This battle report is an example of a game on a narrow battlefield. Instead of a 4' x 6' table, it uses a 3' x 6' table-- the standard table size used at gaming conventions. The specific scenario is called The Defile. This is our first battle using the rules update released on June 11, 2010. The complete technical rules can be found on our Rules page. A list of the updated special abilities can be found on the Modified Abilities page.
Nate played a Han Army and I played Romans.
The idea behind this army is that Zhongli Quan could use Call the Iron Rain to weaken an adjacent unit with Way of the Bow-powered artillery strikes and then finish it off with a close combat attack. The Shield Golems give his Immortal Steel unit 7 defense against close combat and 11 defense against range. In addition, the Nuwa's Irregulars unit could be kept nearby to heal the Immortal Steel with Artificer. That unit is protected by Elusive, which is a very good defensive ability for a sortie.
In the past, I've generally fielded an army with two turtles, two artillery formations, and a bunch of strikers. In this scenario there is only one control point, so I dropped one turtle and replaced it with more sorties.
The scenario is a King of the Hill setup with a single control terrain in the center surrounded on both sides by hindering terrain and with blocking terrain above and below it. A strip of masking tape serves as the far side of the field.
Nate built two battle groups. He placed his 2 Kyudo Annihilator2 on the right with the Immortal Steel and Nuwa's Irregulars. On the left, he put his Line of Precision artillery unit and the two Fireburst sorties.
I also had two battle groups. On Nate's right I placed the Flamma Coniciens artillery, the Hammer of Vulcan, a Hammer of Mars, and the Sagitarii Strikers sortie. On his left I put the Sagitarii Column, the Line of Steel turtle unit, my other Hammer of Mars, and the Hammer of Discipline.
I won the dice-off and took the ambush turn.
The first few turns involved moving our forces up to prepare for engagement. I was wary of Nate's Fireburst-throwing sorties, and he tried to stay out of range of my striker sorties. In the photo below, the empty bases measure the movement envelope of one of my Hammer of Mars units.
In the meantime, I was using blocking terrain to keep safe from Fireburst attacks.
For a while, we traded jokes about the game taking forever because nobody dared venture into the middle of the board.
I ended the stalemate in the fifth turn by pushing my artillery sortie, the Sagitarii Strikers, onto the control point.
From here I was able to shoot both of Nate's Fireburst units. I could expect to do about 2 damage, attacking 5 dice to 4. Since the Fire and Snow had a four-peg Yeti that would shrug off that damage without flinching, I aimed for the Torch of the Tiger. Unfortunately, I did no damage at all.
I had five order points left. I expected taking care of the Sagitarii Strikers would consume at least 3 order points on Nate's next turn, so I felt safe moving some of my other units forward. I moved the Flamma Coniciens into range of the Immortal Steel and Fireburst it for 3 damage.
I had two order points left, and I used them to move the Hammer of Vulcan into position to Fireburst the Immortal Steel for an additional 2 damage.
Nate's first priority was to kill the Sagitarii Strikers. The Line of Precision was already in position to shoot them.
Because it was shooting over the top of the Torch of the Tiger, the Line of Precision took a penalty and attacked 9 dice to 2. Nate had only a 34% chance of making the kill, but either of the nearby Fireburst-throwing units could finish the job. In actual fact, he got lucky and rolled exactly what he needed.
With the Sagitarii Strikers dead, the control point was clear and Nate picked up a victory point. He had 6 order points left.
He also had a problem. The Immortal Steel had lost two of its Shield Golems, leaving it with only 8 hit points. I had two strikers in position to base it next turn. Each of them had Fervor and would attack with 9 dice. Two such attacks backed up by a potential of 5 points of Fireburst damage would easily kill the Immortal Steel.
Nate first used Artificer to heal the Steel, then moved it back two steps to get it to a safer position. An additional order point enabled him to regroup the unit for maximum defense.
With his last two order points he moved his two Fireburst units forward to cover the control point.
I really wanted to get rid of those Fireburst units. I pushed the Hammer of Discipline to base both of them.
The Hammer of Discipline has three Specialized icons. Most Fireburst sorties are Irregulars, so the Hammer attacks these units with 11 dice. Because I'd pushed to move into position, however, I could only attack one this turn. I chose the defenseless Fire and Snow, because I had a 53% chance of killing it. As it turned out, I did 12 damage, well more than I needed.
I had used three order points. I used two more to move the Hammer of Vulcan onto the control point where it could Fireburst the Immortal Steel for two more damage.
With my last three order points I moved up the Flamma Coniciens to Fireburst the Immortal Steel for three more damage. The Immortal Steel was down to Zhongli Quan himself and two Shield Golems.
There was, at this point, no way to save the Steel from the relentless pounding of my two Fireburst units. Nate therefore decided to use it to kill them both.
If Nate could get the Steel into base contact with both of my fire-throwing units, he could use Call the Iron Rain to attack them with his Kyudo Annihilators. Since the Annihilators would not have to move before shooting, he would have the full power of Way of the Bow at his disposal. Against both units he could expect to do 8 damage, crippling the Flamma Coniciens and killing the Hammer of Vulcan.
It took 4 order points to push the Immortal Steel into position. The first attack was against the Flamma Coniciens. Nate did 9 damage.
The second attack was against the Hammer of Vulcan, and as expected, it killed them.
Nate collected another victory point, giving him the lead, 2 to 1.
It's worth noting that this second attack would have only done 5 damage without the power of Way of the Bow. Normally, the Kyudo Annihilators would have had to move into position, preventing them from taking full advantage of their special ability; however, thanks to Call the Iron Rain, they could shoot without moving.
Nate had significantly crippled my ranged capabilities, but it had cost him his entire turn. As a consequence, I had a full-strength Hammer of Discipline unit in his territory on the left side of the field. This was a serious drawback. I was down, but not out.
The first step was to take out the Torch of the Tiger. The attack was 11 dice to 4. The expected damage was 7 and I needed 8. I got 9. This gave me a victory point and tied the game, 2 points to 2.
Having killed the Torch of the Tiger, the Hammer of Discipline was free to move into base contact with the Line of Precision.
The Line of Precision is neither Mixed nor Irregular, so I only attacked with 8 dice this time. I had to push, and I did 5 damage.
This was the expected result, but it merely inconvenienced the unit. It would still be able to move and attack at full strength.
I had used 3 order points. With one more, I used the Flamma Coniciens to make a Fireburst attack on the Immortal Steel for three damage. This killed the Immortal Steel, netting me another 3 victory points, but since the two units were in base contact, the Flamma Coniciens took a point of splash damage.
With my last four order points, I moved the Sagitarii Column forward on the left and the Line of Steel forward on the right.
Nate's first priority was to kill the Flamma Coniciens. With only two hit points, the unit was little threat, but it was sitting alone on the control terrain. Nate moved his forward Kyudo Annihilator up to shoot it.
Because the Kyudo Annihilator has Hail of Arrows, it was not affected by the hindering terrain in its line of sight and attacked with 9 dice. Because it had moved before shooting, it did not get the benefit of Way of the Bow, but in this case it hit with every single die anyway.
Nate now slid the other Kyudo Annihilator to the left to shoot the Hammer of Discipline.
This time the attack was with only 8 dice, since the Kyudo Annihilator was shooting into melee. Nate needed 6 damage, but he only got 5. (The die roll was not a critical hit because one of the 6 results was due to a Good Fortune reroll.)
The score was now 5 victory points to 4, in my favor. The Hammer of Discipline was almost dead, but until Nate was able to kill it, his Line of Precision was hobbled.
It is always a good idea to attack Kyudo units. I pushed the right-side Hammer of Mars to base the forward Kyudo Annihilator.
The attack was 8 dice to 2, enhanced by Intuition. I could expect to do 5 damage. Instead I did only 4.
I had used 3 order points and had 5 left. I used 4 to push the Line of Steel onto the control point, taking care to insure that the Kyudo Annihilator would have to move before shooting the unit. (This is important, because without Way of the Bow, the Annihilator can only expect to do a point of damage against the Line of Steel's 11 defense dice. With Way of the Bow, it can expect to do 4 damage. This is the difference between trivial damage and nearly killing the unit.)
With my last order point, I used Artificer to heal the Line of Steel from the push.
Nate's first task was to take out the Hammer of Mars hobbling the forward Kyudo Annihilator. This he accomplished by shooting it with the rear Kyudo Annihilator. Since that unit did not have to move before shooting, Way of the Bow applied. He did 7 damage.
The computation of the damage for this roll is worth examining in detail. Under the old rules, you could not raise a die result past 6. This is no longer the case. The Intuition ability on the Line of Steel increases the 6 result of the defense die to 7, blocking the corresponding range die even though it wins on ties. Six damage goes through on the dice, and a 7th point of damage results from the fact Nate rolled a critical hit. The Hammer of Mars was killed, but just barely.
The score was now tied, 5 victory points each.
Freed from the Hammer of Mars, the forward Kyudo Annihilator was able to move up to shoot the Line of Steel. This time, Way of the Bow would not apply, and because of the damage the unit had taken during the previous turn, it did not have Hail of Arrows, so a hindering terrain penalty applied. The attack was 8 dice to 11, and did 2 damage.
This was hardly a victory: the Line of Steel would heal itself using Artificer on the next turn. Still, the only hope for taking down a turtle unit like the Steel is to shoot it so many times that you get a lucky roll.
Nate had two order points left. He moved Nuwa's Irregulars into base contact with the Hammer of Discipline.
Nate only needed 1 hit, but he got 4.
Nate now had the lead, 6 victory points to 5.
I got 3 victory points from the control terrain at the beginning of my turn, putting me ahead 8 to 6. My first action was to use Artificer to heal the Line of Steel back to full strength. Keeping that unit alive as long as possible was my only hope for winning the game. Since the major threat to it was a Way of the Bow attack, my next action was to move the Line of Steel out of range of the nearby Kyudo Annihilator.
Next I got my remaining Hammer of Mars into position so it could attack Nate's artillery when they got close to the control point. Because it was my last striker and it had very little defense, I protected it by keeping it behind the blocking terrain.
I used two more order points to move the Sagitarii Column up and to the side. Again, I was concerned about protecting it from attack by Nate's units, which at this point outnumbered me 4 to 3.
Nate moved up his forward Kyudo Annihilator so that it could shoot the Line of Steel and spent an order point to regroup it so that it could use Hail of Arrows to negate the penalty for shooting through hindering terrain.
The attack was 9 dice to 11, and Nate rolled extremely well, doing 8 damage.
Nate pushed to shoot again, this time attacking 9 dice to 4, but did only 2 damage.
The Line of Steel was down to a single figure: Mechanist Savros.
With his last order point, Nate moved Nuwa's Irregulars closer to the control terrain.
The Line of Steel was almost dead, but it still had uncontested command of the control point. I got 3 victory points, putting me ahead 11 to 6.
I had to stop the Kyudos. I moved my last Hammer of Mars to base the forward Kyudo Annihilator.
The Kyudo Annihilator was defenseless because it was configured for maximum ranged attack. I did 6 damage.
The forward Kyudo Annihilator had been reduced to a single figure.
I had used 2 order points. I used 1 more to do an Artificer heal on the Line of Steel, bringing it up to 3 hit points. I then moved the Sagitarii Column into position to shoot Nuwa's Irregulars.
I had a 66% chance of doing 4 damage, which would seriously cripple the Nuwa's Irregulars. Instead I did only 2.
This was the end of my turn. Nuwa is a two-peg figure, so Nate removed one Shoyosei Infantry and let Nuwa absorb the other point
Nate's rear Kyudo Annihilator would have to push to shoot the Line of Steel, but if he did that, my Hammer of Mars would be left at full strength, able to cripple his last serious artillery unit. To prevent that, he positioned himself to attack the Hammer instead.
Nate had a 33% chance of killing the Hammer in one shot, and he lucked out.
The score was now 11 to 7, but still in my favor.
Nate now pushed the Kyudo Annihilator to move it into range to shoot the Line of Steel next turn, and moved Nuwa's Irregulars onto the control point. With his last order point he regrouped the stronger Kyudo Annihilator for defense.
My situation was now desperate. I was down to two units, and one was almost dead. My first priority was to take down the Kyudo Annihilator. I moved the Sagitarii Column into position to shoot it.
The first shot did 4 damage.
I pushed to shoot again, and this time did 5 damage.
The first Kyudo Annihilator was down to one figure and the second had now been reduced to two. The major remaining artillery threat was the Line of Precision.
I used one more order point to do an Artificer heal on the Line of Steel, bringing it up to 5 hit points.
Nate needed to do something about the Sagitarii Column, which was a serious offensive threat. He regrouped the Line of Precision for speed, and moved it into position to shoot the Column.
At 5 dice to 4 with Good Fortune, you can normally expect 3 damage. Nate got 4.
To insure that the Sagitarii Column couldn't do any more damage, Nate based it with Nuwa's Irregulars.
At this point, an attack by Nuwa would be 2 dice to 4, which is a very bad idea in close combat. More important was the fact that one my next turn, the Line of Steel would heal back to its full defensive strength. To prevent that, Nate tried a Way of the Bow attack from the nearest Kyudo Annihilator. This had a 40% chance of downing a Shield Golem, but in fact it did no damage.
With his last order point, Nate regrouped Nuwa's Irregulars for attack.
My first priority was to do an Artificer heal on the Line of Steel, bringing it up to 7 hit points and giving it full defense.
Now I had to get the Sagitarii Column free so that it could do some shooting. I regrouped it for movement, then drew it back half a step. This triggered a breakaway attack from Nuwa's Irregulars, 4 dice to 4. The result was 2 damage each way.
Now the Sagitarii Column regrouped for attacking and shot Nuwa's Irregulars, doing 5 damage, which killed the unit and gave me two victory points.
The score was now 13 to 7 in my favor. Because Nuwa's Irregulars are Elusive, however, I'd consumed an extra order point when I shot them, ending my turn.
The Sagitarii Column was wounded, but it was still a serious threat. Nate could not allow it to kill the Line of Precision, which was his last serious offensive unit. He regrouped it for maximum attack, then shot the Column, 10 dice to 1. The attack did 9 damage, killing the column and narrowing my victory point lead to 4 points.
To prevent me from getting more victory points, he regrouped the near Kyudo Annihilator for speed and moved it onto the control point.
I decided to kill the Kyudo Annihilator. I used Artificer to heal Line of Steel and then regrouped it for movement and attack. It would only have 2 attack dice, but thanks to Intuition, the chance of a kill was 67%. (Normally it would be 44%.)
The attack was successful, and now I led 15 to 8.
I needed to get the Line of Steel configured for defense. I regrouped it again, which required me to down a figure because it was a push.
Nate moved the Line of Precision into position to shoot the Line of Steel. The attack was 10 dice to 11, and it did no damage.
Nate pushed to attack again. Downing a figure on the Line of Precision cost it 2 range dice, so this attack was 8 dice to 11. It did 1 damage, which was absorbed by a two-peg Shield Golem.
I began my next turn with 3 victory points, bringing my total to 18. I was now only one turn away from winning. I used Artificer to heal the Line of Steel, bringing it to 9 hit points, then passed the turn to Nate.
To prevent me from winning next turn, Nate had to move the Line of Precision onto the control point. This left him only 4 range dice. A final attack with them did no damage.
Unwilling to push the unit down to only 3 figures, Nate moved his Kyudo Annihilator closer (with only one figure left, it definitely couldn't push to move again), then ended his turn.
I healed the Line of Steel back to full strength with Artificer, then moved to base the Line of Precision and regrouped for attack and defense. I had to push to kill Nate's unit.
I had 20 victory points. All I had to do to win was chase down the single-figure Kyudo Annihilator and kill it.
The purpose of this battle was to test the terrain layout, and in that sense it was successful. The blocking terrain prevented the artillery units from dominating, and the reduced battlefield size did not feel too terribly restrictive. Therefore, it seems clear that The Defile is a workable scenario for convention-sized tables.
Once again, a turtle unit proved remarkably resilient in the end game, and strikers proved remarkably effective in taking out ranged units. This is not to say that there weren't some wild swings of fortune along the way: when the Line of Steel dropped down to only one figure, I thought the game was pretty much over. Nonetheless, it's worth remembering that your opponent has only 8 order points, and sometimes all you have to do to keep alive is insure that 8 is not enough.