Astro's Custom Units [Update 9/22/20: Ibaraki-doji]

[Astroking112]

As my list of personal customs expands, I've decided to take a page out of other creators' books and keep several lists of links that lead to posts in this thread for each unit. This should keep everything neat and easy to find, along with letting me maintain detailed synergy charts.

As always, I welcome feedback. Please feel free to scream at me that I'm making all of the wrong changes (but do make sure that caps-lock is enabled so that I know you're serious). Here is a highlight for one of the most recent additions:

In addition to more individual designs, there are some factions of units that I've been developing. These are mostly self-contained, so in order to make them easier to view than clicking the many synergy links, I'm compiling a faction overview post for each one. Here is a list of these factions:

Black Harts
Iron Wolves

But without further ado, here is everything else that I've been working on:

BY NAME

Spoiler Alert!

A

Abe no Seimei — 130 Unique
Arboris — 70 Unique
Ashigaru Uchigatana — 70 Unique

B

Black Harts — 45 Common
Brutus — 130 Unique

D

Dark Iris — 20 Unique
Devourers of Valkrill — 110 Common
Draft Horses — 140 Common

E

Eltris — 55 Unique

G

Ghent Cre — 60 Unique

I

Ibaraki-doji — 120 Unique
Iron Judge — 50 Uncommon
Iron Wolves — 60 Common

K

Kincho — 60 Unique

L

Linebacker — 60 Uncommon
Lt. Col. James Smith — 200 Unique

M

M.A.R.S. — 125 Unique
Masha Shingai — 110 Unique
Mountain Giants — 140 Unique

Q

Quick Jack — 75 Unique

S

Seishin Samurai — 30 Common
Semia the Kyrie Warrior — 200 Unique
Skrit — 40 Unique
Stalwart — 35 Unique
Stalwart the Forge — 165 Unique
Steel Auxilius — 100 Unique
Steel Ultimatus — 90 Unique

T

Toro Aragawa — 80 Unique

V

Viktor Klaw — 70 Unique
Vishania — 140 Unique

BY SET AND PACK

Spoiler Alert!

A DIVIDED ALLIANCE Wave A1
Heroes of the Sport
Brutus
Viktor Klaw
Steel Ultimatus
Quick Jack

Heroes of the Field
Stalwart
Stalwart the Forge
Dark Iris
Steel Auxilius

Black Harts
Black Harts
Linebacker

Iron Wolves
Iron Wolves
Iron Judge

VALKRILL'S VENGEANCE Wave A2
Growth and Decay
Arboris
Eltris
M.A.R.S.
Semia the Kyrie Warrior

The Last Dynasty
Masha Shingai
Toro Aragawa
Ashigaru Uchigatana

Heroes of the White Storm
Ghent Cre
Monokeros
Rahnik Protector
Vishania

Horses and Kyrie
Devourers of Valkrill
Draft Horses

RAGING WAR
Heroes of the Lost City
Lt. Col. James Smith
Mountain Giants

CONTEST ENTRIES
Skrit — 40 Unique

BY GENERAL

Spoiler Alert!

AQUILLA

Rahnik Protector — 90 Unique
Vishania — 140 Unique

EINAR

Abe no Seimei — 130 Unique
Ashigaru Uchigatana — 70 Unique
Black Harts — 45 Common
Brutus — 130 Unique
Dark Iris — 20 Unique
Linebacker — 60 Uncommon
Masha Shingai — 110 Unique
Seishin Samurai — 30 Common
Steel Auxilius — 100 Unique
Toro Aragawa — 80 Unique
Viktor Klaw — 70 Unique

JANDAR

Lt. Col. James Smith — 200 Unique

ULLAR

Arboris — 70 Unique
Draft Horses — 140 Common
Eltris — 55 Unique
Mountain Giants — 140 Unique
Kincho — 60 Unique
Skrit — 40 Unique

UTGAR

Ibaraki-doji — 120 Unique

VALKRILL

Devourers of Valkrill — 110 Common
Ghent Cre — 60 Unique
M.A.R.S. — 125 Unique

VYDAR

Iron Judge — 50 Uncommon
Iron Wolves — 60 Common
Quick Jack — 75 Unique
Semia the Kyrie Warrior — 200 Unique
Stalwart — 35 Unique
Stalwart the Forge — 165 Unique
Steel Ultimatus — 90 Unique

BY POINT COST

Spoiler Alert!

20 Points

Dark Iris — Unique

30 Points

Seishin Samurai — Common

35 Points

Stalwart — Unique

40 Points

Skrit — Unique

45 Points

Black Harts — Common

50 Points

Iron Judge — Uncommon

55 Points

Eltris — Unique

60 Points

Ghent Cre — Unique
Iron Wolves — Common
Kincho — 60 Unique
Linebacker — Uncommon

70 Points

Arboris — Unique
Ashigaru Uchigatana — Unique
Viktor Klaw — Unique

75 Points

Quick Jack — Unique

80 Points

Toro Aragawa — Unique

90 Points

Steel Ultimatus — Unique

95 Points

Blazion Hunters — Common

100 Points

Steel Auxilius — Unique

110 Points

Devourers of Valkrill — Common
Masha Shingai — Unique

120 Points

Ibaraki-doji — Unique

125 Points

M.A.R.S. — Unique

130 Points

Abe no Seimei — Unique
Brutus — Unique

140 Points

Draft Horses — Common
Mountain Giants — Unique
Vishania — Unique

165 Points

Stalwart the Forge — Unique

200 Points

Lt. Col. James Smith — Unique
Semia the Kyrie Warrior — Unique

In addition to the above, I am also involved in the Arena of the Valkyrie community-driven Master Set project. You should check it out to see more high-quality units, and we're always looking for additional help if you'd like to get involved.

2020 CHANGE LOG: Last Update 9/22/20

Spoiler Alert!

9/22/20:

• Added Ibaraki-doji, an answer to the Yokai's lack of killing power. He's also not super common online, unfortunately, but I couldn't resist using the sculpt. He should be pretty easy enough to find online, but perhaps not enough for SoV.

9/17/20:

• Formally added Abe no Seimei to this thread. Now it's actually feasible to keep lists of the synergy between the various Yokai. A submission for both him and Kincho should be expected within the next few days. Hopefully this is the first time that I submit something without causing a big argument.
• There aren't many changes from last time. The most notable one is that Shapeshift now can only be triggered by Yokai Heroes, to better account for the possibility of Yokai squads in the future.
• Additionally, I finally updated Masha Shingai's species from Demon to Yokai within this thread to make maintaining their synergy network easier.

9/9/20:

• Formally added Kincho to this thread, so that I can begin keeping the synergy network of the Yokai down. Others will follow suit as I feel that they've gone through enough changes to warrant reposting them.
• Changes from last time include a drop from 100 to 60 points and an accompanying drop from 4 to 3 life.
• He also lost the macron. May it rest in peace.

8/22/20:

• Added the Kirin, another yellow Yokai that I unfortunately couldn't justify following Aquilla. Trust me, I tried. I'm sure that it'll still look like I'm biased against her.

8/17/20:

• Added Abe no Seimei, the leader of a new Yokai faction that I'm designing with some help.
• Added Kinchо̄, an annoying Tanuki trickster that goes around doing tricksy things. Tricksy trickster tanuki! Also, I guess that I should mention that he's a Yokai, but you probably know that already and are not reading this anyway.
• Added Nure Onna, a well-needed dose of horror in the Yokai faction. Be careful, and remember to wear gloves if you accept her baby... Lest she leave you in a paralyzing trap (that's actually the legend, believe it or not).

6/23/30:

• Added Vishania, a standalone powerhouse... if you're willing to invest Order Markers in her wisely.

6/14/20:

• Added Ghent Cre, an Icarian Cultist that doesn't like Icarian Cultists. Sue her.

5/31/20:

• Added Lt. Col. James Smith.
• Converted all of the links in this post to present posts in a more consistent manner.

5/16/20:

• Renamed the Destriers to Draft Horses to be less historically pretentious (and incorrect).
• Added the Draft Horses.

4/3/20:

• Updated Masha Shingai's Awakened Terror power. It is now called Terror of the Honorless and affects all squad figures other than Samurai.
• Extended Masha Shingai's range on Fiery Retribution from adjacency to 2 clear sight spaces.
• Increased Masha Shingai's move from 5 to 6.

2019 CHANGE LOG: Last Update 11/4/19

Spoiler Alert!

11/4/19:

• Added the Seishin Samurai to this thread formally, for the sake of completion. They should be submitted to SoV within the next couple of days.

9/8/19:

• Added Skrit from the QC3 Customs Contest.
• Added clarification text to the bottom of each custom to clarify that feedback and comments are welcome.

7/17/19:

• Added a new section right above the Change Logs that's dedicated to the various other customs projects that I'm involved in.
• Removed the Volcarren Pheonixes from my plans. Suitable pheonix squads don't rise from the ashes very often, and I'm going to maintain compatibility with AotV wherever possible. They've been replaced with the Destriers, and the pack "Pheonixes and Kyrie" has been suitably renamed to "Horses and Kyrie."
• Similarly, the Flame Elementals from "Fiery Fury" have been renamed to Blazion Hunters, and on the back-end I've been looking for different sculpts than the Firecats.

5/4/19:

• Added Semia the Kyrie Warrior for the first time.
• Removed Vladimir Wilhelm from my plans for Wave A2. This was a design that I've gone back and forth on for a while that used Sorin from the Arena of the Planeswalkers sets. Because I've been helping with plans to utilize these sets as a community-driven Master Set, I don't want to post personal customs that will quickly become redundant later on.
• Similarly, I intend to remove the Flame Elementals and Volcarren Pheonixes from my plans once I find suitable replacements for them. Unlike my design for Sorin, I'd rather not scrap my idea behind the Flame Elementals, so I'll have to see if there are some other sculpts that can be used somewhere.

4/18/19:

• Returned from my hiatus by the temptation of another Samurai sculpt being found that will release in a month. Send help.

3/10/19:

• Added M.A.R.S. to the main list of figures. Slowly but surely, I'm getting all of my ideas added to this thread that I want.

2/15/19:

• Re-added Eltris.
• Changed her to require Order Markers being placed on her instead of her dragon (to encourage killing her first) and removed her form of Eternal Heartbreak.
• Put the SoV-feedback spotlight on her, since I realized that her sculpt actually has sufficient availability right now while M.A.R.S. uses a figure from an already announced pack.

2/9/19:

• Re-added Arboris.
• Updated Masha Shingai's point cost to reflect his SoV submission.
• Changed the SoV-feedback spotlight in the main post to M.A.R.S., since Masha was already submitted.
• Cleaned up the integration of Wave A2 into this thread a little bit.

1/9/19:

• Formally added Masha Shingai. Hopefully he'll be submitted to the SoV soon so that I can go back to playing more things than Samurai.
• Separated the Change Log by year.

1/4/19:

• Wrote the Iron Wolves overview.

2018 CHANGE LOG: Last Update 12/19/18

Spoiler Alert!

12/19/18:

• Added the Iron Judge for the first time.
• This brings WAVE A1: A DIVIDED ALLIANCE to a close, just in time for the end of the year. I'll be picking up with Wave 2 next year, which will finally be moving beyond the futuristic athletes. Hooray for variety!
• I added the beginnings of Wave A2 to the main post. Unfortunately, I think that this just decreased the readability of the indexes, but I already did all of the work and am loath to throw it all away... So yay for effort, I guess?

12/13/18:

• Added Quick Jack for the first time.

12/10/18:

• Added the Linebacker for the first time.
• Added a faction overview for the Black Hart team as a whole. This will hopefully make viewing the entire faction at once far easier for everyone, while still letting me maintain the order and increasingly interlocked nature of this thread.

11/20/18:

• Added the Iron Wolves for the first time.
• Updated Steel Ultimatus' Gravity Field to read as follows: "All opponent's figures may not pass over spaces within 3 clear sight spaces of Steel Ultimatus." This vaguer terminology should encompass more of the flying-esque powers.

11/14/18:

• Re-added Steel Ultimatus.
• His Antigravity Leap Special Attack no longer subtracts defense dice from large and huge figures.
• Increased his attack from 2 to 3.

11/6/18:

• Updated the main post to shorten text and give a brief highlight for what I'm specifically looking for feedback on at the moment.
• Brought back a revised Masha Shingai for more feedback.

10/24/18:

• Re-added Stalwart and Stalwart the Forge.
• Stalwart's defense has dropped from 3 to 2, and his personality has changed from Cunning to Tricky.

10/20/18:

• Re-added the Black Harts with some minor changes.
• Now Group Tackle's defense penalty only applies for every other Black Hart engaged to the defending figure that you control, instead of every Black Hart.

10/10/18:

• Re-added Dark Iris with some minor changes.
• Increased her defense from 2 to 3.
• Changed Team Assist 2 to work with friendly figures, instead of only figures that you control.
• Changed her name to Dark Iris because of current events.

9/30/18:

• Added Viktor Klaw for the first time.

9/27/18:

• Re-added Steel Auxilius, newly updated.
• The major change is that he can now only negate Unique Heroes. Rejoice, rules clarifiers and playtesters everywhere!
• Since C3V used Cyborg as a class and I want my customs to be compatible with theirs, I changed his species to Bionic as well.
• Added a list of my units sorted By Point Cost.

9/22/18:

• Re-added Brutus, newly updated.
• Flipped this list to go newest-oldest, to make it easier to read.

9/17/18:

• Revamped the entire main thread.
• Added text for my planned first "wave" of customs. These will be updated to become links as I post the individual units.
• As a quick heads-up, the first wave will be entirely composed of BattleBall figures. This is more for convenience than anything else.

6/2/18:

• Added Stalwart the Forge.
• Added Stalwart.
• Added Steel Auxilius.
• Added Dark Isis.

5/30/18:

• Increased the attack on Steel Ultimatus' Antigravity Leap Special Attack from 2 to 3, since he suddenly felt like actually killing things. Decreased his normal attack from 3 to 2 to compensate (he only half-wanted to kill things).
• Changed the Black Harts to be a three-person squad instead of a 4-person one, to better suit the miniature count in the Battleball box. Dropped the Black Harts' cost to 45 from 55.
• Changed the Black Harts' Group Tackle ability to read as follows: "...it must subtract 1 from its defense for every <omit> Black Hart figure that it is engaged with..."
• Increased the Heavy Tackler's cost to 35 from 30. Decreased his attack to 3 from 4. Increased his defense to 5 from 4. Changed his ability Throw 14 to Throw 12.
• Changed the Heavy Tackler's ability Team Player to read as follows: "...you may take a turn with one Athlete Squad or Unique Hero that you control that follows Einar." He now acknowledges heroes as being part of the team.
• To prove that I didn't forget about Eltris, I changed her class to Rider from Warlord, and her power Eternal Heartbreak was renamed to Rider's Heartbreak. The number of wounds caused by her Dragon Ally dying was also decreased to 2 from 3.

5/15/18:

• Added the Heavy Tackler to the Black Harts pack.
• Changed Black Harts' personality to Loyal from Determined.
• Changed Steel Ultimatus' personality to Precise from Determined. He also had a change of (robotic) heart, so his Gravity Field will now only affect opponent's figures.

5/19/18:

• Added the Glyph of Syn (Blind) to the Black Harts pack.
• Added the Boots of Valda (Move +1) to the Heroes of Jutanguard pack.

5/2/18:

• Made some minor updates to Eltris' Thought Process wording, along with adding a prototype card that I made for her.

4/25/18:

• Finally went ahead and added Arboris from Dr.Goomonkey's Springtime Custom Competition to this thread.
• Dropped the Tenri Samurai's attack from 4 to 2. Scientists believe that this is the first of many steps of recovery from a bias towards Samurai, but there is not substantial evidence to suggest this.

3/20/18:

• Increased Eltris' defense from 1 to 2. Changed her ability Dragon Rider to read as follows: "...Eltris and her Dragon Ally roll an additional die when attacking normally or defending against a normal attack while they are within 2 clear sight spaces of each other." She has realized that defending herself might be an important tactic.
• Increased the Black Harts' move from 5 to 6 to show them love for not having a common counterpart to be in a pack with yet.

[flameslayer93]

If you want Morgloth to boost the Tenhri Samuri, you may want to change their race from Humans to Demons.

I'll try to think of more thorough replies to these units a bit later. Pretty neat set you've come up with though.

[Astroking112]

Thanks for the response! And yes, my original concept for the Tenri Samurai was to make them Demons (and call their Viking spirit-esque ability Curse of the Oni to further tie into that), but I soon discovered that there was a drastic shortage in availability of demonic samurai miniatures.

The best suggestion was the HeroClix Samuroid miniature, but just a couple of days later, the vast majority of its stock at Troll and Toad and Miniature Market were sold. I was also having difficulty in finding another suitable mini to go along with the Samuroid to make a squad of two, but I did find out about the Silver Samurai sculpt, which was released in two poses. It seemed perfect, since I could retheme the ranged defense idea to be reflection... Unfortunately (and somewhat ironically), though, the availability of those sculpts is even worse than the Samuroid now, so I guess the change was kind of a moot point anyway.

If I can find two good minis to represent the Tenri Samurai as demons, I'll change them accordingly. I'll update my Thought Process behind them to include that explanation.

[superfrog]

Cool designs!

Captain Konah sounds like a superhero name. I think it's the "Captain" part.

[Zetsubo]

I love the idea of a dragon rider, but Eltris seems too fragile to be much help. With only 1 defense, she can be taken out pretty quickly. I also think it would be cool if the dragon ally helped buff her in a similar manner how she boosts the dragon. Eternal heartbrake is very fitting. All in all, a very cool design. Most other dragon riders are very complex, so the simplicity of Eltris is appealing

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by superfrog

Cool designs!

Captain Konah sounds like a superhero name. I think it's the "Captain" part.

I can see what you mean. I never thought of him like that, but I guess that we do have characters like Captain Earth and Captain America that use captain before their names. I just thought that it was fitting for him to be the captain of Einar's forces, and structurally, using his class before his name follows the pattern set by Empress Kiova.

Originally Posted by Zetsubo

I love the idea of a dragon rider, but Eltris seems too fragile to be much help. With only 1 defense, she can be taken out pretty quickly. I also think it would be cool if the dragon ally helped buff her in a similar manner how she boosts the dragon. Eternal heartbrake is very fitting. All in all, a very cool design. Most other dragon riders are very complex, so the simplicity of Eltris is appealing

She's squishy because I'm afraid of making her too powerful, since she can increase the power of some of the best units in the game. I went back and forth on 3 life with 2 defense and 4 life with 1 defense for a while, and I ultimately thought that the second of the two would be more unique. I know that this makes her difficult to use well as a Warlord, though I felt like it was the better of the two options.

That was before I thought of using Sonya' Eternal Heartbreak, though, to nerf her a little bit (I'm glad that you liked its addition!), so maybe her defense could be upped to 2 to compensate.

I also really like your idea of making the dragon buff her as well while it is within range, though, as it matches perfectly with the theme of a dragon rider in my eyes. Giving her even just one extra attack and defense when within 2 spaces of her dragon sounds like it could make taking a surprise turn with her more tempting, especially since some dragons like Zelrig have a lower base attack.

[flameslayer93]

Let’s take a crack at this, Astro...

Captain Konah:
I’m not sure how I feel about Einar’s Orders on this guy. Moving the EI and Konah could be pretty devastating in the right situation. But, since the EI are already rather expensive I can understand why it isn’t factored too much into Konah’s price. Strike Aura is a very strong power alone, rivaling Taelord’s. I’d give this guy some serious testing before settling on 130 points as his cost.

Tenri Samurai:
These two minis are really expensive for what they can do themselves. Ranged Counterstrike is a cool power to give them, though. I do worry they won’t help much against horde armies, as the heroes in those armies are generally not the focus of those types of builds. And Samurai builds have a hatf time against OM-strong builds. They really would need to be played by a good player to get their value.

Eltris:
A dragonrider is cool. I fear she may be nearly useless with both 1D and Eternal Heartbreak. Taking turns with her is already risky, since there won’t be many activations where she will be more effective than a dragon’s turn. You had mentioned bumping her defense to compensate for Heartbreak damage... that’s probably a step in the right direction. As she is right now, I’d rather have another squad of Greenscales or even a dedicated cleanup unit. Keep working on her!

Steel Ultimatus:
Beep boop beep boop. A cyborg who affects flyers in a strange way, by denying their key power. It’s a cool effect, but places him firmly in the counterdraft catagory. Cool unit overall, and pretty creative use of the leap attack. Just remember that Special Leaping Attacks ignore Gravity Well, like Kursus’s attack (special attacks are never modified).

Black Harts:
Hey, it’s a bunch of Valguards! Neat way to make a momentum based squad, but this squad will probably have a sweet spot where they’ll be the most effective and will then be dead weight against ranged beyond that. Not an issue if your group isn’t the most competitive, however. With armor like that though, I’m shocked you only gave them 2 defense. I guess you can reason that sports equipment isn’t quite as useful as platemail.

Cool stuff Astroking! I’ll try to poke in and out from time to time. Keep it up!

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

Let’s take a crack at this, Astro...

Captain Konah:
I’m not sure how I feel about Einar’s Orders on this guy. Moving the EI and Konah could be pretty devastating in the right situation. But, since the EI are already rather expensive I can understand why it isn’t factored too much into Konah’s price. Strike Aura is a very strong power alone, rivaling Taelord’s. I’d give this guy some serious testing before settling on 130 points as his cost.

I thought that the ability would be stronger when used to keep Empress Kiova in position, but I'll test him out more aggressively when I get the chance. If need be, I'll scale down Einar's Orders to only apply to Einar Kyrie Heroes, since I'm specifically aiming for 130 points for him.

As for Strike Aura, I'm considering drawing back the aura to only 4 spaces or the like. Since the only beneficiaries of it are Kiova (who doesn't get much use out of it) and the overpriced Einar Imperium, I purposefully left it on the strong side. Given how much the increased mobility of Einar's Orders could help the Imperium alone, though, I definitely understand the concern.

I'm hoping to be able to get in more concrete playtests at some point after the DFW Tournament this weekend, and Captain Konah is very likely the figure that I will focus on first. Ideally, I'm hoping to get him passed through SoV, so thanks for your feedback on him!

Tenri Samurai:
These two minis are really expensive for what they can do themselves. Ranged Counterstrike is a cool power to give them, though. I do worry they won’t help much against horde armies, as the heroes in those armies are generally not the focus of those types of builds. And Samurai builds have a hatf time against OM-strong builds. They really would need to be played by a good player to get their value.

My Samurai bias is a curse. I'm sadly aware that these guys are worth much more than their points, especially if their Reflective Armor lets them function as standalone units. I was considering cutting their movement to go as low as 4, which could significantly hamper the mobility of Samurai armies using them, but I'm not sure if this would be enough.

I may cut out Reflective Armor's use on them entirely, making them only able to protect the other Samurai. Since they're essentially protecting your other Samurai units, I'm hesitant to increase their price too much, and I feel like 80 points is a good balance for the faction in order to add some new point totals to choose from and create more army options.

I considered dropping either their attack or their defense to 3, but I felt like that would be too low for a Unique squad of two members. I'll probably test them out with the Reflective Armor applying to themselves with only 3 defense first, then see about changing it to only work on adjacent Samurai if that's still too powerful.

I am fine with them being difficult to use to their full potential, though, since the Samurai never struck me as a conventional army, especially when focusing on potential Order Marker nightmares like the Unique squads. I'm slightly surprised that you feel they won't be effective enough in horde armies, as that was one of the army compositions that I worried they would be too strong against. Units like the Arrow Gruts and the Ashigaru could potentially be slaughtered by the now inescapable Counterstrike, especially since they already have a low base attack.

Eltris:
A dragonrider is cool. I fear she may be nearly useless with both 1D and Eternal Heartbreak. Taking turns with her is already risky, since there won’t be many activations where she will be more effective than a dragon’s turn. You had mentioned bumping her defense to compensate for Heartbreak damage... that’s probably a step in the right direction. As she is right now, I’d rather have another squad of Greenscales or even a dedicated cleanup unit. Keep working on her!

Thanks for the encouragement! I went ahead and upped her defense to 2 so that she'll be able to take a few more hits. I'm also leaning towards giving her an extra +1 attack and defense when within 2 spaces of her dragon to evoke a more mutual bond, which would make her significantly stronger when paired with a durable heavy-hitter like Charos.

Steel Ultimatus:
Beep boop beep boop. A cyborg who affects flyers in a strange way, by denying their key power. It’s a cool effect, but places him firmly in the counterdraft catagory. Cool unit overall, and pretty creative use of the leap attack. Just remember that Special Leaping Attacks ignore Gravity Well, like Kursus’s attack (special attacks are never modified).

Yeah, I can see Steel Ultimatus falling into the counterdraft role. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to toy around with gravity after reading the backstory behind his strange piston legs. He does have some potential synergy with preventing flyers or the monks from going over screens, but I doubt that he'd revolutionize the meta or anything.

I also completely forgot about Kursus' Special Attack, but I'm not sure about how to properly block it without getting too wordy or also limiting his own leaping attack. I mostly used the Glyph of Rannveig as an inspiration, blocking Flying/Stealth Flying and throwing in Leap in a similar fashion, but units like Kursus and the Wolves of Badru may have to slip past him, unless I figure something else out.

Black Harts:
Hey, it’s a bunch of Valguards! Neat way to make a momentum based squad, but this squad will probably have a sweet spot where they’ll be the most effective and will then be dead weight against ranged beyond that. Not an issue if your group isn’t the most competitive, however. With armor like that though, I’m shocked you only gave them 2 defense. I guess you can reason that sports equipment isn’t quite as useful as platemail.

Cool stuff Astroking! I’ll try to poke in and out from time to time. Keep it up!

My group actually wanted me to up their defense to 3, but I'm still not completely sold on it yet. These guys can be pretty devastating, albeit it does require ganging them up on a target and they're extremely fragile. I wanted them to feel pretty different from other melee armies like the Knights or the Cathars, so I felt that putting more of an emphasis on speed than defense was the way to go (along with pricing them slightly cheaper than the more common melee common options).

These guys are another group that I'd like to get through SoV at some point, so I was reluctant to make them too powerful and then have to cut back later (unlike what I'm doing with Captain Konah ). Since they've been pretty public at aiming for the B range in Power Rankings, I didn't want these guys to be too powerful.

Thank you for the detailed feedback; it's helped get the gears turning for how to better balance these guys, and I'll keep it in mind as I free up more time for playtesting!

[Astroking112]

Finally updated this thread again with Arboris from the most recent Custom Contest:

Arboris - Unique Ent Clean-Up Hero, Winner of Dr.Goomonkey's Springtime Custom Competition

Miniature:

Spoiler Alert!

Traits and Abilities:

Spoiler Alert!

GENERAL = ULLAR
PLANET = FEYLUND
SPECIES = ENT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = GUARDIAN
PERSONALITY = PROTECTIVE
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 1

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 2
POINTS = 95

OVERGROWTH
At the beginning of every round, you may place a green Overgrowth marker on this card. When Arboris receives one or more wounds, you may 1 Overgrowth marker from this Army Card to ignore all wounds. A maximum of 3 Overgrowth Markers can be placed on this card.

BY THE ROOTS
When attacking or defending with Arboris, you may roll 1 additional die for every Overgrowth marker on this Army Card.

Thought Process:

Spoiler Alert!

I spent most of the design time contemplating various figures using terrain pieces to try and capture the theme of an Ent, but it wasn't really jiving for me at the time. Shortly before the deadline, I decided to think about the fundamental theme that I wanted to go for, and growth seemed like the natural choice (pun fully intented).

Arboris kind of sprang about as a result from that, because I loved the idea of a figure that was constantly growing bigger as the enemy tried to cut it down to size. I considered a lot of other approaches as well, whether it was adjusting the height of the figure based off of the markers (dropped because I figured it was far too complex and unnecessary), increasing the base movement and dropping it as Arboris grew, or even letting him outright heal himself. Ultimately, I was most fond of the simpler design using Overgrowth Markers for health and only increasing his power over time.

[Pumpkin_King]

I really like Arboris! I have a few of those figures around and I might use one for this guy.

What figures are the samurai?

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

I really like Arboris! I have a few of those figures around and I might use one for this guy.

What figures are the samurai?

Thanks! I've been looking around a little bit for a miniature for him when I've had the time, but unfortunately most seem to be rather rare at this point.

The Tenri Samurai miniatures are HeroClix minis for the Silver Samurai. He was released in two different sets, each in a different pose.

[Pumpkin_King]

Arboris does seem a little overcosted, though. I'd put him at like 50.