HOMEBREW: Arcane Layline Conduit (Retribution Battle Engine)

[PG_kerensky]

I feel the urge to express my thoughts once more. Hope people enjoy.

ARCANE LAYLINE CONDUIT
Retribution Battle Engine

SPD - 0
STR - 10
MAT - 5
RAT - 5
DEF - 10
ARM - 18
CMD - 10
PC - 9
HP - 20

- Advance Deployment
- Shifting Current: During your control Phase this model may advance 3"
- Layline Storage: When another model casts a spell within this models CMD area this model gains a power token. This model may spend power tokens during its activation to boast attack and damage rolls. Once per turn during its activation this model spend a power token to advance 3". This model may hold up to 3 power tokens at a time.
- Combustion (Action*) All models within 2" of this model take a pow12 fire damage roll and suffer the FIRE damage effect.
- Arcane Charge: Friendly faction Myrmidons that begin their activation within 2" of this model are allocated a focus point each. This focus cannot exceed normal focus allocation.

MAGICAL ABILITIES (Magic Score 7)
During this models activation at any time it may use one of the following spells. This model may spend a power token to cast another spell but can only cast the same spell once per turn.
- Arcane pulse (Spray 10, POW14)
- Arcantrik Shift (RNG 10): Place target friendly model completly within 3" of its current position.
- Layline Warding: All friendly faction models within this models CMD area gain Sacred Ward and are immune to continuous effects. Layline Warding lasts one round.


The sources of power the Iosans rely upon to wage war with their Arcantrik weapons comes from the land itself, the arcane energies that pulse like veins through the world that only a few species have managed to navigate. The Trollkin see this power as Dhunia and harness it with their Krielstones, the Druids of Orboros believe it is the lifeforce of the Devourer. The Iosans believe it is a gift of their gods to their chosen children and harness this power whereever they find it. Across Ios and in hidden deposits within the lands of mankind are charging stations set upon these laylines to increase the flow of power to recharge Myrmidions and other constructs used in everyday life of Ios.
House Shyeel has developed a more portable means of gathering this energy and recently converted it for use on the battleline. To equal the House Vyres inovations for the Retribution of Scyrah, House Shyeel has modified some of their portable collectors to gather what arcane energy they can on the battlefield and redeploy it in a manner of useful ways. The Arcane Layline Conduit can send pulses of energy to shatter bone and metal, shift friendly forces in and out of harms way, and even burst waves of arcane fire from its lower structure to burn any who come close enough. The coordinator riding atop of this battle engine can use its power to create a shield that protects all nearby forces from the unclean magics of humanity or focus beams of pure energy on friendly myrmidions to recharge their batteries between skirmishes.

[bouncymischa]

An interesting design. At first glance, I thought it was rather overpowered, but as I noticed more of the details (like the fact that it is relatively immobile, and forced to teleport around) it didn't seem quite as bad. I'd still question whether it's a bit undercosted, or more that it has perhaps a few too many abilities. For one, it's the only battle engine that can generate more than one token per turn without needing the opponent's assistance. (The Skorne and Cygnar ones generate tokens from attacks; the Circle one is limited to generating one per turn, although it can store them.) It can also generate a massive focus advantage with Arcanists around, since the Arcanists can put focus on nearby jacks while also generating power tokens, and the Conduit then adds more focus. Combustion is also a rather powerful (if admittedly, quite cool) ability, as most of the battle engines can't generate a large number of melee-range attacks. The Wraith Engine can kind of Thresher with soul tokens, but that has certain limits, and the Menoth engine does a near-Combustion with its push-and-set-on-fire, but doesn't do direct damage.

For a start, I'd be tempted to remove Arcantrik Shift and make Arcane Charge the third spell, to streamline the design a bit and curtail some of the focus shenanigans. Also, the Magic Ability actions should probably not be "anytime during the activation". While I know it frustrates some people to have multitple abilities that can't be constantly used every turn, the Conduit can do way too much in a single turn -- it gets to advance in control, advance again, shoot a spray, combustion, teleport a guy, hand out focus, and then put up Sacred Ward, which is almost more than entire armies can do, much less a single model.

Also, Advance Deployment interacts very wierdly with the requirement that Battle Engines deploy first -- I can't remember if the last Call to Arms league ever resolved the potential conflict between that. I realize that the Conduit is rather slow and AD is probably intended to help counteract that, but it's probably a rule that could be trimmed out to streamline the design a bit. 3 core abilities and 3 spell options are probably enough abilities for a battle engine.

I think with that streamlining, though, it could be a rather neat piece to put on the table...

[PG_kerensky]

When creating this model I knew I put too much on it but couldn't decide which option to take:lessen its abilities or increase its cost. I decided to release it with all the abilities and see which the player base could do without. The 10" spray should suffice as its source of clearing nearby enemies.
I think my best course of action will be to remove combustion and swap shift with charge as suggested. I think I will also swap advance deployment with a modified version of advance move, that way it will still need to be deployed first but can get that extra move forward early.