{a Clockwork bronze}

(Introducing the Dracolem)

The newest faction for Dragon Dice, built by the Gnomes!

What is this?!

A recently rediscovered faction, the Dracolem are sentient machines created by the Gnomes, who were also responsible for all the various items - equipment, relics, artifacts, and medallions.

While they look like Dragonkin, they are normal units who can be taken as part of your force construction, rather than starting in your Summoning Pool.

So what's that mean?

Due to their constructed nature, Dracolem are limited in a couple of ways.

They cannot be recruited, promoted, or returned from the DUA, except with the newly-added "Repair" mechanic.
They do not harness elemental energy, instead harnessing the power of their metallic alloys. They cannot cast elemental spells.

faction Abilities

Like their living counterparts, Dracolem have tough skin - in this case, metal skin - which grants them the same automatic saves - equal to their health - that Dragonkin have.

They are also unable to carry items, due to their thumbless hands (claws? paws?). This means that other factions will need to be present in order to use any equipment, artifacts, medallions, or relics.

Finally, as the Dracolem are not comprised of elements but rather alloys, they do not wield elemental magic, instead casting magic using alloy magical results, using their own spell list.

Much like medallions, Dracolem come in three "flavors" or alloys: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Bronze

Bronze Dracolem have one unique faction ability that separates them from the other Dracolem:

During a magic action, Bronze Dracolem may count their magic results as a color that matches any other unit in the marching army, or ivory if there are Amazons in the army. These magic results may be used to cast basic spells and faction spells of other units in the army.

They also have access to a Bronze-specific spell not castable by non-Bronze units:

Anti-Magic Surge - Cost: 5 - Target any terrain. Subtract [four] magic results from all army rolls at that terrain until the beginning of your next turn.

Silver

Silver Dracolem have a faction ability that is reflective of the Silver Medallion's effects:

Immediately before your first march, after dragon attacks have been resolved, select an army that has at least one Silver Dracolem unit. You may return a single item from your BUA to the chosen army. The item that can be returned depends on how many health-worth of Silver Dracolem units you have in the army:

Small equipment
Medium equipment
Large equipment
Artifact
Medallion or Relic

They can also cast one Silver-specific spell:

Explode Item - Cost: 5 - Target [one] point of items (see table). Bury the target with no save possible.

Gold

Like their brethren, the Gold Dracolem have a faction ability that imitates their respective medallion:

Immediately before your first march, after dragon attacks have been resolved, you may do one of the following:

Send one Dragonkin unit from one of your armies containing a Gold Dracolem unit to your Summoning Pool to return a non-Dracolem unit with the same health from the DUA to that army.
Bury one Dragonkin unit in your Summoning Pool to return a non-Dracolem unit of the same health from the DUA to an army that contains a Gold Dracolem unit.
Target an opponent's Dragonkin at the same terrain as one of your armies containing a Gold Dracolem unit. Roll the target. If it does not roll its ID icon, send it to the owner's Summoning Pool and return a non-Dracolem unit with the same health from your DUA to your army.

They can also cast one Gold-specific spell:

Escape Portal - Cost: 5 - Target any army. Until the beginning of your next turn, units in the target army that are killed by any army-targeting effects (including melee and missile damage) should make another save roll before being moved to the DUA. Any units that generate a save result are instead moved to their owner's Reserve Area. Any units that do not generate a save result may instead be exchanged with a smaller health unit of the same faction from your DUA. If no save roll was possible when units are killed, Escape Portal does nothing.

Alloy Magic

As we discussed above, Dracolem do not wield elemental magic, and as a result they have their own list of alloy magic. Each alloy (bronze, silver, and gold) has one spell specific to those units, while all Dracolem share a list of "any alloy" spells, much like the rest of the factions of Esfah share a common spell list.

These spells require alloy magic to be cast, so they are currently only available to Dracolem.

Scrap for Parts - Cost: 2 - Castable from Reserves - Target [one] health-worth of Dracolem units in your DUA. Bury the target, then repair [one] health-worth of Dracolem units to the casting army.

Reconfigure - Cost: 3 - Castable from Reserves - Target [one] health-worth of Dracolem units in the casting army. Kill the target, then repair [one] health-worth of Dracolem units to the casting army.

Reinforce - Cost: 3 - Castable from Reserves - Target [one] of your units at a terrain or the Reserve Area. Move the target to the casting army.

Knock Out - Cost: 5 - Target up to [three] health-worth of units in any opposing army. The targets are knocked out and cannot be rolled until the beginning of your next turn, unless they are targeted by an individual-targeting effect which forces them to. Knocked out units that leave the terrain through any means are no longer knocked out.

Plasma Arc - Cost: 7 - Target one unit in an opponent's army at the same terrain. The target makes a save roll. If it does not generate a save result it is killed. Whether it saves or not, the target's owner must target another unit in the same army to save or be killed. Continue to target units with Plasma Arc until a targeted unit (after the first) generates a save result. Any army may not be targeted by more than one Plasma Arc per magic action.

A new sAI

The Dracolem also bring with them one new SAI - or rather, a new use of an existing SAI. Most of the SAIs (Breath, Fly, Smite, etc.) are familiar faces, but the SFR Logo SAI has a new ability unique to the Dracolem:

Gate - During any non-maneuver roll, this unit may move up to four health-worth of other Dracolem of a matching alloy in its army to another terrain or to your Reserve Area. This unit may not move - using this effect or any other effect - during this roll.

A few other notes

We don't have much more information about this faction just yet, but we do know a few things:

The Draco-Champions - the four-health units previewed so far - use the same molds as the existing Dragonkin Champions, meaning they have all the same faces as those dice.
There are new molds for other units in this faction, though no word on whether or not any of the other Dragonkin molds are reused as well.
Dracolem are capable of casting magic and firing arrows, unlike Dragonkin. We can expect to see some missile-class and mage-class units.
Since they cannot cast elemental magic, they cannot summon dragons. There is no plan to produce alloy dragons at this time, so for now dragons are out of reach for Dracolem.

What do you think?

We'd love to hear your thoughts about this new faction and the exciting new options it brings to your gaming table. Any thoughts of strategies you might have? Which alloy are you most excited for?

Let us know what you think in our email: info@thedicemustflow.com

Thanks!

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