Arch-vile's customs

[flameslayer93]

I’m not sure he’ll actually live long enough to scatter out of engagements, which is a pretty neat tradeoff for being able to scatter.

Cool archers, AV!

[Arch-vile]

Thanks flameslayer93! Here's another custom. This is an adaptation of one of my original customs (an orc shaman named Taorgue). My updated design is a far more balanced version of tree movement.

The figure used is a World of Warcraft figure called Daggum Tygor.

Fury of the Trees can be brutal against swarms, and moving trees around is great fun. Counter Strike is there because the miniature has two samurai swords on his back. I'm guessing Trog is the tree-wizard while Gort is the samurai. Or vice-versa.

[Arch-vile]

I finally updated the original post of my customs thread, so it should be easy to browse now. There's some "spoilers" there for cards I haven't highlighted yet with their own post. I figured I might as well post them now in case people are interested in looking at them.

Here's an updated Soontir Van. He's changed a bit since he was last here. The miniature now is wearing an exo-suit like Jarek Guy, so he borrows the same defensive power. Additionally, his attack was boosted to 4 and I dropped double attack. The Mariedians already have enough low-dice attacks, so they appreciate a heavier hitter. They're still a weaker faction, though.

The miniature used is a Star Wars miniature called Sith Operative.

[superfrog]

Ooh, I like this quite a lot better. The miniature, the higher attack, the low defense with Exosuit, all good changes.

[Arch-vile]

I ran a Mines of Moria scenario today with my Fellowship of the Ring customs. I ran something similar probably 5 years ago, but I never took pictures of it. There are 3 phases to the scenario: the watcher in the water, the battle at Balin's Tomb, and the Bridge of Khazad-Dum. There is no healing in between, but you have the opportunity to move your surviving characters to the next area without fear of attack.

I used 1 RotV, 1 SotM, 1 BttFF, and 1 FotA for the map, though I had plenty of tiles left over. Here's the map:

Spoiler Alert!

This is where everyone starts. The door of Durin is there, and there is a lot of water and swamp water nearby. I wonder what could be lurking within...


Once the Fellowship makes it past the door, they enter this open area in the mines. Just to the right of the trees is the entrance to Balin's Tomb.


Balin's Tomb! The Glyph of Kelda heals one wound from a hero in this scenario.


This shows the jump across the broken bridge, and also the Bridge of Khazad-Dum at the bottom. If a hero makes it onto the ladder at the end of the bridge, they have escaped the Mines of Moria! It sure seemed a lot bigger in the movies.

And here's the scenario in progress:

Spoiler Alert!

Phase 1: The Fellowship VS Venoc Warlord, 1x Venoc Vipers, and Scytale's Dxundark Prowler. You can open the door with a d20 roll of 15 or higher (a free action if you're adjacent), but the Fellowship decided just to kill everything instead. Boromir was the only casualty of this phase, but that proved to be a devastating first loss for the Fellowship.


Phase 2: The Fellowship VS 3x Spiders of Lolth, Estivara, Valirahc, and Torin to represent the cave troll. (I don't own any Gruts, so Spiders were a good substitute.) Estivara was brutal in this room, with her special bypassing Aragorn's King of Men power and her attack aura boosting the Spiders' attack. Estivara took down Aragorn by herself, and the Spiders took down Merry. Torin struck down Gimli. Everyone else was wounded from this room and the last room, so it wasn't looking good for the Fellowship.


Phase 3: The Fellowship VS Marro Warriors. To make it across the gap in the bridge, you had to roll a d20. On a roll of 2-20, you survived the jump. On a roll of 1, you fell to your death. Every character survived the jump, but the Marro Warriors finished off Legolas while he was away from Sam's protection.


Phase 3.5: As soon as the last Marro Warrior fell, the Balrog (Su-Bak-Na) appeared! The Fellowship could either race towards the exit or try and kill the Balrog. Originally they just raced across and all escaped, using Gandalf's Fly You Fools and You Shall Not Pass powers to great effect. I replayed this part to try and kill the Balrog instead, and everyone but Frodo ended up dying. Either way, it was a Fellowship victory.


You shall not pass!

Overall this was a really fun scenario. The multi-attackers of the Fellowship (Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn) are essential to victory. Gandalf has some great support powers and offers another strong ranged attack. Gimli and Aragorn are the tanks of the group, though Pippin also is fairly good as a blocker. Once the strongest members fall, you have to start relying on your Hobbits, which is fun. Frodo can be quite the powerhouse if you risk using the One Ring.

[TREX]

Looks like a bit of fun. Did you have someone controlling the baddies or did you just have them attack the closest target and roll solo for them. I need to do something to get my hordes of minis to the table. Ive always thought those LOTR scenarios that peterparkerh made looked like a blast but dont have that many sets. Ive given away too many to brothers and nephews to build them now.

[Arch-vile]

Originally Posted by TREX

Looks like a bit of fun. Did you have someone controlling the baddies or did you just have them attack the closest target and roll solo for them. I need to do something to get my hordes of minis to the table. Ive always thought those LOTR scenarios that peterparkerh made looked like a blast but dont have that many sets. Ive given away too many to brothers and nephews to build them now.

I was controlling both sides, haha. I wanted to give it a test run before inviting friends over to try the Moira scenario out. And peterpakerh's scenarios look so cool! I have them saved in my computer but like you said it's way too many sets for me. It's cool he gives the option to build one phase at a time as an alternative though.

[TREX]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

I was controlling both sides, haha. I wanted to give it a test run before inviting friends over to try the Moira scenario out. And peterpakerh's scenarios look so cool! I have them saved in my computer but like you said it's way too many sets for me. It's cool he gives the option to build one phase at a time as an alternative though.

At one point I could have built the whole thing I think. I had 8 castle sets back in the day but am down to 3 or 4 now.

[Arch-vile]

Originally Posted by TREX

At one point I could have built the whole thing I think. I had 8 castle sets back in the day but am down to 3 or 4 now.

Oh man, that's a lot of castle sets. I only have the one. I never use it except for building castles (which is rare) or for scenarios like this, but I'd love to have more to build a giant Helm's Deep or Castle Black. If only I was making money back when Heroscape was in print!

Now that I think of it, I should make some Game of Thrones customs. There are some cool battles that could be simulated. The battle at the Wall, the Battle of Winterfell, the siege at King's Landing, etc.

[Arch-vile]

I'm starting to make customs for the Arena of the Planeswalkers game. The AOTP cards combine well enough on their own, but adapting to the Heroscape system allows me to change things around and effectively get two cards for the price of one.


Sorin fits too well as another Esenwein. I wanted a twist on Life Drain/Bloodborne Rising and a way to boost the Thralls. Blood Fervor could be brutal against certain armies.


Kraetor is a redo of one of my older customs, Lord Varlioc. He's an obvious Utgar Kyrie, and almost all Kyries have auras. The Negation Aura is pretty fun with enemies and allies, though it's best in multiplayer free for alls for the chaos it causes. Everyone wants to stay away from Kraetor!


I think I came up with a unique rebirth mechanic for the Phoenixes. They are never truly killed, but it requires an Order Marker to bring back each one, so it's a decent investment to rebirth them.


The Firecats are just fast Fire Elementals with Disengage. Their large base will allow them to engage more enemies. This is more of a thematic card than anything mechanically special.

[TREX]

Cool stuff arch. I like the tie in with Ezekiel to the eseweins. Im not too keen on his second power because I dont really have any thralls or nicholas. I love kraetor the kyrie and his negation aura. The only thing that is a thematic fail for me there is the common figures that pay the price while not in the aura range. Id change the wording to figures within the aura and not stretch it to include the guys outside it. The only thing id suggest for the elementals is making them common. I know tons of people with multiple sets of these including myself that would love to field them. It wouldnt change them too much. Overall very cool. My favorite is kraetor.

[Arch-vile]

Originally Posted by TREX

Cool stuff arch. I like the tie in with Ezekiel to the eseweins. Im not too keen on his second power because I dont really have any thralls or nicholas. I love kraetor the kyrie and his negation aura. The only thing that is a thematic fail for me there is the common figures that pay the price while not in the aura range. Id change the wording to figures within the aura and not stretch it to include the guys outside it. The only thing id suggest for the elementals is making them common. I know tons of people with multiple sets of these including myself that would love to field them. It wouldnt change them too much. Overall very cool. My favorite is kraetor.

Thanks TREX. There was a big discussion about the negation aura when I first posted Lord Varlioc a few years ago. There were questions with how certain powers were negated between squads (like bonding powers if certain squad members were in the aura but not others). It's a theme break for sure but it seemed like the simplest approach.

I would prefer to make all the AOTP figures common but I only have one set of each. I do think if C3V/SoV ever uses those figures they should take advantage of cheap readily available common squads that most heroscapers already have. It's a lot harder to make decent unique squads.