), it still plays one very critical role for your armies: auto-passing Courage tests.

If you’re running an army of Moria Goblins (or Mordor Warg Riders or any Isengard list that uses Uruk-Hai Warriors/Scouts instead of Uruk Berserkers/Feral Uruk-Hai), you’ve probably run into the problem at least once of needing to charge a model that has Terror (and probably also has Harbinger of Evil on it). Rolling two dice at a time trying to get to that magical sum of 7/8 can be really frustrating – especially if the target is a wizard like Gandalf or Saruman and you know that just by charging that model (and supporting someone who was brave enough to engage), you have a good chance of winning the fight and wounding the model. While you could spend +5 points/model upgrading your Uruk-Hai Warriors to Berserkers or paying +3 points/model upgrading your Moria Goblin Warriors to Moria Goblin Blackshields, you could just as easily pay 45-55 points to pick up a shaman…

In my post on how magic has changed, I said that I don’t channel Fury. Since writing that post, I’ve heard others in my gaming group tell of the likelihood that you have of rolling two dice (spending 2/3 Will) to cast it (0.89 probability of success), so you can reliably spend your Might point to channel the spell instead of saving it as I recommended. I will note that an all-but-guaranteed probability does sound great and it often does work, and I’ll also concede that if you have lots of models that can be affected by a 6+ save, the fact that you’ll save a few MIGHT pay dividends. From experience, however, I don’t think you should channel this spell – a shaman costs about the same as a captain and so you’re giving up a captain’s spot (one of the most important resources for Heroic Moves/Marches) to bring an auxiliary hero. So…save his Might for Heroic Moves. My recommendation only – there are still people in my gaming group who channel Fury.

Orc/Moria Goblin/Uruk-Hai Shamans: How to Fight Them

The answer to this question is actually quite simple: whatever way you like. The two most common ways are by either you charging these guys and beating them up OR shooting them to death. These Shamans are basically glorified warriors (with +1 Wound, +1 Might, +3 Will, and +1 Fate), so beating them in combat is not difficult, though all three of these models are equipped with spears, so they’ll be able to support someone else while providing auric support. Generally speaking, shooting these guys is also easy – they’re D4/5 and fall rapidly to archery fire. While you’ll usually have in-the-way rolls you’ll need to make, if they’ve channeled Fury, you’ll want to take them out quickly.

Perhaps the easiest way of dealing with them, though, isn’t charging them or shooting them: it’s casting Sap Will. While this spell got harder for everyone to cast that has it, its job is simple: take the 1 Will point they’re holding onto and make sure they lose it. Without Fury, these guys are (as we said above) glorified warriors – really expensive glorified warriors. What’s worse, the three kinds of Shamans don’t have good Courage stats, so unless there’s a Stand Fast! nearby that affects friendly heroes, they’ll probably run when the going gets tough (something they don’t normally have to deal with if Fury is up).

The One-Hit Wonders, Part 2: The Rule of One (Spell)

There are two other casters who fall in the One-Hit Wonders because they only have one spell to cast: Arwen Undomiel and Barrow-Wights. We’ll cover each individually since they are both good enough to merit their own time in the sun.

Arwen, ready for action!

Arwen Undomiel is perhaps the strongest of the single-spell casters because Wrath of Bruinen is one of the most powerful (if not THE most powerful) magical power in the game right now (even with the recent errata that made the spell have a 3" radius instead of a 6" radius). Not only does this do an enemy-model-only radial knock-down of everyone nearby Arwen (or Elrond, as we discussed in our last post), but it also does light damage to everyone (S2 if unchannelled, S3 if it is channeled, even higher damage if the model is in water). With 4 Will points, Arwen can reliably get this spell off twice in a game (4+ difficulty, throw two dice each time). If you’ve never faced this spell before, it’s REALLY nasty – it’s best to hold Arwen behind the battle lines (a very dense, long battle line) so that she can wait for your warriors to engage the enemy and then pop the spell up to knock the enemy models over – which should keep your warriors from being wounded (unless the enemy supporting models have a chance to stand up after you bowl them over).

Sneak peak at our upcoming Angmar post!

Barrow-Wights are well-known in our gaming group for their ability to Paralyze people. While Centaur was the first to introduce them to us, nearly everyone who owns an Angmar army (like me) began their Angmar journey with at least a few of these guys. With 5 Will and the other spell that is perhaps the strongest in the game, a Barrow-Wight can reliably throw a potentially game-changing precision spell against an enemy hero (or monster or whatever) twice each game (sometimes 3 times). The difference between Barrow-Wights and Arwen is that Wrath of Bruinen is good for gaining the edge over a large group of people. Paralyze, though definitely nasty, has to be directed against a single model. I will note that a growing number of models (Mirkwood Spiders are the most spammable, the three Trolls all have it, and apparently some of the new heroes for Sharkey’s Rogues have gotten it in the new release) have the ability to hand out the Paralyzed effect without casting, so it might be that there are more reliable options now than Barrow-Wights at getting this ability.

Arwen Undomiel/Barrow-Wights: How to Fight Them

Fighting Arwen is harder than you’d think: with Fight 6 and an Elven-made sword, she can Feint against F2/F3 models and have very little worry about having the edge on winning a tied Fight. Against a swarm of models, she can die, but if she’s smart, she’ll save her single Might point for boosting her dueling roll (or calling Heroic Defense). Without Terror, though, she’s not that hard to charge, so charging her is probably the best approach. Shooting her can be difficult if she’s on foot and equipped with an Elven cloak. Otherwise, her Defense 3 makes her very vulnerable to archery (though any commander worth his salt will surround her with lots of models to keep her from being shot or charged).

Once again, the easiest approach appears to be to cast magic against her: since Arwen isn’t Resistant to Magic (unless Lindir is around), any spells that target her will require her to spend valuable Will points to resist them. While Sap Will might look tempting, a simple Transfix/Immobilize will also do the trick, as it will keep her from casting Magical powers on her turn.

Fighting Barrow-Wights in many ways is much easier: while they have very good Defense (D7), they’re only Fight 3 and they have no Might points to boost their rolls. Shooting them is still difficult, not only because of their high Defense, but because they too will probably be surrounded by a cadre of Orcs (who will all cause Terror with him nearby if Angmar was smart and kept its army bonus).

Defeating Barrow-Wights is also easy with magic: while Transfix/Immobilize also works great, so does Banishment (which very few people have, but is VERY effective if you do have it) not only because it does a Wound to the target (not a hit that could fail to wound), but because it can be channeled to cause D3 wounds (which has a 67% chance of killing the Barrow-Wight in one-go because he has no Fate points). Other direct-damage spells (Sorcerous Blast, Collapse Rocks, Black Dart) are all odd-strength spells, so they’ll wound on 5s (or 3s in the case of Black Dart). While this might cost as much Will from you as it will cost them to cast their own spells, it’s a reliable way of doing damage if taking down that Barrow-Wight is important to your strategy.

Either/Or Casters: Two Good Choices

Most of the auxiliary casters fall in this category – casters who have two spells that are basically equally good (and depending on the situation, you could cast either of them and they’d be useful). This doesn’t mean that both spells are easy to cast (some of these spells aren’t easy to cast at all). Instead, the owner of the caster needs to determine what his army needs this game – and whether he needs that assistance now or later. Let’s look at some profiles.

Stormcallers used to be great - here's my proxy model (never wanted to buy the actual ones - pose wasn't great, had too many other heroes I wanted to use that I never fielded them).

High Elf/Galadhrim Stormcallers are some of the cheekiest casters in the game: with a neat spell (Call Winds) cast on a 2+ (save that Might point to make sure it goes off), you can throw an enemy unit back D6” away from you and knock it prone. While this may not seem like a big deal (it doesn’t do any damage), it DOES make your target spend half his movement next turn standing up and walking to basically the same point (perhaps a little in front of it, perhaps not even making it to where he started) as the rest of this actions that turn. Use this on a monster model to delay him 1-2 turns from getting to your battle lines (while you shoot his buddies). With only 3 Will points (though they can get them back if they get a natural 6 to cast), assume you’ll only get 3 casts a game with this.

Stormcallers, though, have another spell option: High Elf Stormcallers can cast Strengthen Will (a great way to give Will points back to Arwen) and Galadhrim Stormcallers have access to Enchanted Blades (a great way to get some extra damage out of Haldir/Rumil/a generic captain/an allied hero). Both of these spells are much harder to cast than Call Winds, so to me, they aren’t even options (you’re looking at getting them off maybe once each game, probably saving any remaining Will for Call Winds) – but they are available should your team need them.

Angmar Orc Shamans don’t have access to Fury (which is strange since Angmar Orcs can cause Terror if they’re near spirit heroes), but they do have access to Wither (unique to them – reduces the target’s Strength value). This is one of the few spells I recommend channeling whenever you really want it to go off: with the ability to reduce your target’s Strength by D3, you can turn a normal-Strength hero into a terrible-Strength hero OR make a high-Strength monster not nearly as strong (or able to bowl over your models on a Monstrous Charge). With only 1 Might, you’ll only get this off once channeled, but you can probably cast it three times if you don’t channel it – depends on the army you’re facing, I guess.

Angmar Orc Shamans also have access to Instill Fear, which is great on the Witch-King, the Dark Lord Sauron, and the Dark Marshal, but less good on these guys (since it’s likely to cost them 2 Will and 1 Might to cast – basically draining them). As cool as the spell is, like the other spells on the Stormcallers, I don’t see you calling this one.

Easterling War Priests, Druzhag the Beast Caller, and Ashrak all have Fury as one of their spells, and in some cases, you probably want to cast it (when you’re fighting Angmar, the Dead of Dunharrow, or Mordor lists with lots of Ringwraiths and Black Nmenoreans). But generally speaking, their alternate spells are more powerful.

• Easterling War Priests can make the Strikes of a friendly model resolve at Strength 6 (able to boost Khamul’s Strength while Khamul uses his Will to boost his Fight Value/Attacks). 
• Druzhag can turn a lowly Wild Warg into a one-turn Cave Troll equivalent (offensively - there's a lot to be lacked in both Defense and Wounds) – and he can do it reliably FIVE TIMES. 
• Ashrak can make it so that your low-Defense Spiders are harder to shoot as they approach the enemy ranks (or harder to hit/charge when they’re racing across the board for a scenario objective). 

While Fury might be nice, each of these spells has clear advantages that go well beyond the benefits of auto-passing Courage tests.

Sneak-peak at our Moria post - my converted Blackshield Shaman!

Moria Blackshield Shamans are my favorite kind of shaman right now (maybe behind Druzhag), since they can cast either Shatter (reliably three times if they save their Might point to boost a cast) or Tremor (once, really, because it’ll drain you). Whether you use Shatter to break Hadhafang in the hands of Elrond or the sword from the hand of a Mordor Troll Chieftain, you’ve got the ability to make an opponent’s combat piece unable to do what they want to do. If you’re able to cast it three times, you’ve got a good shot at making it past most models’ defenses (draining them in the process).

Alternatively, you have Tremor, which is a line-oriented knock-down spell (very similar to the way Sorcerous Blast used to work – except that everyone takes a Strength 6 hit). While it's debatable whether this spell is as good as Wrath of Bruinen, it certainly does have the ability to put a lot of models on their backs, which can lead to many, MANY traps for your Moria Goblins for one round of the game (which translates into higher Fight Value for your grunts if you keep your army bonus). If you’re not worried about specific heroes killing your troops, this might be the better choice.

Either/Or Casters: How to Fight Them

The key to fighting these casters (like fighting One-Hit Wonder mages) is to remember that they won’t be able to cast for long. With 3-5 Will each, most of these casters will be active for 2-3 turns, which seems like a long time when the armies are nearing each other or have just engaged, but really isn’t very long in the grand scheme of the game (10-14 rounds, depending on whether or not there is a round that severely cripples one side). With the long-game in mind, the simplest way of dealing with these kinds of troops is just to ignore them (or at least, focus on resisting the spells and dedicating your efforts elsewhere). Once the caster is out of steam, he’s just a glorified grunt.

The alternative, is to employ the usual ways of dealing with One-Hit Wonders: most of these guys aren’t great in combat (they’re all Fight 3, except the Stormcallers who are Fight 5), they only have 1 Attack, and while they have 2 Wounds, they don’t have a lot of Fate (Druzhag is a bit of an exception). With a few cavalry models, a Heroic-Combatted hero/elite warrior, or even a pocket full of archers, you can deal with them quite easily.

There is also, of course, the use of magic to quell them, but in many cases, it’s unnecessary: unlike Fury casters (whose spells will last for a REALLY long time) or one-hit casters who have a single spell that’s really nasty (though Druzhag is rightly feared), you might be able to weather the storm with the Will stores of your heroes. Really powerful heroes who might draw attention from Angmar Orc Shamans or Moria Blackshield Shamans probably have 2-3 Will points to resist spells. If you’re playing a Forces of Good army and are REALLY scared of these guys, you can always include a hero with Heroic Resolve to provide some kind of resilience to your army (Forces of Good from the Armies of the Hobbit will find Bofur from Thorin’s Company an easy-enough ally to bring in and at 45 points, he doesn’t take a lot of room, while Forces of Good from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings will find Bilbo Baggins from the Rivendell army list an equally cheap addition to their army). Forces of Evil have a harder time of it, but you can ally in Durburz from Moria with almost any Evil list (not Barad-Dur or Sharkey’s Rogues) and still be Convenient allies.

The Short Fuse Caster: Sharkey

Might get Sharkey someday, but for now, stock photo it is!

We close out today’s discussion with Sharkey, one of two named Heroes for Sharkey’s Rogues prior to the release of the Scouring of the Shire book. While I welcome named Ruffians as quickly as the next guy, I do think there are some benefits from Sharkey that can’t be gained by “captain” models.

While a battlefield-wide Stand Fast is great, Sharkey is, first and foremost, a caster. He has Terrifying Aura, which if cast on 1 Will (and leaving 1 Will to keep it going), will leave you with only 2 Will points to do whatever else you want. In my opinion, this is a waste of Will points. A “good” Sharkey’s Rogues army will have TONS of guys between Sharkey and any enemy models that they face. This is, in many ways, better protection than causing Terror – make it literally impossible for your opponent to charge you. I will cede that there is probably a case for casting Terrifying Aura in Maelstrom games, where you may deploy very close to an enemy squad while isolated from friendly troops.

If you choose not to cast Terrifying Aura, you have Immobilize – and four casts is reasonable for most casters (indeed, it’s more than most of the other casters we’ve covered in this post or the previous post)! Still, relative to unlimited Will casters or multi-purpose Will casters, 4 Will just isn’t that much of the game (recall the 10-14 rounds thing mentioned above). So while you might have a target within range of Sharkey to cast Immobilize on, be sure that casting such a spell this round actually makes a difference – the worst thing in the world is getting to the final rounds of the game and discovering that you can’t slow down a marauding hero because you blew Will points earlier in the game.

Sharkey: How to Fight Him

The trick is not fighting him – it’s finding him! Since his Stand Fast affects the entire board, you can keep Sharkey hidden from the fighting for most of the game, sheltered away somewhere safe. Then, when your army begins to weaken, you can bring him out somewhere visible to all and yell at them to fight harder. Once you find him (and cut through the sea of Ruffians between you and him), he falls very, VERY easily.

Shooting him is also not hard – he has no Blinding Light, he doesn’t have great Defense, and he doesn’t have a lot of Wounds/Fate. So, if you can see him, shoot him. As I said with Either/Or casters, casting magic on him isn’t that worth it (in my opinion), especially since the worst he can do is root someone in place for a few turns. So while you could cast against him, I don’t think you need to. He’ll fall to basically anything (since he’s not Resistant to Magic and doesn’t have a lot of Will to resist spells in the first place).

Conclusion

In our next post, we go into our discussion of Multi-Purpose Will mages (aka “Ringwraiths” – though other people show up too) where we’ll be rolling up 13 different profiles and discussing how best to use/fight someone who has TONS of Will but need to balance their use of Will between casting, fighting, and staying alive (and occasionally doing other things). It’ll be a mostly Forces of Evil-oriented post, but you’d be surprised who else makes an appearance - until then, happy hobbying!