A Dragon Dice Solo Player Game
Introduction
Welcome to my first entry into the chronicles. Presented here is a solo player variant for Dragon Dice which has been designed as a challenging battle against an oncoming horde of dragons. It can be played out of the box using a Two Player Starter set available from SFR Inc (potential for sealed box tournaments), or from a selection of your own dice. The game is designed to be played using the basic dice only however, you can increase the difficulty and strategy level by incorporating any of the advanced dice as well.
Credits for this game go somewhat as follows…
Steve Allen created his “Punt Your Dragon” concept as a proposed GenCant entry. Over in Australia we (Greg Ison, Elvric Sorrenson, and I) were testing Steve’s concept and the rough idea of this came to me whilst taking a quick break to hang out some laundry. We tested further then put it to a round table discussion on our Blog and Wiki group with Jeff Denmon joining in. And now here we are with you reading this.
A new way to teach
Dragon Deluge also shows promise as a tool for teaching the core mechanics to new players. Seat your new player in front of the playmat with them controlling the armies, and you sit opposite rolling the dragons and moving them during the replenishment phase whilst explaining the rules and giving strategy tips. Using the solo game for this purpose means your new player only has to concern themselves with their own armies and not have to consider rolls and statistics of an actual opponent. There are also only 2 terrains in play and a smaller than typical force size so it plays quickly which helps in a demo environment.
As a teaching tool with your friends or at convention demo’s you may choose to limit spells to Resurrect Dead and Summon Dragon, and ignore racial abilities.
Interpreting the rules
From the core v4 rules, this definition remains:
These rules should be considered exclusive. That is to say that you may only do something if the rules say you can. Any effects that indicate an army or unit can’t do something always takes precedence over any effects that indicate they can do something.
In addition, if the rules below do not explicitly override the core rules, then the core rules should be followed.
All spells and racial abilities from the core v4 rules may be used in the solo challenge however you will find that some have little or no practical effect due to not having opponent armies.
Setup
- Open your new Two Player Starter set, or select from your own dice (you will require 4 basic dragons and 4 basic terrains). If you are selecting from your own dice, you must select:
- Four distinct dragons i.e. you may have a red drake and a red wyrm, but cannot use two red drakes.
- Four terrains. You cannot choose more than two terrains of the same color type, i.e. you cannot have more than two coastlands. You cannot choose more than two of the same 8th face type, i.e. you cannot have more than two towers.
- Construct a 24 health point force adhering to the army constructions rules in the core v4 rule book, but dividing your units into only two armies which by definition will both be 12 health points since you cannot have more than half your total points value in one army.
- From the terrains, select your home terrain and place it in the designated spot on the playmat (1). Set the terrain to face 1.
- Blind draw another terrain from the remaining three and place it at the frontier location on the playmat (2). Set the terrain to face 1. The remaining 2 terrains will not be used and can be removed from your play area.
- Select one army to be your home army, place it at your home terrain (3).
- The other army will be your campaign army, place it at the frontier terrain (4).
- Select one dragon of your choice and place it in the summoning pool (5).
- Blind draw one of the remaining dragons and place it at the home terrain (6).
- Blind draw another dragon and place it at the frontier terrain (7).
- The final dragon will be placed in the horde army location on the playmat (8).
Objective,… and lose condition
The only way to win Dragon Deluge is to capture two 8th faces as per the core v4 rules. It is impossible to win by a war of attrition against the dragon horde as they keep cycling back into play after being killed.
You can lose Dragon Deluge! When your last unit is killed by a dragon you will lose immediately. Also, if at the start of your turn both terrains are at face 1 and you have no units present at either terrain (they are all in reserves trying to resurrect their comrades) then you have lost.
The dragon horde
The most notable difference between Dragon Dice and Dragon Deluge is the use of the horde army location. In Dragon Deluge there is no opponent home terrain at the horde army location. Instead, this is where the dragon horde resides, flying towards the battlefield to eat all your delicious units after a medium-rare scorching with their dragon breath.
The game commences with one dragon in the horde. Whenever a dragon is killed, whether by you or another dragon, it will be placed into the horde. The horde is a “first in, first out” queue with the dragon at the top being the next to return to the battlefield and killed dragons being placed at the bottom of the queue. There may be more than one dragon in the horde depending on how well your armies perform in battle.
If you summon a dragon it may be summoned from the summoning pool or either terrain, but not from the dragon horde.
The turn sequence
The turn sequence is identical to the core v4 rules with one additional phase at the end called “Dragons Replenish”. Once you have completed this sequence of steps, since there is no human opponent guess what? It’s your turn again!
1. Expire Effects Phase
As per core v4 rules.
2. Eighth Face Phase
As per core v4 rules.
3. Dragon Attack Phase
As per core v4 rules with the following modifications:
- Any terrain at which there is at least one dragon present but you have no units there, the terrain will be stepped down one face. If a terrain is already on face 1, then nothing else happens. A terrain will only stepped down by only one face irrespective of how many dragons are at the terrain.
- If breath is rolled in an attack against an army (replaces core v4 rules):
- Five health-worth of units in the army are killed.
- The terrain will be stepped down one face. If multiple dragons are at a terrain and there are multiple breath results rolled, then the terrain will still be stepped down by only one face.
Note: If a dragon rolls breath against another dragon, the terrain is not stepped down.
4. First March (Maneuver)
As per core v4 rules with the following modifications:
- If there is no dragon present at the terrain you may make an unopposed maneuver, else
- If there is at least one dragon present at the terrain then they will always oppose a maneuver attempt you make.
- Each dragon is treated like a separate opponent opposing your attempt and has 5 auto-maneuver results therefore the most you need to roll to be successful is 5 results.
- Dragons will roll against you and those that roll belly lose their auto-maneuver results. All other results rolled by a dragon are ignored.
4. First March (Action)
As per core v4 rules with the following modifications:
- When taking a missile or melee action your army may target a single dragon as your opponent. Dragons may be targeted in the same way that opponent armies would be in the core v4 rules such that when performing a melee action you may only target a single dragon at the same terrain as you, and when performing a missile action you may target a single dragon at either terrain.
- Dragons have 5 auto-saves and must roll if any melee or missile results were generated by your army. If the dragon rolls belly then it loses it’s auto-saves. All other results rolled by a dragon are ignored.
- A targeted dragon makes no counter-attack.
- If you kill a dragon during your action you promote units as per the core v4 rules for dragon attacks.
- SAI’s rolled by your units are resolved as per their effect in a dragon attack combination roll in the core v4 rules.
5. Second March
As per core v4 rules and the rules modifications above.
6. Reserves Phase
As per core v4 rules.
7. Dragons Replenish
- If there is a dragon in the summoning pool:
- First, If the home terrain has no dragon, then the dragon in the summoning pool is placed at the home terrain.
- Otherwise, if the frontier terrain has no dragon, then the dragon in the summoning pool is placed at the frontier terrain.
- Move the dragon at the top of the dragon horde queue to the summoning pool.
Note: If there is no dragon in the summoning pool then no new dragon will move to a terrain and only the top horde dragon will move to the summoning pool. Only one dragon at most will move to a terrain during the replenishment phase and only one dragon will move from the dragon horde to the summoning pool. There will never be more than one dragon in the summoning pool at any time.
Hints, tips, and scoring
Don’t kill what doesn’t need to be killed
Got two dragons at your terrain, if they are going to fight each other at the beginning of the next turn just let them as they won’t be attacking you! You don’t have take every action available to you.
Summon another to divert their attention
In early stages of the game while the terrain faces show magic, and when you have one 8th face, keep summoning dragons to fight each other. Where possible summon from the summoning pool so that it takes an extra turn for the dragon horde to send another of their fearsome beasts in.
Let’s make this a contest
Record your games and share them. Tell us your setup, then turn by turn what faces your terrains are on. How far did you get? Can someone else get further with the same build or something different?
Good luck!
I love the humour in this article and I hope that it is well received and that a lot of players give it a try. Good work by all involved!!