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Ancient Temple of the Soulborg

Requires: 2 master sets, 2 lava sets, 1 castle set 1 ice set

1 player. 550 point army all from one alignment and without any soulborg. 8-11 rounds. Setup on frozen river in front of the temple.

Story: The soulborg guards have rusted into place, but will still fire on tresspassers in order to protect the temple and its long vanished worshipers. Lava men have occupied the dormant temple, and will defend their territory. They are considered to be on the side of the Soulborg defenders for the purpose of this game. The player is controlling an elite force sent in to recover a valuable artifact from the center of the temple, and need to deactivate it before it explodes.

Special rules: The human player orders his unit cards. Each turn, each human unit acts in that order, without use of order markers. Then, the defender acts, according to a fairly simple deterministic algorithm (see below).

At the end of each player turn, advance the turn token. If it advances 8 times, the player immediately loses. If a player unit is occupying the top of the pillar in the center of the temple at the end of the player turn, do not advance the turn counter. Instead, earn a victory point. The third victory point wins the game.

Units cannot fly over the snowy top of the entrance, although they may fly through the gaps if they fit. Dragons usually can't get inside, but Kyrie usually can.

The defenders are considered to have just three army cards: one common squad card for the 3 lavamen, one unique squad card for the 8 zettian guards, and one unique hero card for the 5 deathwalkers. This means that "crippling gaze" and "mindshackle" can be quite effective.

Defender Algorithm: Left and Right instructions are from the perspective of the human player.

  1. The 3 Lavamen act from right to left. They will not move, but will attack whichever legal target has the lowest defense. If there is a tie, they will attack whoever is closer. If there is still a tie, they choose randomly based on the throw of the d20. Note that they are on molten lava, so they receive a range bonus.
  2. The 8 Zettian Guards act from right to left, first with the low row and then with the elevated row. They will not move. Each will fire on whatever legal target will allow it to roll the most attack dice (their card ability gives them +1 attack against any target that any number of zettian guards have already attacked this turn). In the case of ties, they prefer targets with lower defense. Further ties are broken by who is closer to the temple. Further ties are broken randomly.
  3. The 5 Deathwalkers act in counter-clockwise order, starting with the front right model. They will not move, and are unaffected by lava fields. They will fire with a shotgun if it will affect two or more enemies, otherwise they will use their regular attack. They prefer targets with lower defense. After that, they prefer targets closer to themselves. Further ties are broken randomly. They will never use their shotgun if it will affect another soulborg.
The Deathwalkers will not act unless they have been awoken. They all awaken as soon as any of them is attacked, targeted with a unit ability, or affected by a unit ability. They also all awaken if any player unit steps out from under the ledge and into the temple. Once awoken, they remain active.

The entrance:

Construction of the temple interior:

Theory: The player is at a severe point disadvantage (about 2:1) but can usually win with a well chosen army. The defender does not bring all of his forces to bear right away, will not move even if outranged, and fires in a predictable fashion. Also, since you know you will be fighting almost entirely soulborg, you can choose your army units appropriately -- attacks that involve the d20 instead of attack dice are good, as are attacks that prevent defense dice from being rolled. Mindshackling is a real gamble, even more so than usual. Remember that all your units have to be from the same alignment -- vydar, ullar, utgar, einar, vallar -- and cannot contain any soulborg.


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