Illusionary Soldier

[JamWarrior]

Some spells are obvious in their use.  Others like this one require a bit more thought.  So how does one make best use of an Illusionary Soldier?

Can't deal damage, can't take damage, can't pick up treasure.  What can he do?

The only use I can think of is to tie up an opposing figure in combat or to provide the outnumbering bonus.  Any other uses people can think of?

Also given that you can choose any soldier type, but that move and fight seem to be the only relevant stats, I guess it's Illusionary Treasure Hunters all the way.

This was wrong, you have to penetrate the armour before dispelling the illusion so armour stat is also relevant.

[Sir_Theo]

Could they be used to lure monsters away from others/treasure?

I need to start looking at the spells in more depth...

[Calmdown]

You can use it to Transpose with.

Also bear in mind you get two chances to cast it (and Fool's Gold too) and if you're putting two of them on the field, suddenly the shell game becomes very difficult for your opponent.

[Magos Kasen]

On the face of it, he seems rather useless. However the potential for tying up models, outnumbering, or leading monsters straight into the enemy warband, would all be an interesting tactical option. A true 'throwaway' model that costs nothing to replace.

[Daeothar]

Or perhaps an illusionary marksman for (imagined) area denial?

Or a hound, to scare up a flank?

I can see plenty of uses really. Is it powerful on the table? No. But we're talking about messing with the opponent's psychology and plans here, which can be potentially game winning...

[JamWarrior]

I wasn't at all doing down the spell.  Just soliciting ideas for creative use.

Monster bait is a good one for sure.  Transpose as well.

And I hadn't considered that I suppose his identity could be a secret from the enemy like fool's gold!  I don't think a ranged guy would work very in this role though as he'd give himself away as soon as he didn't bother taking a shot, or took a shot and hit but did no damage.

Calmdown, the spell specifies one Illusionary Soldier per warband sadly.

[Magos Kasen]

What is the procedure for identifying the illusionary soldier for the opponent? I assumed they will know from the start. If not, that makes it more useful still.

[Harry]

He could be a cheaap 'double' for an expensive but fragile specialist like the Apothecary.

[joe5mc]

Officially, your opponent should be told if a soldier is an illusion.  It avoids potential ambiguity, which I've seen lead to bad feelings too often.

That said, if you are playing in the kind of group that can handle such things, I think its a more fun way of doing it.

[Darkson71]

I think we'll play it that your opponent is told you have an illusionary soldier, but not which one, until they do something to find out (doesn't pick up a treasure, doesn't take damage etc) - we already write down which treasures are fake (Fool's Gold) so writing down which soldier is fake is no big deal either.

[Calmdown]

Back to the OP, Illusionary Soldiers can do quite a lot of things, even with Joe's most recent ruling that the enemy knows which ones are Illusionary.

1) They can give gang up bonuses
2) Your opponent needs to spend actions getting rid of them because they can still get into melee and engage their models to hold them up.
3) They do roll their fight even if they don't do any damage, so they can still "defend" themselves and hence probably take multiple actions to get rid of
4) They can lead NPC monsters or lock them in combat, too.

They also have niche uses like touching enemy Fools Gold tokens to check that they are real.

Officially, your opponent should be told if a soldier is an illusion.  It avoids potential ambiguity, which I've seen lead to bad feelings too often.

That said, if you are playing in the kind of group that can handle such things, I think its a more fun way of doing it.

Why not just make this the official way and make sure that the opponents note down which is Illusionary, as per Fool's Gold? That's not exactly onerous and how we (and I expect most people) expected it would be done. Illusions are illusions after all!

[darthgus]

You can use it to Transpose with.

Also bear in mind you get two chances to cast it (and Fool's Gold too) and if you're putting two of them on the field, suddenly the shell game becomes very difficult for your opponent.

You can only have one Illusionary soldier at a time, but using it with Transpose seems like a good call to me.

[Calmdown]

You can only have one Illusionary soldier at a time, but using it with Transpose seems like a good call to me.

I realised this today, not sure how I missed it the first and every subsequent read through...

Still a great spell though. It has the potential to take many, many actions from your opponent to deal with it, which makes spells like Petrify or Reveal Death pale in comparison; plus you get 2 chances to cast it out of game rather than in, and it isnt resisted by will!

[Ivan DBA]

In our group, I'm going to propose that the identity of the Illusionary Soldier be kept secret. 

This can be policed by having the player using the spell secretly write down which specific figure is the illusion, and not tell the other player until the illusion is revealed.

[JamWarrior]

Per FAQ thread, armour does matter for illusory soldiers.  I had thought that anything that reached the armour would dispell the illusion but apparently it has to penetrate.  So contrary to my earlier statement illusory knights etc are a viable choice.  Still no point taking the 2-handed weapon holders though, unless you're playing the shell game optional rule.