second rank casters

Taijushue · Post by **Taijushue** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:52 am

so i was building a list, heavy shooting and a big unit of spears that is 5 wide full command. i plan on putting my general, bsb, and mage in the unit. the mage would be forced to the second rank. and what i have found from other posts on different forums is that the mage can cast but not spells that require LoS.

What i am wondering is if this is truly the case.

my logic behind it is that i have not found a specific rule stating it and if archers can shoot from the second rank using the Los of the front rank, why cant a mage use the LoS of the guy in front of him to cast a magic missile?

Holt · Post by **Holt** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:27 am

Yup that is the case. Just as archers can fire from the second rank, casters can now use spells from their on the rare cases that they find themselves unable to be put into the front rank. Protects them from attacks in combat for a while longer too.

Sorry I cannot quote a page number or anything from the BRB though.

Ataroth · Post by **Ataroth** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:47 am

Use Focus Familiar on your mage, problem solved

As a serious answer though, pg 31 in BRB. Under Magic Missiles it does say "just as if the Wizard was firing a missile weapon". Now considering you can fire missile weapons from the second rank, that would imply you can cast magic missiles from the second rank as well.

It wouldn't be the magic missiles I'd worry about though, casting a Vortex from the second rank would be a pain as you'd be firing it through your own men most of the time.

Red... · Post by **Red...** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:01 am

Yes, as you now rely on true line of sight and you can see from the second rank, you can cast with your mage from the second rank and can cast LOS spells too (assuming you can see the target using true line of sight). Tada. A bit sneaky, but works nonetheless...

Taijushue · Post by **Taijushue** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:20 am

sweet, thanks

yeah vortex would still be iffy but im not usually trying to cast vortex spells. i like the sure thing spells vortex's are too random for me

Post by **Calisson** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:09 pm

Just make sure that your mage is not on foot behind a large model covering most of his true LoS (like BG pennant bearer).

Handsome jack · Post by **Handsome jack** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:12 pm

A dirty high elf trick is to put a bsb with the banner that makes the unit immune to magic and shoot purple sun out from the caster in the 2nd rank, as a vortex it can even be cast when your in combat.