Heavy Spikes obstacle. Proposed stats in first post.

[Hahma]

I've been wanting to make some spike obstacles for awhile and finally made some this morning. I made a little diarama to show them in.

They were easy as anything to make. I simply drilled four little holes at an angle into the hexes and insterted broken in half toothpicks into the holes (no glue required for that). Then I painted the spikes, black washed them and flocked the hexes. I didn't have any glue on hand, so I used some water based varnish that I had laying around and dabbed it on the hex, then I sprinkled some chopped basil leaves onto it and viola. They smell nice too

Marcus and his Romans tell the Templars to "Bring it on!"



















Here's some stats for the Heavy Spikes that I (and others credited at bottom of post) came up with. Updated 7/19/09

Heavy Spikes

Destructible Object

Life:4

Defense:3

Cost:100* for a squad of 5 individual Heavy Spike hexes.

Narrow Target:When Heavy Spikes roll defense dice against an attacking figure who is not adjacent, one shield will block all damage.

Melee Defense Bonus:All friendly figures adjacent to Heavy Spikes add 1 die to their defense against a normal attack from an adjacent figure.

Cautious Movement Penalty:All spaces adjacent to Heavy Spikes cost one additional move.

Leap Of Faith: Only double-based figures may attempt to leap over Heavy Spikes. They must begin their movement at least three spaces away.Each figure attempting this leap must roll a d20. Count the minumum number of spaces between Heavy Spikes and where the figure began its movement. Add this number to your die roll. A roll of 1-5 = 2 wounds, a roll of 6-12 = 1 wound and a roll of 13-20 = no wounds. Successful figures may resume their full movement allowance.

*The Heavy Spikes may be used as normal obstacles on a map without cost to either player. In that case, there is no Melee Defense Bonus, as that was meant to help the drafting team. Everything else would remain the same.

Edit: To acknowledge feedback and contributions by Darkmage, Nyys, Mossman, Onacara and Yodaking.
I've done what I can at the moment to try to incorporate everyone's advice and concerns in the change to the rules above.

[Obsidianator]

Nice job. The spikes look good. Are there any special rules for them?

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Those look great and pretty simple to make. Great job!

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by S1R_ART0R1US

Those look great and pretty simple to make. Great job!

Thanks S1R_ARTOR1US. They were quite easy to make. Now I just have to try them out for real in a game.

Originally Posted by Obsidianator

Nice job. The spikes look good. Are there any special rules for them?

Thanks. I don't have any rules as yet, but I imagine they should be destructible and there should be some major chance of damage if someone fell or was thrown onto them.

[ares834]

Wow. Those are beautiful. Reminds me of the charge of the rohirrum.

[Billtog]

Very cool.
I think you should make them face a definite direction (one side of the hex) and say if a figure standing on the hex which the spikes face, it can be pushed (if small or medium) onto them for X damage (maybe pushing also requires a d20 roll?). I think I might make some of my own.

[Ugly-Caco]

Very cool but seems tetanusy. Be careful when you play with that.

[thezandcshow]

Cool.

[nyys]

Great idea.

Personal preference for me would to be to cut out a base the same shape/size as a glyph and glue the spikes to them. This way there's no painting of hexes... but that's just me.

I think they can work great as impassable terrain (no special rules) forcing the enemy to take the path you want them too.

Making them destructable makes sense too and some sort of passing thru or potential falling onto dammage sounds cool as well.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by nyys

Great idea.

Personal preference for me would to be to cut out a base the same shape/size as a glyph and glue the spikes to them. This way there's no painting of hexes... but that's just me.

I think they can work great as impassable terrain (no special rules) forcing the enemy to take the path you want them too.

Making them destructable makes sense too and some sort of passing thru or potential falling onto dammage sounds cool as well.

I was thinking about these spiked hexes (first post of this page) again as I finally dug them out for my The Twins map based on GRRM's A Game Of Thrones.

As Nyys mentioned, they could be just impassable terrain. It was also mentioned about falling damage and thrown damage.

I thought that they could be destructible objects:

Life:4
Defense:4
Cost: 20 (perhaps they can be draftable objects in certain scenarios?)

Falling/Thrown Damage: Roll d20 for figure thrown or falling onto spikes. 1-2 = 2 wounds, 3 - 15 = 1 wound, 16 -20 = no wounds. Note: original falling and throwing damage would be resolved prior to this additional potential damage d20 roll.

Passing through attempt: single based figures may attempt to pass through a single spiked hex. They can pass through without a wound if they can end their move on the other side of the spiked hex with a penalty of -3 to their move. If they want to pass through without a penalty to movement, they must roll a single die, if a skull is rolled they take a wound and cannot roll defence dice.

Leap of faith: double based figures may attempt to leap over spiked bases. In order to attempt this, they must begin their move at least three spaces away from the spiked hex and must be able to end their move on an empty space on the other side of the spiked hex. Each figure attempting this leap must roll a d20. A roll of 1-5 = 2 wounds, 3-10 = 1 wound and 11-20 = no wounds.

[Darkmage7a]

Nice job! I think the basil makes all the difference.

I think since there really isn't any pushing rules in heroscape ( with the exception of Jotun's Throw likely killing the figure anyway) I think all you need to concentrate on is a rule for passing through/adjacent to the hex. Keep it simple.

For example:
All hexes adjacent to <spikes> count for 2 extra move. Figures may reduce the additional movement cost. For each point of additional move ignored <spikes> roll one attack die against the figure. The defending figure does not roll defense.

I know its similar to what Hahma posted so props to him too! What is brainstorming for anyway?

It would be neat if anyone using a melee attack to destroy them could take damage on a swing and a miss. How about Counterstrike?

It doesn't look like something that should take alot of damage from ranged attacks either. How about Stealth Dodge?

I think Nyys was on the right track with using alternate bases though. It seems more cost effective given how few tiles come in a set. The other thing is you wouldn't have to be concerned with starting the <spikes> off on hieght either.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Darkmage7a

Nice job! I think the basil makes all the difference.

I think since there really isn't any pushing rules in heroscape ( with the exception of Jotun's Throw likely killing the figure anyway) I think all you need to concentrate on is a rule for passing through/adjacent to the hex. Keep it simple.

For example:
All hexes adjacent to <spikes> count for 2 extra move. Figures may reduce the additional movement cost. For each point of additional move ignored <spikes> roll one attack die against the figure. The defending figure does not roll defense.

I know its similar to what Hahma posted so props to him too! What is brainstorming for anyway?

It would be neat if anyone using a melee attack to destroy them could take damage on a swing and a miss. How about Counterstrike?

It doesn't look like something that should take alot of damage from ranged attacks either. How about Stealth Dodge?

I think Nyys was on the right track with using alternate bases though. It seems more cost effective given how few tiles come in a set. The other thing is you wouldn't have to be concerned with starting the <spikes> off on hieght either.

Thanks for the input Darkmage.

I see your point regarding the Throwing/Falling/Pushing additional rules not really being necessary because of the very few instances when it would occur.

Not too big on the 2 move penalty for hexes surrounding the <spikes>. Would the <spikes> themselves count as a 2 move penalty too? I'd prefer to keep the spaces surrounding the <spikes> as regular movement. Perhaps if there was a base penalty of 3 (for single base figures only, as double based figures are too big to wiggle through) to pass through the <spikes> without wounds (crawling or manuevering gingerly very slow) and for each movement penalty a player wishes to remove, they must roll a single die for wounds without rolling for defense. I still like the Leap of Faith rule for double spaced figures. They're just too big to get through the <spikes>, so they should have chance to leap them, but must be a certain distance away at start of movement (similar to charge) and have a 50% chance of taking at least one automatic wound and 25% chance of taking two automatic wounds. For single life figures, it's basically like choosing to leave an engagement.

I kind of like the Counterstike idea, and I really like the Stealth Dodge idea. I was thinking the same thing, as arrows and bullets really aren't likely to do much against timber spikes.

I agree with both you and Nyys regarding the use of a flat base to glue the spikes to. It saves hexes and it keeps the base of the spikes from being higher most of the time.