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For those of you who remember with fondness the "good times" of WizKids back when HeroClix, Mechwarrior, and Mage Knight exploded on the collectible gaming market as the first pre-painted collectible miniatures games, you will understand my obvious ecstacy at the new debut product coming from Wells Expeditions, Arcane Legions. From the brilliant minds behind Mage Knight, HeroClix, and other collectible greats from the now-defunct WizKids empire comes Arcane Legions, the first collectible MASS COMBAT miniatures game.

My FLGS just got ahold of a few copies of the Arcane Legions demo kit from Origins, and I have to say that my initial impressions were mixed. I assembled two demo kits for use at Games HQ, and of the two kits I had two VERY different experiences. The first kit was one that apparently was rushed through production before the molds were re-tooled and corrected to better reflect the actual starter set. There was flash galore, and it took me a good 8 hours of actual "work" to clean them up. It was a pain, and I hated them, but the love of the game drove me on. The second one, however, was more indicative of what the actual final product should be, given proper QA. The figures were mostly flash-free, although you will need sprue clippers and an XActo to trim them a bit. All told, I think I invested less than half the time I did on the first set, and they look BEAUTIFUL! Both kits had a number of misprints, but all were included on the errata sheet which was enclosed in the box. All in all, they were good sets for pre-production demos (or, at least, the second one was...).

Game #1: Romans vs. Egyptians

My first game taught me much about the nature of Arcane Legions. Properly used, order points can be used to properly deploy your army, make a mad dash for the objective at the cost of one of your models, or even have a SINGLE UNIT walk through about half of your opponent's army!

Early on in the game, I found myself in a desperate need to snag an objective and lay some fire into the two units of Egyptians that were marching directly toward it to contest. I marched my Roman Sagittarii directly for the objective, and had them sitting there ready to go by the second turn. I was able to fire on one of the inbound units, a unit of Greek Hoplites that were not in ideal defensive position. My Sagittarii loosed their arrows and killed 4. After my opponent took his casualties, I pushed the Sagittarii (killing one model to take the same order a second time) and loosed again. This time the Hoplites lost 5, and left a single model remaining in the unit, making the large formation less of an effective combat unit and more of a speedbump for the unit of 13th Legion Irregulars he had hiding behind. Thus that side remained for the rest of the game. Since the Hoplites only had one guy, they didn't have enough movement to do much more than slowly plod forward and wait for me to shoot them again. This was a mechanic I don't like very much. Hopefully it gets fixed in the final release.

On the other side of the field, the 7th Legion Heavy Infantry proved to be my MVPs of the game. After marching up and smacking my opponent's unit of The Returned (Egyptian mummies) for 7 damage, Amenhotep III used his ability to raise 6 of them, and the 7th stood back up on his own! After a full turn of damage-dealing, The Returned were at full strength, and ready to smack me back with 10 attack dice! This is where the true power of the Roman's Discipline ability benefited me, though. On my turn, when I had attacked, I moved into base contact, regrouped to attack formation (6 red dice, 4 white dice), attacked for 5 damage, regrouped back to a defensive stance (2 attack dice, 8 defence dice), and then used the Armored Rush ability to do 2 MORE direct damage...all without pushing the unit! This was a great example of the flexibility that the Romans have. At any rate, the Zombies swung back with 9 attack dice, but since I was able to regroup twice without pushing, I was waiting with 8 defense dice. Thanks for poor dice rolls on my opponent's part, I actually did 5 damage on the defence and then turned around and wiped The Returned off the table next turn.

The most important part here was that my Heavy Infantry were contesting his objective while my Sagittarii were getting me 3 points per turn on their side of the table from standing uncontested on mine. It wasn't long before I had racked up a quick 15 victory points to win the game.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: ROMANS

As a strategy gamer, I love the flexibility of the Romans. The Discipline ability guarantees that, given enough orders, a unit can always be in the best possible combat formation at any given time. Switch to red dice on your turn, and still be able to switch back to white to prep for the return fire. In the demo scenario, this means that you can regroup-attack-regroup with two units in a given turn. With the general trend on the Romans to have more white dice than red, that also means you can afford to receive a charge and soak damage with your high defense, possibly even dealing some return damage, then switch to reds and lash back the next turn, and still be able to turtle back up on your whites (assuming you have any enemies left at that point).

Game #2 - Egyptians vs. Han

After destroying the Egyptians utterly in Game 1, I decided to take the mummies for a spin myself. and lined up a game against the Han Empire. After this game, I learned that, although powerful, the Romans aren't totally broken. My first game was won to incredible die luck on my side compared with abysmal die luck and hesitant play on the part of my opponent. This game taught me that victory goes to those who sieze it by the throat. There is no victory in hesitation and turtling...unless you're HAN, but that'll come in my synopsis of Game #3.

Where the Romans have strong overall capability due to their Discipline ability, the Egyptians can press the melee attack unlike any of the other demo factions. Most of their units possess the "Aggressive" ability, which gives them +2 red dice if they also received a move order that turn. For example, The Returned have so many red dice on their base that, properly deployed, they can pump out 11 red dice on the attack! That's NUTS! In addition, they are coupled with one of the most damaging ranged units in the demo. Pitarii archers can be equipped with Fire Arrows, which give the attacking archers two extra blue dice, for a total of 9 potentially! OUCH! In addition, you have Greek Hoplites, which have a strong balance of short ranged and melee ability.

This game ran similarly to my other one, with the Hoplites and The Returned running with Amenhotep III to contest the enemy objective and my Pitarii Archers and the 13th Legion Irregulars snagging mine. My opponent was trying out the Han and wasn't sure how best to use them, so he ran some of his Terracotta soldiers and the Escort for an Immortal unit toward my objective, but diverted the Escort when the soldiers were annihilated by the archers as they advanced. Note to Han: Terracotta soldiers are NOT strong attack units. More on that later.

This game ran pretty quickly, but it became quite obvious to me as I played that Egyptians are made for the all-out, desperate headlong attack. After getting peppered with arrows by my Han opponent's ridiculously awesome Han Imperial Archers, I only had 6 guys left on my Hoplites base. I SHOULD have lost more, but I got REALLY lucky with my defense dice. Fortunately, this was enough for me to make the afore mentioned desperate, headlong attack. I moved them up, used their special attack to throw 6 ranged dice at his second unit of Terracotta Soldiers (maybe dropping 2 or 3), then pushed them to charge into melee, regrouped my 5 remaining guys onto the only red spots on the board, and then attacked with 7 defense dice! It's amazing that a unit at half strength can generate that much punishment. Alas, it wasn't to be, and my dice betrayed me (only killed a couple more soldiers), but it was a beautiful effort that took out half of an enemy unit at the cost of one of mine. After that, I knew I needed to call down the thunder and pushed my Returned into a similar situation the next turn, pushing them into close combat and reforming to maximize red dice. No more Terracotta soldiers, but now I'm facing the full wrath of Han bowmen face-to-face...owbie...

Regardless of my invasion force getting pretty much hammered by arrows, I still won the game 15 points to 10. I contested his objective for most of the game, and even though he shot me all to heck, he never made it to my objective.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: EGYPTIANS

Egyptians are the kings (or should I say Pharaohs) of attack damage. They do best when hurtling themselves forward at the enemy, and they can lay an impressive amount of attack dice down. If a full unit of The Returned moves into base-to-base, it can regroup to maximize its 10 red dice, which means that you literally have to pick up all 12 reds from the starter set on its attack. Then, if your opponent is STILL standing, just push for a second 11-die attack! It's okay, he'll stand up next turn. The Greek Hoplites are awesome when you pop their 6-die special attack and then charge in for a potential 7 dice. That's potentially 13 dice without pushing, and 20 if you push to attack twice! The Pitati Archers also get extra damage capability with their fire arrows.

Game #3: Han vs. Romans

In my last game, I took the Terracotta Soldiers and wicked archers of the Han. Han have the most unique flavor of the factions in the demo, as they have no strong melee units at all. Even the (albeit awesome-looking) Terracotta Soldiers can't hold up to melee combat for long. Han's strength lies squarely in its archers, and it has AWESOME ranged capability. The Kyudo Detachment, although throwing fewer dice than the incredible Imperial Archers, hit like a ton of bricks because of their ability to win tied dice. This turns what should often be 1-2 damage into a fairly common 3-4 damage. This ability gets worse when combined with the Fu Lion, whose 4 pegs and 4 defense dice give the Kyudo Archers plenty of protection from incoming damage.

After reading the cards and facing the Han once already, I already knew what to do with them. I regrouped both units of Terracotta Soldiers so the Dedicated ability was ready on both. This ability allows adjacent ranged units to push with impunity, taking the push damage on the Terracotta Soldiers, not on the more fragile archer units. I parked the Imperial Archers with a unit of Terracotta soldiers on top of my objective, covering it totally. This meant that any interlopers would have to wipe the soldiers out fully before they could move onto the objective. Then I took the second unit of Terracotta soldiers, the Kyudo, and the Escort for an Immortal, and moved them up the other flank to take on whatever horrors my opponent planned to throw on their objective.

After a little time, I figured out that my plan had a fatal flaw. The Escort was too far toward the center of the table, and its slow movement made it very difficult to maneuver. I then changed tunes, as it seemed that my opponent was putting all his eggs in one basket, running the 7th Legion Heavies directly toward my objective without much in the way of support. To make things worse (for him), he left his archers on the back lines entirely! This meant that if I was to break the waiting game of 3-points-per turn to victory that we were currently on (with me in the lead), I needed to wipe the 7th Heavies and their commander off the board. For two consecutive turns, I double-shot the Kyudo and the Imperial Archers into that unit until it disappeared. Man! That's a tough unit. That pushed me on to victory, 15-6.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: HAN

When I play Han, I keep thinking about the Jet Li movie "Hero" with the archers literally blacking out the sun with the cloud of arrows they fire all at once. This is pretty much exactly how the Han play. The Escort for an Immortal unit isn't very good as far as its own damage capability goes, but if it walks up to a unit and uses "Call the Iron Rain" on them, a Ranged barrage the likes of none other in the game will fall from the sky. Combine that with the likelihood that each ranged unit will be firing twice per turn at the cost of one Terracotta Soldier each, and you have a withering hail of arrows that will destroy most units on the table in a single turn of fire! The Kyudo Detachment, even though they only have 4 blue dice, is the super sniper of the Han. If they roll a 6 to hit, it hits, regardless of the defense roll, and if the Kyudo fire on a low defense unit and end up facing phantom dice, they hit on a 2+! Add to that the fact that the Fu Lion is totally awesome…

AFTERMATH

After having the opportunity to play all 3 factions of Arcane Legions, I am very conflicted as to which one I want to play when the final version is released. I am leaning toward the Romans because of their versatility, but the sheer damage potential and regenerative qualities of the Egyptians make them a viable option. I know of at least two people who want to play Han, so I'm not leaning toward them very heavily, but I LOVE the way they play. There are going to be a lot of people who hate the Han because they can make fancy schmancy melee units disappear in a hail of arrows. All in all, there are just too many awesome Roman models that are must-haves in my book, such as Minos of Crete (he's a badass bull), the Minotaur Legion, Bear Cavalry, and the 7th Legion Heavies in frickin' STEAM POWER ARMOR!!! However, I think Egypt will probably get a minion if I decide to get a second faction down the road.

If you get the chance, check this game out! Games HQ on Freedom Drive in Charlotte has a demo copy and if you see me in there, I will most likely have my demo copy on me as well! This game is looking like it will be THE collectible game to get into this fall, so get your spendin' wallets ready, 'cause September's coming!

I want to call everyone's attention to a game that I am really excited about:

http://www.arcanelegions.com

For anyone who wants to try this game out, Howard has a demo copy up at Games HQ (or soon will have) in Charlotte. I am intrigued about this concept, and will most likely be buying a Roman army when the game comes out.

Here's what's great about it... It's pretty much a collectible game in name only! The starter box includes playable sample armies for all 3 starting factions (over 110 models), rules and enough bases for 2 players... And it only costs $35!!! Then, when you figure out who you want to play, you can buy the rest of that army for about $126 total, which includes an army box ($15/40 figs), cavalry box ($15/15 mounted figs), and a brick of 8 boosters ($11.99 ea/8 figs ea). This will get you the entire army...done deal.

League play is pretty cool, too... $6 a month gets you a league-only figure for every faction and monthly scenarios with special banners and prizes for the monthly winners.

The minis are Wizkids-quality soft plastics, but the nice part is that although the character models are prepainted, most of the grunts are not. Some have stenciled shields, but most of them are bare colored plastic, so if you want to make a unique paint scheme for your army, it will be quick and easy. I really like some of the sculpts, too.

Bottom line is: check this game out. I want to get enough folks playing when it releases to start a league in November. For anybody who is looking for a new game to play around with, this looks like it will be a good investment with plenty of future play potential!

Sent from Cybertuna's iPhone

Cybertunagamers.com Blog

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