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Notes on the Roman Ballista
The Roman Siege Engines have started showing up at your local game store, and free Ballistas will be given away at GENCON, so it's a good time for another look at these innovative limited-edition figures.
Each Siege Engine box contains two four-peg figures and four base cards. Unlike the dragons and sphinxes, the base cards for the siege engines have slots for additional figures. This means that the ballistas can push. Because they are constructs, you can heal them with the Artificer special ability.
The unique special ability of the ballista is Direct Fire. This does guaranteed damage (like Fireburst) at a range of four formation bases. Direct Fire is a ranged combat order, not a special order, so it costs two order points, but you can push to do it twice in one turn. Each ballista can do a maximum of two points of Direct Fire damage per order.
In the photo below, a ballista is about to use Direct Fire twice to attack the target cavalry unit. Immediately behind the ballista is a custom unit containing Mechanist Savros, who has Artificer, and can therefore heal the damage from the push. For five order points, the ballista will down two horses on the target unit and maintain its full strength.
The ballistas use an unusual circle-coloring scheme to restrict your ability to regroup figures. Although most of the supporting figures on each base card are Formation Legionaries, one of them is in a green-circle slot and another is in a red-circle slot. These special figures cannot be regrouped into white-circle slots, and the white-circle figures cannot be regrouped into their slots. (This also means that if these figures are downed, they cannot be healed using Artificer.) The special figures are like little control dials that allow you to select among different capabilities. In general, the red-circle figure allows you to trade movement speed for ranged attack strength, and the green-circle figure allows you to select between full-strength Direct Fire and other abilities.
The four siege engine base cards are described below.
Ballista Igneus
The Ballista Igneus uses the Artillery Corps Ballista (blue). It has 10 hit points, and its cost is 1300. Its specialty is the ability to use Fireburst.
Fixed Abilities
- Artillery Machine
- Siege Defense
- 1 range die
- 3 defense dice
- 1 movement
- Direct Fire
Selectable Abilities
| Red Figure | Green Figure |
| 2 movement | 2 range, Fire Arrow |
| 1 movement, 1 range | Direct Fire |
| 3 range | Fireburst |
Ballista Tempestas
The Ballista Tempestas uses the Artillery Corps Ballista (blue). It has 10 hit points, and its cost is 1500. Its specialty is that it has the strongest normal ranged attack.
Fixed Abilities
- Artillery Machine
- Siege Defense
- 3 range dice
- 1 movement
- Direct Fire
Selectable Abilities
| Red Figure | Green Figure |
| 2 movement | 2 range |
| 1 movement, 1 range | 1 range, Direct Fire |
| 3 range | 1 range, Precision |
Ballista Velox
The Ballista Velox uses the Roman Legion Ballista (red). It has 11 hit points, and its cost is 1500. Its specialty is that it can move 4 steps instead of only 3.
Fixed Abilities
- Artillery Machine
- Siege Defense
- 1 range die
- 2 defense dice
- 1 movement
- Direct Fire
Selectable Abilities
| Red Figure | Green Figure |
| 3 movement | 2 range |
| 2 movement, 1 range | Direct Fire |
| 1 movement, 2 range | Fire Arrow |
Ballista Invictus
The Ballista Invictus uses the Roman Legion Ballista (red). It has 12 hit points, and its cost is 1300. Its specialty is that it is the hardest one to kill.
Fixed Abilities
- Artillery Machine
- Siege Defense
- 4 defense dice
- 1 movement
- Direct Fire
- Heavy Armor
Selectable Abilities
| Red Figure | Green Figure |
| 2 movement | 2 range |
| 3 range | Direct Fire |