Scytale's customs

[Scytale]

I jumped in another one of Dr.Goomonkey's custom contests, the Springtime 2019 one. I felt the figures had some interesting potential.

With the Common Hero restriction on one of the figures, plus the insectoid models, some sort of swarming power was all but essential. What I wanted to do is make something with that as a core concept, but do it differently than anything that had come before. Not an easy task, as there are really only so many ways to get the swarming result. I didn't want a slight variation, I wanted something new that would play differently.

My solution was adjacency-based controller activations. It's not unusual for controllers to give turns to units in range, so it's not a big change, but adjacency is much more difficult than, say, 8 spaces. It is this restriction that forces a different playstyle. To get the most out of your order markers, you want to completely surround the Commanders and stay in tight formation, at least while moving around. It gives a different effect and feels wonderfully insect-ish, especially with the honeycomb shape from the hex tile system.

More importantly, though, they are complex to play. While it is easy to believe that their potential 7-activation round would be devastating, it's not unprecedented. Marro Drones can do 9-figure turns repeatedly (though unlikely), and Frenzy can go on indefinitely. The thing that holds back the Xiphydri is the same thing that makes it strong: the adjacency restriction. Assuming things go well, you can rush out with a wild attack against numerous targets. But then the formation is broken, and even if your figures survive it will take too much time and effort to rebuild the formation. It's a one-shot deal. Additionally, the Drones are much weaker on their own. On the other hand, holding formation will greatly reduce the attack power of the group, as most of the units will have to sit idle.

On top of the difficult decisions formation-based turns create, the faction has a couple of obvious big weaknesses. Both are, again, due to their formation-based play. First, pretty much any multi-target special attack is problematic. A single shot from a Shotgun can decimate the army, and there's little one can do to avoid that danger. Second, losing a Commander makes the whole set of Drones impotent, and they're not that tough.

So with careful play one can use a Xiphydri squadron as an interesting pseudo-hero, keeping the formation together and protecting the Commander. Or it can be used as a nasty first-strike option with a blitz 7-figure attack, though for 145pts that's pretty costly.

I know it is a little strange that the Drones have the Relentless personality instead of Mindless, but I wanted them to have uses outside of just a Xiphydri build. Mindless Drone puts some tight restrictions on the unit, so it's nice to be able to toss them in as cheap shock troops in a Death Knights army.


Kraul Death Priest (D&D Icons of the Realms: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica)


Kraul Winged Warrior (D&D Icons of the Realms: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica)

[Heroscaper 101]

Neat customs you have on this thread.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Really interesting take a the bugs here. I really need to remember to pay more attention to the contest stuff.

[Cleon]

You have really awesome customs Scytale, I've really enjoyed reading through them. Why have I not looked at this thread before? It's almost like another list of C3V/SoV in itself. The balance and creativity is on point, there's not many units I'd say are too overpowered or too weak. Solid 90% success rate it's looking like, that's very impressive.

I'm about 2/3's of the way through. Can't comment on everything since it's so much material but I'll comment on some in a minute.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Cleon

You have really awesome customs Scytale, I've really enjoyed reading through them. Why have I not looked at this thread before? It's almost like another list of C3V/SoV in itself. The balance and creativity is on point, there's not many units I'd say are too overpowered or too weak. Solid 90% success rate it's looking like, that's very impressive.

Thanks for saying so! Quite a compliment!

I would be most interested to hear what you think are the overpowered or underpowered ones. I have extensively tested everything here (expect the new Xiphydri), so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Astroking112]

After @Cleon 's recent nomination of the Catalan Mercenaries for SoV, it was noted that figure availability would be a major concern. @Kinseth shared this excellent post compiling some suitable sculpts (the flag carrier might better fit as Rutgar Van Blum if he is eventually nominated as well). If there is enough interest, I think that the Mercenaries would be a great potential design for the SoV.

Spoiler Alert!

Originally Posted by Kinseth

Others I saw as 20+ at Miniature Market
Pious Guard
Greta
Gray Maiden
Azorius Arrester
Kleef Kenric


All of these figure are Common or Uncommon from the latest two releases of Pathfinder and D&D minis. Given that these guys are Mercs, I wouldn't expect them to look that similar.

Bottom half figures are 20+ available from Miniature market, probably more on other sites too if you have a look around.

[Scytale]

Thanks for compiling that list, @Kinseth , and thanks for posting it here, @Astroking112 . While I'm not a fan of dissimilar-looking squad figures, it works for mercenaries.

I don't have the time or desire personally to round up figures and verify their numbers, but if anyone would like to, have at it!

[Kinseth]

Originally Posted by Scytale

Thanks for compiling that list, @Kinseth , and thanks for posting it here, @Astroking112 . While I'm not a fan of dissimilar-looking squad figures, it works for mercenaries.

I don't have the time or desire personally to round up figures and verify their numbers, but if anyone would like to, have at it!

Right on, I can look for more availability when I get some free time.

Question - How balanced on points do you feel these guys are right now? How much playtesting was done?

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Kinseth

Right on, I can look for more availability when I get some free time.

Question - How balanced on points do you feel these guys are right now? How much playtesting was done?

I have played against/with them in a half dozen games or so. dok played them in the Scytaleverse event, and they proved to be quite strong in large numbers, thanks to raw stats and Rutgar keeping them in line. I changed Rutgar a bit in response to that showing.

[Kinseth]

I did some searching, and made a google sheet you can see results on. Added the Lastwall General who is on a horse because he is super available and fairly cheap.

Secondly, some sites I have a value listed in bold, since they do not display values above 20 and they indicate 20+ are available. Which is almost every figure on this sheet. I think there is plenty of availability, this is about 8 of them I searched, more of your bigger stores. (Added in Ebay availability without duplicating stores, so Miniature Market's Ebay availability was left off the ebay totals etc...)

Veteran 209+
Veteran Leader 157+
Berserker 224+
Berserker Leader 188++
Human Paladin of the Oath 215++
Pious Guard 150+
Lastwall Paladin 126+
Kleef Kenric 121+
Lastwall General 157+
Lastwall Soldier 109+
Lastwall Knight 107+

Veteran
Berserker
Veteran Leader
Berserker Leader
Paladin of the Oath
Lastwall Soldier
Lastwall Paladin
Lastwall Knight

Others I saw as 20+ at Miniature Market
Pious Guard
Greta
Gray Maiden
Azorius Arrester
Kleef Kenric
Lastwall General

[Kinseth]

My suggestion is this
Veteran
Veteran Leader
Human Paladin of the Oath
Lastwall Knight or Pious Guard

They all have flowing cloaks, helps tie them all in together.

Leader - Lastknight Paladin or Lastknight General(On a horse) because who doesn't love horses?

[Kinseth]

@Scytale - What are your thoughts on the figures presented?