This battle report is an example of a game using the Blink of an Eye scenario, which is one of several scenarios planned for the new Arcane Legions League program starting in July 2010. It was designed by Robocad and the original version was playtested at Dean's Dugout.
In this scenario, there is one central control terrain with a magic crystal on it. Any unit on or adjacent to the control terrain with a ready green-circle figure can issue a special order to teleport the unit to any point on the battlefield. Teleportation costs 1 order point, and before teleporting you must roll 1d6.
So, you risk downing a figure, and there's a 50% chance you don't get to teleport.
The power technique in this scenario is to move a close-combat unit onto the control point and then teleport it into base contact with a target unit (preferably on the bad side). Because you haven't pushed to move, you can push to attack twice. The down side is that you have a 50% chance of failing to teleport. For that reason, it's important to have a backup plan before you try.
The game was played with the beta version of the special abilities. In particular,
Nate played a Han Army and I played Romans.
All of these units except for the Glory Squad and the Kyudo Annihilator have green-circle figures so that they can take advantage of the teleporter. Even so, the emphasis was on Fireburst and ranged combat. The main close combat units are Rapid Fire (8 attack dice) and the Spider Division (8 attack dice against human units). The other non-artillery units have 6 attack dice.
Three of the Hammer sorties have Specialized, which gets a bonus against irregular units. Since most Fireburst-throwing units are irregulars, this is an important factor. In addition, all of these units except the Imperial Snipers have green-circle figures.
The scenario has a single large Crystal Control Terrain in the center. (You can print one of these yourself from this page.) Each player then places two terrain items of his or her choice, first player 1, then player 2, then player 1 again, and finally player 2 again. The restriction is that no two terrains can overlap, and each non-control terrain must be at least 2 steps away from all other non-control terrains.
In such situations, the Han player usually brings two hindering terrains (which favor ranged combat) and the Reoman player brings two blocking terrains (which favor close combat).
I rolled an 11 during the dice-off, thinking this meant I would go first (something that has only happened once before in these games). Nate destroyed these hopes by rolling 12. The final terrain setup is shown below.
The placement of the terrain items close around the control point creates a situation called a fortress, where the paths into the center are narrow enough that a strategically placed sortie can completely block access from that section of the battlefield. As we shall see, the effect of terrain in this particular contest was profound.
Nate placed the Raven Fire and the self-healing Kyudo Eternals on his right, with the Rapid Fire and the Terracotta Fire in front. On his left, he put the Spider Division and the Kyudo Annihilator, with the Torch of the Tiger and the Glory Squad in front. The effect was to put the majority of his close combat strength on the left and the majority of his range combat strength on the right.
I put my two artillery units on Nate's right (opposite his main artillery cluster). In the middle, so that they could hide behind the blocking terrain, I placed the Hammer of Discipline, the Hammer of Bellona, the Igneus Strikers artillery sortie, and the Igneus Defenders turtle unit. On Nate's left, I put my two remaining sorties, the Hammers of Mars.
The first few turns involved moving our forces up to bring them to bear on the control terrain.
I found myself severely inhibited by Nate's Fireburst units, so I decided to take out the worst one early. I pushed to Hustle a Hammer of Mars into base contact with the Torch of the Tiger.
Because the Torch of the Tiger is an irregular unit, the double Specialized on the Hammer of Mars means it attacks with 10 dice. The Torch's defense was 4 dice. The Hammer had a 58% chance of reducing the Torch to only two figures, taking out at least one Fireburst icon. Instead, I did 3 damage.
This was a disaster. The nearby Kyudo Annihilator did not have to move to shoot the Hammer of Mars, meaning it could use Way of the Bow, virtually guaranteeing a kill. I had sacrificed a unit for no significant gain.
With my remaining five order points, I moved three of my sorties closer to the middle and brought my Igneus Defenders formation forward.
The dance was over and the violence had begun.
It's interesting that under the new rules, Way of the Bow is no longer the vanguard archery ability it used to be, but it is the perfect method for getting rid of striker sorties. The Kyudo unit usually does not have to move in order to take the sorties out once they've been deployed, and the power of Way of the Bow is such that you have an 80% kill chance (as opposed to a 40% kill chance with an ordinary shot).
An excellent example of this was Nate's first action of his next turn. He shot the Hammer of Mars with the Kyudo Annihilator, and did 8 damage, killing it. If Way of the Bow had not been operative, the roll would have only done 6 damage, requiring a second shot to kill the Hammer.
Nate now moved the Torch of the Tiger forward so that it could Fireburst the Igneus Defenders, doing three damage.
With his last four order points, Nate began positioning for an assault on the control point. First, he moved the Spider Division against the blocking terrain on his side.
Next he moved the Terracotta Fire up on the right so that it could base the control point on his next turn.
Finally, he moved the Glory Squad to the left of the Torch of the Tiger so that I could not base it with my other Hammer of Mars unit.
I had to kill the Torch of the Tiger or it would wear my Igneus Defenders down to nothing. I could not use my Hammer of Mars, but I could Hustle the Hammer of Bellona across from the middle to base the Torch from the other side.
The attack was 7 to 4, and because the Hammer of Bellona has Charger, the attack did not cost any order points. I did 4 damage, dropping the Torch of the Tiger to 2 figures.
A Fireburst from the Igneus Defenders finished off the Torch, giving me my first victory point. (Of course, this splashed the Hammer, dropping it to 6 figures.)
I had used 3 order points, and I needed to do something about the Terracotta Fire on the other side of the board before it started flaming my archers. I moved the Flamma Coniciens forward two steps to get into shooting range (2 order points), then rolled for a ranged combat attack. I did three damage, but only because of bonuses from Fire Arrow and Fragile.
With my last order point I used Fireburst to do three more damage, dropping the Terracotta Fire to two figures. Unfortunately, this was only a minor inconvenience: the unit could only move two steps, but it could still do 2 points of Fireburst damage.
Nate now decided to take out my artillery. With a single action, he was able to bring the Spider Division into base contact with the control point.
Nate then rolled to teleport, and got a 6, meaning critical success. He placed the Spider Division so that it was in base contact with both my archers. In the case of the Flamma Coniciens, he was against the bad side, negating completely the unit's defense dice.
Nate had used 3 order points, and the Spider Division had not pushed, so it could attack twice. The first attack was against the Flamma Coniciens, and Nate did 5 damage.
There was a problem with attacking the Imperial Snipers: that unit has Elusive, so the attack would cost 3 order points, ending Nate's turn. Nate decided it would be better to finish off the Flamma Coniciens completely, pushing to attack and then using Fireburst with the Terracotta Fire. Pushing to attack the Flamma Coniciens again did 5 more damage.
A two-point Fireburst killed the unit, putting Nate in the lead, 3 victory points to 1. Unfortunately, it also ended Nate's turn, and in the meantime I had a Gallic sortie in his territory and a Hammer of Discipline ready to take revenge on the Spider Division.
My first task was to cripple the Kyudo Annihilator on the left. I regrouped the Hammer of Bellona for maximum movement and brought it into base contact with the Kyudo unit. The regrouping cost me an attack die, but it enabled me to base the Kyudo formation in a single action, which meant I could push to attack twice.
The first attack did 6 damage. Because of Charger, it did not cost any order points.
The second attack did 4 damage.
The Annihilator was now down to 2 figures and I had used 3 order points.
On the other side of the board, I moved the Hammer of Discipline next to the Spider Division.
Because the Spider Division is an irregular unit, the Hammer of Discipline gets 3 bonus attack dice from Specialized. In addition, because the Imperial Snipers were adjacent on the other side, the Hammer got an additional attack die from Fervor. The Hammer was attacking a defenseless unit with 12 dice. I got 11 damage. The score was once again tied, 3 victory points each.
Thanks to a good roll, I had 3 order points leftI didn't have enough order points to shoot again, so I regrouped the Flammas for defense. I moved the Igneus Defenders closer to the terracotta Glory Squad and Fireburst them for 2 damage.
The Hammer of Bellona had to go. The Raven Fire had line of sight, attacking 8 dice to 0. There was no Way of the Bow bonus, but the Hammer had only 6 hit points left, so the Ravens had a 79% chance of killing the unit, and if they failed, they could follow up with a double Fireburst. As it turned out, the Ravens did more than enough damage, a critical hit giving them 7 hits. Nate had regained the lead, 4 victory points to 3.
Now Nate wanted to do some damage to the Igneus Defenders. He used Hustle to get the Glory Squad around to the Defenders' bad side, then regrouped to attack 6 dice to 3.
Nate did 3 damage. The Igneus Defenders were down to half strength.
Nate needed to be able to do more damage. He moved the Terracotta Fire to block my sorties from getting to his units on the right, then moved the Rapid Fire so that it was within striking distance of the control point.
To take out the Glory Squad, I moved the Hammer of Mars behind it.
Because of Fervor, the Hammer of Mars attacked with 9 dice instead of 8. The Glory Squad had only two defense. I had a 90% chance of making the kill: in fact I rolled 10 damage.
With the Glory Squad gone, the Igneus Defenders were able to move closer to the control point and Fireburst the Terracotta Fire, killing it. I had now regained the lead, 5 victory points to 4.
I had 3 order points left. I used two of them to move the Hammer of Discipline to safety behind the blocking terrain and to bring the Igneus Strikers artillery sortie forward.
With my last order point I regrouped the Imperial Snipers for defense.
Nate's plan at this point was to base the control point with the Rapid Fire unit, then teleport it behind the Imperial Snipers. If the teleport worked, he could very likely kill the Snipers, leaving me with only a single sortie for artillery power. If the teleport failed, he could push the unit to base the Igneus Defenders and make an attempt to kill them.
Unfortunately, Nate rolled a 1 on the teleport-- a critical failure. This meant he had to down one figure and did not get to move. If he tried to push the Rapid Fire now, he would lose two attack dice, meaning he would be unlikely to do any damage to the Igneus Defenders. He was also prevented from using Healing or Fireburst because the teleport is a special order.
With his main battle plan stymied, Nate decided to go for a more traditional approach, and moved his two artillery units so they could shoot anyone on the control terrain.
Finally, he regrouped the two figures on the Kyudo Annihilator so the unit could move.
I was now in a position to use the Imperial Snipers to try to kill the Rapid Fire. First, I moved the unit forward into range.
It cost one more order point to regroup the unit for shooting. The first shot did 3 damage.
The second shot did 5 damage, killing the Rapid Fire and netting me two more victory points.
I was now leading 7 points to 4. With my final order point, I regrouped the Imperial Snipers for defense again.
Nate was now pretty discouraged. The position of the hindering terrain on the right prevented him from bringing up his archers to shoot my Imperial Snipers unless he pushed, but pushing would limit the damage he could do and would make both units vulnerable to an attack by my two remaining striker sorties (to say nothing of a Fireburst from the Igneus Defenders).
To prevent a teleporting sortie from basing both archers at once, he moved the Kyudo Eternals away from the Raven Fire.
With order points to burn, he set up a desperation strike by the Kyudo Annihilator against the Igneus Defenders.
The attack was 3 dice to 10, the Igneus Defenders being bolstered by two Wall of Shields icons. It did no damage.
I started my turn with a Fireburst attack from the Igneus Defenders, killing the Kyudo Annihilator.
Next, I moved the Defenders to the side so that the nearby Hammer of Mars could reach the control terrain in a single action.
I rolled a 3, failing to teleport. I had used 4 order points so far and had 4 left. I pushed the Hammer of Mars to base the Raven Fire.
There were no bonuses for this attack, so it was 8 dice to 1. I did 5 damage.
The game was effectively over. Nate couldn't take out both the Hammer of Mars, and the Hammer of Discipline, and whichever one he left behind was going to cripple his last viable artillery unit.
The teleporter makes close combat sorties extremely powerful. Although the teleport order failed as often as it worked, just the threat kept Nate's archers at bay during the crucial end game. Also, the teleporter means that exotic special abilities like Specialized, Cunning, and Bully that require special targets are much more likely to find application.
In a typical game, there are twice as many ranged attacks as close combat attacks. In this game, it was almost precisely the reverse. Of course, there were also a lot of Fireburst attacks thrown around: when a scenario posits a bonus for green-circle units, you're just begging for armies built around flame-throwers.
We spent a lot of time making angle turns and zigzagging to get our sorties into position. Conversely, the large cluster of terrain in the center prevented Nate's archers from closing on more than one occasion. This leads me to believe that the terrain arrangement may have some value independent of the scenario.
In any case, we both recommend this scenario highly. Be sure to watch for it at your local venue.