A Helping Hand to Glory

[Ilthaen]

I have seen numerous players, myself included, having problems using the new lore of high magic. It isn´t as straightforward as other lores, and several spells look underwhelming and they do not look like game changers. One of the most criticised spells is Hand of Glory, which gives +1D3 to either WS, BS, I or M. Many of us would have wished for strength or toughness instead, as our army already has high attributes on the other stats.

Before you keep reading, you need to know that i will be basing my calculations on a +1 increase of the stat, not +2 or +3. The reason is simple: there is no way to guarantee getting a +2 or +3 to the stat in question, other than by pure luck. As such, it is not something that you can plan around for your strategy. If you use Hand of Glory, then you have to plan for the minimal increase, and treat the others as a bonus, not something you can rely on getting.

The obvious use for Hand of Glory is increasing the BS of one of your shooting units, which is quite good if limited in scope. The other more subtle use is to increase M in order to make long range charges more likely, this is useful if facing another unit of the same movement, and you want to get the charge on them rather than being charged (ex. elven infantry vs ogres).

The purpose of this article lies in how to make the best of the combat use, which is to increase your WS or I in order to turn a combat in your favour.

Usually people dismiss these stats as secondary compared to S or T, the real stats who determine kills and therefore the outcome of the combat. However it would be foolish to dismiss the effect that an increase of WS or I can have on a combat. I will teach you how to get the most of these two stats with Hand of Glory, even if an army such as High Elves, with already has these stats pretty high. The lizardmen already know this because they have low WS and I, but we elves are so used to them being high that often we overlook the effectiveness they can have.


BRB rules to remember:
- If your WS x2 +1 of the enemy, then you are hit on 5+ (ex. WS7 swordmasters vs WS3 empire halberdiers)
- ASF vs ASF: simultaneous attacks, I does not matter (ex. I2 skeleton ASF vs I10 darkelf asassin ASF = strike simultaneously)
- ASF + ASL: strike by initiative order + inmunity to new applications of ASF/ASL (ex. white lions, swordmasters)
- ASF rerolls to hit: vs non ASF enemy with <= I

Hand of Glory rules to remember
- If enemy WS = unit WS +4, then even with hand of glory you will be hit on 3+
- If enemy I = unit I +4, then even with hand of glory you won´t get your asf rerolls

ASF Units Calculations:
Here i calculate the benefits of using the WS or I increase in ASF units agaisnt different enemies, and the effect it has on the chance to hit. I don´t calculate the whole combat result, only the chance to hit. Weapon skill is generally an offensive stat, but in some cases increasing it can yield some protection, i have highlighted the cases where this happens.

RULES
If enemy i > unit i : +1 i, preserve asf rerolls
If enemy i <= unit i: +1 ws, get more hits in / get hit less
If enemy ASF: +1 ws, simultaneous attacks and get more hits in / get hit less

EXAMPLES
silver helms vs chaos marauders (ws4, i4)
marauders i4 < silverhelms i5 : +1 ws
result: ws5 silverhelms hit on 3+ on ws4 marauders, rerolling to hit due to asf

silver helms vs chaos warriors (ws5, i5)
warriors i5 = silverhelms i5: +1 ws
result: ws5 silverhelms hit on 4+ on ws5 warriors, rerolling to hit due to asf
PROTECTION: when warriors strike back, they hit at 4+ instead of 3+

silver helms vs vampire (ws6, i6)
vampire i6 > silverhelms i5: +1 i
result: ws4 silverhelms hit on 4+ on ws6 vampire, rerolling thanks to i6 asf

silver helms vs dark riders (asf, ws4, i5)
dark riders asf: +1ws
result: simultaneous attacks, silverhelms hit dark riders on 3+

silver helms vs coldone knights (asf, ws5, i6)
coldone knights asf: +1ws
result: simultaneous attacks
PROTECTION: coldone knights hit at 4+ instead of 3+

Normal Units Calculations
The situation here is a lot simpler so there is no need to calculate, the idea here is to make our frail elves strike before the enemy so that they get attack before they die. If they already strike before the enemy, then you can improve the weapon skill.

We can summarise these results in the following rules

Generic Rules

ASF UNITS
- If enemy Initiative > unit Initiative: +1 I (preserve asf rerolls)
- otherwise: +1 WS

NORMAL UNITS
- If enemy Initiative >= unit Initiative: +1 I (attack first/better odds)
- otherwise: +1 WS

[Loriel]

Good summarize!

I for one tend to think Hand of Glory for one of the top spells in High Magic, for only it to be signature, then I would truly rank it to the top Such a low reliable casting + low priority dispel for opponent, great efficiency to can improve every other phase in turn.

[HERO]

Should of been swapped with Soul Quench for sig.

[Tethlis]

Nice writeup.

Recent matches versus Dark Elves have highlighted a lot of the strengths of High Magic. It's very dominant against other infantry-based armies, particularly other Elves, Skaven, Greenskins. The only downside here is that the meta generally focuses on multi-Wound, high Toughness or heavily armored regiments that aren't as badly hurt by a lot of High Magic spells. I think that Hand of Glory has a very valuable place against other Elite-type forces though, such as Warriors of Chaos or Dark Elves. Since both armies frequently have WS5+, Initiative 5+ units, being able to increase the ability of our own WS5, Initiative 5 units (specifically the great weapon wielders, like Lions and Swordmasters) is valuable for giving us a combat advantage in these matchups.

[Shadeseraph]

Yep, it is specially important against Dark Elves now that we've lost rerolls against their army. Silver Helms hitting on 3+ rather than 4+ makes all the difference. Same for any elte VS elite fight (other than Swordmasters against anything not a Sistah).

Still, I rather like Soul Quench as a siggy. I play against VC quite a lot, to the point where one of the downsides of Shadow magic is the lack of magic missiles. While I can work it out with the ring and sister shooting, the surefire, high power magic missile sure is nice. Its utility against skirmishers and cover abusing fast cav (specially pesky shades) is also awesome.

I would have loved the three spells as siggys .