Characters

Characters
Characters are little changed in the new edition of the game, and you'll find yourself using them and valuing them in much the same way as you always have. The exceptions are Battle Standard Bearers, musicians and Wizards.

Battle Standard Bearers now allow friendly units to re-roll any and all Leadership tests if they are within 12" of the battle standard. This makes them much more useful than they used to be. For example, you can now re-roll Panic tests and Stupidity tests. Battle standards also combine very well with the Steadfast rule - having a re-roll on your unmodified Leadership can make previously unreliable troops much more effective, or at least it will as long as they are steadfast. All-in-all I'd recommend taking a Battle Standard Bearer as a matter of course, unless you are fielding an army that is immune to the effects of panic and doesn't break (Vampire Counts or Daemons, for example). You may also want to mount the Battle Standard Bearer on a monster with the Large Target special rule, as this will increase their range from 12" to 18".

Musicians are also much more useful, because they allow you to move or shoot after reforming. You do need to pass a Leadership test to do so and you still can't march, but nonetheless, the ability to reform quickly to face in any direction and then move or shoot with missile weapons is a huge advantage for almost any unit apart from Fast Cavalry or Skirmishers.

Wizards
The third type of character that plays very differently are Wizards. Wizards are rather more powerful - by which I mean they can unleash more powerful spells - but also considerably less predictable. You'll quickly learn that magic is rather fickle, and will often cause as much damage to the Wizard's army as to the opponent's. I've found that I value Wizards more but have learnt to rely on them less - they can have a profound impact on a battle, but it is hard to control when it will happen.
In addition, it is harder to 'control' the Magic phase now: although taking a lot of Wizards will give you an edge in terms of casting and dispelling, your opponent will always have the chance to shut down some of your spells, or cast those of his own in his Magic phase, and you will always find yourself at the whim of the 'Winds of Magic' for good or ill.

These changes mean you will need to think long and hard about the number of Wizards you include in your army - I still haven't been able to figure out the 'perfect mix' of Wizard levels for my own Vampire Counts army, though I have learnt that I have a lot more options than I did before.

The Miscast Table
As I mentioned earlier on, magic is a lot more fickle in the game now. One thing related to this that you should watch out for is the way that miscasts work. Instead of occurring when you roll two or more 1s on a casting roll, they happen after you cast a spell with irresistible force. So if you roll two or more 6s when casting a spell, the spell is cast and can't be dispelled, but then the Wizard must roll on the Miscast table.

One of the things you'll learn about the new Miscast table is that, unless you're careful, it can make Wizards almost as dangerous for your own side as they are for the enemy. This is because there are a lot of rolls that result in a template being centred on the Wizard, that inflicts a high-Strength hit on the models who are nearby. I've lost count of the number of games where a Wizard has been placed with a friendly unit, and ended up killing more of his companions than his foes. Bear this in mind when you set up your Wizards; placing them in a strong unit may protect the Wizard, but what about the unit he is with? You may want to consider putting the Wizard with a weaker, less important, unit, or even having him stand on his own. While this makes the Wizard more vulnerable, it mitigates the damage he may inflict on your own side.

The Spell Lores
Experienced Warhammer players will do well to study the new spell lores in the Warhammer rulebook. The first thing you'll discover is that they each have an 'attribute', which gives them a special ability. For example, the attribute for the Lore of Beasts makes the spells easier to cast at cavalry and units of beasts. Secondly, all the lores have a signature spell that can be taken instead of one of the spells you rolled for a Wizard.

These two subtle changes make choosing the spell lore you will use much more interesting. Certain spell lores are much better against certain types of army or unit (see the Lore of Light), while others are more effective at doing certain types of things, such as buffing the abilities of your own units (Lore of Life), disrupting the enemy (Lore of Shadows), and so on. Because of this the new lores favour the player that thinks carefully about which lore to take - it can make all the difference to winning or losing a battle.