Wax Lyrical - Oxfordian Mages

So in keeping with my desire to give me as many excuses to write as possible, here’s a new thing. Extolling the virtues of models I feel are worth another look. This isn’t a ‘here’s the card, here’s a walkthrough of everything on it’ style of rundown, more of a commentary on strengths, compensating for weaknesses and good uses.

The first subjects under the spotlight are the Oxfordian Mages for Arcanists. Wyrd have given these guys two different sets of 0-cost upgrades that they can carry in an attempt to boost them up, but to be honest I’m not entirely sure they needed them.

 

 

Anyway.

So what do you get when you hire these guys and girls? Well, for starters, these are one of the few models that you really should hire all 3 models from that boxed set. With the Temporary Shielding upgrade they gained, if you hire all 3 you get a discount, bringing their cost down from 6SS to 5SS. You can have 2 for 12SS or 3 for 15SS – for me personally that’s really a no-brainer.

 

Another compelling reason to hire multiples is how they work. Thanks to their front of card abilities, they gain an extra Tome for each other Academic within aura 3, a keyword that they have themselves, up to 2 extra Tomes. And boy can they make use of those Tomes.

Their main cast action, Elemental Bolt, is a fairly lacklustre Ca6 2/3/4 damage. But it has 4 triggers, each of which require a single Tome and so become built-in with 1 other nearby Mage. They are; ignore Armour, hand out Burning +1, hand out Slow, Push target model 2” in any direction for each Tome in the final total. 

 

And that’s what you take them for. The Mages are range 10 and can Furious Cast, so you can access that toolbox an awful lot of times in a given turn and from a healthy distance away. It means that they become control pieces as well as raw damage dealers. Models that rely on their Armour won’t want to risk it. A model in cover can find themselves pushed out of cover by one Mage with Focus so their friends can Furious Cast a target that thought it was safe. They can sap AP by handing out Slow with reckless abandon, making them an even more irritating proposition in strategies like Stake a Claim and Squatter’s Rights. The Push (which comes after succeeding, not after damaging) can really mess with positioning. And Hard to Kill can be neatly circumvented with a timely Burning +1 finishing the model off at the end of the turn.

That versatility is another good reason to take them – they’re a good pick pretty much regardless of the Master you take, with strong synergies with 3 in particular.

 

Sandeep loves him some Oxfordian Mages, and they love Sandeep. As Academics they can copy his actions, including the 0 actions to Place and Interact. Sandeep can, via an upgrade, take a 1 action that means Academics within aura don’t randomise when casting into combat. And he can drop a Gamin in next to them that gives them positive flips when they attack. That will really hurt your opponent.

That ability to drop Burning, and the fact that they’re fairly self-sufficient, makes them a very strong pick with Kaeris. They don’t need her to be nearby, leaving her free to exploit her speed and manoeuvrability, whilst you can set models up for a going-over from Immolate or Truth in Flame.

 

The M&SU keyword also chains nicely with Ironsides and Ramos – Oxfordian Mages get a positive flip to WP duels if in line of an M&SU Master or Henchman. Situationally that can be really useful, and means they’re a lot less bothered by Terrifying models than other models might be.

Ironsides also benefits due to Warding Runes, as the only Master who can take it. As well as giving Counterspell, this upgrade keys off a set of 0 upgrades the Oxfordian Mages can take; Blood Ward, Doom Ward and Nemesis Ward. Each of these grants the carrying Mage a benefit, but also confers a benefit to the Warding Runes carrier. If Ironsides is within aura 10 of the Mages, and that’s a big aura, the benefits stack up – immunity to conditions and pulse damage, Regeneration +1, and positive flips to all defence duels caused by the enemy Master. For a Master who wants to be in the middle of the enemy, one of those is useful. All of them vastly increases Ironsides’ survivability.

 

Warding Runes can also be taken by any Henchman. I can tell you from experience, if you think Joss or Dr Sokolov is tanky off his base card, try adding all of those benefits to him as well. Ditto for the Great Carlos Vasquez.

Now look at all of the above and tell me you think the Oxfordian Mage is overcosted at 6SS, never mind the 5SS you’ll likely pay.

Don’t get me wrong, there are weaknesses, some of them quite glaring. But they’re not insurmountable problems.

The first one is that 5 Wounds. Most big hitters will just need a moderate damage to one-shot-kill a Mage. With that said, they do have Arcane Shield; as long as they haven’t activated, they reduce incoming damage by 1, and this can reduce to 0.

He’ll kill me but I have to tell this story – the first time I got a win over Joel Henry, in 3 years of trying, Pandora pelted into the middle of my Mage battery and went Inflict-Inflict-Inflict. That forces models within a pulse to take a WP duel or take 1 damage, then an additional 1 damage for failing the duel near Pandora. The Mages hadn’t activated yet and therefore ignored all the damage thanks to Arcane Shield. I found this really quite amusing. Joel did not.

 

Oxfordian Mages also gain the Temporary Shielding ability off the upgrade of the same name – discard a card and the upgrade to reduce incoming damage by 2. This will combo with Arcane Shield to reduce by 3, and as you choose which order to apply the reduction you can apply the Temporary Shielding first and then the Arcane Shield to reduce 3 damage to 0 if you really need to avoid triggers, for example.

Those abilities are nice and they’ll slow down the opposition, but they don’t help weather a storm. If your opponent wants your Mages dead, they’re going to die. But hopefully they’ll survive long enough for the reinforcements to arrive, or to have achieved their role.

 

The other main weakness you’ll encounter is the traditional bane of casting models – if they’re engaged in melee then they’re nowhere near as effective.

 With the Oxfordian Mages, that’s not entirely true. It certainly isn’t true for whichever Mage is carrying the Blood Ward upgrade, as their Cast gains a claw which means it can be used in melee. There have been a few opponents who have gone in to tie the Mages up only for the Blood Mage to Furious Cast at point blank range and either remove the threat or use all those Tomes to Push it clear.

 

All Mages have a 0 action that they can use in melee. Granted, a Ca6 attack with a 1/2/3 damage spread isn’t all that. But it does get interesting with triggers. 1 Tome means you get a Soulstone back after damaging. 2 Tomes knocks the damage track up to 2/4/5. And 3 Tomes gives you Deathtouch – the target must discard two cards or two Soulstones, or be dead. So they’re no pushovers.

I won’t lie, using Oxfordian Mages properly takes some practice. You want them close together but not in such a clump that one model can neutralise all 3. Their casts are projectiles so you need to be wary of cover and randomisation (unless Sandeep because Sandeep). And they’re not particularly quick. But if you can get the knack of it then you have a little powerhouse in your crew for the princely sum of 15SS.

Got a model that you want to Wax Lyrical about? Drop me a line! If you’re happy to write it I’m happy to post it.