New Year's Custom Competition Poll - CONGRATS SUPERFROG!

[Dr.Goomonkey]

It's already two weeks after the news years parties and I'm still seeing flying colors. Let's get down to business, though. This is a very important time. A great Couatl is on its way to Valhalla, but there are also 10 less great Coatls trying to butt in. It's up to you to shoot down these filthy impostors.

In all seriousness, though, vote for your favorite Couatl. Remeber that if you entered, you are supposed to vote, and you are not supposed to vote for your own entry. Also, be sure to send me a PM if there is any problem with your entry (I have a feeling I missed a bio or something).

Here are the entries:

Congratulations @superfrog !

Ch'Mana



Also, congrats @Astral Herring !

Mhadra


Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

The sun had risen six times since they laid her to rest. For endless nights a writhing anguish of snake sisters had death-danced around her, keeping her soul safe. Time passed, and strong coils slackened, slumping deeper and deeper into the cradle of long grass, jewel scales dulling to blend with the dankness.of the earth: a warrior on her final journey. On this, the seventh dawn of their loss, the sisters’ keening grew in intensity, unleashing vibrations of wretched sound which scattered dew from leaves and heralded the sun as it began to rise, streaking pale fingers through the night sky to banish the last of the stars.
Suddenly, the sisters fell silent, and they raised their heads, flickering tongues tasting not the imprint of their beloved, but the emptiness and familiarity of forest particles. Slowly they moved closer together, bewildered by the change, knotting one with the other in a precious moment of peace until a snap of twigs, a shimmering in their peripheral soul-vision, a gentle breath wisping around their coils triggered waves of understanding, and they turned in one dreadful sway to behold their Goddess: new cells born from old; an ancient prophecy fulfilled.

@Flash_19 's Couatl



@Confred 's Couatl, the Plumed One



@All Your Pie 's Ehecatl


Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

Six days of flight. Six days driven from their homes. In the broader war effort, this village was simply one of many displaced by the conflict. As with many strategically unimportant settlements in Ullar's territory, the archkyrie was forced to make tough decisions. His forces were stretched thin as they were, and all he could spare were a few Protector troops to serve as pathfinders and lead the evacuation. A week of harsh travel, camping strategically, and they would pass behind the ever-receding front line of the allied generals.

As night fell on their mountain encampment, however, the few guards available to keep watch were not sufficient to notice the eyes, watching in the darkness. A small band of Arrow Gruts and Swogs darting between the shrubs and boulders, scouting out defenses in preparation for a deadly raid. By the time a protector caught the gleam of an arrowtip being drawn and sounded the alarm, the orcs were already in position. At the snarl of their mounted commanders, the gruts let their arrows fly.

A flash of multicolored light split the horizon. Bathed in its brilliance, the scene seemed to stand still--terrified onlookers looking up at the deadly missiles above them, Protectors moving in vain to try and stop the onslaught. In the middle of it all, a majestic emerald serpent, rainbow wings spread wide. Another moment, it became clear that the arrows were not stopped, but caught up in a fierce gale surrounding the creature. The torrent cast them harmlessly to the ground, but was not so gentle to the orcs, whose bodies were thrashed and torn by the force of the winds.

As the orcs panicked and struggled the maintain their formation, the serpent tilted its head towards the terrified refugees below. It did not open its mouth, yet they all felt a voice projected into their minds. It spoke not in pity or in anger, but with pure benevolence--a soothing counterpoint to the harshness of the world.

Fear not. In the presence of Ehecatl, the innocents of this world will suffer no longer.

@kolakoski 's Great Nahuatl



@Arch-vile 's Huatzin



@Tiamat Khaleidos


Bio:

Spoiler Alert!

From his earliest days as a hatchling Khaleidos exhibited great disdain for the practice of arcane magic and its’ reliance on outside forces. Instead, Khaleidos has devoted himself to the practice of the psionic arts. This has allowed him to capitalize on the considerable powers that dwell solely within his own mind. In the celebrated tradition of his Couatl ancestors, Khaleidos uses his mastery of these powers for the benefit of those whom he has sworn to protect.*

Gazing directly at Khaleidos is enough to overwhelm the senses and disorient any foe. The few who have done so and lived to tell the tale liken it to staring directly into a multi-colored sun. Khaleidos uses this trait to quickly gain the upper hand on anyone who dares challenge him at close range.*

@Airballshooter 's Quetzal Coatl



@Lazy Orang 's Quetzalcoatl


Disclaimer:

Spoiler Alert!

Quetzalcoatl is a personal custom, designed for play with C3G Superscape. As such, he is subject to the following rules:

• The 'F' Symbol at the bottom of the card represents the Flying special power.
• Event Hero rules can be found here.
• Spell rules can be found here.

@Heroscaper 101 's Ukulele

[Ronin]

Poll's only letting me vote for my single, most favorite Coatl, not my 3 favorites.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Poll's only letting me vote for my single, most favorite Coatl, not my 3 favorites.

You goofball, the OP only says to for one.

There's no changing that now, so I guess we'll go with one vote. One of these days I'll manage to run a smooth contest.

Also, Ehecatl was missing a bio, but has it now.

[flameslayer93]

I’m not in thissssss one, so I’m gonna contribute thissssss time with reviewsssssss.

Let usssss begin from the firssssst of the cussssstomsssss.

Ch’mana
Constrict is a cool power that makes a lot of sense for a huge snake. I like that it prevents figures from moving, too. It looks like Ch’mana is going for a lower end of the power curve in a contest that might include a lot of big baddies. That isn’t a bad thing, though. Predator and Resolute Mind both make sense for a Coatl, if my googling of them has anything to say. Proud also fits, especially since those feathers are worth being proud of.

Coatl
It looks like it’ll be helpful for D20 reliant units. That’s cool. That does mean that this unit is basically a universal tool, with Psionic Blast there to aid it in combat. The price looks right, but I wish this were Unique. Some units get nuts if they can get massive D20 boosts, which is a feasible thing in massiveScape. I played a 2000 point game where my Aubrien Archers were raking in +4 to Frenzy rolls from Haduc, Mittens, and a Custom of ours. They absolutely crushed.

Coatl, Plumed One
So a heavenly Viper? I’ll buy it. Both of it’s notable powers have cool adjacency abilities. The adjacency bonding is a neat touch, but does lead to the question of whether it’ll affect an entire squad or just a single member of that squad. It’s price looks fair, and this is a solid contender for a vote. Great design here.

Ehecatl
This thing can deal massive damage by combining it’s attack with Rending Gale rolls. It’s low defense in melee helps keep it in check. Not sure if it’s quite 175 points though. I’d argue to bump this unit to Stealth Flying, especially since it’s apparently capable of flapping its wings hard enough to unleash a tornado.

Great Nahuatl
Now this is a Unique Design. I’d love to read her bio, if she has one in this works. It is important to note though, that friendly figures can still attack each other, so this mostly affects engagement rules and a select few powers that affect friendly figures. Aura of Healing is a nice touch too. This unit is probably overcosted by a lot, but I’m not holding that against any of the designs due to the nature of the contest.

Huatzin
This is a cool design. Shimmering Warp can be useful for moving your own figures (I’d suggest using it on figures with extra defense against Specials though. He may be a touch underpriced, but I don’t think so. His normal attack is deservedly beastly for this Emperor, which I like and feel adds to the design.

Khaledos
A Jandar one, hmm? Nice. While I’m immediately thinking of using him with Raelin for the power of Psionic Mindstorm, I can respect his usage with any decent hero who doesn’t want to be bogged down with Squads. I’m not sure if Color Blindness is supposed to affect Khaleidos or just the attacker, but that could be pretty difficult to break through, especially if Raelin is a legal target for Psionics.

Mhadra
This serpent sage definately passes the test for being a swiss army knife. I’m not sure if this unit should be this versatile at this price tag, but I won’t deduct points for it. The Chakra markers are definately very cool, and guarentee this card stands out as a top notch Coatl.

Quetzl Coatl
Oooh, a universal attack boost for Vipers. And a Warlord to boot. His price is probably right, considering Taelord. While I feel I’ve seen the design before, that doesn’t make it bad at all.

Quetzlcoatl
That is a colorful card. I see it’s intended for C3G, so while the rules for event heroes and spells may be foggy in my head that doesn’t mean they aren’t fitting. I love the overall design though, and it will be getting my vote. At 480 points, this unit’s powers are probably fine. Again, I love creative cards, even if I have a hard time reading the fancy text.

Ukelele
Looking at Mimring’s card, this unit is already underpriced. I’d up his cost to at least 160, but possibly more. That being said, the Storm Line attack is quite a cool reuse of Fireline, and helps make this unit feel epic. Frenzy is a helpful power to have too. Good design that keeps its roots in the box.

Great designs everyone! Good luck!

[superfrog]

Here's some thoughts on the entries (one of which is mine ).

Ch'Mana
The cheapest card first! Basically a budget Wyvern. Constrict is a cool thematic take on Cyberclaw. Pretty easy to get around, but it usually gives Ch'Mana 4/4 against heroes or anybody going solitary. Maybe a touch overcosted.

Couatl
Cool left box stats. Really strong take on the Psionic side of Couatls, although I'm guessing it's maybe 10ish points overcosted. I wonder how well the Benevolence Aura will work in gameplay.

Couatl, the Plumed One
Range! Interesting choice in Viper, but I see how you got there. Definitely strong, since he can essentially take free turns every OM in an Ullar/Aquilla army. You may want to add something about not being able to use Beautiful Gift from your own attacks. I'd be tempted to attack my own Couatl with Elf Wizards, for instance.

Ehecatl
Comparable to Braxas, although without bonding, insta-kills on heroes, and choice of target. This take really emphasizes the protector aspect, so that's cool.

Great Nahuatl
Not sure how Aura of Peace is supposed to work. Being friendly only matters for a very small number of powers. Aura of Healing is very very powerful. Does it heal opponent's figures as well?

Huatzin
This is reminiscent of a small, pre-bonding dragon. I think it's probably undercosted a touch, given its multi-attack, high life, and stealth flying. I like the left box.

Khaleidos
Psionic Mindstorm is useful, but I'm not sure how it flows thematically. Why do they have to be engaged to a figure you control to be targeted? Color Blindness is a quirky little power, but I like it.

Mhadra
I think the Chakras are a neat mechanic, although I'm not sure they're all balanced with each other. I'm not sure I'd ever use the Green one, for instance. In general, I like this take as an outside-the-box way of approaching the mini.

Quetzal Coatl
The second card with this alternate mini. I like it! Probably overcosted significantly. Right now this design just encourages you to sit him in your start zone, place the "X" on him, and let your Venocs wreak havoc. Not that that's a bad thing in and of itself, of course.

Quetzalcoatl
Woah! Powerful. I like God of the Winds a lot. No idea about if its point cost is accurate.

Ukulele
Just an upgraded version of Mimring. Although Ukulele has no bonding, he does have almost the same stats as Mimring, with a better special AND Stealth Flying AND Frenzy. Probably worth 160, and would be a cool design at that price point.

[Arch-vile]

Here's my thoughts on the entries. Like the last contest, there's a lot of variety. It was tricky narrowing my vote down to one.


Ch'Mana
Constrict is a cool power; it's easy to break out of as the opponent if they set order markers correctly, but it's punishing if you can't get free. Bonding with spiders means his power level is semi-strong even considering the low stats. Resolute Mind is basically filler, but it adds theme.

Couatl
I like this one a lot. Strong mystical theme with the psychic/d20 boosting stuff, and the d20 boost with solid stats means it can fit into a variety of different armies.

Couatl, the Plumed One
Beautiful Gift is a really neat power. I think Benevolent Guide tries to do too much, though. Anti-Utgar/Valkrill is fairly niche, and taking a turn with any adjacent Ullar/Aquilla is super powerful.

Ehecatl
Rending Gale is pretty powerful, basically functioning as a weaker Braxas each turn. Evasive 2 on a figure that powerful is really helpful. Definitely a fun unit, I like how the opponent chooses where to put the wounds.

Great Nahuatl
Aura of Peace is interesting, but what's the point? You can attack friendly figures. I guess it means you avoid leaving engagement attacks, and it allows auras to help temporary alliances in free-for-all games. Aura of Healing is really neat, and could be super annoying to deal with. But you pay for it, and she has no attack value of her own. This is definitely one of the strongest themes of the entries.

Huatzin
Pretty neat special attack. It's tricky to imagine how it could be used; it could teleport your opponent's figures to height, or off of height, depending on where you use it. Useful when there is a tanky unit on a glyph, too.

Khaleidos
Psionic mindstorm is an interesting twist on a "searing intensity" type power. Color blindness is cool. I like that you can avoid it with range so there is some counterplay.

Mhadra
My first impression is that there's way too much going on here. Upon further inspection, with only one power active at a time, it's not too complex. I think you could cut half the powers and still get essentially the same theme and gameplay across. Cool and creative idea, though!

Quetzal Coatl
Remember the Armoc Vipers? This guy does, and he brings them back big time. Evasive 5 and low life/defense harkens back to the Elite Onyx Vipers and discourages putting him right in the fray. Cool design.

Quetzalcoatl
This one seems to be designed for C3G, cool! The special card design looks fantastic.

Ukulele
Superfrog said it when he said this is Mimring but better. Cool design but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

[Confred]

placeholder. I'll have my responses after work. With this seemingly worthless post in place, I'll be subscribed for easier indexing later.

[kolakoski]

Well met!

My bad with Great Nahuatl. Should have made Aura of Peace such that no attacks or Special Powers may be used against any other figures or words to that effect - as that was what I intended . . .

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by kolakoski

Well met!

My bad with Great Nahuatl. Should have made Aura of Peace such that no attacks or Special Powers may be used against any other figures or words to that effect - as that was what I intended . . .

Ummm... entries are meant to be anonymous, chap.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Ummm... entries are meant to be anonymous, chap.

Haha, it's probably close enough to the end of the poll that this shouldn't matter much. I would like to remind everyone that you can PM clarifications your entry and I will post them.

[Astroking112]

I didn't get the chance to properly sit down and take a look at these earlier, but here's some thoughts on the entries:

Ch'Mana
This is a really straightforward design, which I appreciate. The cost isn't too high, and this is really just a single-attack bonding hero for the Spiders. Constrict is a neat expansion of the idea of trapping opposing figures, albeit I feel like it doesn't bring a lot to the table for the Spiders. Resolute Mind is pretty much just flavor, but the design has the room for it and it certainly doesn't hurt. Pretty much my only gripe is the price--80 is fair, but I think that putting the unit at 70 or 90 would give more army building options for the Fyorlags. That's certainly a minor quibble, though.

Couatl
It's interesting to take the unit in a psychic direction. I didn't research the unit too much, so maybe it's natural, but without that knowledge, it feels like a bit of an odd fit (along with placing the unit under Jandar: to my eyes, the sculpt and design practically scream Ullar or Aquilla, and psychic control seems like a better fit for Vydar or Utgar to me). I'm not a huge fan of it being an Uncommon Hero. I know that we saw units like the Greater Ice Elemental and Iron Golem that don't really benefit from having multiples but are still uncommon, but it feels slightly off to me. I still feel like this is a solid unit, but there are just a few things that nag me about it.


Couatl, the Plumed One
The first time that I read this card, I wasn't really a fan. Having re-read it now, though, I actually think that there are some really cool things here (it can make Elf Wizards usable without Ulginesh thanks to Benevolent Guide and Beautiful Gift, for example). I do think that it could be tidied up a little; in my opinion, it would be best to drastically simplify Benevolent Guide and say "After revealing an Order Marker and taking a turn with Couatl, the Plumed One, you may take a turn with one adjacent Unique Hero you control that follows Ullar or Aquilla." The option to attack doesn't feel necessary to me, and I like the interplay between Beautiful Gift and the second part of Benevolent Guide. I love the concept, especially with some tweaks along those lines.

Ehecatl
I'm a little concerned about this one. It looks like a better Braxas to me, since she drops 1 life and 1 attack but gains 1 range, Evasive 2, the ability to wound medium/large figures, and the ability to wound the same figure more than once (if your opponent only has one figure within range, there's nothing saying that they can't choose that figure three times). Ehecatl is also 35 points cheaper, to boot. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but this design feels a lot like Braxas to me, only with some new tricks.

Great Nahuatl
I really like a lot of the ideas behind this unit, but this card doesn't feel polished enough. Aura of Peace is a great idea (if it extends beyond just being Friendlies, which is interesting in its own regard for making things like carrying enemies with Theracus possible) but doesn't match the intent, the abilities have slightly weird wording (beginning with "If she is unengaged..." instead of "If Great Nahautl is unengaged..." feels odd), and there's the typo of saying Grand Nahautl instead of Great in the second power. I love most of this design (0 attack is especially nice), and basically all of my complaints are directed only at the card itself, but when there are so many strong candidates, I'm going to have to let those weigh in on my vote. This might be my favorite design when polished, though.

Huatzin
I like how straightforward this design is. I'm also a fan of the Emperor class, if only because it reminds me of the Incan and Aztec Empires. Shimmering Warp could say Range 1 instead of Range Special, but that's pretty much the only thing that I can think of to say as a negative. Huatzin doesn't excite me like some of the other units do, but it's very solid.

Khaleidos
I feel like the wording for Color Blindness could be improved slightly. Perhaps the effect would be clearer if it only affected one of the figure's rolls--such as saying "When an adjacent figure attacks Khaleidos, it must roll defense <or Jandar Valkyrie, if needed> dice and count shields for each hit instead of skulls."

...On second thought, I feel like I might've just muddied the waters more...

Mhadra
That's a lot of design there (side note: the card looks neat with the matching symbols/colors in the power--that was a nice touch). I'm generally a fan of simpler designs, so this one isn't really appealing to me, but I feel like it would be a lot more compelling if it was shortened down to 3-4 markers. Some of them (such as Third Eye and Throat) make me wonder why they have markers at all, and others (like Solar and Base) seem like they would be the most consistently useful. This is definitely one of the most creative designs that I've seen, though.

Quetzal Coatl
I've seen this design before and provided feedback back then, so I don't really have much more to say on the matter. I like how it adds to the Vipers' attack, and being so frail but expensive (but with a strong Evasive 5) is an excellent way to counterbalance the strength. All in all, this might be my favorite design, and it's totally one that I would print out for personal use if I see the sculpt online for a good price.

Quetzalcoatl
C3G isn't generally my cup of tea, so this design isn't geared towards me. I do like seeing something geared towards that side of the community, though I'm not comfortable commenting on it without being more familiar with those units and rules. What I can say is that the card looks beautiful--the mix of flames with green evokes the Quetzalcoatl quite nicely.

Ukulele
I only briefly skimmed others' comments, but I think I saw the note that this was basically just a better Mimring, which I can't really disagree with. 4D/4L is pretty comparable to 3D/5L (I'd argue it's slightly better, but that might just be from my experiences with Kaemon Awa), costing 15 points less is nice, and Frenzy could be bonkers with this unit. At the very least, I think that it should cost more than Mimring, not less.

[lefton4ya]

Dangit I missed the vote. My personal favorite is Couatl (uncommon hero) with a second being Ukulele - maybe in my old age I go more for the "simple is better" but think these are the most balanced in terms of PLAYABILITY on first look.

Ch'Mana would be my third pick, so if my vote counts I would pick him. Since people could only vote for one choice, maybe you should do a run-off vote in a new poll to allow everyone to vote for their favorite from the two 4-vote getters.