So I played a game about a week ago, and I wanted to cast "Bear's Anger" on my shaman, and was told I couldn't since he was in CC. I was told that you couldn't cast spell in close combat unless the spell specifically allowed it (and Bear's Anger doesn't mention anything in the text of the spell).

So I looked up the rules after the fact, and that led to a bunch of questions.

1. Is it true you cannot cast a spell while the shaman is in CC?

I can't find this anywhere in the rulebook. It does say that you cannot cast against a unit in CC, unless the spell targets the caster himself or the spell's description specifies otherwise.

2. Assuming you CAN cast spells while the shaman is in CC (just not at units involved in CC), can you put the shaman on the edge of your front row and cast spells that require LOS out the side of the unit? How about spells that don't require LOS ... can they also be cast? Is this frowned upon, or a valid tactic?

3. Last question, not related to the above, when do you determine if a unit is a valid target, before or after the spell is cast? Say for MM (with it's 24" range limit), or for Wild Call (where the target needs to be in charge range).

I had this come up with Wild Call, where I cast the spell, only to find out that didn't have 25% of my herd in charge range (had 3 inside range, but needed 4).

Your friend is right, except for 2 very important letters in their rules quotation. You cannot cast a spell "into" close combat. This most commonly applies to magic missiles and other harmful spells. This rule is also meant to prevent things like using characters in combt to influence the game outside the combat (for example casting movement spells onto another unit to get into their combat, or reraising unengaged models).

Bears anger is castable in combat. Indeed it'd be very silly for a spell that buffs your h2h abilities to not be castable while in h2h. The bray shaman is the target, and he is in the combat, so he is not casting it into combat, hes casting it on himself.

So short answer: Yes, you can cast bears anger into combat, as long as the caster is in that combat.

So, I can't find anywhere in the rules that says I can't do the following.


A = Herd A
S = Shaman in Herd A
B = Herd B
E = Enemy unit


Beginning of turn:

Movement: Declare charge of A into E, Move B to E's flank, when lining up, put shaman on the end of the line.

During Magic phase, have S cast a spell on B (note, that unit is not in CC), say Wild Call to pull it into combat, ending up with:

Is that a valid sequence of events?

It seems like it should be, since S has LOS to B out the side of the unit and unit B is not in CC. (Note: I do see that once S ranks up, his LOS is restricted as per the rules on ranked units ... but even in this case he still has LOS to B).

The issue with your question is whether or not the spell requires line of sight. If it doesn't require line of sight I think you can cast it on unit B.

In the example I gave above, the shaman has line of sight to unit B. He's touching corner to corner with the rightmost end of enemies front rank. Line of sight for ranked models is defined as 45 degrees out either corner of the model.

As such, I think he can still cast spells that require LOS. (note: Magic Missiles explicitly state they cannot be cast while the caster (or his unit) is in CC).

BTW, the important line is actually on page 107.

"Wizards cannot cast spells at a unit engaged in close combat, unless the spell affects the caster himself or the spell's description specifies otherwise."

The spell doesn't need line of sight, so he can certainly do it. If it was a spell thatdid require line of sight, then yeah that would just about be okay as well. Bear in mind with your diagram that the Shaman S must be in combat though; as long as he's hanging off the corner you should be able to get line of sight though.