BiggaBullfrog's Customs - Update 3/28 - Just eight new cards

[Sir Heroscape]

Originally Posted by bmon

Such a great concept. You touched on a couple of the things that came to me when I looked over them and I get your reasoning, but I would love to see them simply as Agents and as a Unique Squad of 3 of them. I think their ability to adapt is a very strong power. Yes, it's curbed by them being a 2 man squad, but great unique squads are hard to come by and this could fit the bill. A unique squad that can move, aim, and attack as good as anyone. Sounds elite.

I'm inclined to agree here. I think they'd make a great unique, 3 man squad. They'd be like the "bad guy" Krav Agents.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

I'm inclined to agree here. I think they'd make a great unique, 3 man squad. They'd be like the "bad guy" Krav Agents.

These guys went through a lot of iterations while I was designing them, but for some reason I don't think I ever went the 3-man Unique Squad route. I'm not sure why... possibly because I bought extra figures to make them Common before that had a chance to come up. That is an interesting idea though, and it would be cool to see where that direction would have taken them. I might mess around with that in the future. Thanks for the input!

Might as well share this fun fact while I'm at it: I mentioned in the post that they were originally going to be Unique, but what I didn't mention was that my original idea was to have them be a 2-man Unique Squad of Soulborgs with Flying and the Combat Tactics power (but with a soulborgy name). I wanted them to be Vydar's Vanguard or something like that. I think they would have had one less move and one more defense, if I remember correctly. But lack of jetpack-toting-robot minis made me decide to go the human route, ultimately coming to where they are now.

[BiggaBullfrog]

This thread is past due for an update. I’ve got on card that I’ve had finished for a while but have neglected to post, as well as two more cards I’ve used for Dr.G’s custom contests that I’m throwing in here as well. Hopefully with summer coming I'll have more time to work on my own creations that I have in my pipeline.

Shinoko

This is just a custom that I made for fun. I ordered a dragon mini online and was sent the wrong one, which they let me keep when the shipped me the right one. This is the wrong one. It doesn’t fit in perfectly with Heroscape dragons due to the air stand thingy, but I thought it would be worth making a fun custom of.

Obviously I had to incorporate the air stand somehow, so I created Airborne. Then I also wanted a dragon that played a little more differently from the others, so I decided against a Special Attack in the vein of Charos, and gave it stats for a speedy glass canon/assassin type (plus Airborne takes up too much space on the card for a breath attack anyway). In the end she’s cool to play - Airborne can keep her safe as she prepares to strike on an important figure or buffs Greenscales (though Greenscales usually prefer their bonder to be attacking too) - but she is pretty customy, just by nature of Airborne and conditions I had to put in it so that she didn’t auto-win on points when it was just her against two squads of Romans.



Figure Used: Bronze Dragon (Dungeons and Dragons: Icons of the Realms - Elemental Evil)

Dionean Mantrap

Made for the Fall 2017 Custom Contest. I’ve always loved this mini and this contest gave me an excuse to make a card for it. I knew I didn’t want it to have good move and needed a way to work with that, but also didn’t want it teleporting around the field because that feels weird to me. In the end I’m happy with how it turned out. If the mini wasn’t so expensive, I’d love to pick up three or four of them for some cool scenario battles.


Figure Used: Greenvise Vine (Dungeons and Dragons: Savage Encounters)

Oakshadow

Made for the Spring 2018 Custom Contest. I just wanted to make something simple for this one. Barkroot Defense is a power I’ve wanted to implement for a long time (the mechanic, not specifically the tree aspect of it), and I think the card turned out pretty well. I knew it wasn’t flashy enough to win the contest, but I felt it did well overall and I’m pleased with it. If it wasn't so expensive of a figure, I'd pick it up for days.


Figure Used: Treant (Dungeons and Dragons: Giants of Legend)

[Sir Heroscape]

I love Oakshadow. He seems like he’s be so fun for big forest maps or campaign/scenario games.

[Pumpkin_King]

Oooh, very much liking the Mantrap. I've been eyeing that figure for a while.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

I love Oakshadow. He seems like he’s be so fun for big forest maps or campaign/scenario games.

Thanks! I really want to try him out and will probably at least proxy him at some point. I'd be really interested to see what effect he provides on a battlefield -- it's not too hard to avoid being next to a tree, but it might throw off your positioning.

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Oooh, very much liking the Mantrap. I've been eyeing that figure for a while.

If you ever end up trying it out let me know! I'll probably end up proxying it eventually too. There are just too many of these cool-but-expensive figures out there!

[Pumpkin_King]

Yeah, like - personally a version of it that I would do would be Unique, just to avoid the urge to buy multiples, haha.

[TREX]

Hey @BiggaBullfrog , I somehow ended up here today and seen your V2 of Deadeye Dan. Oh man oh man, that is a sweet version of deadeye dan. Rolling the amount of dice equal to their number of lives is a pretty cool idea. I may have to steal that if and when I design another sniper figure. Very awesome.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Hey thanks! It's definitely a fun (and appropriately powerful) sniper power, if a little customy. If you try it out let me know, I'd love to hear what you think of it in game!

[TREX]

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

Hey thanks! It's definitely a fun (and appropriately powerful) sniper power, if a little customy. If you try it out let me know, I'd love to hear what you think of it in game!

Its a great take on a sniper unit. With polished wording it would be very un customy. It sounds perfect for my assassin creed attachment cards for a sniper rifle of sorts.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Korag and Troglodyte Grunt

Figure Used: Cave Giant (Pathfinder: Deadly Foes)


Figure Used: Troglodyte (Dungeons and Dragons: Dragoneye)


So... I don't really like "fixer" units. Fleshing out factions with well-executed synergy is cool (even, in some cases, if that synergy is as bland as bonding), but customs that seem to be thrown together just for the sake of "fixing" another unit tend to rub me the wrong way (which often seems to be done with something as bland as bonding). Not that helping underused units is a bad thing, but slapping bonding everywhere gives me a negative gut reaction (though that does sometimes disappear after a closer look). That said, sometimes people just like creating fixer units for the sake of it, and once in a while I get a kick out of it too. (You'll see a lot of it in my earlier customs.)

Korag is a (trashy fixer) design I've been sitting on for ... *counting counting counting* ... almost two-and-a-half years now when I came up with a concept for a dungeon crawl boss. I play tested him ... *more counting* ... a bit over a year ago, during which time I found the mini for the Troglodyte Grunt and added it into Korag's little party to help hide the fact that he is really only there to "fix," you guessed it, the Sahuagin Raider. By giving it bonding. Of a sort -- I had it activate through wounding figures, which ties into the Sahuagin Raider's Blood Frenzy. The Troglodyte Fighter helps those wounds happen with Horrid Stench.

Korag ends up working pretty well as a boss in a dungeon crawl scenario, and works with all of the Utgar common heroes that came out in the DnD waves. He's not nearly as good in competitive play, though it can be a fun challenge if you want the puzzle of getting him to work on larger maps. On smaller dungeon maps he leads his band against adventurers by example with his huge bone axe (which looks awesome in person -- none of my pictures caught it very well). Not a design I would try to make official at all (little to none of my designs are, though) since small/medium Utgar common hero is a weird synergy spot that's really just personal fan service for dungeon crawls (because I really enjoy fun dungeon crawl bosses).

(Also, now that I think of it, just about all of my customs are a pile of trashy personal fan service. I mean, make what you want to play, right?)

[BiggaBullfrog]

Aegis


Figure Used: Earth Guardian (Dungeons and Dragons: Heart of Cormyr)

Another card that I finished up a little over a year ago. I wanted a cool, new, powerful aura to use with him, thinking of some kind of inspiration/buff. That turned into a +1 Attack/Defense aura that I balanced by making it require use of the X OM like Siege/Evar. This makes for a really powerful aura that heavily impacts the game, but is balanced by a need to put your first OM on Aegis. When it gets low on life, this becomes especially risky as a bad initiative roll can result in losing Aegis, a turn, the buff, and all that fun stuff. All in all, I like the gameplay it provides. It's fun in normal games as well as dungeon crawls (which a ton of my units are designed for).