The Siege Engines of Rome are the first limited edition unit for the Roman faction. Unlike the Han Dragons and the Egyptian Sphinxes, the Roman Siege Engines must be accompanied by a crew. This means the units involved can push, can take partial damage, and can be regrouped to change their abilities. For this reason, they require more analysis than the other models.
There are two Siege Engine models: the Roman Legion Steam Ballista has a red top, and the Artillery Corps Steam Ballista has a blue top. The ballistas themselves are 4-peg figures. The unit cards for these figures each include a slot for the ballista and multiple slots for crew figures taken from the Romans found in the Starter Set. One crew member is red-circle, one is green-circle, and the rest are white-circle. There are multiple green and red slots, and you modify the abilities of the units by selecting which red and green slots to fill. The ballista itself has the single ability Artillery Machine, which essentially states that if the ballista is downed, the unit's ranged attack is crippled and its special abilities cease to function.
The Siege Engine units do not have Discipline, but they are construct units and can be healed using Artificer.
Each Siege Engine unit has the Siege Defense unit ability, which gives it +2 defense against ranged attacks. The key special ability for these units, however, is Direct Fire. Direct Fire allows you to make a ranged combat attack at a distance of 4 formation bases (8 steps), and the damage is equal to the number of ready Direct Fire icons (either 1 or 2). There is no rolling of blue dice and the target has no defense.
Because each Steam Ballista has a crew, the Steam Ballista units can push. Since Direct Fire is not a special order, you can push to use it twice per turn. Of course, it costs two order points each time. Thus, while it seems similar in some ways to Fireburst, it is strategically very different.
The Artillery Corps Ballista units have the most range dice. Both have 10 hit points. The 1300-point Ballista Igneus has Fireburst and three defense dice. The 1500-point Ballista Tempestas has no defense at all (and three bad sides) but can attack with a maximum of 8 range dice.
The Roman Legion Ballista units have more hit points and better defense, but have a maximum of only 5 range dice each. The 1300-point Ballista Invictus uses Heavy Legionaries (giving it the Heavy Armor special ability) and has 12 hit points. The 1500-point Ballista Velox has 11 hit points, and is able to move 4 steps, making it the fastest of the ballista units.
