Theme/Bio "General Ironwill! General Woo! Apologies for interrupting, but we captured a goblin spy in one of the inner camps! He offered no struggle, but demanded to be brought to you." The tiny prisoner was thrown to his knees before the Aquilla tacticians. "Not a spy." he muttered as he rose to his feet, and repeated, more forcefully "NOT a spy. Recruit. Ally." The deep laugh from General Ironwill was as unnerving as it was rare. "A goblin ally? Do you take me for a fool? Soldier, take this cutter away and do whatever is necessary to extract the truth." But Woo motioned for the soldier to stay "Let us hear him out, Migol. He did make it to the inner camps without detection or mayhem. Goblin, what is your name?" The goblin uttered a single syllable: "Bol".

"Bol?", questioned the monk.

"Bol. Big gruts say "No battle today, let's throw the bol!""

"I see... well, Bol, what made you think we wouldn't kill you on the spot?"

"Bol hear that Aquilla like skill, no care about past. Bol have skill. Skill for Aquilla."

"Ridiculo..." started General Ironwill, but was interrupted as the goblin revealed and offered up a parchment he had, until that moment, kept hidden.

"Bol take from body of Bol's taskmaster. Maybe important".

The generals took the parchment and peered over it. It was General Woo that was laughing this time, while General Ironwill uttered, dumbfounded, "Utgar's troop movements for the next fortnight..."

Creativity: Hailing from Eberron like other goblins, Bol uses his small stature and scrappy frame to be a tricky opportunist - whether it's ankle-shanking large foes or swiping things that look important (or running away when things are looking too hairy). Just as Utgar has been known to recruit the normally Aquilla-aligned dwarves to his armies, Aquilla has gotten great use out of this ex-cutter.

Accessibility: This little guy comes from the D&D Miniatures line "Monster Menagerie 2", released earlier this year. Named "Goblin 3", there are 100+ sculpts available for less than $5 (he even has a handy alternate - it is the exact sculpt, but he simply has an ax instead of a sword, and a hat).

Balance: I have tested out a few versions of Bol. Among many other things, he's had an anti-range ability, Phantom Walk, Hide in Darkness, and his Ankle Shank ability worked on Medium figures as well. For a brief time, his Goblin Opportunism ability even worked for all units, not just heroes. But this version seems best for his 10 point price tag. In a vacuum, he is definitely not favored to destroy Isamu 1 on 1, but that wasn't my objective when designing Bol. My objective was to create a solid, balanced figure that serves a different purpose and could compete for the 10 point slot in an army. Like Isamu (and Otonashi), sometimes his abilities aren't relevant. But other times they make for a very exciting endgame.
Goblin Opportunism is probably the strongest and most interesting of his abilities, with one of my comrades commenting "It's nice to have a bit of Order Marker insurance". Although he often will not get a single OM in this way, he also could receive a handful. Limiting it to heroes within 12 clear site spaces was considered, but never was applied.
Large and Huge heroes are semi-popular, so Ankle Shank can have its uses. In a handful of my tests, it has come down to Bol vs a large/huge figure, and it makes for some exciting standoffs.
Lastly, unless I missed something big, there are only minor synergies associated with his characteristics, nothing overpowered.

Playability: Bol is (in my opinion, of course) the definition of playability. Goblins are fun. 10 point fillers are needed all the time. Doesn't even need to be rebased if you don't want to.

Fun: Bol is SO fun. Why? Because many times, fillers don't get a single Order Marker. Sniped early on, sacrificed to a Wannok wound, or a number of other reasons, but a very common reason for this is that one wins the game without needing their filler to help with that victory. Bol has a good chance of defying this - even if he only gets one order marker off of your destroyed hero, it's fun to tromp him up the battlefield. It's that much more fun if it's more than one order marker and/or an enemy is in range of his short sword. Again, Bol is really, really fun!

Theme/Bio: When poor, twisted Marcu Esenwein was summoned from Feylund to fight alongside his undead brethren, something else quickly scurried through the diminishing portal, its diminutive form unnoticed in the smoke and ash of Utgar's Summoning Circle as it dashed into the night.

As months passed, Goblin patrols began to disappear as chilling howls were heard, piercing the night. Grut patrols soon followed, and the howls were heard again. When one of Utgar's own Minions was found torn apart, an aggressive hunting party was formed. It didn't take long for the hounds accompanying Ne-Gok-Sa to catch the scent and hone in on the vicious perpetrator, but subduing it was another story - feeding off of its quarry, the once tiny wanderer had grown into an immense demon, with enormous muscles barely contained under fleshy crimson skin. Nearly debilitating himself in the process, Ne-Gok-Sa was able to pierce through the chaos and bloodlust of the demon's mind, subjugating it, and brought it to his master.

But General Utgar had no desire to discipline such a wild, violent, and nigh-uncontrollable monster, but recognized that his lieutenant may have a use for such a being. This notion proved accurate, as General Vakrill adopted and named Carnifex, effectively channeling his own love of chaos and hatred of order into a ferocious, primal combatant in his army. As part of a particularly sadistic strategy, Carnifex is often released in a later wave, after the sights, sounds, and smells of battle have put him in a frenzied state. Heralded by his piercing, crippling howl, Carnifex, loather of order, has arrived to spread chaos and havoc.

Creativity: Like most of the enemy-aligned forces summoned from Feylund, Carnifex is a thing of nightmares. Caring little for defensive tactics, Carnifex wants to hit hard. Keep him tethered long enough, teasing him with an Order Marker, and an anticipation of violence will have him whipped into a frenzy. Try and snipe him with an organized, disciplined line of fire, and risk his abhorrence of order - he may forgo bothering to defend, instead bellowing out his injurious howl!

Accessibility: The figure for Carnifex is from the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures game. He is figure #47 Carnage Demon from the Night Below set. Although the set is a few years old, he must not be a very good unit in that game, as his miniature is plentiful (100+ across various miniature sites and eBay). And, if one can't be bothered to rebase customs, his miniature doesn't require it.

Balance: Carnifex has experienced very few dramatic changes or tweaks. His Anticipation of Violence ability used to have no cap. His attack was 0 for a few testing sessions. He had a move of 6 for a few testing sessions. His vengeful howl has been smoothed out.
Despite his potentially high offensive capabilities, this is offset by his lack of defensive capabilities, and the fact that a player has to sacrifice the strategy of X Order Marker placement to pump him up. He won't necessarily be snuffed out by snipers, however, as Vengeful Howl of Chaos affects a number of units out there (roughly 20-some out of the hundreds of classic and custom SoV/C3V units, most notably the beloved Major Q9 (I do feel bad that the poor Deathwalkers are affected too, and are pretty much forced to engage this guy, but it is what it is)).

Playability: He fits best and is very playable in an army with few army cards (2-3, in addition to Carnifex), as the X Order Marker is less valuable in an army like that. He also plays well in armies where you are throwing OMs 1-3 on bonding units (I've had a few thematic all Valkrill games with him accompanying Death Chasers). In my 18 tests with him, his two (separate games) highlights have been finishing off a wounded Grimnak (72 points worth) and sneakily using Rygarn to move an OM to Carnifex to wound Captain America who got too close to the start zone (88 points!). Unfortunately (but appropriately), this isn't typical - usually he gets squished before doing anything, or only manages to kill a squad figure of some kind.

Fun: Carnifiex is right up the alley of players who like the high-risk, high-reward playstyle ("Risk it for the biscuit!" as the Utah/Idaho HS community is fond of saying). Isamu is a better choice, tactically speaking, but it's very, very fun to make Major Q9 think twice about unloading his payload at a 10 point filler. In the type of game when it's just down to a few units per side, assuming you sacrificed the X Order Marker on him pretty consistently, it is very fun to stomp around with a 5 attack demon (but a squishy 5 attack demon).

Theme/Bio:

Creativity: Johann strikes a balance between fitting within the lore of Heroscape, and being unique. Like many unique units in Jandar’s army, Johann Graybeard is a human fighter who hails from Earth. He is a valiant fighter who fought for good causes before being mortally wounded and summoned to Valhalla. Although Johann Graybeard fits readily within Jandar’s army, he also possesses some unique aspects. Most notably, he is older, with his age being worked into the mechanics of his card. And although Johann is old, he still has some fight in him. Johann Graybeard is also from a culture that hadn’t really been used before in Heroscape (Germanic). I really like the idea of Jandar drafting a grizzled peasant warrior right before he fell in battle.

Accessibility: The figure used for Johann Graybeard is a Pathfinder Battles figure from the Crown of Fangs set. Its model name is “Emperor's Thug #05”. There are over 100+ figures available across multiple outlets. Most sources sell him for less than $5.

Balance: Johann is a useful, though not dominating, 10-point filler. I have play-tested him extensively (nearly 20 times) both in real games and in “end-of-game” scenarios. As a result, I upped his move from 5 to 6 (5 was just too low to have him be effective). His shield-rush stun was, initially, a Shaolin Monk-like ability that allowed him to attack anyone with whom he was adjacent. However, playtesting showed that Johann would almost never use that power (especially at the end of a game). Playtesting also helped me raise the D20 number needed to roll the shield rush stun from 11 to 12.

In my tests, Johann could take his points worth (or more than that), but he had to be played thoughtfully to do so. Even then, he did not always get any points at all. He lost most games against Isamu but won most against Otonashi. I tried him as a “Theracus bomb” to see if he would be able to unduly influence the game if he got into an opponent’s start zone early. That attempt failed miserably, though it might have worked if my opponent had not had ranged squads at the ready to cut him and Theracus down. Interestingly, he worked fine the time I brought him out slowly in the mid game and didn’t just leave him for the end. He also worked as a sacrifice piece that allowed me to gain more time/positioning with more important figures.

Playability: As a valiant 10-point figure who follows Jandar, Johann Graybeard is certainly playable – especially in a generals’ format game or a valiant build. The lowest point figure Jandar has is Eldgrim (at 30 points). The lowest point valiant figure is Kyntela Gwyn (at 20 points), and she does not really add much value to your typical valiant build.

There are other possibilities for Johann Graybeard beyond a Jandar/valiant build, especially if he is able to combine his Shield Stun ability with his Remember Youth’s Vigor ability. For example, Johann might make a great counter-pick to samurai because activing his Rushing Shield Stun ability would prevent them from using counterstrike on him. He could also put the finishing hits on a wounded high defense, small/medium figure (e.g., Siege). If activated, his Rushing Shield Stun would also prevent other figures’ special defensive abilities from working such as Heirloom’s Warforged Resolve or the Gorillinator’s Tough ability.

Fun: The fun in Johann Graybeard comes in trying to decide when to bring him out. Should you wait to the end of the game and use him to mop-up a few remaining squad figures or a wounded hero? Should you sneak him behind your opponent’s lines in the middle of the game and have him use Remember Youth’s Vigor to try to take out a key hero (e.g., a wounded Raelin or Marcus Decimus Gallus)? It’s also a lot of fun rolling the D20 to see if he gets his shield stun.