An Apologetic for the Flameburst Spell

 Hey Reader!

So I was talking with the rest of the TMAT team about evil spellcasters and the damage potential of Saruman, and one of the things that I brought up was how Saruman had two spells that did good damage: Sorcerous Blast and Flameburst. And the comment was made: "well, except the fire, because no one casts that, like, ever," so effectively he has one damage spell.

And that made me sad, because I've always loved the Flameburst spell.

And since only two people in the game have it (Kardush and Saruman), and one of them apparently never casts it, it means the spell gets virtually no use.

And that made me sad, so I decided I'd craft an apologetic for why you should cast this spell at least once every game. I'll start off with a quick look (because I don't think people will disagree with this) at why it isn't cast as much as, say, Sorcerous Blast, and then walk through the situations that would make it wise to cast this spell over and against the other spells on Saruman's list, and how these come up an amazingly high amount of the time regardless of the army you are facing.

We will not be looking as much at Kardush, not because he isn't great, but because the only spells he has are Fury and Flameburst so he tends to use it a lot. But everything we mention below for tactical uses of the spell apply to both Kardush and Saruman equally (albeit with the caveat that Saruman can be mounted for 10" of movement and Kardush cannot).

Also, if you want a nice comparison of Flameburst to other similar spells in the game to give you greater context for the spell, my buddy Tiberius did a great write-up on it in his Mastering Magic series a few months ago. You should check that out - won't take more than a few minutes.

I.  What's Wrong with Flameburst

Admittedly, the spell suffers first (and foremost, I would say) from issues that are not tied to the text of the spell at all. The spell suffers from a 5+ casting difficulty for Saruman (only a 3+ for Kardush) and only a 6" range (for both), so you have to use it really close to the other guy, and it's harder to cast than Sorcerous Blast.

So we should state upfront that a huge part of why people don't use this spell is because of problems innate to the range/difficulty, not the text of the spell itself. If this spell had a 12" range (which in my opinion it should - Saruman casts it from the top of Orthanc, which feels like in-game it should be closer to a 12" tall tower than a 6" tall tower) I think it would see more use, and definitely would get more use if it had a 4+ casting difficulty (to keep Kardush better at it, because the boy should be the best at calling fire as "The Fire Caller").

There's also the fact that the spell does a Strength 6 hit, which means on average the spell has a 50% chance (sometimes more) of failing to wound. If it just dealt a wound (like Chill Soul and Banishment which are cast on a 4-5+ typically), or did a Strength 9 wound (like Black Dart), or did two Strength 6 hits (increasing your chance of dealing at least one wound), that would be different. But in this case, we're looking at a high bar to cast for not much promise of a return on investment.

So this is why people don't cast it, and I don't disagree.

II.  What's Good about Flameburst

But there's a lot to love about it, too. First off, you get to do a Strength 6 hit, which is the second highest Strength hit in the game for spells (as Chill Soul and Banishment don't deal Strength hits). This means that if you are headhunting a 1 Wound model with D6 or less (banners, captains that have taken a wound, etc.), you've got an above average chance of wounding a model (as a 50% chance is not that easy to get in this game).

Second, while a 5+ is not easy to cast, 1) if there's someone who can do it, it's Saruman, as he gets a free Will Point each turn and can reroll 1 dice, but also 2) a high difficulty to cast also means a high difficulty to resist, especially if you target a 1 Will model who does not have Resistant to Magic (which is basically every captain in the game, almost every orc, uruk, or goblin hero in the game, and most mid-range heroes). 

Third, the damage is dealt to the model, which affects both the rider and its mount if the model has a mount. Now I'm not sure how it applies to war beasts, chariots, and other models that have multiple warriors/heroes in it, but my inclination is (and correct me if I'm wrong in the comments) that it affects "the model," which would include all of the orcs on a Great Beast of Gorgoroth, all Haradrim/Mahud on a Mumak, all dwarves in an Iron Hills Chariot (which admittedly is not that much damage because they're base D6, but still), etc. That...seems like it would be worth a 5+ difficulty to cast, even if it costs you 2-3 Will (one of which is free, plus maybe a Might Point if you want to set the thing ablaze).

And speaking of which, if you channel it (which both casters can), you give the target the Set Ablaze special rule, which delivers an immediate S9 hit (so you get the S6 hit normally and then a S9 hit on top of that, so it's one of two spells that does two Strength 6+ hits in a single turn), and if the model survives, it suffers a S5 hit each turn until it puts the fire out, which includes going though water or lying down and crawling 1" (which is two turns worth of being on the ground, not to mention two turns of taking S5 hits, so you've now dealt 4 hits with a single cast).

If you need to put someone on the ground, you can just use Sorcerous Blast (Tiberius also notes how you can do this against a person with a lot of Will by targeting someone else and blasting them into the hero in his post here). But if you need someone on the ground for a while, especially if they haven't moved yet, a channeled Flameburst will do it better and with more reliability.

Flameburst, as you will soon see, is a points denial spell: it removes the effectiveness of models that your opponent spent points for, if not denies them tools that they paid good points for, off of a single cast that is hard to resist. And it maintains this for a few turns. And that is a fantastic baseline for a spell, even a short range spell on a 5+ casting difficulty.

So there's a lot of good stuff here - we just wouldn't want to cast this all the time, because Sorcerous Blast can clear out more guys at a lower difficulty with greater range. There's a tactical use for this spell that encourages you to cast it at specific times, and I contend that you can find a situation like that in almost every fight at least once. So let's look at that.

III.  Tactical Uses for Flameburst

Now there's an irony to this post (which I probably should have mentioned first): I don't run either of these guys! And this might be why I see it as being so useful, because I only see it from the perspective of what it could do to my army, not from the perspective of the player actually casting it, but hear me out. The spell is an asymmetric way to deal damage to people and fundamentally changes the way that your opponent plays the game. Let me explain.

There are four situations where you would want to use Flameburst. 

First, you use it against mounted models to remove the mount and possibly wound the rider. Fighting a pesky Nazgul on a fell beast? Target the Nazgul with Flameburst and channel it: when it goes off (as Nazgul need to be very careful with how many Will Points they spend to resist stuff), that guy is going to dismount his trusty steed because suffering a S6 hit and a S9 hit followed by a S5 hit every turn has a good chance of ending that Nazgul in a turn or two. That means that terrible beasty is going to flee automatically (per his rules), and the Nazgul is going to be in for a world of hurt for a few turns.

This is also true for any model mounted on a horse. Any hero that rides a horse might 1) lose his horse to the S6 hit, as that's wounding on 4s or better, or 2) if you channel it the hero and the horse could be set ablaze, giving them a good reason to dismount, go prone, and then crawl, which is just a really bad lineup of what they'd need to do on top of not being mounted for the rest of the game.

The only time where this doesn't work as well is if you target a model on a warg or other mount that can stick around after the rider dismounts, but even in that situation they can't remount the warg later, so at least the hero is dismounted (not to mention most wargs are D4 with 1 Wound, so a good chance that the warg is dead outright from the S6 hit). So it won't get rid of the White Warg if you cast it on Azog, but at least Azog isn't getting all that extra Might and a charge bonus (not to mention access to a second Fate Point). That's still probably worth 2-3 Will and 1 Might (with one of those Will Points being free).

And as we noted above, if you just want them off the horse, you can always use Sorcerous Blast. This becomes useful once you've burned through a lot of your Will and Might, as it's an easier cast. But if you want to force the person to stay down, take them out of the fight for a bit, and possibly burn through (har har) some of their Will in the process, you need Flameburst, especially if your opponent hasn't moved yet for the turn (as they could stand up if you Sorcerous Blast them, but they will opt to go prone if you set them ablaze).

The second use is against banners, which almost every faction gets access to, and a lot of players bring (I never leave home without one). The vast majority of banners have 1 Wound and are D6 or less, and that means - shy of taking on a dwarf, Tower Guard, or specific heroes with banners - you are removing a bannerman on 4s or better. That is fantastic - and you could do this multiple times if people keep trying to pick it up. It forces your opponent to keep a few guys near the banner, and you can still do this from behind 2-3 ranks of uruks, so Saruman is in no great danger. And if you can remove the banner, suddenly your uruks are feeling really good about their odds of winning fights (RAISE THE WHITE HAND!).

Even in the case of a hero who has Fate and/or multiple wounds, none of them are feeling great about being hit with a S6 hit (maybe Boromir, but not really if he's on his horse, as that horse is going to get hosed by that S6 hit and then he's dismounted for the rest of the game), and literally none of them are liking the idea of being set ablaze. Furthermore, the rules state that banners that are on prone models don't grant the reroll bonus, so while the bannerman is crawling to remove the Set Ablaze rule (probably 1-2 turns), there's no banner effect aiding your opponent. Tack onto this the fact that heroes can't pass their banners to warriors, and you've got yourself a great tradeoff for spending 2-3 Will and 1 Might (one of which is free).

Oh, and did I mention that banner heroes are expensive? They're also a huge points sink that's crawling on the floor for a few turns, and probably a centerpiece of that army because of the points sink.

Third, use it to target war beasts and chariots. Being able to get Khandish Kings, Iron Hills Chariots, and other pesky charging models to stop, drop, and roll is probably going to save you more than 3-4 models in 1-2 turns, so that means that the 2-3 Will and 1 Might you lose is probably paying for itself (especially since 1 of those Will Points will be free). Tack onto this the whole, "if you dismount you cannot remount," and you've got charioteers in particular in a bad place.

But even worse is the poor war beast. People who pay for war beasts are putting a lot of points into a crew and massive creature, and you can effectively take it out of the fight - if not remove it from the table entirely - for 2-3 Will and 1 Might. That...seems like a steal for me, especially if you have a Palantir and can choose to just take priority on a turn when you need to get up close to a war beast and then boogey out of there beyond its reach.

Fourth, this is a great answer to monsters. Most monsters are Strength 6 or higher, which means you can't knock them over by throwing someone into them with Sorcerous Blast, but the nice thing about Flameburst is that not only is it a Strength 6 hit (which means you are wounding on only one dice, even if you target a D10 model), but if you set the monster ablaze, they will go to the ground for two turns, which Sorcerous Blast cannot do. And if you target a troll or other monster that doesn't have Will Points (Gundabad Catapults, Troll Brutes, etc.), if it goes off...there's nothing they can do about it. They will crawl on the floor for two turns, because that's the power of Flameburst.

And fifth, saving the best for last, is targeting flying models. Do you know how many models fly in this game? Admittedly not many. Do you know how many points these guys cost? A lot of points, warriors and heroes alike. And do you know what they are paying for? Access to free movement even over enemy lines. And do you know what you are denying them when you set them on fire?

Their movement, their damage potential, their dignity - literally everything they paid for.

And this becomes a boon to you even if you are playing on a map with lots of water: the fact that they need to enter a water feature means that they stop flying the moment they enter that water feature (as otherwise they are not "entering" it: they are flying over it, just like how they don't have to "enter" a wooded area if they can fly over it).

So think about this: if you're not near water when you cast this at a flier (which, I'd contend, most of the time you will not be near water as most maps lack water), you are 1) depriving the flying creature of its flight for a few turns, 2) shoring up tactical issues for a heavily melee-centric army, 3) aiding you in closing distance with those fliers, which is typically the issue with fighting flying models, and 4) removing potential damage, hexes, etc. from affecting you. That's...a whole lot of value for 2-3 Will and 1 Might Point (one of which is free).

Throwing this spell at a ringwraith, a great eagle, or any other flying model will completely wreck your opponent's plans for that model. Everything they are built to do is countered - heavily - by this one spell. Oh, and do you know what most fliers don't have? Large stores of expendable Will Points that they are totally cool with spending to block a spell that was cast on a 5 or a 6. And if they do block it? Just surround Saruman with a bunch of guys so the flier can't counterattack and do it again the next turn (which you can guarantee thanks to the Palantir).

And as one final "extra" tactical note, don't use this against Shire models. It's going to be tempting as it's a wound on 3s as long as it's not Merry, Pippin, or Frodo, but the issue is that hobbits get so many Will Points and Resistant to Magic that there's a good chance that they block your spell. Add onto this the fact that your warriors and heroes alike have no problem wounding hobbit heroes, and you don't really need the Set Ablaze effect to remove the threat. What you need is sheer number of wounds dealt, and for that Sorcerous Blast is a better option.

Conclusion

I would wager that almost every army you will fight will have at least one mounted hero, banner, elite crushing model that doesn't like/can't go prone, and/or a flying model that is important to the army. So you will get a lot of use out of this spell, and should be casting it at least once per game. And some armies may give you more opportunity: Rohan armies will get wrecked by this spell, even if all you do is pluck a Fate Point off a hero and kill their horse (heck, even if you just kill their horse). It does require you to get right up in there near them, but between a horse for 10" movement and a sturdy line of uruks, you're well built to get in close. So don't be afraid: go for it with all you have.

And cast Flameburst.

So, there's my apologetic for an underutilized spell! Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Whose forest is it now, human?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix