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.

Who has these spells?

While our list won't have as many units as our last post on Immobilize/Transfix, we have four spells to cover, so here's the matrix of the models we'll be viewing:

Character	Aura of Command	Aura of Dismay	Blinding Light	Terrifying Aura
Celeborn	2+
Cirdan	2+	5+	2+
Galadriel			2+
Gandalf the Grey			2+	2+
Gandalf the White			2+	2+
Radagast the Brown		5+		2+
Saruman the White	2+			2+
Saruman				2+
Sharkey				2+
Thranduil with the Circlet of Kings		Automatic

A few things you'll notice about the chart above: first, a few of the models only have access to one of these auric spells (Celeborn, Galadriel, Saruman, Sharkey, and Thranduil). Having only one of these doesn't make choosing when to cast the spell (or whether to cast the spell at all) easier, but we'll discuss that later. 

Second, most of the models that have Terrifying Aura (not Isengard Saruman or Sharkey) have another of these auric spells. This often means that two turns are required before you engage in order to get up all of their buffs. As we've already discussed, Terrifying Aura is useful in keeping low-to-average Courage models from swarming you, so getting it up is useful, but learning to balance that with casting your other auric spell option (let alone any other spells you might have) can be quite tricky.

Third, most of the spells (not Aura of Dismay) are cast on a 2+, which means that (generally speaking) you won't need Might to cast the spell. This, added to the fact that it's an augment spell (and so cannot be resisted), makes these spells easily cast by their casters. That said, certain casters might want to use 2 Will to cast a spell to make it even less likely that they need to spend an all-important Might point to cast the spell.

Fourth, only two of the models on the list are evil models (and these models only have Terrifying Aura). The lack of these buffs on evil models is somewhat mitigated by other magical powers (such as Fury) or by special rules that confer similar effects (like the Pall of Darkness rule for the Shadow Lord or the army bonus for Angmar). We won't get into whether it's "right" or "wrong" for these magical powers to favor Forces of Good (there are plenty of alignment-exclusive spells in the game), but it's worth at least noting it for awareness.

How do you use these spells effectively?

As with the other spells we've looked at so far, there are some general guidelines for casting these spells:

• Aim for at least a 50% probability of success;
• Throw an extra Will point if you want to avoid having to spend a Might point; and
• Cast it when it matters.

The Rule of 50%

We've used the "Rule of 70%" in both our posts for Sorcerous Blast and Immobilize - recall that the idea behind a 70% probability of success is that a) it'll be passed a good deal of the time that you try it (nearly three-out-of-four times), b) it's a good level of acceptability, since no spell is guaranteed to be cast successfully (we'll make a bit of an exception to that rule in this post), and c) 70% is conveniently reachable for casting a spell with a difficulty of a 5+ when you use three dice.

This is a good rule to have IF you're concerned about a resisting roll OR if you're channelling the spell and want it to go off. However, in these cases, we're casting augments on ourselves - there's no resist roll and if we're not channelling it, we aren't losing much if we mess up (especially since most of these characters have a free Will point each turn). As such, we're lowering our threshold for acceptable risk to 50%.

"You saw that table above - no matter how many cool models show up in this post, it's ALL about ME!"

The good news about the spells in our list today is that three of them are cast by everyone who has them on a 2+ - which means you can get to an 83% probability of success by spending 1 point of Will (so you meet the 50% rule easily - and the 70% rule as well). Since most of the casters in our list have a free point of Will anyway (not Celeborn or Sharkey - and Thranduil is a bit of a special case), this means that your free Will point should be enough to get off Aura of Command, Blinding Light, or Terrifying Aura (depending on what you have).

Some heroes have limited Will stores - do you need to cast these spells?

For Celeborn and Sharkey, you can still spend 1 Will point to cast each of their auric spells (Aura of Command for Celeborn, Terrifying Aura for Sharkey). It's important to note that since these guys have limited Will (and both of these spells are Exhaustion spells), spending more than 1 Will point to cast the spell is a big risk, since you need to have 1 Will left in your store to get the benefits of the spell. Spend 2 Will to cast and 1 Will to keep the spell going, and you're done as a spell-caster for the game. Yes, you may need to spend a Might point to make it work, but that's just the risk you need to take (and - spoiler alert - DON'T channel with either of these guys).

Aura of Dismay: is it worth spending the resources? And how many Will points are you going to spend?

While most of the spells we're covering in this post are easy to cast, Aura of Dismay is quite different: cast on a 5+ by Cirdan and Radagast the Brown (the only "really hard" spell for either of these casters), you need to spend 2 Will points (free Will + 1 from store) in order to get to the 50% mark. For Radagast the Brown (3 Might and 6 Will), you can cast the spell pretty reliably and not be hurt too much (especially since you cast most of your other spells on a 2+ or a 3+), but Cirdan is a different story (1 Might and 4 Will). Both CAN do it, but it'll be easier for Radagast.

"Aura of Dismay? Hard to cast, you say? Not if you accessorize properly . . ."

Thranduil is, as we said, a special case - he doesn't really get free Will points to cast his spells, but he kind of does. Since the Circlet of Kings allows him to automatically cast Aura of Dismay once per game (and Nature's Wrath), it's like he rolled a free Will point and "got a 6 to cast it". This is not only the only situation where you're going to have a guarantee of casting a spell, but it also means that a spell that's notoriously difficult to cast is . . . well . . . not that hard.

Adding an Extra Will point?

As a veteran Lothlorien player, there is very little that frustrates me more than rolling a 1 on my channelled Blinding Light attempt (costs me 1 Might to channel and an extra Might point to cast). So what have I started doing? Using an extra Will point! While the 50% rule is good, a channelled spell needs to go off. My general rule is to throw an extra Will point (where possible) at any spell that needs to go off - this is certainly true of channelled spells, but also true of Immobilize/Sorcerous Blast spells that "need to work right now".

Four models who can cast Blinding Light - great against archery, often requires a channel . . .

While I'm not sure this is necessary for Aura of Command or Aura of Dismay (unless you channel them - which I wouldn't), Blinding Light will often be channelled and so benefits from an extra die. I think a channelled Terrifying Aura would merit an extra die as well if you thought that it was necessary. As I've recommended with Gandalf the Grey, decide on the first turn whether you need to channel Blinding Light - if you do, channel Blinding Light and cast Terrifying Aura normally. If you decide you don't need to channel Blinding Light, then channel Terrifying Aura instead (channelling both will dry up your Might store too quickly . . . unless you've brought Tom Bombadil with you).

Is It The Right Time?

In MESBG, as with other areas of life, timing matters. Generally speaking, you want all of these spells up before combat begins, but when do you need to cast them? We know intuitively that Blinding Light is good to cast before your opponent starts shooting at you, but in Clash by Moonlight, this will be when our force nears the 12" max-range your opponent (casting it beforehand exposes you to archery earlier than normal - who wants that?). We also know that we want Terrifying Aura (and Aura of Command/Dismay) up before anyone can charge us (or before we charge other people, in the case of Aura of Command) - in Maelstrom scenarios, this probably means on the first turn (but isn't necessarily needed early in the game in other scenarios). If you are playing a center-line-deployment scenario, you may struggle to cast this spell at all because you'll likely be thrust into combat on the first or second turn and might need to use offensive spells to stall your opponent's units.

Cirdan: a simple way to make these Elves very hard to kill . . . but do you cast everything right away?

All of this just goes to show that timing is important - but there's another facet to this that should be recognized: casting an auric spell right away (like Aura of Dismay) can change the way that our opponent plays - as can NOT casting an auric spell right away. If you have Cirdan behind a line of High Elves and cast Aura of Dismay on the first turn, your opponent knows that committing troops to fight Cirdan and whatever troops are near him will require high Courage/Courage-related special rules to be effective. Waiting to cast Aura of Dismay means that charging Cirdan's troops MIGHT require high Courage, but currently doesn't. Will that change the way your opponent plays? Maybe.

When do you use them (and in what order)?

Perhaps a moment ago, you were tempted to say, "When do I cast <name_the_spell>? That's easy, Tiberius, you cast it right away!" In some scenarios, that will be true - if you are far away from your opponent and have nothing better to do, cast away (especially if you can cast it on a free Will point).

But there are two complicating factors that will affect what order you cast these spells in and when you cast them: scenario deployment/other rules and enemy army composition.

I'm repainting Saruman, this time experimenting with object source lighting . . .

Saruman (Isengard version) has it the easiest of the people in this list, since he only has Terrifying Aura (cast on a 2+ with a free rerollable Will point), but even he has to decide whether to channel it or not. Does your opponent have high Courage? If so, will channelling the spell matter? As we already mentioned, an opponent who is C5+ is still more likely to charge Saruman whether he channels it or not - so maybe channeling it isn't worth the lost Might point. Similarly, if you're facing an army with Bodyguard/Sworn Protector/Fearless across it (Theodred's Guard, for example), you definitely don't want to waste resources channelling the spell.

Cirdan: "Good news, boys, you all cause Terror. bad news is they're more afraid of HIM . . ."

The same mathematics goes for Aura of Dismay: if your opponent can pass Courage tests easily, is it worth the resources spent to cast such a difficult spell (assuming it costs you resources)? Sure, all models that don't auto-pass Courage tests have a chance of failing, but we're talking about the comparative advantages here of spending limited resources to get off a spell that's hard. Not a difficult call for Radagast in my mind (though not spending Will to cast Aura of Dismay in order to cast Nature's Wrath, Panic Steed, or Immobilize more reliably might be worth it), but Cirdan will certainly take a think.

Aura of Command is a no-brainer for Saruman the White (you basically won't fail on your rerollable free Will point), but Celeborn needs to be more thoughtful (as his Will store is far more limited). Will either of them channel it? I think you'd need a compelling reason. But do you even need this spell before your army is broken if they don't have Terror-causing units (or units who do things to you based on your Courage value)? Of all the spells, I think this is the simplest one to cast on the first turn, since it doesn't change the way your opponent plays (necessarily) - it just gives you the flexibility to have any units near the caster tackle any Terrifying units they want to.

"So you shut down archery, huh? That's cute . . ."

Similarly, if your opponent has little to no archery, do you need to channel (let alone cast) Blinding Light? We've seen a lot of armies here at TMAT that bring a handful of archers (I don't tend to run these lists - the more the merrier when it comes to archers in my book). Casting Blinding Light might not only be unnecessary (especially channelling it), but might just encourage my opponent to ignore the fact that he brought bows in the first place and instead focus on piling his archers into melee fights (archers are swordsmen, after all).

But also consider the scenario rules: did your opponent deploy on the center line? Did you? If so, do you have a chance of casting Terrifying Aura before you need to be worried about casting Immobilize or Sorcerous Blast or Panic Steed? Is there time to properly kit out your caster before the main event begins? Is it a maelstrom fight (and will your caster be exposed on Turn 1 to archery or threatened by charging cavalry on Turn 2)?

"Shagrat be a-coming - at least he's not a Ringwraith and trying to take away all my Will . . ."

There is one other big consideration: how much offensive magic does your opponent have? If your opponent has a lot of casters (multiple Ringwraiths, for example), these spells are unlikely to stay active (Saruman has the best chance of keeping his boosts alive, since he doesn't need to spend Will to cast his spells reliably AND he can reroll his resist attempts). While Resistant to Magic/Fortify Spirit/Protection of the Valar/other resistance rules are/can be present on a few of these models, a free die (or two) won't be a reliable deterrent against a spell that was cast on a high value (Cirdan is Resistant to Magic, Celeborn/Galadriel are Resistant to Magic with the Lothlorien army bonus, Celeborn/Saruman the White/Radagast/Gandalf the Grey can get the White Council army bonus if near someone else from the White Council, Gandalf the White has Fortify Spirit, Gandalf the Grey can cast Protection of the Valar). If these heroes are going to be targeted by magic, perhaps the auric, exhaustion buffs listed here should just be viewed as a temporary boost (or avoided entirely).

To better understand how to use these spells, let's look at an example of each spell for different characters in the game (how the spell works for one model is pretty much how it works for other models that have the spell).

Terrifying Aura Use Case Study: Saruman the White

As has already been mentioned, Saruman (from the White Council) casts Terrifying Aura and Aura of Command very easily thanks to his reroll. Channeling Terrifying Aura is particularly good with him on the first turn because it will keep him from being charged as easily by most units in the game. Saving your actual Will points is good, since you'll need Will to resist magic (unless you've got Galadriel, Lady of Light on your team) and to make sure your important spells go off (as we discussed in the Sorcerous Blast post, you can cast Sorcerous Blast on a single die pretty reliably too - so you really only need your Will when you need something to work).

Conveniently, this post (when taken with our previous posts on Sorcerous Blast and Immobilize/Command) covers all of the spells available to Saruman the White. As such, here's how I'd recommend using him:

• If you have at least one turn before you are within 18" of enemy models, channel Terrifying Aura (on just your rerollable free die) if your opponent isn't flush with Fearless models (or some other way of passing Courage tests automatically). If your opponent has Bodyguard/Sworn Protector, use Saruman (or anyone else in your list, for that matter) to kill the army leader/sworn-protector as soon as possible (Sorcerous Blast works pretty well).
• If you have at least two turns before you are within 18" of enemy models, cast Aura of Command (on just your rerollable free die) if your opponent has any Terror models (or if you've allied with any faction that has low Courage and you're worried about breaking).
• Once you're within 18" of enemy models, cast Command (on just your rerollable free die) to draw models out of the enemy battle line (prioritizing heroes who can be shot at or moved backwards to arrive later in the game than they otherwise would). Models that provide an auric boost (such as banners, Shades, and Shamans) are great targets.
• Only cast Immobilize if you need to root someone in place and it "needs to work" (use your free rerollable Will point only) - the difference between an 89% chance of casting Command and a 97% chance of casting Immobilize is slim, but it matters (trust me, it matters).
• Once you're within 12" of enemy models, cast Sorcerous Blast to start killing things. If you're using Sorcerous Blast to dismount/neutralize a hero, use your free Will point and one additional die to cast the spell (reroll the lowest to get the highest possible casting roll). Otherwise, just use your free rerollable Will point. Target models that can't resist the spell where possible (generally, this means warrior models, but heroes who have worked hard to stop Command spells are great too).

Blinding Light Use Case Study: Gandalf the White

Blinding Light is really important if you rely on horses to keep your team alive . . .

Gandalf the White has a lot of great spells - and most of them benefit from being channelled. Making yourself harder to charge by channelling Terrifying Aura is great. Making an anti-archery bubble with a channelled Blinding Light is huge. Getting +1 to your resist rolls with two free dice by channelling Fortify Spirit is fantastic (we'll cover this in a few weeks). Dealing multiple wounds (probably) with a channelled Banishment against spirit models is amazing (we'll cover this spell soon as well).

Problems arise, though, since you only have 3 Might points and LOTS of spells that want to be channelled. Sure, if you're not facing any casters, you don't need Fortify Spirit, and sure, if your opponent has little to no archery, you don't need to channel Blinding Light. There are a few armies that pass Courage tests automatically with everyone (or nearly everyone) that could make Terrifying Aura unnecessary, but what happens when you're facing an army that has low Courage and no auto-passing Courage tests, decent archery, and spell-casters (certain Mordor builds, for example)?

If you can be hit the first round with archery (siege engines or center-deployment scenarios), I'd channel Blinding Light on the first turn - you just don't want to have a freak incident occur on Turn 1. Next, you want to cast Fortify Spirit on Gandalf (don't bother channeling, UNLESS you have 3+ Ringwraiths around). Turn 3 you can cast Terrifying Aura on yourself if you want to, but if the fighting has already started, you need to get out there and be offensive (Sorcerous Blast as recommended in a previous post, Immobilize as recommended in a previous post, Banishment if there are Ringwraiths/Barrow-Wights/Shades/Sauron/the Balrog/the Necromancer).

Aura of Dismay Use Case Study: Cirdan

Why is Bilbo in this picture? Because I like the model (and Cirdan already got a solo shot - can't let all the attention get to his head). :)

Cirdan has all three of the area-of-effect auric buffs we've been talking about today (Aura of Command, Aura of Dismay, and Blinding Light). While I recommend Blinding Light be cast by Gandalf first, I think Cirdan needs to begin with Aura of Dismay: since he only has 1 Might point (and would need to spend that channelling Blinding Light if he cast that first), you want to try casting Aura of Dismay first so you have your Might point to "make it work". Spending 2 Will from your store in addition to your free Will point should see the spell go off, but if you fail to get the required 5+, you have a Might point to boost a roll of a 4 if required (you should get a 4+ 87.5% of the time).

If you are required to boost the casting attempt with your Might point, you can choose to cast Blinding Light every turn until archery isn't a danger. This will require you to not be charged or Immobilized before you cast, but at least it's still doable. If your opponent didn't bring archery (or nothing you're afraid of), you don't have to channel Blinding Light, and so you can start by casting Aura of Command and then delay casting Aura of Dismay until your opponent has committed troops towards Cirdan's location. Then, you can pop Aura of Dismay and see if your opponent continues to come towards you.

Aura of Dismay on Cirdan is really useful, since High Elves are already very difficult for most armies to shift. If you add to their amazing base profile the Terror rule, you've got a line that is difficult to charge and difficult to kill once you do charge them. Against a handful of armies, you might not need to cast this though (Moria Goblins near a Balrog, for example), so decide before the game whether or not you need to spend resources casting this. If you decide you don't want to cast it, you can spend your free Will point and 1 Will from store to channel Blinding Light, then cast Aura of Command normally, then spend the rest of the game casting Enchanted Blades on a friendly model (spending just your free die). Save your last available Will in your store for a second attempt at Aura of Dismay should you fail to cast it the first time.

Aura of Command "Use Case" Study: Celeborn

"You boys aren't scared, right? Do I have to cast a spell that makes you charge scary stuff or keep you from fleeing for your lives?"

Aura of Command is probably the least necessary in general of the spells we've covered - though admittedly, any failed Courage tests you get will make you rue the day you chose not to cast this spell. On Saruman the White, you should always cast it normally (2+ rerollable on a free Will point - you've got nothing to lose and a very small chance of failure). Celeborn, however, probably won't cast this unless you're facing a Terror-Harbinger army (and most of those have access to Sap Will, which would be bad for Celeborn - but fighting the Army of the Dead would make this spell really useful). 

The primary reason I think this spell will hardly ever be cast is because of Celeborn's other two spells: Immobilize (see our last post) and Enchanted Blades. While Immobilize makes your opponent's models less powerful (denies them the ability to make Strikes, perform heroic actions, etc. - and might save you the need to call a Strike on a particular turn, giving you more Striking longevity during the game), Enchanted Blades makes Celeborn (or someone nearby) much better at killing. While Celeborn already gets 1 reroll thanks to Lord of the West, getting rerolls on the other 2-5 dice (depending on whether you're fighting a model that's trapped) can be lethal. Other good choices include Galadhrim Captains (when mounted) and Haldir (who is not as punchy as Celeborn, but isn't too far behind and is NOT a Lord of the West). It can also be useful on Galadriel in Contest of Champions (because every little bit helps).

Casting the regular version of Aura of Command on a single die would be reliable (could cost you 1 Might point) and would leave you 1 Will point to resist magical attacks while still keeping the Courage buff up (paired with your Resistant to Magic rule, if you keep the army bonus, Celeborn's got a decent shot at stopping a spell that was not cast on a 6). 

Terrifying Aura, Aura of Command, Aura of Dismay, and Blinding Light

These four auric spells can be game-changers - and they are often the primary reason the hero is chosen for a force (we don't bring Cirdan for Enchanted Blades, am I right?). Choosing to take these heroes often comes at a price somewhere else (smaller numbers, fewer combat heroes - unless you chose to take Celeborn or Thranduil, or a "sub-optimal" army leader). Still, I think these auric boosts have an important place in the arsenals of all the heroes who have them and understanding how they work is important.

In the last three posts, we've covered five of the spells available to Gandalf (in either form). With three spells left to cover on Gandalf the Grey (Collapse Rocks, Protection of the Valar, Strengthen Will) and four spells left on Gandalf the White (Banishment, Fortify Spirit, Strengthen Will, Your Staff is Broken), our next post will be looking at the spells that give heroic resources (or wounds) back to friendly models. 

The spells we'll be covering are Strengthen Will (gain Will), Blessing of the Valar (restore Fate), Renew (restore Wounds), and Refreshing Song (restore Might/Will/Fate/Wounds). These spells are possessed by only a few people in the game (all of them Forces of Good casters) and have a very important place in any list building endeavors because they can extend the longevity of your heroes. Should be fun - until next time, happy hobbying!