Warhammer: The Old World – Magic and Its Role in v1.5.1

While v1.5.1 of Warhammer: The Old World brought lots of welcome changes to the game one of the biggest was to the way Magic works. Instead of Wizards adding their wizard level to the dice rolled to determine if a cast is successful, they now add half their wizard level (rounding up) to the casting and dispel rolls. What this has done has shifted the math involved in the casting and dispelling of spells by a fair chunk and as a result, it’s role in the game and how you can build around it. In addition, you can now only cast a number of spells each round equal to your wizard level, regardless of any items or rules you have, meaning there’s even more granularity to be able to pick from. As much as I like statistics and the math involved, the majority of the article will focus on the way it now shapes the game and how you still have to (usually) take a real look at magic when building your lists.

A Quick Word on Math

I just want to take a quick little note on reaching casting values, then not talk about it for the rest of the article.

This isn’t going to come as a shock to anyone reading the article but that’s the dice curve, so to roll a 6 you’ll hit that 72% of the time (6+7+8+9+10+11+12). This isn’t totally relevant, however, because you’ll usually have bonuses to cast in The Old World which means the charts below becomes what you need to be aware of.

The lowest casting values in the game are at a 7+ in the shape of some of the smaller assailment spells such as Hammerhand or Flaming Sword. The important thing to remember is that you’ll actually cast that spell 72.22% of the time with just a +1 to cast, and dispelling they will need to beat your roll by a single 1, so even if you just barely reach that and they’re dispelling with a +1 themselves, they’ll only do that 58% of the time, but that’s only if you rolled that hard 6, if you went above that at all the chance of having the dispel take effect reduces massively. Even at plus 2, if you only rolled the 6 with your plus 1 they still only do that 72.22% of the time; if you rolled slightly better, then that again spirals down.

The headline effect of all of this is that spells got slightly harder to cast, but all spells also got harder to dispel. This needs to shape your thinking when moving forward and planning your lists.

Lv4 Still King?

The over-reaching narrative for the best part of the last 18 months since the release of the game has been that the Lv4 is king; is this still the case following the shift in the math so that a Lv3 gets the same bonuses as the Lv4 wizards (+2 to casting/dispel attempts)? In effect, you need to work out if you need that 4th spell on a regular basis rather than just picking up that upgrade all the time. I can’t remember outside of the Grand Melee style composition events where I saw a none-named Lv3 Wizard on the table prior to v1.5.1; nowadays most lists may have a Lv3 not a Lv4 as a result.

I want to just talk through my thinking here on my Shugengan Lord, and I can certainly see areas where I’ll still want that Lv4. When picking the Lore for my wizard I’m trying to work out how many spells I want to cast that turn, for example on a standard (non-combat) wizard with Illusion;

1. Glittering Robes isn’t majorly useful.
2. Mind Razor’s not great (but still okay).
3. Shimmering Dragon really depends on if the caster’s on foot or not.
4. Column of Crystal is great.
5. Confounding Convocation is okay but you aren’t going to miss it.
6. Spectral Doppelganger isn’t great without a magic weapon.
7. Miasmic Mirage is great, but hard to get off.

How many of these do I want to make sure I’m casting every turn? Maybe Mind Razor? Column and Miasmic? Do I have a signature spell from my Army Choice which I need and want to cast? These are all things which will inform the decision. If the caster has a magic weapon, for example, then Spectral Doppelganger is great, but if I’m doing that I can’t cast Column of Crystal that turn as well so what’s the point in having spell “slots” I’m not using? If you’re one of the armies with the ability to take an additional spell (Warriors of Chaos or Cathay for example) then rather than the Lv4 upgrade where you won’t cast four spells a turn, then why not take a Lv3 and only cast three of your four spells, which was what you were going to do anyway? This in turn plays into what magic items you want and where you’re going to put them. Is the item you need really common? Clearly that plays into account of wanting multiple of them but could also mean you can take it and stack it with a second Arcane item. It’s all about working out what you want to do, seeing if it works and leaning into it.

Lots of Lv1s?

At the other end of the spectrum around debate over the Level of the Wizard you want in your force we have the Lv1 Casters. These tend to be cheap (usually coming in well under 100pts) with stand outs like the Master Mage only being 60pts or the Night Goblin Oddgit coming in at 55! What’s really important with these is that instead of the Lv4 to Lv1 casting/dispel roll being at a +3 advantage it’s now just a +1; that’s a massive shift when it comes to rolling dice. The key to this is going to be: Do you have a signature spell which is so good you’re happy to cast that and nothing else for the rest of the game? The best example of this is Beastmen and their Viletide spell which is a relatively reliable (8+) to cast magic missile, meaning you’ll get it off over half the time should your opponent not have any defense against it. Wizards with access to Daemonology for The Summoning are another good call; however, this spell has a slightly harder casting value (9+) making it less likely to go off.

What makes this a strategy you can really push your list into, however, are casting bonuses, especially if you’ve got ones which can effect models in an area or trigger off other models of a similar type. Going back to the Beastmen again as a prime example, you can have a Herdstone in the list which gives you a bubble around it of +1 to cast while you control the feature, add this to the Primal Warherds Dark Coven special rule and another +1 to cast and you’re really kicking off. For those keeping count this is a fairly reliable +3 when added together with your Wizard Level and that’s more than a lot of armies’ Lv4 wizards can put together! This means you’ll be casting the spell on over 80% of your attempts and that’s just so reliable compared to most of the game at the minute when it comes to the arcane arts.

This isn’t to say that a couple of Lv1’s into your list isn’t still a good idea, even without the casting bonuses. If you’re a Beastmen player, for example, and aren’t taking any of the these casting bonuses you’re still casting the spell nearly 3 out of every 5 attempts and that’s still good odds for such a powerful spell and is a relatively small investment from an army building point of view.

Picking Up Magic Items

With casting being toned down it’s now more important to increase the chance of reaching the required casting values. With this in mind, as above with the Lv1 Spam, picking up items with +1 to cast can become really important if you still want to base your army around the arcane arts along with others that allow you to re-roll a casting attempt each turn. This, in effect, gives you a super reliable way to reaching your casting values. For example, a High Elf Noble or Prince with the Lore Master upgrade making them a Lv1 Caster gains the Lileath’s Blessing special rule allowing them to re-roll a single casting attempt each turn. Now, if you take Illusion Magic, Spectral Doppelganger is cast 66% of the time with that re-roll, Glittering Robes as a backup is up to 83%, or if you want Battle Magic (which is my favourite for this) then Hammerhand goes off 93% of the time. That’s an insane amount of reliability. Sure, your opponent might still dispel it, but even so it makes them roll dice and with that always comes the chance of failure.

A lot of armies have access to items like this either through Special Rules or the previously mentioned items. Some armies can have multiple of these, like Orcs and Goblins who can take different wizards with both the Idol of Gork or the Buzgob’s Knobbly Staff making their chances of casting increase to no end at least for one spell a turn.

Another item I’m sure we’ll see shoot up in the amount it’s being taken are Power Scrolls. This single-use item lets the caster roll an additional D6 when attempting to cast a spell and discard the lowest result. On average this adds roughly around a +2 to cast and allows you to really make sure that if your battle plan revolves around a single powerful spell being cast once or twice a game you’re increasing your chances of getting it off. The Wand of Jet is another items from the Main Core Book I imagine will start to see more play with +1 to both casting and dispelling (until it breaks) being really helpful for armies who haven’t got a natural way to gain the +1 bonuses (and even those that do).

Shutting Down Magic

Magic can still be really powerful despite the fact it’s been toned down, and if you don’t take notice of it you’ll still suffer in games. You’ve arguably got far more options now for trying to deal with magic than you’ve ever had in The Old World and that’s great. With the difference between the Lv1 dispelling and Lv4 casting being heavily reduced from +/-3 to +/-1 you can take a single Lv1, run them into the middle of the board and at least get to roll dice to attempt to dispel enemy casting is huge. Prior to the 1.5.1 changes this would have been a futile attempt but now it’s far more worth trying and you’ll see some success with it.

The other list building strategy which is going to be really popular moving forward is the stacking of Magic Resistance (X). Increasing the number your opponent needs to roll to protect key units from some of the more important spells is great, in effect it is stacking with the reduction to casting bonuses meaning you’re double dipping from a few weeks ago. Armies such as Warriors of Chaos who can pick up cheap MR(-2) items for 20pts and put them on a lot of unit champions can shrug off all but the most determined of wizards who are casting spells directly at them. Obsidian Lodestones for Magic Resistance (1-3) are a slightly more expensive way of anyone (bar Dwarfs) getting access to MR(X) and might pop up but (2) tends to be the point where MR seems to really shift the feel of things and 40pts might be a little too steep for everyone to start doing that.

Characters with Magic Resistance (X) are also really up in value. Empire Witch Hunters have the option of a horse mount allowing them to go in multiple different units and come with MR2 as standard, which is amazing on a fairly cheap character who can provide some extra punch. I’d certainly be looking at these if I was taking the Men of the Empire to battle anytime soon.

Magic items which increase the amount of dice or interact with your opponents dice also shoot up in value, even with its reduced ranged of Infernal Puppet (Warriors of Chaos) or the Oaken Stave (Wood Elves) are better than they were before in terms of how they interact with the required casting values or the bonuses which are picked up through their inclusion.

Focus Fire

This is now a little bit of personal experience from my games under 1.5.1 and the event I attended last weekend. It’s about Focusing Fire. Prior to 1.5.1, you would normally look to spread out magic, knowing that you’ll be able to get control spells out or force multiple panic tests a turn without issue. Now that magic is slightly less reliable than before, I’ve found myself taking more of a brute force approach. By this I mean that I’ve been using Illusion Magic which has fairly high casting values but a lot of spells which have similar effects, denying your opponent access to close combat on their terms. With three of the spells in the lore being pushed in this way, you can set up in a position where you want to cast on different targets but can force through something if you have to via redundancy. In effect, you can pile all of the spells into one target, until something succeeds, then move onto the next target if you’ve got any casting attempts left. If you’ve got one spell which denies your opponent combat which needs an 8/9/10+ to cast, you’ve not got the best chance of casting it, however if you’re casting three spells with the intent of getting off 1 on a single unit your odds are much improved and while you’ve had to invest more resources you’ve got the desired pay off.

The above picture is from one of my recent event games with Grand Cathay. My Shugengan has used Column of Crystal to deny the charge but has also cast the Cathay spell Spirits of Wind & Shadows (prior to moving away) to slow down the Giant Chaos Spawn; the Spawn was the more important target but the Column allows me to double down if I get them both off, or have a built-in back up plan if I hadn’t cast the other spell first. It might seem like overkill, but if it works it works, and that’s far better than it not working and you losing units as they’re in fights they have no right to be in.

Working Around Defenses

The last thing I want to talk about is how you can work around your opponents’ magic defenses. If you can’t brute force your way through, then why not try brain force it? Engaging or killing an opponent’s wizards is always a viable strategy. With my High Elves, I really like to take chariots and/or Great Eagles as engagement pieces. If I know I’m going to have a big shooting phase with lots of magic missiles or vortexes I’ll send in the eagle to charge a wizard and stop them from being able to dispel my attempts. It’s an age old tactic but it’s an oldie and a goodie for a reason. Many armies have access to these types of units, ones with small base sizes but fast, ideally with flying. Armies which don’t have units like these (Empire for example) can use things like drilled Knights who come out of your core allowance or even Empire Archers who can still charge up to 10″ and engage a wizard.

If Magic Resistance becomes super popular (which I think there’s a good chance) then spells which don’t interact with the enemy go up in value. Column of Crystal has been one of my favourite spells for a while due to it’s ability to deny charges and control board space but really all those Magic Vortex spells that create difficult or dangerous terrain which people aren’t majorly keen on are way better than people expect for their ability to control board space. If you think you’re going to be charged by the enemy, put a vortex over their charge path. Unless they’re Flying that means they’re (usually) at -1 on their move and taking the lower of the 2D6 for their charge, really reducing their threat. Sure it might move, but if you place it right in the middle of a charge lane chances are it’s not moving enough that it’s not going to have its desired effect.

Why Wizards?

I want to end with the question of why Wizards in Warhammer: The Old World? I’ve seen a fair amount of talk over if people now just take a bit of MR(X) on their important units and take more shooting or combat for those points instead. I’m still a big proponent of wizards being vitally important to the game and most of the armies out there. They’re still a fairly reliable source of chip damage but do have these occasional game warping spells which can shut down your opponents entire army if timed right.

The important thing is just knowing what you want from your wizards and trying to build to get the most out of them. Do you want to have a magic missile battery of 3-4 small wizards? Then pick an army and a build which allows for that. If you want one really powerful caster who can control the winds of magic then look at a Lv3/4 and grab some items, such as the Wand of Jet and dominate the area of the field you’re in.

The very last thing to talk about is that this is a dice game and every time you roll dice you have a chance to spike or lowball on the result. Sure these things average out over time but not often within the same game, you just aren’t rolling enough dice for it to happen. As a result, if your opponent is magic heavy, getting that Lv1 into range to dispel and just going for it can be really worth it, you’ll get that lucky roll and it’ll pull off something you weren’t expecting. Or on the flip of it, even if you’re outmatched in magical capability sometimes just closing your eyes and rolling a 10+ on a magic missile or important spell happens and those are the things which make Warhammer, the things you’ll remember and be telling friends the tales of for weeks, months or even years to come.

So get out there, take to the battlefields and show your opponent just what magic can do.

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