This is the third in a series of articles featuring custom units that can be built from a starter set and an infantry pack, cavalry pack, and booster bundle from a specific faction.
To use one of these units, simply click on the appropriate link below, and you can view and print the unit from its page on the official site. As an added bonus, since the user name on the card is not Drake the Great, these cards will make your opponent over-confident.
This article is about the Romans.
Romans have fewer archer figures than other factions, and the one common archery figure they have-- the Legionary Archer is the least capable one in the game. To balance this, they have the most capable uncommon archer-- the Sagitarii Centurion. The Centurion is the key to making effective Roman artillery units (as well as souping up Egyptians), and it's a darn shame you only get three of them in a booster bundle. The fundamently centurion-based artillery unit for the Romans is the Sagitarii Wall. Thanks to the two centurions, it shoots with 8 and has 4 defense. It is constructed so that it has its full power available even when it is down to only 4 hit points, and thanks to Discipline, it can regroup as often as needed to the configuration appropriate to its situation.
You can boost the effectiveness of the Roman archers by combining them with three Priestesses of Vulcan to create the Ignis Coniciens. This allows you to throw Fireburst and adds Fire Arrow to the ranged attack. It costs you two range dice to do this, but the ability to throw three points of Fireburst damage with the priestesses makes up for it.
Because it uses two Sagitarii Centurions, you can't put the Ignis Coniciens in the same army as a Sagitarii Wall without buying more boosters and getting lucky. A good alternative is the Igneus Elite. This uses five Egyptian Fire Archers to get an extra Fire Arrow and add an extra range die. The resulting unit does mean damage equivalent to the Sagitarii Wall and has the added benefit of Fireburst. You pay for those Egyptian archers, though, because the total build cost is 1450, up from 1200.
You can, of course, eschew the use of the Priestesses of Vulcan and compliment the Sagitarii Wall with another pure artillery unit. The Sagitarii Strikers is a sortie, and delivers a small amount of damage, but does so with fewer order points, thanks to being a sortie.
There is also the Artillery Wall. This is 50 points less expensive than the Sagitarii Wall and has one less range die, but it is very resistant to damage, being able to shoot with all 7 range dice when it's down to only three figures.
Using Priestesses of Vulcan, you can create non-artillery units that are still a significant threat at range, thanks to Fireburst. You cannot push with this ability to attack twice in one turn, since it's a special order; however, there is no defense against it except Wall of Mist (which is generally only found on Roman units), and you don't have to roll to determine the damage.
Smoke and Fire is a formation with four of the alternate-stat Ferverian Legionaries and three Priestesses of Vulcan. The resulting unit is expensive, but it costs two extra order points to target it with a close combat or ranged combat attack. You can place it in the middle of the field and casually dish out fire damage to opposing units and it will take serious effort by your opponent to take it out of action. It's expensive, but very annoying.
Fire and Water uses three Water Druids to protect it from opposing ranged and Fireburst attacks. Unlike other units that start to degrade significantly when a green-circle figure is downed, this sortie is almost entirely green-circle figures, so you can regroup between attack and defense even after taking damage.
The heart of Roman strategy is the use of turtle units to hold control terrain. The significant characteristic of Roman turtle units is a pair of Wall of Shields icons that increases its defense against ranged attacks by four dice. The basic turtle unit for the Romans is the 7th Legion Despero. This unit is similar to the base 7th Legion Testudo, but it is designed to maximize defense when it takes damage. The idea of a turtle is to be able to survive as long as possible while taking damage, so this is an important design change.
An alternative with some teeth is the Igneus Defenders. This unit has the ability to retaliate against units that shoot it using a pair of Priestesses of Vulcan with a double Fireburst attack.
Turtle units are slow, but you can boost their speed using a pair of Priestesses of Bellona to give it Hustle. As a bonus, the unit also gets an extra defense die. The result is the Fervent Testudo. When moved twice in one turn (pushing), it has a total speed of 8.
Some commanders are helpful for turtle units. Diviciacus adds an extra defense die at a pretty low build point cost, and leaves room on the card for a Priestess of Aesclepius to provide Healing. The resulting unit is the Wall of Nature.
Another alternative is to use Shield Golems, which are mercenary units that come in the Roman boosters. If you use the alternate-stat version of Savros Kuznetzov to give the unit the Artificer ability, it can heal itself for two hit points per turn. The resulting unit, the Wall of Steel, has a defense of 7 against close combat attacks and 11 against ranged attacks. Unless your opponent can target its bad side, it is very hard to kill.
The Wall of Mist ability provided by the alternate-stat Water Druid figure allows the creation of still another style of turtle unit, one that has the unique privilege of resisting Fireburst attacks. The Aqua Legion is one such unit. It has a defense of 7, Wall of Shields, and the ability to heal itself, all for 1050 points. The column design keeps its bad side as small as possible, making it even harder to kill.
As an alternative to the Wall of Shields-based units, you can use the Tough ability to help a unit withstand attack. Tough subtracts one from all combat damage done to the unit. Unlike the normal turtles, the tough units are not specifically adapted to resist ranged combat.
The simplest is the Fervent Invictus. Note that due to the Heavy Armor ability, it is actually more protected against close combat attacks than range attacks. Regardless, it usually takes 3 ranged attacks from a formation to kill it. If you use its Hustle ability to get it onto the control point before your opponent's archers are in position, this means it has a good chance of surviving long enough to get you three victory points.
If you use two alternate-stat Ferverian Legionaries (called Occult Legionaries), you get an Elusive icon on the unit. This is the basis of the Fervent Smoke. This unit has Hustle, so it can usually get onto the control terrain in two turns. The Elusive ability means your opponent has to pay an extra order point to attack it, which reduces the number of attacks the unit must withstand in a turn. Your opponent will frequently have to contest the control terrain directly, preventing a strategy of just hanging back and lobbing arrows at you.
The biggest advantage the Romans have is the Gallic Striker unit. These units are sorties that use Gallic Berserkers (Type A and Type B) to provide speed and attack power, and a Priestess of Bellona for the Hustle ability. The resultant units have a striking distance of 12 when pushed, are highly maneuverable, and represent a serious threat to opposing units, especially poorly-defended archers.
The basic Gallic Striker is the Hammer of Bellona. It has 7 attack dice, and thanks to Charger, it can usually attack for free after running up to base its opponent.
The Hammer of Mars is more expensive, and doesn't have Charger, but it attacks with 8 dice against normal units and 10 dice against Irregular or Mixed units. This included limited edition units like Dragons and Sphinxes, plus most Fireburst-based units. It gets this power from the Specialized ability conferred from the pair of Infantry Centurions.
You want to be able to deploy as many of these Gallic striker sorties as you can. If you've already got a Hammer of Mars in place, you can build a similar unit with what's left over using a Sword Golem. The resulting unit is the Hammer of Swords. It has only a single Specialized icon, and strikes from a distance of 10 instead of 12, but the lower cost helps to compensate for that.
Finally, we have the Hammer Incendia. This unit can move into range, throw a three-point Fireburst, push to base its target, and then attack with 7 dice. In other words, it can move twice and attack twice in one turn.
The basic Roman infantry units tend to be commander-based, since the commander units have the base ratio of attack and defense dice to number of pegs. The first one is the Titus Legion, which gets its dice boost from Titus Petronius. This unit attacks with 9 dice and defends with 7 against close combat and 9 against ranged combat. After delivering a close combat attack, it can do 2 more damage using Armored Rush.
If you use Caius Lucius instead, you get more attack dice plus the Specialized and Specialist Leader abilities. These last are especially useful against Mixed or Irregular units, such as Dragons, so the resulting unit is called the 7th Legion Dragonslayers. This unit has a 68% chance of killing the strongest dragon (Dragon of Wrath) in a single attack, and an 87% chance of weakening it enough to finish it off with Specialist Leader. Against normal units it attacks with 10 dice, and like the Titus Legion, it has 7 defense against close combat and 9 against ranged combat.
You can build effective commander-free roman infantry units using the more exotic figures. For example, the 7th Legion Minotaurs uses the Minotaur Warrior to give it extra speed and the Brutal damage bonus. Unlike a pure Minotaur unit, this one can push twice before you have to pop off one of the expensive two-peg figures. It's also cheaper than the base card, and has the same attack and defense strength. More important, it can use all of that strength when it's down to only three figures. Thanks to the Minotaur's Gaul-like speed, it has a striking distance of 10 steps.
An alternative is to use two Priestesses of Bellona rather than legionaries to round out the unit. This reduces the unit's attack dice from 10 to 9, but adds the Hustle ability, giving the unit a striking distance of 12. The resulting unit is the Fervent Minotaurs.
The Priestess of Bellona is also the key in the construction of the most feared Thrown Weapon unit in the game, the Fervent Cuspidi. The unit's 6-die throw attack is not significant, but the unit's high defense makes it hard to kill, and if it can survive to throw twice after getting into position, it has a real chance of thoroughly crippling Elusive units without using up all your order points (since Thrown Weapon costs only one order point even when used by a formation). When getting into position, it can push to move 12 because of the Hustle ability.
The basic Roman cavalry unit is the 7th Legion Light Cavalry. This unit uses five Roman Cavalry Chargers to get a speed of 8 and an attack of 10 dice against infantry or artillery and 8 dice against other units. After pushing to get into position, it must regroup to attack.
If you replace one of the horsemen with an Ursan Cataphract, you get the 7th Legion Cataphract. This has an attack of 9 dice against all opponents, and the presence of a four-peg figure helps it to last longer by absorbing damage. It does, however, lose a point of speed.
Another technique is simply to add an Iberian Wolf. This gives you the Combined Light Cavalry. It attacks with 11 dice against infantry or artillery, and 9 dice against other units. It can push to move 14 and attack without regrouping, or push to move 16 and attack after regrouping. (Thanks to Discipline, it can then regroup again for defense.)
The final variation is to use Modu Shanyu to put Death Touch and Crone's Curse on the card. The resulting unit is the Crone's Cavalry. It has an attack of only 7 dice, but the special abilities more than make up for it. You can push to move 14, Death Touch away your target's strongest defender while in base contact, attack with Crone's Curse diminishing the values of your target's phantom dice (of which there will be more thanks to the Death Touch attack), and then regroup for defense. The three-peg commander figure will help you resist counterattacks longer by absorbing damage.
If you're fielding an all-Roman army (which means no mercenary units) and you're expecting to face a non-Roman opponent, you can use the Roman Cavalry Lancer instead of the Roman Cavalry Chargers. The basic unit is the 7th Legion Heavy Cavalry. It has a defense of 5 rather than 4, and attacks with 7 dice rather than 8, but it gets 9 dice against non-Roman targets.
To get more punch out of the unit, you simply add an Iberian Wolf, which gives you the Combined Heavy Cavalry. This unit attacks with 8 dice normally and 10 against non-Roman units. Like the Combined Light Cavalry, it can push to move 14 and attack without regrouping, or push to move 16 and attack after regrouping.
Here is a 7000-point army built from these units. It has two artillery formations, two infantry formations (one with Thrown Weapon), a mercenary turtle formation, and a pair of Gallic striker sorties. It's worth noting that all of these units except the two archers benefit from the Intuition effect.