This battle report covers the second of the three Rue Mist scenarios. In this scenario-- Not My Fault-- the battlefield is crisscrossed by numbered fault lines. At the beginning of each turn, a die is rolled, and any units on the fault line with that number must move backward one space and suffers a 2-die penalty on all attacks (close or ranged) during the turn. The number 1 fault line goes through the two control points. If a 1 is rolled, any units on that line must move off the control point. This happens before the control terrain victory points are scored for the turn.
For the purposes of the play test, we put masking tape on the table and drew the lines using a felt pen. This makes it easy to see who is at risk and why when we're taking pictures. (The #1 fault line has no tape because it's the center line of the field and is permanently drawn on the board.)
In this scenario Nate played a Han army and I played a Roman army.
This is the classic Call the Iron Rain army. The Immortal Steel is hard to kill and can be healed by Nuwa's Irregulars. Any unit it bases can be destroyed by the Kyudo Annihilators. The two Fireburst units and the Raven Column can be used to attack at normal range.
This is a typical Roman army with two Elusive units taking the place of the usual Wall of Shields-based turtles. Most of the units have Fervor for extra punch and Hustle for extra speed.
The scenario has a two control points in the middle protected by blocking terrain and some hindering terrain on the edges. The most important features, however, are the numbered imaginary fault lines. As mentioned above, at the beginning of every turn a die is rolled, and units on the fault line whose number is rolled gets moved backward automatically and suffers a 2-die penalty on all attacks during the turn. Since a fault-line check is performed at the beginning of every turn and there are 6 possible results, a unit on a fault line has a 30% chance of suffering a tremor before you can move it to safety. It's worth noting, however, that getting moved one step is not a huge penalty; the more serious problem is the 2-die penalty on rolls to attack. If a unit's not going to see combat, the earthquake is a small risk.
Nate placed a Kyudo Annihilator on each side of the board. The Flame Runners stood in front of the Annihilator on his left. In the middle, he placed the Immortal Steel, the Raven Column, Nuwa's Irregulars, and the Flame Strikers.
I deployed the Fervent Smoke on Nate's right in a position to make a run for the control point on that side. In the middle, I placed a Sagitarii Column, the Smoke and Fire, and the Hammer of Mars with the Hammer Incendia in front of it. A very short distance away to Nate's left I placed the second Sagitarii Column and the Hammer of Discipline.
I won the dice roll and took the ambush turn.
I started off by moving my up the Hammer of Discipline and my two Fireburst-throwing units, carefully positioning them to stay off the fault lines.
The first earthquake roll was 5, which was one of the fault lines on my side of the table. If I hadn't stopped short, both of my Fireburst-based units would have had to move back a step.
Nate had a full turn, so he was able to move up most of his army. Again, care was taken to avoid fault lines.
The next earthquake roll was another 5, but with nobody on a fault line it made no difference.
I started off my first full turn by pushing the Fervent Smoke onto the control point on Nate's right (4 order points). Because it had Hustle, it could move 8 steps. I used 2 more order points to bring the Sagitarii Column on that side forward, and one order point to get the Hammer Incendia in position to do Fireburst attacks against both control points. With my last order point I got the Hammer of Discipline in position to harry units on the control point on Nate's left.
This time the earthquake roll was 6. There are actually 4 fault lines for number 6, but again, Nate and I were being careful to insure at this early stage that nobody was on a fault line.
Nate started his second full turn by pushing the Immortal Steel onto the control point on his left (4 order points).
Another order point got the Flame Strikers into a gap between the fault lines. From here, it could eventually get into position to start Fireburst attacks on the Fervent Smoke. Because Elusive and Tought only affect combat orders targeting the unit, the Fireburst attacks could ignored both of the Smoke's defensive abilities.
He then pushed Nuwa's Irregulars into position to support the Immortal Steel with Artificer healing (2 order points).
Nate had one order point left, and he used Artificer to heal the Immortal Steel from its push.
It was now my turn.
My plan was fairly simple. Nuwa's Irregulars is an irregular unit, so the Hammer of Discipline gets 11 attack dice against it, thanks to a triple Specialized bonus. This meant an attack by the Hammer had a 54% chance of killing the unit and a 71% chance of doing 6 damage. If I did the 6 damage, Nate would have to down the Elusive figure on the base in order to keep Artificer. The attack by the Hammer would consume 4 order points (2 to push into position and 2 to attack). Without Elusive on the base, I would be able to use the Sagitarii Column to finish off the Irregulars (2 order points to move and 2 to attack). Deprived of Artificer, Nate would be unable to stop me from using my two Fireburst units to kill the Immortal Steel.
I started off the turn with 3 victory points from the control point occupied by the Fervent Smoke. The earthquake roll was 5, but no units were on fault lines so it did not affect play.
I used two order points to push the Hammer of Discipline into base contact with Nuwa's Irregulars. The dice roll was 11 to 4. I did only 3 damage.
Nate downed two Shoyosei Infantry and took the third point of damage as an injury to Nuwa.
Nate believed he was safe putting an injury die on Nuwa because I did not have enough order points to attack again with the Sagitarii Column. I did, however, have another avenue of attack. I used two order points to push the Hammer Incendia onto the control point and into range to do a Fireburst attack on Nuwa's Irregulars.
The Fireburst attack was my 7th order point. It downed Nuwa, netting me a victory point, and two Shoyosei Infantry. It also splashed the Hammer of Discipline, reducing that unit to 6 figures.
Nate had lost Artificer, but he was in a position to kill two of my units on his next turn, including one of my valuable Fireburst-throwers.
With my final order point, I moved up the Hammer of Mars. I was about to lose two-thirds of my Gallic striking power, so I needed my remaining sortie to be handy.
Previous experience had taught Nate that Gallic Hammers must be killed immediately to avoid massive damage to nearby units. He started by moving the Immortal Steel into base contact with the Hammer Incendia. This meant he could use Call the Iron Rain to shoot the Hammer with his archers. The attack was 8 dice to 0 (1 die being subtracted from the Kyudo Annihilator's normal complement of 9 because it was shooting into melee), and Way of the Bow applied. Nate did 8 damage, killing the Hammer and collecting a victory point.
Next he shot the Hammer of Discipline with the other Kyudo Annihilator. The dice roll was 8 to 2, and again Way of the Bow applied. Nate did 7 damage, killing the Hammer and collecting a second victory point.
The score was now 4 victory points to 2 in my favor, but I had lost two units and Nate had lost only 6 figures total. He had two order points left, so he moved the Flame Strikers to the middle of the field and Fireburst the Fervent Smoke for 3 damage.
I downed one of the Occult Legionaries and injured a Heavy Legionary. It was now my turn.
I started by accruing 3 control terrain victory points, making the score 7 to 2.
I had to take out the Flame Strikers, who were a major threat to the Fervent Smoke. I moved up the Sagitarii Column, carefully maneuvering to avoid stopping on a fault line.
The attack was 8 to 3, and the target was Fragile. I did exactly 8 damage, killing the unit and collecting a victory point.
I had used 4 order points so far. I used two more to move up the Smoke and Fire so it could Fireburst the Immortal Steel. Unfortunately, this meant I had to sit the unit on a fault line.
The Fireburst attack did three damage, downing one of the Shield Golems. I had one order point left, and I used it to move the Hammer of Mars to within striking distance of the Immortal Steel.
It was now Nate's turn. The earthquake roll was 3, which happened to be the fault line occupied by the Smoke and Fire. Moving the unit backward caused it to snap against the Sagitarii Column. That meant Nate could cause splash damage if he used Fireburst on either unit.
Nate collected 3 victory points for the left control terrain, so the score was now 8 to 5 in my favor.
Nate decided his best strategy for turning the game around was to try taking out the Fervent Smoke, allowing him to regain the tempo on control terrain victory points. Sitting tight was not an option, because eventually the Smoke and Fire would wear down the Immortal Steel to the point that the Sagitarii Column could kill it.
Nate used 4 order points to base the Fervent Smoke with the Immortal Steel.
Ordinarily, Nate would have been able to call two ranged attacks onto the Fervent Smoke, but the Smoke's Elusive ability meant each shot would cost 3 order points, so he only had enough order points for one. The shot was made using the left-side Kyudo Annihilator, and it was 8 dice to 5. Nate had Good Fortune and Way of the Bow on his side and I had Tough. The expected damage was 6, which is what Nate rolled. (The dice show 7 damage, but thanks to Tough, only 6 went through.)
The damage reduced the Fervent Smoke to two figures (4 hit points). Nate had used 7 order points. With his last one, he regrouped the Immortal Steel for defense.
It was now my turn. The Smoke and Fire was still sitting on the #3 fault line and the Immortal Steel was sitting on the #1 fault line. An earthquake roll of 1 would force the Immortal Steel off the control terrain, giving me 3 victory points. A roll of 3 would force the Smoke and Fire to move one step to its left (since it couldn't move backward any more). As it happened, the roll was 6.
I started by using the Smoke and Fire to Fireburst the Immortal Steel for 3 damage. This splashed the Fervent Smoke, but I took the damage as an injury to the Heavy Legionary, so no figures were downed.
The Immortal Steel now had a defense of 6 against close combat attacks but 10 against ranged attacks. I decided, therefore, to attack it with the Hammer of Mars. I used two order points to base the Steel with the Hammer.
The Hammer of Mars gained an extra attack die from Fervor, so the dice roll was 9 to 5. The expected damage was 5, but I rolled a critical hit and got 7, killing the unit and collecting three victory points.
Killing the Immortal Steel consumed 4 order points.
I used two order points to move the Smoke and Fire into position to Fireburst the almost-dead Nuwa's Irregulars.
I had already used the Smoke and Fire to flame the Immortal Steel, so I couldn't do a second Fireburst. Instead, I used one order point to regroup the Hammer of Mars for defense and passed on the last point.
The only occupied fault line this time was 6, and the earthquake roll was 3, so it had no effect.
Nate didn't have any units that could reach the Fervent Smoke. The one unit he was in range to attack was the Smoke and Fire. If he took it out, he would be in a position to take the second control point and start closing the scoring gap, which was currently 11 to 5 in my favor.
He used two order points to move up the Flame Runners and Fireburst the Smoke and Fire for 3 damage.
Now he pushed the Flame Runners to base the Smoke and Fire.
The attack was 9 dice to 2. Because the Smoke and Fire was double Elusive, it cost 3 order points. The expected damage was 6, and Nate got 7.
The Smoke and Fire had been reduced to two figures-- one Priestess of Vulcan and one Occult Legionary. It could do a one-point Fireburst and had a single Elusive icon.
With his last two order points, Nate moved up the left-side Kyudo Annihilator so it could get into the fight.
It was my turn. The earthquake roll was 6, which meant the Smoke and Fire and the forward Kyudo Annihilator each had to move back one step.
The Smoke and Fire was in base contact with the Flame Runners when the earthquake moved it; however, no Breakaway attack took place, because according to the technical rules, a breakaway attack is triggered by a movement order, and the tremor movement was a natural effect, not the result of an order.
Another side effect of the tremor is that the Smoke and Fire could only attack with 2 dice instead of the maximum 4 it could normally bring to bear: having been affected by the earthquake roll, it suffers an automatic 2-die penalty on all combat attacks. This meant regrouping the Legion to attack the Flame Runners was not a realistic option.
I collected 3 victory points from the Fervent Smoke on the right control point. The score was now 14 to 5.
Instead, I moved the Hammer of Mars to base the Runners.
I used my second order point to regroup the Hammer of Mars for maximum attack. Since the Flame Runners are an irregular unit, the Hammer would get a one-die bonus from Specialized. Because the Runners were in base contact with a second friendly unit (the Smoke and Fire), the Hammer would get a second one-die bonus from Fervor. The resulting dice roll was 10 to 0 with the target having Fragile. I had an 80% chance of getting the 7 damage I needed for the kill. In fact I got 8 damage, and collected 2 more victory points. The score was now 16 to 5.
I had five order points left. I pushed the Hammer of Mars to base the Kyudo Annihilator. This would prevent it from attacking next turn unless Nate killed the Hammer first. Unfortunately, I couldn't follow up with an attack because that would mean pushing the Hammer twice.
I had four order points left and I was five victory points from winning. I used one point to regroup the Smoke and Fire for movement, then moved them onto the left control point.
Finally, I regrouped the Hammer of Mars for defense.
I had two units on control points. Because both were Elusive, Nate didn't have enough order points to shoot them both. For any of his archers to get into range of the Fervent Smoke, he would have to push to move twice. This would leave him with 4 order points for shooting, not the 6 he needed. Nate's fortunes would depend on the earthquake rolls. A roll of 1 would back the Smoke and Fire off the control point, in which case he would be able to kill the Fervent Smoke and prevent me from getting any victory points at all. A roll of 6 would back the Kyudo Annihilator away from the Hammer of Mars, giving it a chance to get into position where it could attack both control points. Unfortunately for Nate, the roll was 3.
Rather than give me a free attack on the Kyudo Annihilator, Nate decided to push his Raven Column into position to target both of my units.
He targeted the Fervent Smoke, since there was still a chance an earthquake roll would take care of the Smoke and Fire for him. The attack was 10 dice to 0. He did 6 damage (Tough subtracting 1 from the total) and collected 2 victory points.
The score was now 16 to 7, and Nate had one order point left. He used it to regroup the Kyudo Annihilator for defense.
It was now my turn. The earthquake roll was 5, and no units were affected. I collected 3 victory points for the Smoke and Fire on the left control point. That gave me 19 points, so all I needed to do for victory was kill one formation.
The Kyudo Annihilator had a defense of 3, and the Raven Column a defense of 1. I attacked the Ravens with the nearby Sagitarii Column.
The roll was 8 to 1, and I did 5 damage.
Pushing to attack again, I did 4 more damage.
I had used 4 order points, and the Raven Column had one figure left. A final Fireburst from the single Priestess of Vulcan on the Smoke and Fire finished the job. The final score was 21 to 7.
The thing about the earthquake is that you need options for movement. Units that take a penalty for moving to the side will be at a disadvantage, because those side moves are sometimes exactly what you need to keep off of fault lines. Although the odds of an earthquake hitting a particular fault line after you've placed a unit there are only 30%, the possibility of the tremors makes a strategic difference, as we saw when I was forced to put a unit on the #1 fault line through the control points during the end game.
The effect of the earthquake, however, was overwhelmed by the effect of the prototype alternate-stat units. Nate's army was designed around a principle of units hanging back and lobbing damage from a distance. The elusive Roman units deprived him of the order points needed to make that strategy work. To counter the new units, Nate needed the ability to get material onto the control points to contest them, but his lightly-defended artillery units would have quickly been slaughtered if they attempted that sort of challenge. To remain competitive, he needed to put more close-combat units in his army, or convert his artillery units to sorties to gain back the lost order points.
From the Roman side, it was nice to finally have a unit based around the Heavy Legionary that could get into the game and make a difference.
Next up: Arcane Mindfield.