The second swamp scenario, The Crystal Dome, features a crystal control terrain that generates a magical dome of force which blocks line-of-sight. The border of the terrain blocks ranged attacks (including Sniper and Thrown Weapon) and line-of-sight based special abilities such as Fireburst. It does not, however, affect distance-based abilities like Death Touch or Aura of Peace.
Our play-test this time featured an alternate-stat version of the Hundun Spirit currently being tested. The Spirit has a new special ability called Master of Monsters which reads as follows.
Friendly units with a single figure of six hit points or more down one less figure when pushed for movement.
This is a variant of Stormrider that applies to sphinxes and dragons. The new ability replaces the Hundun's Spirit Superior Reach, which drops the figure's build cost considerably. It costs 559 normally, and twice that (1118) when used on an Egyptian base. We've tested this figure numerous times on a Han base with dragons, and it generally performs well: the dragons get to make a difference, but they're not overpowering. In particular, it appears that two dragons is about the maximum for an effective army using the new figure. In this case, we are testing it on an Egyptian base to see if the proposed penalty is enough.
Riddle of the Sphinx is the most terrifying special ability out there, so this army was deliberately designed to be the most abusive possible design using the proposed alternate-stat Hundun Spirit. Because the scenario makes range combat extremely difficult, there is only one artillery unit. The Thrown Weapon unit. on the other hand, provides limited turtle capability (6 defense against close combat and 8 against range), and its ranged attack fits comfortably inside the dome. (Remember, only the border blocks line-of-sight.) The remaining build points are filled with Hoplite Recruit sorties.
This is a fairly standard Roman army design, except that instead of two artillery units, we have in recognition of the scenario design only one artillery unit and a cavalry-based sortie (the Swamp Striker).
The crystal dome dominates the center of the battlefield. On one side is a swamp and on the other side is a block of mud. An artillery unit in the mud would be able to guard most of the approaches to the dome from that side without fear of an attack by a striker, but its power to wreak havoc would be limited by the two blocking terrains.
Nate arranged his army in two groups. The right group contained a Tomb Guardian of Osiris, Masika's Javelins, and a Hoplite Strikers. The left group contained the other Hoplite Strikers, the Temple Guardian of Osiris, the Hundun Dragon Master, and the Hoplite Fodder.
I put the Sagitarii Column on Nate's far right, positioned for a straight run up to the mud. Next to it I placed the Inspired Cuspidi, the Fervent Smoke, and one of the Hammer of Mars sorties. On the other side I had a cluster of four sorties-- the other two Hammers of Mars, the Sniper Escort, and the Swamp Striker.
I won the dice-off and took the ambush turn.
There was no dance in this game. I used two order points to push a Hammer of Mars onto the control point.
This was a pretty aggressive move, but because of the way the control terrain works in this scenario, Nate's ability to combat the move was limited: instead of bringing up a ranged unit to take me out, he would have to get another unit physically onto the terrain.
With my remaining two order points, I moved up the slow Fervent Smoke. While the Hammer of Mars would establish an early presence on the control point, I was counting on the Fervent Smoke to hold it on a more permanent basis.
It was Nate's turn. He used the Master of Monsters ability to push the Tomb Guardian of Osiris into base contact with the Hammer of Mars, doing an immediate point of damage from Impact.
Nate now used an additional order point to invoke Riddle of the Sphinx. Though there is a risk of giving your opponent a victory point when doing this, the maximum benefit (one damage to every opposing unit) is so powerful that it's more than worth the risk. Nonetheless, in most cases the result is what happened this time-- 2 damage to the target unit.
The Hammer of Mars was down to four figures and Nate had 3 order points left. He absolutely could not leave the Hammer in this state, since it could still deliver a 9-die attack on the Tomb Guardian of Osiris (8 normal dice plus 1 for Specialized, the latter due to the Tomb Guardian being an irregular unit).
Nate therefore used two order points to do a close combat attack on the Hammer. The attack was 7 dice to 1, and Nate had a 77% chance of getting the 4 hits he needed. In fact he got 6.
Nate collected the first victory point of the game. With his last order point, he moved up one of his Hoplite Strikers.
It was my turn again. I used 4 order points to push the Fervent Smoke onto the control point to contest it.
I had four order points left, and I needed to take down the Tomb Guardian of Osiris, which was a serious threat to the Fervent Smoke. I used two more order points to push the second Hammer of Mars into base contact with the Tomb Guardian.
The attack was 10 dice to 4, the Hammer of Mars getting an extra 2 attack dice thanks to Specialized. I had a 58% chance of getting the 6 hits I needed to kill the sphinx, and that's exactly what I got.
I picked up two victory points from killing the Tomb Guardian of Osiris, giving me the lead at 2 to 1. I had one order point left, and I used it to move up the Swamp Striker.
It was Nate's turn. First, he used two order points to push the Hoplite Fodder onto the control point, contesting it.
The Hoplite Fodder was in easy rach of the nearby Hammer of Mars. To protect it, Nate needed to take the Hammer out. (Of course, Nate has a long history of pain at the hands of Mars Hammer units, so that was a factor, too.) He used four order points to push the Column of Fire into position to shoot it.
It's worth noting that from this position the Column of Fire looks like it can shoot the Fervent Smoke, but it's blocked by the special power of the crystal dome: even though the Smoke's side notch is outside the dome, the line of sight would still have to pass through a corner.
The Column shoots with 9 dice and has double Fire Arrow against the single defense die of the Hammer of Mars. Nate had an 82% chance of getting the 7 hits he needed to kill the unit, but instead he only got 6.
This was actually not a bad result for Nate. The Hammer of Mars was pretty useless with only one figure in it, and it blocked me from getting my other units through to attack the Column of Fire during my next turn.
Either way, the shot had used Nate's last two order points and it was my turn again.
As mentioned above, there was no way for me to get any immediate revenge on the Column of Fire. Instead, I used four order points to move up the Sagitarii Column and the Inspired Cuspidi.
One more order point brought the third and final Hammer of Mars into position to join them.
I had three order points left. I used two to slide the Fervent Smoke over so that its side notch would be protected inside the crystal dome.
With my final order point I moved the Sniper Escort forward.
With all my troops out of the starting area, I felt I had a good chance of holding the center against Nate's coming assault.
There was a real risk I would be able to get the Sagitarii Column into the mud, from which it could safely rain death on its surroundings. The advantage of being in the mud is that attacking striker sorties have to snap at the edge, significantly reducing their striking distance. To insure that he could attack the Column were it to hide in the mud, Nate moved his Hoplite Strikers into position behind the blocking terrain. From here the Strikers would be able to reach the border of the mud in a single action, and then push inside to hobble any archers ensconced within.
Nate had 7 order points left. He used 3 to move up the other Hoplite Strikers and the Temple Guardian of Osiris.
Nate wanted to kill the crippled Hammer of Mars next. The problem is that this would open up a path for the Swamp Striker to attack the Column of Fire. He needed to prevent this.
Nate now used the Master of Monsters ability to push the Temple Guardian of Osiris into position to block passage between the control point and the swamp.
With his last two order points, Nate shot the Hammer of Mars with the Column of Fire, killing it and collecting his second victory point.
It was now my turn. The first task was to kill the Temple Guardian of Osiris. I used two order points to push my last Hammer of Mars into base contact with the Guardian.
The attack was 10 dice to 5, the Hammer of Mars gaining 2 dice from two Specialized icons, since the Temple Guardian of Osiris is an Irregular unit. I had a 51% chance of making the kill. Of course, failure to make the kill would leave the Guardian virtually unaffected, since I had no one else who could make it into position to finish the job. In fact, I did 5 damage.
This was unfortunate, though not completely unexpected. If I was going to stay in the game, however, I needed to bring more forces to bear on the center. I had 5 order points left. I used 2 to move the Sagitarii Column closer so it could eventually shoot the Temple Guardian of Osiris.
I used two more order points to push the Swamp Striker into the swamp on Nate's left. From here, it would be able to emerge from the swamp with a single action and make a close combat attack on the Temple Guardian of Osiris. Two such attacks would be enough to give me a 78% chance of killing the Guardian for only 2 order points (because the first attack would be free thanks to Charger).
Getting into the swamp is always a two-action process, since you have to snap at the edge first. In this case, that was not a problem because I pushed to move in after snapping. While in the swamp, the unit is completely immune from ranged attacks. It will take 1 damage at the beginning of each turn, but that's not a big problem for the Swamp Striker, since it has 3 multi-peg units, and the damage will be taken as an injury that clears at the beginning of each turn. The downside, of course, is that even a single point of back damage from the Guardian when the Striker attacks (a 35% chance) will down a figure, increasing the cost of the push to attack again.
I now had two units in position to attack the Guardian next turn and I'd used 7 order points. With my last order point, I moved the Sniper Escort forward again.
It was Nate's turn again. He started off with a Riddle of the Sphinx, targeting the Hammer of Mars. He rolled a 5, doing 2 damage and reducing the Hammer to 5 figures.
Next, Nate finished off the Hammer by shooting it with the Column of Fire. The roll was 9 to 1, with double Fire Arrows, and no penalties thank to Precision and Hail of Arrows. Nate had a 98% of getting the 5 hits he needed, and got 6.
Killing the Hammer of Mars gave Nate another victory point, making the score 4 to 2 in his favor. He had 5 order points left.
Five order points was enough for the Temple Guardian of Osiris to base the Fervent Smoke and attack (it would take all five because the Smoke is Elusive), but the roll would be 6 dice to 6, with Tough and Brutal cancelling out, so the expected result would be at most one figure getting downed on the Smoke, and the Guardian's bad side would be exposed to the Swamp Striker.
Instead, Nate moved the Guardian to the side so that I would have to push to base it with the Striker. This consumed 2 order points.
He spent two more order points to move Masika's Javelins forward out of the starting area.
Finally, he used his last order point to move the Hoplite Strikers so that the Swamp Striker would have to push to base the Column of Fire.
With the Temple Guardian of Osiris I decided to take down the Column of Fire with the Swamp Striker. Since I would only get one attack, I decided to soften it up first. I moved up the Sniper Escort into range for a Sniper attack on the Fire.
The Column of Fire has two figures with two defense dice each. I targeted the first, and the dice roll was 4 to 3, which gave me a 78% chance of success. The Sniper shot worked and Nate downed the figure.
I expected the Sniper Escort to get killed by the Hoplite Strikers next turn, so I decided to get as much out of it as I could while it still lived. I pushed for a Sniper attack against the other defensive figure, and this also succeeded.
The Column of Fire had been reduced to 9 figures and had no defense. I had used 3 order points so far. I now brought the Swamp Striker out of the swamp and pushed it to base the Column.
I used 1 more order point to regroup the Swamp Striker for maximum attack. The attack itself was free, thanks to Charger. The roll was 7 dice to 0, and the expected damage was 5. I rolled a critical hit and did 6, dropping the Column of Fire to three figures.
I had two order points left, and I used them to move the Fervent Smoke into base contact with the Hoplite Fodder, in hopes that eventually I'd be able to kill the stupid thing.
It was Nate's turn again. First, he based the Swamp Striker with the nearby Hoplite Strikers.
The attack was 6 dice to 0, and the expected damage was 4; he got 3.
The Swamp Striker still had 2 hit points left, so Nate pushed to attack again, doing 3 damage again.
The Swamp Striker was dead, so Nate collected 1 more victory point, raising the score to 4 to 2 in his favor. He had used 3 order points and had 5 left.
With the Swamp Striker gone, the Column of Fire was free to shoot the Sniper Escort. It was configured for 5 range dice and 1 Fire Arrow. The expected damage was 4. Nate needed 5 for a kill, and that's what he rolled.
The death of the Swamp Striker also freed the Temple Guardian of Osiris to attack the Fervent Smoke. It took two order points to base the Smoke.
With his last order point, Nate did another Riddle of the Sphinx. He rolled a 3, doing 2 damage. I downed a Priestess of Bellona and injured one of the Heavy Legionaries. Since it was Nate's last order point for the turn, the injury immediately came off.
It was my turn again. I used four order points to push the Inspired Cuspidi into base contact with the Temple Guardian of Osiris.
The Inspired Cuspidi normally attacks with 8 dice, but in this situation gets two extra from double Fervor, so the final roll was 10 dice to 5. As before, I had a 51% chance to make the kill, but this time I succeeded.
I had 2 order points left, and I used them to attack the Hoplite Fodder with the Fervent Smoke. I had a 45% of doing 1 damage and a 44% chance of doing 2. I missed completely.
The score was now 5 to 4 in Nate's favor, and the control point was being contested by a giant formation with Heavy Armor, Elusive, and Tough on the one hand, and a teeny sortie with 3 figures left on it and no defense on the other.
It was, however, Nate's turn.
He began by using 2 order points to push the Hoplite Strikers on his right into base contact with the Sagitarii Column.
The dice roll was 6 to 4. The expected damage was 3, but Nate rolled a critical hit and did 6.
Nate had 5 order points left. He used 2 to bring Masika's Javelins within striking distance of the control point.
One more order point brought the other Hoplite Strikers into position to assist.
Finally, Nate used has last order point to regroup the Column of Fire for defense.
It was my turn again. My first task was to free the Sagitarii Column from the Hoplite Strikers currently attacking them. I used 4 order points to push the Inspired Cuspidi into base contact with them.
The Inspired Cuspidi got a one-die boost from Fervor, so the attack was 9 to 0. I did 9 damage, which left the Hoplite Strikers with 2 figures.
If I had done 6 damage (the expected result), I would have been able to move the Sagitarii Column away fairly safely; however, with two figures left, a breakaway attack by the Hoplite Strikers would be 4 dice to 4, presenting a serious risk. Instead of trying an escape, I used one order point to regroup the Inspired Cuspidi for defense and another to regroup the Fervent Smoke so that it could attack the Hoplite Fodder effectively on my next turn.
It was, however, Nate's turn first. His first task was to eliminate the Fervent Smoke. He used 2 order points to move Masika's Javelins into range of the Smoke.
First, Nate used Death Touch Master to down the Elusive figure on the Fervent Smoke. Because Death Touch Master is a special order, the Elusive penalty does not apply, and he only spent one order point.
The Death Touch Master roll was 6, so I downed the target Occult Legionary. The Fervent Smoke was no longer Elusive.
Nate now used one order point to make a Thrown Weapon attack on the Smoke The roll was 6 dice to 3, and the Smoke was protected by the Tough ability. Nate did 3 damage.
Nate pushed to throw again, but this time did no damage.
He had three order points left. He needed to press the attack on the Fervent Smoke, not only to take advantage of the injury currently in place but also to prevent me from regrouping to get Elusive back. He used two order points to push the second Hoplite Strikers to base the Smoke on its bad side.
The Fervent Smoke had 4 defense against close combat at this point, thanks to a one-die bonus from Heavy Armor; however, there was a 3-die penalty because the attack was through a bad side. The resulting die roll was 6 to 1. The expected damage was 4, which is what Nate rolled.
The Fervent Smoke was down to a single figure, but Nate had run out of order points. It was my turn again.
I had to do something about the Hoplite Strikers. I started by using the Inspired Cuspidi to attack the ones currently hobbling the Sagitarii Column. I only needed 2 hits, but I got 7.
I collected a victory point for killing the Hoplite Strikers, tying the score at 5 points each.
I regrouped the Inspired Cuspidi for movement and defense (as well as Thrown Weapon), then moved it into position to throw at the other Hoplite Strikers.
I had 3 order points left. Thrown Weapon cost only one. I would be able to roll a full 6 dice, since it is not affected by the penalty for shooting into melee. The first throw did 4 damage.
I pushed to throw again, killing the Hoplite Strikers and pulling ahead, 6 victory points to 5.
It's worth noting that thanks to Thrown Weapon, the Inspired Cuspidi was able to attack 3 times in a single turn.
With my last order point, I regrouped the Fervent Smoke for defense. This was fairly futile, since Nate could kill it with Death Touch Master, but if the death touch roll failed, it would make his life harder.
Nate did in fact open his turn with a Death Touch Master attack against the Smoke, rolling a 4 and successfully killing it. The score was now 7 to 5 in his favor, and he had uncontested possession of the control point.
A Thrown Weapon attack against the Inspired Cuspidi would be futile, with an expected damage of 1 and a 47% chance of missing completely, thanks to the Cuspidi's 6 defense dice augmented by Wall of Shields. Instead, Nate used 2 order points to move Masika's Javelins into base contact with the Cuspidi.
The dice roll was 8 dice to 6. The expected damage was 3. Nate rolled 4 damage and took 1 back.
Nate pushed to attack again, this time doing 7 damage, killing the Inspired Cuspidi and collecting 2 victory points.
This was an extremely unlikely outcome, and completely changed the dynamic of the game. I was down to a single unit, and it at half strength.
Nate had one order point left, and he used it to regroup the Masika's Javelins for defense.
It was my turn again. I regrouped the Sagitarii Column for movement and ranged combat, then moved it up to the mud. By snapping to the end of the mud, I could position the Column to shoot the Javelins through their bad side.
The dice roll was 8 to 5. The expected damage was 4, which is what I did.
I pushed to shoot again. I needed 5 hits to make the kill, which was a 42% chance. Unfortunately, I did only 2 damage.
I had used 7 order points. With my last one, I regrouped the Sagitarii Column for defense, something I could do without pushing thanks to their Discipline ability.
It was Nate's turn again. He immediately collected 3 victory points for being on the control terrain, making the score 12 to 6 in his favor.
He used one order point to regroup Masika's Javelins, rotating the unit 180 degrees so that its bad side was no longer exposed, and maximizing its defense. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the unit into range to attack the Sagitarii Column, since the Javelins had a maximum speed of 3 with its reduced figure count, and the mud prevented him from getting close enough for a Thrown Weapon attack.
Nate spent two more order points to move the Column of Fire closer to the action, then passed on the rest of his turn.
I needed to clear the control point. I started by shooting Masika's Javelins with the Sagitarii Column. The attack was 8 dice to 5. I needed 3 hits to make the kill (an 88% chance), and did 8 damage.
The 3 victory points from killing Masika's Javelins made the score 12 to 9 in Nate's favor. I had used 2 order points. I used 2 more to push the Sagitarii Column to shoot the Hoplite Fodder. I needed 3 hits, and got 7.
Nate now had two units, the single-figure Hundun Dragon Master and the Column of Fire, which was down to 3 figures. I had only the Sagitarii Column, which had 4 figures.
It was, however, Nate's turn. His plan was to move the Column of Fire into position to shoot the Sagitarii Column. The roll would be 5 to 4, with a single Fire Arrow. He had a 41% chance of making the kill. If he succeeded, he would win by elimination. He rolled exactly what he needed.
The game was over.
This was an extremely close game, which was a good sign for the cost calculations on the Egyptian version of the Hundun Dragon Master. The striking distance for a sphinx was extended by the Master of Monsters ability to the degree that it could get into combat before being picked off by a ranged unit, which made a big difference.
Nate's original plan was to get one of the sphinxes in the swamp so that it could swarm out and attack units I placed on the control point, then flee to safety back inside. The Swamp Striker was supposed to help me get in the swamp and take out the sphinx once it got in there. Instead, the Swamp Striker ended up hiding inside and swarming out. You never know in these games.
Finally, it was very difficult to get a line of sight on this battlefield, which made Thrown Weapon especially useful. In addition, being unable to shoot units sitting on the control point made for a very different game. You absolutely had to have lots of close combat units in order to compete.
The final swamp scenario will be Rings of Healing.