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This is a neater way of storing my playtests for my customs that I want other people to be able to see. I mostly intend on posting about units that I'd like to submit to the SoV.
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Masha with Deathstalkers in Hot Lava Death (Pt. 1)

Posted December 1st, 2018 at 01:28 AM by Astroking112
Updated November 29th, 2019 at 11:39 PM by Astroking112
I'm in the process of starting a HeroScape club at my college, and one of the traditions that we have so far is to let everyone vote on what the next monthly event will be. This time, they chose "Surprise Me," which @Leo Ultra and I took to mean "hot lava death." The maps that we decided to use were all meant to emphasize this theme, since we chose Obsidian Attack at Steam Alley, Deadly Encounter at Searing Pass, and Burning Barracks.

I obviously make for a fantastic tournament director.

In all seriousness, there were many people new to the game coming this time, and I wanted them to get a chance to just have some plain old fun with the game. Still, I couldn't pass up on the chance to get some playtests in, so I decided on an army that's been in the back of my mind for quite a while: Masha Shingai with Deathstalkers, since they actually enjoy his Awakened Fear ability.

The first of two games follows below:

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Searing Pass (Deadly Encounter)
Glyphs: Crevcor (Common Attack +1), Oreld (Intercept Orders), Brandar (Objective)
Astro: Masha Shingai, Deathstalkers x3, Isamu, Sentinels of Grax (495)
@Angi : Dünd, Brandis Skyhunter, Agent Carr, Krav Maga Agents, Obsidian Guards (500)

Current Version of the Unit:
Spoiler Alert!


Which Units Survived?
2 Sentinels of Grax, 4 Deathstalkers, Isamu
~240 Points

2 Obsidian Guards, Brandis Skyhunter (no wounds)
~160 Points

Game Summary:
We rolled off to see who was on the attack and who was on the defense, and I decided that starting in lava zones with expensive double-spaced squad figures was probably a bad idea, which left Angi on the attack. She had just 5 rounds to try and secure the Glyph of Brandar, but I was immediately able to plop my Sentinels of Grax right on top of her objective to prevent any shenanigans with Agent Carr.

After that, I quickly moved Masha out and swarmed Dünd with Deathstalkers (I was unaware at the time that Maul only works on Small/Medium figures), hoping to bypass the defense dice with a lucky roll. It never triggered anyway, and Dünd absolutely beat up Masha. From a height disadvantage. By the time that I finally gave up on Masha wounding the Doggin, he had already taken 3 wounds and lost 2 Order Markers (on separate occasions). Luckily, I could swing around and grab Crevcor with Isamu to abandon the Masha/Deathstalkers synergy altogether and brute force my way through the match.

Once the unironically terrifying Dünd finally fell, Masha only moved out and unsuccessfully attacked a lone Krav Maga. Despite being well within his aura, they killed him the next turn. Fortunately, I had enough Deathstalkers left to wipe up most of the remaining figures and prevent Angi from getting onto the glyph in time.

This match also had a special rule of Steam Vents, which had a 20% chance after every turn of dealing 1 wound to a figure activated that turn. It only activated once, killing a single Krav Maga from Angi's army.

Usefulness of Powers
Eh, the concept was great and the set-up should've worked (I had Masha posed next to a bush on height in the center of the conflict, where the Deathstalkers should've benefitted from his aura the most), but a 25% chance of 2 automatic wounds just wasn't consistent enough to be a threat. It only triggered once against Agent Carr, half-killing him instantly, but every other time the dice penalty seemed to hurt more than help.

Still, it was a pretty fun build and one that I can easily see myself running in more casual events in the future. It might not be gamebreaking, but the build is fun and out-of-the-box synergies like this are one of the really neat things about HeroScape.

On a more competitive standpoint, it is worth noting that Masha melts like butter now with 2 defense. 6 life is hardly compensation, and he feels like an extreme glass cannon, even against Dünd. When he had height. It definitely makes him significantly weaker.

Additional Comments
My friends have always memed about Dünd before. I can see why he is 110 points now. I lost 3 Order Markers to him due to some exceptional rolls, and he took many a bite out of Masha.
Total Comments 2

Comments

Old
flameslayer93's Avatar
You’ve gotta be careful of Dund! I’ve lost two rounds in a row to the Doggin before!!!

(I was playing Heavy Gruts and figured the d20 would miss... boy was I wrong ).
Posted December 2nd, 2018 at 04:15 PM by flameslayer93 flameslayer93 is offline
Old
Astroking112's Avatar
Definitely! It helped that I misread the Deathstalkers card and thought that they could take advantage of Masha's pounce on him, leading me to cluster around him.

For how much we all make fun of Dünd, it can be easy to forget that he's actually capable of completely paralyzing you for a round.
Posted December 11th, 2018 at 01:16 AM by Astroking112 Astroking112 is offline
 
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