Astro's Custom Units [Update 5/26/21: WWII Medic]

[Astroking112]

LINEBACKER
Loyal Supporter

A Divided Alliance - Black Harts (2/2)



The figure used is Brutus from the game Battleball. The Linebacker is a single-spaced figure.

CHARACTER BIO:

Spoiler Alert!

The Black Harts are known for their lightning speed and ability to tackle opponents before they can react, but it is the Linebackers who hold the team together. The Linebackers may lack the same offensive output of many other Black Harts, but Einar still saw immense value in their ability to boost the defense of his burgeoning athletes. Now that the Linebackers have arrived on Valhalla, the Black Harts are more fearsome than ever before!

CARD TEXT:

Spoiler Alert!

GENERAL = EINAR
PLANET = EARTH
SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNCOMMON HERO
CLASS = ATHLETE
PERSONALITY = FEARLESS
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 6

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 60

ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT
All friendly Athletes adjacent to a Linebacker roll an additional attack die and an additional defense die. Linebackers are not affected by Athlete Enhancement.

FEARLESS ADVANTAGE
This Linebacker rolls an additional die when attacking or defending against large or huge figures.

DESIGN NOTES:

Spoiler Alert!

This guy seemed like a perfect candidate for an Uncommon Athlete to me, on account of how easily distinguishable he is from the rest of the Black Harts (he stands much taller than most of the other Battleball figures). Since I was already including two Common Squads in the box, it made sense to include another figure that can be taken in multiples as well.

While I was looking at my concept for the Black Hart faction, with them being tied together by the actual Brutus (which ironically and coincidentally is the name of this sculpt) but having slightly underwhelming stats, the idea of a pseudo-Swog Rider for them became very appealing. It's nowhere near as easy to boost the Black Harts as it is to boost the Arrow Gruts (since Brutus' form of bonding only lets you take a turn with a Linebacker or the Black Harts), but they add sme valuable tactical flexibility to the army by improving the poor stats somewhat.

Because Brutus' Throw and the Black Harts' Group Tackle only works against Small/Medium figures, it was also apparent that the faction would struggle a lot against large/huge armies. The Linebacker is also meant to help a little bit with those match-ups so that it isn't hopeless, although it definitely doesn't favor them even with that aid.

-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received

• BRUTUS : TEAM LEADER
  As an Athlete Hero that follows Einar, the Linebacker may benefit from Brutus' TEAM LEADER activation synergy.
  
  
• STALWART : PULL TO SAFETY
  As a friendly athlete figure, the Linebacker may ignore wounds after a successful roll for Stalwart's PULL TO SAFETY.
  
  
• COUNT RAYMOND : MANEUVER 9
  As a friendly human figure who follows Einar, the Linebacker may benefit from Count Raymond's MANEUVER 9 when he receives one or more wounds from a leaving engagement attack.

Synergy Benefits Offered

• ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT : ATHLETE UNITS
  • Black Harts
  • Dark Iris
  • Iron Judge
  • Iron Wolves
  • Quick Jack
  • Stalwart
  • Steel Auxilius
  • Steel Ultimatus
  • Viktor Klaw
  
  
• IRON WOLVES : REINFORCE THE LINE
  As an athlete, the Linebacker may aid the Iron Wolves after being wounded to trigger REINFORCE THE LINE.
  
  
• EBON ARMOR : ANIMATED MATERIEL & ETERNAL WAR
  As an Uncommon Human, a destroyed Ebon Armor you control may be placed on a Linebacker Army Card to replace that Linebacker upon his own destruction.
  
  
• HATAMOTO TARO : ADJACENT TOUGH 1
  As a figure that follows Einar, the Linebacker may aid Hatamoto Taro with his ADJACENT TOUGH 1 defense bonus.

As always, any comments or feedback are appreciated.

[Astroking112]

Now that my finals are wrapping up, I've finally had the time to make my final addition to the Black Harts faction. To commemorate the occasion, this post is dedicated to gathering the complete faction for easy reference.

BLACK HARTS OVERVIEW

Here is a compilation of every card in the Black Harts faction, along with a brief explanation preceding each. This should make it easier to view the faction as a whole.

Spoiler Alert!

First up, we have Brutus, the leader of the faction. He serves as an Order Marker sink to make managing the rest of the army more efficient, but he comes with a severe risk if you let him get engaged by too many figures. Should you only engage two figures at once to maximize Throw and his attack's potential, or are you better off only engaging one figure to improve the chances of getting a second turn?



Second, we have the Black Harts, the common bulk of most builds for this army. They're cheap and can be quite powerful if they can rush the enemy, but 2 attack and 2 defense as their base can be quite painful if they either get engaged or fail their first attempt. Luckily, the rest of the faction does have some ways to help with their weaknesses (such as Brutus' Throw, which can let them pounce on the same target with a good roll and placement).



Third, we have the Linebackers. These guys are like a tougher variant of the Swog Rider, but they're harder to work with due to lacking true bonding with any unit that they can boost. It's best to think of them as being similar to Concan: they're a great tool to have, and can be effective in boosting your army, but they require careful placement to be taken full advantage of.



Fourth, we have Steel Auxilius. He's another tool to add to the Black Harts' repertoire, being capable of tying down opponents thanks to Negation Pulse and his Repair Program, which makes him tougher to take down. However, using this healing requires you to consistently take turns with him, which comes at the cost of pretty much every other offensive operation that this army has. Still, throwing him adjacent to Raelin or some other important figure is neat trick to have up your sleeve.



Fifth, we have Viktor Klaw. He adds another offensive option to the army, being capable of getting in 2 attacks of 4 with his Savage Assault and acting as a light assassin with his Stealth Leap. Like the Black Harts before him, though, he doesn't have much in the way of defense, which can leave him vulnerable if overextended.



Finally, we have Dark Iris, who acts as a filler hero for the faction. She also has use outside of Black Hart builds, but she really shines with Brutus and the Linebackers. Her base attack is pitiful and she'll likely die within a single turn, but when you stack her abilities properly, she can quickly get up to 6 attack. She's definitely no Marcu Esenwein, but then again, who is?

In addition to the compilation above, here are links to each unit's original post, so that more detailed synergy webs and bios can easily be viewed:

Black Harts
Brutus
Dark Iris
Linebacker
Steel Auxilius
Viktor Klaw

Should anyone be interested in acquiring these figures for themselves, they are all contained in a single box of the game Battleball (it contains one copy of every Hero and enough extra figures for two squads of the Black Harts). The box also contains all of the figures that I used in my Iron Wolves faction. Currently, the entire box can be found for relatively cheap by searching on eBay.

As always, any feedback is welcome!

[Lamaclown]

I really like Steel Auxilius. I like how his negation power is reliable (unlike another unit which shall remain nameless) yet not a game breaker since it isn't permanent and only affects adjacent figures. I think it is a great way to encourage him to get into the fray.

Dark Iris is probably one my favorite filler units I have seen. She may go out quickly like other filler units, but it seems she won't go down alone when she does. I think you really captured the essence of speed that the sculpt implies.

I like figures that encourage melee combat over turtling with range pods so to have a faction dedicated to melee like this is great. It makes me wish I had figs from this game.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Lamaclown

I really like Steel Auxilius. I like how his negation power is reliable (unlike another unit which shall remain nameless) yet not a game breaker since it isn't permanent and only affects adjacent figures. I think it is a great way to encourage him to get into the fray.

Dark Iris is probably one my favorite filler units I have seen. She may go out quickly like other filler units, but it seems she won't go down alone when she does. I think you really captured the essence of speed that the sculpt implies.

I like figures that encourage melee combat over turtling with range pods so to have a faction dedicated to melee like this is great. It makes me wish I had figs from this game.

Thanks for the feedback! The completely reliable negation is definitely my favorite part of his design, and it really encourages the other player to finish him off. I was originally going to let it affect any figure, but the number of R&Cs that would require convinced me to bring it back to Unique Heroes only. I'm glad that you like him!

The sculpt for Dark Iris always stuck out to me as evoking speed. I'm glad that this theme was able to properly come across. A lot of people aren't fond of fillers, but I wanted to try my hand at designing someone who could hit hard under the right conditions but was pretty fragile.

If you're interested in getting the figures, the entire BattleBall box was selling for around $5 on eBay not too long ago. I don't know if it's still available at that low of a price, but getting all of the sculpts is probably still pretty cheap.

[Astroking112]

QUICK JACK
Fortune Seeker

A Divided Alliance - Heroes of the Sport (4/4)



The figure used is one of the Iron Wolves miniatures from the game Battleball. Quick Jack is a single-spaced figure.

CHARACTER BIO:

Spoiler Alert!

TBA

CARD TEXT:

Spoiler Alert!

GENERAL = VYDAR
PLANET = EARTH
SPECIES = BIONIC
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ATHLETE
PERSONALITY = GREEDY
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 4

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 75

MAGNETIC CATCH 8
When a figure with at least one Treasure Glyph on its Army Card ends its movement within 3 clear sight spaces of Quick Jack, you may choose one Treasure Glyph on that card and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll an 8 or higher, move that Treasure Glyph to this Army Card.

DISARM TRAPS
When you roll the 20-sided die for a Treasure Glyph trap with Quick Jack, you may add 4 to your die roll.

SIDETRACKED
Quick Jack may add 3 to his move number. Quick Jack must be able to land on a Treasure Glyph in order to use Sidetracked.

DESIGN NOTES:

Spoiler Alert!

Fundamentally, this sculpt feels different from the other Iron Wolves, which is largely thanks to his body posture. Whereas most of his teammates are either moving forwards or standing firm, this sculpt is leaning backwards with his arm outstretched. This makes it feel like he's reaching to take something from other figures to me, which quickly manifested as a power stealing Treasure Glyphs.

I let this direct the rest of the design. He was already a little niche because Treasure Glyphs are somewhat uncommon, so I decided to give him some solid survivability (notably, the 5th life is also useful for his bonding squad when considering taking Steel Ultimatus or him) and let his power set keep its niche nature. That painted the picture of a somewhat greedy player, someone focused more on the treasure than helping the team, which I actually ended up really liking the theme of.

All of the unique athletes are meant to have their own personality, somewhat like celebrities, so the idea of a self-serving member of one of the teams ended up really sticking with me. Quick Jack doesn't have the broadest of uses, but he does serve as an interesting idea in my eyes.

-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received

• IRON WOLVES : VYDAR ATHLETE BONDING
  As an athlete who follows Vydar, Quick Jack may benefit from the Iron Wolves' VYDAR ATHLETE BONDING activation bonus.
  
  
• IRON JUDGE : FIELD PASS
  As a Vydar athlete, Quick Jack may move with the Iron Judge's FIELD PASS movement power.
  
  
• STALWART : PULL TO SAFETY
  As a friendly athlete figure, Quick Jack may ignore wounds after a successful roll for Stalwart's PULL TO SAFETY.
  
  
• LINEBACKER : ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT
  As an Athlete, Quick Jack may benefit from a Linebacker's ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT attack and defense bonus.
  
  
• COMMAND COURIER : COMMAND DISPATCH
  As a Medium Vydar Unique Hero, Quick Jack may take a turn due to a Command Courier’s COMMAND DISPATCH ability.

Synergy Benefits Offered

• IRON WOLVES : REINFORCE THE LINE
  As an athlete, Quick Jack may aid the Iron Wolves after being wounded to trigger REINFORCE THE LINE.

As always, any comments or feedback are appreciated.

[Astroking112]

IRON JUDGE
Expert Passer

A Divided Alliance - Iron Wolves (2/2)



The figure used is Iron Judge from the game Battleball. The Iron Judge is a single-spaced figure.

CHARACTER BIO:

Spoiler Alert!

TBA

CARD TEXT:

Spoiler Alert!

GENERAL = VYDAR
PLANET = EARTH
SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNCOMMON HERO
CLASS = ATHLETE
PERSONALITY = DECISIVE
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 6

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 50

FINAL JUDGMENT
When this Iron Judge is destroyed, roll the 20-sided die once for each adjacent opponent's figure. If you roll an 17 or higher, that figure receives 1 wound.

FIELD PASS
After taking a turn with this Iron Judge, you may move any Athlete you control who follows Vydar within 3 clear sight spaces up to 4 spaces.

DESIGN NOTES:

Spoiler Alert!

Much like with the Linebacker, the Iron Judge was the last figure in his team that I designed. I knew that I wanted him to be Uncommon to provide more army-building flexibility and mirror the Black Harts, but it wasn't until more recently that I finally settled on his design.

His primary purpose is to help the Iron Wolves stick together, using Field Pass to keep more units nearby so that they can consistently take advantage of their Team Assist 1 bonus. He also has some neat synergy when used in a similar fashion, bringing both a solid attack of 4 and potential automatic wound in the form of passing judgment on the enemy when he dies. The Iron Judge isn't as flashy as Stalwart and his Forge or as gimmicky as Steel Ultimatus and Quick Jack, but he should serve as a potent way of bringing the faction together.

-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received

• IRON WOLVES : VYDAR ATHLETE BONDING
  As an athlete who follows Vydar, an Iron Judge may benefit from the Iron Wolves' VYDAR ATHLETE BONDING activation bonus.
  
  
• COMMAND COURIER : COMMAND DISPATCH
  As a Medium Vydar Uncommon Hero, an Iron Judge may take a turn due to a Command Courier’s COMMAND DISPATCH ability.
  
  
• STALWART : PULL TO SAFETY
  As a friendly athlete figure, an Iron Judge may ignore wounds after a successful roll for Stalwart's PULL TO SAFETY.
  
  
• LINEBACKER : ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT
  As an Athlete, an Iron Judge may benefit from a Linebacker's ATHLETE ENHANCEMENT attack and defense bonus.

Synergy Benefits Offered

• FIELD PASS : VYDAR ATHLETES
  As Vydar athletes, the following figures may be moved by FIELD PASS if they are within 3 clear sight spaces of this Iron Judge:
  • Iron Judge
  • Iron Wolves
  • Quick Jack
  • Stalwart
  • Steel Ultimatus
  
  
• IRON WOLVES : REINFORCE THE LINE
  As an athlete, an Iron Judge may aid the Iron Wolves after being wounded to trigger REINFORCE THE LINE.

As always, any comments or feedback are appreciated.

[Heroscaper 101]

It seems your making a team, a team greater than the "Raiders".

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Heroscaper 101

It seems your making a team, a team greater than the "Raiders".

Thanks for checking my customs out! Yeah, this guy was actually my final addition to the "Iron Wolves" faction. I'm glad that the idea of them being a team came across!

[MrNobody]

I’m really loving every single one of the Battleball guys. Haven’t had much to say but they all seem fun to play, and I love the incorporation of elements of football. My favorites so far are the Black Harts with that cool Group Tackle.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

I’m really loving every single one of the Battleball guys. Haven’t had much to say but they all seem fun to play, and I love the incorporation of elements of football. My favorites so far are the Black Harts with that cool Group Tackle.

Thanks! I only have a basic knowledge of football (which makes my decision to create customs for every miniature in the set a little amusing), but I tried to convey some of the aspects along with the sci-fi power armor that they were all wearing.

The Black Harts were the first ones that I designed, just because I thought that Group Tackle would be fun to play around with. I'm glad that someone else agrees.

[Heroscaper 101]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

Thanks! I only have a basic knowledge of football (which makes my decision to create customs for every miniature in the set a little amusing), but I tried to convey some of the aspects along with the sci-fi power armor that they were all wearing.

The Black Harts were the first ones that I designed, just because I thought that Group Tackle would be fun to play around with. I'm glad that someone else agrees.

I am glad that your having designing these athletes. Just remember that
"Football" in the real world is a cold, ruthless sport that ruins families and word of advice "Don't do Drugs".

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

Now that my finals are wrapping up, I've finally had the time to make my final addition to the Black Harts faction. To commemorate the occasion, this post is dedicated to gathering the complete faction for easy reference.

BLACK HARTS OVERVIEW

Here is a compilation of every card in the Black Harts faction, along with a brief explanation preceding each. This should make it easier to view the faction as a whole.

Spoiler Alert!

First up, we have Brutus, the leader of the faction. He serves as an Order Marker sink to make managing the rest of the army more efficient, but he comes with a severe risk if you let him get engaged by too many figures. Should you only engage two figures at once to maximize Throw and his attack's potential, or are you better off only engaging one figure to improve the chances of getting a second turn?



Second, we have the[indent]Black Harts, the common bulk of most builds for this army. They're cheap and can be quite powerful if they can rush the enemy, but 2 attack and 2 defense as their base can be quite painful if they either get engaged or fail their first attempt. Luckily, the rest of the faction does have some ways to help with their weaknesses (such as Brutus' Throw, which can let them pounce on the same target with a good roll and placement).



Third, we have the Linebackers. These guys are like a tougher variant of the Swog Rider, but they're harder to work with due to lacking true bonding with any unit that they can boost. It's best to think of them as being similar to Concan: they're a great tool to have, and can be effective in boosting your army, but they require careful placement to be taken full advantage of.



Fourth, we have Steel Auxilius. He's another tool to add to the Black Harts' repertoire, being capable of tying down opponents thanks to Negation Pulse and his Repair Program, which makes him tougher to take down. However, using this healing requires you to consistently take turns with him, which comes at the cost of pretty much every other offensive operation that this army has. Still, throwing him adjacent to Raelin or some other important figure is neat trick to have up your sleeve.



Fifth, we have Viktor Klaw. He adds another offensive option to the army, being capable of getting in 2 attacks of 4 with his Savage Assault and acting as a light assassin with his Stealth Leap. Like the Black Harts before him, though, he doesn't have much in the way of defense, which can leave him vulnerable if overextended.



Finally, we have Dark Iris, who acts as a filler hero for the faction. She also has use outside of Black Hart builds, but she really shines with Brutus and the Linebackers. Her base attack is pitiful and she'll likely die within a single turn, but when you stack her abilities properly, she can quickly get up to 6 attack. She's definitely no Marcu Esenwein, but then again, who is?

In addition to the compilation above, here are links to each unit's original post, so that more detailed synergy webs and bios can easily be viewed:

Black Harts
Brutus
Dark Iris
Linebacker
Steel Auxilius
Viktor Klaw

Should anyone be interested in acquiring these figures for themselves, they are all contained in a single box of the game Battleball (it contains one copy of every Hero and enough extra figures for two squads of the Black Harts). Currently, the entire box can be found for relatively cheap by searching on eBay.

As always, any feedback is welcome!

Okay, just had time to look through these - I really, really like them. Dark Iris and Steel Auxilius might be my favourite. My one suggestion would be making Linebacker a Unique Hero - that way, someone has everything they need from a single copy of Battleball.