Close Combat

To give a close combat order to one of your units, choose an enemy unit that is adjacent to your unit. The chosen enemy unit will become the target of the attack. The side of your unit that is adjacent to the enemy unit is the side the attack is being made from. The side of the enemy unit that is adjacent to your unit will be the side being attacked.

A unit may only be given a close combat order if it has at least one ready attack die icon.

Next, pay the cost for the order. A close combat order costs 1 order point to give to a sortie and 2 order points to give to a formation. (Note: some special abilities may increase or decrease this cost.)

The attacker then rolls a number of red dice equal to the number of ready red attack die icons it has, along with attack dice granted (or removed) by special abilities. The defender rolls a number of white dice equal to the number of ready white defense die icons it has, along with defense dice granted (or removed) by special abilities.

If the attacker is attacking from a grey side, they roll three less attack dice. If the defender is defending from a grey side, they roll three less defense dice.

Once players roll their dice, each player arranges them from highest to lowest. If the attacker has rolled three dice with a result of 6, they get a critical hit, which increases the number of hits this unit scores by 1. Players apply any special abilities that affect the die roll, such as rerolls or anything that alters the results of the dice. Once those have been resolved, players re-adjust their dice from highest to lowest.

Compare the highest attack die to the highest defense die. If one side does not have a die, then compare the remaining die to a phantom die, which has a value of 2. If the attack die is higher than the defense die, the attacker gets one hit. If the defense die is higher than the attack die, the defender gets one hit. If a phantom die is higher than the die it is being compared to, however, no hit is scored. Then, move to the next highest die for each player and compare again until all dice have been compared.

Each unit then deals damage to the opposing unit equal to the number of hits it got. This includes any additional hit from a critical hit. For rules on how damage is dealt, see Dealing Damage.

Combat ends and the turn resumes.

• Attack die icons are red and defense die icons are white (see Basic Icons).
• The maximum number of hits from a die roll is one greater than the number of dice (because of critical hits), but certain special abilities may increase this.
• In close combat, the attacker takes the risk of receiving damage from the defender, but outside of the effect of special abilities like Berserker, this rarely happens in practice because the attacker is rolling more dice.

Entire contents © 2009 by Bruce Parrello, Ph.D, except that Arcane Legions and its associated images and concepts are © 2009 by Compound Fun, LLC. All Notes from Drake the Lesser are unofficial, provided as is, and completely without warranty.