SoA's Customs: ULLAR CAVALRY FACTION, 4/24

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

I had a similar concern when I first typed up Skrymir- but considering that Deathwalkers rarely see tournament play, and when they do, they're often accompanied by Zettian Infanty (which can neutralize Thrown Enemy), I just don't see much need to cater to that particular corner case.

Fair enough. I didn't think of the Zettian Infantry, which is an excellent point. I'm still inclined to believe that automatic wounds at that range are too strong with those stats and price, but that's hard to tell for sure without actually playing him.

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

And I was just looking at M.A.R.S. a week ago, too. I remembered the mechanic, but forgot the name.

It was hardly a vital part of the design, and I cut it out after the last round of feedback, so I can't blame you for not remembering it. As I said, I think that this interpretation is a lot stronger.

4L/7D alone definitely isn't the sole reason that Q9 is so powerful, but I do think that it is an annoyingly tough durability to have, especially for a figure with a lot of offensive potential. To be clear, I don't think that we're looking at a new Q9 here or anything, I was just suggesting to lean ever so slightly more to the glass cannon side, given the attacks and speed. If you don't want to go that route, then I perfectly understand.

[Son of Arathorn]

Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica is out, even if the singles havn't quite hit the secondary market yet. This set is based on Magic: the Gathering, and so the miniatures are... weird. So weird you could say they're mad.


The figure used is a Rakdos Ogre, 28/55 from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica D&D set.



NAME = MOTLEY MAX
GENERAL = VALKRILL
PLANET = EARTH
SPECIES = MUTANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = WARHULK
PERSONALITY = PSYCHOTIC
SIZE/HEIGHT = LARGE/5

LIFE = 7
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 150

CHAIN GRAB 9
After moving and before attacking, you may choose one opponent's small or medium figure within 3 clear sight spaces whose base is no more than 6 levels above Motley Max's height or 6 levels below Motley Max's base. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 9 or higher, place the chosen figure on any empty same-level space adjacent to Motley Max. If the chosen figure is engaged when it is moved by Chain Grab, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

DREAD CHAINS OF VALHALLA
After attacking normally, you may choose an opponent's small or medium figure within 3 clear sight spaces whose base is no more than 6 levels above Motley Max's height or 6 levels below Motley Max's base. Roll the 20-sided die. Add 1 to your die roll for each skull rolled by Motley Max this turn. If you roll a 17 or higher, the chosen figure receives a wound.

Notable Synergies: None

Please note, Motley Max is a double-spaced figure, meant to sit on a small peanut base.

Notes: Every post-apocalyptic hellscape has a crazed mutant who is just too darn big. Motley Max is that guy. He's meant to careen around the battlefield, tearing up small and medium figures, taking damage all the time. A couple things I'm still debating are whether or not he should come from Arctorus, or Earth's distant future (further forward in time than the Microcorp Agents and Troopers, after things have gotten real bad for humanity), and whether his personality should be a traditional Ferocious or Psychotic, which I think captures his theme much better.
Update 1: Going with Earth for the planet and Psychotic for the personality, in part because of P_K and j139's comments, and in part because they're much truer to the source material to which this unit owes its existence. I also omitted a clause from Chain Grab (it seemed unnecessary for a Unique Hero and the card is already text-heavy) and I fiddled with the wording on Spiked Chains. I also dropped the cutoff of Spiked Chains from 19 to 17. Still mulling over his class. Here's the shortlist:
- Warrior
- Gladiator
- Warhulk
- Champion
Update 2: I'm picking Warhulk for the class, which seems to indicate he's the Dragon (maybe even the Big Gun) rather than the Mastermind/Leader of the wasteland biker gang. I changed the second power name from Spiked Chains of Abaddon to Dread Chains of Valhalla, because this unit didn't have enough Mad Max homages already. I also inserted "After attacking normally," rather than "After attacking" for the second power, so you can't possibly think you can use Dread Chains of Valhalla after rolling for a leaving engagement attack. However, in the unlikely event that a figure disengages from Motley Max during Max's turn, and Motley Max rolls a skull against that figure, I do intend that he can add that skull to his total skulls rolled for the purpose of calculating the d20 bonus for Dread Chains of Valhalla.


Changes Index:
- V1.0

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = MOTLEY MAX
GENERAL = VALKRILL
PLANET = EARTH/ARCTORUS
SPECIES = MUTANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = WARRIOR
PERSONALITY = FEROCIOUS/PSYCHOTIC
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/8

LIFE = 7
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 150

CHAIN GRAB 9
After moving and before attacking with Motley Max, you may choose one opponent's small or medium figure within 3 clear sight spaces whose base is no more than 6 levels above Motley Max's height or 6 levels below Motley Max's base. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 9 or higher, place the chosen figure on any empty same-level space adjacent to Motley Max. If the chosen figure is engaged when it is moved by Chain Grab, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks

SPIKED CHAINS OF ABADDON 19
After taking a turn with Motley Max, you may choose an opponent's small or medium figure within 3 clear sight spaces whose base is no more than 6 levels above Motley Max's height or 6 levels below Motley Max's base. Roll the 20-sided die. Add 1 to your die roll for each skull rolled by Motley Max this turn. If you roll a 19 or higher, the chosen figure receives a wound.

[Pumpkin_King]

AHHH!!!

Mad Max is one of my absolute favorite movie series and I've been DYING to find some minis that work for this! I NEED this guy, he's too perfect!

[Pumpkin_King]

The set must have just come out. Where did you find that picture?

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

The set must have just come out. Where did you find that picture?

I googled “guide to ravnica miniatures” and checked images. WizKids has a picture of the whole set together, but not individual minis. I zoomed in, took a cropped screenshot, then uploaded it to HeroScapers from my laptop. I’m phone posting, so I can’t post the miniature, but here’s a link to the page with it. Scroll to the bottom for it and other pics.

https://wizkids.com/dd-icons-of-the-...de-to-ravnica/

[Pumpkin_King]

Very excited for this next release then!

[johnny139]

Really love Max. He feels like a perfectly archetypal unit, the sort of guy you'd see in an official Master Set if the game was still going (you know they'd get to Mad Max stuff eventually). Personally I'd be happy with him from Earth, just because it adds a bit of intrigue to the character, but Arctorus might work better if you wanted to expand his "faction" some more - I assume there's more Rakdos guys in the set that would fit with him, but they might feel more explicitly fantasy with magic and other species and stuff.

Just to be sure - I'm assuming he's a big old "whips and chains" hulk from Hellscape Wherever, and the Spiked Chains of Abbadons are one of those mysterious Valhalla artifacts that he got equipped with? Like Sgt. Drake's mysterious magical katana. If so, it works perfectly - like I said, feels very classically Heroscape.

[Pumpkin_King]

The idea I had for Mad MAx units was that in the future of 2210, the coasts were habitable in cyberpunk megacities, but the midwest was a nuked-out wasteland. It'd still fit on earth!

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Really love Max. He feels like a perfectly archetypal unit, the sort of guy you'd see in an official Master Set if the game was still going (you know they'd get to Mad Max stuff eventually).

Dang j139, that's high praise. Thank you!

Originally Posted by johnny139

Personally I'd be happy with him from Earth, just because it adds a bit of intrigue to the character, but Arctorus might work better if you wanted to expand his "faction" some more - I assume there's more Rakdos guys in the set that would fit with him, but they might feel more explicitly fantasy with magic and other species and stuff.

Earth is growing on me, especially after reading Pumpkin_King's vision, which just sounds awesome:

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

The idea I had for Mad Max units was that in the future of 2210, the coasts were habitable in cyberpunk megacities, but the midwest was a nuked-out wasteland.

As far as expanding the faction goes, this is one where I want to leave room for expansion on the off chance that more viable minis are released. In the Ravnica set, there are at least two more minis in the Rakdos faction, and both look at least sort of human (one might be more elfin). Neither looks quite as Mad-Maxian as the Ogre, though. I'm going to go with Earth, for now, and hold out hope that some company will produce miniatures for a punk-rock motorcycle gang squad.

Originally Posted by johnny139

Just to be sure - I'm assuming he's a big old "whips and chains" hulk from Hellscape Wherever, and the Spiked Chains of Abbadon are one of those mysterious Valhalla artifacts that he got equipped with? Like Sgt. Drake's mysterious magical katana. If so, it works perfectly - like I said, feels very classically Heroscape.

When I typed him up, I wasn't quite sure where the chains would come from, but now they're definitely coming from Valhalla. We don't get enough heroes with artifacts these days.

A couple updates/changes I'm going to make with Motley Max:
- going with Earth as his planet
- going with Psychotic as his personality
- removing "19" from the title of his second ability
- dropping the cutoff for Spiked Chains of Abaddon to 17
- changing the wording for Spiked Chains to more closely resemble Toxic Skin (another uniquely themed after-attacking auto-wound special power)

One change I'm still considering is his class: Warrior seems like the safe option, but depending on the shape of his backstory, I could also see Gladiator, Warhulk, or even Champion.

Oh, and judging by the looks of the figure (I won't have it in hand for at least another week or more, since the set comes out in 3 days) there will be denial issues with the chains attached to his ankles. Once I have the figure, I'll see if a simple boil-and-freeze mod will correct that potential issue.

[Lamaclown]

I LOVE Max!
Epic sculpt and spot-on abilities.
As far as class, I could see Champion since guys like this are typically the main henchman, a.k.a. Champion, of the Big Bad Boss

Either way, great job!

[Astroking112]

I like the simplistic and straightforward nature of Max (he certainly evokes early standalone heroes like Sgt. Drake and Agent Carr). Both powers have a fair amount of text, but they are much simpler than they seem at a first glance and have some nice interplay.

I'm a big fan of the Psychotic personality. In my eyes, it oozes a lot more theme than Ferocious does here, and there's nothing wrong with creating a fitting new personality like that.

As for the class, I've always wanted to see a non-human Gladiator, but if you wanted to avoid any synergies at all then I think that Warhulk seems interesting and implies a deeper story than the more familiar Warrior or Champion.

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I like the simplistic and straightforward nature of Max (he certainly evokes early standalone heroes like Sgt. Drake and Agent Carr). Both powers have a fair amount of text, but they are much simpler than they seem at a first glance and have some nice interplay.

It's good to hear the words "simplistic and straightforward," because that's the method with which I've been trying to direct my design aesthetic over the past year. I feel that early in my design timeline (and quite recently) I tried a lot of hamhanded and hyper-complex powers, which might make for novel and flashy designs on the surface, but are often tricky to get right in playtesting, and just plain unnecessary. I'm still guilty of throwing in a bell or whistle that might not be needed here and there, but it's a tendency I feel I've reined in with my last few published customs. Moira Blacktail, Skrymir, the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer, and Motley Max are all products of this intent. Simpler powers that interact so as to evoke a coherent vision. At least, that's the hope.

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I'm a big fan of the Psychotic personality. In my eyes, it oozes a lot more theme than Ferocious does here, and there's nothing wrong with creating a fitting new personality like that.

I like Psychotic here, and it's good to hear others express the same. My only reservations (and ones I could see as sticking points if Max ever happens to stumble by the SoV) is that "Psychotic" can have negative connotations of mental health, and it might fall out of line with someone's idea of "kid-friendly." Of course, everybody draws that line somewhere different.

Originally Posted by Astroking112

As for the class, I've always wanted to see a non-human Gladiator, but if you wanted to avoid any synergies at all then I think that Warhulk seems interesting and implies a deeper story than the more familiar Warrior or Champion.

I've had a non-human Gladiators on the back burner for a good long while, and one might get posted sometime. But for now, I like the Northwest Heroscape Customs Richter, which is Human, but can be a starting point, either for a house-ruled Cyborg or human-like alien with a drop in points to match, or a tweaked design.

Honestly, Max's class will probably be decided by his backstory more than his role on the battlefield- is he the smarter-but-crazy leader of his band of marauders, or is he the leader's meathead lackey, or even a lone creature of the wasteland? one implies Warrior, another implies Warhulk or Champion, and another implies Marauder or even something else.

Originally Posted by Lamaclown

I LOVE Max!
Epic sculpt and spot-on abilities.
As far as class, I could see Champion since guys like this are typically the main henchman, a.k.a. Champion, of the Big Bad Boss

Either way, great job!

This was one of those times that the sculpt just grabs you, y’know? Thanks for the praise, LC. It's always appreciated.