Tai-Pan's Customs

[Tai-Pan]

I have resurrected my customs thread and, since Photobucket is no longer a free option, got rid of the old stuff and am here with new stuff.


TEMPLARS

I picked up these guys (6 Templar Knights, 3 Templar Heroes) together with the C3V figures for Cathar Spearmen and Count Raymond. I wanted to investigate the Christian aspect of the Templars a little more and decided to make these guys devout and give them Knight Bonding in order to pick up and support Sir Dupuis. That shaped the entire faction, making their heroes Knights instead of Champions and barring them from the preexisting Human Champions and their squads faction.

Thematically, they fit with the Templars and expand on the theme of medieval knights. Mechanically, they build on the faction started by Raymond: the army of the devout. With all units in the faction, devout units can add 1 to their move (Raymond), 1 to their attack (when attacking a figure within 2 spaces of Sir Robert), and be moved 3 spaces at the beginning of every round (Brother Hugh). In addition, Brother Hugh has the unique ability to expand the faction in-game, recruiting his brothers in arms to be his brothers in faith.



Templar Infantry's bio

Spoiler Alert!

The Templar Order employs not only mounted knights, but also knights on foot. Dismounted, they depend more upon the leadership of brave heroes to lead them into combat, but retain their righteous fury. But being on foot means being much closer to the enemy than those upon horses, causing them to be more devout in their prayers for protection.

These guys aren't fancy as far as mechanics go, but make up the core of the Templar effort. They are now the basic melee squad that utilizes heroes to make them both more exciting thematically and more potent mechanically. They have a lot of bonding options with 4 heroes (Dupuis, Hugh, Godfrey and Robert) as well as the option to take Raymond along for an extra movement.





Sir Robert's Bio

Spoiler Alert!

The Lord's Standard was trusted to Sir Robert shortly before the battle. The staff upon which the banner was hung contained a piece of the True Cross, and was certain to bring victory against the heathen armies. Sir Robert was chosen for his devotion to the Lord, but also for his unwavering courage - whoever carried the Lord's banner must push onward and cannot waver. The Standard bobbed over the heads of warriors, Christian and heathen, pushing further and further as the fervor of the devout was awakened to follow and secure the very symbol of Christ.

Just as the crusader army was about to secure victory, the Standard disappeared and the Army of the Believers lost courage and fell back, fearing the Standard and its carrier, Sir Robert, had been lost. But Sir Robert had been summoned through the wellspring by Jandar, who desired to harness the devotion of his Christian soldiers to defeat the evil in his world.

Sir Robert had to be a cheerleader unit of sorts, being a flagbearer. The setting of the crusades made it plausible to have an inspiring flagbearer taking the standard of Christ into battle and driving his Christian brethren forward. Having to have your cheerleader in the thick of things makes for an interesting choice, and he will quickly become a target. He compares to Finn the Viking Champion, but his aura is bigger, can be used for devout ranged units (at the moment, the only way to get any would be for Brother Hugh to convert them first), but he doesn't have Finn's spirit, his bonding options are more limited, his boosting options are more limited, and his attack is lower. Currently, the list of devout units is limited to Van Nessing, Cathar Spearmen, Pelloth, Kurrok, the Templar Infantry, and the Templar heroes Hugh and Godfrey.



Brother Hugh's Bio

Spoiler Alert!

It was not for riches, nor for adventure that Brother Hugh had joined the Templar Order, but for God. A fiery and passionate Warrior, he is equally vicious on the battlefield and in the pulpit. With the Bible as his constant companion, even at war, he makes the call to arms and the call to repentance in the same breath, winning both souls and swords for the Lord's army.

This figure, with a sword and a Bible, had to be something creative. With Sir Robert and Count Raymond already offering boosts to the devout, I didn't want to have another cheerleader/support unit in the traditional sense. I attempted to capture the Christian warrior by having him be able to convert other, less Christian humans in his own army, allowing them to receive the blessings of being in the Lord's army. As well as being a missionary, I wanted to incorporate "deus vult", the cry of the crusades, to drive the holy army forward. A small movement for all soldiers is something HoSS did with Tarkin, and in the games I've played with him it is helpful, but not terribly powerful. The conversion power leans a ways out the window in that it can allow any unique human unit to tap into the devout boosts, but some units may give up a different bonus to get it, it involves doing something other than attacking with your OM's, and it involves a significant point investment in Hugh and the Devout boosters (Raymond, Robert).





Sir Godfrey's bio

Spoiler Alert!

"Sir Godfrey, they're coming!"

Godfrey had taken a small group of Templars with him to a secluded monastary outside of the established borders of Outremer in search of a holy relic which might hold the key to peace in the Holy Lands.

"Faster, Father, faster," Godfrey spoke urgently. The old man fumbled the iron key into the chest's lock and opened the lid, revealing the white wings of an ivory cherub resting upon a golden bell.

"Bring peace to this land, good knight," the father said as he pressed the artifact into Sir Godfrey's hands. Godfrey rushed out of the building as Saracen Ghulams charged his escort. His Knights were hopelessly outnumbered, merely a few of his closest soldiers to keep watch, not a warband. As one Templar after another fell, Godfrey raised the bell and let it sound. A clear tone rang out, musical and mystical, and both horse and man were calmed. The Ghulams let their spears fall and the Templars their swords and for a moment, there was peace between these perpetual enemies. But peace was, as ever, short-lived, and the Ghulam closest to Godfrey soon pulled his sword and rushed the Knight, but Jandar intervened just in time, summoning Sir Godfrey and his Artifact of Peace to join him to bring an end to the eternal conflict on Valhalla.

Sir Godfrey is an experiment, and I don't know yet what to expect of him. Originally, I thought the bell in his hand had a dove on it instead of a cherub, so I was looking for something along the lines of a bell of peace. Now to implement that usefully in a war game. The result is a figure with a pacifist-aura that affects even himself. Theoretically (I haven't gotten to test it yet), he's going to have to move to the enemy alone and will hopefully disrupt their plans. He will be immune to half the enemy's melee attacks and the disrupting aura might cause ranged enemies to abandon a good position in order to attack undisturbed. In HeroScape, any action that doesn't involve killing enemies tends to be a bad use of an OM, but the fact that the Templar Infantry can attack in one spot and Sir Godfrey can try to disrupt another mitigates that weakness.

MASTER OF ILLUSIONS





Master of Illusions bio:

Spoiler Alert!

Carr and Skahen entered the newly erected training arena at in Vydar's capital, their wooden training swords raised. The terrible sounds of war were being projected by Soulborgs in different corners of the arena and fog made it difficult to see from one end to the other. Their opponent is an unknown new recruit - Vydar finds it keeps his soldiers in top form to force them to train against that which they don't know. From the mist to the left and right, shapes emerged and leapt at them. Careful to cover each other, they deftly dodged their foes and struck at them with their swords. Carr found his mark, but instead of feeling resistance against the wood, the blade went straight through and the figure disappeared. "They're not real.... It must be magic..." he said to Skahen and let his guard down. A figure emerged next to him and and struck his side, just under his arm, catching him by surprise and knocking the wind out of him. "Seem more real than you think, Carr," Skahen replied as she dispatched the image with a swordblow, "Keep your guard up, hit them before they hit you." The two fell into rhythm with each other, rolling, dodging, striking, beginning to master the task at hand when Skahen struck a figure and felt the familiar, yet in this instance surprising, resistance of flesh against wood. The Illusion turned and attacked her with surprising fury, driving her apart from Carr. She cried out and Carr turned and attacked from behind, but his sword met no flesh and the figure disappeared. Now behind him, the strange newcomer launched anew his attack, forcing Carr to the ground. "EXCELLENT," Vydar's voice boomed through the arena. "Carr, Skahen, meet the Master of Illusions."

I really love Arena of the Planeswalkers and the miniatures it offers. But I also love customs, so I turned these guys into HeroScape figures. The uniqueness of this figure set makes it perfect for this kind of figure - the Master of Illusions is a painted miniature while the Deadly Illusions are unpainted versions of the same character in different poses. With these designs, the Master of Illusions is nowhere and everywhere at the same time. If you try to attack him, half the time it was just an Illusion - he is really somewhere else. If you attack an Illusion to narrow the possibilities of where the Master might be hiding, there's a 25% chance you've found the real Master. And there is no escaping this mind game, as the Illusions will continue until the battle is over. No target zones mean the Illusions can only be destroyed from close-up, and with no defense dice, it takes little more than the swipe of a hand to dispatch them from the field. But be careful, the Master of Illusions is a deadly enemy.

[boromir96]

I have to say that's a pretty cool design!

I do think it should say " may add 1 to their attack",Instead of "add 1 die to their normal attack"
It's not necessarily to add the "normal attack" Because Special attacks are NEVER modified.
~B96

[Tai-Pan]

Two new figures added, with a few more coming, including something that might be a help for our cowboys and going way back to the roots of HeroScape back when synergy crossed all over the place for ridiculous combinations, HeroScapey combinations....

[Tai-Pan]

Airei, Ixx the Taker, Takers added. That's all for now.

[Scytale]

You kindly commented on some units in my customs thread some time ago, and it seems I never returned the favor. I commented on some of these in F3G recently. Here's some comments on the rest.


MIRMER THE HOLOGRAM

Interesting concept, though I'm generally not a fan of units that boost ranged figures. You hit most of the major points, but there are still a handful of potential theme breaks you may wish to consider:
-- slowed down moving uphill (doesn't he just float?)
-- stops in water
-- cannot move through obstacles such as ruins
These could be solved by simply replacing Phantom Walk with Stealth Flying, if you were concerned.
You may wish to consider changing his hit zone to all grey. Adjacent figures could still hit him with a special attack, but it would make it more difficult to hit him with ranged special attacks.


PAXO

When I first saw the stats I thought he was too good for the cost, but then I read Peaceful Giant. That does, in theory, make him hard to use effectively. However, a player can attack their own figures. I'd attack him right away to get him ready to fight.


SOLITH

Defensively tough, but only one mediocre attack per turn. I'd put him somewhere in the 90 point range. Thick-skinned is an interesting ability; almost never used, but it fits the theme I suppose.


AIREI

A nice addition to an Arachnid army. It could be fun to drag away a hero and then web it with Spiders. There is one problem with the design, however (assuming you didn't intend it): the Airei will always be engaged when it uses Drag -- it will be engaged with the hero it is dragging. The way the power is written, the figure being dragged will be able to make a leaving engagement attack against the Airei.


IXX THE TAKER

An overall decent design, and a solid bonding option for the Takers. Might be a bit underpriced; 4 attack is really good at range, and Regenerative Suit makes up a bit for his low life. Hard to tell without playtesting however.


BLACK DRIFTERS

Like many of your designs, I appreciate the simplicity. Blaster Spray is a really cool power. These guys are exceedingly potent; their 6 move makes up for their 5 range, Blaster Spray doubles the number of potential attacks, and they have solid defense against melee. Really well-rounded; definitely worth the price tag and possibly underpriced.


PEACEKEEPERS

Set to Stun seems like it would could problems with some powers, but I haven't thought of any yet. The most interesting thing about this unit is that you would only want to draft a small number of them, 1 or 2 probably. They don't have the killing power to be a real force, but if nothing else the order marker threat will get your opponent's attention. It's hard to imagine how well they would work out in practice, though they may eat Viper armies for lunch.


MOZINN

This guy is pretty much just a slight variation on Major X17. More potent due to Double Attack, and better against range, but a bit weaker in terms of melee defense. He's pretty outclassed by the existing 120pt powerhouses like Krug and the Fen Hydra. His most interesting feature is his synergy with existing Gladiators. Kinda neat, but not amazing.

[Tai-Pan]

Mozinn, Solith, Airei reworked, Takers and Ixx slightly modified, Caldar Woodsmen and Talz Hunters Added.

Thanks for the input, Scytale!

I didn't realize that Mozinn was so similar to the Major. What an oversight.... I changed him up a little bit. I like the idea of an alien gladiator, but I'm not quite satisfied with him yet.

[Crypto-Knight]

Has anyone seen this?! This is awesome! Sorry for necro'ing an old thread, but this is cool.

[Ninja Status]

I wouldn't really count this as a necro. The last activity before this was only in April. BTW, cool customs Tai-Pan.

[Tai-Pan]

Resurrected and revamped.

[Tai-Pan]

Haven't got a card for him yet, but here is my suggestion for a Aquilla Flagbearer.

[Astroking112]

That looks great! The Varkaanans weren't the first faction to come to my mind for an Aquilla flagbearer, but I'm interested to see what you come up with. It's a pity that they're all so hard to acquire now.

[Heroscaper 101]

Originally Posted by Tai-Pan

Haven't got a card for him yet, but here is my suggestion for a Aquilla Flagbearer.

A wolf might the best option for a Aquilla Flagbearer. You have what class, personality and stats of the Aquilla Flagbearer.