Post by knoffles on May 28, 2019 6:17:04 GMT
This is an article from Da warpath compiled by Izzy Gutsnick (thanks Fvonsigmaringen for confirming the source).
Although it is aimed at OnG players many of the general principles can be translated to other magic users. I'll split it into a number of posts within the thread.
www.tapatalk.com/groups/orcgoblinwarpath/getting-the-most-out-of-the-magic-phase-t33291.html
The Magic Phase in General
Before we take a detailed look at the Orcs & Goblins lore’s and how to use them, let’s first take a look at the general principles that govern the magic phase.
General principles
Getting the most out of the magic phase starts before the battle when selecting spells – which spell(if any) to swap for you signature spell, and which spell do you pick when rolling a duplicate spell? You’ve hopefully already carefully designed your army and come up with a general idea of what you want to achieve in the magic phase, but each game is different and your opponent’s army, the scenario, and terrain will all affect how a battle is likely to pan out. For example, suppose that your opponent is playing an army with lots of skirmishers, fast cavalry and other mobile troops, but without any real combat power. In this case, you probably won’t need your combat buffs. If you manage to pin him down in combat at all, that’s enough. So you’re better off with spells that control movement or do ranged damage. On the other hand, if your opponent is sporting a fast, hard hitting combat army such as Warriors of Chaos or Ogres, then you’re unlikely to get a lot of ranged damage in before combat ensues, and you’ll need every bit of help in combat to tip the scales. Similarly, if you’re faced with lots of Bretonnian Lances, then suddenly the Curse of the Bad Moon may be a spell that you like to keep on your Night Goblin Shaman. In short, think about your own and your opponent’s armies, and what spells will be useful. Similarly, the scenario can also play a big part. If you play Blood & Glory, a lot of the fortitude of your opponent is often concentrated in his General and BSB. Especially if he uses a wizard as his general, spells like ‘Eadbutt and Brainbusta should come much higher on your priority list to keep or swap for when rolling a duplicate. Even if your opponent isn’t running a wizard as his general but is running Death magic, you want to protect your own general and BSB from the snipes and your own snipes should be high on the list to kill your opponents Death wizard with. On the other hand, in Watchtower it’s all about who controls the tower. How can you get it, and how do you keep it if you have it? When it comes to taking the tower, suddenly the mighty Foot of Gork doesn’t look that helpful any more. But your Savage Orcs, or Black Orcs could get a massive boost from ‘Ere we Go when assaulting the tower, and Gork’ll fix it can be crucial in reducing the number of casualties that you take when defending the tower, which is crucial since you’ll be steadfast till thelast man standing.
So always consider the game at hand when selecting your spells, and don’t fall in the trap of selecting spells because they have done well for you in the past!
Another aspect important aspect before and during the game is determining your overall position. Do you have magic superiority or does your opponent top you? Are you looking at getting your own spells through, or should you first and foremost look at stopping your opponent from wreaking havoc. When you’re faced against a Slann with Life Magic, Dark Elves with Shadow Magic, or Tomb Kings with Death magic, you’ll often want to keep them in check first and foremost. That means that you’ll often have to allow remains in play spells to be cast when they are not that harmful and dispel them in your own turn instead. While this is something to consider each and every turn again, I find it helpful to have a general mindset regarding my role. If I play against the Life Slann and my general mindset is that I’m defending, I find that I’m less inclined to cast that Foot of Gork anyway, while the wiser decision is probably to dispel Throne of Vines. Against Tomb Kings with death magic, a casket, and a Hierotitan, I want to get in combat as soon as possible to be safe from the death snipes. On the other hand, when I’m the one having magic dominance and a good selection of ranged damage spells, I’m more inclined to hang back and wait for my opponent to take silly risks. Also, when I’m having magic dominance I’m more inclined to enter these combats that are slightly in my favour but could yet go wrong, when I have a few decent combat buffs.
As a general principle, it’s a good idea to consider how magic will affect the game in the next to turns when determining your battle plan.
Magic Offense
To maximize the potential of your magic phase, you have to get the right spells through. That’s what I call ‘Magic offense’. One of the mistakes that I often see inexperienced players make is being greedy and it comes in several forms. The easiest mistake to make is not throwing enough power dice into a spell. Many players seem to focused on averages and seem to think that everything that is ‘over average’ should pretty much always see them succeed. For example, when casting a spell that’s 16+ with a level 4 (thus needing a 12), they figure that 4 dice should do the trick, because 4 dice averages 14, well over the required 12. If they fail, the moan about their dice. Though when you do the actual math, the probability of failing is about 24%. Indeed well above average, but certainly no guarantee. The consequences are not only that they wasted 4 power dice, but also leave their opponent with a handful of dispel dice and broken concentration on their level 4, with a result that they achieve nothing at all in the magic phase.
As a rule of thumb you should strive to have a 90+% chance of meeting the casting value of all your spells.
An exception perhaps, is the last one, which can be slightly lower as the consequences of missing out are not that disastrous. Even then, I’d like to keep the success rate over 80%. If is spell is worth casting, it’s worth an extra power dice! When it comes down to the individual Orc & Goblin spells later, I will include tables for each spell and the various wizard levels with a suggestion of how many dice to use to get this 90%. Another example of being greedy is wanting to cast to many spells, even when meeting the 90% requirement.
Consider, for example, the situation where your opponent has 5 dispel dice, and you have 8 power dice. Now suppose that you have Brain Busta, ‘Eadbutt and ‘Ere we go that you all want to cast, but ‘Ere we go is crucial because you’ve just engaged in a very important combat. Now you start with 2 dice on the Brain Busta to kill an Eagle that threatens to charge your war machines and your opponent allows it (say you manage to kill the eagle). Next up is an unboosted ‘Eadbutt on3 dice with your Level 4 shaman and your opponent allows that as well. You might kill a level 2, you might fail to reach your target… but whatever the outcome, the difference in VP is no more than 150. Finally, you cast ‘Ere we go with your last three dice. Your opponent easily dispels it with his five dice and your combat unit loses the following combat instead of winning it. Suddenly your 400 points unit is sent running, instead of chasing your opponent’s 350-point unit. A massive 750 point swing in Victory points, and exposes the flank of another of your units to your opponent as well, and you’re in all sorts of trouble! Yeah, you have gotten two spells off, which is a fine achievement. But they were of little use. Had you instead simply thrown 6 dice into ‘Ere we go, you would probably have gotten that off and were in a much better position.
If there is a spell that you really want to cast, then cast is at the first opportunity that you have when your opponent is unlikely to stop it!
Note that a similar situation could have occurred if decided to first cast Brain Busta on two dice, and then planned to proceed to casting ‘Ere we Go on 6 dice, and you got Irresistible force, and lost a bunch of power dice in the process.
Also note that the strategy outlined in the example above can be an excellent strategy in other situations, when all three spells are about equally important! In itself, the 2-3-3 splitting of dice is an excellent way to get off more spells. If your opponent splits up his dispel dice in 2 and 3 to try and stop your Brainbusta and ‘Eadbutt, he’s very unlikely to stop them both (just over a 25% chance).And if he fails to stop the first one, it’s very hard to stop the second spell with broken concentration and all three of your spells go off. While in this situation it was a disaster, the 2-3-3 is in fact quite good in itself. If you casted two spells on 4 dice each, your opponent will probably have to eat one but stop the other. Which leads us to the third general principle of magic offense:
If there is no spell that’s especially important, manage your power dice well to try and get an extra spell through.
Now this isn’t always possible (and not always the best solution, as demonstrated before!); But there are some other dice distributions that sometimes allow for an extra spell, assuming equal wizard levels (so your bonus to cast is equal to your opponents bonus to dispel). This is most often the case in situations where you have (almost) twice the number of power dice compared to your opponents dispel dice.
PD v DD How to cast?
4 v 2 2-2
8 v 5 3-3-2
6 v 3 3-3
9 v 5 3-3-3
6 v 4 2-2-2
10 v 5 4-3-3
7 v 4 3-2-2
11 v 6 3-3-3-2 / 4-4-3
8 v 4 3-3-2
12 v 6 3-3-3-3 / 4-4-4
Finally, there’s the situation where you have two spells, both of them nice, yet neither of them ‘must-casts’, and you are unlikely to get them both through. For example, if you have two spells that both need 2 dice to cast, you have 4 power dice and your opponent has 3 dispel dice. How to handle such situations? Take a good look at the spells. If they are about equally appealing, then it’s best tosplit you dice and cast them both at 2 dice. Your opponent has no way to stop them both (at least, not without taking very unhealthy risks and though that may work once, it’s a poor strategy in the long rung), so you’re guaranteed to get one through. If you would throw all four dice in a single spell, your opponent will toss all his dice in the dispel attempt, and while his changes aren’t very good, he might well beat you if you roll poorly or he rolls well.
Don’t give your opponent the chance to get lucky when this isn’t needed.
However if on second thought, one spell is more appealing than the other, then by splitting your dice2-2, you only give your opponent the chance to stop the spell that he dislikes most by throwing 3 dice against your 2 and he’ll almost certainly stop it. In that case, it’s better to throw all 4 dice in the better spell (and hope that the dice gods don’t thwart your good strategy by rewarding your opponent with a double 6 or so…).
… but also don’t let your opponent decide for you.
Goblin shamans have a unique way of altering the power balance with their Lore attribute Sneaky Stealin’. This can come in handy both when trying to cast the one spell that you really want. Suppose there’s one spell that you want to get of above all else. For example: an expensive unit with your general in it has just failed a charge, and is now in a position of being flank-charged by an enemy. This will most likely cost you the game, unless you can use Hand of Gork to teleport your generals unit to safety). The problem is: your opponent has got 6 dispel dice and while you have 9 power dice you can only use 6 to cast the Hand of Gork, so it’s basically a dice-off. The second principle of magic offense was to cast your important spell as soon as possible, lest Irresistible Force drains your dice when going for the small gains. But the Sneaky Steallin’ ability can actually quite dramatically improve your chances of getting your important spell off. First cast a small spell like Gift of the Spider God on two dice (It’s nice if you have a target that can make good use of it, but you can still do it if you get no benefit at all from it). Your opponent probably realizes that he’d best save his dice for your big spell. But if he lets this spell go off, he risks losing a dice to Sneaky Stealing and will be left with just 5 Dispel Dice versus your 5 power dice. If your opponent doesn’t bite, and Sneaky Steallin’ doesn’t work, you can try to repeat it by throwing a single dice in for example Sneaky Stabbin’ or Vindictive Glare. Your odds of making the casting value may not be in the order of magnitude that I normally suggest, but you’re not doing anything else with that last die anyway, so you might as well try it. This gives you another shot at stealing that all-important dispel die. Now there is of course a chance that you cast the first spell (Gift of the Spider god) Irresistible on two dice. That chance of that happening is however very small (3%), while the chance of stealing a dice is much bigger (33%), so that’s well worth it.
When you want to cast an important spell, first cast as many spells as you can with Goblins to try and steal dispel dice.
The final thoughts on getting important spells of go to the Dispel Scroll, that almost all armies include, and for good reason. With a scroll, you can often neutralize an entire magic phase, dispelling one spell with a surplus of dice and the other with the scroll (and it’s a rare day when you have to dispel more than two very important spells). Especially in situations where you expect a big combat to ensue and you want to swing the odds in your favour there with for example ‘Ere we go, then it’s important to try and get the scroll out early. Foot of Gork and ‘Eadbutt are great ways to achieve this and Itchy Nuisance is a potential candidate too. These spells have a high threat value, because they have the potential to wreak havoc. Even though they don’t always deliver on that potential, very few opponents are willing to take the risk. It’s difficult to stop all spells each magic phase, so if you can force your opponent to use some dice on one of them, and throw all your remaining dice in another,your opponent won’t have the dice to stop that, and has to choose whether to allow it and live with the consequences, or to burn his scroll early so he can’t use it to stop your essential ‘Ere we go when crunch time comes.
Tempt your opponent to use his dispel scroll early, especially when you think you will rely on combat buffs later in the game.
Summary
Try to have a 90+% chance of meeting the casting value of all your spell, except perhaps the last one, which can be slightly lower.
If there is a spell that you really want to cast, then cast is at the first opportunity that you have when your opponent is unlikely to stop it.
If there is no spell that’s especially important, manage your power dice well to try and get an extra spell through.
Don’t give your opponent the chance to get lucky when this isn’t needed .If you have two equally important spells, split your dice.
… but also don’t let your opponent decide for you .If one spell is more powerful, just chuck all your dice in that one.
When you want to cast an important spell, first cast as many spells as you can with Goblins to try and steal dispel dice.
Tempt your opponent to use his dispel scroll earl, especially when you think you will rely on combat buffs later in the game.
Magic Defence
With every spells that your opponent casts, you’re faced with the decision to try to stop it or let it go. This decision depends on how dangerous this spell is, and how dangerous the remaining spells are. So when your opponent casts a spell, take a good look at what other spells he still has at his disposal and how many power dice he has left. Also, look at the range of his other spells! Opponents also make mistakes, and the only dangerous spell that he has left may be on a wizard who’s out of range in which case it’s obviously best to try and stop the one being cast just now. If you have the Warhammer Magic Cards, it’s obviously helpful to keep track of which spells he has. Alternatively, you can use small Post-it’s and stick them next to the spells in your rulebook. Alternatively, just quickly write down the spell effects, range and cost when your opponent selects them at the start of the game.
Know your enemy, and what he still can and cannot do in the rest of the magic phase!
In the same vein, but a rather different situation, many opponents will try to cast unimportant spells before casting their killer spell. If this killer spell will kill you (e.g. Flesh to Stone, the Withering or the Ogres ‘bubble regen’), then hold on to your dice and don’t fall for the bait. If your opponent has however two, more or less, equally dangerous spells, and you can realistically only stop a single one, then I find it best to throw all your dice at the spell that’s just being cast. On his second spell, he may roll really badly when casting and thus fail to cast. Or he may roll a double 6 and get irresistible force. In both cases, your left with a handful of useless dispel dice, which were much better spend dispelling the first spell.
Stop the first dangerous spell that’s being cast, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Now when you try to dispel with dice, you should again look at the dice that your opponent has left and decide if you have a genuine chance of stopping another. If not, don’t hesitate to throw all your dice into it. Better to stop one spell, than to have two dispel dice left which are very unlikely to stop another spell, and also fail at stopping this one. As a rule of thumb, you should again look at having a 90% probability of stopping it.
Don’t be greedy: when a spell is worth dispelling, it’s worth making sure you dispel it!
The following table can help you determine how many dice you need:
Dice roll needed (NB: wizard level NOT included) Suggested number of dice
3-5 2 (5 is 83%)
5-8 3 (8 is 84%)
8-11 4 (11is 84%)
11-14 5 (14 is 85%)
14 6
If you don’t have enough dispel dice, you could also use your dispel scroll to automatically stop it. We already spoke about the scroll earlier when it came to magic offense. The advice that I’m going to give here is complementary… don’t be tempted to use your scroll too soon, especially not if there’s an important combat yet to come, and your opponent has a couple of powerful buffs and hexes. If your opponent has invested a decent amount of points in magic, odds are that magic WILL hurt somewhere, and you have to minimize the damage. So if you’re faced with a Shadow wizard who has The Withering, Pit of Shades and Mindrazor, then it may be tempting to use your scroll in turn two, when your opponent casts Pit of Shades on 6 dice, and you only have 4 dispel dice. But remember that your opponent will likely slaughter you in combat in the next round, while the Pit has a good chance to shatter for less (or even no) damage, and with 4 dice you also have a small chance to roll double 6. Assuming that any scatter of 3” or more will result in very few casualties, this means that the Pit has only a 45% chance of avoiding both your double-6 dispel attempt and scattering away. Even if he DOES make it, he will probably ‘only’ kill 10 out of the 15 Savage Orcs that he hit, which is painful, but far less painful than losing the entire unit and the characters included to Mindrazor in the next turn!
Don’t be tempted to use your scroll too early.
By all means, use your scroll if your scroll-caddy is about to die anyway, but don’t throw it away cheaply when giving in to the fear factor. Remains in play spells deserve some special attention. If your opponent has earlier cast such a spell, you already are in a disadvantageous position, as you probably want to consider dispelling that, leaving you in an even worse position in the Power dice vs. Dispel dice equation. There are somethings to consider here though: dispelling remains in play is easier than dispelling normal spells because your opponent doesn’t add his wizard level. Still, many people fail to do so because of the ‘fear factor’ of spells being cast. When you’re faced with a dangerous remains in play spell, it’s best to mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway. Wait as long as possible with dispelling the remains in play spell so that your opponent doesn’t have any more dice to recast it. Sometimes you can allow the remains in play spell to be there for one more turn, especially if it isn’t very dangerous, but be VERY wary about this if it is something like Doom and Darkness or the Enfeebling foe. In the next turn, your dispel position will probably be just as bad as in the current one, and if combat has started then, you really want to use all dice at your disposal to counter his combat spells!
If you’re faced with a remains in play spell, mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway.
Summary
Know your enemy’s spells, and what he still can and cannot do in the rest of the magic phase!
Stop the first dangerous spell that’s being cast, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Don’t be greedy with your dice: when a spell is worth dispelling, it’s worth making sure you dispel it!
Don’t be tempted to use your scroll too early.
If you’re faced with a remains in play spell, mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway.
There are two other ways of magic defence that are worth mentioning, that are not directly related to dispelling spells. The first is magic resistance. This ability is a bit of a hit-and-miss, because there are quite a lot of spells that don’t care at all about magic resistance: Dwellers, Final transmutation, Pit of Shades, Purple Sun are damaging spells that ignore Ward saves, and it doesn’t work against hexes and buffs either. Another problem is that it is easy for your opponent just to select another target without Magic Resistance and thus avoid the Ward save. Still, it is very useful against the snipe spells in the Lore of Death. Now Orcs & Goblins are very reliant on the general and BSB, so keeping them alive is of prime importance. With the other spells in the Lore being lethal as well for us (Doom and Darkness sets up running, Purple Sun is lethal to our low Initiative, and Soulblight is an excellent
combat spell), it’s very nice if you don’t have to worry about the sniper spells too. So if you play in an environment that sees a lot of this lore, it’s well worth picking up a point or two of magic resistance. Another way of magic defence, is to look for ways to kill wizards in combat! Don’t forget to allocate as much attacks as you can when you’re in combat with a wizard, lest he survives your charge and casts a devastating combat buff just before he dies next turn. Also, always keep an open eye for wizards in vulnerable positions especially if they already have lost a wound or two. Even a lowly Goblin wolf boss, some wolf riders or a chariot might kill him off by charging into his unit, even if they get killed in return.
Although it is aimed at OnG players many of the general principles can be translated to other magic users. I'll split it into a number of posts within the thread.
www.tapatalk.com/groups/orcgoblinwarpath/getting-the-most-out-of-the-magic-phase-t33291.html
The Magic Phase in General
Before we take a detailed look at the Orcs & Goblins lore’s and how to use them, let’s first take a look at the general principles that govern the magic phase.
General principles
Getting the most out of the magic phase starts before the battle when selecting spells – which spell(if any) to swap for you signature spell, and which spell do you pick when rolling a duplicate spell? You’ve hopefully already carefully designed your army and come up with a general idea of what you want to achieve in the magic phase, but each game is different and your opponent’s army, the scenario, and terrain will all affect how a battle is likely to pan out. For example, suppose that your opponent is playing an army with lots of skirmishers, fast cavalry and other mobile troops, but without any real combat power. In this case, you probably won’t need your combat buffs. If you manage to pin him down in combat at all, that’s enough. So you’re better off with spells that control movement or do ranged damage. On the other hand, if your opponent is sporting a fast, hard hitting combat army such as Warriors of Chaos or Ogres, then you’re unlikely to get a lot of ranged damage in before combat ensues, and you’ll need every bit of help in combat to tip the scales. Similarly, if you’re faced with lots of Bretonnian Lances, then suddenly the Curse of the Bad Moon may be a spell that you like to keep on your Night Goblin Shaman. In short, think about your own and your opponent’s armies, and what spells will be useful. Similarly, the scenario can also play a big part. If you play Blood & Glory, a lot of the fortitude of your opponent is often concentrated in his General and BSB. Especially if he uses a wizard as his general, spells like ‘Eadbutt and Brainbusta should come much higher on your priority list to keep or swap for when rolling a duplicate. Even if your opponent isn’t running a wizard as his general but is running Death magic, you want to protect your own general and BSB from the snipes and your own snipes should be high on the list to kill your opponents Death wizard with. On the other hand, in Watchtower it’s all about who controls the tower. How can you get it, and how do you keep it if you have it? When it comes to taking the tower, suddenly the mighty Foot of Gork doesn’t look that helpful any more. But your Savage Orcs, or Black Orcs could get a massive boost from ‘Ere we Go when assaulting the tower, and Gork’ll fix it can be crucial in reducing the number of casualties that you take when defending the tower, which is crucial since you’ll be steadfast till thelast man standing.
So always consider the game at hand when selecting your spells, and don’t fall in the trap of selecting spells because they have done well for you in the past!
Another aspect important aspect before and during the game is determining your overall position. Do you have magic superiority or does your opponent top you? Are you looking at getting your own spells through, or should you first and foremost look at stopping your opponent from wreaking havoc. When you’re faced against a Slann with Life Magic, Dark Elves with Shadow Magic, or Tomb Kings with Death magic, you’ll often want to keep them in check first and foremost. That means that you’ll often have to allow remains in play spells to be cast when they are not that harmful and dispel them in your own turn instead. While this is something to consider each and every turn again, I find it helpful to have a general mindset regarding my role. If I play against the Life Slann and my general mindset is that I’m defending, I find that I’m less inclined to cast that Foot of Gork anyway, while the wiser decision is probably to dispel Throne of Vines. Against Tomb Kings with death magic, a casket, and a Hierotitan, I want to get in combat as soon as possible to be safe from the death snipes. On the other hand, when I’m the one having magic dominance and a good selection of ranged damage spells, I’m more inclined to hang back and wait for my opponent to take silly risks. Also, when I’m having magic dominance I’m more inclined to enter these combats that are slightly in my favour but could yet go wrong, when I have a few decent combat buffs.
As a general principle, it’s a good idea to consider how magic will affect the game in the next to turns when determining your battle plan.
Magic Offense
To maximize the potential of your magic phase, you have to get the right spells through. That’s what I call ‘Magic offense’. One of the mistakes that I often see inexperienced players make is being greedy and it comes in several forms. The easiest mistake to make is not throwing enough power dice into a spell. Many players seem to focused on averages and seem to think that everything that is ‘over average’ should pretty much always see them succeed. For example, when casting a spell that’s 16+ with a level 4 (thus needing a 12), they figure that 4 dice should do the trick, because 4 dice averages 14, well over the required 12. If they fail, the moan about their dice. Though when you do the actual math, the probability of failing is about 24%. Indeed well above average, but certainly no guarantee. The consequences are not only that they wasted 4 power dice, but also leave their opponent with a handful of dispel dice and broken concentration on their level 4, with a result that they achieve nothing at all in the magic phase.
As a rule of thumb you should strive to have a 90+% chance of meeting the casting value of all your spells.
An exception perhaps, is the last one, which can be slightly lower as the consequences of missing out are not that disastrous. Even then, I’d like to keep the success rate over 80%. If is spell is worth casting, it’s worth an extra power dice! When it comes down to the individual Orc & Goblin spells later, I will include tables for each spell and the various wizard levels with a suggestion of how many dice to use to get this 90%. Another example of being greedy is wanting to cast to many spells, even when meeting the 90% requirement.
Consider, for example, the situation where your opponent has 5 dispel dice, and you have 8 power dice. Now suppose that you have Brain Busta, ‘Eadbutt and ‘Ere we go that you all want to cast, but ‘Ere we go is crucial because you’ve just engaged in a very important combat. Now you start with 2 dice on the Brain Busta to kill an Eagle that threatens to charge your war machines and your opponent allows it (say you manage to kill the eagle). Next up is an unboosted ‘Eadbutt on3 dice with your Level 4 shaman and your opponent allows that as well. You might kill a level 2, you might fail to reach your target… but whatever the outcome, the difference in VP is no more than 150. Finally, you cast ‘Ere we go with your last three dice. Your opponent easily dispels it with his five dice and your combat unit loses the following combat instead of winning it. Suddenly your 400 points unit is sent running, instead of chasing your opponent’s 350-point unit. A massive 750 point swing in Victory points, and exposes the flank of another of your units to your opponent as well, and you’re in all sorts of trouble! Yeah, you have gotten two spells off, which is a fine achievement. But they were of little use. Had you instead simply thrown 6 dice into ‘Ere we go, you would probably have gotten that off and were in a much better position.
If there is a spell that you really want to cast, then cast is at the first opportunity that you have when your opponent is unlikely to stop it!
Note that a similar situation could have occurred if decided to first cast Brain Busta on two dice, and then planned to proceed to casting ‘Ere we Go on 6 dice, and you got Irresistible force, and lost a bunch of power dice in the process.
Also note that the strategy outlined in the example above can be an excellent strategy in other situations, when all three spells are about equally important! In itself, the 2-3-3 splitting of dice is an excellent way to get off more spells. If your opponent splits up his dispel dice in 2 and 3 to try and stop your Brainbusta and ‘Eadbutt, he’s very unlikely to stop them both (just over a 25% chance).And if he fails to stop the first one, it’s very hard to stop the second spell with broken concentration and all three of your spells go off. While in this situation it was a disaster, the 2-3-3 is in fact quite good in itself. If you casted two spells on 4 dice each, your opponent will probably have to eat one but stop the other. Which leads us to the third general principle of magic offense:
If there is no spell that’s especially important, manage your power dice well to try and get an extra spell through.
Now this isn’t always possible (and not always the best solution, as demonstrated before!); But there are some other dice distributions that sometimes allow for an extra spell, assuming equal wizard levels (so your bonus to cast is equal to your opponents bonus to dispel). This is most often the case in situations where you have (almost) twice the number of power dice compared to your opponents dispel dice.
PD v DD How to cast?
4 v 2 2-2
8 v 5 3-3-2
6 v 3 3-3
9 v 5 3-3-3
6 v 4 2-2-2
10 v 5 4-3-3
7 v 4 3-2-2
11 v 6 3-3-3-2 / 4-4-3
8 v 4 3-3-2
12 v 6 3-3-3-3 / 4-4-4
Finally, there’s the situation where you have two spells, both of them nice, yet neither of them ‘must-casts’, and you are unlikely to get them both through. For example, if you have two spells that both need 2 dice to cast, you have 4 power dice and your opponent has 3 dispel dice. How to handle such situations? Take a good look at the spells. If they are about equally appealing, then it’s best tosplit you dice and cast them both at 2 dice. Your opponent has no way to stop them both (at least, not without taking very unhealthy risks and though that may work once, it’s a poor strategy in the long rung), so you’re guaranteed to get one through. If you would throw all four dice in a single spell, your opponent will toss all his dice in the dispel attempt, and while his changes aren’t very good, he might well beat you if you roll poorly or he rolls well.
Don’t give your opponent the chance to get lucky when this isn’t needed.
However if on second thought, one spell is more appealing than the other, then by splitting your dice2-2, you only give your opponent the chance to stop the spell that he dislikes most by throwing 3 dice against your 2 and he’ll almost certainly stop it. In that case, it’s better to throw all 4 dice in the better spell (and hope that the dice gods don’t thwart your good strategy by rewarding your opponent with a double 6 or so…).
… but also don’t let your opponent decide for you.
Goblin shamans have a unique way of altering the power balance with their Lore attribute Sneaky Stealin’. This can come in handy both when trying to cast the one spell that you really want. Suppose there’s one spell that you want to get of above all else. For example: an expensive unit with your general in it has just failed a charge, and is now in a position of being flank-charged by an enemy. This will most likely cost you the game, unless you can use Hand of Gork to teleport your generals unit to safety). The problem is: your opponent has got 6 dispel dice and while you have 9 power dice you can only use 6 to cast the Hand of Gork, so it’s basically a dice-off. The second principle of magic offense was to cast your important spell as soon as possible, lest Irresistible Force drains your dice when going for the small gains. But the Sneaky Steallin’ ability can actually quite dramatically improve your chances of getting your important spell off. First cast a small spell like Gift of the Spider God on two dice (It’s nice if you have a target that can make good use of it, but you can still do it if you get no benefit at all from it). Your opponent probably realizes that he’d best save his dice for your big spell. But if he lets this spell go off, he risks losing a dice to Sneaky Stealing and will be left with just 5 Dispel Dice versus your 5 power dice. If your opponent doesn’t bite, and Sneaky Steallin’ doesn’t work, you can try to repeat it by throwing a single dice in for example Sneaky Stabbin’ or Vindictive Glare. Your odds of making the casting value may not be in the order of magnitude that I normally suggest, but you’re not doing anything else with that last die anyway, so you might as well try it. This gives you another shot at stealing that all-important dispel die. Now there is of course a chance that you cast the first spell (Gift of the Spider god) Irresistible on two dice. That chance of that happening is however very small (3%), while the chance of stealing a dice is much bigger (33%), so that’s well worth it.
When you want to cast an important spell, first cast as many spells as you can with Goblins to try and steal dispel dice.
The final thoughts on getting important spells of go to the Dispel Scroll, that almost all armies include, and for good reason. With a scroll, you can often neutralize an entire magic phase, dispelling one spell with a surplus of dice and the other with the scroll (and it’s a rare day when you have to dispel more than two very important spells). Especially in situations where you expect a big combat to ensue and you want to swing the odds in your favour there with for example ‘Ere we go, then it’s important to try and get the scroll out early. Foot of Gork and ‘Eadbutt are great ways to achieve this and Itchy Nuisance is a potential candidate too. These spells have a high threat value, because they have the potential to wreak havoc. Even though they don’t always deliver on that potential, very few opponents are willing to take the risk. It’s difficult to stop all spells each magic phase, so if you can force your opponent to use some dice on one of them, and throw all your remaining dice in another,your opponent won’t have the dice to stop that, and has to choose whether to allow it and live with the consequences, or to burn his scroll early so he can’t use it to stop your essential ‘Ere we go when crunch time comes.
Tempt your opponent to use his dispel scroll early, especially when you think you will rely on combat buffs later in the game.
Summary
Try to have a 90+% chance of meeting the casting value of all your spell, except perhaps the last one, which can be slightly lower.
If there is a spell that you really want to cast, then cast is at the first opportunity that you have when your opponent is unlikely to stop it.
If there is no spell that’s especially important, manage your power dice well to try and get an extra spell through.
Don’t give your opponent the chance to get lucky when this isn’t needed .If you have two equally important spells, split your dice.
… but also don’t let your opponent decide for you .If one spell is more powerful, just chuck all your dice in that one.
When you want to cast an important spell, first cast as many spells as you can with Goblins to try and steal dispel dice.
Tempt your opponent to use his dispel scroll earl, especially when you think you will rely on combat buffs later in the game.
Magic Defence
With every spells that your opponent casts, you’re faced with the decision to try to stop it or let it go. This decision depends on how dangerous this spell is, and how dangerous the remaining spells are. So when your opponent casts a spell, take a good look at what other spells he still has at his disposal and how many power dice he has left. Also, look at the range of his other spells! Opponents also make mistakes, and the only dangerous spell that he has left may be on a wizard who’s out of range in which case it’s obviously best to try and stop the one being cast just now. If you have the Warhammer Magic Cards, it’s obviously helpful to keep track of which spells he has. Alternatively, you can use small Post-it’s and stick them next to the spells in your rulebook. Alternatively, just quickly write down the spell effects, range and cost when your opponent selects them at the start of the game.
Know your enemy, and what he still can and cannot do in the rest of the magic phase!
In the same vein, but a rather different situation, many opponents will try to cast unimportant spells before casting their killer spell. If this killer spell will kill you (e.g. Flesh to Stone, the Withering or the Ogres ‘bubble regen’), then hold on to your dice and don’t fall for the bait. If your opponent has however two, more or less, equally dangerous spells, and you can realistically only stop a single one, then I find it best to throw all your dice at the spell that’s just being cast. On his second spell, he may roll really badly when casting and thus fail to cast. Or he may roll a double 6 and get irresistible force. In both cases, your left with a handful of useless dispel dice, which were much better spend dispelling the first spell.
Stop the first dangerous spell that’s being cast, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Now when you try to dispel with dice, you should again look at the dice that your opponent has left and decide if you have a genuine chance of stopping another. If not, don’t hesitate to throw all your dice into it. Better to stop one spell, than to have two dispel dice left which are very unlikely to stop another spell, and also fail at stopping this one. As a rule of thumb, you should again look at having a 90% probability of stopping it.
Don’t be greedy: when a spell is worth dispelling, it’s worth making sure you dispel it!
The following table can help you determine how many dice you need:
Dice roll needed (NB: wizard level NOT included) Suggested number of dice
3-5 2 (5 is 83%)
5-8 3 (8 is 84%)
8-11 4 (11is 84%)
11-14 5 (14 is 85%)
14 6
If you don’t have enough dispel dice, you could also use your dispel scroll to automatically stop it. We already spoke about the scroll earlier when it came to magic offense. The advice that I’m going to give here is complementary… don’t be tempted to use your scroll too soon, especially not if there’s an important combat yet to come, and your opponent has a couple of powerful buffs and hexes. If your opponent has invested a decent amount of points in magic, odds are that magic WILL hurt somewhere, and you have to minimize the damage. So if you’re faced with a Shadow wizard who has The Withering, Pit of Shades and Mindrazor, then it may be tempting to use your scroll in turn two, when your opponent casts Pit of Shades on 6 dice, and you only have 4 dispel dice. But remember that your opponent will likely slaughter you in combat in the next round, while the Pit has a good chance to shatter for less (or even no) damage, and with 4 dice you also have a small chance to roll double 6. Assuming that any scatter of 3” or more will result in very few casualties, this means that the Pit has only a 45% chance of avoiding both your double-6 dispel attempt and scattering away. Even if he DOES make it, he will probably ‘only’ kill 10 out of the 15 Savage Orcs that he hit, which is painful, but far less painful than losing the entire unit and the characters included to Mindrazor in the next turn!
Don’t be tempted to use your scroll too early.
By all means, use your scroll if your scroll-caddy is about to die anyway, but don’t throw it away cheaply when giving in to the fear factor. Remains in play spells deserve some special attention. If your opponent has earlier cast such a spell, you already are in a disadvantageous position, as you probably want to consider dispelling that, leaving you in an even worse position in the Power dice vs. Dispel dice equation. There are somethings to consider here though: dispelling remains in play is easier than dispelling normal spells because your opponent doesn’t add his wizard level. Still, many people fail to do so because of the ‘fear factor’ of spells being cast. When you’re faced with a dangerous remains in play spell, it’s best to mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway. Wait as long as possible with dispelling the remains in play spell so that your opponent doesn’t have any more dice to recast it. Sometimes you can allow the remains in play spell to be there for one more turn, especially if it isn’t very dangerous, but be VERY wary about this if it is something like Doom and Darkness or the Enfeebling foe. In the next turn, your dispel position will probably be just as bad as in the current one, and if combat has started then, you really want to use all dice at your disposal to counter his combat spells!
If you’re faced with a remains in play spell, mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway.
Summary
Know your enemy’s spells, and what he still can and cannot do in the rest of the magic phase!
Stop the first dangerous spell that’s being cast, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Don’t be greedy with your dice: when a spell is worth dispelling, it’s worth making sure you dispel it!
Don’t be tempted to use your scroll too early.
If you’re faced with a remains in play spell, mentally deduct the dispel dice from your pool at the start of the magic phase, and just play as you don’t have these dice anyway.
There are two other ways of magic defence that are worth mentioning, that are not directly related to dispelling spells. The first is magic resistance. This ability is a bit of a hit-and-miss, because there are quite a lot of spells that don’t care at all about magic resistance: Dwellers, Final transmutation, Pit of Shades, Purple Sun are damaging spells that ignore Ward saves, and it doesn’t work against hexes and buffs either. Another problem is that it is easy for your opponent just to select another target without Magic Resistance and thus avoid the Ward save. Still, it is very useful against the snipe spells in the Lore of Death. Now Orcs & Goblins are very reliant on the general and BSB, so keeping them alive is of prime importance. With the other spells in the Lore being lethal as well for us (Doom and Darkness sets up running, Purple Sun is lethal to our low Initiative, and Soulblight is an excellent
combat spell), it’s very nice if you don’t have to worry about the sniper spells too. So if you play in an environment that sees a lot of this lore, it’s well worth picking up a point or two of magic resistance. Another way of magic defence, is to look for ways to kill wizards in combat! Don’t forget to allocate as much attacks as you can when you’re in combat with a wizard, lest he survives your charge and casts a devastating combat buff just before he dies next turn. Also, always keep an open eye for wizards in vulnerable positions especially if they already have lost a wound or two. Even a lowly Goblin wolf boss, some wolf riders or a chariot might kill him off by charging into his unit, even if they get killed in return.