I know there's information on the Desert Wars in Target: Waste Lands, but I don't own it. I'd like to know how important magic is. Since it's a time for megas to show off and kick ass I figured a lot of it would be weapons, cyber, and vehicles/drones, but since magic is such a powerful force, it'd make some sense for it to be integrated in some capacity.

How often are spirits employed? Is magic primarily for support or is it also used as a spearhead for attacks?

The downsides are it's only a desert domain (of course), and it'd have an almost permenant background count

[edit: just noticed the typo, is there a way to retitle topics?]

Magic is rarely used according to T:WL.

It [military magic] doesn't translate well to Trid and the Corps see the Wars as good old fashioned fighting. Magic plays mostly support roles, but the terms of its use are agreed before conflicts.

the sprinkles in the dessert wars war magic, IIRC

the cola wars were purely nuclear however

One of the things that I've gotten as an impression is that magical capabilities are several limited in zones of protracted combat because of the tendency of battlegrounds to produce background counts.

So support roles in terms of healing in the rear areas, or surveillance, protecting key installations or personnel. That sort of thng.

You have to understand that Desert Wars is like MTV's Real World and Operation Desert Storm mashed into a Coke-a-Cola commercial.

Most of the time there is detailed information about all the happenings and participants prior to commencing - if just to have the right recording equipment going in the right spot.

That doesn't mean the teams are briefed to that extreme, just mamma and papa corp. The amount of intel is probably a critical factor in match difficulty and could be used as handicap.

The only time magic comes into battle use is as part of a special story arc or training session. Mercenary games are also more open to the use, IIRC. Otherwise, magic is kept on the sidelines, for healing injuries or dealing with spontaneous interference such as shedim - (the former site of a nuclear explosion, background count of the battle field is pretty high, too).

+And Daishi is correct, as well.

IIRC also the field of the Desert Wars is not kind toward magic (backgorund count, toxic zone, warps and so on).

Which is why a good magician on the team can win you the battle.