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Kind of unrelated, but I'm new to WoC and had some questions based on some of the discussions in this thread.

What are the benefits of having magical attacks or magic weapons? I know that the ensorcelled weapons grant +1 S and that's snazzy but doesn't that basically just make it a halberd since it can't be used with the shield in CC due to being a magical weapon and not simply a hand weapon? It seems to me that magic weapons are simply a way to make it not count as a hand weapon for the purposes of AHW and parry saves.

Moreover, I have a similar question about flaming attacks. This thread seems to treat it as a non-trivial upgrade but I don't see the benefit aside from causing fear in certain units (for calvary, does it cause the riders to strike at 1 WS as well?)

There are certain units, such as wood elves, and certain magic items, such as the armour of moorsleib in the chaos book which only have a save against non-magic attacks; which magic attacks would ignore. More importantly though, there are more than a few ethereal units, especially in the vampire counts book, which can only ever be hurt by magic attacks.

Flaming attacks have a similar principle, they allow you to ignore regen saves on big nasties like hydra, abominations and ogres.

 Ostrakon wrote:

What are the benefits of having magical attacks or magic weapons?

Hurting ethereals.

I know that the ensorcelled weapons grant +1 S and that's snazzy but doesn't that basically just make it a halberd since it can't be used with the shield in CC due to being a magical weapon and not simply a hand weapon?

Shields can be used in CC with a hand weapon. They cannot be used to parry but with a Halberd/two-handed/AHW, you cannot use it at all, and mounted models cannot parry anyways (and often cannot carry Halberds).

Flaming attacks...
for calvary, does it cause the riders to strike at 1 WS as well?

Yes.

Flaming does next to nothing when you're fighting, say, HE or Empire. It's indispensable as soon as a Hydra, HPA, Trolls or other regenerators enter the equation. Many such units are hard to kill, so making it easier is a good idea. Others are hard to kill only because of Regen; taking that away makes them easy to crush.

Some units are even flammable (Tomb Kings) and suffer I think 2 wounds. Of course you won't see any useful TK Lord without a Dragonhelm or some such.

Just don't run your unit with flaming attacks into Dragon princes. You might win on static res but I wouldn't count on it!