The Pre-SoV Workshop

[caps]

For an uncommon hero we'd be looking at 150-225; though lower availability numbers have been passing lately I think. 20 from one eBay seller does imply there will be availability elsewhere but you still need to prove it. @Kinseth may be able to point you to some more stores.

[Kinseth]

I did a quick scan, this was from a 2013 release, I see a couple of stragglers here and there. I might have been able to find about ~10 checking many of the sites in my signature.

That does not look like good availability.

[Pumpkin_King]

Hi folks. I recently got in a game with these three recent customs of mine, that seemed to have a good response in the heroscapers discord server and my own customs thread. The figures are extremely available on the usual sites and add to a cowboy faction regardless of the card. Let me know what you think as far as SoV goes.

Spoiler Alert!

[Sir Heroscape]

I’m sold. I love these! I think this is what the cowboys need in Pierce and a couple other cowboys to make that theme super fun. These guys with the current cowboys would be so fun and thematic to play.

[MrNobody]

I'm a fan of pretty much anything cowboy. I wanted to make a Snidely Whiplash-style leader for the Outlaws, but I never found a workable angle.

On the figures themselves, I like them a lot. I think Shootout could be cool as actually allowing the other cowboys to attack (similar to Omegacron in mechanics?), but I'm sure you've considered that. I think something else could be done with Lasso other than making it so close to James Murphy's Whip, but it works either way.

I've been working on a design of my own that I would like to throw out here.

Spoiler Alert!

So obviously he's to help the Obsidians out, so they can at least be pretty good on their home turf. The mini has more than enough availability. He's gotten one small playtest so far, but I wanted to see if there are any major changes to be made before I hit that too hard.

[Son of Arathorn]

Im just popping in, so I’ll just state the obvious (to me); a wise ‘Scape said that good designs give you a choice. Presumably, for a choice to be meaningful, both options should be appealing. So why would a player ever use Tavarr’s normal attack over his special? The dice on the Special Attack is higher, and there are no drawbacks to it.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Im just popping in, so I’ll just state the obvious (to me); a wise ‘Scape said that good designs give you a choice. Presumably, for a choice to be meaningful, both options should be appealing. So why would a player ever use Tavarr’s normal attack over his special? The dice on the Special Attack is higher, and there are no drawbacks to it.

My thinking was that if he’s only engaged with one figure and he knocks it away, he can’t use his Battle Cry to take a turn with the Obsidians. That may not be a worthwhile difference though.

[caps]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

My thinking was that if he’s only engaged with one figure and he knocks it away, he can’t use his Battle Cry to take a turn with the Obsidians. That may not be a worthwhile difference though.

Nice tension; clever.

[caps]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Hi folks. I recently got in a game with these three recent customs of mine, that seemed to have a good response in the heroscapers discord server and my own customs thread. The figures are extremely available on the usual sites and add to a cowboy faction regardless of the card. Let me know what you think as far as SoV goes.

Spoiler Alert!

If you change Clayton to use bonding I think you'll struggle to get him through the SoV, let alone VC unified review. On the other hand, if he *doesn't* have bonding, you may also have a hard time getting him through unified review. If such a cowboy figure comes out of VC it will probably originate in C3V.

I like the elegance of what you have with Clayton though, and the simplicity of it gives it a decent advantage. After some more refinement you could submit it and see what happens.

The other designs are nice and clean and both have a shot, IMO. Why not make one of them an outlaw though?

[Pumpkin_King]

Haha, I think Clayton is going to stay mostly as is in terms of raw mechanics - one movement power with a Shootout ability/special attack, not true bonding like Lao Xin or half-bonding like Omegacron. I'm comfortable with this level of synergy. NecroBlade just gave me a good rewording of Shootout that I think I like better, so he'll be refined a bit.

I did make four cowboy customs, but the one figure I used for the Outlaw is too rare to consider for SoC.

[Pumpkin_King]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Haha, I think Clayton is going to stay mostly as is in terms of raw mechanics - one movement power with a Shootout ability/special attack, not true bonding like Lao Xin or half-bonding like Omegacron.

Now that I've said that...


Hypothetically, does the SoV currently frown on the type of attack bonding that Zaeus and the Pathfinders have? EG "One at a time, take a turn with each Pathfinder. During these turns, the chosen Pathfinders may not move"?

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

On the figures themselves, I like them a lot. I think Shootout could be cool as actually allowing the other cowboys to attack (similar to Omegacron in mechanics?), but I'm sure you've considered that. I think something else could be done with Lasso other than making it so close to James Murphy's Whip, but it works either way.

We'll never make another mistake like Omegacron again. Not while I'm still in VC.

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

Hypothetically, does the SoV currently frown on the type of attack bonding that Zaeus and the Pathfinders have? EG "One at a time, take a turn with each Pathfinder. During these turns, the chosen Pathfinders may not move"?

That's fine, I don't have a problem with that.

My biggest personal concern with cowboy synergy is "sameness." What the cowboys should not be is just like everybody else. Pushing all Heroscape factions to the same synergy webs is not only dull but it goes against what I love about Heroscape. Personally, I'm quite happy with cowboys being loners, but I won't require that.

Clayton Pierce
I like Posse. It's the sort of neat, interesting synergy I'd like to see with cowboys. Shootout is a bit of a mess. I get what you're trying to do, but as is it will require all Lawmen you choose to have clear sight on every figure you attack. It also, contrary to your thematic goal, gives height advantage to all attacked figures higher than Clayton. That's not bad, but I think there are better ways to do it.

Kate Crawford
I like the overall design. It feels like a good fit for a Lawman. Though, like the others, I wonder why she has less normal range than existing Lawmen.

Jim Whitecloud
This is perhaps my favorite design. A little too "on the nose" for picking powers to match the mini, but here they are not only fitting but good for the design. The price tag seems way too high, though.