[Pod 0] Honored Soul-Guides - Editing

[flameslayer93]

Just wanna double check; it is intended that Soul Guides can guide each other right?

[caps]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

Just wanna double check; it is intended that Soul Guides can guide each other right?

That's probably fine, yes, though if it causes trouble in Editing then I'd have no trouble with dropping it. A Soul Guide is not adjacent to itself so they can only use it to "hop" over each other for an extra space of movement.

[caps]

I think the Public Feedback phase is next, @NecroBlade ?

[Astroking112]

I think that we could probably go directly to editing, but after such a heavy redesign, a public feedback phase is probably prudent. I can go ahead and update the OP and post the appropriate blurb below--I'll extend the normal time by a week to account for the American holiday next week.

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It is time to welcome public feedback on this thread! We're always open to feedback, but this is when we specifically are asking you for your opinion on a unit! We're interested in getting outsider thoughts on the unit in the main post of this thread so that we can catch any potential errors and make the most polished units possible.

We do ask that all commenters keep in mind the core goals of the AotV project when giving their feedback. For reference, they are:

1. To be compatible with Classic/Official Heroscape, and completely VC-compliant: that is, designing with C3V and SoV figures in mind, and focusing on the AOTP figures that would be acceptable to SoV (figures that are pre-painted or usable without paint).

2. To provide an affordable and user-friendly entry point to both new and returning players, that captures the feel of a true Master Set.

3. To create balanced units that are relatively simple, easy to understand, and feel at home in a self-contained set together. Units will come from a wide range of themes, and capture the diversity of theme Heroscape is beloved for.

These tenets of the project are important cornerstones for each design. Although other units can be very complex or otherwise rely on other units that they were not packaged with, that is not within the scope of this project.

Each unit should be interesting when compared only against the rest of AotV; they should still be exciting when taken out of the box, but we are assuming that this is an entry-level product for the game. Think of the original Rise of the Valkyrie Master Set, before any expansions were added, and when all of the units were just standalone unique characters.

That said, we welcome your feedback now, and we'd love to hear what you think about this unit! The Public Feedback Phase in this thread will end on 12/4/22, unless otherwise noted.

[NecroBlade]

Thank you guys for keeping this moving. And Astro for updating the OP. My attendance has been sporadic at best lately.

I honestly hadn't thought about them "guiding" each other and might prefer they didn't, as this makes them even faster, but it might be easier to leave it in and might test just fine as well.

[Alexandros]

I really enjoy the leap frogging element and am excited to see it in practice, though I do think it could be strong.

As a heads up, the FAQ refers to powers that are not currently part of the design.

[Tiamat]

I was able to playtest the Honored Soul Guides this week in a game against Coach Muskie. My army was:

M.A.R.S.
Honored Soul Guides
Rygarn
Velnesh Alphas
B-11 Resistance Fighters

Map was Alpaca Trail by Gamebear

I wanted to see if the Honored Soul Guides could effectively set up M.A.R.S. for an early game Missile Barrage on my opponent’s startzone. It actually worked out quite well. The HSGs allowed M.A.R.S. to easily get into a spot capable of hitting the other startzone by OM2 of the first round. Unfortunately, the non-hero portion of my opponent’s army was the M43 resistance fighters who are able to spread out quicker than just about any other squad in the game thanks to Guerilla Tactics. So in the end, it wasn’t very effective this time, but I think against just about any other army it could have set M.A.R.S. up perfectly for some strong early startzone attacks. M.A.R.S. up dying quickly and Coach Muskie had me on my heels for the rest of the match. The alphas rolled poorly on defense, so they weren’t very effective in this one either. Not much to report there.

When thinking about other units to pair with the HSGs and their new power, the strongest combo that came to mind might be Kuthnak. I haven’t tried it yet, but blood-boiled, 9-move blade gruts taking advantage of JTtSW could be pretty insane.

[Captain Stupendous]

Originally Posted by Tiamat

I was able to playtest the Honored Soul Guides this week in a game against Coach Muskie. My army was:

M.A.R.S.
Honored Soul Guides
Rygarn
Velnesh Alphas
B-11 Resistance Fighters

Map was Alpaca Trail by Gamebear

I wanted to see if the Honored Soul Guides could effectively set up M.A.R.S. for an early game Missile Barrage on my opponent’s startzone. It actually worked out quite well. The HSGs allowed M.A.R.S. to easily get into a spot capable of hitting the other startzone by OM2 of the first round. Unfortunately, the non-hero portion of my opponent’s army was the M43 resistance fighters who are able to spread out quicker than just about any other squad in the game thanks to Guerilla Tactics. So in the end, it wasn’t very effective this time, but I think against just about any other army it could have set M.A.R.S. up perfectly for some strong early startzone attacks. M.A.R.S. up dying quickly and Coach Muskie had me on my heels for the rest of the match. The alphas rolled poorly on defense, so they weren’t very effective in this one either. Not much to report there.

When thinking about other units to pair with the HSGs and their new power, the strongest combo that came to mind might be Kuthnak. I haven’t tried it yet, but blood-boiled, 9-move blade gruts taking advantage of JTtSW could be pretty insane.

Thanks for the playtest Tiamat, this is good feedback. We'll be sure to get more tests in with MARS and other AoE attackers should we move forward with this version of the design.

[Tiamat]

One other quick thought on the new power is that I'm not sure how it would work with the Alabaster Sentinels Headlong Charge. Defining a straight line movement when using JTtSW could get tricky. Apologies if any of this has been brought up previously. I haven't read through the entire thread.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Tiamat

One other quick thought on the new power is that I'm not sure how it would work with the Alabaster Sentinels Headlong Charge. Defining a straight line movement when using JTtSW could get tricky. Apologies if any of this has been brought up previously. I haven't read through the entire thread.

Great note. IMO we would add an FAQ that clarifies these powers won't work together because the Sentinels' movement would no longer be a continuous line, whether or not it remained straight.

[caps]

Looks like we're good to move to Editing. Can we get the title of the thread updated? I think we can have @Scytale run through the checklist whenever he's ready.

[NecroBlade]

Moved to Editing.