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The Book of Roman Archers

dnutt99

dnutt99

Well-known member
The Book of Roman Archers
Malliddon's Prophecy - Collection 1 - "The IX Roman Legion"
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7B2AB3F4-4E4E-4965-9E5E-FAC895CB90A0.jpg
If you cannot see the Army Card graphic, check Hasbro's Unit Page for stats and special powers, plus "character biography" and other non-game unit info.

Character Bio: The archers of the IX Legion are as well trained as their legionnaire counterparts, and are an even more powerful force on
the battlefield. These hardy warriors have spent years perfecting their military craft as a unit, and can concentrate their firepower upon a
single enemy in a formidable barrage of arrows. Because the Roman Archers are vulnerable in close quarters, they rely on the swords and
shields of their legionnaire brethren to protect them from hand-to-hand combat. (Hasbro)
_________________________________________________________________
-Rulings and Clarifications-
  • - ARROW VOLLEY SPECIAL ATTACK : Attack Requirements
    Do all 3 Archers need to have range and Line of Sight in order to use Arrow Volley?
    Yes, they all need to have Range and Line of Sight to the target. (Hasbro FAQ)

    - ARROW VOLLEY SPECIAL ATTACK : Attacking With A Partial Squad
    If you only have 2 Archers left, can you still use Arrow Volley and just roll 4 dice instead of six?
    No, once you are down to 2 Archers, you lose the ability to use Arrow Volley. (Hasbro FAQ)
_________________________________________________________________
-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received
  • - N/A

Synergy Benefits Offered
  • - SACRED BAND : Disciplined Army Defense Bonus
    Having a Disciplined personality, Roman Archers may aid the Sacred Band with their DISCIPLINED
    ARMY DEFENSE BONUS
    *NOTE: See The Book of Sacred Band for proper application.
C3V and SoV Custom Synergies
Spoiler Alert!


_________________________________________________________________
-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

  • - TBA

_________________________________________________________________
-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Power Ranking and Master Index
MKSentinel said:
Power Ranking
Roman Archers- Despite having a powerful combined attack, one defense and a range of six means a short
life for the Roman Archers. C

Roman Archers
Volley and Placement? http://heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=2658
Arrow Volley Specifics? http://heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=695
Click to expand...



Unit Strategy Review
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Should you mention the Disciplined Defense Bonus provided to the Sacred Band here? Not that it is extremely important.

Also, a comment on their ability. Arrow Volley is actually fairly versatile. Against small defense figures you can have three separate attacks, but against bigger D figs, one attack with more dice has a better probability of wounding the figure than 3 small attacks. I think this is often overlooked.

BTW, the above also applies to the Zombie's ability to combine attacks.

Just a note.

AWESOME IDEA and I plan to exploit it in a project I'm working on.

Adam
 
Like any common, archers are great in large numbers. Sure they have a low defense, but with multple squads you're never in too much jeopordy of losing your arrow volley special attack. They are also a great counter to drake for the 55 points spent.
 
Tips and Tricks for Roman Archers

If you are going to play with the Archers always use at least two squads. If you play with only one squad, the death of one archer will negate their Special Attack, since it requires "Three unengaged adjacent Roman Archers on the same level".

With their base 2 attack, you lose probability advantage to hit anything with greater than 1 Defense (which are most figures in the game).

Going to height advantage or using Taelord gives you a 3 attack which means you will have probability to hit a 3 or less defense, which covers much more ground.

Their Special Attack of 6 gives you probability advantage to hit a Defense of 7 or less.

Probability advantage is defined as having a more than 50% chance of occuring with the dice roll (it will happen more often than not).

SO, if you are fighting high defense heros, keep to the low ground and maintain adjacency to take advantage of the SA. If you are fighting squads, head to the hills and use individual attacks.

If you are fighting against Roman Archers, remember to kill or base all but two quickly with figure like Deathreavers BEFORE you send in your heavy hitters. Roman Archers are quite formidable when allowed to maintain their ability.
 
I hardly ever use these guys, but they are alright for castle defense I think. Their special allows for an incredible ranged defense of a fixed position.
 
I played a complete Einar vs Vydar battle today and it was rather one sided due to Einar having 300-odd more points but something bizarre happened. I had a squad a Roman archers use their Volley attack Major Q9, who had height advantage, they rolled 5 attack dice and out of the 8 dice Q9 rolled guess how many shields he rolled ... NONE! A big fat Zero!
That was pretty amazing to see though 8)
 
A question: Do all three archers have to be adjacent to each other (a triangle formation) to use the special attack, or can each just be adjacent to at least one other archer (a line or hook formation)?

If it's the former, then for all three archers to be in range, at least one will be one step closer, meaning that any unit with even a move of 4 can base the foremost archer on their turn (if they survive).
 
My grade/opinion of these guys.

Roman Archers- 'Meh' is the one word that describes these guys for me. A range of 6 is below average, as is their attack of 2. Their defense of 1 means they won't last long AT ALL. And with four move, it's gonna be hard to get height. But one good thing about them is their 6 attack, 6 range special attack that can be devastating. Mesh this all together and you got a three man ranged squad for 55 points. These guys can only be affective with 2+ squads. C-
 
I like how the Roman Archers Arrow volley works.If you have multiple squads this is a great team you can put together.
 
:?: I have a question about the Roman Archers special attack. Say you have two squads of archers, and you take a turn with them. Can you move two of the six archers, and then use the special attack using three archers that you didn't move, but were already adjacent to each other?

:?: What if you move all three other archers, but already have a triangle of adjacent archers which you didn't move? Could you still take the special attack with them? I only ask because the card does not specify that the attacking archers have to be the ones that you moved with. It only says
Arrow Volley Special Attack - Range 6, Attack 6. Three unengaged adjacent Roman Archers on the same level...
Click to expand...
.
Thoughts, anyone?
 
You can only use Arrow Volley Special Attack with the Roman Archers that you moved for that turn. You can't move Archers A, B, and C and then use Arrow Volley with D, E, and F. Keep in mind that you can choose to move a figure 0 spaces.

Example: You can tell your opponent that you are moving Archers A, B, and C 0 spaces each (A, B, and C are also unengaged, adjacent and on the same level). For that turn, you can only use Arrow Volley with Archers A, B, and C.
 
I used them for the first time a couple weeks ago, though I've had my second set for a couple months now. I could not have had much better results with them. They dominated a few heroes with the Volley, including one Ms. Braxas. Very cool squad in my extremely inexperienced opinion. ;)
 
I had a situation the other night where my archers had height advantage on a squad figure standing on a +2 defense glyph. The squad figure had a base defense of 3 (so 5 defense with the glyph). I was taking a turn with the archers and was wondering if it was better to do three attacks of three, or one attack with the special. I decided to go with the special out of instinct, but now I have numbers to show which is better.

Odds of getting at least one wound on a figure:
Code: 
defense	3of3	        1of6
3	88.1817%	84.6065%
4	79.1902%	77.6042%
5	68.6936%	70.0039%
6	57.7546%	62.1742%
7	47.2572%	54.4324%

So it is better to use the special at figures with 5 defense or more. The switching point is at defense = 5.
 
Obsidian said:
I had a situation the other night where my archers had height advantage on a squad figure standing on a +2 defense glyph. The squad figure had a base defense of 3 (so 5 defense with the glyph). I was taking a turn with the archers and was wondering if it was better to do three attacks of three, or one attack with the special. I decided to go with the special out of instinct, but now I have numbers to show which is better.

Odds of getting at least one wound on a figure:
Code: 
defense    3of3            1of6
3    88.1817%    84.6065%
4    79.1902%    77.6042%
5    68.6936%    70.0039%
6    57.7546%    62.1742%
7    47.2572%    54.4324%
So it is better to use the special at figures with 5 defense or more. The switching point is at defense = 5.
Click to expand...

That's true if there's 1 opponent figure in range. But if you've got multiple opponents in range, the numbers of course change.

With 2 opponents in range with 5 defense, 3 attacks of 3 will kill, on average, .9299 opponents.

With 3 opponents in range with 5 defense, 3 attacks of 3 will kill, on average, .963 opponents.

Still, in a case like you describe where you want the best chance to kill 1 particular opponent, then 1 attack of 6 is better.
 
How do you judge range for Arrow Volley?

One of the newer members posed this question, and it raises a good point at least as far as powers like concealment are concerned. If you have your archers in a triangle formation, all within range and with clear sight, and you fire at Brave Arrow or a member of the Mohican River Tribe, how do you count range? My first instinct is to say use the closest, since the archers need all the help they can get. Sure, it's only a difference of 1 to the Concealment bonus for the Indian, but it might be important sometime. What do you guys think? I don't remember seeing this addressed anywhere, it's definitely not in any of the respective books or the FAQ.
 
I posted this in that thread; now I am posting it here:

Rÿchean said:
It hasn't been brought up here before, but you should use the closest archer to the targeted MRT to determine the number to be added to the concealment D20 roll.
Click to expand...
 
I feel like I'm necroing, but this is a book, and I think I've got something good to point out.

Ok, so I've been embracing the suck lately, and nothing gets used less successfully in our gaming group than my roman archers. But I think I've got an army to alleviate some of the problems.

Roman Archers x4 - Lots of archers for lots of volleys
Raelin SOTM - Big ranged aura so the lots of archers get double the chance at a shield when defending.
Deathreavers x2 - Fan out and keep the archers unengaged.
Izumi Samurai - If the Big Bad comes trying to smash your archers, Engage him and counterstrike while archers volley away.

It's 480 points, and no spaces left to work with. You can substitute anything for the Izumi, I was thinking Thorgrim, but that would slow them down a bit. then again, an extra defense doesn't sound too bad. Once he's dead he can only help Raelin though.
 
I play what I call friendly competative games. In other words, I play games that both me and my opponent play to win, cause we hate to lose.

I recently played the Roman Archers. The probably did better for me than any other time I played them (and it's been a while). I think the secret, with many of the newer units, is pairing them with something that is more scary than they are. That's how they were effective.

They were totally filler. I had great powers and specials in my army, but I needed some common range. And everything else became more of a priority to my opponent than the silly Roman Archers. They got their combined attack off twice, and it was devestating.
 
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