mac122's customs: Chops Dessert Entry

[bacchus]

That's a lot of customs! I might have to pop in every now and again to leave feedback on all of them.

Hoygrimm of Burning Forge
I thought this guy was pretty strong to start with, with his sweeping attack of 5 against everything adjacent. But at 250 points, this may very well be balanced. I like the theme of trampling over some dudes and then taking a ranged potshot as well.

Soldiers of Burning Forge
Nice and cheap and the stats look good with Small But Mighty. I suspect that the Warhulk Bonding may make a Hoygrimm a bit too powerful. The fact that he can attack multiple figures makes the sacrifice portion of this power stronger, as each life you give him is worth more attacks than Tor-Kul-Na which is a close proxy for the synergy you are going for here. Have you playtested these designs?

Emet
I think this guy might be overpowered with any number of figures due to both the bonding and the loyalty bonus. Putting this guy in front of Raelin so opponents get put in Clay Embrace and can never reach her is pretty nasty, on top of her defense of 5. Q9 and Zelrig also seem like pretty good candidates. I think the best way to balance this would be to remove the Creator Bonding. Even then, Q9 and Raelin with this guy next to them would still be pretty strong. Creator Loyalty could perhaps be more specific with a race or class type to prevent overpowering some other units.

I'll come back later and give some feedback on some more.

[mac122]

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

These are some pretty sick customs, mac! I really like Hoygrimm--a lot like Tor-Kul-Na but even still he has a lot of theme that goes with him, I think. Great job!

The Paladins also seem cool--interesting power, like righteous zombies. And I'll definitely have to try out Agent Marsh--I love the Microcorp, and seeing as she's just a Nakita I can use her easily.

One note--you have a spelling/sentence mistake thingy in the Quasatch Trackers' card under Deadly Shot (says "When attacking with a an, all skulls rolled..."). But on their subject, I think they're really well designed too! I'll definitely have to look at the rest of your customs once I've got the time.

Good to hear from you Bigga! Thanks for the feedback. If you get a chance to play Agent Marsh, let me know how she works out.

Thanks for the heads up on the Trackers. I'll get that fixed next chance I get.

Originally Posted by bacchus

That's a lot of customs! I might have to pop in every now and again to leave feedback on all of them.

Hoygrimm of Burning Forge
I thought this guy was pretty strong to start with, with his sweeping attack of 5 against everything adjacent. But at 250 points, this may very well be balanced. I like the theme of trampling over some dudes and then taking a ranged potshot as well.

Soldiers of Burning Forge
Nice and cheap and the stats look good with Small But Mighty. I suspect that the Warhulk Bonding may make a Hoygrimm a bit too powerful. The fact that he can attack multiple figures makes the sacrifice portion of this power stronger, as each life you give him is worth more attacks than Tor-Kul-Na which is a close proxy for the synergy you are going for here. Have you playtested these designs?

Emet
I think this guy might be overpowered with any number of figures due to both the bonding and the loyalty bonus. Putting this guy in front of Raelin so opponents get put in Clay Embrace and can never reach her is pretty nasty, on top of her defense of 5. Q9 and Zelrig also seem like pretty good candidates. I think the best way to balance this would be to remove the Creator Bonding. Even then, Q9 and Raelin with this guy next to them would still be pretty strong. Creator Loyalty could perhaps be more specific with a race or class type to prevent overpowering some other units.

I'll come back later and give some feedback on some more.

Thanks for the feedback, bacchus!
I did model Hoygrimm and the Soldiers after TKN and the Nagrubs. I've only played one game with the combo, so I don't have a good feel yet if the powers and pricing are balanced - but I don't think it's too far off.

For Emet, the bonding is too important to the theme of a golem to remove. Perhaps limiting it to either Aquilla heroes or Human heroes would be the answer.

[bacchus]

In regards to Emet, I think the key is that without Creator Bonding his other abilities are pretty decent. Major X17 is probably a good comparison. For 50 points more, you are getting double to defense, and a stat booster that is probably better, as well as bonding with another hero who could cost up to more than 200 points. I think you would have to test taking out the other powers, or lowering his stats.

Qasatch Trackers
I like these guys, 3 different abilities but still pretty straightforward. They seem fairly priced, but I wonder if they are slightly overpriced when comparing them against Omnicron Snipers. These guys have 1 less range and 1 less defense. I'm not convinced the other abilities make up for it a lot, but I suppose you have to cost them based on their best potential. I've seen some of these guys at Auggies and was considering grabbing some to make some squads.

Captain Erica Smith
At first glance I didn't like Downed Pilot, but it's probably more balanced than I thought. If your opponent puts her near their start zone, they can launch out of the gate and attack her, but she has disengage so she can back away if necessary. On a roll of 9 or higher though, it puts her 1 order marker away from any glyph.

Betacron
I really like the theme of Countermeasures.

Thetacron
I enjoy the simplicity of this design. Do you hang out of the opponents range and take potshots they can't defend against, or head closer for the opportunity of more skulls? That would depend on the army you are facing which gives him some options. Either way you can still only get one attack in per turn and he doesn't have any amazing defense capabilities, so I think he might be slightly overpriced.

Sigmacron
Taken as parts, this guy seems reasonable. His Move of 7 is pretty strong, and coupled with range this could be extremely frustrating against some armies. It will more easily allow him to gain height for 3 attacks of 3. The Active Camouflage is a good power and fits thematically, but the card is pretty strong without it, and I think the cost may need to go up.

Xicron
I like the reusable grenades on this guy. Gets to those hard to reach places, and attack of 2 seems like the right amount.

Paladins of Weston
A common squad with Counterstrike and a Defense of 5 feels wrong to me. I think this high a defense with Counterstrike needs to be reserved for unique squads and heroes. Sword of Resurrection is really neat thematic power.

Major Q122
I saw Suppressive Fire and an attack of 6 and thought holy crap! He is pretty likely to wound heroes and cripple their ability to take a turn! Then I saw Rotary Cannon and thought what a ridiculous squad killer! Then I saw how much he cost and it made more sense. I notice that Countermeasures on this guy is different than the previous use on Betacron. The abilities should probably have 'Countermeasures 3' etc. I think the double defense dice should be a separate ability in this case.

Rocketrons
I'd be interested to run some numbers on these guys. I have an initial hunch that they might be too powerful. Armies with large/huge squads, or Heroes that have multiple attacks, will probably trounce them, but I'm worried about small and medium figures. Small or Medium heroes are probably stuffed. I could be wrong though. Have you given these guys a playtest?

Snipertrons
Take my concerns above and double them at this price 11 squads of these guys, Raelin and Thorgrimm seems like a decent 24-man army to me at 470 points. Slow roll forward in a tight bunch so as many troops as possible get Raelin's bonus, Thorgrimm can give her extra protection, and take out anything that heads towards you with the Snipertrons. You could also replace Thorgrimm with Denrick to take out huge figures.

The ability itself is fine and already exists on Deadeye Dan. The key to that is that he is unique and as a Hero can only get one shot in per turn. You have to be very careful where you place him. Those sorts of decisions are lost on a common squad.


Take all of my thoughts with a pinch of salt; I don't play Heroscape anywhere near as much as I think about Heroscape Love to hear how some of these may have gone in playtesting if you've played them.

[TREX]

hey mac, i did not get a chance to see your delta squad customs, i was wondering what abilities you went with, as i am currently making my own delta squad customs on the hoss backgrounds you posted. also, did you use a 20 sided die roll to get multiple turns with commando boss.

[mac122]

Originally Posted by TREX

hey mac, i did not get a chance to see your delta squad customs, i was wondering what abilities you went with, as i am currently making my own delta squad customs on the hoss backgrounds you posted. also, did you use a 20 sided die roll to get multiple turns with commando boss.

Wow. Blast from the past. I had to check and see if I still had copies of them. All of the Commandos had Infiltrate which allowed them to be placed up to 6 spaces outside the start zone. They all also had Stealth Armor 17 allowing them to ignore wounds with a d20 roll of 17 or higher.

Boss had a straight bonding power allowing one other Commando to take a turn before Boss. Also, Boss had "Never Forget". When he was destroyed, his figure was placed on the card of another Commando who would then get a Range and Attack boost. That one I was never sure of. It probably would have been replaced.

Fixer added "Hacked 12" which on a d20 roll of 12 or above, allowed him to take a turn with any 1 common squad droid figure adjacent to him, then destroy it. It replaced his attack, but if successful, he destroyed at least one opponent anyway and maybe another with the Hacked droid.

Scorch added a Rocket Launcher SA, basically an explosion attack.

Sev had a Sniper SA, though it should be a special power instead. On a roll of 17 or higher, the target received 2 wounds.

The basic concepts are OK, but the stats and d20 rolls needed some more work along with a few of the powers. I never got back to these once I got involved with HoSS. I posted images of the old cards in the spoiler below along with a secret.

Spoiler Alert!

The secret: HoSS has designs for these in the Inner Sanctum. Unfortunately, with the schedule we are using, they won't be out until at least next year.

Spoiler Alert!

[TREX]

Thanks, i tried looking those up on photobucket, but they were gone. I just finished all of my cards an hour or so ago, with the hoss template. they turned out pretty good. with the exception of their point value. which is to be decided. the bad thing is. I will probably scrap mine once you guys release yours.

[betawolf36]

@mac122 Any chance of updating the card images? I only see cute kittens.

[mac122]

Originally Posted by betawolf36

@mac122 Any chance of updating the card images? I only see cute kittens.

Stupid Photobucket.

Yeah, eventually I will. I'm behind on so much stuff right now.

[mac122]

Added some of the cards back - lot more to do.

Red Star People's Army is back as well as the WIP Army of Cathar.

[mac122]

Jandar's Special Forces

Here are some of the designs I had been working on using AT-43 UNA figures. These I remember updating a bit, though I know they still need some work. All are Unique or Uncommon to fit with the Special Forces Theme.

Major Geist


Wraith


Banshees


Ghosts


Shadows

[mac122]

I've reposted a large number of cards from my Photobucket account. I'm using Imgur now. So far, so good. One of these days, I've got to get back to all these designs and work on them again.

[TREX]

Cool new age soldiers mac. The general emblem is for einar though. Based off the leaders abilities and the jandar cardback they are jandar right. They do look cool though. Spec ops.