Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Unlimited Casters, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We come to the last post in this series – we’ve revisited a four-part discussion we did years ago on Combat Mages, Auxiliary Mages, Multi-Purpose Will Mages, and now we finally address Unlimited Mages. The original post is here. Of all the mages in the game, these types of casters have the potential for the most Will in the game (in aggregate) and are virtually the only casters who can be active at casting magic each turn for the entirety of the game. For our purposes, 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 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.

Unlimited Mages: What’s New?

When we first talked about Unlimited Casters in MESBG, we quickly covered Gandalf the Grey, Saruman, and Galadriel. Since then, we’ve revisited Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White (twice actually), Saruman, and Galadriel. Today, we expand this list to 11 and cover casters we’ve only lightly covered recently (or haven’t covered at all):

• Cirdan (available to Rivendell)
• Galadriel (available to Lothlorien)
• Galadriel, Lady of Light (available to the White Council)
• Gandalf the Grey (available to the Fellowship/the Shire/Thorin’s Company/the Survivors of Lake-town/the White Council)
• Gandalf the White (available to Minas Tirith)
• Radagast the Brown (available to Radagast’s Alliance/the White Council)
• Saruman the White (available to the White Council)
• The Dark Lord Sauron (available to Barad-Dur)
• Dragons with Wyrmtongue (available to Moria)
• Saruman (available to Isengard)
• Kardush the Firecaller (available to Mordor)
• Smaug (he IS the Desolator of the North)

I’ll say this in advance: I’ve already talked about most of these characters and they’re all great. What unites them all is that in various ways, they can keep their Will store up forever. This is done in three basic ways:

• A Staff of Power (Wizards only)
• A special rule that allows them to turn your “unwanted models” into unlimited Will points
• A special rule that “just gives them a free Will point”

These three basic categories are how we’re going to group our casters today. Let’s start off with the casters I love the most – wizards!

Wizards: Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Radagast the Brown, Saruman the White, and Saruman

As noted above, we’ve actually covered three of these guys in recent posts (Gandalf the Grey/White and Saruman the Evil). I’ll leave the discussions I’ve already done speak to the uses of these guys, though I will highlight a recent post by Rythbryt on Gandalf the Grey in the context of the Fellowship of the Ring. As such, we really only have two wizards to cover here: Saruman the White and Radagast the Brown.

Saruman the White

Saruman the White behaves very similarly to Saruman: he’s got a 12” Stand Fast that affects both heroes and warriors (great for keeping generic captains on the board). He’s also got 18” range on Immobilize/Command which can be reliably cast on your free die (2+/3+ difficulty with a reroll if required). This not only allows him to target enemy captains/monsters (or power heroes if you target them over multiple turns) to keep them out of the action. Saruman the White (like Gandalf the White/Saruman) casts Sorcerous Blast on a 4+ and this too can be reliably cast on a single die thanks to that reroll. Personally, I recommend using 2 dice to cast this spell (assuming you’re not facing an enemy caster and need to save Will to resist spells) because it’s the hardest spell you have in your arsenal and you want it to go off whenever you cast it (or at least, the first five times you cast it). Finally, you want to channel Terrifying Aura if you use him – getting that third die thrown into an enemy model’s courage check pool (and removing the highest die) is a great way to make sure Saruman can stay safe while near the front lines.

Besides these four spells, Saruman the White also has Aura of Command (cast on a 2+ with the reroll, easily on your free die) and grants auto-passing Courage tests to nearby models (I don’t think you need to channel this). Most models don’t have this and it’s a really niche spell to need. Since Saruman can cast it for free, you might as well do it (though you want to channel Terrifying Aura first). While many armies have ways of getting high Courage, some armies (like Lake-town, Dale, or Shire – Arnor is an Impossible Ally) can really use a boost to Courage – and you can get that pretty easily by casting this spell early in the game. Whether it’s keeping your army together after your force breaks or fighting enemy Terror models (like enemy wizards with channeled Terrifying Aura), this spell can save you.

Saruman does come with two drawbacks (both minor): first, while Gandalf the Grey/White can cast Strengthen Will on himself to get Will points back, Saruman can’t benefit from this ability (not only because he doesn’t have it, but because he has a rule that doesn’t allow Gandalf to help him out). Saruman will also not be able to participate in any Heroic Actions Gandalf calls (Heroic Move is the big one, though Heroic Resolve is also quite useful).

Radagast the Brown

Back in 2012, I covered Radagast (here) and at the time, he wasn’t known to our gaming group. A few games with him making my beloved Dwarves terrifying and everyone knew his name. At the time, there wasn’t anything that said he couldn’t cast Panic Steed on a Mumak either, so let’s just say for a while I said I wouldn't bring him to a tournament just in case someone wanted to run one . . . now that's been addressed in the rules, so Radagast is fair game!

Radagast plays very differently than all of the other wizards (and in truth, he hasn't changed much from edition to edition): not only does he have a very different spell selection from the other wizards, but he’s perhaps the only one that doesn’t need to be mounted (though his mount options are quite good). Besides a Staff of Power, Radagast shares with the other wizards the Immobilize (12”, 3+) and Terrifying Aura (2+) spells.

Beyond that, very different hero. While Radagast doesn’t have Sorcerous Blast, he does have Nature’s Wrath (one of the most powerful spells in the game right now, cast on a 4+) and Panic Steed (the absolute most lethal spell against cavalry – especially if channeled – and cast on a 2+). While these spells alone are very good, he also provides Aura of Dismay to basically any faction in the game (not Arnor or Numenor) as Historical/Convenient allies. Want to make those Elves/Dwarves/Men more powerful? How about giving them Terror…

Finally, Radagast has Renew – a neat little spell (cast on a 3+) that grants wounds back to models that have lost them. While boosting heroes who have taken some Wounds in combat is nice, Radagast can be easily run alongside Giant Eagles – and giving these guys back their Wounds is incredibly powerful. At the 800 point level, you could run Radagast (on foot), Gwaihir, and 5 Giant Eagles – and Radagast should be able to pop between combat groups to keep their wounds up…absolutely nasty.

All this then brings out two important rules that Radagast has: first and foremost, he treats all ground as open ground via the One with Nature rule so long as he's on foot. He also gains the Stalk Unseen rule from this, which is great for making sure that he’s not targeted by enemy archery, spells, or cavalry charges. In normal circumstances, models with this rule prefer to find a low wall, a hedge, or some other horizontal piece of terrain that will cover them for quite some distance to the left or right (and up or down) while still providing plenty of visibility to the battlefield. For Radagast, you can go one step further…

Radagast also has the Master of Birds special rule, which not only gives your Eagles Resistant to Magic (great when paired with Fortify Spirit from Galadriel, Lady of Light and Heroic Resolve from Gandalf the Grey – but more on that in a later post), but also allows Radagast to have “line of sight” to any point on the battlefield. While this is certainly less powerful now that you can’t have volley teams of archers chucking fletched shafts across the field at whoever they like, it still means that Radagast can be standing behind a stone wall – completely enclosed in a building with no visibility to his targets at all – and STILL be able to cast Panic Steed, Renew, or Nature’s Wrath. AMAZING!

So far we've only looked at Radagast on foot, but he's got three different mount options (all of which allow him to get slightly more range from Aura of Dismay, negate his One with Nature boosts, and give him greater mobility to get the angles you need for your spells. His sled and his horse give him good benefits depending on how much you want to pay, but you get a very different playing style from Radagast if you mount him on a Giant Eagle. To take the Eagle only ups his cost by 50 points and you get all the fighting stats of a Giant Eagle. In trade, you give up your Staff of Power, which means you'll be able to do limited casting to augment your Eagles or allies. Worth it? Maybe...but he becomes a Combat mage, with all the limitations we discussed in our previous post on those types of casters.

As you can tell from all five wizards (both those covered in this post and in my previous posts), the great thing about running these guys is that their spells (for the most part) are easily cast on your free die. This frees you up to use your actual Will points to resist enemy spells or make sure your spells go off when you need them to. This grants wizards incredible flexibility, though it comes with one serious drawback: these guys are expensive and this is often exacerbated by their army list options. Saruman the White can’t lead troops (so he’ll be points reduced without giving you Warrior slots to pad your numbers). Radagast is in very much the same boat, but he can field Eagles if run in the Radagast’s Alliance list (which are expensive). Gandalf the Grey can be run with Lake-town Militia if taken as part of a Survivors of Lake-town list or with Hobbits in a Shire list (if you can bear to leave Merry and Pippin at home), but otherwise will only be able to lead heroes (from the Fellowship or Thorin’s Company – both of which are amazing and fun to play). Both Gandalf the White and Saruman the Evil can run a vast assortment of troops, though Warriors of Minas Tirith/Uruk-Hai of some kind tend to be the go-to choices for these two heroes.

Wizards: How Do You Fight Them?

So how do you fight these guys? While each of the wizards provides a lethal arsenal of spells to fight their opponents, they’re pretty weak in combat. With the exception of Gandalf the White, all of the others have 1 Attack – and while they can all be mounted, it’ll be hard for them to get a high roll against a press of foes. While their Terrifying Aura spells can make charging them difficult (and Blinding Light on Gandalf can make shooting them difficult), if you can get a single model into base contact with them, a supporting model could walk up without taking a Courage test and suddenly the wizard has a lower chance of winning.

The other way of dealing with a wizard is the spell Your Staff is Broken! Not many people have this spell (Sauron the Necromancer, the Witch-King, and Gandalf the White), but those that do have it pose a real threat to enemy wizards. Besides this spell, these wizards are also dangerous because they have a lot of Will innately and can use that to ignore the spells of the enemy wizards. Gandalf the White in particular is great at fighting enemy wizards, since he can give himself 2 free dice with Fortify Spirit and then break the staff of the person he’s fighting.

Regardless of whether you can field cheap troops or not, these wizards can go the distance and provide you with magical support (or damage) all game long (so long as you protect them). In a very different way, you can do that as well with an unconventional fellow: Kardush the Firecaller.

It’s For A Good Cause: Kardush

Kardush has gotten some time in the sun thanks to Rythbryt in his post on Mordor. Rythbryt brought Kardush to his inaugural TMAT THRO tournament (and won with him…and Gorbag…and a Troll Chieftain…my Dwarf King is still grumpy about that). ;) Unlike the wizards we talked about above, Kardush doesn’t have a Staff of Power in order to get free Will points. Instead, he starts with 3 Will points (tied for lowest starting Will that we’ll be covering today) but can get extra Will by killing off a friendly Orc model within 6” and getting D3 Will points from him (but it doesn’t allow you to go above your starting store). Since Kardush’s combat stats are little better than your average Orc Warrior, keep him near a good anvil unit with a small pack of archers guarding the flank within 6” of him that you can slowly drain away and use for casting magic.

Kardush, like most Shamans, has access to two spells: Fury (which is good for your Orcs – especially any archers you have around him) and Flameburst (which he casts on a 3+, despite Saruman the Evil casting it on a 5+ . . . not that I’m bitter or anything). While Fury is quite useful on certain occasions (and channeling it if you’re supporting a front-rank anvil is good), you’re really getting Kardush for the Flameburst spell – a S6 hit at 6” range is pretty useful. Since most enemy shieldwalls will likely be D5/D6, you can take out a spear-support in an important fight (or take out a front-line warrior that’s causing you trouble) before the fighting really begins nearly every turn. While Terror-causing models are normally a pain to have to deal with, Kardush’s Fury spell can keep that from being too difficult for you to handle.

Where Kardush really shines relative to the wizards we covered previously is that he’s so inexpensive – 60 points is not a lot for a caster who can last the entire game. What he trades for his low price is a) a low Will starting store (and max store), b) a terrible statline that can make him very vulnerable if an enemy hero cuts through your lines and charges into him, and c) his retinue of potential Will points/bodyguards are required to make him worth taking. If you just take him for Fury (or a one-turn Flameburst), he’s not worth it – you’re better off going with an Orc Shaman on Warg if you want Fury OR a Ringwraith if you want damage (hit on 5+, wound on 3+ several times vs. hit on 3+, wound on 4+ once or twice). It’s when you add Orcs to your point total that Kardush really rises above the other choices – and if you’re looking for a random Fortitude hero to run, he’s a good option.

Any discussion of Kardush wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that if Kardush is being run down by someone, you can sacrifice him to give a Ringwraith some Will points (in the same way that Kardush kills off friendly Orcs). This can be really helpful since Ringwraiths are (at least slightly) better at fighting than Kardush is and their spells are more varied (no Fury/Flameburst, but lots of Drain Courage/Transfix if not other things). While generally I’d keep Kardush around, if the Priority phase brings a sense of foreboding that someone big and nasty is going to go crashing through Kardush (and you have a worn-out Ringrwaith within 6”), you can choose to say “it’s been fun, but I gotta go” and get at least a few more turns out of your Ringwraith. This is also not a bad option if your lines are collapsing and you don’t think you can lose too many more Orcs to Kardush’s greedy machinations.

Kardush: How Do You Fight Him?

Fighting Kardush is quite easy – as mentioned before, his stats aren’t very good. In the recent THRO tournament where my Dwarves fought Rythbryt’s Mordor force with Kardush (where he turned my Dwarf King into a roasted marshmellow), I shot Kardush to death with Dwarf Warriors/Dwarf Rangers. Whether you shoot him or fight him (or heck, cast magic at him), he’ll fall quickly if you don’t keep his guards nearby.

We’ve covered units that gain Will thanks to having the right stick and one particular unit who gains Will thanks to the expendability of his friends. Our last category of models are the happy few who “just get free Will.”

We Don’t Need A Stick, Part 1: Cirdan and Galadriel (2 versions)

We’ll begin with the three Forces of Good profiles. Galadriel from Lothlorien has already been covered – you should read the post for why she’s amazing and how to use her. Both Cirdan and Galadriel, Lady of Light, showed up in the #1 ally recommendation I did in my revisiting of the “Pocket Full of Power” post I did recently. These two heroes are great – and can be allied together historically as well. I won’t talk too much about them here, but you should know that Cirdan is one of the best auric heroes in the game right now not only because he gives the trifecta of aura spells (Aura of Command for auto-passing Courage, Aura of Dismay for causing Terror, and Blinding Light for archery protection), but because he can also cast Enchanted Blades on friendly heroes – ideally models that don’t already have Lord of the West, though they benefit as well.

Galadriel, Lady of Light – as we discussed before – is unlike any of the previous heroes we covered in that she’s designed for combat. She has several great spells, but they’re easily cast (Fortify Spirit on a 2+ to grant 2 free dice to resist magical spells, Banishment on a 3+ to deal damage to enemy Spirit models, and Instill Fear on a 4+ to make enemy models test for Courage or flee from her). While Instill Fear is the only “difficult” spell that might require actually spending Will, Galadriel provides two other auric buffs to her nearby allies that aren’t tied to Will (which is awesome): a Blinding-Light-esque ability to protect against archery and a mini-Harbinger of Evil that can make it harder to charge friendly Terror models (like her – or anyone benefiting from Aura of Dismay). With 3 Attacks at Fight 6 and 3 rerollable Fate points, she’s quite good.

Cirdan and Galadriel: How Do You Fight Them?

Fighting these heroes is more difficult than you think: while Cirdan and Lothlorien-Galadriel aren’t very good in combat (Unarmed with 1 Attack), they’re both Fight 6, so just having them in a fight with other friendly models can keep them alive for a while. Since all three of these heroes have anti-archery protection, it’s pretty difficult to shoot them to death (despite their low Defense). Casting magic against them is pretty difficult too thanks to either Resistant to Magic (automatically present on Lothlorien-Galadriel so long as you keep her army bonus, available to Cirdan if Lindir is nearby) or Fortify Spirit (automatically the first spell to cast with Galadriel, Lady of Light – historical ally of Cirdan). Dealing with these heroes is pretty tricky, but once you do beat them in a fight, they’re pretty easy to wound.

We Don’t Need A Stick, Part 2: Dragons (with Wyrmtongue)

As we move to the Evil forces, we’ll start with the Dragon with Wyrmtongue upgrade. I did a five-part series on Dragons in 2014-2015 and I took one to one of our THRO tournaments – that was fun but we died a lot. The only part of the profile that’s changed is the Wyrmtongue upgrade (what spells are available and what they do), so I encourage you to read those posts if you’re not familiar with how Dragons work. In short, we have 4 upgrades to choose from, but we can only take two, which means there are four relevant Dragon builds with Wyrmtongue – we’ll discuss each of them:

• Utility Build (Rain): the Dragon costs 300 points and only has Wyrmtongue as an upgrade;
• Sniper Team: the Dragon costs 350 points and has Wyrmtongue and Breathe Fire;
• Strike Drone: the Dragon costs 350 points and has Wyrmtongue and Wings;
• Quagmire: the Dragon costs 350 points and has Wyrmtongue and Tough Hide;

The Utility Build is easily the weakest, but it does save you 50 points. Wyrmtongue has been reduced to only granting Transfix and Compel, which are still useful spells, but it would have been good to keep Sap Will (or get Drain Courage). Still, the purpose of this build is still sound: weaken an enemy hero on the turn you charge so you can get the full benefit of F7/S7/A4 in the fight without having to worry about your foe hurting you. Whether you’re drawing them forward in front of their battle lines with Compel (use your free die from Wyrmtongue and 1 Will from your store) or if you’re Transfixing him right before you charge (free die only), the Wyrmtongue ability can easily pay for itself with the death of just one hero.

But Wyrmtongue on a 6” move big base model isn’t as good as taking another upgrade too. The Sniper Team build is perhaps the worst build of the paired ability not because Breathe Fire is bad, but because Breathe Fire costs Will – losing Will by shooting (though it will do damage) makes Wyrmtongue as an ability much worse. If you want to Breathe Fire, you’re better off taking Wings so you can get more movement (since you can only move half movement and Breathe Fire) and get better firing angles.

The final two builds are much better for Wyrmtongue: for 50 points more, you gain increased mobility for your casting/charges with the Strike Drone or greater protection for your Dragon with the Quagmire. If running a dragon at 350 points (and you didn’t take Breathe Fire), you’re probably not running the Balrog, which makes the Dragon an interesting choice as a potential army leader. True, he could flee the field, but without a big-bad hero to take him down (which the free Transfix will make difficult), he’s remarkably hard to beat. Whether the wings keep him away from nasty heroes or the Tough Hide gives him extra Defense/Wounds, your Dragon is far more resilient and able to last longer by making him a bit more expensive. I will say that in my opinion, wings are a non-negotiable for Dragons - you need the movement in order to get where you want to go and to threaten enough of the board to have a chance at getting your points back (so if you really want a spell-casting Dragon, the Strike Drone is the only real build to run).

Dragons: How Do You Fight Them?

Fighting Dragons is pretty difficult – though high-strength archery does a pretty good job of plucking wounds off of them. Dragons have a tendency to burn through Might quickly – especially if they Breathe Fire (either to make sure they hit their targets OR to make sure they wound important targets). While Fight 7 is good, against models who can call Heroic Strike, they’re likely to lose some fights (and if they do, they’re likely to suffer at least one Wound). Once Dragons suffer wounds, they’re in trouble (especially if they Breathe Fire), since each wound requires them to pass a Courage Test or flee the field. A Dragon’s Courage 4 is not bad, but does result in failing tests a fair bit of the time.

One of the biggest threats, then, to a Dragon is a Ringwraith: while all Dragons are Resistant to Magic, Drain Courage is likely to go off anytime the spell is cast and most of the time, it’ll likely require two dice to resist the spell (not just the free die that comes from Resistant to Magic). Drain Courage makes it likely that the Dragon will run whenever it takes damage. While you can also just Transfix Dragons after their Courage is low, you can also use Black Dart (one of the rare instances I recommend it) once the Dragon is low on Will (since he’ll need 2 dice to resist it with any reasonable likelihood) and low on Fate (so he doesn't save the wound you work hard for). One good wound once the Dragon is low on Courage and – BOOM – he’s gone. I recommend plucking Fate points off with lots and lots and LOTS of archery.

We Don’t Need A Stick, Part 3: Smaug

While I don’t own Smaug (and never plan to) and have never faced Smaug (and hope I never have to), I did do a run-down of (theoretically) how you might fight Smaug in a previous post. I highly recommend reading those thoughts before continuing.

Smaug is . . . a lot. A lot of points? Yes. A lot of rules? Yes. A lot of money? Oh yes. A lot of . . . space? Just yes. A lot of – YES!

Casting is one of the many elements of his arsenal, though I’m going to submit it’s a minor one. Like the Sniper Team build for the generic Dragon profile, you need to spend Will for both spells and Breathing Fire, but Smaug gets a “spend 1 Will for free” rule that can be used for either. Given the nature of Breathe Fire, I expect that to take the pre-eminence (since it doesn’t do a one-time S10 hit, but rather Sets Ablaze with a S10 hit, followed by S5 hits at the end of each turn).

Smaug’s spells are normal – nothing to write home about, so casting spells with him is likely to be “just because you can,” not a normal strategy for him. The most important spell he can cast is Transfix, since he’ll eat up most/all of your army points and you only have 3 Might points for getting charges via Heroic Move and countering enemy Heroic Strikes. 3 Might runs out pretty quickly, so Transfixing someone so they can’t Strike is kind of what you want. Might be a small part of Smaug’s arsenal, but it’s got its place.

Smaug: How Do You Fight Him?

I kind of already addressed this in the post above, but it all boils down to two things: protection against Smaug’s Fire and high-Damage output. Here are a few combos you can use:

• Galadriel, Lady of Light protecting Glorfindel, Elrond, and Gil-Galad (>650pts)
• Cirdan protecting Glorfindel, Elrond, and Gil-Galad (>600pts)
• Gandalf the Grey protecting Thorin, Dwalin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, and Ori (>600)
• Gandalf the Grey protecting Aragorn with Anduril, Legolas, and Gimli (>570)
• Gandalf the White protecting 2 Avenger Bolt Throwers with Rapid Reload (~400pts)
• Gandalf the Grey protecting Bard with Windlance and a TON of Lake-town Militia bowmen (>385)
• The Shadow Lord on Fell Beast protecting the Witch-King on Fell Beast with the Crown of Morgul, 3 Might, Lots of Will, and a Morgul Blade (>375pts)
• Galadriel (Lothlorien version) protecting Celeborn and Rumil or Haldir and a LOT of bowmen (>360)

We Don’t Need A Stick, Part 4: The Dark Lord Sauron

This is my son Gorgoroth's Sauron - he said he wanted Sauron to have red armor and to have the whispy clouds that I put on many of my Angmar units. This was the result - I was really pleased with it (and it was a pleasure to paint - lots of intricate detail).

We close out our discussion with a brief talk about the Dark Lord Sauron, who Rythbryt has already covered in-detail here and who I discussed in short-hand here. Of all the wizards we’ve covered across all four categories, there’s not a wizard in the game that can compete with the Dark Lord Sauron (possible exception: Gandalf the White). Like Saruman, he can cast Transfix/Compel on a 2+/3+ with 18” range. Unlike any of the Ringwraiths (or even his Necromancer version), he’s got 18” range on Drain Courage (2+), Chill Soul (4+), and Sap Will (4+). With Chill Soul, you’re able to pluck Wounds off people from a very far distance, while Sap Will is great for fighting enemy casters (or anyone with 3+ Will left over). Sauron also has Instill Fear, which is great for scattering models you don’t want to have to deal with in order to get to better, stronger models to crunch.

While Sauron’s combat stats are some of the best in the game (F9 S8 D10 A4 W5 3M/6W, paired with the Ring), he’s ALSO got a free Will point each turn. Since most of his spells are cast on a 2+/3+ (four of six) and the other two are cast on a 4+ (so, maybe 1 die in addition to the free one), Sauron can start by casting a spell and then slamming into someone to get the most out of his amazing combat stats. With Resistant to Magic, he can also stop enemy spells pretty easily (even choosing to forego casting if required to use his free Will point to resist a spell - like Banishment, Chill Soul, or a channelled Flameburst).

Sauron: How Do You Fight Him?

Like fighting the Balrog, sometimes the best way to “defeat” Sauron is to just not fight him. With only 6” move (and Chill Soul only able to pluck one Wound each turn), the best way to “beat” him is to just avoid him (or ignore him if avoidance is not possible in the scenario). However, if you NEED to fight him, your primary objective is to do a few Wounds to him as quickly as possible – I’d recommend using a siege engine if you have it. The key when fighting Sauron is similar to fighting Smaug/Dragons: with only 3 Might points, you want to force Sauron to spend his Might early on – a Heroic Strike on one of your heroes paired with a Heroic Strength on another is a pretty good start.

Casting magic against him will be difficult, but will also wear out his Will store (and possibly his Might store), which will make Chill Soul harder to cast late in the game. Once Sauron is out of Will, casting Transfix/Immobilize is a great way to keep him from doing anything (either to root him in place so you can ignore him OR to keep him from killing anything in melee if he's already engaged someone). It’s tricky, but possible to do. Sauron also lacks Your Staff is Broken, so wizards who can cast magic each turn without reducing their Will store are particularly effective.

Shooting Sauron is basically impossible (S3 archery wound him on 6/6+) UNLESS you have siege engines. These, however, can scatter off him, so they’re unreliable. If you want to use siege engines in your overall strategy, it’s certainly worth targeting Sauron if you face him (at least to pluck off a Wound or three). This is by far and away the least effective way of dealing with Sauron, but might be a good way of clearing out his supporting models so that after you deal a few Wounds to him, you’d be able to break Sauron’s army once they’re able to be broken.

A Magic Caster for Everyone

So, that finishes our four-part discussion on Combat Mages, Auxiliary Mages, Multi-Purpose Will Mages, and Unlimited Mages. Each has its advantages and disadvantages (for example, Auxiliary Mages tend to be cheap but only provide magic for a short period of time, while Unlimited Mages tend to be expensive but have the potential to provide magic for the entire game). Most armies have access to some kind of mage (Numenor and Arnor have access to Elven mages through Rivendell/Lothorien – all other Good factions can ally with Rivendell, Lothlorien, and the White Council; Barad-Dur and Sharkey’s Rogues are the only factions that can’t Historically/Conveniently ally with Moria – though both of these armies have mages of their own).

While I think magic is a part of an army and rarely the centerpiece (Wrath of Bruinen/Nature’s Wrath armies or having Galadriel as the centerpiece of a Lothlorien army are notable exceptions), it began as an integral part of most of my armies and has remained an important part of my strategies over the past nine years. Even if you don’t like magic, understanding how magic plays into the game is useful if your opponents like to use mages of their own.

With this series done, we’ll be going back to a three-part series I did on the Fellowship back in 2012 (one on the Hobbits, one on the Combat Heroes, and one on the Auric Heroes). At the start of the year, I covered the Fellowship in a series on the new army lists (you can find it here) and Rythbryt recently covered them in a post last month here – this would be good reading before reading what I put up. Since Rythbryt did a great job covering the overall rules of the team, we’ll be focusing on tactics for each of the models and how they can integrate into the team as a whole. We’ll also be providing some sample lists in each post that are themed and that show you things you can do at various point levels. Until then, happy hobbying!