caps's Customs Redux - STAR WARS Yoda

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

DUAL ASSAULT
Darth Maul may attack twice. When he does the second attack must target a different figure than the first, if possible.

If your goal is to line these customs up for compatibility with official/VC, seems to me like you may as well copy the Varkaanan Darkclaws' Dual Strike wording for this, since it's functionally the same power:

[caps]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

If your goal is to line these customs up for compatibility with official/VC, seems to me like you may as well copy the Varkaanan Darkclaws' Dual Strike wording for this, since it's functionally the same power:

Thanks for the suggestion! And thanks for stopping by!

In my first draft used that exact power text. Then I decided that if there is only one figure adjacent, I want Maul to be able to attack that figure twice. Basically he has to divide his attention if there are enough targets, but otherwise he can overwhelm a single target. See: anytime Maul fought Qui-Gon Jinn 1-on-1 vs. when he fought both Jedi at once. I usually don't like basing powers tightly off of exactly what happened in a film, but in this case I like how it works out (and I don't think I'm taking my interpretation too "literally").

The other reason I rejected it is due to the principles I put in the OP--I value simple, clear wording over wording consistent with the original game and VC. So I prefer "So-and-so may attack twice" over "When so-and-so attacks, they may attack one additional time." These designs are almost exclusively reusing existing IP so I'm not concerned about them ever being submitted to SoV (and if I were, I could adjust the wording at that time).

[Sherman Davies]

Oh, I see. I missed that he can attack the same figure twice, if he has no other choice.

[caps]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

Oh, I see. I missed that he can attack the same figure twice, if he has no other choice.

Right, that's it.

--

Emperor Palpatine is rather frail. His Imperial Guards are designed to counter that. If you're not sure who these figures are referring to, they are the red-garbed people that escort the Emperor, visible in multiple scenes in Return of the Jedi.

Their signature power is Emperor's Guard, which gives them the ability to protect a Sith figure from being targeted by attacks and many special abilities. Though they do have a defense of 4, they are by no means invincible, so this is more of a delaying effect than real long-term protection, but it should serve to make the Emperor a little less fragile.

When designing this first draft initially I also did some research into the weapons they carry and discovered they do have ranged weapons--I forget if those are integrated into their Force Pikes or are separate weapons, but that is not significant for the design. The Force Pikes give them some nice oomph in cleanup and for clearing away pesky assassins that might try to get close to the Emperor.

Imperial Guard
Utgar

Human
Unique Squad (2 figures)
Guards
Loyal
Medium 5

Life 1
Move 5
Range 6
Attack 2
Defense 4
Points 65

EMPEROR'S GUARD
At the beginning of the game, choose a Unique Sith Hero you control to be the Imperial Guard's Emperor. While at least one Imperial Guard is adjacent to the chosen Emperor, that Emperor has no visible Hit Zones and any opponent's figure that is adjacent to an Imperial Guard may not attack the Emperor with a normal or special attack.

FORCE PIKE MASTERY
All Imperial Guard you control add 1 automatic skull when attacking adjacent figures.

EDIT: This is probably the design that I'm least happy with. I haven't playtested it yet to know if Emperor's Guard has the desired effect, and thematically it's a little foggy.

[Alexandros]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

*snipped*

Emperor Palpatine
Utgar

Human
Unique Hero
Sith
Manipulative
Medium 5

Life 4
Move 4
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 2
Points 135

MACHINATIONS
Every round, before placing Order Markers, you may place an additional 1, 2, 3, or "X" Order Marker. When you would reveal your 1, 2, or 3 Order Marker, you may reveal the additional one instead.

SITH LIGHTNING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 4. Attack 5.
Emperor Palpatine may only use Sith Lightning Special Attack once per round.

Oh, you meant the stats of the figure with Force Leap 4? You'll have to wait longer for those...

I like this- conveys OT Palpatine pretty well.

Now, prequel trilogy Palpatine? Completely different power set. :P

This is probably too complicated, but this made me wonder what a Palpatine design that could try to "convince" a unit to attack another figure would look like, since that's a huge part of his "puppet master" aspect.

[caps]

Actually I feel like it captures Prequel Palpatine pretty well with Machinations. His conversion of Anakin to the dark side was more of a decade-long process that I wouldn't try to capture on a Heroscape card. I don't think there are any other Jedi he could have persuaded to turn on the order in the moment in the way he did to Anakin.

[Alexandros]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Actually I feel like it captures Prequel Palpatine pretty well with Machinations. His conversion of Anakin to the dark side was more of a decade-long process that I wouldn't try to capture on a Heroscape card. I don't think there are any other Jedi he could have persuaded to turn on the order in the moment in the way he did to Anakin.

Hmmm... I seem to recall him being a lot more mobile, and fairly deadly in close combat, in the prequel trilogy. All I meant before was that he was pretty good at convincing people to attack others they wouldn't have wanted to attack before. See: the clones

Still really like it when combined with both of the imperial guards.

[caps]

Originally Posted by Alexandros

Hmmm... I seem to recall him being a lot more mobile, and fairly deadly in close combat, in the prequel trilogy. All I meant before was that he was pretty good at convincing people to attack others they wouldn't have wanted to attack before. See: the clones

Still really like it when combined with both of the imperial guards.

Ah, yeah, sure. I have multiple versions for some of my Star Wars cards, but I'm not sure I'd do an extra card just to capture that iteration of Sidious. It seems so short-lived, and not really that iconic.

Re: the clones, I understood that was more something that he had programmed into them by the Kaminoans. I could see an alternative interpretation of Sidious where each round he can attempt to "seduce" an opponent's unique hero, and possibly have a build-up effect where it gets easier over time... similar to how he spends the entire Throne Room sequence of scenes in RotJ trying to bring Luke over. That melds with his seduction of Anakin (although as I said, that was on a different time scale). I'll keep that idea in my back pocket for now though.

[caps]

It's been a while! Time to post another design.

I've playtested this design several times. It's fun, though not particularly strong.

Qui-Gon Jinn
Aquilla

Human
Unique Hero
Jedi
Perceptive
Medium 5

Life 5
Move 6
Range 1
Attack 5
Defense 3
Points 90

SERENITY
After moving and instead of attacking you may reveal the "X" Order Marker on this Army Card to remove 1 wound from this Army Card and activate Serenity for the duration of the round. While Serenity is active, add 1 to Qui-Gon Jinn's Defense value.

FORCE INSTINCTS
Once per round, before revealing a numbered marker on an Army Card in your army, you may move that Order Marker to this Army Card and reveal it there instead.

FORCE LEAP 3
Instead of his normal move, Qui-Gon Jinn may use Force Leap to move 3 spaces. When counting spaces for Force Leap, ignore elevations, terrain effects, figures, and obstacles. Qui-Gon Jinn will take leaving engagement attacks when he starts to use Force Leap.

I don't like basing entire powers off of single scenes of movies so I may change this, but Serenity felt particularly fitting considering the scene where Qui-Gon meditates while waiting to resume battle with Darth Maul shortly before his death. It can also be interpreted as him remaining calm in battle, weighing his options, and refueling himself via the force rather than rushing to strike.

Force Instincts represents the way that Qui-Gon often went off-script from the wishes of the Jedi Council as he sought to pursue the will of what he called The Living Force.

[Tornado]

Nice. My favorite Jedi.
Looks fun. Serenity is also a great name for a spaceship.

[Son of Arathorn]

Maybe my favorite character from the prequels, and a solid custom right there. I like the execution of theme through the stats and powers, and the Order Marker shenanigans between Serenity and Force Instincts looks like fun!

[caps]

Thanks for the comments, @Son of Arathorn and @Tornado . I agree: Serenity is a great name for a spaceship.

--

Today I bring you Mace Windu:

Mace Windu
Einar

Human
Unique Hero
Jedi
Bold
Medium 5

Life 6
Move 6
Range 1
Attack 6
Defense 3
Points 90

FORCE WAVE SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 5.
Any figure adjacent to Mace Windu is affected by Force Wave Special Attack. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure rolls defense dice separately. You may only use Force Wave Special Attack once per game.

FORCE LEAP 4
Instead of his normal move, Mace Windu may use Force Leap to move 4 spaces. When counting spaces for Force Leap, ignore elevations, terrain effects, figures, and obstacles. Mace Windu will take leaving engagement attacks when he starts to use Force Leap.

Mace is a real beefcake, but like most Jedi he only has a defense of 3. He seems to be more skilled than some others at using the Force to jump (thus he has Force Leap 4 instead of 3), and he was quite proficient with his lightsaber, hitting hard. I pulled the idea for Force Wave from reading about him on a Star Wars wiki.

The two main points I'm unsure about with him are
1. the attack number on his special attack. He can only use it once per game and it should be relatively easy for an opponent to keep him from using it optimally, so perhaps it could go all the way up to 6 attack.
2. his point value. This is particularly the case because I haven't playtested him much. 6 attack is great, but 6 life and 3 defense with no defensive abilities won't keep him alive a long time vs focused squad attacks.