Chapter Mage – Unit Guide (english)

Chapter Mage – Unit Guide

One of the less frequently played heroes of the Hundred Kingdoms, who may have lost their last relevant niche with the September 23 update. We will examine the various schools and, in my humble opinion, the most useful builds, as well as the useful tricks they bring to the battlefield. According to lore, Chapter Mages are not battlefield-dominating wizards like those of the Dweghom. Those of the humans are rather weak and can only tip the scales in favor of the Kingdoms with the right spell at the right time. Unfortunately, this has been accurately translated into the tabletop – albeit regrettably.

Overview

• Profile Values: For 90 points, you get a good shooter and, at least, a Mage 6. The remaining values are initially very underwhelming, indicating that this hero does not want to engage in melee combat, let alone duels. Especially the very low Resolve value is very annoying.
• Warband: We only have access to Man at Arms and Crossbows, which are okay, but damn the Chapter Mage with one of the worst warbands in the game.
• Supremacy: The Protective Glyphs Supremacy is a passive ability that counts all own regiments as in Interference range, meaning -1 to the opponent's spell attack rolls. Good against most small priests/wizards that are not Arcane 3 and Focus. Additionally, he may cast any spell with range Self on a chosen regiment within 8". This is even quite helpful in one case.
• Magic Schools: Every Chapter Mage knows all spells of exactly one element and the two spells Elemental Vortex and Elemental Missile.
• Earth - Stones Spikes Self, 1-3, and the opponent loses 2 Impacts if they attack the regiment with a charge. Very situational and unfortunately irrelevant against regiments like Thunder Rider or Crimson Tower.
• Earth - Earth to Mud Range 16", on 1-3 with Scaling. On success, an enemy regiment may only choose March or Charge as its first action. This is great for hindering enemy melee fighters but also very situational. Important: the spell only lasts until the end of the round.
• Fire - Fire Dart Range 14", and on 1-3, for each success, an Armor Piercing 2 hit is distributed to the target unit. Note: Magic causes morale tests.
• Fire - Kindle Courage Range Self, Scaling, gives the caster's regiment +1 Resolve and inspires. This is nice but, like almost all buffs, difficult to apply.
• Wind - Guide Self on 1-3 with Scaling, and all sixes in shooting may be rerolled. Nice, but again, the costs do not correspond well to the benefits.
• Wind - Seeking Winds Self on 1-3 with Scaling. The regiment gets +1 Barrage. Only rarely interesting because the mage is quite pricey and the regiments and additional stands are usually cheap.
• Water - Call Fog Range Self and Scaling. The opponent simply loses half of their ranged attack rolls against the target regiment, and none of it counts as Obscured.
• Water - Ninuah's Tears Range Self, for 1-3, the mage's regiment heals one life + 2. With 6 dice, that's 5 lives healed. With Focus 6, it's even a full six. This is useful as long as there's no enemy mage within 10" of the target regiment and the unit is not broken. Also, you may reroll resolve rolls of 6 until the end of the round.
• Elemental Vortex Range 12 with Attunement 4, opponents need two additional successes to target the target regiment. Usually too slow but nice to have.
• Elemental Missile Range 12, and the target simply receives 3 hits. This is nice but not really more than that. Still helpful when you have nothing else to do.
  

Equipment & Gameplay:

• Masteries: Besides absurd options like the melee magician, Focus is obviously the most sensible choice. Repeating two failed dice rolls for 15 points is a very good option. The other sensible one is Front Line Tactician, which provides Flank. Just Flank on Man at Arms or Crossbows...
• Heirlooms Support: Besides absurd options like the melee magician, Focus is obviously the most sensible choice. Repeating two failed dice rolls for 15 points is a very good option. The other sensible one is Front Line Tactician, which provides Flank. Just Flank on Man at Arms or Crossbows...
• Heirlooms Range Attack: The only noteworthy ones here are The Unwrought, and that's only because it costs 5 points and is useful for a fire mage, and of course, The Kiss Farewell. The Kiss turns our mage into a Barrage 7 Deadly Shot cannon boat with Volley 3, which is quite nice. Although usually somewhat expensive, it's a very funny and effective option for dealing with moderately armored opponents. The Unwrought allows Brutes to repeat successful armor saves, increasing fire damage. I would only choose it myself if I have nothing else to do with the points.

Conclusion: Two years and still the worst character of the Hundred Kingdoms, mostly due to its unusable warband. The new elemental spells are nice but virtually unhelpful; two schools are still super situational, and once you consider using him as a Buffbot, you might as well invest the points into corresponding regiments. Very disappointing, as I used to enjoy playing him a lot. Personally, I don't understand why he doesn't simply get the same warband as the Imperial Officer. That would make him so much better. Or instead of the elemental spells, allowing him to take exactly one spell from a different school would also be a good idea.