|
Therrian's Customs -NEW 02/17- Added 5th Battalion Infantry
Hello all.
Fairly new to the game, but the idea of making custom figs really appeals to me, so I will be working on a few here and there over the next few weeks.
Comments are very much appreciated!
Varbathian Mercenaries
Figure - D&D Mini - Zhentarium Fighter (Common)
Spoiler Alert!
These guys are modeled after the Roman Legions, but rather then being harder to kill, the Shield Bash ability hopefully allows them to do more damage before they die.
I think the lowered point cost balances out the Highest Bidder ability, but as always, comments will be greatly appreciated.
Changes:
Sept 8th - Made some significant changes as it was fairly clear that these guys would never have an OM placed on them. As such, I have added the ability Ready To Go, which allows the user to activate the Varbathian's after revealing an order marker on another card. So they could in theory be activated 3 times per round. However, I have also bumped up the Highest Bidder roll to 25%, so it's a risk/reward decision now. There is a fairly good chance that these guys will turn on you and possibly flank your troops if they are over-used.
Aug 19th - Clarified the Highest Bidder ability.
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 500 Point Army - Medium map with a lake in the middle. (PRE SEPT 8TH CHANGES)
The Varbathians did not fair well in this battle, though most of that was due to a poor Airborne Elite drop on my part that required me to focus my attention elsewhere for most of the battle. When they finally did take a turn...I rolled a 1, losing control of 3 of the 6 that I had in my army. All in all not a great start. I think they need some sort of Warlord Bonding to allow them to get markers on them, but I will give them a few more shots before I make any changes.
Battle 2 - 500 Point Army - Derelict (Codex#11 Map)
The Varbathians did MUCH better in this battle...though some lucky dice rolls really helped them out in this one. 2 units (6 figs) took part in the battle. The 'Ready To Go' ability was used on almost every turn, and with some lucky dice rolling, 'Highest Bidder' was never triggered. 1 or 2 Marro Stingers fell to their swords, and on one lucky roll, 3 wounds were dealt by a single Varbathian to Su-Bak-Na. They also tied down some of the Stingers that had height for a couple of rounds. All in all, they seemed fairly useful in this battle. The only issue now may be their points, however, we had very lucky dice rolls in this match, and things could just as easily gone really bad very quickly with one unlucky 'Highest Bidder' roll.
Battle 3 - 500 Point Army - 3 Player - Fulcrum Fusion
It was interesting to see the impact that a 3 player battle had on these guys. Both the other players were new to the game, and as such, were sort of teaming up on me from the start. One of them had the Mercs, and after not using them for a few turns, they started activating them quite regularly. After a few turns, they lost them, but of course just gave them to the other player. This shouldn't come into effect in team games, but it does provide a wrinkle in matches with more then 2 players. Overall, they didn't really do much, but it was a hard battle to judge given that it involved new players. They both seemed to enjoy the mechanics behind them however, so that's good.
____________________________
Glacial Hunter
Figure - D&D Mini - Chraal (Uncommon)
Spoiler Alert!
I made this common hero for a couple of reasons. The first being that I don't think there are enough snow/ice critters around and the second being that I think the mechanic used in their Arctic Breath Special Attack may be a preview of how the shadow tiles will work in Master Set #3.
The points seem in line with most of the common heroes, with the addition of the special attack, but please give me your thoughts  .
Changes:
Feb 18th - To prevent him from becoming way overpowered once the Elementalist comes out, his race was changed to Elementar.
Playtesting -
Battle 1 - 150 Point Army - Small map with a river and bridge through the middle.
The Glacial Hunter was killed almost immediately from Range by the Marro Warriors.
Battle 2 - 150 Point Army - Small map with a river and bridge through the middle.
The Glacial Hunter was able to get to the bridge first and killed 3 Marro Warriors as well as iced the bridge completely before dying to Sonya in Melee combat. The icing of the bridge made is almost impossible for anyone that didn't fly to get to him. If the flying unit had not gotten to him and won initiative then he likely would have wiped out the rest of the Marro and started eating the Roman Legions.
Battle 3 - 150 Point Army - Small map with a river and bridge through the middle.
Glacial Hunter was killed in the 2nd turn by a flying Sonya. The hunter was unable to kill anything, but was able to ice the bridge again before dying, though this doesn't really benefit either side in this battle...if the Yeti's were involved however, there could be some benefits there.
Battle 4 - 500 Point Army - Medium map with a lake in the middle.
The Glacial Hunter was able to kill a couple of Blade Gruts and do 2 or 3 wounds to Grimnak before he got eaten. It seems clear that he does best when he is on a map with some sort of choke point that allows him to control how quickly he engages in melee combat. The points seem decent enough, though a 5 point deduction might be in order...couple more battles before I can give my verdict.
___________________________
Ankheg
Figure - D&D Mini - Ankheg (Uncommon)
Spoiler Alert!
The Ankheg is one of the more popular D&D monsters, and this may be a preview of a mini we may officially get in D&DScape in the future.
I haven't seen many special abilities that reference the more basic terrain types, so I am interested in seeing how Burrow works in an actual game.
The Acid Spit ability is worked off the Airborne Elite grenade ability, but requires a direct line of sight. Acid splash damage accounts for the damage to the adjacent figures. It's slightly stronger then the Airborne Grenade attack, but I think the fact that it is only used once per card balances this out.
Changes:
Aug 19th2009 - Changed to Predator
Feb 18th 2010 - Changed his burrow ability to match the new Underground Movement ability that was released with the Earth Elemental. I also lowered the abilities power to only 6 spaces. Point value was also lowered to 40 to bring it more inline with the other Common Heroes.
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 750 Point Army - Ecdinox Pass
The Ankheg didn't get much action until late in the game. The map didn't provide much burrowing possibility due the elevation changes, water and rock. When he did get involved, it was almost at the end of the game and he got tied up with the Venoc Warlord when it was down to only 2 figures left per side. We had about a 3 turn stalemate between the Warlord and the Ankheg as his 5 Defense kept him up for a long time, allowing him to do a couple of wounds to the Warlord before he eventually failed to defend against an attack. I don't remember exactly how many wounds he did to the Warlord, but it was a couple, and if I remember correctly, he managed to kill a Mohican or two with the Acid Spit attack as well. He came in so late it's hard to measure how he would fare with more figs on the board. Burrow needs to be reworked a bit to further clarify exactly how it works, I will probably base it off the Drudge swamp water move a little more.
___________________________
Anklebiter Goblins
Figures - D&D Minis - Goblin Underboss (Uncommon), Acheron Goblin (Common), Goblins Blackblade (Common), Goblin Warrior (Common)
Spoiler Alert!
Every good fantasy game needs Goblins! These guys are cheap, fairly easy to kill, and need to swarm the enemy to do much damage...but get a large enough group...and bring along Snig The Anklebiter King and they may just overrun your foe!
Not sure on the points, but I will see how they do in some games and perhaps make some adjustments.
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
___________________________
Snig The Anklebiter King
Figure - D&D Mini - Snig The Axe (Common)
Spoiler Alert!
Every good Goblin horde needs a sneaky leader that prods them towards certain death
Snig is obviously here mainly to strengthen the Anklebiter Goblins, but his abilities require him to stay fairly close to his goblins...making the enemy choose whether they focus on the horde of goblins and the auto wounds from Overwhelm or whether they turn on Snig.
Points may need to be bumped up a bit depending on how much stronger he actually makes the Goblins in battle. Will report my findings when I have them 
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
___________________________
Molok The Ogre Mage
Figure - D&D Mini - Ogre Mage (Rare)
Spoiler Alert!
I have always love this mini and it gave me a chance to use the Gift of Magic custom ability. I didn't try to remake the wheel too much with his abilities, so he may be similar to other customs out there, but what he does makes sense to me for what he is.
On the points side of things, heroes like this are hard for me to point. Let me know your thoughts and if you think he should be higher/lower and why
Changes:
Feb 18th - Made some fairly signifigant changes to this guy. I upped his points to 125, I lowered the power of his Fireball attack to 3 dice and I changed his teleport ability to only be half of his D20 roll. The details of the playtesting isn't all listed below as he has been used in a non-playtesting environment...but it was pretty clear he was much too powerful.
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 750 Point Army - Ecdinox Pass
Molok had a few chances to make an impact in this game, and if I remember correctly, he did manage to kill a few mohican's towards the end of the game. At the start of the game he managed to roll a 19 on his port spell and he took one of the movement glyphs at the top of the fort. The next turn he lobbed a fireball down on the first Granite Guardians that were making their way up the ladder, but they all managed to roll their defense. Over the next couple of turns, Molok just sat on the glyph. He was then threatened by some Guardians that had made it to the top, so he ported away before being killed. Towards the end of the game he ported close to and killed a few Mohican's before he was eventually caught by the Venoc Warlord and killed. Overall, he didn't kill much, but his porting helped the army with some early movement bonus. Overall, he wasn't spectacular, but he contributed.
______________________
Major Q1
Figure - D&D Mini - Iron Golem (Rare)
Spoiler Alert!
Major Q1 is practically a soulborg relic, having survived countless battles despite his fairly obsolete technology. Along with his trusted personal guard (Unique unit coming soon), Major Q1 has seen it all.
I made this guy for a couple of reasons. First off, to show that the D&D Mini line does contain viable Vydar minis. Secondly, I don't currently own any melee soulborgs and wanted to add that option to my armies until I get my hands on the official ones. There will be a melee soulborg support unit to follow that will have obsolete bonding.
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 1000 Point Army - Large map with lots of elevation changes and varied terrain
This was a very large battlefield, and I screwed up at the start by not putting Major Q1 on or near the road. I pegged him and his Bruisers as the ones to climb up the large hill as I knew my opponent was going to try to put his ranged up there. This exposed Q1's slow movement as it took a long time for him to get into the battle. Once in battle, he was quite difficult to move into position as each move involved elevation changes and he just couldn't move fast enough. Eventually he was able to engage and once he did, he managed to hold his own. However, he was soon reduced to a single life, and this is when both he and the Bruisers went off and proceeded to pretty much clean up the rest of the battlefield. After clearing up the hill of Syvarris and whatever the Jandar dragon's name is, they made there was down to the road and knocked off two custom unique heroes with the help of Warden 816. He for sure earned his points in this battle, and he may need a point bump depending on the outcome of the next battle.
_______________________
The 'Borg Bruisers
Figures - D&D Minis - Warforged Captain (Uncommon), Warforged Bodyguard (Uncommon)
Spoiler Alert!
Major Q1 personal guard. This is all that remains of the battalion of borg that has followed the Major into countless battles. Their loyalty to Q1 is unquestionable and together they have formed a bond uncommon between Soulborg.
So it should be pretty apparent that this unit doesn't have much of a place in an army that doesn't already own Major Q1. Nothing overtly outrageous here, just some bonding and an attack boost that comes into play when the Major is in trouble. Stats and points wise they were more or less modeled after the Tarn Vikings, so they should be pointed fairly reasonable...assuming people think those guys are
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 1000 Point Army - Large map with lots of elevation changes and varied terrain
As stated above with Q1, I put the Bruisers in the wrong place to start this battle. Luckily, with enhanced movement thanks to Warden 816, they didn't have as difficult a time moving up the hill as Q1 did. Once engaged, they held their own decently next to Q1. As stated above, once Q1 got to a single wound, these guys kicked it into high gear and helped to clear the rest of the map. All in all, they operated under the best case scenario for much of this battle, so it's hard to judge the point cost based on the results.
Battle 2 - 500 Point Army - 3 Player - Fulcrum Fusion
Not much to say about this battle. I took them without Q1 to be a melee squad to help the Blastors, but one of the other players dropped their Airborne Elite at the top of the castle and threw a grenade down on the squad before they got a chance to move. Some bad rolling later, and all but 1 were dead. Not exactly a game that I can draw any point value arguments from.
_______________________
Magmar The Moltarn Lord
Figure - D&D Minis - Magma Hurler (Rare)
Spoiler Alert!
I wanted to make a unit that could fit in with the obsidian guards, and this is a cool looking mini...though pictures don't do him justice.
I like how the terrain changes have worked with the Glacial Hunter, so we are going to take another stab at it with this guy.
Points seem fair compared to other ranged unique heroes, but we shall see
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
________________________
Thornrak The Impaler
Figure - D&D Mini - Warbound Impaler (Rare)
Spoiler Alert!
This guy screams Aquilla to me, and he just looks pretty darn cool. His abilities are fashioned off the D&D Monsters abilities, so thematically it fits together.
Points on this guy is tough...he could kill a whole heck of alot of figs if given the chance. But he could also get dropped pretty quickly by a strong attacker. 160 seems reasonable though...time will tell
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 750 Point Army - Ecdinox Pass
Thornrak didn't really get into the battle until the later stages, but he came forward with a unit of Spiders when there was a few figs left on the table. There was not a ton of high powered range involved in this battle, so he had a fairly clean go of it until he got into range. He got near a group of Granite Guardians and let loose his Thorn Volley attack, but they all rolled defense. When the Guardians engaged, none of them were hit with the Impale ability. On the next turn he volleyed again and this time killed two of the Guardians if my memory serves. It was at this point that I realized that the wording of the ability needs some tweaking to represent how the ability should really work, as LOS from Thornrak's eyes is not really accurate for the ability. I don't remember exactly how he died in the battle, but he was killed shortly afterwards. I was a little concerned with how little he did for 160 points in the battle, so once it was over I ran a few tests with him and a squad of spiders against a few different 200 point armies. Thornrak absolutely tears though squads. He killed 200 points of guardians and only took a single wound. However, once he is engaged by a hero, he likely wont survive. Having him work with the rats and/or spiders should make for a deadly combo as long as you are willing to risk killing your own figs that have tied up your targets. Some tweaking of point value may be required, but I think the stats are fine where they are in the other areas.
_______________________________
Phylar the Kyrie Warrior
Figure - D&D Mini - Justicator (Rare)
Spoiler Alert!
There isn't exactly a lack of Kyrie already fighting for Jandar, but this mini is just to good to not put to use. He is a little bigger then most of the Kyrie minis out so far, but he is a great looking fig for sure, and he fits into the Jandar army quite nicely.
Obviously his abilities are tailored to fighting specific types of guys, however, he can still deal some damage to a non-Utgar army and he will have bonding when I finish the unique Paladin squad I am working on right now.
Points wise, he might be a little high. By comparison Concan is 80 with slightly better individual stats, but with no special attacks. I will lower it based on playtesting.
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
_________________________________
Paladins of Eroth
Figures - D&D Minis - Paladin of Torm (Rare), Stalwart Paladin (Uncommon), Hero Of Valhalla (Common)
Spoiler Alert!
A unique squad that bonds with Phylar as well as Concan. Their abilities are based off the abilities that DND Paladins enjoy, and as such, they are fairly powerful and are priced accordingly I think. I may tone down Lay on Hands to be powered based on the number of Paladins adjacent to the hero (IE - 1 = 2 wounds, 2 = 4 wounds, 3 = all wounds or something to that effect) but I will see how it plays out in a few games first.
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
___________________________________________
Section 7 Assassins
Figures - Krav Maga Repaints (Minus Female)
Spoiler Alert!
Well, I finally got my paints out and started working on some of my extra unique figs. I repainted a few figs to create some of the TNT/HoV Customs already on the boards, and had these two guys leftover after painting up Agent Bale. For the repaint I decided to go with something simple, as I am used to the more basing/drybrushing style I used on my warhammer and I am still learning the ins/outs of the washing style. I think they turned out pretty good...a couple more shots of the paint job below.
As for the figs themselves, I am interested to see how the 'Human Shield' ability plays itself out. I intentionally left it open for the user to try to use his own figs as well as opponents. I originally had a varience in difficulty for the roll based on who owned the fig, but I figured that regardless of whether they were in your army or not, they would be resistant to being used as a human shield, heh. Looking forward to fielding these guys in the near future, they should look nice on the board
Changes:
Feb 18th - Bumped their Defense up to 3 and lowered their points by 5. They have yet to be playtested, but I made the change just by looking at them and realizing how fast they were going to die with 2 Defense.
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
The Nightwalker and his Bodaks
Figures - D&D Minis - Nightwalker (Uncommon - The older one), Bodak Skulk (Uncommon)
Spoiler Alert!
So I have had this Nightwalker mini for a number of years. It never got any play in D&D, and it wasn't until I went to re-organize my scape that I took a good look at him and realized that he would make a great scape custom. Looking at his stats and the ecology of the creature, I came across his ability to create Bodaks from the bodies of creatures he has killed, and luckily, a Bodak mini just came out in the latest D&D set, so a quick order to Auggies for some Bodaks and a double hex for the Nightwalker, and I had what I needed.
This is the most powerful mini I have created, and he has some different abilities, so I will be playtesting him a fair amount when I get the chance.
Just to clarify the point situation on the Bodaks. You can't 'buy' them into your army. They can only be used when created by The Nightwalker.
Changes:
Feb 18th - I changed the Order Marker removing ability on The Nightwalker as it was way to powerful for this type of mini. As a result, I also lowered his point cost by 40 to bring it more inline to the amount of damage it has been doing during playtests.
Mar 13th - The Bodaks were changed to Common Heroes to allow for more OM flexibility. Their attack was also raised to 4 and their life lowered to 1. The Broken Link punishment was toned down a bit to encourage the Bodaks to be used in combat more often.
Playtesting
Battle 1 - 500 Point Army - Turret Rocks
So for the last couple of nights I have run a few playtest battles with the Nightwalker + 4x Zombies vs The Steamroller Glads. The Glads have won each battle, though a couple were closer then others. I don't think The Nightwalker and the zombies really go well together...though the Steamroller is a tough nut to crack anyways. The dice were not with TNW for many of the games, as he failed to create Bodak's in all but 1 of his 10+ kills spread around multiple games. Given the 50% chance he has of creation, this was just bad luck overall. However, one thing is clear that the OM removing ability is too strong, and going along with that, he is currently too high in points. I will be changing the OM ability to be a lower % and less powerful and lowering his points somewhat to compensate for that.
Battle 2 - 500 Point Army - Invasion
Played a couple of battles on Invasion using the Nightwalker. In two battles he was aligned with 4 units of 4th Mass versus some rats, stingers and Cyprian/Sonya. In both battles the Nightwalker ended up in combat with Cyprian, managing to kill him both times, but not without sustaining heavy damage. In neither battle did he manage to do his points worth of damage, and the one thing that seemed clear was that the Bodak's when created were generally not being sent into battle at all. The risk of having a minimum of 2 wounds done to The Nightwalker for only a 3 attack was just not worth it. In the third battle, The Nightwalker was aligned with 2 units of 10th Reg and Marcus versus 2 units of Groks, MBS, Marro Warriors and Othkurik. Othkurik managed to hit The Nightwalker hard early on with his ambush attack, but The Nightwalker managed to kill him off, along with some Groks before dying to the Marro Warriors towards the end of the game. He managed to kill his points worth this time, but again, the Bodaks that were created didn't see any action at all. Some tweaks are required to bring them into the action!
5th Battalion Infantry
Figure - Repaint of Airborne Elite
Spoiler Alert!
Well I finally finished my repaint! This card was actually the first custom I ever made, but back then I only had a single extra squad and made them a unique card...now...thanks to Auggies, I have 3 extra squads and thus they have become common. I tweaked the abilities a bit to align it better with the change to a common squad, and bumped the points up a bit. I like how the paintjob turned out...they look quite a bit like some of the WW1 French soldiers I looked at for color inspriation.
Couple better pictures of the repaint below.
Playtesting - Coming Soon!
_______________________________________
Please let me know what you think of these customs. Assigning point values can be really tough, so I welcome any and all pointers 
Thanks a bunch all.
Last edited by Therrian; March 13th, 2010 at 05:24 PM.
Reason: Bunch of changes/updates
|