Played my first game using Dragons this morning, and on the whole found the rules very straightforward, fitting in nicely with the rest of the game.

The only gray area we came across was whether or not dice modifiers would be able to be used on breath attacks. It seemed to us that cards such as Leadership and Assault would modify the attack (as they are for the whole turn, and are not restricted to melee nor ranged attacks [though additionally, we thought that the breath attack was not intended to fit either of these categories], but cards such as Strength and Bless(played during combat phase), Mass Might/Enchanted Mass Might (only affect melee attacks), Take Aim/Eagle Eye (played during combat phase and only affect range attacks), and Magic Missiles (only affects range attacks) would not.

Anybody have other comments/ideas?

Good question,

I haven't played with Dragons yet, but my gut says, at most only those cards that improve Lore should count for breath attacks (melee attacks would be affected by cards as normal) but then again I don't think that terrain should reduce dragon breath attacks either...

Chris

Just re-read assault and it grants +1 in battle, is the breath attack a battle or not? If not I don't think it can boost a breath attack

Chris

It is "battling" it is an "attack", but it occurs during the movement phase, so yeah, that's why this is a question to me. BattleLore (and all C&C games) are usually pretty intuitive and consistent but the Dragons are pushing the BL envelope The only other attack that occurs during the movement phase is through the Rogue Lore Card "Sneak Attack". Some precedence, I suppose, can be taken from the fact that if that unit is also ordered by Leadership or Mounted Charge, it does get those modifiers as well. But what I would really like to hear is the intention of the designer(s) for the breath attacks - are the supposed to get modifiers or not?

It seems to me that the attack does not occur during movement, but at the very beginning of the combat phase. I believe this because the rule card states that a token is placed during the movement phase. The attack does not occur until movement is complete, but before other attacks. My feeling is that had the designers intended the attack to occur during the movement phase, they would have simply said so. As it is, they clearly made an effort to differentiate the timing of the attack to be later than other movement.

While my opinion is by no means authoritative, I interperet the power of the dragon or any other creature to be similar to a lore card. The tactic or section card gave the creature the power to attack, but the nature of the attack is governed by the creature's own card.

Of course, now I have just confused myself since I would fully expect a giant making a range attack to get the bonus of +X dice while throwing his rock/log just like any archer. The difference being that on the giant (lair) card, the statement is that the attack consists of "ranged weapons with Xd of damage."

Actually, upon looking at the cards, this would seem to reinforce my original point. The designers clearly stated that attacks such as the rock/log throw should be treated as ranged attacks, but effects like dragon breath make no such references. In any case, my own conclusion is that breath attacks are not subject to modification based upon any tactic or lore cards.

Nematode said:

You may be correct here, but I believe it should be made explicit which phase it is occuring in, as this has significance with the Lore Cards. To me, it is happening at the tail end of the movement phase, not the beginning of the combat phase. The rules are very clear that terrain restrictions do not affect the breath attack, I don't think it too much trouble to add another phrase such as "neither do modifiers from Command nor Lore Cards" to the rules if that was the intention. It also should be explicit if this is a new class of combat (neither ranged nor melee) as this is also relevant to Command and Lore Cards.

Until somesorta FAQ or Compendia are up and active, I was just hoping to get some discussion going - thanks Chris and Nematode

One thing to consider is that terrain has no effect on the battle dice rolled from a breath attack. I agree with Nematode though, the lore and command cards would probably only affect the dragons' normal melee attack

(Although it's interesting if the fire dragon deals extra breath damage on forest, and the green dragon deals extra damage on swamps.)

And Sevej, thank you too

A Dragon will battle in melee like other units and creatures. A Command card or Lore card that modifies a melee may therefore modify a Dragon’s melee combat.

A Dragon’s breath attack is not ranged combat or melee combat. A Dragon’s breath weapon therefore may not be modified by a Command card or Lore card.

Enjoy!

Richard Borg