Mastering Magic: Fury

Good morning gamers,

We come to it at last - the final spell in all of MESBG. We've talked about damage spells (Sorcerous Blast, Area-of-Effect damage spells, and precision spells). We've talked about augments (auric bonuses, stat/resource restoration, magical protection, and damage enhancers). We've talked about debuffs (stat/resource reduction, neutralizing with Immobilize et al, and breaking gear). We've talked about spells that scatter enemy models.

Today, we wrap it all up with one of the first spells I ever used and the spell that (in my opinion) has changed the most from the Legions era to the current MESBG gaming system: Fury.

Ah, Fury. As I've stated in many posts, I got started playing the game with the Mines of Moria starter set and one of the first things I learned was that I needed a Moria Goblin Shaman - Goblins just can't charge Gandalf or gang-up on Boromir reliably without one (that, and they seem to run away a lot)!

Back then, Fury didn't require you to have a Will point to keep it alive - you just had to not lose a fight (which, if you were spear-supporting from the second rank OR standing in the third/fourth rank, was pretty easy to pull off). Even if your opponent had a Ringwraith who could cast Sap Will on you and you lost all your Will, the Fury train kept on chugging. While it was active, all models of the same race as the caster passed all Courage tests and got a 6+ save against all wounds.

When the Hobbit SBG system redid the way magic worked, Fury became dependent on having a Will point in your store. Like the previous version of the rules, friendly models of the same race passed all Courage tests and got a 6+ save against all wounds, but you could channel the spell to improve that spell to a 5+ save. Moria didn't have to do this, as they could take Groblog (whose crown made Fury give a 5+ save so long as he was on the board).

In the newest edition, things have changed yet again - let's look at what Fury does, and to help me with this discussion, I've asked the other members of the TMAT team to help me out a few things based on their experiences (and if you haven't heard our podcast on Evil Spellcasters, I highly recommend you check that out for our extended discussion on Fury).

What Does Fury Do?

Fury is an exhaustion spell that is cast on the caster himself and affects all friendly models within 6" of the caster that have certain keywords (specified by the spell). For the most part, these keywords match the race and affiliation of the caster (Mordor Orc Shamans have "Fury (Mordor Orc)" and so won't help your Black Numenoreans - who aren't Orcs - or your Cave Trolls - who are not Mordor models). Affected models automatically pass any Courage tests they need to take. If channelled, affected models may roll a die for each wound they are dealt and ignore a wound they would have suffered for each roll of a 6 they get.

Now if you listened to our podcast on Evil Spellcasters, you know we had a lengthy discussion on the merits of Fury and in particular the 6+ save that it provides. While Centaur and I don't feel it's reliable enough to really count as a "save," Rythbryt remains a staunch defender of the merits of the 6+ save for Fury. To that end, I've asked him to share some thoughts on the topic.

Rythbryt: As Tiberius mentioned, I made the case for channelled Fury in our podcast episode on evil magic casters, so I'll stick to the basics here:

•  If anyone says "a 6+ save isn't a save," please bop them on the head. That's just not true. A model with a 6+ save has a 17% chance to shrug off a wound that he'd otherwise take. Do you know what chance a model has that doesn't have a 6+ save? That's right: it's no chance (0%). Is 17% a huge chance? No, not really. Is it more likely to occur than not? Definitely not. But is it a chance that's greater than 0? Yes. Yes it is. So stop, please.
• A complaint often expressed about channeled Fury is that (a) it either never goes off, or (b) it doesn't go off enough to justify spending a Might plus 1-2 Will to cast it. (a) is always hyperbole, and as such always deserves a hyperbolic response (like I call phooey!). (b) is interesting, because it raises a question of value. If one values Might and Will points like other publications such as Battle Companies do, then the "value" spent is 10-15 points. Which means if your 6+ save manages to save that many points worth of models, you've made back your investment (and if it saves more than that, it's been worth it). The counter I get is that this is overly simplistic, because that valuation accounts only for the stat, not the opportunity cost that's lost if you spend the Might (and Will) on casting Fury, as opposed to what you could have done with that Might (or Will) if you spent them on something else. A Heroic Move is usually the example for Might (after all, what else is a Fury shaman going to do with his Might?), although occasionally you'll get another Heroic Channel (for something like Bladewrath) or fixing the unfortunate Fury "fluff" roll. That's true enough. But if those opportunity costs deserve to be factored into the equation, so should the opportunity costs of saving a model that would otherwise die. Yes, a Heroic Move on turn 5 could tip the balance of power. But so could that orc who avoided death in Round 5. Or the orcs who escaped death in Rounds 3, 4, and 6. Is an extra turn of standing between Aragorn and your army leader more valuable than a heroic move? What about killing two models over the next two turns? Or thwarting a Heroic Combat because your slain orc cheated death at the last moment? Moments like that change games, and sometimes tournaments. And those moments can happen over an entire game. Is that opportunity worth a Might and 1-2 Will? To ask the question is to answer it.
• One thing I'll walk back slightly from what I said earlier is that while I think channelled Fury is great, there are of course situations where it's not worth it. But I think those are limited to situations where you know your opponent is just going to bring your Fury down by draining your Will, because they have a magic caster who's going to force you to spend your final Will point to resist a spell. If that happens, your Fury comes down, and even if you're the rare Fury caster who can regenerate Will (*cough* Kardush *cough*), when you put Fury back up, it won't be the channeled version. In that situation, I agree: throwing the Might point isn't worth it, at least not on Turn 1. But not because the channeled Fury isn't "worth it"--because it's not sustainable. Instead, keep it in your back pocket for Round 4 or 5, after your opponent wins priority. Let him move his wizard and set up all these combats he likes. Then cast it (if you have Will left, of course), and now you're playing the role of spoiler.

Tiberius: Thanks mate for that - the managing of expectations is an important one, for sure. I know that when I first got started, I was happy that my Moria Goblins could get a save, but was often disappointed in how few models were actually saved by it (until I converted up a Groblog model). Still, when you happen to stop a Heroic Combat from going off because the Goblin refuses to die, you feel pretty good about it. :)

It should be noted that I have gained some notoriety recently with Uruk-Hai Berserkers who have an "Oblivious to Pain" save on a 6+ as well - and while they don't save very often, when they do save, they are INCREDIBLE! If you get frustrated when facing Uruk-Hai Berserkers when they do this, you might want to look into channelling Fury sometime.

Who's Got Fury?

There aren't THAT many models that have Fury - and many of them have similar casting arrays. Let's see who we're looking at today:

• Mordor Orc Shamans (Barad-Dur, Mordor) cast Fury for Mordor Orcs which is cast on a 3+;
• Kardush the Firecaller (Mordor) also casts Fury for Mordor Orcs on a 3+;
• Druzhag the Beastcaller (Moria) casts Fury for Bats/Spiders/Wargs on a 3+;
• Ashrak (Moria) casts Fury for Spiders on a 3+;
• Moria Goblin Shamans (Moria) cast Fury for Moria Goblins on a 3+;
• Uruk-Hai Shamans (Isengard) cast Fury for Isengard Urk-Hai on a 3+; and
• Easterling War Priests (Easterlings) cast Fury for Easterlings on a 3+.

How Do You Use Fury Most Effectively?

Fury appears simple - cast it, keep it up all game. In practice, there's actually a bit more finesse required when facing certain foes - here are some principles to follow:

• Cast the spell with at least a 50% probability of success;
• Throw an extra die at the cast if you choose to channel the spell; and
• Choose when to cast the spell depending on what's in your opponent's army list.

1) The 50% Success Guideline

As has been stated in every single post in this series, if you're targeting yourself or a friendly model with a spell, we've set an "acceptable chance of success" at 50%. While you can certainly cast this with a higher probability of success (which we'll talk about next), a 50/50 chance of success on a spell that isn't going to be resisted is fine. Since most of the models in today's discussion have 3 Will points, this means you can try to cast it twice and still be able to keep it up. 

All of the heroes we're considering in this post cast Fury on a 3+, so to get the 50% chance of success they can each spend 1 Will point to get it off (and it's actually a 67% chance of success, so that's nearly our 70% criterion for casting spells against hostile figures - and IS over 70% if we're not channelling this spell and are willing to spend our Might point to boost the spell).

2) If You Channel, Make It Count

As a long-time Moria player who converted up a Moria Goblin Shaman early in the collecting of the army, I can tell you there is nothing more frustrating than trying to cast Fury in a game and coming up short every. single. time. It's frustrating. If you're going to channel Fury, you want to cast the spell with 2 Will points because you don't have the ability to boost your roll with Might. Because the long-term benefits of Fury are so good (especially when channelled), you need to make it count! 'Nuff said.

3) Knowing the Right Time

In most games, casting Fury on the first turn is a great idea - once it's up, you can save wounds caused by archery or charge any Terror models that are parked nearby. But there are certain situations where you want to be careful about casting Fury too soon:

• If you're facing a model with Sap Will, you want to cast Fury (if at all) on the turn you're going to charge a Terrifying model with a low-Courage model. Otherwise, you run the risk of a Sap Will being cast on your Shaman, taking away your remaining 1-2 Will points (depending on how many Will points you threw at the spell to begin with). By delaying the cast, you make your shaman a latent threat, but not an immediate one - if they spend resources trying to clear out your Will before Fury is up, so much the better for your friendly heroes and monsters.
• If your opponent has a part of his army that causes Terror and a part of his army that doesn't cause Terror (let's say a mix of Black Numenoreans and Morannon Orcs in the front line of a Mordor army), then your opponent might be able to reposition his troops to have the Black Numenoreans not near your Shaman. By delaying the cast of Fury, your opponent knows the formation COULD auto-pass Courage tests, but might end up maneuvering out of your way and you end up not needing the Fury at all (except to save wounds).

Like I said, the vast majority of the time, you want to cast this spell on the first turn of the game, but there are situations where casting Fury at all isn't a great idea (like when you're facing a model with Sap Will). Keeping your opponent's list in mind is key.

I should note that two of the models we're looking at today break this rule: Kardush and Druzhag. Kardush has the ability to get Will back by sacrificing nearby Orcs, so you can get past a Sap Will attack and still get Fury up. Druzhag has 5 Will, so he could resist a Sap Will attempt or two (but I'm not sure you'd want to).

When Do You Use Fury?

The case studies we have today vary a bit, so let's dig into how each model can be used.

Use Case Study: Uruk-Hai Shamans, Moria Goblin Shamans, and Mordor Orc Shamans

Centaur has more experience than I with Uruk-Hai Shamans, but I do know that they are REALLY good with Demolition Teams (as the grunts that you equipped with flaming brands can auto-light it and you can save the berserker). I asked Centaur to share his insights though - take it away, buddy!

Centaur: So, I'll start by saying that I used to always take a shaman when I played Forces of Evil: my three go-to armies were Isengard, Angmar, and Easterlings, and they all had really good shamans. For Isengard, the shaman is extremely useful when facing terror armies (as your C3 will only go so far to get your troops into combat), and it's absolutely essential if you are running a predominately Uruk Scout force, as your troops are lighter and you lack pikes, so you need as many guys into a fight as possible.

The 6+ save is nice for keeping 1-3 guys each game on the board that would otherwise be removed, as Uruk-Hai are on the more expensive side of rank-and-file, but it's not an absolute necessity. Since Isengard lacks a good high-end fighting hero (because Isengard Trolls can't fill that niche fully), the shaman comes into play as a useful way to neutralize heroes with Transfix. Not the greatest option and it probably only buys you one turn, but it's one way (other than siege weapons and copious amounts of archery) to hold down a hero.

Tiberius: Mordor Orcs can be cheap (Trackers and Orc Warriors), so saving them might not be that important, but their Courage is VERY low. An unnchannelled Fury makes up for that, so Fury is useful. If you've got Morannons, you'll probably want to channel the spell, just because your Morannons are more expensive. This is particularly true in the Army of Gothmog and Black Gate LLs where your grunts have to do a good bit of the killing for the army (since your heroes are so limited).

I haven't found myself using Moria Goblin Shamans recently - mostly because the Courage bubble for the Balrog is WAY bigger. :-) In smaller games where you can't get the Balrog (so, below 450 points, hehehehe . . .), Shamans are really useful and I highly recommend them. Channelling works decently well because you have so many models - you'll get more tries than most factions at passing save rolls.

All three of these shamans have a 5+ Transfix - and as we identified in the Transfix post in this series, there are cases where you might want to use it . Still, most of the time, these guys are here for Fury, so get the most out of it!

Use Case Study: Kardush the Firecaller

I could talk about how good Kardush is, but Rythbyrt already did that in our podcast. Here are some highlights:

• Kardush has a great alternate spell in Flameburst (which is also cast on a 3+);
• Kardush is a Hero of Fortitude (which very few Fury shamans are anymore);
• Kardush can get Will back by consuming nearby friendly Orcs (which allows him to cast both Fury and Flameburst during a game - and potentially cast Flameburst a lot); and
• Kardush can, as a last resort, sacrifice himself to give Will points back to a Ringwraith (which I would only do if Kardush's position is being overrun and he's likely to die OR if your army leader is a Ringwraith that is rapidly running out of Will).

Kardush is an amazing model and is considered by many to be an auto-include for Mordor armies. I think using him is quite simple:

• Cast Fury on the first turn on 1 Will (unless there's a situation we outlined earlier where that might be an inefficient use of Will) - channel if you want, throw an extra Will at the cast if you do;
• Cast Flameburst as soon as you're within 6" of an enemy model with 2 Will (1 Will if you didn't channel Fury - consume a friendly Orc if you need the Will); and
• Continue to consume Orcs and cast Flameburst as the game continues (re-cast Fury if you need it).

Use Case Study: Druzhag the Beastcaller

Of all the Fury casters in the game, Druzhag is my favorite - but not for Fury. There are certainly instances where Fury might seem like a good idea (Spiders, Bats, and Wargs are not known for their Courage), but since these same creatures can borrow his Courage stat if they're within 12" of him (and he's C4 normally, C5 with a Moria Goblin Drum or War Horn on the board), they probably don't need Fury from him. Against Terror/Harbinger armies, I can tell you from my experiences with Dwarves fighting Centaur's Dead of Dunharrow that having Fury helps. So, here's how you can prioritize the spells for Druzhag:

• If your opponent has a lot of Terror models and at least one model who imposes a Courage penalty on models near them, cast Fury on 1 Will (2 Will if you choose to channel);
• Save the rest of your Will points (2-3 Will if you cast Fury, 5 Will if you didn't) to cast Enrage Beast on 1 Will point each time you cast it, using the principles we talked about in our last post for picking priority targets.

Use Case Study: Ashrak

Ashrak is, in many ways, a poor man's Druzhag: his Fury only helps Spiders (and he allows you to bring Spiders if you want them - and upgrade all spiders in your force to have Venom instead of Poison), he doesn't have a 12" C4/5 boost for wild creatures, and his support spell is Shroud of Shadows that can only be cast on spiders (not Enrage Beast). So . . . not great, but he's also about half the cost of Druzhag and on-par with Moria Goblin Shamans in both price and stats.

In my mind, Ashrak works in a similar way to a Moria Goblin Shaman - while Shroud of Shadows can be great, it's not a great spell to cast if you know you need Fury (which you probably do if you're facing a Terror list - Spiders have horrible Courage). Channelling Fury is a great idea because Spiders are multi-wound models - saving a single wound might keep them alive. It can also be a great way to augment heroes like Shelob and the Spider Queen, who don't have Fate on their own (and when you have a few Wounds, anything helps)!

Use Case Study: Easterling War Priest

I could talk about the War Priest, but this is Centaur's realm (I don't like Easterlings, after all). I will say that the only Easterling armies that worry me are ones with War Priests (we talked about that a bit last time) - and it's not because of Fury. To go into this in more detail, here's Centaur.

Centaur: For Easterlings I actually don't cast Fury basically ever, as your Courage is pretty good (assuming you take the Black Dragon upgrade, which I basically always do), and it gets better as you break. You are pretty resilient (even your archers have heavy armor), so you don't really need the save, so personally I don't cast Fury and instead save my 3 Will Points for casting Bladewrath three times. It's easier to cast, and fills the need Easterlings actually have which is killing stuff.

Fury

Fury has seen a lot of change over the years, but its most important quality (auto-passing Courage tests) hasn't changed - and that's good. While Fury is mostly straight-forward, hopefully this post has provided some thoughts on different ways you can use these models and ways to think about their importance in the armies that bring them.

As far as my posts go on this blog, we've spent all of 2020 on list building and this masterclass magic series (plus a random article on historical formations and some commentaries on the new rules errata). 

For the final weeks of the year, we'll be delving into alliances, starting with an article that will come out later this week from guest author Sharbie on what makes a convenient alliance a good idea or not. I'll then be doing a weekly article on different factions and looking at what their allies (historical and convenient) give them and whether they're worth taking. If you have fun allied contingents you like to run, please share them in the comments (and let us know if there's a particular faction you'd like to see)! Until next time, happy hobbying!