This battle report is an example of a game using the Race for the Crystal scenario, which is the first scenario planned for the new Arcane Legions League program starting in July 2010. It was designed by Robocad and the original version was playtested at Dean's Dugout.
All three July scenarios involve vying for control of a central control terrain with a magic crystal on it. According to the back story, these crystals are shards of a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere shortly before the Night of Mists. Each crystal has magical powers. In this first scenario, the power is that any unit on or adjacent to the control terrain can issue two special orders per turn without pushing.
In addition to the power of the crystal, this scenario features sandstorms. At the beginning of each turn, the active player must roll a d6. A roll of 1 means that a sandstorm has started. While the sandstorm is in effect, range is reduced from 6 steps to 3, ranged attacks are at -2 dice, close combat attacks are at -1 die, and defense is at -1 die. The players continue rolling at the beginning of each turn, and the sandstorm stops when someone rolls a 6.
In this game my opponent was my youngest daughter, Ellie. When Nate and I play, we discuss different strategies, analyze possible outcomes, and weigh probabilities. Ellie is more like an uncontrollable force of nature.
Ellie played a Han Army and I played Egyptians.
The heart of this army is three fast-moving sorties with triple Fireburst capability. Any one of these that can get to the control terrain will be able to deliver six points of Fireburst damage per turn.
This army is a fairly standard design for me-- two artillery formations, two turtles, and a complement of sorties. With the awesome healing powers of Lord of the Dead available, the theory is that once Amenhotep Testudo gets to the control point, it would be invulnerable. Similarly, the Command Position ability would allow Unliving Command to generate two victory points per turn on the control point.
The scenario has a single large Crystal Control Terrain in the center (which you can print from this page) surrounded by four large blocking terrain items (representing debris from the meteor impact). The crystal itself has a red border and acts as a small piece of blocking terrain in the center of the control point.
Ellie deployed her army in two groups, with a Kyudo Annihilator on each side. The right group included the Flame Runners and the Immortal Steel with Nuwa's Irregulars to support it. The group on the left included two Flame Strikers and the Butterfly Squad.
I put the Pitati Column on Ellie's right along with the Shields of Darius, the Mythic Chargers, and the Dead Squad . On her left I placed the Khet Irregulars and the Amenhotep Testudo, along with the Unliving Command and the Spears of Osiris. The net effect was that each group had one artillery formation, one turtle formation, and two sorties. The group on Ellie's left had the bulk of the special abilities.
Ellie won the dice-off and opted to give me the ambush turn.
During the first few turns, Ellie moved her Fireburst units forward along with one Kyudo Annihilator, the Immortal Steel, and Nuwa's Irregulars.
I moved both of my groups forward together, advancing the Mythic Chargers behind the near blocking terrain.
At the beginning of the fourth turn, Ellie seized the initiative by placing her two Flame Strikers on the control point. She then moved her two rear units-- a Kyudo Annihilator and the Butterfly Squad-- forward as support.
Finally, she brought the Flame Runners into the center.
Ellie now had a potential 18 points per turn of Fireburst damage surrounding the control point.
I started my turn by pushing the Mythic Chargers to base both of the Flame Strikers. This cost 2 order points.
I had a 60% chance of doing 5 damage by attacking the Flame Strikers with the Mythic Chargers. The attack was free, but it cost 1 order point to regroup. Unfortunately, I did two damage and took one back.
This was a pretty bad result. I didn't have anything else that could attack the Flame Strikers, so I brought the Pitati Column forward to shoot the Flame Runners instead.
The expected damage from this attack was 7 (both Fragile and Fire Arrow boosting the result), but I rolled poorly and only did 5.
I had one order point left, and I used it to move the Unliving Command behind the blocking terrain within pushing distance of the control point.
Ellie could do some serious damage to me if she were able to move her Flame Strikers, but doing that would expose them to a breakaway attack from the Mythic Chargers. The first priority, then, was to get rid of them. She started by moving the left Kyudo Annihilator forward.
This was an easy kill, and Ellie collected her first victory point.
Ellie was now able to move both of the Flame Strikers into position to do Fireburst attacks on my Amenhotep Testudo on her left or the Pitati Column on the right. Because the Pitati Column had more offensive power, she chose to concentrate on that.
With her last two order points, she did 6 Fireburst damage to the Pitati Column.
The Pitati Column can still bring 8 range dice to bear even if it's down to 4 hit points, and it had 6. I started my turn by shooting back at the full-strength Flame Strikers, doing 7 damage (thanks to Fragile).
I had six order points left. I pushed the Unliving Command to get it into base contact with the other Flame Strikers, which consumed two.
This attack was 9 dice to 3. It had a 70% chance of killing the Flame Strikers, and only a 10% chance of taking damage back. I did seven damage and got off unscathed.
I collected a victory point for killing the Flame Strikers, tying the game; however, the Unliving Command has the Command Position special ability, and it was sitting on the control point. Using the power of the crystal, I issued a Command Position special order twice, netting me two more victory points and putting me ahead 3 to 1.
I had one order point left, and used it to move the Spears of Isis out from behind the Amenhotep Testudo.
All this time, at the beginning of each turn, we'd been rolling a d6 to see if the sandstorm had started. We'd rolled three sixes, two fives, a four, and a two. It was now the beginning of the eighth turn, and Ellie rolled a one. That meant it was sandstorm time.
Range was now reduced from 6 steps to 3. Range attacks were at -2 dice. Defense and close combat attacks were at -1 die.
I had a unit sitting on the control point that had the ability to generate two victory points per turn. Ellie needed to do 7 damage to kill it. She started with a suicide Fireburst from the adjacent Flame Strikers. This killed the Flame Strikers (netting me a victory point), but it did one damage to the Unliving Command, bringing that unit down to six hit points. Next, she brought the Flame Runners into position and used the power of the crystal to do two more Fireburst attacks at two points each.
The Unliving Command was down to two figures, but it was not yet dead. To finish off the unit, she brought up the left Kyudo Annihilator. Because of the sandstorm, it had to be moved to within 3 steps of the Unliving Command.
The Kyudo Annihilator had moved before shooting, so it did not get the benefit of Way of the Bow. In addition, she was only rolling seven range dice, because of the -2 penalty from the sandstorm. It was still more than enough, however, against a unit with two hit points.
Ellie gained two victory points from the kill, narrowing my lead to one point, but she had finished her turn.
If I could kill the Flame Runners, it would eliminate Ellie's Fireburst capability. I used one order point to regroup the Pitati Column for maximum movement and brought it forward to make a shot.
The Pitati Column had 8 ready range icons, so I was shooting with 6 dice because of the sandstorm penalty. In spite of that, against a defenseless unit with Fragile, I had a 98% chance of making the three hits I needed. In fact, I got four.
This gave me two victory points, and I was now leading 6 to 3.
I had done a regroup, then moved and attacked with a formation, so I had three order points left. I used them to move up the Spears of Isis and the Amenhotep Testudo.
Ellie's offensive power was now concentrated in her artillery units. We were rolling a d6 at the beginning of each turn to see if the sandstorm would end, but until it did, these units were severely crippled by the storm's range-limiting effects. To get them into the game, she needed to use the power of Call the Iron Rain.
She began her turn by pushing the Immortal Steel to base the Pitati Column, and bring Nuwa's Irregulars behind with its Artificer healing abilities.
Because of the power of the crystal, Nuwa would be able to heal up to 4 hit points per turn on the Immortal Steel. In addition, she had uncontested possession of the control terrain.
It had taken 6 order points to get both units into position. With her last two, Ellie used Call the Iron Rain to shoot the Pitati Column from the Kyudo Annihilator. Since the unit had not previously moved or attacked this turn, Way of the Bow would apply. The power of the sandstorm would subtract 2 from the number of range dice, and there was an additional 1-die penalty for shooting into melee, so the roll was 6 dice to 0. Ellie would need to hit with every single die, but such is the power of Way of the Bow and Good Fortune that Ellie had a 68% chance of making the kill. The roll was terrible, but it did the job anyway.
Ellie collected 2 victory points, and the score was now 6 to 5 in my favor.
Ellie was now in a position to move the Immortal Steel among my units, calling down multiple Way of the Bow-powered strikes. To prevent that, I pushed the Amenhotep Testudo to base the nearest Kyudo Annihilator.
This move had the additional advantage of contesting the control point.
I had four order points left. I used two to attack the Kyudo Annihilator. Normally this would be 6 dice to 2, but because of the sandstorm, it was 5 dice to 1. I did 4 damage.
With my last two order points, I used Lord of the Dead to heal back the push damage on the Amenhotep Testudo, and moved the Spears of Isis closer to the control point.
An ordinary player at this point might have gone after the Spears of Isis, but Ellie wanted to take down something bigger, so she pushed the Immortal Steel to base the Shields of Darius and brought Nuwa's Irregulars behind for support.
Again, the use of Call the Iron Rain to draw the attack meant that Way of the Bow would apply, but the sandstorm was still cutting out 2 range dice. The roll was 6 dice to 11, and it did 3 damage. (It's worth noting that without Way of the Bow it would have done no damage at all.)
Ellie had one order point left, and she used it to do an Artificer heal against the Immortal Steel to undo the push damage.
I started the turn with 3 victory points from the Amenhotep Testudo on the control terrain.
It was now time for the Shields of Darius to retaliate against the Immortal Steel. The Shields unit has the Hellenic Pride ability, which means that in an all-Egyptian army it gets four bonus attack dice. This gives it a total attack of 11, an unprecedented power for a turtle unit. With the sandstorm going, this was reduced to 10, but the Immortal Steel had a similar handicap and was defending with only 6. I could expect to do 5 points of damage on this attack. Instead I rolled a critical hit, and did 8 points of damage.
I pushed to attack again and did 9 damage, which was more than enough to complete the kill.
The additional 3 victory points from killing the Immortal Steel put the score at 12 to 5 in my favor.
Statistically, I was very lucky in being able to kill the Steel in only two attacks. Had I not done so, I could have brought the Khet Irregulars over to finish the job, but that would have finished my turn. Instead I had four order points to spend on additional mischief. I used them to attack the forward Kyudo Annihilator with the Amenhotep Testudo. The first attack did 4 damage.
The second attack, pushing, did only two damage.
The Kyudo Annihilator was still alive, but it was down to only two figures.
It was Ellie's turn again. With the sandstorm still raging, she couldn't get into position to do any real damage to me this turn, so she spent it maneuvering. She brought the Kyudo Annihilator on her right forward, then retreated Nuwa's Irregulars back into contact with the control point, contesting it.
Finally, she moved the Butterfly Squad closer to the action.
It was my turn again. I pushed the Spears of Isis to move them next to Nuwa's Irregulars.
A normal close combat attack at this point would cost two order points because Nuwa's Irregulars are Elusive. If, however, I could Death Touch the Elusive figure and then attack, it would also cost two order points and I'd be doing an extra point of damage. The Death Touch was successful, so my attack was 6 dice to 3 and only cost one order point. I did 7 damage, killing the unit.
The score was now 14 to 5 in my favor and I had four order points left. I used two to attack the Kyudo Annihilator with the Amenhotep Testudo. This killed the Annihilators.
A series of lucky die rolls had put me ahead 16 to 5, and Ellie had only two units left on the board. With my last order point, I used Lord of the Dead to heal the Amenhotep Testudo from the push damage.
At this point, Ellie rolled a 6 at the beginning of her turn, ending the sandstorm. This meant that her remaining Kyudo Annihilator was in a position to shoot the Amenhotep Testudo without moving from its current position, bringing to bear the full power of Way of the Bow and no range dice penalties.
The Amenhotep Testudo is a turtle unit, so it had 12 defense dice. A normal ranged attack would have missed completely, but thanks to Way of the Bow, Ellie did 4 damage.
Unfortunately, 4 damage is not enough to take away anything from the Amenhotep Testudo's defense, and the second attack (pushing) was normal ranged combat. It had no effect.
With the power of the crystal giving the Amenhotep Testudo two Lord of the Dead orders per turn, it was essential to finish the unit off immediately. In desperation, Ellie regrouped the Butterfly Squad and brought it into base contact with the Testudo unit. The first attack did no damage and took three damage back.
The second attack also did no damage and killed the Butterfly Squad.
With her last order point Ellie regrouped the Kyudo Annihilator-- her last remaining unit-- for defense.
At the beginning of my next turn, I would get 3 victory points, bringing me to a total of 20. The game was effectively over.
The crystal makes special abilities considerably more powerful. In the beginning, Fireburst was an enormous threat; once the sandstorm kicked in, other abilities like Command Position and the healing abilities came into prominence.
The use of Call the Iron Rain helped the Han to overcome the range limitations of the sandstorm, but ultimately it could not break through the hard shells of the Egyptian turtle units. Although it is the Romans that are primarily defense-oriented, the two best turtles are Egyptian: the self-healing Amenhotep Testudo and the offensive-heavy Shields of Darius.
The second crystal scenario is The Blink of an Eye, which we covered in the Blink of an Eye Battle Report. Next up will be Dagger in my Mind.