blast_shark's Customs: Lachlan MacDirk Repaint

[blast_shark]

Welcome to my customs thread!

Classic Scape Repaint Customs: <<New Card 11/27/2022

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Lachlan MacDirk
Human/Unique Hero/Champion/Wild/Medium 5
6L - 5M - 1R - 3A - 3D
120pts
Whirlwind Frenzy
If Lachlan attacks, he must attack each figure adjacent to him. Roll each attack separately.

Attack Momentum
After Lachlan attacks a figure, place a Momentum Marker on this Army Card to a maximum of 3. For each Momentum Marker, Lachlan gets +1 attack and defense against adjacent figures. If Lachlan did not attack during his turn, remove all Momentum Markers from this Army Card. When Lachlan receives one or more wounds, remove all momentum Markers from this Army Card.

Lachlan has yet to be playtested.

I need to alter the wording of Attack Momentum to be "After rolling attack dice, place a Momentum Marker on this army card." That way a counterstrike hit will result in all momentum lost, which is my intent.
Page 13 of the BftU rules book states that the order of operations in an attack is that the attacker rolls dice before the defender does, so I think there should be design space to allow an ability to trigger between those rolls.

Ullar Soulbourgs: <<Playtest Updated Cards 11/06/2022

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Photos Below!

These customs are inspired by a few sources, one of the first being some of the basic principles of Sanastan Shastar Vidya: Obtain superior positioning and move efficiently to not telegraph your attacks to your opponent. Mystic L-4 is the best representation of this in my opinion.

The Spiritech use a form of machine-enhanced meditation to enter a state of tranquility. In this state, they coordinate attacks with deadly efficiency that make 10 warriors feel like 100. And while their opponents are still reeling from this devastating crossfire, more Spiritech appear from cover to pressure another flank.

This faction is meant to be tricky to pilot with lots of moving parts; similarly to the Mohican River Tribe.

Mystic L-4: Melee Hero

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Mystic L-4
Ullar
Soulborg/Unique Hero/Warlord/Tranquil/Medium 5
5L - 6M - 1R - 3A - 4D
100pts

Punishing Strike
After attacking with Mystic L-4, if you rolled at least 1 skull and the defending figure had no shields, you may attack again.

Phantom Walk
Mystic L-4 can move through all figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement.

Counter Strike
When rolling defense dice against a normal attack from an adjacent attacking figure, all excess shields count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.

Line Breaker Mystics: Melee Unique Squad

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Line Breaker Mystics
Ullar
Soulborg/Unique Squad/Warriors/Tranquil/Medum 5
1L - 6M - 1R - 4A - 3D
90pts

Tranquil Soulborg Bonding
When you reveal an order marker on this card, you may take a turn with any Unique Tranquil Soulborg Hero you control before taking a turn with Line Breaker Mystics.

Enhanced Sensory Devices
When a Line Breaker Mystic, or a Unique Tranquil Soulborg adjacent to a Line Breaker Mystic, defends against an attacking figure who is not adjacent, you may have one shield block all damage. If a figure other than a Line Breaker Mystic blocks damage this way, destroy a Line Breaker Mystic adjacent to that figure.

Phantom Walk
Line Breaker Mystics can walk through all figures and are never attacked when leaving engagements.

Mystic S-3: Ranged Hero

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Mystic S-3
Ullar
Soulborg/Unique Hero/Warlord/Tranquil/Medium 5
3L - 5M - 8R - 2A - 3D
80pts

Tranquil Hardwiring
At the start of the game, you may choose any unique, single-spaced Soulborg hero you control. For this game the chosen hero's personality is Tranquil, regardless of what is listed on their card.

Tranquil Enhancement Aura
All friendly tranquil figures within 3 clear sight spaces of Mystic S-3 get +1 to attack and defense. Mystic S-3's enhancement aura does not affect Mystic S-3.

Spiritech Skirmishers: Ranged Common Squad

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Spiritech Skirmishers
Ullar
Soulborg/Common Squad/Warriors/Tranquil/Medium 4
1L 6M 7R 2A 2D
65pts

Crossfire 1
If a Spiritech Skirmisher is not adjacent to any other Skirmishers, it gains +1 attack against figures that have been attacked this turn.

Advance Under Pressure
After attacking, if you did not move with any Spiritech Skirmishers, you may move up to 4 Tranquil Soulborgs you control 5 spaces each. Any figures moved this way must not have attacked this turn and must be within 8 clear sight spaces of a Spiritech Skirmisher that attacked this turn.

Let me know what your initial thoughts are on them! I'd love to hear feedback if you decide to playtest them yourself)

DoomGuy (Doom Slayer)

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The Doom Slayer THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT OF ALL THESE CARDS


Note that some of the Ordinance Cards make reference to a "you," That means whichever Army Card has the ordinance in their arsenal (e.g. DoomGuy because he's the only one with the arsenal ability). It's just a way to conserve space on these wordy abilities, and to leave design space open for more characters to use Ordinances like these.

Also note that I haven't done any playtesting on this, and the points costs are basically unnecessary in my humble opinion. I would always just load up DoomGuy with every ordinance and send him to rip away at a huge army.

Ordinance Cards

When you reveal an order marker on an ordinance card, you take a turn with the figure who has that ordinance in their arsenal. Maybe that clause should be tacked on to the end of the Unholy Arsenal ability on DoomGuy. I think it's ok for now though.

Chainsaw:

Combat Shotgun:

Heavy Cannon:

Plasma Rifle:

Super Shotgun:

Rocket Launcher:

Ballista:

Chain Gun:

BFG-9000:

Equipment Launcher:

[SchismaticSounds]

I like the designs you are playing with. The "Tranquil" personality for a Soulborg is super cool imagery, and I dig where you're getting your inspiration from.

The possibility to bond with 'any' Soulborg hero via Tranquil Hardwiring is extremely scary due to Major Q9. Though I do like the idea and wish there were a few more Parmenio-like personality changing characters. You could limit it to small and medium. Tranquil Attack Aura I would consider making a melee attack aura if it affecting ranged is too much on other ranged figures/squads. But creating for intention of use within the faction is totally fine given the Skirmishers 1A. It does make a bit more sense with the Redundant targeting systems on the skirmishers. Advance Under Pressure Protocol is unique and reminisces other swarming abilities like the red ants mob attack, but with ranged figures interestingly and prevents it's use for unfun kiting.

Those figures look pretty good for what you're going for. I can't think of any others that could fit this type of soulborg. Though there are a lot more figures out I have no idea about. Don't worry about your customs being C3V/SoV acceptable. Make them for yourself and as a gift to be shared.
And hey, it isn't too uncommon I don't think that C3V looks over some ideas by custom creators and integrates them into their designs. If you are really want to design towards SoV, keep an eye out for other figures that fit your fancy and have an idea of what you want to bring with the design/s. Your ideas can be reinterpreted for other minis and with the spectrum of shastarvidiya, that could go many places. In order to stand a chance in SoV it has to bring something somewhat 'substantial', if that's the right word, to the table of all that already is.

Would certainly like to see some more.
And some cards ... I'm a sucker for cards. If you ever need some art done for them, I can help you out with that.

sideafterthoughts:
Line Breakers seem pretty overpriced to me, unless it is to compensate for their synergies?
Also, the snipers with their low def/atk don't strike me as much as being the precise Tranquil personality. Their single target use can be decent, but would be rather bad against squads. I think 65 points could be okay for them as they are.

[blast_shark]

Thank you for your thoughts! I'm glad you think the ideas are neat)

I agree that Q9 bonding is very scary. Limiting it to small and medium reduces the bonding options drastically, and I want to include Deathwalkers as possible bonding options for the Line Breakers. I've altered the hardwiring ability to only work on single-spaced figures to keep that open.
Honestly, Zetacron with an attack aura and bonding sounds quite scary too.

The points are probably higher than they need to be on a lot of these figures, but that's because I'm including lots of synergies on them. The Line Breakers, for example, have their cost based on Ninja's of the Northern Wind. 3 unit, evasive, unique squad, shock infantry, but with -1 attack and a diverse bonding option.

Originally Posted by SchismaticSounds

Also, the snipers with their low def/atk don't strike me as much as being the precise Tranquil personality.

^^^ I'm not sure I understand what you're saying in that sentence. It sounds like you're saying that you don't think the Tranquil personality fits the skirmishers, but a squad with an unusual method of attacking that gets better through combined effort is exactly the kind of thing I would expect out of a tranquil unit.
I think they might be able to be lower in cost too, but I'm waiting to get more testing in before making points cost changes.

[blast_shark]

Finally got around to painting some figures for these customs haha)) OP is updated with my test model and also the primed figures of the rest of the faction.

[blast_shark]

If you like DOOM, you should take a look at the OP of this thread))

[blast_shark]

I had the pleasure of doing two playtest games with @brak88 today! We fought on Remains of Clionesia, and he used an army of 4th Mass x4 and Charos both times.

(THE OP HAS UPDATED CARDS/ABILITIES, SO THIS REPORT WILL BE REFERENCING DIFFERENT CARDS FROM WHAT IS LISTED THERE)

First matchup I had Skirmishers x3, S-3, Line Breakers, and DW8K.
I lost pretty hard lol. I tried out-ranging the 4th mass to prevent Wait-Then-Fire, but I could hardly land kills; I felt especially lucky to get 2 kills in one turn despite being in S-3's attack aura.

The Line Breakers entered the fight and got a total of 2 bonding activations with DW8K (which ended up killing only 1 4th Mass). DW8K died the turn after landing a kill. The Line Breakers died pretty easily after that. I think they killed 2 4th Mass.

Brakk88 continued to file in more 4th Mass to the high ground and shredded the remaining Skirmishers. It wasn't close.

Second game I had Skirmishers x3, S-3, L-4, Line Breakers, and RotV Raelin. This one went significantly better, but still not very close.

Raelin allowed the army to buy more time to get to a good position, but once she died the rest of the army fell quickly. I still felt lucky to get more than 1 kill a turn with the Skirmishers even with some height & Aura attacks. Meanwhile, I'm being slaughtered by 2-3 kills a turn.

Bonding with L-4 seemed to be the most effective thing I could do, but it wasn't enough.

I got him down to a partial squad of 4th mass (and an untouched Charos) before submitting defeat.


Changes Made:

Spiritech Skirmishers

Raised Attack value from 1 to 2. Changed Crossfire from +2 bonus to +1 bonus. This should make the opening attack more impactful. With the lower base attack, it was very difficult to make the non-crossfire attacks do anything.

My main concern is that the combination of 6 move and 7 range could lead to very unbalanced kiting situations.


Mystic S-3

Increased Range from 7 to 8. The 2 attack rarely ever happens, I think adding the extra range is fine for such a fragile unit.

Changed Tranquil Attack Aura to Tranquil Enhancement Aura. I wanted a way to have a situational 3 defense for the Spiritech Skirmishers included in the faction. I didn't want to add another ability to the Skirmishers because I think it could make their card feel cluttered. Changing this seemed simpler and intuitive.


Line Breaker Mystics

Changed Enhanced Sensory Devices entirely. It was a d20 ability that aided them and adjacent tranquil soulborgs against melee attacks. NOW it is Stealth Dodge that allows them to take a bullet for a Tranquil Soulborg Hero.

I found that they were very weak (to the point of being mostly useless) against getting shot down before they reach the enemy, so this should help that. Also it will make S-3's Hardwiring ability better because the Deathwalkers now have these bodyguards for them.

This change could convince me to change their name to something more about protection rather than being shock infantry.


Mystic L-4
Mystic L-4 was completely reasonable in battle. I just changed the wording of Punishing Strike so that it requires the defending figure be wounded by the attack. Previously it just required that L-4 rolled at least one skull. Not a huge change.

[brak88]

Cool looking units for sure. I've been trying to think of a more mental gymnastics way to have the snipers have more attack power while still having not too high of a static attack power when considering height and crossfire.

Edit: I think the change to crossfire seems solid now. I much prefer that over the original.

Two powers I thought of to showcase a more tricky, outsmarting your opponent with brains style combat over a higher static attack value is Second Thought and Second Guess. Basically, Second Thought would allow your and/or your opponent's figures to reroll X attack dice one per combat turn or per figure or whatever, depending on play testing, while Second Guess would be the same, just for rerolling defense dice for your and/or opponent's figures.

Possible idea to consider.

[yamissflash]

I know you don’t really care about points for Doomguy, but I think chainsaw is worth a lot more than 80 points. Guaranteed instakills of hero figures is kinda broken.

[blast_shark]

Originally Posted by yamissflash

I know you don’t really care about points for Doomguy, but I think chainsaw is worth a lot more than 80 points. Guaranteed instakills of hero figures is kinda broken.

Fixed it :)

In all seriousness, I do agree with your take. Something else about the ordinance cards is that I think they should cost fewer points than one might think the abilities are worth in a vacuum. Something about eggs in one basket being a liability :P also because the figure doesn't just gain the abilities, you have to plan with your order markers to make the best use out of your ammunition while it lasts.

Another possibility for the chainsaw is to make Small & Medium figures cost 1 fuel, Large & Huge cost 2, and Unique Heroes cost 1 additional.

[yamissflash]

Originally Posted by blast_shark

In all seriousness, I do agree with your take. Something else about the ordinance cards is that I think they should cost fewer points than one might think the abilities are worth in a vacuum. Something about eggs in one basket being a liability :P also because the figure doesn't just gain the abilities, you have to plan with your order markers to make the best use out of your ammunition while it lasts.

Issue being that Doomguy is arguably worth his 269 points on stats + Glorykill (since glorykill significantly offsets his squad weakness of having only one attack per turn by triggering way more often on squads) and Unyielding + 9 life + 5 defense reduces the all the eggs in one basket problem significantly. Really the problem only happens if you stack a lot of weapons on him.

Originally Posted by blast_shark

Another possibility for the chainsaw is to make Small & Medium figures cost 1 fuel, Large & Huge cost 2, and Unique Heroes cost 1 additional.

This is definitely a good idea. IIRC you can’t chainsaw bosses, but I’m not sure how powerful they need to be to not be chainsawed.

However, it may not be enough the main issue is guaranteed instakill on heroes heavily distorts their point values. For example, Abomination might be worth say ~270-370 (just throwing out numbers) depending on your opponents army. But if Doomguy is against him now he’s only worth ~100. I get that this a classic only section, but I’m using Abomination as an example of why Chainsaw could have a oversized impact on point values, which risks making picking armies the only part of a game that matters 90% of the time

[blast_shark]

OP has some extra info about the card as well as some photos next to an original figure.

Edit: Updated card image to use fewer words in the abilities. It still works exactly the same.

[Good Pig]

Some cool abilities on your designs. Really like Attack Momentum, Punishing Strike and Glory Kill.