Ixe's Custom Units

[Ixe]

This is the Stormrage Shambler from D&D Miniatures - Unhallowed:



NAME = Shambling Mound
GENERAL = Ullar
PLANET = Toril
SPECIES = Plant
CLASS = Sentinel
PERSONALITY = Relentless
SIZE = Large 6 (Single Base)
UNCOMMON HERO

LIFE = 5
MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 2
POINTS = 65

NATURE BONDING
After revealing an Order Marker on this Shambling Mound, after taking a turn with this Shambling Mound, you may take a turn with another Plant or Druid Hero you control.

PLANT TOUGH
When rolling defense dice for a Shambling Mound, if that Shambling is on a land space, add one automatic shield to the defense roll.

ANIMATED PLANT
This Shambling is considered to be a bush for the purposes of special powers referencing bushes.


The Shambling Mound is a mass of vegetation that will slowly pursue and consume those that enter its forests. These mounds are relentlessly attack their prey, able to shrug off small attacks and absorb large amounts of punishment. These shambling mounds share a bond with other plants and those with a deep connection to nature, allowing them to coordinate to defend their forests.

The Shambling Mounds function quite similarly to the Crypt Guardians, instead applying to druids and plants instead of queens and guards. They are similarly slow but tough, having lower defense but higher life netting similar survivability (although more resistant to special attacks and some abilities due to size).

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[Grishnakh]

I like him. Walking, movable cover. Pretty cool!

[Ixe]

Thanks for commenting! While my plants in my plant faction count as bushes for special powers, they don't otherwise provide the same defense bonus against ranged as jungle pieces. Right now this only gives them defensive synergy with the Eilan Sidhe.

That said let's continue on with another Valkrill's dragon.

This is Brinebones, Skeletal Dragon from Pathfinder Miniatures - Skull & Shackles.


And here's one for scale.


NAME = Scirhthir
GENERAL = Valkrill
PLANET = Icaria
SPECIES = Undead
CLASS = Tyrant
PERSONALITY = Terrifying
SIZE = Large 13? (Double Base)
UNIQUE HERO

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 5
POINTS = 185

DRACOLICH
Scirhthir's species is dragon in addition to undead.

NECROTIZING BREATH
Instead of attacking, you may choose a figure within 7 clear sight spaces of Scirthir. Any figures adjacent to the chosen figure are also affected by Necrotizing Breath. Roll the 20-sided die for each affected figure. Add 4 to the roll if that figure is a dragon. If you roll 1-10, nothing happens. If you roll 11-13, that figure receives 1 wounds. If you roll 14-16, that figure receives 2 wounds. If you roll 17-19, that figure receives 3 wounds. If you roll 20 or higher, that figure receives 6 wounds. Scirhthir's Necortizing Breath does not affect Undead or destructible objects.

FLYING
When counting spaces for Scirhthir's movement, ignore elevations. Scirhthir may fly over water without stopping, pass over figures without becoming engaged, and fly over obstacles such as ruins. If Scirhthir is engaged when it starts to fly, it will take any leaving engagement attacks.


When the Nah Scirh Cultists worship the death of dragons, Scirhthir is what they envision will rise in their wake. Scirhthir was once a grand and regal dragon but now exists as this undead monstrosity. It is bent on eradicating all other dragons, producing a necrotizing breath that is particularly effective at decaying the flesh off of its targets. Only other undead are safe against this negative energy.

Scirhthir is a terror to behold but it is vulnerable. While its bones are hardened to produce a heft 5 defense, that will only hold so well with 4 life. It does best fighting safely away from battle and blasting away with its breath. It can serve as a decent counter against other dragons in this capacity, able to hurt clustering green scale warriors and deal some real damage to their king. It is still a threat against non-dragons but its breath isn't terribly reliable if targets aren't clustering.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[IshMEL]

Well that is one awesome looking Undead Dragon! I like the connection to the Cultists and the Dracolich power. There are some typos in the SA text -- also I'd suggest "Necrotic Breath" as being a bit easier to parse / pronounce.

[TheAverageFan]

I really like this one. Necrotizing Breath feels like a combination of Majestic Fires and Chilling Touch. Pretty wicked, but still a little more niche than Zelrig, and a little less reliable than Cyprien.

~TAF

[Scytale]

Dang, I've fallen behind here. Summer is busy.

Eobard Stormcaller
Thunderstorm sounds really cool and potent, but without water around it really isn't. C3V excluded figures under overhangs from Call Lightning Special Attack. You could do something similar here though I don't think it's necessary.

Maddox
This guy packs a heck of a wallop for the points, but his survivability is crap. From long range he has an attack of 4 + height, and once things get close he can Lightning Bolts. I'd say he's underpriced except for the no-moving + not engaged restriction on the special. That makes it vastly less powerful, only able to maximize on a favorable round switch. Interesting fellow.

Tatsu
Tatsu isn't a common name, but I believe it is a male one. At least I was thrown off seeing the name Tatsu on a clearly female figure. With Energy Daggers, if she kills the only figure she's engaged with with her first attack, does she still get a second one? It's not clear from the wording. Overall, not a terrible unit for a ninja, though that's a low bar.

Oberras Willowcore
I quite like the design here. It's dripping with both theme and usefulness. I also like that you were able to keep the cost low with poor defense.

Shambling Mound
So Animated Plant only works for special powers on army cards, not the usual +1 defense against ranged, correct? By themselves they aren't much of a threat; slow-moving melee attacks of 3, 2 activations per order marker, 65 pts apiece. Unless they have other Plants and/or Druids to boost them, you could really consider lowering the price.

Scirhthir
That's a heck of a mini. Dracolich is a neat (and curiously familiar...) power. Necrotizing Breath is a solid power, though I feel the anti-dragon line is unnecessary. A little weak defensively for the points, but I like that he has a weakness. Really solid design.

[Ixe]

Thanks to everyone for the comments! A little bit to dive into here.

Originally Posted by IshMEL

Well that is one awesome looking Undead Dragon! I like the connection to the Cultists and the Dracolich power. There are some typos in the SA text -- also I'd suggest "Necrotic Breath" as being a bit easier to parse / pronounce.

I had Necrotic Breath originally but I went for Necrotizing since I thought Necrotic sounded a bit too much like just having bad breath. I caught at least one of the typos. Glad to hear you like it.

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

I really like this one. Necrotizing Breath feels like a combination of Majestic Fires and Chilling Touch. Pretty wicked, but still a little more niche than Zelrig, and a little less reliable than Cyprien.

Pretty much what I was going for with this one. Its breath is actually more reliable that Cyprien unless he has Sonya (then its the same against squads), but it's probably less reliable overall. I wanted Zelrig to still be the one to punish clustered commons so I tried to gear Scirhthir towards its own niche. Glad you like it.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Dang, I've fallen behind here. Summer is busy.

I sympathize. I've fallen very far behind on all the threads I like to keep up on.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Eobard Stormcaller Thunderstorm sounds really cool and potent, but without water around it really isn't. C3V excluded figures under overhangs from Call Lightning Special Attack. You could do something similar here though I don't think it's necessary.

Arcane Bolt special attack sounds really cool and potent, but it really isn't. Sometimes I probably hold a little too true to my cycles and try to make bad units, but bad units are important for a game. I guess I could exclude overhangs. I have room for it so I added it.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Maddox
This guy packs a heck of a wallop for the points, but his survivability is crap. From long range he has an attack of 4 + height, and once things get close he can Lightning Bolts. I'd say he's underpriced except for the no-moving + not engaged restriction on the special. That makes it vastly less powerful, only able to maximize on a favorable round switch. Interesting fellow.

My sniper faction is one I'm really curious to play around with some more with Maddox being right up there in units I'm eager to give a shot. I think he'll prove vulnerable and a little tricky to set up his special attack but I could see the threat of him being enough to make your opponent play around his lines. I'm generally okay with the scary but vulnerable angle for snipers but it is a balance to strike and means they'll be pretty swingy overall.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Tatsu
Tatsu isn't a common name, but I believe it is a male one. At least I was thrown off seeing the name Tatsu on a clearly female figure. With Energy Daggers, if she kills the only figure she's engaged with with her first attack, does she still get a second one? It's not clear from the wording. Overall, not a terrible unit for a ninja, though that's a low bar.

I pulled Tatsu from somewhere but I see that it is indeed a boy's name. I've changed it to Hikari instead. I was okay with her energy daggers working either way and I guess I left it ambiguous. I made it a little more clear in my updated wording that checks it after she is done moving. Thematically, the charge on the dagger goes out when she shoots it off and it takes a moment to recharge, allowing her to swing and shoot (or swing and swing) but not shoot twice from range. A lot of my cycle designs feel restrained by the other units that exist around them and trying not to make a junk hero like Shiori completely obsolete.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Oberras Willowcore
I quite like the design here. It's dripping with both theme and usefulness. I also like that you were able to keep the cost low with poor defense.

I'm glad you like him. Solo heroes only do so much but he's probably a decent choice to get some ranged special attacks.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Shambling Mound
So Animated Plant only works for special powers on army cards, not the usual +1 defense against ranged, correct? By themselves they aren't much of a threat; slow-moving melee attacks of 3, 2 activations per order marker, 65 pts apiece. Unless they have other Plants and/or Druids to boost them, you could really consider lowering the price.

I wouldn't be too quick to underestimate these guys. Having recently come out of a tournament running Crypt Guardians, these types of guys are no slouch. They don't hit terribly hard but they just won't die. Isley and Razorthorn are both a little light on support for them right now but backing them with some heavier hitters (that I'd design down the road) could easily change that tune. Plant Tough also bypasses the special attack weakness of the Crypt Guardians and make these guys a pain to take out. I could easily see marching these guys slowly but surely right into enemy lines and then using Isley to Nature's Wrath groups of enemies.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Scirhthir
That's a heck of a mini. Dracolich is a neat (and curiously familiar...) power. Necrotizing Breath is a solid power, though I feel the anti-dragon line is unnecessary. A little weak defensively for the points, but I like that he has a weakness. Really solid design.

Did you design a similar power before? It's kind of what you need to do in order to have dual types in Heroscape and that was pretty important for this design. I could have just had it as undead but then it wouldn't exactly be Valkrill's dragon. The anti-dragon line is pretty niche but I think that's kind of its niche. I otherwise worry that its breath just won't be that useful against dragons when I'm trying to make an anti-dragon unit to thematically connect to the Nah Scirh. I'll consider some alternatives so that it can function as an anti-dragon unit more naturally but I don't want to go too far and design it into a corner.

[Ixe]

Here's a concept for Vydar that I thought up a good while back.

This is Luccaria from Pathfinder Miniatures - Skull & Shackles:


NAME = Laurel Wight
GENERAL = Vydar
PLANET = Toril
SPECIES = Human
CLASS = Shadow Assassin
PERSONALITY = Tricky
SIZE = Medium 5
UNIQUE HERO

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 90

TELEPORTATION STRIKES SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 3. Choose a figure within 3 clear sight spaces of Laurel Wight and place her on a space next to that figure. Roll 3 attack dice. If she moved at least one space with Teleportation Strikes Special attack, subtract 2 from the defending figure's defense dice. When Laurel Wight attacks with Teleportation Strikes Special Attack, she may attack 1 additional time.

DISENGAGE
Laurel Wight never takes leaving engagement attacks.

VANISH INTO SHADOW
When Laurel Wight receives 1 or more wounds from a normal or special attack, you may roll the 20-sided die. If Laurel Wight is on a dungeon space, add 3 to the roll. If she is on a shadow space, add 6 to the roll. If you roll a 16 or higher, choose an empty space within 3 spaces of Laurel Wight. Place her on the chosen space and ignore any wounds she just received.


Like Mika Connour, Laurel Wight is a shadow assassin who can merge with the darkness and teleport through shadows. While she can't create shadows herself and lacks Mika's brute strength, she can make due with ambient shadows to teleport away from danger or, as she prefers, teleport into it. With her teleportation strikes, she can slip through the shadows to appear before someone nearby and take them by surprise with an attack and even quickly repeat this process on a new or different target.

Laurel Wight is an assassin figure, specializing in bypassing enemy lines to unleash attacks on defense-reduced targets. This can be useful for crippling expensive squads or putting on the pain to an important hero. She is capable of teleporting between her special attacks, so it may be worth it to pull her back to safer territory for her second swing. She's otherwise fairly vulnerable but can potentially hold up quite well, especially if the terrain is in her favor.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[Ixe]

Since I've already done the Ninjas of the Southern Wind...

These are Ninjas with Guns with Ninja Cowl Heads from Crossover Miniatures. As you can see, they are supplied unpainted but their outfits would be painted blue.


NAME = Ninjas of the Western Wind
GENERAL = Einar
PLANET = Earth
SPECIES = Human
CLASS = Ninjas
PERSONALITY = Disciplined
SIZE = Medium 4
UNIQUE SQUAD

LIFE = 1 (4 Figures)
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 75

PHANTOM WALK
Ninjas of the Western Wind can move through all figures and never take leaving engagement attacks.

NINJITSU TRAINING 1
When a Ninja of the Western Wind is engaged, add 1 to their Attack and Defense values.


The Ninjas of the Western Wind adapted with the times and learned to use the guns of the west. They take these weapons into battle and rain down attacks from afar. They have not abandoned their ancient practices, however, and still use their skills to slip away from the enemy. When engaged, they abandon their guns and instead rely on their training to fight with their blades.

In practice, the Ninjas of the Western Wind add a welcome ranged squad to the Ninja faction. They are versatile as well, acting as Marro Warriors from afar or Tarn Viking Warriors if they need to get in close, all while able to slip through enemy lines however they need to. I am uncertain how to price them compared to these 50 point unique squads since it depends how much you weight their versatility and maneuverability while losing their ability to clone. 85 Points is the shot I'm taking for now. [EDIT] Changed to 75.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[TheAverageFan]

NotSW: 85 seems a bit steep for any Squad that could get chopped down with only a few bad rolls, but that's what happens when you deal with Uniques. Otherwise they're plenty versatile in spite of their simplicity. I'd probably send a few in to fight melee whilst others sit back and shoot with height where they can find it.

~TAF

[Scytale]

Laurel Wight
With Vanish Into Shadow, she can't teleport to the space she's already on, correct? Because it's not an empty space? I like the overall concept here, though I'd rather she was weaker with a lower cost. In particular I don't like the 4 Defense compared to other ninja/assassin types, especially combined with Vanish Into Shadow. If you drop defense to 3 you could lower her 20-30 points.

Ninjas of the Western Wind
Interesting design; you may a ranged phantom-walking ninja squad but gave them a melee-only ability. I wouldn't have expected it, but it does make for some interesting decisions in play. I'm really not sure how to price them either, but 85pts seems like a decent guess.

[Ixe]

Thanks for commenting!

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

NotSW: 85 seems a bit steep for any Squad that could get chopped down with only a few bad rolls, but that's what happens when you deal with Uniques. Otherwise they're plenty versatile in spite of their simplicity. I'd probably send a few in to fight melee whilst others sit back and shoot with height where they can find it.

Your argument seems to apply to practically all unique squads. I went ahead and bumped then down to 75 points since I think you may be right that 85 is a little high but that all stands to be adjusted as needed. How I'd use them depends on the battlefield situation, but against melee I'd probably keep them to height and firing at range for the most part. Ultimately try not to give them the chance to swing back.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Laurel Wight
With Vanish Into Shadow, she can't teleport to the space she's already on, correct? Because it's not an empty space? I like the overall concept here, though I'd rather she was weaker with a lower cost. In particular I don't like the 4 Defense compared to other ninja/assassin types, especially combined with Vanish Into Shadow. If you drop defense to 3 you could lower her 20-30 points.

You probably have a point about the defense. There are plenty of examples of this class of hero having defense like this or higher (Mika Connour, Kumiko, Moriko, Kantono Daishi, Siiv, Agent Carr...), but I think higher defense is fine when it is the means of representing them being good at avoiding danger without having to add extra rules text. When you start including powers that completely ignore wounds, defense does tend to be a little lower. I think I'm ultimately okay with bumping her down and trying her at a lower cost for now. You otherwise seem to be correct about how Vanish Into Shadow works.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Ninjas of the Western Wind
Interesting design; you may a ranged phantom-walking ninja squad but gave them a melee-only ability. I wouldn't have expected it, but it does make for some interesting decisions in play. I'm really not sure how to price them either, but 85pts seems like a decent guess.

I hope they work out well. I do love ninjas. I think having a ranged component to their army is only a good thing.