# Versus... Magic Heavy Armies



## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

Hi all,

Continuing with the Fantasy Versus... series, next on the list is magic heavy armies (suggested by Hudson and TWormley). If you want to add your suggestions as to who Fantasy Versus should deal with next, go here for the general thread.

So, magic heavy armies, how do you combat these players that bring numerous casters with handfuls of magic dice to the table? It could be VC armies that raise and vanhels their way to victory, Tzeentch DoC lists with more fireballs that you can shake a stick at, High Elves with arch-magic whore Teclis or any other magic heavy set up, how do you combat them? They have the potential to swamp close combat phase armies and disrupt gunlines from afar, then of course there are plenty of spells like those of the Lore of Fire that aren't pleasant for any set-up.

So how do you plan to combat them? Do you have a preferred set-up or tactic that works every time? Do you prefer to get stuck in and hunt wizards, deny them their magic phase with scrolls and lucky DD or play them at their own game?


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## Pertoleum (Jul 18, 2008)

maximize casters, the more dispell dice the better, also take any item in your armybook that provide anti magic capability ( staff of sneaky stealin, Various Runes,etc)dispell scrolls help alot,along with knowing whats worth dispelling, invovcation of nehek? not so much, Summon undead horde? for sure


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## JokerGod (Jan 21, 2009)

I prefer to beat there casters with a giant stick.

You COULD take crap loads of anti-magic, but then your just wasting points if you end up fighting a Non-Magic army list.

Best way to take them down is to frag there biggest casters fast.


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## Bork (Oct 23, 2008)

the best way to go when fighting all out magic is to ignore the magic phase entirely and concentrate on shooting and CC. why waste points on a magical defense against tzeentch demons for example, who can throw out filthy amounts of magic which you could MAYBE stop half of if your lucky. spend the points on minis that KILL the enemy spellcasters rather than attempting to neuter them. a scroll caddy is always handy to have mind you because lets face it theres always that spell you MUST stop.


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## kungfoomasta (May 8, 2008)

bring a dragon or some other abnormally large critter. usually magic dosnt hurt them to bad and if they focus all thier magic on it then i wont be headed towards your army


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## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

Magic resistance, no need to waste your dispel dice and can be used again and again and again!

Khorne/Dwarfs etc.

I have a Khorne heavy Daemon army and resistance is awsome!


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## JokerGod (Jan 21, 2009)

effigy22 said:


> Magic resistance, no need to waste your dispel dice and can be used again and again and again!
> 
> Khorne/Dwarfs etc.
> 
> I have a Khorne heavy Daemon army and resistance is awsome!


The only down side is spells that do damage but don't target anything so your resistance is worthless. 

Also from running a Khorne army my self V VCs you end up fighting three times as many units because you only have 2 DD to stop the casters with.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Wulfrik. Dragon Ogres. Shaggoths. KHOLEK.

Anti Magic this shit. Raise dead? Hit it until it dies again. Cast a damage spell? T5+ Bitch. Oh shit, I must charge. Challenge, inabit.

I play much the same whatever army. I rarely use Anti-magic items other than for when I use High Elves or Dwarves, which are like the Anti Magic Races. Otherwise, I just stock up on Casters, and use them to target where it hurts (4 Nurgle Mages sniping off 3 Vampires was good fun).


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## Mutants_ho! (Jul 3, 2008)

It really depends on each specific army and what that army can do to retaliate against magic.

Orcs: Staff of stealin and Morks spirit totem, with a whopping 8-9 DD

Dwarves: Anti-magic their stuff to shit. MRoValaya, a few RoSpellbreaking, a MRoSpellbinding and a MRoBalance equals 7 DD with each getting a +3 to dispel. (Be warned this takes 3 hero slots and a ton of points, only for use against VERY magicy armies)

Chaos Dwarves: Here you have very little option, and so 
I just use a few scrolls and target the casters with great tarus .

That's just what I'd do if using the three armies I am most familiar with.


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

For army specific defense, I'll add to that bretonnians: MR1 for each damsel, so put one into each of your big blocks of knights (I'll usually run 2-3 damsels in a list), and watch the free dispel dice rack up. Add a dispel scroll and Chalice of mafluer (essentially +1 DD) and you've got plenty of protection for most games.


Generally though, I'll add that sometimes MR 1 can be more effective than MR 3 on your big power unit, as enemies just won't bother casting against MR 3, but are usually still tempted to go after your big bad even if it has MR 1 - thus it protects your whole army somewhat, by sucking out more of his power dice.


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## Durzod (Nov 24, 2009)

I don't like to build armies tailored to my opponent. I prefer armies that can take on all comers and all missions. Except for Undead (which need magic to survive), my armies are usually limited to 1-2 wizards with enough anti-magic to limit the effectiveness of the enemy's magic phase. Not too much, though, as these points are wasted if facing a low magic foe. 2-3 Dispel scrolls and a die stealer if the army has one are sufficient (the die stealer is actually useful against dwarves, who have a difficult time dispelling RiP spells with only 1 dispel die). You just have to learn what spells you can let thru and what ones you have to stop. Get the enemy's spell slingers involved in combat. Most really nasty spells can't be cast while you're dodging angry musclemen with pointy things.
Another thing about high magic armies is that they have so many points invested in one phase of the game that they don't have enough left for the rest of the army. They can therefore be outmaneuvered, outshot and/or outfought. Limit the damage he can do in the magic phase and watch him flounder in the other three phases. Trying to shut down a high magic army completely is a waste of points. You wind up spending so much
trying to stop him that your own army loses its effectiveness.


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