{DD Boot Camp}
(Gear Up)
Making the most of items
Arms and armament
In this issue of DD Boot Camp, we're giving you all you need to know about items. We'll be covering equipment, artifacts, medallions, and the brand new, yet-to-be-released relic. These colorful and unique dice can add new layers of complexity to any strategy, and you should know what to expect when including them!
Let's grab some gear and get going!
how do they work?
Unlike most dice, items do not count as "units", which means they cannot be taken as damage, cannot be targeted by anything that targets units, and must be "carried" - they cannot exist anywhere without units, nor can they move from one location to another without a unit to transport them. They are objects, after all!
However, items are never tied to specific units in an army. They are considered to be carried by the army. They do not benefit from faction abilities, but despite this fact they can be used to cast faction spells, so long as at least one member of that faction is present in the army, and capable of carrying that item.
Like we mentioned above, items must be carried by units. A unit can carry two items, and units cannot carry items outside their own element. As such, Undead cannot carry items of the Fire, Water, Air, or Earth elements, while Amazons can carry any item due to their ivory nature.
As they must be carried, an excess of items at any location will force the owner to bury some of them. For example, if there are six items at a terrain and only two units present, then two of those items are not carried any longer and must be buried. This presents a bit of a conundrum, as maximizing items means maximizing results, but taking too many items will lead to losing them as units are killed in battle. Use caution when choosing how many items an army should carry!
One final reminder: items do not benefit from - nor do they contribute to - any faction abilities. Swamp Stalkers can't use maneuver items to gain extra saves, Lava Elves can't fire Cursed Bullets from missile items, etc. While they do provide a reliable stream of results to beef up an army's actions, those results are just regular, run-of-the-mill results.
Equipment
Equipment are four-sided dice that provide only one type of result, depending on the piece of equipment and the size.
Equipment comes in five "classes", matching the five types of rolls commonly made during a game of Dragon Dice: melee, save, maneuver, missile, and magic.
Small Equipment
Small equipment costs one point each to include, with a total of six icons per die - two single-icon faces and two double-icon faces. They are the most efficient point-to-result piece of equipment available. The trade-off is that units can only carry two items, so the more small equipment you bring, the more units it takes to carry them all. A few of these are a fine addition to an army, but too many will see you burying them before long!
Medium Equipment
Medium equipment offers a bit of a discount when used in pairs, coming in at three points for every two items; taken individually they are two points each. Offering slightly fewer icons per point-cost than the small items, medium items have a face with one icon, two faces with two icons, and a three-icon face, bringing a total of eight results per die. While they aren't as efficient as small equipment, they allow an army to bring more additional results than small equipment, since each unit can carry two items.
large Equipment
Large equipment cost a mere two points each to bring along, and while they are the least-efficient items, they do bring some intriguing and powerful SAIs to the table. With a one-icon, two-icon, and three-icon face, they have only six normal results, but the five SAIs all present some game-changing options for any player looking to explore new strategies. Let's take a look:
Bash
During a save against a melee attack - or a dragon attack - Bash blocks all the damage from one unit (or dragon), and deals that same amount of damage back to die that dealt the damage. During any other save roll, it generates three save results. This can be devastating against many melee builds, especially the Goblin's Leopard Rider.
Decapitate
Decapitate causes one unit that rolled an ID while saving against a melee attack to be killed, and that unit doesn't get to count its saves against the melee attack. This has the potential to kill any unit, while also removing that unit's save results, so don't take this ability lightly.
Impale
Impale is the missile version of Decapitate, killing one unit that rolled and ID, and stopping the saves that unit generated. Again, this can be brutal if it hits right, taking out anything that rolled an ID and simultaneously removing that unit's saves.
Wayfare
Wayfare generates three maneuver results, or it allows the item and one unit that can carry it to move to another terrain or to the Reserve Area. This opens up new strategic movement options and can generate a new army for things like the Path spell.
Attune
Attune generates three magic results of any color, and also allows one unit in the army to count its own normal (non-ID, non-SAI) magic results as the same color. It is easy to forget that this is any color, not the item's color, so it can grant access to spells not normally available to the casting army.
artifacts
Artifacts are ten-sided items that are similar to equipment, however they differ in some important ways: they have an ID face (denoted by a small triangle in the corner), they have three "off-class" faces that don't generate the results that item normally produces, and they have special SAIs not commonly found elsewhere. Though they only cost three points, each face produces four results.
DragonStaff
The "magic" artifact, a Dragonstaff bears mostly magic faces along with two of the Summon Dragon SAI, which summons any ivory dragon or any other dragon that contains the staff's color to any terrain (as well as rolling the staff again).
Flying Carpet
The "maneuver" artifact, a Flying Carpet has mostly maneuver faces, as well as the Elevate SAI, which generates maneuver results when maneuvering, doubles a unit's missile results during a missile attack, or doubles a unit's saves versus a melee attack.
mantlet
The Mantlet is the "save" artifact, which also has the Sortie SAI. Also found on medallions, the Sortie SAI generates melee results during a melee attack, save results during a save roll, and both melee and save results when rolled during a dragon attack.
trebuchet
The Trebuchet is the "missile" artifact, which brings the unique Crush SAI. Crush targets four health-worth of units which must roll a maneuver or be killed. Any units killed by Crush must then roll for saves; if they don't save, they are buried.
blade golem
The "melee" artifact, the Blade Golem, has the Flurry SAI also found on medallions. During a melee attack, it generates four melee results and rolls again. During a save roll against melee, it generates saves. Against a dragon, choose either effect.
medallions
Medallions are four-sided items that differ from equipment in a few ways:
They cost four points and generate four results on each face.
As they are made of metallic alloys rather than elements, any unit that can carry items may carry medallions.
Any unit carrying a medallion may not carry another item.
There are three variations - gold, silver, and bronze - which have the same faces but have a logo icon that varies based on the metallic alloy of the item.
Gold
As with all medallions, the gold medallion carries the Flurry, Sortie, and Wayfare SAIs outlined earlier. In addition, the logo face returns up to four health-worth of units from the DUA to the carrying army. Having a regeneration effect on a four-sided item - especially one with so many strong SAIs - should not be forgotten. A gold medallion is a strong component to many strategies.
Silver
The silver medallion is the "unburial item". The logo brings back a buried item to the carrying army, moves a buried Dragonkin back to the owner's Summoning Pool, or can summon or promote a Dragonkin at the same terrain as the medallion. This is a great option for a strategy leaning heavily on items, as they can be brought back when they are inevitably lost in battle.
Bronze
On a bronze medallion, the logo provides a somewhat unique effect. During magic, it produces four results of any element, but during other non-maneuver rolls it functions as a four-point cantrip that can be used as any color and ignores faction restrictions. This opens up entirely new vistas to explore, granting access to spells not normally available to the army bearing this medallion.
Elemental Relic
The newest addition Dragon Dice, the Elemental Relic is made of a material not native to Esfah - Eldrymetallum, or star metal.
At a price of four points, it has a logo face and a face representing each of the five elements in Esfah. When rolled, the icon indicates which element it can affect, with the logo covering all elements as well as ivory. This means any of the effects outlined below only apply to units containing the element shown on the relic:
During any non-maneuver roll, four health-worth of units in the carrying army may be re-rolled (ignoring their previous roll), or the carrying army may recruit or promote up to four health-worth of units.
One important note is that multiple Elemental Relics can cancel each other out - if two relics roll the same element (with the logo matching every other face), then both of those relics have no effect on the roll. Taking two might pay off, but it might backfire, so use caution!
In a single-faction army this will work on about half of all rolls (excluding Amazon and Undead). Already it looks like a solid chance to trigger this powerful effect, but by adding another faction (or dare we say two other factions) these odds can climb higher and higher!
Until this item actually releases, there is going to be a lot of speculation on how effective it will be, but we feel it safe to say that this die will be seen on many a battlefield in the very near future.
Final Notes
Items offer some powerful - if sometimes straightforward - additions to any build. While most equipment can only provide a single type of result, sometimes that's all an army needs - a little more punch, a bit more speed, a little extra protection. Large equipment offer cheap access to strong SAIs, while artifacts bring unique abilities on largely-reliable, discounted dice.
Medallions have been a staple since their introduction many years ago, and have found homes in forces everywhere, bringing incredible SAIs on every single face. The unique effect of the bronze medallion, and the reliability of the gold medallion's regeneration effect, are sure to add some spice to your next build, and can be the thing that turns the tide in your favor.
The relic already looks like it is going to be a powerhouse item. The ability to re-roll units to get better results - or to hunt down a specific SAI that didn't roll when it was needed most - ensures that this die will see play for years to come.
We'd love to hear what you think, so send us your feedback to info@thedicemustflow.com