IshMEL's Customs: Updated 7/11/2018

[Not User Name]

If you don't like the Chess name you could always go with Cheating Death or something. Hmm intelligence would be a sweet thing to add to heroscape, but you could always do personalities. Tricky and valiant come to mind. They seem "smart".

[IshMEL]

Originally Posted by Not User Name

If you don't like the Chess name you could always go with Cheating Death or something. Hmm intelligence would be a sweet thing to add to heroscape, but you could always do personalities. Tricky and valiant come to mind. They seem "smart".

Oh, I will stick with Chess, definitely. Using personalities is a great suggestion. I would rank Disciplined first, then Tricky, then Valiant as chess players. Will think on the wording, thanks for the idea!

[Ixe]

While valiant can refer to a sort of determination, the word is really much more closely related to bravery than anything else. I don't see it as a pertinent personality trait for playing chess.

[Not User Name]

Maybe brave figures could stand up to him instead of conceding to death.

Good luck wording that one! It'll be tough, but in home rules might be able to allow you to do a little with personalities.

[IshMEL]

Well, I think it's less about bravely standing up to Death, and more about the possibility of somehow outwitting it. After all, when we say that someone is brave in the face of death, they can still have died, but if someone has "cheated" death they managed to avoid it. I'm also going off the two movies I've seen this in, The Seventh Seal and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Both masterpieces of cinema. Spoilers below!

Spoiler Alert!

In TSS, the Valiant knight (Max von Sydow) delays Death by playing chess with him -- but he doesn't win (and he's outsmarted by Death a couple of times, IIRC). Of course, the Tricky Bill and Ted outwit Death by defeating him at Battleship and Twister.

So I'd go with:

Chess With Death
If The Grim Reaper would cause enough wounds with an attack to destroy a Unique Human Hero, you must first roll the 20-sided die. Subtract 2 if that Hero is Tricky or Disciplined. If you roll a 1-2, that Hero may ignore all wounds.

(The "official" wording would be "if that Hero has a Tricky or Disciplined personality" but I never really liked that. We don't say "all figures with a class of Soldier" or "a size of large", now, do we?)

So Sgt. Drake has a 10% chance of beating Death at chess, while Agent Carr has a 20% chance.

[IshMEL]

A few changes in the OP. (I haven't added the Grim Reaper, Ogre Barbarian, or the revised Shade of Bleakwood yet).

First, some changes to the figure my son designed, Krazl Nars (look in Soulborgs & Sci-Fi>Aliens of Arctorus). Second, I've pulled Jeanne du Soleil (previously discussed here) and replaced her with:

Bannerman of the Alliance. A multi-faction messenger. 70 points.

Spoiler Alert!

Bannerman of the Alliance
General: Jandar
Species: Human
Unique Hero
Class: Herald? Bannerman? Messenger?
Personality: Valiant? Determined?
Medium 4
Life: 3
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 2
Defense: 2

Points: 70

Base: Single
Planet: Earth

Relay Orders
When revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with the Bannerman of the Alliance, if he did not attack this turn, you may choose a small or medium Unique Hero you control within 3 clear sight spaces of him who does not follow Utgar or Valkrill. Take a turn with the chosen Hero.

Determined Messenger
For each Order Marker on this card, add 1 to its Defense number.

Through The Lines
Before taking a turn with the Bannerman of the Alliance, you may reveal the X Order Marker on this card. For the rest of that turn, he may ignore all leaving engagement attacks from small or medium Squad figures.

Figure: D&D Standardbearer - 03

Design Notes:

Spoiler Alert!

So I'm clearly riffing on the Command Courier here. I knocked around a "multi-General Flagbearer" concept here for quite a while (see below), and got a lot of great input on it. (I liked the extra dice on the card concept and used it for Begorn Thundershield.) But it never quite felt like a Flagbearer. There's a lot of precedent to live up to. And besides, the flag itself is small!

So what if he was relaying orders instead of providing an aura?

You're of course meant to dump all your OMs on him, and play a Hero-intensive strategy.

Here's the original card:


Jeanne du Soleil
General: Aquilla
Species: Human
Unique Hero
Class: Herald
Personality: Inspiring
Medium 4
Life: 5
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 4

Points: 110

Base: Single
Planet: Earth

Alliance of the Sun
Begin the game with 12 white combat dice on this card. When a figure you control within 3 clear sight spaces of Jeanne du Soleil rolls for defense or for a normal attack, you may remove one die from this card and add it to that roll. Alliance of the Sun does not affect Jeanne du Soleil. If any friendly Army Cards follow Utgar or Valkrill, you may not use Alliance of the Sun.

Glory of the Alliance
If Jeanne du Soleil attacks an opponent's figure and causes enough wounds to destroy it, you may add 2 dice to this card.

Fallen Flag
If Jeanne du Soleil has been destroyed, place her on this card. While she is on this card, subtract 3 from your initiative roll.

Figure: D&D Standardbearer - 03

With apologies to SoA's Laertan Oresun. I started working on this before I saw his, and both before and after that my design was converging on his. I thought the dice mechanic was something different for a flagbearer, a sort of resource-management aura. Glory of the Alliance is there to give you incentive to put her up front and whacking at things, while Fallen Flag gives you the disincentive for doing the same. Choices!

Design notes included. Thanks to everyone who helped with Jeanne's design, I just never felt like she was up to the weighty task of being a Flagbearer.

[Ixe]

Bannerman of the Alliance is pretty interesting. He's a little fragile to be holding all of those Order Markers but he does give some fun flexibility to hero heavy armies. I wouldn't say he is competitive, but how many pure hero-based strategies are.

I take it this is from the old alliance. Vydar apparently breaks off with the arrival of Valkrill.

[IshMEL]

Yes, I should probably include Vydar in the list of non-Alliance forces. Good catch.

I've done up cards for the Ogre Barbarian and the Reaper of Bleakwoode:





The Reaper has slightly different stats than the original post -- Deathly Touch can do 1, 3, or destroy (I had to eliminate 2 for typographic reasons). It now has 3 attack to compensate (1 more than the Shades, but why waste the OM?) I'll change the OP when I get the chance.

[Ixe]

Ogre Barbarian
I like the changes. Savage Aggression is far more playable.

Reaper of Bleakwoode
Maybe I'm overlooking the fact that he bonds with the Death Knights too much, but I'm otherwise comparing him to Cyprien and seeing him come up wanting. He can potentially outdo the Lord of Vampires with his touch, but really only if the target is surrounded by three or more figures in the first place (factoring in Sonya). He then just lacks movement, life, and life drain in exchange for a minor boost to another expensive unit that he has to contend for Order Markers with. I certainly think he's cool, just maybe not at the right point for cost. If his goal is more to be a banner for the Shades of Bleakewoode, he could probably just cost a bit less (the shades aren't really that good).

[IshMEL]

Hmm, you bring up some excellent points @Ixe . Perhaps instead of using Cyprien as a "base" I should more fully embrace his role as a booster for the Shades. He'll be a one-trick pony but that's not always bad.

Soul Reaper
If a Shade of Bleakwoode you control within clear sight is destroyed by Soul Devour, place it on this card. Before TROB makes a normal attack, you may remove a Shade from this card and roll 2 additional attack dice. If TROB would receive any wounds from an attack, you may remove any number of Shades from this card. Ignore up to 2 wounds for each Shade removed.

So he would get powered up by the Shades and then become a great cleanup figure. I don't know what I would do with his stats, or if I would keep him as Relentless. Just thinking out loud here, as always.

Thanks for your help!

[IshMEL]

OK so I've mocked up another card for the Reaper:



It's gained 1 Life and 1 Attack (since no Deathly Touch), and I've left him at 150 points. Changed the personality to Terrifying, while Relentless would be nice he's really an upgraded Shade so should have the same personality. I'm not sure if you'd run him with the Death Knights anyway. The Soul Reaper power is a bit different from the one I outlined above (you can remove 2 wounds instead of preventing 2 wounds, which is probably not as good.)

I'd be interested to see if he makes the Shades more competitive. A normal 3 Shade on 1 Hero Soul Devour has a 27% chance of working, boosted with the Reaper they have a 39% chance. That's pretty good.

Any thoughts on these changes? I'm still not sure on the cost.... Thanks for taking a look!

[Ixe]

Being able to removal multiple figures for a massive boost seems potentially crazy, although it's probably a bit of a win-more at that point since this precludes you landing soul devours and stealing away unique heroes and having a natural advantage anyway. If you have 2 or 3 figures on this card, you're probably winning by a whole lot anyway.

I am also a bit lost on the theme of the power. From how I saw the Shades of Bleakwoode working, they possess the hero in question by devouring their soul and replacing that with their own. The shade is "alive" inside the possessed host. This is mechanically represented by destroying them, which is making me wonder what exactly your reaper is reaping. I suppose it could be the soul of the one they possess, but there is still some dissonance there for me in how that is represented.