It's been a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time since I posted 'round these parts but, last weekend, my 6.5-year-old son saw a picture of a Heroscape box while looking over mu shoulder as I was editing my BGG Game Collection. He asked what it was and if we could get some. So I took him down to the basement, dragged the boxes out of storage and... INSTANT! LOVE!
Now, he's the imaginative, industrious type, so he almost immediately got very excited and asked if we could use the laser cutter and 3D printer at school (where I also work) to "make our own stuff" for Heroscape. Memories of my short time making customs came flooding back to me. I, too, got very excited.
I have several boxes of minis from various other games that I will get around to cannibalizing but, since I have access to a couple of pretty nice 3D printers (a Makerbot + and an Ultimaker 3), I started trolling Thingiverse to find sculpts that would make cool units.
========NEW STUFF========
I missed out on all the "official" Dwarf units for Aquilla BUT I found a bunch of cool .stl files and have a good number of dwarf minis, so I thought I'd round out my Aquilla stuff with some homebrewed dwarves.
THE DWARVES :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla:
Placing a permanent Glyph on the battlefield (even with a d20 roll) is probably going to end up being too powerful, but I'm really interested in trying to make the Rune Carving power work. I'm also very fond of True Naming—the idea that the more abilities a unit has, the easier it is to "see" its True Name struck me as a cool way to give a (very slight) bump to more vanilla figures.
I created the "Hearthlord" class for Dwarves to give them an easily referenced leader-type.
Tanek is another Hearthlord. My intent is that you would usually play only one Hearthlord in a given Army—1 Hearthlord, 1 or 2 Unique Dwarf Heroes, and a couple squads. I'm really into finding other uses for Size and Height. Dwarves are usually granted bonuses against larger creatures and I thought having Earthquake Special Attack be better against larger targets was thematic (little folks are better able to shift and balance when things get shaky). I'm on the fence about Stoke the Hearth—I want to test it without the activation cost, letting it be used more than once/round but I strongly suspect that will make it too strong.
I have all the official flagbearers. My son keeps asking if we can make an Aquilla flagbearer but I haven't been able to find a suitable figure I was able to find stuff to make my own Valkyrie dice, though and honestly, I want more ways to use all the Valkyrie dice anyway, so along comes Hilda Ironclaw (and the next unit). Hilda is a tank. I am certain I'm going to have to make her slightly tank-y-er (either +2 Life or +1 Defense).
I missed BATTLE FOR THE UNDERDARK, so I used the Glowforge at work to laser cut some acrylic shadow tiles. Then I wanted some way to make use of those tiles other than just putting them out before we start playing, so I came up with Duuran Shadowflame. I like the idea of figures that interact/change the battlefield (I'll be posting my Magma Elemental soon, which can place Molten Lava tiles by standing still) and a dwarf sorcerer seemed liked a good fit for a Shadowmage. I may end up dropping his Shadow Magic to 5, but I always err on the high side for tokens early in testing.
Ivor makes a great partner for Durran Shadowflame, essentially teleporting around the battlefield using Shadowstep and assisting other Aquilla units with Harassment. Another use for the Aquilla Valkyrie dice for which I just need to get the stickers printed properly. Also, I have a lot of cool spider minis and wanted a unit that isn't Sujoah to work with spiders and a stealthy dwarf seemed to fit the bill.
I had never actually painted a mini before a few weeks ago because I have no artistic talent and I always figured I's screw them up. I haven't. I mean, they aren't mind-blowing or anything, but I have been amazed at how relatively easy it is to get something passable when painting a mini. I have painted up three squads of these guys and it took me all of 15 minutes to do. So, you know, five bucks per squad for the minis, a couple .99 bottles of acrylic craft paint and a brush set from Target, and a slice of free time seems a good price.
As far as abilities go, I'm pretty happy with these little dudes. I might reword Danger Sense so that it fires on 0 or 1 wound so that it fires more often. I wanted them to feel like real spiders, you know, where you can't manage to crush 'em 'cause they always seem to know where you're going to swing?
DWARVEN RELIQUARY :aquilla:
Spoiler Alert!
https://i.imgur.com/TktlEKX.png The figure used for this unit is #94, #95, or #96 Steam Golem from Wizkids Mage Knight Rebellion or Wizkids Mage Knight Ulimited.
I really like how this guy turned out. There's a little bit of Mok here, so it feels thematic. The numbers are still not right, I think. I'm working on that. I need to play it in a game where I don't just leave it back until I've lost a few dwarves and then bring it up as clean-up.
========EVERYTHING ELSE========
THE MARIEDIANS :aquilla: :aquilla: :aquilla:
Spoiler Alert!
have very few official Aquilla units, so a lot of my customization thought goes into stuff for her army. I saw Jarek Guy and Kira Jax in the C3V and SoV Books and was intrigued by the idea of Mariedians from the time before the Soulborgs took over—during what, I would assume, were wars for control. I have a load of Star Wars minis, too, so I dug through, found a few cool looking figs, and got to work.
SOULTRACKERS :aquilla:
Spoiler Alert!
https://i.imgur.com/sps3i14.png The figures used for this squad are Star Wars Minis CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE #16 & #17 Sith Trooper.
Originally, this unit only gave a Range bonus vs. Soulborg targets but that felt too limiting, assigning them to only a very specific role in a very specific army, so I made it a universal bump. Reflective Armor will only ever get used once and so I may drop the target d20 number OR just make it automatic so that they need to be killed by a Hero to avoid attrition.
SOULHUNTER :aquilla:
Spoiler Alert!
https://i.imgur.com/9fP1GBz.png The figure used for this unit is Star Wars Minis CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE #46 Coruscant Guard.
Again, Soulshock started as something that only affected Soulborgs but that limited the unit too much, so now it is universal (I think I need to add an exception for Constructs and maybe Elementals). Removing Order Markers can be stupid strong but it ALSO requires planning and execution and can be actively played around. I like doing more with the subgame of Order Marker placement, though, and it's been fun so far.
NATAN LARB :aquilla:
Spoiler Alert!
https://i.imgur.com/aRw7w6A.png The figure used for this unit is Star Wars Minis CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE #05 Old Republic Commander.
I wanted some sort of commander figure for these forces and the mini just screams arrogant-bastard commander, so I leaned into that. He may be too gimmicky, but in terms of theme, I love the idea of wounding himself in order to rally his troops. Again, I stayed away from specifically targeting Soulborgs but tried to give an ability that would be useful against them.
The figure is so weird and creepy and the Death Urge ability of the mini in D&D is so flavorful that I pretty much just ported it over. Added beefed up Insubstantial to force melee to get rid of it and Phantom Walk to make it ghost-y and hard to kill.
The figure just screamed proto-Marro to me. I played around with a few tweaks on dividing, respawning, etc., but settled for a sort of bruiser-pet vibe. I may lower its base movement and raise its Stealth Leap distance to help with flavor.
THE GORILLAS :vydar: :vydar: :vydar:
Spoiler Alert!
So, I am slowly picking up some of the CV3 Customs (they're so darn cool!), and the Gorillitroopers stuck out to me because, well, who doesn't like hyper-intelligent gorillas in power-armor? I can't find the figures for the Primadon heroes (YET!), but I was able to find a Kaptars Attachment Box for a reasonable price (thanks, Noble Knight Games!) and I pulled the trigger.
Now you may notice I said "Kaptars ATTACHMENT Box." That's technically the wrong box, because it has two models for the Gorillitroopers and then two figures that are holding comically enormous rifles. (Noble Knight does have the correct box, Kaptars Unit Box, in stock as well...) So now I have one squad of Gorillitroopers and these other two figures and I hate to waste plastic, so I am proud to present...
Those guns are BIG but I imagine not very precise. I wanted somthing that made them more dangerous they closer they were. And, since the Gorillitroopers have Autocannons that sacrifice Attack for Range, I thought doing the opposite with these guys would give the effect I wanted while also staying true to theme. I've only played one game with them and they were fun, but I need to figure out the points more specifically and see if they are overpowered if they get up close and are throwing 6 attack dice at 1 range. I think the idea is solid, though, if not the numbers.
I wanted a Tarzan-esque hero to go with all these monkeys (especially since I don't have Kurses or Zaeus) and I love when Donna Meagle asks Leslie Knope "Are you Nell? From the movie Nell?" on Parks & Rec and I have a copy of Tannhauser laying around, gathering dust, so I threw together Yula, Primadon-Raised. I wanted her abilities to make her seem like someone raised by and desperate to impress Primadons and so goes over-the-top sometimes. She may attack your own squaddies because of "Over-Excited" and I think that adds a neat little decision point in play. If anyone has feedback on the wording of the abilities, please let me know.
THE INFUSED :vydar: :vydar: :vydar: :vydar: :vydar: >Destructible Object< >Token<
Spoiler Alert!
I was re-reading the Generals' bios and the idea that Vydar summons units from the future struck me. I had a couple of .stl files I had found that had suggested a sci-fi church-y thing to me and I also am really into using tokens as a limited resource. An idea started to form, a church that believes radiation is a divine source of power (future irradiated humans making the best of a bad situation). And so were born... THE INFUSED.
I wanted to have a negative effect for figures who had Rad Counters placed on or transferred to their Army Card. Stayed on the whole even/odd thing. I may up the 20-sided die to 18.
These are the models that started the whole thing. They were the Atomic Paladins at first, then the Atomic Templars. In the end, I went with Atomic Deacons because it sounds sort of wrong in the way I thought a society that doesn't remember everything perfectly from before some disaster would name things. They know that "deacon" is something to do with a church, so adopt the term.
"Radioactive" is an ability all The Infused have (with different levels). Most of the tokens I've seen on customs replenish slowly (1/round). I took the idea of half-life literally and decided to instead make Rad Counters dissipate to an even number each round. This also means there should be ways to regain Rad Counters, which opened up some nice design space.
The "Red-Blessed" Special Attack allows them to spread the Rad Counter love around, as does the Fallout ability. I may need to bring their Defense down but I need more playtesting to decide how much lower to go.
These were actually the LAST of The Infused I developed (I had St. Fission first and then realized I needed a common squad).This is one time where the idea predated the figure—I went looking for penitents, found one that had a couple of options for their burden, then found a separate radioactive waste barrel, resized it and added a hole to fit to the model.
They are an interesting squad in that they don't really need to attack, they are a passive threat (and a good source for replenishing Rad Counters for the other Infused). I've only played with them a little, so I'm not at all sure of their point value right now, but I like them for being weird.
This card is cluttered, I know. I'm trying to edit the text down so that everything fits and is readable by someone like me, namely getting older and less vision-capable.
I tried a version that only had the "Neutron Blast" Special Attack as a way to pump the next Infused figure in the list, but that made her sort of useless. In the end, I may just drop "Flight" and make the wings decorative, but I'm hoping not to have to do that.
The figure may be trash in the end, but man oh man do I LOVE that name! I am also fond of "Halflife" and would put it on all The Infused if it wouldn't clutter up the card. Anyway... I like "Rad-Seeker" a lot and may end up raising the base range to 5—I imagine a game where she is shooting clear across the board at a Rad Counter-riddled enemy. I'm trying to balance the stats and other numbers against "Halflife" and it'll take a little more playtesting to figure that one out.
It's been a bear figuring out how to cost "Fission" because, while it gives you a squad figure back on the board, if it isn't a Nuclear Novice or an Atomic Deacon, each of the squad's figures is going to have to roll for "Radiation Poisoning" every round.
Aside from his resurrection ability, he's pretty vanilla. More playtesting will hopefully help me get his points right.
Remember that image Marcus shows the FBI in Raiders of the Lost Ark of the priests lugging the Ark and shooting golden rays out of it? Well, I sure do! I need to smooth out the wording of "Portable" and figure out if this thing needs a point value, which is something I don't know about in the customs world. Otherwise, it's an enabler for The Infused but also seriously dangerous to have on the battlefield.
THE WIZARD KING AND HIS THRALLS :aquilla: :aquilla: >Destructible Object<
Spoiler Alert!
I really like The Mountain Goats. There's a song on their new album In League With Dragons called "Clemency for the Wizard King" that I am very fond of. I played it in the car on the way to work/school one morning, as my son was playing a game on his iPad in the back seat. The next morning, he asked for that "We who slip past your guards in the night" song. Listening to it led to a discussion of the Wizard King and his followers and what they looked like and how they lived.
The second thing he asked for, after the robots, when he first played Heroscape was version of the characters we had made up from the song. And I was happy to oblige.
First, the lyrics of "Clemency for the Wizard King"
We who train in the way of the blade
We who sleep in the accursed glade
We've come before you now
We've come before you now
We who in his favor would stand
Who lovingly await his most fearsome command
We've come before you now
We've come before you now
Cut loose the handcuffs
Let him go free
We who travel by starlight
We who slipped past your guards in the night
We've come before you now
We've come before you now
We who boldly lay claim to our own
We who have seen the chamber of the one true throne
We who have seen the kindness of the cracks of his face
We who will die if we must in this place
We've come before you
Outnumbered and unafraid
Well-trained in the way of the blade
Cut loose the handcuffs
Let him go free (Let him go free, let him go free)
Using the lyrics as a thematic guide, I created The Wizard King hero, the Thralls of the Wizard King squad, and The One True Throne destructible/interactive object. I'll be working on a map for The Accursed Glade so we can play a whole scenario, but for now, the units!
Thralls of the Wizard King :aquilla: Updated after feedback—6/18/19: Points revised down to 80.
I knew I wanted to have abilities called "The Way of the Blade" and "Travel by Starlight." The attack was pretty easy-peasy to come up with—I went with the max. +3 dice both because that seems to be a common limit AND it encourages playing multiple Thralls squads, which The Wizard King himself wants you to do, as well. I wrestled with "Travel by Starlight," trying to find ways to simulate darkness. Shadow tiles (of which I have none because I never got a BftU set but which I could make my own versions) were considered, but in the end, I came up with this version of the ability to keep it simple. THEN I found the "Phantom Walk" ability that I had forgotten all about, but I decided to just keep my name for it.
I gave them the "Loyal" personality and wanted some kind of ability to lean into the whole premise of the song, that these guys are willing to sacrifice themselves for their Wizard King. I perused some other figures and found the Greenscale Warriors and their "Loyalty to the Lizard King," so with a quick edit and another look through the lyrics to find my ability name, I had "Stand In His Favor."
The Wizard King :aquilla: Updated after feedback, 6/18/19: Stats changed, "The Step Between" ability removed to declutter card.
I had seen the "Gift of Magic" ability around the forums and knew I wanted to use that for this hero. The idea for him to have all "1" stats and then spend Magic Counters to bolster/overcome them was also a pretty early consideration. I will completely cop to the fact that 15 may be WAY TOO HIGH. But he has to spend them for everything, including NOT DYING, so.
"His Most Fearsome Command" was the first Magic Counter ability I came up with. I have a few other units that have "Thrall" as their class, so you'll be able to mix and match, but I really wanted you to be able to eat your Thralls to replenish yourself—that idea of willing sacrifice embedded in the song.
How could I not have a Special Attack called "The Kindness of the Cracks of his Face"? I mean, c'mon!
"The Step Between" was a fun take on teleport that spends Magic for movement, so I was sold.
I want to do something with "Fearsome" at some point.
The One True Throne (Destructible/Interactive Object)
I found a cool throne mini on Thingiverse, hollowed out a section that snugly-but-not-too-snugly holds a Heroscape figure base, and glued that to a triple hex terrain base (image of actual model coming soon). It's pretty cool if I do say so myself.
I wanted it to be useful in games where The Wizard King wasn't being played, so his effect is useful to all wizard figures with "Gift of Magic".
THE NEXTGEN :jandar: :jandar: :jandar:
Spoiler Alert!
My son is into robots right now (his first army was Blastatrons, Gladiatrons, Q10, and X17), so I started out looking for sculpts that could be Soulborgs. He wanted to use the name NextGen (he likes the Netflix movie by that name) and so I decided to try to find a couple of Squads and Heroes that could all be NextGen.
NextGen Strikers :jandar: Revised after feedback, 6/18/19—"Skirmish" ability changed to +1 attack die.
I wanted a skirmish unit, something that benefits from movement. My son suggested a bonus to Attack and Defense based on movement. I kept the Attack simple but wanted to do something different with the Defense ability (I like that they eat Order Markers if you want them to get the Defense bonus). An earlier version only had to move to get the Attack bonus but I like the 3 hex threshold to make it just a little more complicated.
So, with movement (apparently) being important to the NextGen units, I wanted something on the other end of the scale. The collection of files where I found the sculpts that became the NextGen Strikers had these two figures with heavier weapons and, voila, the NextGen Artillery were born. They are sssslllllloooooowww but they are able to push other figs around AND punish you for closing with their Detonate ability.
I found three sculpts that would make good NextGen heroes. This is the first to be "finished." My son had wanted an ability called "Rip Claw" for some other figures we found and his description of that led me to wanting a move+attack power. This unit's Dancing Blade power is possibly a tad too effective but I want to play it a few more times to test it out.
Hello and welcome.
Your card looks great for a first effort.
What needs fixing (from what I can see)
The figures name at the top of the card is usually all-caps.
There is a typo in the first ability (and the second now I look).
Squads figures only ever have 1 life.
If you have room maybe try a bigger font for the abilities (my own person feeling here). Have a look at my GIMP tutorial to see how to do the fogging effect a little more effectively.
You could try flipping one of the squad members pics to give them some variation.
As for the abilities, I like the Stone Stride (but it would be a bugger to get around on a map with no rock tiles in the starting zone) as it seems to fit thematically with the characters. Having them take no engagement attack makes them extra tricky :)
Having Tough added to a base roll of 5 will keep them around for a long time as well.
Overall, I feel that they might be just a little on the cheap side.
Keep up the good work :D
IAmBatman
July 20th, 2007 02:23 AM
I'd consider upping their base move to 4. It's still pretty paltry, so they prefer to stone stride when possible, but they won't be absolute cripples when it's not possible.
when their lives are 1 (as they need to be) they'll look a lot less invincible. Still, with tough, I'd lower their defense to 4 to get them closer to that 90 point level.
Scud-O
July 20th, 2007 08:15 AM
Thanks for the comments! Yeah, it was VERY late when I finally got Photoshp downloaded, hence the typos. I'll fix those in a little bit, when I am at my main computer.
Also, I don't know why I put 6 as their life - that was just a straight up mistake.
If I were to leave their Defense at 5, what would you suggest for their point value, 110?
Thanks again for the feedback!
Scud-O
July 20th, 2007 11:44 AM
UPDATED!
STONE SPIRITS
*Fixed typos
*Fixed style
*Fixed Life
*Altered cost
BRUNAK
July 20th, 2007 05:31 PM
Yup. Just leave it at 110.
Scud-O
July 20th, 2007 06:12 PM
Updated again!
*Added DWARVEN HACKERS
bishopbeowolf
July 20th, 2007 06:47 PM
I like the clear cut ability. I could see myself having fun with that on a map with alot of trees.
scorpiusx
July 20th, 2007 10:16 PM
I like the Stone Spirits, and beleive that they are pretty correctly costed, although they could go up by 10 points.
The dwarves look like a fun squad, but need to be reduced a LOT in price.
Scud-O
July 21st, 2007 12:42 AM
Updated again! (I had the day off from work - can you tell?)
*Raised DWARVEN HACKERS Attack to 4
*Added DWARVEN SAPPERS
I think I need some help with the language for the TUNNEL RAT ability on the SAPPERS - does it need to mention elevation? Is it at all clear? Any help would be great. Thanks!
hi1hi1hi1hi1
July 21st, 2007 01:08 AM
Ok I don't know how Focused would work. You don't revel the X Order Marker, so your opponent would not know whether you can use them or not. Also what happens if the Dwarves are the last units in your army. Then you have to put the X marker on them and they would be completely usuless. I don't know how you would want to fix this, but I have a possible solution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Focused
If the X marker is on <Unit> at the start of the turn you must reveal it. While the X marker remains on this army card, <Unit> may not take a turn.
I think that fixes the problems with Focused. Then your other two powers would have to be reworded slightly. I don't know if this is too much of a change, but this is what I would say for each:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clearcut
If a Dwarven Hacker is adjacent to a tree you may remove the X marker from this card any time during the round. If you remove the X marker, remove any tree adjacent to a Dwarven Hacker.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tunnel Rat
If a Dwarven Sapper is adjacent to a castle wall and a friendly figure you may remove the X marker from this card. If you remove the X marker you may place a figure adjacent to a Dwarven Sapper on the other side of the castle wall, up to two spaces away.
Scud-O
July 21st, 2007 03:13 PM
hi1hi1hi1hi1 - those are really great solutions. I think I am going to allow all SAPPERS that are in position to function when you remove the X Marker. It just seems that moving one single figure across the wall is suicide. If they all function at the same time, you could get up to 3 figures across in one turn.
For the HACKERS, I think I'll use:
Quote:
At the end of a round, if a Dwarven Hacker is adjacent to a tree, you may remove the X marker from this card. If you remove the X marker, remove any tree adjacent to a Dwarven Hacker.
That way, it takes them a full round to knock down a tree. Should the ability allow you to remove one tree next to EACH HACKER, or should I leave it at one tree total?
