Winds of Magic: Lore of Fire

The Lore of Fire is not a subtle lore, as you could expect, every spell in the lore is built for one purpose, killing the enemy with spectacular force.  To begin my new series on the Lores of Magic in WFB, I've decided to start at the the wind of Aqushy.

Lore Attribute

Kindleflame.  As the rulebook puts it, "Fire feeds fire." and it's lore attribute reflects that well.  Everything from this lore is predictably a flaming attack, and in addition to that each time you hit a unit with a magic missile or direct damage spell from the Lore of Fire, and that unit has previously been hit by a magic missile or direct damage from the Lore of Fire, you will get +D3 to cast!  It may not seem like a big benefit, but effectively it can make it so that your lowly level 2 is casting like a level 3-5.  If you have access to a bound spell Fireball (like the Ruby Ring of Ruin) then you can use it to get the chain reaction started with little investment.

0. Fireball

Fireball is your very generic magic missile.  It does a random number of hits at S4 with a moderate 24" range.  The most important thing about this spell though is that it has 3 casting values, and each one beyond the first both increases the range and the number of hits caused.  What makes that so spectacular is that it gives you plenty of options.  If you don't have many other important spells to cast, you can toss a bunch of dice into doing a plethora of flaming hits, or if you only have a couple dice left over, you can throw a low level fireball.

1. Cascading Fire Cloak

Fire Cloak has a very low casting value that even a level 2 could cast reliably on a single dice, plus it's remains in play so that you can cast and forget.  If your enemy doesn't dispel it in their turn (people always forget or get carried away), then you're going to be doing up to 4D6 hits on any unit that you've been in combat with for a full game turn... Pretty gross for such a low level spell.  Since this spell does require being in combat to work though, it's pretty risky in the hands of elves and empire, but for Lizards and Ogres, you can usually afford to get your caster dug in.

2. Flaming Sword of Rhuin

Another fantastic utility spell.  Flaming Sword gives your unit +1 to wound, flaming, magical attacks, for both shooting and melee.  No matter what the composition of your army, this spell is always a great tool in the arsenal and is the spell that I covet the most with my Firebelly.  If your army has any ranged presence at all, then this is a great tool, cast it on a cannon to auto-wound anything it hits, or on crossbows to wound on 3's or 2's.  It doesn't take any great combos to make it effective, just cast it on something that you intend to use to kill something else with.  Like I said, Lore of Fire isn't about subtlety.

3. The Burning Head

Now we're on to my least favorite spell in the lore, I guess it had to happen sometime.  Flaming head is basically a big cannon ball bounce, hitting every model in the line drawn from the caster, and causing panic tests.  It's not that it's a bad spell, it is just that for the casting value, you can deal quite a bit more damage with Fireball against a specific target, and causing panic tests isn't quite as scary as it used to be.

4. Piercing Bolts of Burning

Tired of seeing those units of 50 Skaven Slaves or Goblins ranked 10 deep?  Me too!  D3 hits per rank of five or more models in the unit can really cause people to raise their eyebrow, especially when they're running massive blocks to get steadfast.  It's a bit more situational than Fireball, but it can be far more devastating, and still has a low casting value.  If you know you're facing someone with these gigantic units, then this is a spell to keep.

5. Fulminating Flame Cage

At first glance, this spell sounds like the ultimate elf eraser, causing a S4 hit to every model in the unit, if the unit moves at all.  The downside is that if they don't move, you just cast a very expensive fireball.  The best way to use this spell is to assume that the enemy isn't going to move, so either cast it on them and try to force panic (Burning Head?), or better yet, cast it on a unit that you don't want to charge you!  If your opponent is using a lovely horde of Empire Halberdiers, suddenly charging means that they're losing 2/3 of their unit before they even strike... This is an effect much like other spells (Curse of Anraheir), except that having a set Strength value means that it can be much more effective in many situations.

6. Flame Storm

The final spell of the lore, Flamestorm is the highest casting value in all of the Lore of Fire at a mighty base casting value of 13!  That super low casting means that when combined with Kindleflame, it is actually fairly easy for a Level 4 to cast this spell on just 2 dice.  Essentially, this will cause a hit like a flaming stone thrower (scattering a D6 instead of artillery dice), or alternatively, you can cast it on a very easy 16+, which gives you a large blast, but scattering further if it misses.  Overall, it's not a crazy unit dominating spell, but it can still cause quite a bit of damage for how low the casting value is.

Overall, the Lore of Fire is a great lore when you know that you need your magic to be purely offensive.  It's extremely low casting value and 3 tiered Signature Spell means that it is also a great lore to use with low level casters, where you could use your level 4's to instead focus on utility lores where they may need a larger variety of spells.

Lore of Fire is accessible to: Daemons of Chaos, High Elves, Lizardmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Empire, Vampire Counts and Warriors of Chaos.