My custom units! Need help with at least one of them!

[Sejon]

^ This is my first custom unit ever. I just took a spare Ne-Gok-Sa and painted him mostly red.

I really wanted to do a mimic-style unit as I thought it could spice up the game. I've played a couple games to play-test him, and the Copy Attack power went over well, as it has very obvious strengths and weaknesses.

However, a point of contention amongst my friends was his Mimic Special Attack power. Some argue that if he is able to mimic the Special Attacks of his allies, then he's too overpowered, and that instead he should be limited to mimicking the Special Attack of only an enemy he is adjacent to. If he is able to mimic any figure's Special Attack (enemy or ally), then they argue that his point cost should increase dramatically, whereas I don't necessarily believe that's the case.

What are your thoughts on this?

Here are some other figures I have yet to play-test, but am excited about doing so:



^Although I didn't really want Solid Snake to have a Rocket Launcher attack, it's hardly far-fetched considering he uses them in the Metal Gear Solid games. I am however very happy with his other powers.





^ Shizenki and Juusei are based off two characters I created. They're samurai mongooses. As you can well imagine, finding a figure that would even remotely resemble them was a pain! But eventually I resigned and decided to try the Dire Weasel miniature from Dungeons & Dragons, despite the fact that it's lacking the sword. Nevertheless, I enjoy their stats and powers. But I wonder if their cost is fair -- I believe it to be since the both of them only have 1 Life, but should theoretically be very difficult to hit, much in the same vein as Spider-man.



^ Ishmol is a powerhouse. Also, his powers are somewhat elaborate and I was frustrated to find that I had very little room with which to describe them, so I had to be very concise with my language. I do enjoy the possibilities of Elemental Magic -- I came up with the idea while considering whether or not my samurai mongooses would have extra movement within grass tiles (but I figured 4 powers for them would be too many).

Do you feel Ishmol is fairly priced? Or is he too overpowered? He was a wizard character of mine that I created roughly 12 years ago, and I've written stories about him, so I'd very much love to see a showdown between him and beastly tough characters such as Thanos. I do think his frailty offsets his offensive power, mind you.

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks a lot!

[Sejon]

Well, I play-tested with Shizenki the samurai mongoose tonight, and he managed to do a pretty good job in the end, although he wasn't attacked very much.

I managed to secure height advantage just so he'd have extra defense to increase the chances of succeeding on his Herpestine Counter. But eventually he got picked off by Laglor.

I'm still debating about his cost. He does have quite an arsenal of powers, but he only has 1 life as a Unique Hero, and after having seen Isamu worth a mere 10 points, I don't necessarily think he's overpriced.

However, I might change his Rapid Slash to just a Double Attack, or perhaps put an upper limit of three or so for it...

[King's Knight]

Ahriman seems fine. Even using an ally's special attack isn't that big of a power, as there are only 3 figures that cost a significant ammount more with ranged specials that he could use anyway and you're losing mobility hugging them to get their ability.

For Solid Snake in his rocket launcher attack you say attack 2, but in the discription is says roll 3 dice. You might want to make it so he can't use that ability when engaged as well (everyone know what happens when you use one that close... you jump really high...) Also, he's missing a hit zone, and for constitancy, stealth dodge works exactly like his last power, while steath suit is what the micorp agents use...

For Herpestine Counterstrike on Shizenki and Juusei (prounounced juicy?) it doesn't specify ranged or adjacent for returning damage. Which might have been the intention, I'm not sure... also, they need hit zones.

Ishmol is powerful but then he is 330 points... seems like someone who would need a lot of play testing... kind of interesting though, anyway, he needs a hit zone

[Sejon]

Haha, yea, I realized shortly after I posted the images up that I forgot to include all of their hit zones! But I didn't think it was too big a deal to add straight away as all of their hit zones are intuitive -- any part of them can be attacked, and they draw line of sight from their heads.

Thanks for your comments on Ahriman! I also believed that he didn't seem cheap, and that my friends were grossly exaggerating the advantage one would have by mimicking an ally's special. Notice that it's Mimic "Special Attack" only, so he can only mimic something that says "Special Attack" in its description.

Yea, Solid Snake's description error was a typo -- it should be to roll 3 dice. Although I don't think he should be disallowed from using it while he's engaged -- if he wants to risk blowing himself up, just like the Deathwalker 9000, then I think he's more than welcome to. I've managed to do that plenty of times to myself in the Metal Gear Solid games.

Also, thanks for being observant enough to spot the Stealth Suit redundancy. I might just change it to Stealth Dodge like the Krav Maga Agents have, but I'm contemplating because their Stealth Dodge also works against ranged specials, while I envisioned Snake's just working against normal ranged attacks. I guess I could just boost him up to be able to dodge specials as well, though.

Ah, Herpestine Counterstrike should just work against adjacent figs for returning damage. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yea, Ishmol is quite powerful, but I fear that he may end up being overpriced considering his Life of 3! The only way I seem him being worth his points is if he stays away from the front-line, unless of course he has significant height advantage. But play-testing will indeed see if he needs tweaking.

Thanks again for all the comments! Many of them were helpful!

[Sejon]

Wait! Never mind! I just checked the Microcorp Agents card and they have Stealth Armor 15 and Water Suits, not a "Stealth Suit" per se.

So I think I can keep that power as is. It's only going to work against normal ranged attacks.

[Sejon]

There! I updated a few of the cards with some of the changes.

[Pallindromemaster]

Great Customs! I really like the stealth attack mechanic for attackng "unprepared" troops. Very thematic! Please keep up the good work!

[Sejon]

Another custom! Pretty simple compared to the others, mind you.

[Sejon]

I'm beginning to wonder if I should lower his point cost, actually...

[brunakor]

I have ideas that I wanna share with any custom designers. So I'm going around trying to give away my ideas to anyone in a custom thread who is interested. By the way, awesome customs. The red negoksa figure is really cool. He'd be even cooler as a figure!

Also Ishmol is too cool to be even considered overpriced.

[Tiberius]

On sigfried, did you mean the word "archer" or did you mean any ranged attack? I guess archer is a class, so that is fine. Otherwise I like him alot. He looks like a melee powerhouse. Well worth his points.

Solid Snake's stealth armour is different from the stealth armour on microcorp agents, perhaps name it after the ability you have which is stealth dodge?

[Sejon]

The red negoksa figure is really cool. He'd be even cooler as a figure!

Hey, thanks! I actually really his powers - very simple, but it gives him an interestingly unique twist. And from what I've used of him in actual games, he seems pretty balanced, since both his strengths and weaknesses are obvious.

Also Ishmol is too cool to be even considered overpriced.

Haha, thanks. Unfortunately I haven't managed to try him out yet, but I've been really wanting to since I like the idea of having someone who has a power that is enhanced by many different types of terrain. I think Elemental Magic is great, but I'm contemplating whether or not I should keep his Special Attack. I do like the concept of him having the option of rendering his powers useless if he goes all out offensively, but I'm trying to devise other ways that that could happen.

On sigfried, did you mean the word "archer" or did you mean any ranged attack? I guess archer is a class, so that is fine. Otherwise I like him alot. He looks like a melee powerhouse. Well worth his points.

I meant "archer" specifically since it's a class. I didn't really want him to have an immunity to all normal ranged attacks in the same way that Sgt. Drake does, but I pictured his armour being tough enough against arrows and not against bullets, etc. There are plenty of archers so I figured narrowing down the power wouldn't necessarily render it useless.

Solid Snake's stealth armour is different from the stealth armour on microcorp agents, perhaps name it after the ability you have which is stealth dodge?

I actually thought I could get away with keeping it as "Stealth Suit" since the Microcorp Agents don't have a power precisely called "Stealth Suit" anyway, but rather "Water Suit". And the power differs somewhat from the "Stealth Dodge" of the Krav Maga agents since theirs gives them immunity to ranged special attacks as well, whereas Solid Snake's would be only for normal ranged attacks, so his is slightly weaker.