Rust Monster

Turn 6 has just ended, your army lies in ruins and there standing amongst the carnage of your carefully constructed army is your well painted mage lord. Well painted, untouched and utterly useless he surveys the deathly calm of your defeated army; offering you no answers as to why his 400+ points of magical fury only managed to kill 100 points worth of goblins and a rouge squig hopper. Oh the horror! Has this ever happened to you? If so, then here are five tips to help turn your 98 pound weakling into a 98 pound weakling with phenomenal cosmic power.

1. Be very clear what you want your mages to accomplish when you are creating your army list. If you want two scroll caddies with dispel scrolls then bring two scroll caddies. If you want an earth shaking arch mage, then bring that as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people go halfway when it comes to magic. For example, I once played a guy whose idea of a magic phase was to utter the following three words, “No magic, next!” Knowing that he was going to be playing my magic heavy high elves he decided he needed something to defend himself and brought - wait for it - one level one mage with a dispel scroll. Needless to say, the arch mage and his two apprentices shook with laughter and let loose the heavens. He would’ve been better off bringing another unit of hand gunners, but instead he wasted 100+ points on a unit that accomplished nothing the whole game.
2. Bound spells - Bound spells are a generals best friend. A liberal sprinkling of bound magic items throughout your army is often the difference between a dominating magic phase and a fizzled failure. There are two approaches you can take here -
3. Approach 1 “The bound spell jab” Use bound spells at the beginning of each of your magic phases in an attempt to siphon off his dispel dice. As he wastes one or two dispel dice on each of your bound spells have faith in the handful of power dice you’re holding in reserve. Nothing is sweeter than to see the look on your opponents face when he has two dispel dice left and he asks the fateful question, “How many power dice do you have left?” Try to be sporting and hold back your evil cackle as you turn your hand over and reveal the 10 power dice you’ve left to use. If you also have a banner of sorcery be a chum and get your opponent a beer.
4. Approach 2 “Now take this!” The second approach, and my personal favorite, is to save your bound spells for last. I don’t know why it is, but most Warhammer players completely forget that their opponent has a bound item from one turn to the next. Even if they do remember, a measured use of your power dice will usually deplete your opponents dispel dice anyway. When this happens you have free reign to rain fire from the sky. (Note: Be prepared to hear things like, “****ing Ring of Fury!”
5. Magic in support - So you changed your middle name to Tzeentch and you fantasize about having a Ring of Fury for rush hour traffic; you’re addicted to magic. Please repeat after me, “Magic alone can not win a battle”. Say that 100 times. No matter how much damage your mage can do, he can’t run down enemy units and engage the enemy. It’s not going to happen. So here are some guidelines on how to use magic effectively as a force multiplier in your army.
   1. Use magic to weaken enemies before committing your combat units to battle.
   2. Protect the flanks of your combat units by panicking and/or destroying threatening units.
   3. Looks for weak spots in your opponent’s army and pound them with magic. If you can destroy them or get them to flee your opponent’s army may crumble around them.
   4. Choose the magical lore that complements your army and will do the most damage to your opponent.
   5. Prepare for miscasts because they will eventually happen.
   6. Concentrate magic to accomplish an objective each magic phase. Destroying 5% of five units is nowhere as effective as destroying 25% of one.
   7. Buff and debuff spells are just as valuable as damage dealing spells. Think twice before sacrificing them for those d6 strength 4 magic missiles.

Obviously we’ve just scratched the surface here but hopefully this gets your juices flowing when your next magic phase rolls around. So get out there, be a man and cast spells from as far away as possible.

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