dok's D&D minis customs

[Darkmage7a]

Do you have any suggested/ recommended armies for Mallok? I might have some spare time to run a playtest or two and I'd like to give this vision a shot now that I know it fits on a base. not sure if I should play it as a double spacer or not either. obviously it can be done, but one of he powers involves engagement and the base definitely plays a role there.

[dok]

Deepwyrm Drow - as many as fit the points, and then Estivara if you want. I would mix in Airborne Elite, Marro Warriors, and Fen Hydras if you want assorted high-quality adds. A special attacker doesn't hurt, I guess, but they need special attack killers more. Raelin is not great for them.

I guess I'd play him single-hexed if you have the choice. Argh... now I have to rebase mine, I guess.

[dok]

While my earlier effort with an unpainted figure from the recent board game releases probably won't work as a Heroscape figure due to basing concerns, this one does work:



The original figure, which I used for the picture, is the Dracolich from the War of the Dragon Queen release. While you have to pay $50 for that figure, it is the same sculpt as the unpainted "Gravestorm Dracolich" from the Castle Ravenloft board game. Auggie is selling the single for five bucks. It is a bone-colored plastic already, and doesn't look terrible just playing as-is. Because of the plastic color, it would be fairly easy to do some touch-up painting as opposed to a full paint job.

I used wire-cutters to trim the base down to Heroscape size; I had to take one paw off the base but it still fits fine in a 2-hex pit and doesn't present any stinger-denial issues. As you can see in this picture, the overall size and stance is fairly comparable to our venerable Ullar dragon:



From a balance perspective, this one was quite a challenge. I wanted to create an experience that was different than any of the current dragons. I think it's clear this guy is most similar to Braxas, but the overall effect ends up being pretty different, I think. The ability to hit large/huge figures changes the dynamic quite a bit - this guy is a lot better against Hydras and Q9 than Braxas is. But he's weaker against squads and weaker against small/medium heroes. The OM removal ability is powerful, but tempered by the high roll required (and the fact that I seem to always seemed to pull the "X" in testing ).

I didn't really find him unbalanced overall. I decided to make him Undead in stead of a Dragon, so that he wouldn't have Greenscale synergy (which seems like a stretch to me, thematically). Nidhog+Mezzodemons got overwhelmed by a standard soldiers&warlords build. Nidhog consistently got beaten by his points' worth of stingers, both in simulation and in practice. The only time Nidhog builds really felt extremely powerful was when put against non-disengaging, non-special attacking melee when fronted by rats (I know, big shocker there). Even then, it was fairly close - Gilbert+KoWx3 managed to crack the ratsx3 screen, but couldn't take Nidhog down despite about 6 or 7 hacks at him. Incorporating Nidhog into larger ratpodges didn't seem to do any better than usual against armies that were equipped with good special attackers.

Still, this guy was a challenge, for sure, and I'm interested in others' thoughts on him.

[quozl]

Looks good except for the mini pic on the card. He looks like a wyrmling!

[dok]

Originally Posted by quozl

Looks good except for the mini pic on the card. He looks like a wyrmling!

Are you saying I should blow the pic up a bit? I was trying to get the whole dragon in the frame. (ETA: I played with a bigger image, and you're right, it looks better that way.)

Incidentally, this is my first use of the highres Valkrill blank, although I've also upgraded my Skeletal Cyclops card to use the new highres as well. I had to write a custom style file in MSE because it's slightly differently-sized than the Mooseman blanks, but it looks great. Thanks, robbdaman and crossgrain!

[Jonny Jon]

how do you have time to do all of these? *Actually, i should shut up. I spent like 30 hours on dragon age 2 in the last 2 weeks while procrastinating on my schoolwork...

[Auggest]

Originally Posted by dok

Are you saying I should blow the pic up a bit? I was trying to get the whole dragon in the frame. (ETA: I played with a bigger image, and you're right, it looks better that way.)

Incidentally, this is my first use of the highres Valkrill blank, although I've also upgraded my Skeletal Cyclops card to use the new highres as well. I had to write a custom style file in MSE because it's slightly differently-sized than the Mooseman blanks, but it looks great. Thanks, robbdaman and crossgrain!

The High rez looks awsome btw once printed and laminated. I'll likely make this a requirement for Valkrill customs I'm selling....outstanding work.
......Andrew

[Drewman-chu]

I really like the dracolich card. I just purchased the Wrath of Aheradon so I hope to see more great cards of the figures. Did you use the Magic Easy card creator or Gimp? for your cards? They look great.

[dok]

Originally Posted by Drewman-chu

I really like the dracolich card. I just purchased the Wrath of Aheradon so I hope to see more great cards of the figures.

Thanks. I do have a couple more coming down the pipe, although now that I've joined the borg C3V I have less time for my own customs.

Originally Posted by Drewman-chu

Did you use the Magic Easy card creator or Gimp? for your cards? They look great.

I use MSE, although I prepare the images and the hitzone images in Gimp (see the last link in my signature). For the Dracolich, I had to make a custom style file to match the highres Valkrill blank.

[Serenity]

I have to say that your Mallok has me tempted to actually break down and buy one of these customs that Auggie's is selling. I have nothing against customs in general or Auggie's selling them, I just have been reluctant to put my limited funds into figures that I may not be able to use against other players. Mallok however addresses a huge hole where the Drow are concerned (and I love the Drow).

[Freezie]

From the SoV Thread

Originally Posted by Killometer

You might mention it in dok's thread, too, but I am glad to see these types of concerns posted here. I don't necessarily make it to every designer's thread to read every post about their units, but I do read every post here.

As far as the infinite bonding loop, it looks like you may be right. We may have a record for shortest turnaround for an SoV nominee.

[dok]

Already fixed to match the wyrmling language. I also fixed the Pugilitron and Hoplitron language. Thanks for the sharp eye.