Xotli & SpeedySonicX's customs (Reviewing: Triceratops)

[Jason]

I'd raise their cost. Getting 2 auto shields is GREAT, they basically are 4/9 for stats if you use the whole = 1 auto shield is worth 3 dice and then you factor in the fact that treating them as a Hero drastically improves them against auto kill units, PLUS being large makes them immune to many special effects. On average a figure would need more than 6 attack dice to expect to inflict a wound with a regular attack. The only decent counterdrafts I could imagine would be Sullivan/Murphy or Brunak.

[skyknight]

Alright nice card boss. Those little white dots are easy to get rid of around your figs now. Open your card in paint and use your magnifier. Use your dropper to extract color right next to those white dots. From there use your pencil to color the individual pixels, when you get to a new color use the dropper again. Easy as pie and you will lose that white halo look. Great card by the way.

[Xotli]

Originally Posted by Jason

I'd raise their cost. Getting 2 auto shields is GREAT, they basically are 4/9 for stats if you use the whole = 1 auto shield is worth 3 dice ... On average a figure would need more than 6 attack dice to expect to inflict a wound with a regular attack. The only decent counterdrafts I could imagine would be Sullivan/Murphy or Brunak.

Nah, it's not that bad. Even assuming the Golems manage to get their butts up onto the heights on a rock space (which is where they're designed to shine), they can still be taken down by lots of things. Using Mathguy's excellent matchup calculator, we can see that Brunak does indeed take down a single Golem toe-to-toe 62% of the time, but it takes an average of 7.5 turns, and his chances against both at once suck. But any ranged unit with a decent range wastes them, because their range is average at best and it's not like they can charge anybody with that slow-ass move of theirs. Syvarris with height advantage takes 10.5 turns to take them both down, but the KMA with height advantage can do it in 6. Hell, even the Snipers with their piddly-ass 1 attack die can take them out in a mere 4.5 rounds if they have height advantage (of course, if they don't have it, they can't hurt them at all). And those are 100% kill rates, since the Golems can't do anything in return (they can't even run away).

Also Morsbane is a good counterdraft. Once negated, they're fairly easy pickings, and Morsbane doesn't even risk much retaliation from them (what're they gonna do, chase after him?).

And all that is assuming they don't just get picked off during their long, slow slog to the heights, before they can do any good whatsoever.

Nonetheless I'll admit that I may have been hasty in upping the defense to 3. Probably 2 (+ 2 automatic) is plenty. But let me try some more playtesting and see.

Originally Posted by Jason

... and then you factor in the fact that treating them as a Hero drastically improves them against auto kill units, ...

Enh. I think that just sounds cooler than it actually is. Chompy has to roll against them, and Sudema and Braxas have to roll higher. (Deadeye, for instance, isn't impacted.) It's nifty, but how often is that really going to come up? As an ability, it doesn't really compare to, say, Bonding, I don't think.

Originally Posted by Jason

... PLUS being large makes them immune to many special effects.

Yeah, but being large also keeps them from being carried by Brunak or Theracus, which means they have to trudge up to high ground the hard way. And since they're whole purpose is to guard sniper-types, being large turns out to be just as much a disadvantage as an advantage (in fact, that's specifically why I made them large).

One idea would be to reduce the range of Boulder Throw. Actually, a really interesting idea would be to keep the range as is, but only if they're throwing "downhill," so to speak. (Sort of makes sense: it's much easier to toss a boulder down onto someone's head than to throw it up at someone uphill from you.) But I'm not sure I could word that well enough not to make it more complicated than it's worth.

Originally Posted by skynight

Those little white dots are easy to get rid of around your figs now. ...

Oh, wait, so it takes patience and time? No wonder I suck at it.

Thanx for the tips. I'll give that a shot. Now, do you think I should do that for the .bmp with the white background before I put it on the card, or just do it on the final card .bmp? Seems like it'd be easier to do it on the white one, plus easier to regenerate the card again if I change a stat, but I wasn't sure which way you meant.

Originally Posted by skynight

Great card by the way.

Really? I wasn't that happy with it ... but I guess we're always hardest on ourselves. Thanx for the encouragement.

[skyknight]

I do it on the card, just works better that way it seems.

[Xotli]

Custom #2: DeathViper

Funny story ... Although this guy was the first figure we ever glued on a HS base, he wasn't our first custom. See, Mittens had gone missing, and we were looking for a proxy, and this guy looks a little like him. Later, when Mittens was discovered hiding in a box, it was time to turn his stand-in into a brand new custom figure.

First, a picture for scale:


The figure is a Creepy Freak. In general, these figures are completely and utterly goofy-looking. However, this one is decent looking, except for the fact that it's bursting out of a teddy bear. Somehow I felt that the teddy didn't quite fit in with the HS motif. Thus this is my only custom which is an actual mod (although not a very complex one). I used some wood putty to glob up around the bear and the base of the figure, then just used some Testor's brown to make it look like dirt. Although the paint job isn't very good, the color of the underlying putty actually works with that to make it look more real. Of course, my putty job is very messy and I didn't get him quite straight, but that's just because I suck at that sort of stuff.

Now that I had him looking like he was bursting up out of the ground, I decided to give him special powers based on that. Here's what SSX and I came up with:


The wording on Surprise Attack is a bit funky, but I hope it makes sense. My original attempt had something like "if DeathViper moves at least 3 spaces" but then I realized that a clever player could get around that by moving away from a figure and then moving right back to it. The idea is that the attack has to be a surprise to get the extra dice; if the guy can see you coming 'cause you're two spaces away, that don't count. Unless there's a ruin in the way or something (thus the clear sight part). Burrowing is basically a lot like flying, but I made it a bit more limited for flavor (burrowing through solid rock just doesn't make sense). Earthbound could be wrapped into Burrowing, but I decided that I might want to reuse Burrowing some day without the limitation. And Frenzy just to tie him in with the other Vipers, even though he's a robot.

Comments?

[justjohn]

You know, someone made almost the same exact custom almost 2 years ago on heroscape.net, using the same model.

Dunno if the stats were the same, but the concept was almost point on.

I think it was Aratak, or KidAratak, can't remember which, and his creation was a unique squad, again, can't remember. Anywho.

The stats and abilities are great, really thematic unit that works for me. Good stuff.

[Widigo]

that looks cool.

[1moreheroscaper]

I like the custom too, but the Stone Skin special seems a bit too strong for the cost. I may be wrong. I just know I play tested & tweaked my White Wolf cyborg squad for about 2 years, and 1 automatic black and 2 defense seemed very hard to kill some times. Yet, I was working with a 4 figure squad at 80-90pts, and you're working with a 2 figure squad at 80pts.

[Widigo]

From a teddy bear, that's twisted. Now Im going to have bad dreams about my teddy and your viper.

[Xotli]

Originally Posted by justjohn

You know, someone made almost the same exact custom almost 2 years ago on heroscape.net, using the same model.

Oh, yeah? Damn ... and here I thought I was being all original. Well, I definitely never saw that custom on .net (actually, I don't think I ever saw any customs on .net at all).

Originally Posted by justjohn

The stats and abilities are great, really thematic unit that works for me. Good stuff.

Thanx again justjohn!

Originally Posted by 1moreheroscaper

I like the custom too, but the Stone Skin special seems a bit too strong for the cost. I may be wrong. ...

Nah, you're right. I pumped up the defense after some playtesting when they went down a little faster than I expected. But in retrospect I think it was just lucky rolls. So I'm going to drop the defense back down, I think. I'm also thinking about putting the move back to 3; still on the fence about that.

From a teddy bear, that's twisted. Now Im going to have bad dreams about my teddy and your viper.

[Xotli]

Sorry for the delay in getting the final card up here for Deathviper; picking away at those individual pixels bores me so badly I had to spread it out over several nights.

Next I will probably try to tweak the Golems a bit before moving on to my next custom.

[Xotli]

Custom #1R: Stone Golems (revisited)

Okay, I was thinking about how to make the golems a bit more realistic. There's three issues I want to address:

1) I cranked up the defense too high. I admit I did this when they turned out to be not as tough as I'd hoped, but really I can't count SSX's insanely lucky rolls as a reasonable basis for setting stats on. So the defense goes back to 2.

2) As justjohn mentioned, a move of 3 is just too painful. But I really want them to be slow. With a move of 4, they're the same speed as the knights, which is still damned slow, but doesn't capture the flavor I wanted. OTOH, having a low move also limits you when you want to climb up places, and these guys are specifically designed to be guards for your ranged figures up on rocky heights.

And, happily, I thought of a perfect solution: drop the move back to 3 and add this special:

Mountain Home
Add 3 to a Stone Golem's move when its entire move is on rock spaces.

I.e. the golems treat mountains like roads. Now it's only horrifically painful getting them to the mountain, but not so bad getting them up it. What do you guys think of that?

3) Although I was only half serious, I actually like the idea I had earlier about them having a greater range when throwing downhill. The only trick is, could it be worded correctly?

Boulder Throw
When a Stone Golem is on a rock space, it may add 2 to its range. If it targets a figure whose base is lower than the Stone Golem's base, it may instead add 4 to its range.

Now, this one I think is nifty but I'm certainly not wedded to it. If everyone thinks it's too complicated I'd drop it in a heartbeat.

So ... comments?