Xundar, Shadow Binder, Shadow Fiend, Shadow Hound by
@
Sir Heroscape
Since adding our faction submission guidelines several years ago, the SoV has seen a few submissions that take advantage of that format but none so ambitious as this one: a fully-fledged pseudo-squad faction complete with a shadow caster. Is it too ambitious of a set of designs, or does it all pan out in the end?
Balance
Xundar is obviously similar to Kurrok, except he can move and do his controlling stuff. The special attack also sticks out, because it gives him a bonafide way to combine offensive output and regen into one turn in a way that Kurrok can’t (at least not without overexposing himself). Xundar also has worse survivability.
As far as the commons go, they’re pretty much your standard bonding common hero fare. The Binder feels a lot like a nerfed Drow Chainfighter, the Fiend compares to the Black Wyrmling, and the Hound definitely doesn’t outclass the Hoplitron or White Wyrmling
Theme
I must say I love the matching of the magic glow on Xundar’s wand to the color of the Shadows themselves. There’s some other nice thematic touches like the lack of LoS restriction.
Phantom Walk fits very well here, although part of me wishes the Fiend had it as well (Flying + Phantom Walk would allow the Fiend to disengage and use the road bonus on the same turn, for example). Each unit has a single other power, each of which play nicely off the sculpt of the figure.
Creativity
This faction is a great example of restrained design. Each unit is simple and understandable, and each design has a role in the faction. The Binder’s ability nicely sets up the abilities of the other two Shadows (and Xundar as well), in a simple yet novel way.
Despite treading much of the same ground as Kurrok + Elementals, Xundar + Shadows manages to feel creative and unique because of the interplay of the commons’ powers.
Playability
I go back and forth on what the best army composition is for the Shadows. I can’t see a time when you’d want more than 2 Binders, but I can see arguments for splitting your Fiends/Hounds at 3/5, 4/4, or 5/3 in a 500-pt setting. More points than that and you might consider adding support in the form or Raelin or range, but at smaller point totals you really need to squeeze everything you can from the commons, and it won’t help to shortchange how much you include in your army.
One of the first things you notice about Xundar and co. is that Xundar is very squishy (that’s the technical term for it, I believe). It’s not unheard of for him to die in 3-4 attacks, especially if they’re from height or otherwise boosted to 4 or so dice. For that reason, it’s important to deny melee figures access to Xundar as much as possible (while still keeping him within 8 spaces of where you want your Shadows to be).
I usually accomplished this by keeping a Binder near him from the first few turns of the game onwards. At 4 defense, they’re the stoutest Shadows, and at 1 attack, they’re not about to run across the battlefield to get in a chance attack. I usually kept another Binder closer to the front to make ventures towards Raelin or a figure situated on high ground (which Phantom Walk helps facilitate). That usually didn’t last past the first round or two.
The Hounds require the most planning in order to maximize their attack output, and that’s one of my favorite things about playing this faction. You have to sequence your turns properly to get the most out of them, especially since utilizing the boost is the only way for this army to get 5 or 6 attack. It’s tricky to play with Hounds once they’re engaged (since the attack bonus only works on figures you don’t start engaged to), but Phantom Walk helps mitigate that difficulty. 4 defense is just stout enough that they can last a few turns in engagement.
The Fiends are the key to success with a Shadows army. They’re your only shot at multiple-kill-turns, and they are the most maneuverable with 6 move and flying. That makes them your best shot at buffing the Hounds on turns where you’re not already set up to do that (which is most of your turns, usually). The roll of 13+ is right about that point where you feel like you “ought” to get it a fair amount of the time, but it is very important not to overextend your Fiends. They have the lowest defense of the faction and will melt if exposed to fire.
Although I was a bit skeptical at first, Xundar’s special attack grew to be one of my favorite parts of this faction design. Of all the resurrection powers in the game, this is the only one that works by killing at a distance. The more I played Xundar, the more I found turns to use it in the middle of the game. One good opportunity is on an OM3 when you’re playing for the initiative switch. If you can get a 3v2 or a 4v3, that’s pretty good odds that you’ve got yourself ahead in the figure count race, made a big gain in positioning, and set yourself up for a great turn on OM1 of the next round. It’s also quite fun to Shadow Cast a figure on Dagmar or Wannok at the end of the round and flip the effect to your favor.
The Shadows aren’t a top-tier build, but they really are enjoyable to play, especially when you can pull off a few good turns in a row.
Summary
If this was my design, I would have done a few minor things differently (change the Binder’s attack to 2, have the Hound bonus go up to +3, the aforementioned Phantom Walk + Flying combo on the Fiend) (fair warning, I didn’t test any of those changes). But overall, I thought that Xundar and co. were an excellent package.
I vote
to induct Xundar, Shadow Binder, Shadow Fiend, and Shadow Hound into the Soldiers of Valhalla.