Springtime Custom Competition Poll - Congrats Astroking112!

[The Dewk]

This is a great crop of entries, and after 24 hours of deliberation, I wrote blurbs on each which helped me narrow down where to cast my votes. It was hard! Thanks for putting together the contest, Doctor G!

And here are my impressions of the entries:

Wood Elemental
I really, really like the idea of another useful elemental. I'd want to try this guy out in a 2-1 ratio of Fire Elementals to Wood Elementals in a Kurrok build (though one would have to be smart in moving them to make sure they don't get burned, but still give the Fire Elementals the benefit of Brush Cover). Entangling Roots is useful and flavorful, but wordy. I would consider editing it to just taking 2 defense off of small, medium, and large figures, rather than each size rolling differently.

Darkwood Treant Guardian
This guy is very map dependent. On a treeless or grassless map, his abilities do not come into play at all. That is okay, and very flavorful. But on the flipside, he appears to be extremely strong on a grassy, tree-ful map. Possibly even too strong for 100 points, especially because the vast majority of tournament maps include trees and/or grass tiles. I (randomly) really like the ability names.

Wooden Revenant
This guy is really cool, and I like his very unique powers that tie together pretty well. The theme is very unique too - the spirit of a slain hero animates a tree? Cool!

Birch Sentry
I imagine the creator of this has a whole faction of Woodkin in mind, as this unit greatly needs a general of some kind that moves more than one of these guys per Order Marker. If there is indeed a theoretical general that does something along these lines, then these guys are pretty cool. If not, I would be very leery to play a 1 life, 1 defense base stat guy that only gets his bonuses when expending OMs on others in an attempt to keep them in a bundle. (And I imagine 0 range was an oversight of some kind..?)

Enchanted Forest
A 1 life, 0 Defense, 0 Move, 0 Attack five point figure would be playable in Heroscape, simply because their isn't an existing unit that is that cheap. So I like that this guy is a five point figure, yet encourages a player to pack/draft more than one of them. However, I will express that I feel the unit is very overpowered. Bonding is worth a lot. Having a startzone protector is worth a lot. And regeneration is worth a lot.
The bio is entertaining too

Timber Custodian
Swat is very useful (I would love to Swat a hero into some lava, or even water, after wounding him/her), and as long as you use at least two of these guys, Take Root is really cool too! Alternating Order Markers between two Timber Custodians sounds like fun. He's better than most (if not all) of the 100 point non-synergistic choices, but I think it is still appropriately costed.

Jubokko
Well, this definitely captures the idea of a Jubokko! Extremely flavorful and I really like it for what it is. Even if aligned with a different general, it could never be an "official" Heroscape unit (yeah, whatever that means) for a lot of reasons and that turns me off a bit. With that said, I know the creator wasn't going for that, and the unit looks really fun and balanced for a casual in-home game.

Tsuri Oni
As with most "terrain matters" units, these guys are good solid units on a forest map, and mediocre elsewhere. I really like the names chosen for the abilities, and the abilities themselves are useful and easily understood. What I don't understand is the name - if I'm not mistaken, Tsuri Oni translates to fishing demon. Haha.

Elder Oak
Double Carry is really cool, Reach is a nice recycled ability, and Fire Weakness is flavorful. But the 3 move negates the usefulness of Double Carry, which is his most unique and possibly useful ability. Give this big boy 6 move because of his long stride, and I'm in!

Wise Oak
I've always liked the idea of units that can summon more units, so this guy gets kudos for that! Unfortunately, the dudes that he summons are broken in that a substantial number of large and huge figures are completely helpless against them. Sorry Fen Hydra, you auto-lose to a single Defender of Oak.

Wood Golem
I like Bark Hide Armor - it's useful and flavorful. I like the idea behind Root Entanglement, but it requires one to keep track of who is entangled, so I would tweak it somehow to reduce "memory load". And unless I'm misunderstanding it, Fury of the Forest is just a worse Shaolin/Whirlwind Assault, so I'd probably tweak that too. I think the chosen mini is my favorite of the batch.

Gnarl of Elder
Nerak and Microcorp Troopers welcome this guy to a very rare place in the halls of Heroscape - units with terrain dependent abilities that are still good when apart from their terrain. I like the flavor here too - boulders being thrown conjures up images of the Ents from Lord of the Rings wreaking havoc, and it makes sense that a being that embodies nature would hate the unnaturalness of the undead. Tree Ally Strike is good on the maps it will work on, while Boulder Throw has him competing with Q10 (and perhaps a few others) for the 150 point slot, and that is a feat. I'd have to test him to see if he's overpowered, as theoryscaping here has me leaning towards him being fair, but not 100% sure.

Entrean the Elder
Whoa, this guy is a hero killing beast! I love the idea of having him face Major Q9 - he forms himself a tree screen as he slowly advances up the field, staying out of site with his mobile wall (well, I'm not sure how tall the mini is, but in my head, the scenario is cool), and then just pounds the metal abomination with a single 3 skull attack roll! I have no idea if he is appropriately costed or not though, as there is no precedent for moving trees around.

Oakshadow
The definition of a tight unit. Two relevant, flavorful, easy-to-understand powers. In my opinion, he feels the most "official" of all of the entries. I don't know how often he'd get his points in against squad-heavy armies, but hey, units are allowed to vary in effectiveness depending on match-up!

Arboris
First off, I think he has the best name of the uniques, so points there! Secondly, the tying together of his two powers has been executed beautifully. This guy would make a very effective cleanup unit, without being OP. Theoryscaping is difficult with this guy, admittedly, and I'd like to try him out to see if he could even use a drop in points. Very tight unit overall.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Ronin

throw a little shade at your own entry to throw people off the scent.

Originally Posted by Dr.Goomonkey

try not to make it too obvious if you're talking about your own.

I don't know about throwing shade, but I try to step back from my entry (which I loved during the creation process) and post some objective post-creation thoughts, same as the other entries.

Originally Posted by ollie

As for the trash talk, I'd like to place on record that Necroblade's entry sucks. I don't know which one it is, but I'm sure it's dreadful. (NB did enter, right?)

You're dead to me. Also yes.

Originally Posted by HEROSCAPERMTL

Voted! Would love to hear some impartial critiques of the submissions from some more experienced customs creators. Anyone out there willing?

Absolutely. I always try to provide helpful insight to everyone who was willing to put the effort into entering a contest. Had to get these quotes out of the way first...

Originally Posted by White Knight

Timber Custodian
4 Defense 4 Life (Q9 stats) with Regeneration is pretty powerful.

I haven't read all your thoughts, so there may be more I end up responding to, but the mention of Q9 here caught my eye: Q9 has 4 Life and 7(!) Defense, which would be pretty powerful with regeneration, but the TC only has 4L/4D thankfully.

I'll be back later with reviews of all the entries!

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

I haven't read all your thoughts, so there may be more I end up responding to, but the mention of Q9 here caught my eye: Q9 has 4 Life and 7(!) Defense, which would be pretty powerful with regeneration, but the TC only has 4L/4D thankfully.

I stand corrected.

I was posting from memory. I tried to check Q9's card in the books of Heroscape, but there's no information there.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by White Knight

I stand corrected.

I was posting from memory. I tried to check Q9's card in the books of Heroscape, but there's no information there.

What made you think Q9 had 4 Defence? That would make him a fairly balanced, glass cannon-y unit!

[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by The Dewk

What I don't understand is the name - if I'm not mistaken, Tsuri Oni translates to fishing demon. Haha.

Haha, I missed that when I was looking through the entries. Genius! Though I do believe that the creator was probably going for the katakana "tsuri" as opposed to the kanji "tsuri," which would make it literally just "tree" with a Japanese accent. (Going with katakana "tori" would have been an option as well, though then that could be mistaken for "bird demon.") Not sure why "Ki Oni" wasn't used instead, but I enjoy the Japanese nonetheless (and I guess "tsuri" sounds a bit cooler than "ki"). Now I really want to make a fishing demon custom, though.

More on track - there are a lot of cool ideas in this bunch. I'll probably try to write up some comments, as soon as I can figure out a better way to disguise my entry than just saying "10/10 Best unit Please induct into SoV immediately."

[ollie]

Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog

More on track - there are a lot of cool ideas in this bunch. I'll probably try to write up some comments, as soon as I can figure out a better way to disguise my entry than just saying "10/10 Best unit Please induct into SoV immediately."

I'll PM you the name of mine, and you can say the same about that one. That'll help cover your tracks.

[Heroscaper 101]

I entered the contest before it was to late, does anyone want to know my entry.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

This has to be the best poll thread there has been so far. On a serious note (if there is such a thing), the Timber Custodian now has a bio. It had one before, but only if you had access to my inbox.

On another serious note, I'll let everyone know which entries are whose once the poll closes.

[Confred]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I'm glad that we can choose three ent-trees! There are a lot of really unique ideas here, and it's a nice surprise that we didn't have to cut it down this time.

oops - voted for only one.

It is interesting to see the voting spread however.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Confred

oops - voted for only one.

Well, you just ruined my life.

[ollie]

A thought that came in too late: "hardy" is the perfect personality for a tree thingy. I think I'd like every single entry (including mine) a little better if the personality was switched to this.

[Iron Clubber]

I really love Enchanted Tree and the meta-game it could provide for a "tree" army, really creative. Perhaps too cheap though?