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Just been recently re-reading Steven Eriksons brilliant Malazan Books of the Fallen and it gave me an idea about magic. In Eriksons world battle magic is easier if you aren't physically casting it at an enemy as opposed to augmenting your own forces. Magic thrown at your enemy can be shielded or shunted aside by their wizards. However if they have to block a spell far away from them such as a beneficial shield for your own troops it becomes harder as the magic is not aimed in their direction so their reaction time is shorter and they have to cast their power further away from them. Another interesting idea is that sometimes offensive magic doesn't dissipate it merely gets shunted aside and can hit other targets. I particularly like Eriksons mages as they often spend the first half of every engagement magically kicking the crap out of each other to the detriment of anyone near them with the victors turning their attentions to the enemy army once their mages are no longer able to shield them.

This sounded really sensible and logical to me and I thought warhammer magic would be more interesting if it reflected this. Fr example casting a magic missile at an enemy army would be easier to dispel as the defending Mage can simply throw up a shield or deflect the shots away. Whereas if you are casting regrowth among your own lines the enemy Mage would be much less likely to be able to block it. Tis could be reflected as a plus 1 to dispel offensive magic or even a big bonus if the enemy Mage was between your Mage and his intended target. I just think this would add a more tactical element to the magic phase.