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

THRO 2020 Army Preview: Raise the White Hand!

Good morning gamers,

With THRO 2020 approaching, I had a tough time settling on the army I was bringing. I had six very strong contestants in the running and almost all of them showed up in my series on List Building that I worked on for more than half the year. In this post, I wanted to go through what we know about the tournament and why I chose the army that I did.

THRO is a "safe" tournament for players in our TMAT community to run - it's not our "grand tournament," and is often used to experiment with new tournament formats, scenarios, and weird faction pairings. We've seen LOTS of custom scenarios, trying out new army building methods, thematic battles (we did a Rohan/Lothlorien vs. Isengard/Dunland tournament one year), all-hero forces (including the Fellowship and all-Ringwraiths) - it's been great. More importantly, it's a great tournament BECAUSE it's so wonky for new Tournament Directors to cut their teeth. This year, Red Jacket wanted a swing at it - so I happily stepped aside to "just go to a tournament" (something I haven't done in a long time).

Here's what we knew about THRO 2020:

• 700 point limit
• 3 rounds, each 2 hours in length
• Scenarios will be Lords of Battle, Storm the Camp, and Breakthrough

With that in mind, here's what I figured:

• Some of my factions fight better at 800 points than they do at 700 - Mordor comes to mind, as does Rohan.
• Some of my factions can play at 700 or 800 just as well - Isengard, Minas Tirith, and the Kingdom of Moria in particular.
• We don't have to worry about Maelstrom or any "race to the center" missions (though there is a race-to-the-other-corner, so speed is an issue).
• Because there's a two hour time limit, we don't want an army that will take forever to move.

With all this in mind, the List Builiding Series came in clutch, since those principles are based on creating armies that have a chance of winning any scenario you draw (ruling some out is just gravy). So, let's look at the five runners up and see why I chose not to use them.

Mastering Magic: Restoration Spells

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our "masterclass" series on magic today by looking at spells that regrow heroic stats (Might, Will, Fate, and Wounds - which is technically not a heroic resource, except that heroes tend to be the only ones with more than one of them . . . though not always . . . if you ignore monsters . . . and Half-trolls . . . you get the idea though).

We've already looked at spells like Sorcerous Blast, Immobilize (and all its lil' friends), and auric spells - all of which are included in the casting arrays of some of the best casters in the game (Saruman and Gandalf in all their various forms). The spells we'll be looking at today - Blessing of the Valar, Renew, Refreshing Song, and Strengthen Will - might not look like much, but in many ways, they have a tendency to be the go-to spells for those turns where "you don't have anything to do." Their impact, however, can be game changing.

What Do These Spells Do?

Two of these spells do the same thing as each other, just targeting a different heroic resource: Blessing of the Valar restores 1 Fate point that was previously spent (or D3 Fate if channelled), while Renew restores 1 Wound that was previously lost (or D3 Wounds if channelled). Since many heroes have 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point, I doubt either of these spells would be channelled much - plus, one-out-of-three times you channel it you get the exact same result as an unchannelled version . . . so why take the risk of wasting a Might point (see my post from February 2019 on magic and my post on wasting Might points for more info)?

Refreshing Song restores 1 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, AND 1 Wound that were previously spent/lost. This spell currently can't be channelled (neither caster who has these spells has Heroic Channelling - and neither has any Might anyway), but if it could be channelled, it would restore all lost Wounds (which makes it pretty much like Renew - which you probably won't channel). This is a really powerful spell (even unchannelled - I think it's the best spell in the game) because it can refresh 4 stats simultaneously. If used on a caster (who is likely burning through Might and Will to cast channelled spells, and possibly also Fate and Wounds if he's being attacked), you can turn 1 Will point from Tom Bombadil or Goldberry into more than one heroic resource on someone else. This is great!

The final spell is Strengthen Will, which on paper looks to be the Will-equivalent of Blessing of the Valar and Renew. But there's a key difference: 

Strengthen Will doesn't restore a Will point that's been lost in the fight - it gives the target a Will point.

This small difference allows the target model to have Will if they didn't start with any Will OR allows them to increase their Will above their starting amount. This is a key difference and goes into the strategy of some of the heroes who have this spell.

One final note on these spells: they can all be cast on the caster instead of a different model nearby (since all models are considered friendly to themselves). This is huge, since getting Will points back on a caster, restoring Wounds on an expensive hero, or regrowing Fate points on an important model is huge. The exception to this is casting Refreshing Song, since the casters who have these spells can't be affected by magical powers.

Mastering Magic: Auric Spells

Good morning gamers,

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

What do these spells do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mastering Magic: Immobilize (and its various kin)

Good morning gamers,

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

Immobilize/Transfix: What Does It Do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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