Mastering Magic: Area of Effect Spells

Good morning gamers,

Today we start our fifth post in our "masterclass" series on Magic in MESBG. We've looked at Sorcerous Blast, Immobilize (et al), auric spells, and restoration spells. Today we look at some of the most fun spells in the game: area-of-effect offensive spells! As fun as rooting a model in place can be, as great as regaining heroic resources is, and as awesome as augmenting models around you is, we REALLY want to do massive damage. While you can do that with Sorcerous Blast under certain conditions, it's easier with some other spells - or is it? The spells we'll be covering today are: Collapse Rocks, Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, Panic Steed, and Tremor.

What Do These Spells Do?

These spells can be grouped together in different ways, but here's the basics of each spell:

• Panic Steed removes the mount of the target (becomes an area-of-effect when channelled);
• Nature's Wrath knocks enemy models Prone near the caster (and deals S2 hits when channelled);
• Wrath of Bruinen also knocks enemy models Prone near the caster, but also inflicts a S2 hit (channel for higher Strength on the hits);
• Collapse Rocks deals a S5 hit to a target model that is near a rocky piece of terrain (becomes an area-of-effect when channelled); and
• Tremor deals a S6 hit and knocks models Prone who are on a D6" line away from the target model.

All of these spells have the ability to affect an area of the board - but some require you to channel them in order to get the area of effect to occur. Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, and Tremor all affect a given area of the board (3" around the caster for Wrath of Bruinen and Nature's Wrath, D6" line away from the target for Tremor). Collapse Rocks and Panic Steed become area of effect spells when channelled (2" around the target for Collapse Rocks, 3" around the target for Panic Steed).

Most of these spells also knock their targets Prone: any hostile figure within the affected area of Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, or Tremor are Knocked Prone (with cavalry suffering from Knocked Flying instead of rolling on the Thrown Rider chart). Collapse Rocks and Panic Steed don't innately Knock Prone, but Panic Steed does require a roll on the Thrown Rider chart.

Most of these spells do damage: Wrath of Bruinen does Strength 2 hits (Strength 3 if channelled, Strength 8/9 if the target is in a water feature) to all affected models, Collapse Rocks does a Strength 5 hit to all affected models (so long as the targets are near a rocky piece of terrain), and Tremor does a Strength 6 hit to all affected models. Panic Steed removes the mounts of the affected models, but otherwise doesn't do any damage. Nature's Wrath does no damage innately, but does a Strength 2 hit to all affected models if channelled (basically becomes Wrath of Bruinen without the water feature rule).

Finally, most of these spells affect only enemy models. Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, and Panic Steed only harm enemy models (which makes them great spells to cast when your opponent charges one of your battle lines). Collapse Rocks and Tremor have to be used more carefully, since their damage (Strength 5 and Strength 6 hits!) are suffered by both friendly and enemy models.

For those of you who like charts, here's the visual summary of what is described above:

	Collapse Rocks	Nature's Wrath	Panic Steed	Tremor	Wrath of Bruinen
Area of Effect?	*	X	*	X	X
Knock Targets Prone?		X	**	X	X
Damage Spell?	X	*	**	X	X
Affect Only Enemy Models?		X	X		X

* Channelled version meets the requirement

** Models that get a 1 on the Thrown Rider chart will be Prone and take a S3 hit

Who's Got These Spells?

Like the heroic resource restoration spells we covered last time, most of these spells are monopolized by a single model:

• Only Gandalf the Grey has Collapse Rocks;
• Only Elrond and Arwen have Wrath of Bruinen;
• Only Radagast the Brown and Thranduil (if he has the Circlet of Kings) have Nature's Wrath;
• Only Radagast the Brown has Panic Steed; and
• Only Moria Blackshield Shamans have Tremor.

The sad thing is that some of these spells might never be cast. Wrath of Bruinen is amazing for Elrond and Arwen (it's Arwen's only spell), Panic Steed/Nature's Wrath are pretty good spells for Radagast, and Thranduil can auto-cast Nature's Wrath once per game, so you should definitely do that. The other two spells (Collapse Rocks and Tremor) are unlikely to be used, unless very specific requirements are met. Let's look at what those are:

• Gandalf the Grey is the only hero with Collapse Rocks. Cast on a 5+, it does the same amount of damage as Sorcerous Blast, but is a) limited to being cast near actual rocks (makes sense), b) is a precision hit unless channelled to be an area-of-effect hit, and c) needs to compete with Gandalf's other non-damage spells (like Immobilize or Strengthen Will, both of which are cast on an easier difficulty level);
• Tremor is cast by a Moria Blackshield Shaman on a 5+ as well, and with only 3 Will points and 1 Might point, you probably wouldn't cast this spell over Shatter (cast on a 3+) UNLESS you're facing a huge horde army and you have a chance to knock out a bunch of models.

How Do You Use These Spells Most Effectively?

Most of these spells are pretty hard to cast - Tremor and Collapse Rocks are cast on a 5+ (as has already been mentioned), while spells like Wrath of Bruinen and Nature's Wrath are cast on a 4+ by the models that have them (except for Thranduil, who casts Nature's Wrath once per game for free on a 6 if you give him the Circlet of Kings). Panic Steed is the only spell that's easily cast (excepting, again, Nature's Wrath from Thranduil), since it's cast on a 2+ (on a free die most of the time - it's ridiculous). Given how hard it can be to cast these spells, here are some guidelines for using them:

• Spend enough Will to cast the spell with a 70% reliability;
• Plan your area of effect radius; and
• Know when to channel these spells.

1) The 70% Success Guideline

If you've followed this series, you know that my general rule is a 70% probability of success for spells that target enemy models and a 50% probability of success for spells that target friendly models (including the caster himself). For area-of-effect spells, a single model that will be affected can make a resisting roll on behalf of the entire group. More than other kinds of spells, it's important to get as high a roll as possible.

When trying to cast with a 70% chance of success, you can cast each spell as follows (we won't be looking at Thranduil - his is nuanced but straight-forward):

• Radagast the Brown - Panic Steed (2+): free Will point = 83%
• Radagast the Brown - Nature's Wrath (4+): free Will point + 1 Will = 75%
• Elrond/Arwen - Wrath of Bruinen (4+): 2 Will (which could be a free Will point + 1 Will for Elrond if Lindir is nearby) = 75%
• Gandalf the Grey - Collapse Rocks (5+): free Will point + 2 Will = 70%
• Moria Blackshield Shaman - Tremor (5+): 3 Will = 70% OR 2 Will + 1 Might =75%

To your steed I say, "Oogga-boogga!"

Radagast should be able to cast both of his spells in this category for a while during the game (though you might run out of cavalry targets to hit with Panic Steed before the game ends). Nature's Wrath has great utility against models that are both infantry and cavalry and only requires him to spend 1 Will point in addition to his free die if he wants to use it.

When a spell is hard to cast, make it count and cast it fewer times than you otherwise might

The other spells will be difficult to cast: Elrond and Arwen are basically aiming at two successful casts each game (could get three casts out of Elrond reliably if you keep Lindir nearby). As mentioned in our discussion of Sorcerous Blast, Gandalf the Grey is going to struggle in casting this spell, as it requires a great amount of resources to make it work (though admittedly, you could clear a large area of enemy models with a channelled Collapse Rocks).

Moria Goblin archer that "leveled up" into a Blackshield Shaman.

The Moria Blackshield Shaman only has 3 Will points, so casting Tremor reliably requires either spending all of his Will points OR spending 2 Will points and saving his Might point to boost the spell. This would save 1 Will point for casting Shatter, which we'll cover in a different post (and you'll have a Might point to help it go off if your Tremor spell didn't need it OR if your Tremor spell wouldn't have worked with it).

2) Plan Your Area-Of-Effect Radius

Want to stop a Wrath of Bruinen attack? Ironically, have lots of Ringwraiths around . . .

Area-of-effect spells allow any one model that is affected to resist on behalf of the group: this means that if you get a Ringwraith in the radius of a Wrath of Bruinen spell, your spell is probably going to be resisted. Sure, you will deplete some of the Ringwraith's Will, but if you're near a Witch-King with upwards of 15 Will and the Crown of Morgul for a reroll, the impact of your cast will be MUCH lower than if you had just avoided the Ringwraith entirely.

All of the spells in this list besides Tremor do a radius of effect that's pretty tight (2-3" around the caster or the target of the spell), which means you can cover a fairly large area, but it's not THAT large. Making sure you hit a banner, just barely clipping a cavalry model or two, or something similar will give you far more usefulness out of a spell that you'll likely cast only a few times. As was mentioned in a comment on our last post, the reduced area-of-effect for Nature's Wrath and Wrath of Bruinen can be a good thing because it can make avoiding good magic resistors easier.

When targeting a model with Tremor, however, your planning is a bit different: the range of this affect goes away from the caster and is of a variable length. Since you're looking for models that are touched by a line drawn directly away from the caster through the target (basically Sorcerous Blast without flinging anyone), you want to have this cut across a battle line OR directly through the supporting models of an enemy battle line. You will likely get a single chance at this - so make it count and get as many models as possible lined up for the shot! Finally, make sure the target of the spell is someone who can't resist (or only gets one die to resist a spell that will be cast on a 5 or 6) and is 1" away from a really important enemy model (since the spell might only affect models 1" away in a straight line from the target).

3) When Do You Channel These Spells?

As mentioned above, channelling Collapse Rocks and Panic Steed is required to make them area-of-effect spells. I think if you use Collapse Rocks, you want to always channel it (otherwise, just cast Sorcerous Blast). Panic Steed is useful as a channelled spell against a large cavalry block, but if your opponent is clever, he'll spread out his cavalry to avoid this. If you know that there will be a clump of cavalry (let's say you charge them to hold them in place OR they are Easterling Kataphrakts and they're trying to increase their Defense), channel the spell (otherwise, pick off a hero or a model that is scoring VPs who is mounted).

Tremor should never be channelled - you have a reasonable chance to cast it when you throw 3 dice at the spell, but every little bit helps. By not channeling it, you lose out on an extra D6" of affected space, but generally speaking, I don't think you need that much coverage area.

Wrath of Bruinen increases the damage you do by +1 Strength, which can be useful - like Tremor, though, I don't think you want to channel this spell. Instead, save the Might to boost the casting attempt. I generally find that it's best to cast this spell against models that can't resist UNLESS you've got multiple Wrath of Bruinen characters in the same list and they can cast it on the same turn in the same area (so if one is resisted, the other one succeeds).

Nature's Wrath benefits a lot from being channelled (though Thranduil can't channel), since it goes from just knocking models Prone to knocking them Prone and doing a Strength 2 hit to all affected enemy models. While just knocking models Prone is quite useful, doing some extra damage is very useful too. As we mentioned in our podcast on Good Spellcasters, you can get an obnoxiously large area size for this spell if Radagast is riding on his Sleigh and turned so that the side of the sleigh is next to the enemy battle line. Thranduil's Elk has quite a large base as well.

When Do You Use It?

Because of their range, some of these spells will have to be cast when your opponent gets close to you: Collapse Rocks and Tremor both have a 6" range for the initial target, while Wrath of Bruinen and Nature's Wrath both target the caster of the spell and affect a 3" radius around the caster. The only spell that can be cast from a safe distance is Panic Steed, but since this will target cavalry models, you're really only able to cast it once before the enemy cavalry are able to engage you or your bodyguards.

Collapse Rocks, as has already been mentioned, requires that your target be near a rocky piece of terrain, so you'll need to account for that when determining if this is a spell worth casting. The area-of-effect that comes from the channelled version of this spell would be very welcome if your opponent has already engaged your models - a channelled spell would affect up to three ranks of models and up to five files of soldiers, which is pretty ridiculous.

Panic Steed should be employed as early as possible, with Radagast moving forward, casting, and then retreating to put as much space between him and enemy cavalry models as possible. As we'll see in the case study, there is often a three-way-tug between Panic Steed, Immobilize, and Nature's Wrath for Radagast once the fighting begins (with the occasional Renew spell too).

Given these thoughts, let's look at a few case studies on how to use them.

"Use" Case Study: Gandalf the Grey and Collapse Rocks

"This spell isn't my shining hour, but sure, I'll pose for the camera!"

Gandalf the Grey, as we've covered in the Sorcerous Blast, Immobilize, and Auric spells posts, has a lot of things clamoring for his Might points: channelling Blinding Light, calling a Heroic Strike, calling Heroic Moves, and boosting spells/dueling/wounding rolls. Collapse Rocks is one of Gandalf's most difficult spells, it has a very limited range, and it's really only appealing if you can channel it (and are playing on the right kind of map) - this really argues against its use. 

I've used Gandalf a fair bit in the new edition and have yet to cast this spell - conceptually, a channelled area-of-effect spell would be really nice, but I'll generally just go with Sorcerous Blast (since it does a few collateral S3 hits without channeling, while the area-of-effect nature of a channelled Collapse Rocks is highly conditional even though it does stronger hits to those that are affected).

Use Case Study: Elrond and Arwen and Wrath of Bruinen

500-point Daddy-Daughter Date

Elrond and Arwen are great models - and you can run them together for around 250 points (and they can lead 21 High Elf models - you've got a neat little daddy-daughter 500-point list right there). Both heroes can be mounted, which gives them an incredible threat area with Wrath of Bruinen.

Most of the time, however, I run Elrond on foot - Wrath of Bruinen is a great spell, but it's best employed when your opponent is close to you (like when you're charging his battle line with your infantry shieldwall). If Elrond is mounted, his damage radius becomes a bit bigger, affecting more models and dealing more damage (which is good). The same is true for Arwen (and more so since Asfaloth gets extra movement and Fleetfoot at the same cost as a normal horse - baller that). At some point, I really need to get a mounted Elrond to go with my mounted Arwen . . .

Wrath of Bruinen isn't one of those spells that works when you're far away from your own troops (like Sorcerous Blast or Command) - you want to charge anyone who ends up on the ground so that a) the models that charge into the Prone models are unable to be wounded by the Prone models they charge, b) the target counts as trapped and so increases your chance of killing them, and c) any models who are not knocked Prone but were moving as part of that units' battle line are required to adjust their plan, knowing that a flank (or the center) of their battle line is going to crumble. Riding Arwen or Elrond ahead of your battle line, casting Wrath of Bruinen, and retreating won't have nearly the same impact.

Use 2 dice to cast the spell the first time with Elrond and 2 dice every time with Arwen. You want these to work, so set up your Wrath of Bruinen to avoid enemy heroes - I've had a Witch-King stifle one of these spells before and it's not fun. Getting priority is great with this spell, but if Elrond and Arwen are tucked behind your main battle lines, you can afford to wait for your opponent to engage you and THEN cast Wrath of Bruinen if you want. With Elrond on the board, you can have good control over whether you have priority or not, so however you want to play it, you can probably get what you want.

This post introduced and closed our discussion of Arwen as a spell-caster and using her is quite simple: cast Wrath of Bruinen with two dice each time (twice each game unless you have a way of getting Will back), don't channel either time. Since Arwen can be included in a Fellowship list (if/because you have Aragorn in it), it's possible for you to Strengthen Will on her to allow her to cast more than twice in a game (the Fellowship is Historical allies with Rivendell, so you could also ally Gandalf into a Rivendell list, as has already been mentioned).

We also finished the coverage of Elrond - here's my recommendation for using him:

• Cast Wrath of Bruinen on 2 dice, not 1 die (exception made in the next bullet);
• If Lindir is around, focus on casting Wrath of Bruinen as much as you can (even risking a one-die cast on your free Will point);
• If Gandalf is around to cast Strengthen Will on you, cast Wrath of Bruinen with two dice every time you can (with Lindir AND Gandalf, you can potentially do this every turn of the game);
• If Lindir is not around, cast Wrath of Bruinen only once and save your third and final Will point to resist a spell, pass a Courage test, or cast Renew - whether it's on yourself or someone else, you'll have a better chance of getting it off successfully than a one-die Wrath of Bruinen (which might fizzle out OR just barely be cast OR be resisted even on a good casting roll).

Use Case Study: Thranduil and Nature's Wrath

You'd think this would be easy, right - cast Nature's Wrath when the enemy gets close since you cast it on a 6. In many ways, you'd be right - taking the same principle as we discussed above with Elrond and Arwen, you can pop Nature's Wrath on a turn when you're about to charge the enemy's lines OR on the turn that they've charged yours if you hold Thranduil back. Casting this spell on a 6 without spending Will is really good for Thranduil, since you can pop this spell near an enemy hero with a decent shot at it either a) going off despite a resistance attempt, b) crushing a poor resistance attempt, or c) draining lots of Will/Might to keep the spell from going off.

"So these other guys risk not casting the spells they want? Amateurs . . ."

This discussion also wraps up the discussion on Thranduil - he's pretty simple to use if you take the Circlet of Kings: cast Aura of Dismay on the first turn you're able to (unless you want to keep your opponent guessing), cast Nature's Wrath when the lines are going to engage to give yourself a bit of an advantage. Not much else to say, really.

Use Case Study: Radagast the Brown and Nature's Wrath/Panic Steed

Panic Steed is one of those spells that will either be really helpful or really not helpful. Players who know what a channelled Panic Steed can do will be wise to keep their riders spread out to avoid taking damage. In many ways, this is good for you - if you can keep Radagast from being engaged, his cavalry can't slam into your lines in a concentrated way, or else they risk being knocked off their horses after they've committed to attacking you (and possibly charging more than one model each). I would only say you're channeling with Radagast with the intention of casting a channelled Panic Steed if you have priority - you just can't guarantee there will be a good clump of troops for you to forcibly dismount otherwise.

"So he dies if he runs out of Will, huh? Let's hope I make him burn Will to keep his mount alive before he breaks my stick . . ."

If you choose to channel Panic Steed, you have the option of trying to dismount heroes or just targeting warriors. Successfully casting this spell is easy - just don't get a 1, but getting a good roll on this spell is not guaranteed, which means that your opponent might be able to shrug off the spell without much difficulty. If that's the case, you've wasted a Might point on a spell that didn't work. I recommend channeling this spell against a clump of warrior models only - precision-target any heroes you want to take down.

Nature's Wrath works similarly: you want to follow the directions I provided above with Elrond and Arwen, but you'll be drawn to channel this spell too since it turns a knock-Prone-only spell into a damage-and-knock-Prone spell (which is way better). Cast on a 4+, you'll want to cast this spell on your free Will point and 1 Will from your store - but because you risk losing the Might point if the spell is resisted, I wouldn't target heroes with this spell if possible. Since you'll be getting at least a 4 on your high die, you could risk casting a channelled version of this spell against a hero who has 1 Will remaining (he's not likely to resist it unless he spends Might points as well).

We're on a roll - we've also wrapped up our discussion of Radagast in this post - here's a quick summary of what to do with him:

• If you're using Radagast in an army that doesn't have a lot of Terror models (White Council allied into a conventional army), cast Aura of Dismay normally on the first turn, using your free Will point and 2 Will from your store (70% chance of success). Spend Might to make this work - you'll want it (though as I mentioned in the post on Auric spells, you can choose to delay on casting this if you want to keep your opponent guessing);
• If you're using Radagast in an army that has lots of Terror (Radagast's Alliance), pass on casting Aura of Dismay and instead channel Terrifying Aura, casting it on your free Will point and 1 Will from your store - you don't need a Terror bubble in this case, so just focus on making it harder to charge Radagast than any other friendly model on the board. We're spending 1 Will from our store to make it nearly impossible to have to spend a point of Might to boost the roll because we got "snake-eyes" on our casting attempt. This is unnecessary if Radagast is on a Great Eagle, of course;
• If you cast Aura of Dismay, don't cast Terrifying Aura unless you have aboslutely nothing better to do (and in that case, don't channel it). Regardless of which one (or both) you cast, make sure you keep 1 Will point in your Will store;
• As you approach the enemy, cast Renew on your free die on any multi-Wound models that suffer damage (usually from archery, could be from magic);
• When you are within 12" of your opponent's forces, determine if there are any good models to target with Panic Steed (mounted models) or Immobilize (important pieces who haven't gone yet) - and remember that Radagast doesn't need direct line of sight to cast spells on people, thanks to having the Master of Birds special rule;
• If you have decided you want to cast Panic Steed against models that don't have any Will points/Resistant to Magic buffs, channel the spell;
• When your opponent gets close to your lines, determine if you can charge his battle line and cast Nature's Wrath on him - if you can, channel the spell; and
• Once the fighting begins, use Immobilize to shut down enemy heroes if they're more important than hindering large groups of enemy warriors (with Nature's Wrath).

One final note: all of this changes if you take a Great Eagle mount, since you lose your Staff of Power. You probably aren't going to cast Terrifying Aura of Aura of Dismay because of the need to save a Will point to keep their buffs active. Nature's Wrath is a good spell (great when channelled), but will drain your resources quickly. Renew is useful (especially on your Eagle steed), as is Immobilize and Panic Steed. If you focus on these three spells (maybe a channelled Nature's Wrath once during the game), you can do quite well.

"Use" Case Study: Moria Blackshield Shaman and Tremor

This is a cool glamour spell and I like it in theory - it's particularly devastating if you can get the Moria Blackshield Shaman around your opponent's battle line and take out all of his spear supports after he charges you. The thing is this: if you're casting Tremor, that's all you're doing - throw three dice at it, don't channel it (save the Might to boost the roll), and hope it works. Target someone on the closest end of the battle line and make sure you draw that line out so it doesn't hit your own guys. If it works, great - you'll kill lots of stuff with S6 hits! If it doesn't work, throw the Shaman into a fight and say nice-knowing-him. If he didn't have to spend his Might point, he could be a potential game changer for some lucky Goblin grunt. You CAN throw 2 Will at the spell if you want a single Shatter attempt.

In general, I think you stick to Shatter with this guy - we'll cover Shatter in a later post. For now, just know that Shatter is much easier to cast, has very long-reaching impacts, and makes your opponent play the game differently than he otherwise would in a way that Tremor just doesn't do.

Collapse Rocks, Panic Steed, Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, and Tremor

These five spells are potentially game-altering spells in that they affect pockets of the board and can sway one turn of combat pretty quickly. Resisting magic isn't as hard as it used to be, but if any of these are cast and not resisted, life will be very bad for those on the receiving end. From our experience at TMAT, Wrath of Bruinen/Nature's Wrath have been some of the most devastating spells in the game (and I've had lots of fun/success with Panic Steed too). The spells are great - you should at least be aware of them.

In our next post, we will look at spells designed to protect friendly models from magical attacks: Protection of the Valar, Shroud of Shadows, and Fortify Spirit. This post will be the last post we need to understand how to use Gandalf the Grey, but we'll also be covering Gandalf the White, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, Ashrak, and Galadriel, Lady of Light. With both Gandalf the Grey and Galadriel, Lady of Light available through the White Council list, almost any Forces of Good faction in MESBG can get access to these anti-magic tools. 

Forces of Evil are far more limited in their options, since the Necromancer is limited to Forces of Evil from the Hobbit era (and Moria) and Ashrak can only cast Shroud of Shadows on spider models (though since he's from Moria, you can ally him with almost any spider-running faction Conveniently). Are these spells worth using relative to the rest of their spells? Let's find out next time - until then, happy hobbying!