Tunnelfight/Sewer wars Magic Rules : Draft 1

You might remember that I'm trying to adapt warhammer fantasy slightly to have smallish games in a subterranean setting, without reverting to Mordheim-like intricacy.  Here we come onto the magic phase:

This was the part of the game that I was most worried about, after all I didn't want people throwing purple sun down sewers with IF!

With the games being only 500 points a side a too-strong magic phase would take the focus away from the tunnelfighting that the game is meant to be about, but banning magic would remove one of the pillars of fantasy.  I played around in my head with all sorts of restrictions and limitations, before remembering that it's meant to be simple and easy to play! And so here are the draft magic rules as follows (note: these are adaptations to the rules found in warhammer fantasy battles 8th edition).

1.  Mages can only ever be a maximum of a level 1 wizard for the purposes of casting/dispelling, regardless of magic items/special abilities.  This does not stop the mage from knowing more than 1 spell, or from casting/dispelling more than one spell per turn, it only limits their wizard level.  And yes, it means that High Elves only ever receive +1 to dispel!
eg. You have a level 2 wizard with a magic item that contains a bound spell, and also another item that adds +1 to casting attempts.  Your wizard therefore knows two spells from his chosen lore, plus the spell in his bound item.  He can attempt to cast all three spells in each of his magic phases, but despite being a level 2 wizard and havng an additional +1 to cast from his magic item (giving a total of +3 to cast) he can only ever add +1 to his casting attempts.

2.  The fifth and sixth spell in each Lore cannot be taken, and must instead be re-rolled unless you instead wish to choose the Lore's signature spell.  This counts for all 8 Lores found in the warhammer fantasy rulebook and also in every army book, no exceptions. Even for Loremasters and for magic items that would allow you to choose your spells instead of rolling for them.  You can still choose, just signature spells and those numbered 1-4.
eg. Your level 1 life mage rolls a 6 when choosing his spells, granting him Dwellers Below.  However he cannot use this spell, and so re-rolls the dice until he rolsl a 1-4, or chooses the signature spell.

3.  All miscasts must be rolled for twice, and the lowest result of the two must be applied.  No magic items can ever prevent a miscast (but can still cause them) or allow you to re-roll miscast results.
eg. Your mage rolls 6 dice to cast The Enchanted Blades of Aiban, and two of the dice are sixes.  The spell is cast with Irresistable Force and the effects of the spell are worked out as normal.  Then the unlucky mage rolls twice on the miscast table, resulting in a 4 and an 8.  The higher result of 8 is discarded and the lower result of 4 is applied.

I think that about covers it!  I've tried to discourage everybody from throwing 6 dice at every spell by the fact that 15-25% of their army is dicing with death!  Also the two most powerful spells are removed from every magic deck, and there is no benefit to really tooling up your mage because he can't use those extra wizard levels. 
That said, there are still plenty of very effective spells left to use, and at 500 odd points they could easily be game-winners. 

As a final note, templates will be dealt with differently to the rules in the rulebook to represent the close confines of underground combat.  This will be the subject of another post though.


So, thoughts people?

Neil