Scytale's customs

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Ixe

I feel that Valkrill could have a flagbearer. Being crazy and chaotic does not mean you can't be inspired by some symbol.

I agree it could work, but not necessary for the completionist in me. A skeleton carrying a tattered banner would be pretty awesome, though, if I ever found such a mini.

[TheAverageFan]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Dorrond Greatstone
Disengage for your army is nice but it can be tough to justify at 110 points. Given that he accomplishes almost nothing on his own (1 attack makes sense if all you have is a flag and a shield), I'd have trouble seeing him alongside anyone other than the axegrinders who can take a bonding turn to move him up from time to time.

Well he's better than Hatamato Taro 99% of the time anyway.

It's too bad you couldn't squeeze in an Aquilla dice power, since you don't really need dice for those (we all know blanks count just as much anyway). Regardless, he looks great alongside the other flag bearers--show it to a Heroscape newcomer and they couldn't tell which one was the custom I'll bet.

~TAF

[Not User Name]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

Well he's better than Hatamato Taro 99% of the time anyway.

It's too bad you couldn't squeeze in an Aquilla dice power, since you don't really need dice for those (we all know blanks count just as much anyway). Regardless, he looks great alongside the other flag bearers--show it to a Heroscape newcomer and they couldn't tell which one was the custom I'll bet.

~TAF

Like TAF said, if you really needed to you could always change Defensive Aura 1 to all Aquilla Symbols count as shields or something.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

Regardless, he looks great alongside the other flag bearers--show it to a Heroscape newcomer and they couldn't tell which one was the custom I'll bet.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Not User Name

Like TAF said, if you really needed to you could always change Defensive Aura 1 to all Aquilla Symbols count as shields or something.

As I noted in my write-up, I actually avoided making a Aquilla dice power. That's simply because I don't have any Aquilla dice and don't ever expect to have any.

[Scytale]

unit highlight 6/15/15

This unit is another attempt at a controller-style pseudo-squad. Unlike my Demons and Beasts, there is only a single type of Common Hero. A reasonable representation of the mistress of ravens trope.

This group feels differently in play than you'd expect simply from reading the cards. Interestingly, together they feel like a single range attacker hero, something like Syvarris.

This is true because Ravens make for really poor defenders; they die quite quickly in melee. In fact, in testing when the opponent would focus on Arianna, they would get pecked apart. But when they would focus on taking out the flock, they could cut through the birds quickly, leaving Arianna near helpless.

Arianna -- Obviously key to making the birds work as a flock, but not much to speak of beyond that.

Raven of Ostriyich -- Evasive + Stealth Flying is nice combo, but the poor stats hold them back. In a big flock they can do damage with raw numbers. Not terrible as filler either.


Warden of the Wood (D&D War of the Dragon Queen)


Raven (Auggie's Dungeon Crawler Minis)

[Scytale]

unit highlight 6/22/15

While I love playing with humans, elves, humanoid robots, etc, I always felt that Heroscape was too focused on using humanoids. There are some non-humanoid figures, but they are mostly of the normal four-legged variety. Where are my tentacled horrors? Time to make my own.

This faction actually started because of Lamaclown's Holiday Custom Contest. The first contest was for Halloween using a pumpkinhead figure. My submission became the Pumpkin King, who not only helped Undead and other creatures of the night but also Horrors, with he himself being a Horror. This inspired me to fill out more of the faction.

Unlike most of my factions which were created to work as a whole, this faction is piecemeal. I did design with the different pieces in mind, but thematically I didn't want them to be an army, rather a chaotic group of monsters.

As a whole they aren't particularly competitive. They have some fun tricks but they can't compete directly with top armies. They're more of a fun army or neat baddies in a dungeon.

The Pumpkin King -- He has a "negative aura" that weakens Common figures, even your own, unless you're using Undead, Horrors, or Uniques. Thus he synergizes with those types, in a sense. He seems powerful, but he never does as well as you'd hope.

Grick -- A really fun Common Hero design. These guys are great for snagging a cheerleader like Raelin, dragging her away, and eating her.

Creeping Chaos -- A self-synergizing Uncommon Hero. Madness can really mess with your opponents' heads, especially if they are attacking from range. These things don't have the stats to really do much damage, though.

Carackadon -- A simple design and one that synergizes with more copies of itself as well as some other Horrors, sometimes. Most of the time you just want to take a turn with the same Carackadon though.

The Devourer in the Deep -- Pretty terrifying to have this thing running around, though it's not as effective in reality as it appears on paper. Maul actually matters a lot on a unit like this.

Xaekil -- I've seen some pretty involved beholder customs on the site. I wanted to make mine relatively simple yet have that beholder feeling. For the most part I succeeded; the spray of Eyestalks attacks can be devastating. Or it can fizzle quickly.

Scarecrow -- This was an older design that I changed the species of to fit in the Horrors. While it may seem strange to have an Aquillan Horror, I've always felt that Aquilla could embody a creepy side. Not terrible as filler (4 Attack is solid), but you need to use them early to get the most out of Restuff.


Knight of Autumn Gate (Dreamblade Base Set)


Grick (D&D Giants of Legend)


single-based
Large Chaos Beast (D&D Night Below)


single-based
Ng'ok (Star Wars Miniatures Masters of the Force #36)


single-based
Otyugh (D&D Giants of Legend)


single-based
Beholder Eye Tyrant (Dangerous Delves)


Scarecrow Stalker (D&D Legendary Evils)

[Ixe]

Arianna
Not too much to say about the woman herself. How powerful she is is all in the ravens. I like the potential to get multiple ravens with a call but it must feel pretty rotten to whiff one of those.

Raven of Ostriyich
Getting 6 attacks of a pretty much guaranteed 2 seems pretty god, especially when you deprive your opponent of height advantage. The special treatment they get with flyby attack in this capacity feels a bit strange but it makes sense if you take it they are supposed to by flying the entire time during their turn. They'll crumble to melee attacks but otherwise seem decent enough against ranged groups or slow moving melee where they can fly out of range.

The Pumpkin King
All Hallow's Eve seems appropriate enough of a power for the King of Halloween. The wording of Terrifying Presence feels a little off for me. The "when defending..." line makes me think its only when he's defending (I know that would not be the wording for it), but I know your intention is for when any figure defends against and adjacent attack. Maybe you should instead start with:

When any figure defends against an attack from an adjacent figure, if the defending figure is within 3 clear sight spaces of the Pumpkin King...

In any case he can tear down defenses if you keep order markers on him. Otherwise giving him the occasional order marker and the X seems a good way to keep him in place and keep your enemy struggling. His defenses are solid as well for his points. While I think the personality Rotten is quite cute for a pumpkin, Terrifying feels more appropriate given that he has a terrifying presence.

Grick
Drag Away is spot on for a Grick (I've thrown them at PCs before), although I take it the Grick itself is counted as a figure moved by Drag Away. Otherwise it would technically take a leaving engagement attack from the very figure it was dragging. For that matter, I'm a little unclear on how Drag Away works with powers like Vanish or Scatter. From what I can see Isamu would move away but then the Grick would drag them back and place them adjacent. While that is thematically wrong, it doesn't create timing questions like Scatter and Disappearing Ninja. Since both those powers don't use the word "immediately" I am not certain if the figure in question would be allowed to move away first only to be dragged into position or if they would be dragged first and would then move. The latter is particularly troublesome when you consider the requirements for Disappearing Ninja.

Rules issues aside, Devourer Swarm is a great way to turn them into a pseudosquad and has a nice thematic pile on to dragging a figure away. These guys seem like a solid and fun group to play around with.

Creeping Chaos
I love all the sight spots on this guy. Madness is also a really cool power and a nice thematic way to turn your own opponent's figures against them. It's cool that not even the Madness can break the bonds of loyalty to make a MacDirk Warrior attack their champion. The self synergy with Chaos Divide is cool and all but I struggle seeing anyone draft more than one of these guys since single turns of 3 attack really aren't going to cut it. Maybe a pile of these guys would be cool for a dungeon crawl. Otherwise they seem to be easy enough to ignore or just avoid the major downside of Madness with well positioned melee figures.

Carakadon
Feeding Frenzy is decent synergy and is fairly likely if you land the kill (not terrible odds against squads with that 4 attack), but I see what you mean about wanting to feed those turns into Carackadons to let the frenzy ride. As not the fastest melee hero, this would then easily lend itself to being the same one since it may be the only one in range to attack again.

The Devourer in the Deep
Maul is worded a bit strangely, isn't it? Why wouldn't it just say the defender can't roll defense dice? This makes it sound like it should deal twice as much damage (which isn't the case, is it?). In any case, Maul is one of those strange powers that get better as the dice go down. You'll need to take care to move the Otyugh away from your own figures but tentacle grab and Maul seems like it can potentially deal quite a bit of damage to everything around it. 3 defense isn't much to write home about but that 8 life should keep it alive long enough to deal some damage. Cool hero.

Xaelkil
I always though beholders were really cool monsters (appreciate the extra sight spots on the eye stalks). He's a fairly fragile hero for his points with low range so most of it seems tied up in the eyestalk attacks which seems like it can be incredibly swingy. I like the effort to simplify but it feels like you're missing some of the spirit of the creature there in the effort. Maybe I'll take a pass at one of these guys sometime. Hover is spot-on for the eye tyrant.

Scarecrow
Wily is a really strange personality type to attach to these guys. While I like how descriptive it is Tricky is usually the default for that sort of thing. Single figures are tough to justify leading with but a pernicious filler to draw some attacks and keep getting restuffed by your side isn't terrible. They're also fast despite their shambling appearance so moving them in and out isn't that bad. You may be giving up some board position feeding them OMs but I guess that can be worth it in the right army and if they are disruptive enough. I have no qualms about Aquilla embracing some creep factor.

[Scytale]

As always, huge thanks for the in-depth comments!

Originally Posted by Ixe

The Pumpkin King
The wording of Terrifying Presence feels a little off for me. The "when defending..." line makes me think its only when he's defending (I know that would not be the wording for it), but I know your intention is for when any figure defends against and adjacent attack.

You're right, I can clean up this wording to make it clearer.

Originally Posted by Ixe

While I think the personality Rotten is quite cute for a pumpkin, Terrifying feels more appropriate given that he has a terrifying presence.

I gave myself some leaway when working with the Holiday Custom Contest. When the group includes a turkey, Uncle Sam, and a dwarf in a pink bunny suit, I don't think it little fun with the pumpkinhead is inappropriate.

Originally Posted by Ixe

Grick
For that matter, I'm a little unclear on how Drag Away works with powers like Vanish or Scatter.

Good question. We're struggling with something similar in C3V Editing right now, actually. We decided that Toxic Skin provides a precedent for "after attacking" powers, which seems to be defined as "after the entire attacking action, including reactive powers like Scatter."

Originally Posted by Ixe

The Devourer in the Deep
Maul is worded a bit strangely, isn't it? Why wouldn't it just say the defender can't roll defense dice? This makes it sound like it should deal twice as much damage (which isn't the case, is it?)

Yeah, Maul is terribly worded. And poorly implemented on the Deathstalkers, if you ask me.

Originally Posted by Ixe

Xaelkil
I always though beholders were really cool monsters (appreciate the extra sight spots on the eye stalks). He's a fairly fragile hero for his points with low range so most of it seems tied up in the eyestalk attacks which seems like it can be incredibly swingy. I like the effort to simplify but it feels like you're missing some of the spirit of the creature there in the effort. Maybe I'll take a pass at one of these guys sometime.

I'd like to see what you would come up with for a beholder. It's a lot harder than you'd think to design one. Pretty much anything you do to model the D&D version is going to get complex and wordy, and Flying already take up quite a bit of the card. Wanting to have a Hover power as well limited my options to pretty much a single power that wasn't too wordy. Eyestalks is simple, but as you noted, very swingy. When the dice is on your side Xaekil is a destructive terror, with the barrage of attacks doing a pretty good job of giving the feeling of attacks emanating from all the eyes.

Originally Posted by Ixe

Scarecrow
Wily is a really strange personality type to attach to these guys. While I like how descriptive it is Tricky is usually the default for that sort of thing.

The D&D Monster Manual described them as "wily" and I couldn't get it out of my head. Yeah, Tricky is what one would normally use. I just liked Wily too much.

[TheAverageFan]

I'm really digging the Devourer in the Deep. His powers all mix together perfectly into one mean grabbing, spinning, mauling machine. Keep your Dumutefs away from him though, they'll ruin his Maul potential (and he'll kill them too).

~TAF

[Scytale]

unit highlight 7/6/15

The Fyorlag Spider's generic Predator bonding opens up a wide range of potential synergies. But how about some more arachnids? I do like giant insects, after all.

The Drider Fanglord was an addition both to the Drow and Arachnid factions, spanning the two and giving the two another bridge beyond Estivara. The scorpion was just a cool-looking mini that I thought could provide a decent cheap bonding option for the Spiders.

Drider Fanglord -- Part drow, part spider, and works with both. Provides a little extra reason to mix the two, and works with the rest of my Drow faction as well. Their web ability can help keep the fragile Spiders alive.

Fyorlag Scorpion -- Simple, straightforward, and moderately useful. Fast and packs a punch against little figures like Deathreavers. Not a bad way to fill in Fyorlag Spider army.


single-based
Drider Fanglord (D&D Savage Encounters)


Stormclaw Scorpion (D&D Lords of Madness)

[Ixe]

Drider Fanglord
Driders are always a good bridge between drow and spiders. Immobilizing Web doesn't give you the guarantee of an Air Elemental but sometimes a little uncertainty can be better. An opponent my end up wasting ranged attacks on a figure with stealth dodge or that is highly evasive but will seek other options when facing down Thorian Speed. It also has the added bonus of depriving an attack when they close. What are the rules for moving into a space occupied by another figure with this guy? He is otherwise a solid bonding option who will get along great with Estivara for a whopping 5 attack.

Fyorlag Scorpion
I feel like a lot of people forget scorpions are arachnids. I like using one for this capacity, although it does feel a little out of place with the drow since they are all about spiders specifically. Otherwise seems a good filler bonding option. It's fast and has respectable stats against medium (and especially small) opponents. I like that bigger things can just step on it without too much difficulty.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Drider Fanglord
What are the rules for moving into a space occupied by another figure with this guy?

Immobilizing Web only takes effect when a figure "moves onto an empty space," so those moving through occupied spaces are safe.