The Book of Estivara

[TheSparkleInYourWater]

The Book of Estivara

Champions of The Forgotten Realms
Collection 11 (D1) - "Heroes of Faerun"

If you cannot see the Army Card graphic, check the Heroscapers Gallery for stats and special powers, plus "character biography" and other non-game unit info.

Character Bio: (Truth's front-page description) Estivara is the latest Drow summoned by Utgar. She’s a tricky Arachnomancer that bolsters Arachnids with her LOLTH’S JUDGEMENT AURA. She also has a VENOM RAY SPECIAL ATTACK that can kill even the heartiest of heroes with just one attack roll. However, her most interesting power, especially if she is on height firing down, could be her CLOUD OF DARKNESS.





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-Rulings and Clarifications-
Cloud of Darkness- If Estivara's Cloud of Darkness power has been activated she may not be targeted by any attacks or powers that require a visible hit zone. Adjacent figures do not require visible hit zones to attack one another. Non-Adjacent figures require visible hit zones to attack or special attack. Some abilities only require clear line of sight, however, like Sudema's Stare of Stone and would therefore still be able to be used on Estivara. _________________________________________________________________
-Combinations and Synergies-


Synergy Benefits Received

• Ornak: Red Flag of Fury Aura: As a unique hero who follows Utgar Estivara may benefit from Ornak's Red Flag of Fury Aura.

Synergy Benefits Offered

• List of figures that benefit from Lolth's Judgement Aura:
• Fyorlag Spiders

• Pelloth: Lolth's Wrath Special Attack: As a Drow Estivara may be used by Pelloth for his Lolth's Wrath Special Attack.

• Otonashi: Tricky Speed 4: Otonashi may benefit from Estivara's tricky personality with her Tricky Speed 4.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• - TBA

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-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Estivara Pre-Release Discussion

Power Ranking and Master Index
"She does a little bit of everything- part cleanup, part cheerleader, all okay. B-"
~Jexik


Unit Strategy Review

• - TBA

[Tai-Pan]

Cloud of Darkness probably isn't generally useful, but I think it makes Estivara a decent cleanup figure. If she's the last figure on the board and you can dump all your order markers on her, she stands a 25% chance each turn of not being able to be attacked by a non-adjacent figure. With her poison special attack, a lucky roll that inflicts a wound might spell the end of an enemy hero. Other than enhancing the spiders up to 3 attack, she's not worth much in a standard game, but she should be good for dungeon scenarios.

Well, I just played a tourny-style game with her. As preddicted, she herself didn't do much. She failed to wound for a chance to poison, and was quickly eaten by an angry hydra. However, she did help out the spiders quite a bit. Her aura is pretty big and I was able to throw the first order marker of the game on her and leave her there until most everything else was dead. The spiders' move of 7 helped them get to the action quick, and take height. There were quite a few attacks where they were rolling 4 dice with Estivara's help.

[killergoat72]

Venom ray is my favorite new special power in "champions of the forgotten realms" as it could kill even the hulk in one turn.also it is worth noting that estaravia's cloud of darknes does not effect melee attacks.

[Chardris1287]

Am I reading her venom ray correctly? I get to continually roll for Venom ray if I inflict a damage and roll 10-19? it's a drow with venom frenzy! I'm pretty sure you cannot target other figures if the one you are attacking dies from the venom, correct?

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Chardris1287

Am I read her venom ray correctly? I get to continually roll for Venom ray if I inflict a damage and roll 10-19? it's a drow with venom frenzy! I'm pretty sure you cannot target other figures if the one you are attacking dies from the venom, correct?

You are correct. You can continue to roll for damage, but only against the originally wounded figure.

[killercactus]

I've only played one game with Estivara, but I think she's awesome, and a near must in any army containing 3+ squads of Fyorlag Spiders.

Cloud of Darkness is just kind of a bonus, but it's cool when it does activate after you've positioned Estivara. Then the enemy can't retaliate, because your 7-9 move Spiders are too far away to shoot before they scurry up to the front.

The best thing about her is her 6-space attack aura. That's really awesome, especially when you have Mittens to make the Spiders super-fast.

Lastly, the fact that you can draft a Wyvern and Estivara for 180 Points makes Sujoah pretty much unplayable. It's hard to think of a situation where I'd rather have Sujoah than Wyvern/Estivara, unless I already had them in my army.

[Sir Dendrik]

I was thinking about the crucial choice of whether to attempt Cloud of Darkness with Raelin looking at her, but it's a moot point. Cloud only hides hit zones, not everything.

Anyhow, between her and the wyvern the fryolag spiders have been risen from the dead in playability. Not saying they're top tier, just saying they're not bottom tier.

This gives me hope the gorillinators will be revived, as the Nakitas did not help much...

[Aldin]

It's interesting because I've been wanting to play a Sujoah army and I can't think of a single reason I wouldn't want to include her and her Spider boost. 80 points is cheap.

Sujoah 185
Wyvern 100
Estivara 80
Sullivan 65
2xSpiders 80
510/12

~Aldin, mebbe dropping the Wyvern and Sullivan for Kaemon Awa and another squad of Spiders

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Aldin

It's interesting because I've been wanting to play a Sujoah army and I can't think of a single reason I wouldn't want to include her and her Spider boost. 80 points is cheap.

Sujoah 185
Wyvern 100
Estivara 80
Sullivan 65
2xSpiders 80
510/12

~Aldin, mebbe dropping the Wyvern and Sullivan for Kaemon Awa and another squad of Spiders

My only problem with it is that 2x Spiders isn't enough to make Estivara worth it, and that's pretty much the only way you can get Sujoah into the army if you want a Wyvern too.

Even here though, I just can't justify including Sujoah instead of Wyvern + Spiders x2, unless its ONLY to play Sujoah.

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Even here though, I just can't justify including Sujoah instead of Wyvern + Spiders x2, unless its ONLY to play Sujoah.

I think Sujoah's toughness is underappreciated. Make the Spiders dangerous enough to pull attacks off of him...

~Aldin, who should add Runa to the army to get kc's approval

[gorthan313]

Originally Posted by killercactus

I've only played one game with Estivara, but I think she's awesome, and a near must in any army containing 3+ squads of Fyorlag Spiders.

Cloud of Darkness is just kind of a bonus, but it's cool when it does activate after you've positioned Estivara. Then the enemy can't retaliate, because your 7-9 move Spiders are too far away to shoot before they scurry up to the front.

The best thing about her is her 6-space attack aura. That's really awesome, especially when you have Mittens to make the Spiders super-fast.

Lastly, the fact that you can draft a Wyvern and Estivara for 180 Points makes Sujoah pretty much unplayable. It's hard to think of a situation where I'd rather have Sujoah than Wyvern/Estivara, unless I already had them in my army.

1). Sujoah's quite a bit tougher than either one of those, and yet he still has a few of the advantages of both: a poison attack, high move, large immunity, and flying.

2). With the Wyvern and Estivara: If you need to activate the Spiders, but you also have a strong hero approaching to smack the heck out of you who would be good to poison, you have to spend TWO OMs (one to move the spiders up, and the other to poison the enemy.
With Sujoah, you can do both on one turn.

3). Sujoah is huge, so he can't be affected by abilities that affect large figs(i.e: Cyberclaw and Coil Crush).

4). Sujoah is more narrow that the wyvern, making him quite a bit more maneuverable.




~Gorthan, finding ways that the older units are better than their newer counterparts.....

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by gorthan313

1). Sujoah's quite a bit tougher than either one of those, and yet he still has a few of the advantages of both: a poison attack, high move, large immunity, and flying.

2). With the Wyvern and Estivara: If you need to activate the Spiders, but you also have a strong hero approaching to smack the heck out of you who would be good to poison, you have to spend TWO OMs (one to move the spiders up, and the other to poison the enemy.
With Sujoah, you can do both on one turn.

3). Sujoah is huge, so he can't be affected by abilities that affect large figs(i.e: Cyberclaw and Coil Crush).

4). Sujoah is more narrow that the wyvern, making him quite a bit more maneuverable.




~Gorthan, finding ways that the older units are better than their newer counterparts.....

1) Sujoah is tougher than either one, but not both combined. Wyvern + Estivara will survive longer than Sujoah does.

2) I'll take an attack of 4 + Venomous Sting + 3 boosted Spider attacks any day of the week over Poison Sting against pretty much any hero. If that hero is Small/Medium, the Wyvern might get to reposition it, too. I don't plan on attacking with Estivara very often - I'll use Venom Ray on a turn where I need to reposition her, or out of desperation, but thats about it.

3) When people start playing Wo-Sa-Ga and X17, I'll be worried.

4) This might be true, but I don't think the difference is very noticeable.