Mastering Magic: Auric Spells

Good morning gamers,

In our last few posts, we looked at how to best use Sorcerous Blast and Immobilize (and Transfix, Command, and Compel). Today, we continue our discussion on magical powers and cover four auric magical powers: Terrifying Aura, Blinding Light, Aura of Command, and Aura of Dismay. I will note that there is another very important auric magical power (Fury), but we're going to give that spell its own post (mostly because the spells in this list aren't very controversial and Fury has both avid fans and avid haters both in the community at large and here at TMAT). Instead of trying to cram that discussion into this post, it made more sense to give it its own time in the sun. :)

What do these spells do?

Shoot at me if you dare - you can't touch this!

Terrifying Aura is one of the simplest (and most reliable and useful) spells in the game: cast on a 2+ by all of the models that have it (the wizards - Saruman in all three of his guises, Gandalf in both of his guises, and Radagast the Brown), the spell makes the caster cause Terror (simple enough, right?). Against some armies, this won't matter - either because they have high Courage OR because they have a special rule that makes them automatically pass Courage tests (most commonly Bodyguard or Sworn Protector). This spell is an exhaustion spell, so once cast, it remains in effect so long as the caster has Will in his store (and since all of the models that have this spell also get a free Will point per turn (except Sharkey and Radagast if he takes an Eagle as his pet), you can get this spell off reliably "for free" (more on this later).

When channelled, this spell makes models that wish to charge the caster take a Courage test on three dice and discard the highest die. I made a chart that compared the success probabilities for each Courage level in a post I did on Gandalf the White in April 2019 - check it out for what that looks like. Long story short, when you don't channel Terrifying Aura, models that are C3 or above are more likely to succeed at charging you than failing to charge; when channelled, you need to be C5 or above to be more likely to succeed (very, VERY few people have Courage that high - even some heroes won't be able to reliably charge your wizard).

Blinding Light was one of the first spells I learned to use in MESGB (it was LOTR SBG back then) and it has both a simple effect and a more complicated (though often irrelevant) effect: models within 6" of the caster are only hit by shooting attacks on a 6 (simple, right?) and a 12" radius around the caster is illuminated (which matters in exactly one scenario). When cast normally, this spell lasts for one turn only. Unlike every other spell in the game, this spell becomes an exhaustion spell (lasts until the caster runs out of Will) when you channel it. For most models that have this spell, channeling it is a given if your opponent has any archery to speak of.

Aura of Command is simple in its rules: all friendly models within 6" of the caster automatically pass Courage tests they have to take. The irony of this spell is that the models who have it (Celeborn, Cirdan, and Saruman the White) are in army lists that already have great Courage! While auto-success is better than the chance of failing, the greatest utility of this spell is when you ally into another list (see the discussion on Arnor between Centaur and me in our list building series for more info). This spell is also an exhaustion spell. When channelled, the radius of this spell is increased to 12", which is often irrelevant, unless you NEED to pass courage tests all over the board. I probably don't need to say this, but this spell is also a good counter to Terrifying Aura (channelled or not).

Aura of Dismay is the last of the spells we need to cover and it is the yin to Aura of Command's yang. When cast, friendly models within 6" of the caster cause Terror. This is possibly the strongest buff of the spells we have to cover today because while some factions might not care about archery or may not rely on terror, most armies need to charge people - so making that harder is just rude. Like Aura of Command, the radius of this spell increases when channelled - given that this spell is hard to cast, I don't see this happening very often (plus, how often do you need to cover a 12" radius in Terror?). Aura of Command might not be as glamorous a spell as Aura of Dismay, but as was mentioned above, it's a pretty good counter to this spell as well.

Mastering Magic: Immobilize (and its various kin)

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we looked at how you can get the most effective use out of Sorcerous Blast. Today, we turn to the most ubiquitous spells in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game: Immobilize (or Transfix). While your damage potential can be quite large with Sorcerous Blast (even given the newest changes that limit how far a model can be thrown), Immobilize focuses instead on one particular model and takes away a lot of that model's capabilities. While not as good at one-turn-killing a hero as it used to be, it is able to take a hero out of the action for an important round (or out of the game if cast on successive turns). 

Immobilize/Transfix: What Does It Do?

If you've used a spell-caster in MESBG, chances are you've used Immobilize or Transfix before. Whether you're using a wizard (Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast), a Ringwraith (named or unnamed), an Elven mage (Galadriel, Celeborn, Gildor - but not Elrond, Arwen, Cirdan, the-other-Galadriel, storm callers, or Thranduil), or some big magic-powered monster model (Smaug, Dragon with Wyrmtongue, Sauron, and the Necromancer - who isn't technically a monster), you've probably had Immobilize or Transfix in your arsenal (which one is often determined by whether they are a Forces of Good model or a Forces of Evil model).

Pro tip: if you wait to start casting Immobilize until your opponent is this close, you're in for some trouble . . .

When I first got started in MESBG, Immobilize/Transfix was frowned upon in our group because if it was successfully cast, your Fight Value was reduced to 1, your Attacks were reduced to 1, and you couldn't make Strikes (in addition to other things, which we'll cover in a minute). That was  . . . too powerful (especially when cast on a 3+ or a 2+ by most models that had it). In the current edition, Transfix doesn't affect your stats unless you channel it.

To understand what Immobilize does now, let's take a quick look at the rules (factoring in the Designer's Commentaries for the main rulebook):

• You pick an enemy model to target;
• You roll to cast the spell and the target can attempt to resist the spell;
• If cast successfully...
• The target is unable to call Heroic Actions or use active abilities.
• In the Move phase, the target cannot move, call a Stand Fast, or cast spells. 
• In the Shoot phase, the target may not shoot. 
• In the Fight phase, the target may not makes Strikes if they win a Duel.
• If the spell was channelled, the Fight Value and Attacks of the target model are halved, rounding up.

So what does this mean practically? It means that Transfix can be used to do the following kinds of things:

• Prevent casters who haven't acted yet from casting spells;
• Prevent fast models from charging you;
• Prevent supporting models who haven't moved yet (such as banner-bearers, shades, Cirdan, Gamling) from moving with their battle line and providing their auric boosts;
• Prevent archer models from being able to shoot for the turn;
• Prevents a powerful model from getting the benefits of their Heroic Actions (like Heroic Strike) or Active Abilities (such as Lord of the West).
• Prevent combat models from killing things.

This post will be focusing primarily on Immobilize/Transfix, but keep in mind that everything we cover here also applies to Command/Compel (with the exception that this spell is usually +1 pip harder to cast and adds a half-move to the target before it's not allowed to move again). There are tactics that you can use with Command/Compel that you don't get with Immobilize/Transfix, so we'll cover those that at the very end (but by and large, they will do the same thing and can be used in similar strategies).

Case Study: Shire Archery Tactica

Hey Reader!

Tiberius did a tactica series on the Shoot Phase recently, and since he took some time to look at dwarves and Moria as part of that series, I'd like to add a few thoughts on how to run shooting with Shire armies as they are quite unique, and while they look easy to do on paper, they are relatively hard to use in practice.

If you haven't read Tiberius's initial post you should read it here. He presents a number of good points that we will be assuming are true for this post; the only reason why we felt we needed to make a special post for Shire is that the example Tiberius uses in the post for low-Defense ranged units involves elves, and while Shire also has low Defense, we lack a number of the advantages that elves have for shooting (longer range, S3 wounds, and mobility to position for the shot).

This post will detail the ins and outs of managing effective archery with Shire models, as you have several uphill battles to climb including the lowest speed in the game, throwing weapons that only work when standing still, and short-range bows on low-Defense models that have trouble escaping people because of the aforementioned low speed. And this means that an inexperienced Shire player will find themselves overrun without getting much for their archery.

So let's talk about how to do archery right with a Waistcoat Brigade. To help us with this, we will be using elements from my WIP Shire board, modeled after the town of Frogmorton east of Hobbiton.

Mastering Magic: Sorcerous Blast

Good morning gamers,

So we find ourselves today beginning a new twelve-part series on magic. I know what you're thinking: 

"Tiberius, you just DID a series on magic. What's there left to talk about?!?!?!"

Lots. :-)

To be honest, I've covered magic quite a bit on this blog. My last series on magic was back in July-August 2019, where I looked at the four different kinds of magical models in the game (Combat mages, Auxiliary mages, Multi-Purpose Will mages, and Unlimited mages).

Prior to that (in April-May 2019), I covered four of my favorite magic heroes in five posts and why I liked what they brought to the army over more traditional, combat-oriented heroes (Gandalf the Grey, Gandalf the White, Gandalf the White again, Saruman, and Galadriel).

More recently, I and my fellow admins Centaur and Rythbryt did a review of our "Top 10" Good spell casters and "Top 10" Evil spell casters in our TMAT Talks podcasts (available on YouTube, going up on other places too). Our post on "Top 10" Support heroes (both Good and Evil) also featured spell-casters - though I did restrain myself from ranking Gandalf the White in that post.

Centaur, Rythbryt, and I teamed up with two of our mates (MinutemanKirk and RedJacket) for two TMAT Drafts with support-oriented heroes as well (Forces of Good and Forces of Evil). While spell-casters were only a part of the total set of models in the pool, they played no small part in my calculations for either side of the coin (no surprise there).

I've written a smattering of other articles in the last year (or so), including the best anti-mages, when channelling wastes Might points (and other things that weren't related to magic), and a review of the best Ringwraiths to take in an army. All of this is under the new MESBG rules - I also talked about magic under the previous rules sets (but I won't drudge all those up here).

After compiling this list, it occurs to me we have written about magic a lot (and me in particular). :)

So what have we not talked about with magic? Why, how to best use each spell, of course! In writing most of these posts (and some other posts on list building), we received comments from some of our readers about how to get better value/from certain casters (Gandalf especially) because they just never seemed to do enough killing to justify their existence in a list over a more combat-oriented hero. This got me thinking about different spells and how to "best use them" (or whether they're even worth using at all). 

So, this series was born, where we'll understand at the beginning of each post what a spell (or set of spells) does, who can use it, how you use the spell effectively, when you use it, and wrap up with a few case studies of people who should (and shouldn't) use it and how. As the series continues, when we've finally covered all of the spells available to a hero model, we'll do a recap of that hero and talk about how to balance what you've read about in the previous posts on the blog so you can integrate the various thoughts into a solid game plan. The end-goal is not only to make spell-casters more accessible to new players, but give experienced players an idea of how they could integrate some of the most powerful spell-casters in the game into existing armies they like to run.

Our first spell that we'll be covering is a spell that got a lot of critique under the new rules: Sorcerous Blast. While only available to a handful of models, Sorcerous Blast has the potential to really change your opponent's combat plans - and let's face it, it's a damage spell (so by definition, it's a cool spell - you think we would start with Enchanted Blades?!?!?!?!). Let's see what it does.

TMAT Drafts: Episode 2, Top-30 Leaders, Casters, & Supports for the Forces of Evil

Looking for something (else) to watch this weekend whilst painting that mumak who's still sitting around? Well, Centaur, RedJacket, MinutemanKirk, Tiberius, and Rythbryt are back with their top-30 picks for the forces of evil! Lots of spooky things in here (complete with spooky sound-effects!).

How do you think we did? And what glaring omissions would you have taken instead?

If you missed Part I where we did the forces of good, you can find it here.

TMAT Series: The Bare Necessities

It's great when you know what your opponent is taking in advance. Or if you have the scenarios spelled-out in your tournament pack. But what if all bets are off, and you're flying blind? You know what faction you want to take, and how you like to play, but aren't sure whether you have what it takes to brave the unknown.

In this comprehensive series on balanced list-building, Tiberius (and occasionally some guests) tackle the sometimes tall-order of building 700-point lists that can take on all comers, in as many scenarios as possible. Everything is on the table, from synergies and special rules to bringing in some outside help via allied contingents. Plus you get some free list ideas, too!

• Part I: On Cavalry (or Fast-Moving Infantry) (January 2020)
• Part II: Banners (and pseudo-banners and anti-banners) (January 2020)
• Part III: Numbers (and not-being-broken) (January 2020)
• Part IV: Hero Hunting (or shutting down heroes in general (January 2020)
• Part V: Making Your Heroes Better (and Keeping Them Alive) (February 2020)
• Part VI: Minas Tirith (February 2020)
• Part VII: Isengard (February 2020)
• Part VIII: Rivendell (Feburary 2020) 
• Part IX: Mordor (March 2020)
• Part X: Lothlorien (March 2020)
• Part XI: Angmar (March 2020)
• Part XII: Numenor (March 2020)
• Part XIII: Moria (March 2020)
• Part XIV: The Kingdom of Moria (April 2020)
• Part XV: Rohan (April 2020)
• Part XVI: The Fellowship and Thorin's Company (April 2020)
• Part XVII: The Dead of Dunharrow (April 2020)
• Part XVIII: The Halls of Thranduil (May 2020)
• Part XIX: The Dark Powers of Dol Guldur (May 2020)
• Part XX: The Shire (May 2020)
• Part XXI: Azog's Legion (May 2020)
• Part XXII: The Army of Thror (June 2020)
• Part XXIII: The Corsairs of Umbar (June 2020)
• Part XXIV: Barad-Dur (June 2020)
• Part XXV: Arnor (June 2020)
• Part XXVI: The Easterlings (June 2020)
• Part XXVII: The Variags of Khand (July 2020)
• Part XXVIII: The Chief's Ruffians (July 2020)
• Part XXIX: Erebor Reclaimed (July 2020)
• Part XXX: Azog's Hunters (July 2020)
• Part XXXI: Far Harad (August 2020)

Guest Post: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Tentacle (A Tactica on the Watcher in the Water with Sharpie)

Good morning gamers,

So today we have a guest post that was sent to us on Facebook by one of our readers. Today's tactics discussion centers around using a model I find intriguing (but haven't scrounged up the money to purchase yet): the Watcher in the Water. As an avid Moria player who loves throwing weapons, this model has long been on my list of models to try out (though with me always running the Balrog, I'm not sure I can squeeze this guy into enough games, if I'm honest).

Our guest author, Sharbie, has some interesting thoughts on using one of the most underused monsters in the game - take it away Sharbie!

Announcing the THRO 2020 Tournament!

This is being posted on behalf of our good mate Red Jacket, who has offered to run the THRO 2020 tournament for me!

TMAT’s THRO 2020 Official Tournament Rules

Welcome to the TMAT THRO 2020.  This MESBG tournament will be a return to the longstanding, but briefly disrupted traditions of our small gaming community. We fully anticipate being able to hold this event, and look forward to it with anticipation.  However, the world being what it is, and pandemics being what they are, we are holding the date and the exact location of the event with a light hand.  Current logistical details for this event can be found at the end of this post.  To ensure you are kept up to date as we draw closer, make sure you reach out and express your interest in the event to the tournament director: r3d.jack3t.1853@gmail.com

Without further ado, the tournament rules are as follows:

Historical Formations in MESBG: Tercios, Testudos, and Cantabrian Circles

Good morning gamers,

Before we begin our series on magic, I thought we might take a short digression into a really fascinating thing I’ve been trying in my games recently: trying to replicate real-life military deployment formations in the MESBG system. Yes, not all things are reflected the way they work in real-life in the MESBG system (pikes don’t get any bonuses against cavalry models, for example), but the principles of real-life tactics should be able to be applied at least in part to any kind of tactical deployment game.

If you read my post on Shieldwall, I went through a few different historical formations that can be used in certain situations by units with Shieldwall (Schiltron, Warped Wall, English Formation). Those real-life examples got me thinking about how you can use other real-life formations to better effect in MESBG (or if they even work). Today, we’ll be looking at three different formations – the Spanish Tercio (mixed melee/ranged infantry formation), the Testudo (melee infantry formation), and the Cantabrian Circle (skirmish cavalry formation).

New FAQs hit... RIP Gamling?

Did you free-hand yours yet? Are you wondering if you wasted your life?

Photo Credit: The Hooded Goblin

How's that title for click-bait?

In case you missed it, the latest round of erratas and FAQs dropped over on Warhammer Community yesterday. Apparently the game state is much more balanced than it was last time around, so there are much fewer big-impact changes to report (at least we think so at this point). Here are some of the highlights (or lowlights):

• Gamling's Royal Standard of Rohan now only gives one Rohan hero within 3" a point of Might if they have none, as opposed to all Rohan heroes within 3". My own opinion is that this is definitely a nerf, since it was generally easy to get at least 2 free Might points out of the banner (Gamling + one random hero within 3", which is not hard to do, especially since heroes like the option of banner rerolls). Now it's just one, which means Gamling can still spam Heroic Moves, Marches, and Defense, but only if you're good with him consuming your free Might per turn. The banner is still good (any chance you can replenish heroic stats is good), but the question moving forward will be exactly how good? Is 50 points too much for a 3" banner and one Might per turn, especially when there are other 6" banners that confer bonus effects, which cost less? Time will tell.
• The other highlighted change involves Isengard Demo teams, which now have to have at least two enemy models within 2" of them before you can detonate them (to prevent players from intentionally blowing up half their army to achieve end-game in scenarios that end when one force is quartered). I'm indifferent to this personally, since Isengard is evil and evil has a reputation for killing itself with chariots, war beasts, and other shenanigans for precisely this purpose. But if it's posed enough of a problem in the competitive scene elsewhere to merit a specific call-out from the game developers, I'm not going to complain about it.In smaller FAQs, they also clarified that you cannot place a demo charge in a way that overlaps a model's base, you must drop it so that it touches both bomb carriers, you measure the 2" range from the edges of the demo charge, and you do in fact need one point of Fate for each wound dealt by a Demo charge (not sure why that was ever a question). Again, all this seems eminently reasonable to me.
• A sneaky small clarification that could end up being bigger (in the long term) than either of the above: you can no longer shield if you've been Immobilized or Transfixed (the same would be true of Commanded and Compelled, too, since you suffer the effects of Immobilize / Transfix at the end of being Commanded or Compelled). Transfix was already good against big heroes since it prevents them from making strikes if they win combats, so this makes it even more devastating against big heroes with shields.

The last FAQ I'll highlight is the only one that I'm not sure is quite as clear as it needs to be. Here's the question and answer:

Q: How are models that cannot normally be directly affected by Magical Powers that would prevent them from moving (such as Smaug or the Mumâk) affected by Special Rules that would make them suffer the effects of the Paralyse Magical Power, but that technically aren’t Magical Powers (such as a Mirkwood Spider’s Spider Web or Shelob’s Caught in a Web Brutal Power Attack)? (p. 194)

A: Models that cannot be prevented from moving (such as Smaug or a Mûmak) will be unaffected by Special Rules that make them suffer the effects of the Paralyse Magical Power.

I have some questions about this one, and I'm not sure what the answers are:

1. The question and answer reference Smaug and the Mumak as "models that cannot be prevented from moving." As far as I can tell, this is referring to the Immovable Object special rule for War Beasts (Rules p. 81) and Smaug (Armies of the Hobbit p. 129), but that's not exactly what Immovable Object says. Models with Immovable Object can't be knocked Prone, Hurled, be trapped, or back away (unless to another model with Immovable Object with a larger base size), but the rule doesn't say they "cannot be prevented from moving." In fact, we know that War Beasts can in fact be prevented from moving--if they're charged, for example (Rules p. 80). We also know that War Beasts can in fact be moved against their will--Stampede! may or may not be an example of this (depending on whether you think this is the war beast moving "against its will," or willing itself to run roughshod in the direction chosen by your enemy), but a Command or Transfix that is successfully cast on the driver certainly is. In fact, the language on Rules p. 81 describes these powers as "imped[ing] a War Beast model's movement (thereby causing it to remain stationary or take a move as described by the Magical Power)."
2. Where this could matter--and where I think the ambiguity may cause problem--is with models that don't have the Immovable Object rule, but do have rules that explicitly grant them immunity to magical powers that prevent them from moving or force them to move against their will. In other words, Ents with the Fangorn army bonus (Armies of the Lord of the Rings p. 90). Perhaps it was always understood that you couldn't Paralyze Treebeard, and I just missed it. Maybe that's a change. Either way, I think the FAQ as written would render Ents completely unaffected by Paralyze, which means Tiberius was right after all: Treebeard by far the best good Monster model in the game. 

Other random changes / clarifications that may interest only me:

Hobbit Smials Update

Hey Reader!

Been a crazy several months for me, but wanted to do a quick Shire Board update, as we finished a few more pieces for it.

ForgeWorld has a hobbit hole (or smial) set out, and my wife was so cool and got it for me for my birthday! The set comes with two windows and two chimneys, but the most interesting thing is the double-sided door/entryway:

So I decided to try my hand at cutting the double-sided entryway into two usable entryways, starting with a guiding line that would miss the inset details on either side, and then shaving down: 

And let me tell you, it was really hard because of how the resin piece is designed, but I made it through! Not super pretty, but it will do the job. And the back will be up against the polystyrene, so who cares what the back looks like, :P

So, with our ForgeWorld pieces ready, it was time to cut some polystyrene!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXI: Far Harad

Good morning gamers,

Today we look at the last faction for our Bare Necessities series (at least for now): Far Harad. One of the most expensive armies in the MESBG game (and not currently available in the GW store), Far Harad features an all-Strength 4 faction (or higher!), paired with terrifying infantry (Half Trolls), decent spear-support models (Mahud Warriors), and line-breaking cavalry (Impaling camel riders with war spears). While F3 is pretty standard across the army (and only one named hero), their profile selection is quite small, but their customizability and flexibility is fantastic.

Since the models aren't in the GW store at the moment (and the models themselves are GW creations), those on a budget can get historical Camels and Zulu Warriors for not as much money...

While I don't play Far Harad, Rythbryt does (he faced me in Battle Companies with them, it was very eye-opening), so he volunteered to help me cover this faction - take it away Rythbryt!