This battle report covers the last of the three Rue Mist scenarios. In this scenario-- Arcane Mindfield-- the battlefield contains two regions that act as mindfield traps. Any move order that crosses a mindfield trap must either pay 2 extra order points to disarm the trap or risk downing two figures (a 5/6 chance).
In addition, an extra sortie is trapped on the control terrain on the far side of the field. Each turn, the sortie has a 5/6 chance of losing two figures. If it dies, your opponent gets 3 victory points and is considered to have ownership of that control point. On the other hand, if you can base the sortie and spend two extra order points, you get 3 victory points and the sortie is yours.
The extra sortie cannot have any green-circle figures and must either be a custom unit with 4 figures or a base unit. Base sorties have 6 figures, so a base sortie will last longer, but base sorties degrade faster than custom sorties, so you have to make a choice.
It's worth noting that until the extra sorties are freed from the mind traps on the tower control points, they are considered neutral (neither friendly nor enemy), so cannot be targeted by combat orders and their special abilities are inoperative. So, for example, the Regeneration ability would not apply for a trapped sortie because it is triggered by the beginning of the turn, and neutral units never get a turn.
In this scenario Nate played a Han army and I played a Roman army.
Nate's standard 7000-point army has been repeatedly stymied by my turtle units, so in this version Nate has swapped out one of his Kyudo Annihilators and replaced it with the Bolt of Fire, a custom turtle-killer. Nate's extra sortie was The Enlightened One. Nate's strategy was to use the Bolt of Fire to free The Enlightened One on his first turn. The Enlightened One could then be sent over to the other control point where its Aura of Peace ability would cost me extra order points. In the meantime, the Bolt of Fire could hit me with Fireburst attacks.
This is a variation of my standard 7000-point army, except that my construct turtle is a horizontal formation instead of a column. I usually like to use column units because it's easier to maneuver them through tight spaces, but I wanted one horizontal unit so that when I sent it through the mindfield it would disarm a wider space. For my extra sortie I chose the Armored Commander, figuring I could use its Armored Rush ability to advantage.
The scenario has a two tower control points in the middle and four pieces of blocking terrain on each side. The arcane mindfield stripes are indicated by the two home terrains. For our play-test, we marked them with masking tape to make them easier to see. Note the placement of the extra sorties.
Nate organized his units into two groups. On his right, he placed a Kyudo Annihilator with the Flame Runners and Flame Strikers in front of it. Next to them, he placed the stood in front of the Annihilator on his left. In the middle, he placed the Bolt of Fire. The Bolt was lined up precisely so that it could base The Enlightened One on his first turn. In the right group, Nate placed the Immortal Steel, the Raven Column, and Nuwa's Irregulars.
I deployed the Sagitarii Column on Nate's right, poised to attack the near control point, with a Hammer of Bellona and two Hammers of Mars next to it. In the middle, I put the Flamma Coniciens, then the Wall of Steel and the Inspired Cuspidi. I placed the second Hammer of Bellona in front of the Wall of Steel, in position to base the Armored Commander on my first turn.
Nate won the dice roll and took the first turn. In this scenario, there is no ambush turn.
Until you've freed your extra sortie from the trap, each turn begins with a die roll. On anything but a 6, you down two figures. Nate rolled a 3 and removed two figures from The Enlightened One.
It took all of Nate's first-turn order points to get The Enlightened One out of the trap. First, he spent 4 order points to move the Bolt of Fire forward, disarming a column of the mindfield along the way.
It's worth pausing to discuss the mechanics of this move. There is, essentially, a cost for any move order that passes through the mindfield. You either pay two order points, which permanently disarms the field in the area you're passing through, or you roll a single die and down two figures if you roll anything but a 6. In this case, the speed of the Bolt of Fire meant that it would stop partway through the field. Nate could have used only two order points and skipped the disarm, but since the Bolt's next move order would also pass through the field, he'd have to risk downing two more figures, for a total of four. It was therefore more sensible to simply spend the two extra order points.
To indicate that this section of the field was disarmed, we placed a formation-sized piece of paper over the disarmed section. (The scenario description recommends using a spare base, but we already had pre-cut papers and thought the extra bases would be confusing, since we also use them to show movement paths.) Since the section was disarmed, Nate's next order-- pushing the Bolt of Fire to base Unit 7005, cost only 2 order points. Because the Bolt has Hustle, the second move was 7 steps instead of 5.
Note that Nate flipped the formation 180 degrees when he did the final turn. This insured that the Bolt of Fire's bad side would be protected from attack when the unit snapped to The Enlightened One's base.
Nate had used 6 order points to get here. An additional 2 order points freed The Enlightened One from the mindtrap, making it a friendly unit for Nate and giving him 3 victory points and uncontested control of the right control point. Nate's turn, however, was over.
I had a Hammer of Bellona in position to free up my trapped Armored Commander, but it would take 4 order points to pull it off, or 6 if I wanted to avoid damage from the mindfield. This would leave the Bolt of Fire in position to Fireburst both of my units on the left control point, or worse, base them and deliver a 10-die attack. Nate would then get 3 victory points for the uncontested right control point and additional points for killing one of my sorties on the left control point.
I needed to take down the Bolt, and it was going to cost me extra order points to do it, because not only did I have to get my units through the mindfield on that side, The Enlightened One's Aura of Peace ability was going to add an extra order point to the cost of every attack.
I decided to forgo freeing the Armored Commander and make a close-combat assault on the Bolt.
I spent 3 order points to move the right Hammer of Bellona through the mindfield, disarming it along the way.
Next, I pushed the Hammer of Bellona to base the Bolt of Fire. In order to get the Hammer out of range of the Aura of Peace, I had to use all 7 points of movement (5 normally plsu 2 for Hustle). This meant that I had to pop off the Priestess of Bellona to keep full movement and my full attack potential.
I had used 4 order points to get here. Since the Hammer of Bellona had Charger and was out of range of the Aura of Peace (which would have added an extra order point to the attack), the attack was free. The attack was 7 dice to 4, with Intuition against a Fragile target. The expected damage was 5, but incredibly, I did nothing. In fact, Nate did 3 points of back damage to the Hammer, and took only one damage from the Hammer's Berserker ability. Since Berserker is a special ability and Fragile only affects combat damage, the Bolt of Fire took only the one point.
I had 4 order points left. I used 2 of them to push the Hammer of Mars into base contact with the Bolt of Fire.
This time it was not possible to get my unit out of range of the Aura of Peace: I was going to have to pay an extra order point for the attack, which meant it would finish my turn. Because I didn't need to move the full distance, I was able to pop one of the movement figures for the push, preserving the Fervor ability was well as my full attack potential. The base attack of the Hammer of Mars was 8 dice. Because I had two units in base contact with the Bolt of Fire, I would get an extra die from Fervor. Because the Bolt of Fire was Irregular, I would get 2 extra dice from the Hammer's double Specialized. The attack would be 11 dice to 4, with Intuition assisting the attack and Fragile on the target. All in all, five special abilities were affecting this attack. The expected damage was 8. I did 4.
The Bolt of Fire had 6 figures left (including all three of the Fireburst-throwing Goryo), and my turn was over.
Nate's first order of business was to take out the two Gallic Hammers. He started with a close-combat attack by the Bolt of Fire against the Hammer of Mars. The attack was 8 dice to 1, with an expected damage of 5. Nate did 6, knocking the Hammer down to a single figure.
Because Aura of Peace was in effect, the attack by the Bolt of Fire took 3 order points. Nate had 5 order points left. He used 2 to push the Flame Runners into range to Fireburst both Hammers.
The Fireburst attack did 3 damage, reducing the Hammer of Bellona to a single figure, and incidentally splashing the Bolt of Fire.
Nate had two order points left, which he used to regroup the Bolt of Fire for defense. Normally, only a single order point would have been required, but Aura of Peace affects everything but move orders, so it cost 2.
It was my turn. The Armored Commander was still trapped in the mindfield, so I had to roll for the trap effect. I rolled a 5, downing two more figures. It was likely that on my next turn, the Commander would die, giving Nate 3 points and command of the left control point. As a result, I had to abandon the fight on the right control point and free my trapped unit.
I spent one order point to move my second Hammer of Bellona through the mindfield. Because I did not try to disarm it, I had to roll for possible damage. I rolled a 5 and had to immediately down two figures.
Next I pushed the Hammer of Bellona into base contact with the trapped Armored Commander, then spent 2 order points to free it from the trap.
I collected 3 victory points, tying the game at 3 points each. I had spent 4 order points so far.
I wanted at this point to attack the Bolt of Fire. The nearby Sagitarii Column couldn't get line of sight because of the blocking terrain on that side. I couldn't do a close combat attack with my remaining Hammer of Mars because that would take 4 order points (2 to move, and 2 to attack because of Aura of Peace) and I would need to spend 3 order points to get the other Hammer of Mars out of the way (2 to regroup for movement thanks to Aura of Peace and 1 to move away).
Instead, I used one order point to move the Armored Commander out of Fireburst range, since that would be an instant kill with the Commander having only 3 hit points.
I had three order points left. I used them to move the Sagitarii Column and the second Hammer of Mars into position to get into the fight next turn.
It was Nate's turn again. He started by using 2 order points to move the Raven Column through the mindfield. Since he did not spend the points to disarm, he had to roll for the trap. He rolled a 3 and downed two figures.
The shot to take out the Armored Commander was 10 dice to 1, and did 7 damage. Since only 3 was needed to kill the Commander, Nate collected 2 victory points (1 for killing a sortie and 1 for downing a commander figure).
Nate had 4 order points left. He used one to Fireburst the left Hammer of Bellona from the Flame Runners and two more to Fireburst them from the Bolt of Fire (because of Aura of Peace it cost an extra order point). This killed the Hammer, and Nate collected another victory point. The score was now 6 to 3 in his favor, the left control point was empty, and he had one order point remaining in this turn.
With his last order point, he moved the Flame Strikers onto the disarmed mindfield path.
It was time to take out the Bolt of Fire. I used 2 order points to move up the Sagitarii Column so it could get a clear line of sight, taking care to remain out of the range of the Aura of Peace.
The line of sight was hindered by the Hammer of Mars, reducing the Sagitarii Column's range dice from 8 to 7. Because the Column had Precision, there was no penalty for shooting into melee. The attack was 7 to 4, with the target having Fragile. The expected damage was 5, exactly what was needed to kill the Bolt, and that's what I rolled.
I collected 2 victory points, and the score was now 6 to 5 in Nate's favor. I had 4 order points left.
I wanted to kill The Enlightened One, but the tower on the control terrain blocked the line of sight from the Sagitarii Column, and thanks to the mindfield it would take 4 order points to get the it would take 4 order points to get the second Hammer of Mars into position to attack. I knew that next turn Nate was probably going to take the left control point, so I used 4 order points to move the Inspired Cuspidi through the mindfield on that side.
Nate now embarked upon an elaborate plan to annihilate my forces around the right control point. First, he used one order point to move up the Flame Runners as far as they would go, turning slightly at the end to stay out of range of the Aura of Peace.
Now he was able to move the Flame Strikers into position to Fireburst the Sagitarii Column.
The Fireburst attack did 3 damage, reducing the Sagitarii Column to 9 figures. That done, Nate did a Fireburst from the Flame Runners to the Hammer of Mars, killing it and collecting another victory point.
The score was now 7 to 5 in Nate's favor. He had used 4 order points.
Since the Flame Runners have Opportunist, Nate now had two free order points he could spend on them. He used 1 to regroup them for maximum attack, and 1 to push them into base contact with the Sagitarii Column.
Note that in order to keep his maximum attack potential, Nate popped one of the Goryo for the push. The attack was 9 dice to 4, which had an expected damage of 5. Because of Aura of Peace, it would cost 2 order points (real ones, not Opportunist points). Nate did 4 damage.
Nate had used 8 order points, but thanks to Opportunist, he still had 2 remaining in this turn. He used one to push the Flame Strikers onto the left control point.
With all of his sorties pushed to their limits, Nate didn't have anything he could do with his last order point, so he passed and it was my turn.
I had to take out the Flame Runners. I pushed my remaining Hammer of Mars to base them, also getting adjacent to the control point so that it was contested. Because I had to disarm the mindfield on the way up, this cost 4 order points.
This attack was 11 dice to 0, the normal 8 attack dice of the Hammer of Mars getting bonuses from Fervor and double Specialized. I had a 96% chance of making the 6 hits I needed for the kill, and in actual fact I got 9.
I collected 2 victory points for killing a sortie with a commander on it, and the score was now tied at 7 each. Because of Aura of Peace, the attack on the Flame Runners cost 2 order points. I had 2 points left in this turn. I used them to move the Inspired Cuspidi into position to start attacking units on the left control point next turn.
Nate collected 3 victory points from the Flame Strikers on the left control point, putting him ahead 10 to 7.
Next, he moved the Raven Column through the mindfield, disarming along the way, and into position to retaliate against the anticpated attack next turn from the Inspired Cuspidi. This consumed 4 order points.
He used one more order point to have the Flame Strikers Fireburst the remaining figure on the Hammer of Bellona, collecting another victory point and increasing his lead to 11 over 7.
If the Flame Strikers stayed where they were, next turn the Inspired Cuspidi was going to kill them. In addition, Nate had noticed how hobbled I was by the Aura of Peace on the right control point, and he wanted to protect it. To address both problems, he used 2 more order points to push the Flame Strikers into base contact with both the Hammer of Mars and the Sagitarii Column.
Nate had only 1 order point left and it would take 2 to attack with the Flame Strikers, so he used his last order point to move Nuwa's Irregulars into position to cross the mindfield.
It was my turn. I needed to free the Hammer of Mars from the Flame Strikers, and this meant launching a close combat attack. Because of the Aura of Peace, it would cost 2 order points. I needed seven hits. This was another super-deluxe attack, with Intuition, Fragile, Fervor, and Specialized affecting the combat, and Aura of Peace affecting the order points. The attack was 11 dice to 3, with an expected damage of 8, and I rolled 9 hits.
I collected another victory point, so the score was now 11 to 8 in Nate's favor.
Next, I moved the Hammer of Mars to base The Enlightened One. Fortunately, I could do this in a single move order, because I would need to push to attack.
The attack was 8 dice to 2. I had an 83% chance of getting the four hits I needed to kill The Enlightened One and I got 6.
The long tyranny of the Aura of Peace was finally over. I collected 2 more victory points for killing a sortie with a commander on it, and the score was now 11 to 10, with Nate only one point ahead.
I had 2 order points left. I used them to move the Sagitarii Column up to the right control point and oriented it so that it could eventually come out and shoot units on the left control point.
It was Nate's turn. He spent two order points to move the Raven Column onto the left control point where it could shoot both of my units on the other side.
Nate shot the Hammer of Mars first. The attack was 10 dice to 1, with Good Fortune applying to the shooter and Intuition applying to the target. He needed 6 damage, and had an 83% chance of getting it. Instead, he rolled only 5.
This was frustrating, but if he could out the Sagitarii Column everything would be all right. He pushed to shoot again. The attack was 10 dice to 4, with Good Fortune applying to the shooter. He needed 5 damage, and once again he had an 83% chance of getting the desired result. He rolled 4.
Nate had used 6 order points. He used his last two to bring the Kyudo Annihilator up to the edge of the mindfield so it could run through next turn.
It was my turn, and I collected 3 victory points from the units on the right control point. For the first time, I was in the lead, 13 victory points to 11.
I spent two order points to move the Inspired Cuspidi into position to use Thrown Weapon on the Raven Column.
I wanted to kill the Raven Column, and I had 6 order points to do it in. I would start with a Thrown Weapon. If I did at least 5 damage (a 45% chance), I'd throw again. Otherwise, I could base the Ravens and do an 8-die close combat attack, which had an expected damage of 6. It was therefore very likely I could make the kill, and this flexibility is one of the great strengths of units like the Inspired Cuspidi.
The first attack was 6 dice to 0, and Intuition applied. I did 6 damage. (Without Intuition it would have been 5.)
I had done enough damage on the first throw to make it worth my while to throw again. This time I did 3 damage, exactly what I needed to kill the Ravens.
With two more victory points, the score was now 15 to 11 in my favor. Since Thrown Weapon consumes only one order point, I had 4 order points left. I used them to move up the Wall of Steel, disarming a formation-wide section of the mindfield.
In order to stop me from winning, Nate had to get the Kyudo Annihilator out from behind the mindfield. He tried measuring several exotic movement ideas with the turning tool, but none of them got him very far. In addition, he was worried about the Inspired Cuspidi killing the Annihilator the same way it had killed the Raven Column. So, he moved the Annihilator straight up through the mindfield, disarming along the way. This took 4 order points.
Nate could now fire twice at the Inspired Cuspidi. The attack would be 9 dice to 8, with Good Fortune working for the shooter and Intuition operating on the target. Since the Kyudo Annihilator had moved before shooting, Way of the Bow would not apply. The expected damage for this attack was 4. In face, Nate did 7 damage, reducing the Inspired Cuspidi to four figures.
Such is the design of the Inspired Cuspidi that even with only four figures, it still has its full defense. Nate shot again, but this time did no damage at all.
I collected 3 victory points from the right control point, putting the score at 18 to 11 in my favor. I was now 3 points from winning.
I regrouped the Inspired Cuspidi for movement, keeping the Thrown Weapon icons ready, and moved it into position to attack the Kyudo Annihilator.
I had used three order points. The first Thrown Weapon attack did 6 damage. Once again, it would have been only 5 without Intuition.
I pushed to throw again, this time doing 2 damage. The Kyudo Annihilator had been reduced to three figures (but of course, so had the Inspired Cuspidi).
Nate was now in an untenable position. Even with only three figures left, the Kyudo Annihilator could kill the two units sitting on the left control point, but the Inspired Cuspidi was in the way: he couldn't move into shooting position without pushing, and if he pushed to move, he could only shoot once. He needed to shoot twice: if even one of my units survived, I would win automatically next turn. The game was effectively over.
Nate and I liked this game because there was strategic pressure from the mindfield's order point penalty, leading to a lot of unusual choices, and and we got to use so many exotic special abilities. In particular, I have never seen Aura of Peace cast such a large shadow over a game.
As in the first Rue Mist scenario (see the Erosion Battle Report), sorties have an advantage because they use fewer order points. Of course, they also can't provide the high-powered punch of a formation unit, and the need to crowd icons onto fewer slots increases their build point cost. Still, they certainly played and important part in this test.
It was also important to know when it was worth while to simply take the damage from going through the mindfield without disarming it. Sometimes, you can't afford those extra two order points.
Finally, each of us brought a unit that could free the trapped sortie quickly. You have very little time to do that, and if you don't make it in time, your opponent gets 3 victory points and a free control point. That's a serious advantage you don't want to give away.
That's it for the Rue Mist scenarios. Next month will feature a trip through a swamp, with several new terrain types to play with.