| Flame Strike | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Chaos | |
| Spell Rarity | Rare | |
| Spell Type | Combat Instant | |
| Casting Cost |
 60 | |
| Research Cost |
 1,600 | |
| ||
Every enemy unit on the battlefield is hit with a  15-strength Immolation Damage attack. | ||
Flame Strike is a Rare Combat Instant belonging to the Chaos Magic realm. It may only be cast during combat. For 60 the spell will strike every enemy unit on the battlefield with a 15-strength Area Damage attack (dealing Immolation Damage).
Essentially, this means that every individual enemy 
figure suffers a Fire Damage attack of this strength - which makes this spell particularly strong against 
Multi-figure units.
Effects[]
Flame Strike is a mass-attack spell, which causes an eruption of flame beneath each and every enemy unit, engulfing them in a pillar of fire. The more Figures a unit contains, the more damage it will suffer on average.
Mass Immolation Damage[]
- Main article: Immolation Damage
When Flame Strike is cast, it will immediately make one attack with a strength of 15 against each enemy unit still alive on the battlefield. However, this attack further delivers Immolation Damage, a special kind of damage that will actually strike each Figure in the target unit separately from the others.
Each of these "figure-specific" attacks has the same strength as the base spell, thus every single enemy figure on the battlefield will be individually hit with a strength 15 attack. This results in a total damage output that can be quite severe to Multi-Figure units. The more Figures there are in the enemy unit, the more "sub-attacks" it receives, and thus the more damage.
The process is explained more thoroughly in the Area Damage article.
Immunities[]
Flame Strike delivers Immolation Damage, the Area version of Fire Damage. This makes targets possessing either the 
Magic Immunity or 
Righteousness effects completely immune to it. They will never suffer any damage from this attack.
Units with 
Fire Immunity are actually not completely immune. Instead, their Defense is temporarily raised to 
50 for the purpose of blocking this damage. This, of course, applies to each figure in the unit. Flame Strike has exactly 0.1% chance of damaging such a figure.
The following conditional effects also offer extra protection against Flame Strike: the protective Unit Enchantments Bless, 
Resist Elements, and Elemental Armor; and the Unit Ability 
Large Shield.
Usage[]
An enemy army being hit by Flame Strike. Each and every unit is affected, if it is not immune.
Flame Strike may only be cast during combat, for the very high Casting Cost of 60. There is no need to target the spell - it will strike each and every enemy unit automatically.
Flame Strike is shown on screen as a series of flaming pillars rising from beneath each enemy unit. The attacks are all processed simultaneously, immediately when the pillars reach their tallest.
Acquisition[]
As a Rare Chaos spell, Flame Strike may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least 2 Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least 10 Spellbooks.
Customized Wizards possessing 11 Spellbooks at creation time may choose Flame Strike as one of their starting spells, in which case it will be available for casting immediately on the first turn.
Wizards with 2 to 9 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Flame Strike during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Chaos Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With 10 or 11 Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting.
Flame Strike has a base Research Cost of 1,600.
With at least 2 Spellbooks, the Flame Strike spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell.
Flame Strike also appears in the spellbook of Malleus the Magician, one of the many Heroes with the 
Caster ability. Hiring him may provide the means to use this spell for wizards who do not otherwise have access to it. However, this way, only Malleus, and not the wizard, can cast Flame Strike on the battlefield. Furthermore, it requires multiple Experience Levels and/or Magical Items for Malleus to acquire enough Mana to actually cast the spell.
Strategy[]
Flame Strike is a great way to start a battle - by immediately reducing the overall strength of the enemy army. Very few units possess a Defense score high enough to avoid taking at least some damage and possibly losing at least a few figures.
Naturally, because the spell does damage to each unit in the enemy army, it is more cost-efficient to cast this spell when the enemy army has plenty of units. It would make no sense, in terms of Mana usage, to cast this spell at an army of one or two units - there are far more efficient direct-damage Chaos spells that could cause a lot more damage to one unit for the same Casting Cost.
Furthermore, Flame Strike is significantly more efficient than most combat spells, at least when used against Multi-Figure units. Though a fully-powered Fireball can be even more powerful than Flame Strike, it also costs more and can only be directed at one enemy unit. Flame Strike can cause severe damage to all enemy units simultaneously, and thus is much more cost-effective.
Because Flame Strike picks its own targets, and automatically strikes every enemy unit on the battlefield, it is actually a good method for hurting Invisible enemy units (which cannot be targeted independently).