Magic has been one of the more discussed topics, both by many community members and by Games Workshop themselves, when comparing The Old World (TOW) to older Editions of Warhammer Fantasy. This article is not intended to address all those differences: if you're a new player you don't care about the history lesson and if you're an old salt then you already know what I'm talking about. Instead, I'd like to discuss the application of Magic in TOW as well as some realistically necessary approaches to Magic. Let's dig in!
You're a Level 4 Wizard, Harry
I'll start with a "hot take": when playing at a standard point level (2000) there is no reason to take anything but a single Level 4 Wizard, for any army that's been shown yet. I won't speak for the Legacy/PDF Armies as they may have some weird rules, but all the main Factions are united in this principle. So why is only a Level 4 Wizard useful?
First, your Wizard Level is the most common modifier that you'll have for both Casting and Dispelling Spells. Even taking a Level 3 Wizard puts you at a disadvantage in this arena, your Spells are less likely to go off and you're less likely to successfully Dispel. No matter what you're interested in, offense or defense, the modifier is king. So a Level 4 vs. a Level 2 Wizard will favor the Level 4 at a permanent +2 modifier, which over the course of a full game will impact quite a few rolls.
Next, a Wizard can Dispel as many Spells as they please unless something (usually a Miscast) prevents them from doing so. This means bringing extra Wizards as Dispel insurance is usually a waste of points, and they will suffer from the modifier we just discussed. As every army gets a "Fated Dispel", which is made at Level 0 effectively, you'll always have a backup prayer at stopping a Spell even if your Wizard is temporarily out of commission.
Lastly, Level 1-2 Wizards have an 18" range on their Dispels, where as Level 3-4 has a 24" range. This means that a Lord Wizard (to use some old terms) could be cagey and stay outside of the enemies Dispel range while keeping them in theirs, pretty devastating. There's also the diminished amount of Magic Items that lower Wizards can take and so on, but the modifier and range are the biggest deals.
My reason for stating that you should take a Level 4 is that the upgrade is not very expensive while providing numerous benefits that we've discussed and an extra Spell. Most armies seem to be paying ~30pts for the Level upgrade, which is very little all things considered. Another weird wrinkle is that most Lord Wizards have the same Leadership as a non-Wizard Lord, making them competent Generals. There are exceptions for some armies, like Orcs and Goblins, but it's still fairly common.
Adding a Level 4 Wizard is the way I start all my army lists, for every Faction that can take one. If I run into an army that's done the same then we are even and that's the best I can do barring Magic Items or other rules. If I run into a lower Wizard, or even none, then I can have much more magical supremacy and exploit that part of the game to my benefit.
Miss Me With Those Miscasts
As I touched on, Magic is quite a bit more permissive and "even" than versions past. The balancing factor is Miscasts, which apply to both Casting and Dispelling. In my opinion, TOW's Miscasts are the least punishing that have ever existed as even the very bad results can be heavily mitigated. I'm speaking about the bottom results which place a Template (either 3" or 5") on the Wizard and of course any unit they happen to have joined.
Fortunately, perhaps, these Templates are easy to get around by simply not putting the Wizard into a unit until you need to. Being a solo model is quite handy for Wizards since it gives them 360 degree Line of Sight (LoS): very useful for Magic Missiles and the like. The rules for targeting a solo Character are also very easy to work around: simply keep the Wizard within 3" of a unit that's the same Unit Type as them and make sure they aren't closer than the unit is. Easy! This will stop targeting from both Shooting and Magic, meaning very few things can try to snipe out your robed figure. If you are up against something that can get to the Character then just jump into the unit and enjoy your Look Out Sir! and all that.
Another option, for some armies, is to use Skirmishers in conjunction with your Wizard. This allows you to space out and put the Wizard on the unit's flank where a Template will only hit a couple models at worst. While Skirmishers were once a rare Special Rule, lots of armies have access to it now in some form or fashion. Things like Peasant Bowmen and Orc Boyz have the option to become Skirmishers and make a nice little home for your caster.
For this reason I prefer keeping a Wizard on foot versus putting them on a mount. Cavalry units have less models than Infantry so there's less bodies to keep your Character safe and a mounted Character cannot use Infantry to prevent being targeted (vice versa as well). While the additional speed is very useful, I don't foresee many builds where you're putting enough Cavalry on the table to allow the Wizard to operate on his own, and the bad Miscasts REALLY hurt these more expensive models.
Lastly, one of my favorite Magic Items in the game is the Earthing Rod. This is only 5pts and available to all armies but it lets you re-roll a Miscast Result once per game. If you have a few extra points in your army I like putting this on my Wizard just as a bit of extra insurance, or perhaps to even fish for a Template if my Character is in Combat or something.
The Weakness of Bound Spells
Relating to Magic, Bound Spells are very unimpressive in TOW for the most part. The reason for this is Bound Spells use their Bound Level as the modifier, even if the Bound Spell is from something, such as an Item, on a Wizard it does not use their Wizard Level. You can never get Perfect Invocation on a Bound Spell, so the opponent can always try to stop it, and when Dispelling a Bound Spell there's no risk of a Miscast (double 1's is just a bad roll instead).
There are some exceptions to this, such as the Casket of Souls which improves the modifier of Bound Spells by +1, but in general there's little reason to waste points on these. Look at the Ruby Ring of Ruin for example, a popular Magic Item in early Battle Reports. It's Bound 2, so a Level 4 Wizard is at a +2 over it. On top of that, the Spell itself only goes off on an 8 so you have a 55% chance to even cast it, not ideal for 30pts.
Even if a Bound Spell has a powerful or unique effect, I don't favor them because you'll be facing an uphill battle to get it off. I'm hopeful there will be more ways to "buff" Bound Spells or perhaps make better use of them, such as a Bound Spell with no range that you can flee away from enemy Wizards with.
Dwarves: The Worst at Magic
One quirk of TOW is that some armies who used to specialize in anti-Magic are now terrible at it. Dwarves are the primary example in my mind: not only are they a bad Casting army (via the Anvil of Doom) but they're the worst Dispelling army. There are other examples, such as an all Khorne Warriors of Chaos force, but at least there are options to just bring a Level 4 Wizard there if the player so desires.
Dwarves are unique in how they interact with Magic. All their units have Magic Resistance -1, which means anything targeting them suffers a -1 to the Casting Roll. While that's good, there are many Spells that don't target enemy units and Magic Resistance is useless against those. Even with the -1, not having Dispel attempts is going to see most Spells go off against the stunties.
Fortunately all isn't lost and Dwarf Rune-Characters (Anvil of Doom, Runelord, Runesmith) may Dispel as if they were a Wizard. The downside to this is substantial though: an Avil is a Level 3 Wizard, the Runelord a Level 2, and the Smith a Level 1. As discussed, being a low level is quite bad and the 18" range on a Runelord/Smith is very impactful for a slow army like Dwarves. The opponent can just stand far enough away and ignore the Dispels, wasting valuable points for an expensive faction.
Another disadvantage is that Dwarven Dispelling is NOT immune to Miscasts, putting the severely expensive bricks of Infantry that Dwarves are known for at some risk. You can still keep the Character out of a unit but with Movement 3 that's riskier than it is for other armies. This makes the Anvil of Doom an attractive choice at first glance: it's the highest Wizard the army can take and has some handy Spells of its own. On the other hand, these Spells are Bound Level 3 and the Anvil is costly.
Where Dwarves actually interact with Spells is via Runes, such as the Master Rune of Balance, and I expect those to be common sights in many Dwarf armies. Sadly, that just adds more points to the army and doesn't help with the Dispel Range. This makes me very worried for Dwarf players because they can't make strong use of Magic, nor can they count on easily stopping it.
In Summation
In my opinion, Magic will end up being one of the simplest parts of the game while still impactful. Serious players will take a Level 4 Wizard to make sure they're on even footing with their opponent, at worst, and both will spend most of the game in Dispel range of each other because of Spell Ranges. I don't foresee any "mind games" with choosing to Dispel or not in certain instances: I'll risk the 1/36 result of the Miscast almost no matter what.
While losing some tactical play from the game is to be lamented, I think TOW already plays quite a bit slower than other versions of Warhammer Fantasy to removing some complexity might not be bad. With Combats lasting so much longer, on average, another phase of resource management would be a slog. My only wrinkle is preferring Enchantments and other Spells that don't need to be in range of an enemy because you can pull back, Cast them freely, and then Dispel as your opponent closes to cast their Hexes/Magic Missiles.
Hopefully I've shown that there are some options with Wizards and Magic, not as many as there used to be but still plenty. Good players will make use of any slight advantage they can find, which I think will come down to ranges as well as the position of Wizards with regards to other units. I like this take on Magic, I just wish there was more of a role for lower level Wizards and I hope some armies, like Tomb Kings, can add more things for them to do. Thanks for reading.
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