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Quick question,

As is known, I play Empire and DoW. My two wizards tend to be your budget, defense, variety. Two, level 1 wizards, with either 1) 4 dispell scrolls, or 2) 2 dispell scrolls, and a Scroll of Destruction. Anyway, I've noticed that a lot of the armies posted here use level 2 wizards, even if they're scroll caddies. Now, my question is thus, is the 35 points to make the wizard level 2 really worth it? I mean, if he's just meant to try to dispell enemy spells, shouldn't you save the points? It doesn't improve his toughness, or his number of wounds... it just gives him 1 more spell, 1 more power die, and the ability to use 3 dice to cast a spell instead of 2.

With Wood Elf casters I think it's worth it. You really don't
want Treesinging to fail so you use two dice to get it done.

PS I suck at FB, so I forgot about dice pool. I usually hope
for 1-2 spell results. Since Treesinging is a given for one
slot then I'm happy to roll the Fury of the Forest or whatever
the movement spell is called.

Depending on the turn, I can feed 2-3 dice for one scroll
caddie to get off one of the damaging spells, and then use
the remaining dice on the other to get Treesnging off.
People don't often "waste" a dispel scroll on treesinging
unless they forget about it and place their artillery in the
woods...

for empire it really may not be worth it, but for armies like lizardmen, chaos dwarves, WE's, DE's, and Chaos, that is necessary as they do need some magic to help their army out.

Bret's and empire don't need it that much really, so for you empire i wouldn't pay the extra points

LtCraggs wrote:Quick question,

As is known, I play Empire and DoW. My two wizards tend to be your budget, defense, variety. Two, level 1 wizards, with either 1) 4 dispell scrolls, or 2) 2 dispell scrolls, and a Scroll of Destruction. Anyway, I've noticed that a lot of the armies posted here use level 2 wizards, even if they're scroll caddies. Now, my question is thus, is the 35 points to make the wizard level 2 really worth it? I mean, if he's just meant to try to dispell enemy spells, shouldn't you save the points? It doesn't improve his toughness, or his number of wounds... it just gives him 1 more spell, 1 more power die, and the ability to use 3 dice to cast a spell instead of 2.

The usefulness of the empire wizards at least will depend if you're having the popemobile and perhaps a priest(s) around. There are couple of reasons for upgrading 2 scroll caddies to level 2 wizards even without significant boundspell/gadget-battery, altough I can see many situations in tight 2k lists especially where you just don't have the points for extra levels if you happen to take 2 caddies(bretts are a good example of this). Firstly it offers an extra dimension to your game if you don't go agains heavy magic defense (mainly the dwarfs are very annyoing at this due to the ever-present anvil), as you can actually accomplish something in the magic phase. Secondly The powerdie difference is quite a big factor as it makes a lot more spells useable for you such as the 2d6 magic missiles for example and even the smaller stuff will be harder to dispel if you cast it with 3 dice. The improved casting doesn't really remove the wizards weakness, altough even if you take the wizard lord (which isn't really a good idea in empire army) you won't get significant stat boost anywhere. It usually comes down to the facts that do you have some supporting items and characters who benefit from the medium magic and do you have 70 pts to spare or more likely do you find something better to take with the 70 pts of upgrading 2 wizards.

2 lvl one mages is a waste no matter how you equip them. Either take 1 with 2 scrolls or 2 lvl 2 with scroll and rod of power. If you go defensive you just want the one caddy with 2 scrolls it should be enough. Otherwise take 2 lvl 2 with Rop, scroll, possibly a powerstone, and then use the other choices to have some bound spell neatness.