Autumn Custom Competition Poll - Vote by October 8

[superfrog]

Voters, as always, are hard to please.

[superfrog]

I'll be interested to see who designed what.

The entries I voted for (Giants of Eberron, Hill Giants, San Francisco Giants) got 2nd, 3rd, and 7th place, respectively. My entry (Hill Goliaths of Goldcrest) got 5th.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Congratulations @Arch-vile !!!!

We had a lot of great entries this time around.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by superfrog

My entry got 5th.

Mine too!

I voted for 1st, T5, and T10.

I'll post feedback to all the entries sometime, maybe later tonight.

[Lazy Orang]

Congratulations, Arch-vile!

[Arch-vile]

This was a fun contest, it was neat to see so much variation on a seemingly simple theme. Looking forward to the next one!

[Yodaking]

Congrats Arch!

I'll comment on those I voted or considered voting for. My first two votes went to the Hill Giant Brute Squad & Grimm Giants. Then for the 3rd vote I was torn between the Giants of Barrenspur and the Hill Goliaths of Goldcrest. I wavered back and forth between the two and ended up giving the Hill Goliaths my last vote.

A few things they all had in common were that they were all Wild Giant Unique Squads. I was most interested in them as a squad of Giants rather then something else, they just all happened to be Wild. Then I just wasn't into the idea of making them a common squad at all, both from a theme perspective and a financial one. Needing to buy up 9 of these Giant minis for one squad seems cost prohibitive to me, as well as an issue for storage space, plus Giants are traditionally seen in smaller numbers otherwise they would easily dominate the smaller and weaker races. It's the numbers advantage that give humans/dwarves/orcs/etc. a fighting chance.

Now on to the specifics:

Hill Giants of Goldcrest: Double skulls on 3 attack dice makes them appropriately deadly and able to easily squash low defense common squad figures like goblins, while higher defense figures and heroes could survive a few 1 or 2 skull attacks. Giant Resilience is a good way to give a Unique Squad a little more survive-ability. 5 base defense is pretty solid on it's own, with that power protecting them from one defensive whiff per round. That seems thematically appropriate for Giants and mechanically means you can put OM1 & 2 on a full squad with confidence that they wouldn't get wiped out before you can activate them.

Hill Giant Brute Squad: I really like the ideas' here for a Giant Unique Squad. I can easily visualize a group of giants rampaging across a battle field smashing everything in their path before finally being brought down. I do think it could use some polishing before being released but the concepts were strong enough for me to earn my vote. I like the attempt at overcoming the problem Unique Squads can suffer from by increasing the odds of a Rampage as the numbers go do, so when you reveal an OM on the card with just 1 giant left, chances are you will get to take more than one turn with that giant. I would actually double or even triple the bonus though, so +4 or +6 to the roll when you only have 1 giant left, but then I would also cap the Rampage bonus turns at once per OM reveal. A hot d20 die leading to 12 attacks of 5 or something similar just wouldn't be very fun for your opponent, but 3 (2 or 1) attacks of 5 with a chance for 6 (4 or 2) attacks of 5 from 1 OM reveal seems balanced. Then the defensive power seems like a good way to potentially get more out of your expensive unique squad, especially vs. hordes of common squad figures, so again the concept here is pretty good. It's just too strong currently with it being a full counter strike on 7 def. dice. That makes it really hard for any melee hero to deal with them, cap it at 1W from 1 or more excess shields and then I think it could work out well. I'm okay with trying them out a 7 base def., since they are giants with only 1 life they should be hard to take down by weaker units, but I'd be open to dropping the base def. down to 6 if testing showed 7 was too hard to crack.

Grimm Giants: This was my favorite card, I really like how it encourages you to draft a full army of Giants, Ogres, and other large/huge figures like Dragons. I really like Gurei-Oni's sculpt, but he doesn't see the game board very often, with these guys in play he would get another look. Size Matters not only gives your army of Giants, Ogres, & Dragons a chance to go first before your opponent tries to overwhelm them with common squads, but it also makes Jotun, the Frost Giant and others more effective with their d20 powers. Braxas is a natural ally as a result. Then Kill Streak is an effective way to help them survive as 1 life Unique Squad figures. I really like how it is more effective vs a cheap common squad army that it would be vs. another hero heavy army. Really helps balance them vs. different kinds of armies.

Giants of Barrenspur: Real solid stats and the lone power is a good way at overcoming the problem with Unique Squads limiting and diminishing numbers vs OM placement. Only reason I didn't end up voting for them was because I felt like they should have a 2nd power of some sort. It doesn't need to be anything crazy as I like the simplicity of the design, but if I'm buying and then drafting a squad of Giants I feel they should have a little more pop than a 1 power card provides. It's a little disappointing to me to see all that empty space on the card. I think the bio is there to suggest they were denizens of Valhalla before the Wellsprings were found so drafting them into an army with other Valhalla natives like the Dumutef Guards and Obsidian Guardians would be kind of fun and since they are all Guards maybe there is something that can be done there.

[Yodaking]

Oh, I also wanted to say I really liked the art job on the Hill Giant Brute Squad card. Having the figure images reaching out beyond the traditional art area seems very fitting for a squad of giants as they are larger than life.

[Ronin]

Congrats, Arch-vile!

[Dad_Scaper]

Congrats, @Arch-vile !

There were a bunch of fine entries here. I'm not sure which I would have voted for, but I think I would have voted for the Barrenspur Giants, as well.

@flameslayer93 's San Francisco Giants are an absolute treasure, as well. Somehow he pulled off the combo theme effectively. It works brilliantly, partly because of the club/bats. I might even have voted for them as the competition winners over AV's; I don't know. Obviously they aren't candidates for the *canon*, but they are a terrific addition to this forum.

Most of the others had one or two (or three) too many gadgets for my taste. Many of the gadgets grapple with the fundamental challenge in designing a unique melee squad: they just don't last. I like @Flash_19 's reuse of Tough for that purpose, but my favorite power-based resolution (AV didn't bother with a special power; he just gave a Defense of 6) is @NecroBlade 's Numb and Dumb. Thematic, connected to the mini, and mechanically novel & effective.

I was glad to see @Lazy Orang post something, because she follows her own design muse and it never goes somewhere I'd have expected. No surprise here. Also glad to see my buddy @Taeblewalker showing his design chops, with a "dwarf toss" power that works thematically and mechanically. And who doesn't love a club sandwich? Right, @kolakoski ?

Thank you all for sharing your designs with us. I especially enjoyed the whimsy in most of these designs. It was fun to read through them.

[flameslayer93]

Congrats Arch-Vile! Your giant squad was my one of my favorites, mostly because it was simple. Sometimes, simplicity is the best.

I’m glad a few folks got a chuckle out of the San Fran Giants, too.

[Heroscaper 101]

I did not vote unfortunately, so there is none that caught my fancy.