News
Alternate-Stat Figure Spotlight: Hundun Dragonmaster
Anyone with any sensitivity to the magical forces that had distorted the lands could tell that the strange blue stones Chen Xiaotang had found contained a powerful latent ability, but only the Hundun Spirit was able to make them work. In the Spirit's hands, the stones give strength to the great beasts of the world, particularly the dragons of the Han and the Egyptian servants of Thebes.
The Hundun Dragonmaster is an alternate-stat version of the Hundun Spirit that makes dragons and sphinxes more powerful. Because they are single-figure units, the big boys cannot be pushed. This meant that they had to get within four or six steps of a unit in order to attack it; however, other units that can push could attack from a distance of anywhere between 8 (for a normal infantry unit) steps to 16 (for a high-speed cavalry unit). It was not uncommon for a dragon to be killed off before it could even enter combat.
The Dragonmaster has the new Master of Monsters special ability:
Friendly units with a single figure of six hit points or more down one less figure when pushed for movement.
This allows dragons and sphinxes to push for movement, doubling their attack range.
Master of Monsters was the first new special ability added to the game since its initial launch. Before we even considered it, we ran a test tournament at a local convention. According to the fiction of the tournament, one of the meteor crystals from the prior month's organized play tournaments gave dragons and sphinxes the new capability to push to move without downing a figure. This not only enabled us to test the ability, it formed the basis for the alternate-stat figure's back story.
In order to keep the new figure's cost in line, one of its existing special abilities had to go. We decided that if the Hundun was holding on to the meteor crystal, he'd lose the ability to reach past an enemy's defenses. As a result, Superior Reach was dropped. The resulting figure costs considerably less than the original-- 559 points instead of 979.
As a support figure, the unit containing the Hundun Dragonmaster generally sits out the battle way in the back out of the way of marauding enemy units. Since the major cost in a unit involving multi-peg figures comes from piling multiple icons on the figure's slot, a typical cost-minimizing unit uses multiple slots to spread the cost, as shown below on the Hundun Sphinx Master.
Of course, such units are defenseless, and an aggressive enemy cavalry unit can take them out. A better choice might make use of Shield Golems or other defensive figures to add protection. An example of this is shown in the Sphinx Master below. Note, however, that it does cost more.
The new Hundun Dragonmaster is expensive, but it makes the large figures more effective, making it easier to get them into the thick of battle where you can use their special abilities. No longer are such units relegated to end-of-game cleanup or sacrificial bait. With the Dragonmaster, your dragons and sphinxes can be the creatures of terror they were meant to be.
Web Site Changes
We have a new forum!
The Community button will now take you to a new forum implemented using traditional forum software. Though you will have to register separately (it's hosted on a different site), the new forum has more of the user-friendly features you're used to from other forums, including the ability to see all posts since you've last logged on and taking you to where you left off in a long thread.
We hope you find this new forum easier to use.
Volunteers Needed for PAX
WE NEED HELP!
If you love Arcane Legions and will be in the Seattle area during PAX (September 2 through 4), we need your help running demos!
Please email Ray Wehr if you will be able to help.
Water Druid Now Available in Unit Builder
The alternate-stat version of the Roman Druid-- the Water Druid-- is now available in the unit builder. The water druid has a new special ability called Wall of Mist that reduces the damage from ranged combat and Fireburst attacks. When your unit is taking damage from either Fireburst or a normal ranged attack, each Wall of Mist icon reduces the damage by 1. A unit with three Water Druids, therefore, won't take any ranged damage unless there are 4 hits, and can't take any Fireburst damage unless the attacking unit is one of those massively expensive things that mixes both Han and Roman fire-throwers.
Wall of Mist protects against splash damage from Fireburst, but does not defend against figure-based attacks such as Sniper, since it only affects damage dealt to the unit, not to individual figures. Thus, a heavy-artillery army might want to bring snipers to pick off Water Druids before the main units move in to attack.
During play-testing, the two most useful units build with the Water Druid were the Aqua Legion (a turtle unit with 7 defense, Wall of Shields, and Healing) and Fire and Water, which combines three Priestesses of Vulcan with three Water Druids to create a fire-throwing unit that is heavily defended against return fire. Because both the druids and the priestesses are green-circle figures, you can pop off priestesses when taking damage to keep the unit at full defense, then regroup for full fire-throwing power when you retaliate on your next turn. Both of these units have been added to the master list of useful custom Roman units.
Finally, the Army Calculator has been updated so that when you print out your army, it creates a separate page listing all the special abilities. You can take this page with you when you play so that you have the latest special ability text for all the abilities your army uses. This is especially important when using custom units, since the hint cards for these units do not have the text on them.
February League, Water Druid is Coming
The February League, which chronicles the war to control the city of Cyrene, is now available here. The scenarios are described on this page along with download links for the PDFs.
The next alternate-stat figure will be the Water Druid, an alternate-stat version of the Druid figure. The Water Druid can pull water out of the air to create a Wall of Mist that reduces the damage from Fireburst and ranged-combat attacks. The Water Druid should come online in another day or two. This will complete the second cycle of alternate-stat figures. We are currently playtesting an alternate Han figure, after which it will be time for the Egyptians again.
January League, Conventions
The league for January is a new stand-alone scenario and two repeats. You can register on the league page and read about the scenarios on the scenario page.
We are also looking for people to promote Arcane Legions at local conventions. Please contact Bobby Stickel if you are interested.
Marshall Your Forces to War!
The biggest value in minature gaming is here!
The Arcane Legions Warband contains everything 2 players need to declare war. Included in this special offer:
- 120 plastic, 25mm, deco-print–enhanced, unpainted figures (40 per faction)
- 3 prepainted 25mm commander figures (one per faction)
- 44 unpainted, cavalry figures
- 19 plastic formation bases
- 15 plastic sortie bases
- 21 formation unit cards and associated special ability cards
- 3 sortie unit cards and associated special ability cards (one per faction)
- 3 Victory cards (one per faction)
- 2 control terrain markers
- 1 movement tool
- 36 dice
- Complete Rules and Fiction Book
- FREE- 2 blocking Terrain Tiles
- FREE- 2 hindering Terrain Tiles
3 full armies!
167 figures
Over 250 game pieces
FREE terrain tiles
$59.99 MSRP
Warband contains Arcane Legions WLS001, WLS012, WLS013, WLS014 and is presented in the products’ original format. Free Terrain tiles are presented separately.
The Warband is a bundled discount product designed for new players and is available in the online store now. Tell your friends!
Hundun Dragonmaster
The Hundun Dragonmaster is now available for use in the unit builder. This is an alternate-stat version of the Hundun Spirit that replaces the old Superior Reach ability with the new Master of Monsters. Master of Monsters, which is described here as well as on the master special abilities list found on the rules page allows you to push dragons and sphinxes for movement without downing a figure (a universally fatal operation for these units). With the Hundun Dragonmaster on the field, these units can now move twice in one turn, enabling them to strike from a greater distance. In the case of the fastest ones (the Dragon of Fortune, Tomb Guardian of Osiris, and Tomb Guardian of Anubis), this is 12 steps, which is approximately half the length of a standard battlefield.
Below are two sample units built with the new figure. The Master of Dragons is for a Han dragon-using army. The unit is designed to be inexpensive, and would be almost completely useless in combat, but it gets this valuable new supporting special ability onto the field.
The Master of Sphinxes does the same thing for an Egyptian army. Because of the cost penalty for putting a Han figure on an Egyptian base, a formation is used to enable a greater spread of icons and further reduce the cost. There is a certain logic to this: sphinxes are inherently more dangerous than the dragons, the Osiris models having one chance in six of decimating the opposing army.
A sample battle using the new figure (in its Egyptian mode) can be found here.
No December League, New Han Figure Coming, That Game Place
Arcane Legions made an appearance at a recent convention held at That Game Place in Lemoyne, PA. Owner Charlie Brubaker sent us a link to some pictures. One is shown to the left. You can see the others here.
There will be no leagues in December. In general, December is a crazy month with people (including us) traveling for Christmas. January's league event will be a series of battles on the Road to Cyrene, an important stronghold located in modern-day Libya.
Finally, we are working on an alternate-stat version of the Hundun Spirit which we hope to release next week. This figure will have an all-new special ability called Master of Monsters which we have been testing in various guises since August. You can see a sneak preview of the new figure in this battle report.
Swamp Month!
The November league has been posted. This time, your armies are fighting their way through a swamp, encountering new terrain types that hinder movement without blocking it. Register your league events here and read the scenarios here. There is also a battle report here featuring an early version of the first scenario, and another one here that features the final version of the scenario, but in which the swamp plays a much lesser role.