First post, first custom: Warhammer Quest dwarf!

[Wiet]

Hi everyone, I'm Wiet, a 28-year old guy from the Netherlands. I just bought the Heroscape Rise of the Valkyrie master set this week and though this whole first week my girlfriend kept beating me I love it! And what an enormous amount of info on this forum... I got really excited about customization right away so here I proudly present my Heroscape version of a Warhammer Quest dwarf. I tried to adapt the Deathsong-ability for HS-mechanics. Let me know what you think!



EDIT: Further on this thread you can find the improved version of Grumli Grunnson. I didn't paste him over this one here, because that would make the whole discussion below quite difficult to follow. New version can be found by clicking here.

[ThrasherDarkrai]

There is no such thing as "change the wound markers to -1". Here's a good rewording for ya:
"When placing a Deathsong Marker, put enough wound markers on Grumli to put him at 1 life."
Not exactly official, but it will do.
Oh, and welcome! In Aldin's abssence, I shall give you a Marro Handshackle!

[Miniature Geek]

First a warm greeting to Heroscapers.com. I'm sure Aldin will eventually show up but until then hello. I must say how grateful I am to see such a well written first post. And as far as your first custom goes, that is an amazing card, so I'm giving you double kudos.



One thing about the card, he seems like he could be a little undercosted. but if you've play tested him and he works well enough then I'm mistaken, I'm sure someone with more custom experience will be by soon enough to give their own opinion.

[ThrasherDarkrai]

Agreed with MinatureGeek about how well written the post is, especially for a starting post! Great job!
Unfortunately, I also agree with him being undercosted. He's valiant, so he doesn't screw up the 4th Mass' ability, and has double attack for only 80 points and 4 defense to boot. The only disadvantage he really has is a 4 move, and that can be solved by sending in Roborats.

[Wiet]

Thanks for the kind and helpful replies. I agree about Grumli being too underpriced. To correct this, I had another look at some of the master set cards. Syvarris from the master set costs 100 points. He also has Double Attack, be it at a range of 9. Grumli can only attack adjacent spaces, and has limited movement (short legs: he's a dwarf!), yet he has the Deathsong special power. I think maybe 100 points for Grumli would be better.

About the wording for "changing the Wound Markers to Life-1" : this I had the most trouble with. The idea is that an amount of Wound Markers is placed on Grumli's Army Card so that he is 1 Wound Marker away from destruction (whatever his actual Life total is at that moment, for I expect that number could have been changed by some other special power/glyph etc.). Doe anyone have an idea how to phrase this officially?

Also, when Grumli is healed or looses Wound Markers in another way while singing his Deathsong, the Deathsong Marker should be removed form his Army Card. Grumli will stop singing, and plays normally again. When he is destroyed after that, he can start singing his Deathsong again, for there will be no Deathsong Marker on the Army Card. I need some help phrasing this correctly.

[SoulfulKillingMachine]

I think "Grumli has 1 life for the rest of the game." would be easy enough to understand. Just make sure it's worded so that the D20 ability destroys him, not the wounds.

[Wiet]

Originally Posted by SoulfulKillingMachine

I think "Grumli has 1 life for the rest of the game." would be easy enough to understand. Just make sure it's worded so that the D20 ability destroys him, not the wounds.

No. This would mean that Grumli could not be healed while singing his Deathsong. I want that to be possible. Also, it IS in fact the Wounds that kill him. The D20 roll symbolises the effect of the Deathsong, from which Grumli draws the power to endure. If the Deathsong is effective, Grumli takes no wounds, i.e. he draws upon inner strength and the reminiscence of his elders to keep on fighting.

[ThrasherDarkrai]

Make it so that "Put enough Wound Markers on Grumli to make him have 1 life left." Not exactly official, but I think it'll do.

[XSI Addict 32]

I'm really new to customs (i.e. I have never done one before) but heres my take:

"At the begining of a round, before placing order markers, you make place enough wound markers on Grumli's card to reduce his health to 1. If you do this, then for the rest of the round, when Grumli is attacked roll the D20. If you roll a 10 or better, Grumli takes no damage from that attack. At the end of the round, Grumli is destroyed."

This would make him into the Dwarf Tank I believe he was meant to be. For 1 round, he would have a 50/50 chance of avoiding damage. This would allow you to rush an enemy, and devistate them. However, in exchange for this power, he is destroyed at the end of the round. What do you think? Its not official, but its the most I can come up with.

~XSI, saying great card!

[SoulfulKillingMachine]

Originally Posted by Wiet

No. This would mean that Grumli could not be healed while singing his Deathsong. I want that to be possible. Also, it IS in fact the Wounds that kill him. The D20 roll symbolises the effect of the Deathsong, from which Grumli draws the power to endure. If the Deathsong is effective, Grumli takes no wounds, i.e. he draws upon inner strength and the reminiscence of his elders to keep on fighting.

So it's similar to Stealth Armor, but needs to be activated first? I'm sorry, I don't play Warhammer.

Grumli starts the game with a Deathsong marker on his Army Card. If Grumli is destroyed by an enemy figure, you may remove the Deathsong marker and return him to the same space with 1 life remaining. For the rest of the game, if he takes wounds, roll a D20. If you roll 15 or higher, ignore all wounds.

[Wiet]

That seems about right, Soulful. Thanks for your input! Actually, in my first sketches I had Grumli starting with the Deathsong marker on the Army Card, removing it to activate the Deathsong ability.

The problem with this is that the following is not covered: if Grumli, while singing his Deathsong, is healed to more than 1 Life, he is supposedly out of mortal danger, and therefore he would stop singing (the Deathsong being his dwarven way to draw the strength to carry on fighting when all hope is lost). Should it occur that Grumli is eventually destroyed again, he should have the possibility of starting his Deathsong once again.

Now, How do you symbolize this? Do you add a rule that says: "While singing his Deathsong, when Grumli's total Life becomes more than 1, place the Deathsong marker back on the Army Card. Grumli stops singing his Deathsong." ?

Also, I think the HS-mechanics consider 'Life' to be a fixed number (i.e. the one on the Army Card, possibly modified by some special power). It's not the 'Life' that drops or rises when a succesful attack is made against a figure, it's the Wounds. This should also be taken into consideration when phrasing anything that has to do with the being destroyed or not of a figure: It's, according to how I understand the mechanics, better to ask "How many wounds can a figure sustain before being destroyed?" than "How many Life has the figure left before being destroyed?" For this reason, and for healing-purposes, I'm not too pleased with any wording that puts Grumli at "1 Life."


Off topic: Since I'm not a native English speaker (I'm Dutch!), I sometimes have to search for words. Then, when I find them, I find it difficult to be brief, and tend to create sentences that come out far too long. I apologize, and hope you can still follow what I'm trying to say.

[Wiet]

Originally Posted by XSI Addict 32

I'm really new to customs (i.e. I have never done one before) but heres my take:

"At the begining of a round, before placing order markers, you make place enough wound markers on Grumli's card to reduce his health to 1. If you do this, then for the rest of the round, when Grumli is attacked roll the D20. If you roll a 10 or better, Grumli takes no damage from that attack. At the end of the round, Grumli is destroyed."

This would make him into the Dwarf Tank I believe he was meant to be. For 1 round, he would have a 50/50 chance of avoiding damage. This would allow you to rush an enemy, and devistate them. However, in exchange for this power, he is destroyed at the end of the round. What do you think? Its not official, but its the most I can come up with.

~XSI, saying great card!

In your version the player can activate the ability out of the blue, before taking turns. This I am not happy with. The Deathsong ability should be activated by Grumli being destroyed by the hands of an enemy. This symbolizes him still fighting while he should really have already fallen, because he finds the strength and willpower to carry on in the lament of his Elders...

If a player decides to add an amount of Wound Markers before placing Order markers, what does this symbolize?? Grumli deliberately wounding himself to awaken some sort of bloodrush? That sounds more like a crazy kamikaze-like Berserker.

Still, thanks very much for thinking with me on this one. I hope I clarified some of the background that goes with this special power.