Aven's Custom Heroscape (Wave 1?)

[Avendoram]

Just want to show off some custom Heroscape cards that I use when playing with friends, I'd be interested to hear what you think of them.

My friends and I do have a small tweak to the rules we play with, which disengagement is now a battle between the figures. So the one trying to disengage rolls defense, and the one who is staying still rolls attack. There's just one card that's balanced around that and would be utterly broken in the original game if it had the regular disengagement rules.


Also, another note, I'm not a photoshopper, the cards are supposed to be mostly for personal use, so there's a lot of issues with the images on the card. But I use MS paint, so it would take six times the length to try to input the figure image better.


Another small thing the cards can do is they're cards that can give other squads a turn, but the way we balance them is by capping the chain at 1. That way you don't have a chain of 3 cards that give each other a turn.



Also, their are a few awkward grammar mistakes on some, I'm aware I need to do a reprinting of the cards at some point.



Currently these are the ones that I have put the figure image with:
Albino Crayfish:


Helps out hunter squads, and can be quick runners if there's water to hide in.



Alton the Longbow:


Make sure to set him up at the backline, despite being a very high attacker, and being able to attack most people lower elevation. His low defense and life will leave him reeling from a single battle.




Ant Swarms

You'll find many of these squads are, what I like to call, "Filler squads" They have nothing too special themselves, but will be a nice filler if you need it. Especially for full on Draft matches that we like to do.




Balton the Shortbow:

Bought a figure for Alton the Longbow card, he was a very short man with a short bow, so we made him Balton the Shortbow, he's actually better than I expected, giving Roman Archers a reason to live even.




Have yet to playtest this one still. But they are obviously based off of a certain unit in X-Com.




Clay Golems:



Big beefy boys to protect your ranged attackers. They can also spit sand at you, might be useful.




Fort Defenders:

In most cases you would draft them, 4/4's that can defend the gate that's under attack. Had to make them Protector to avoid the Guard synergy. They are pretty good enough.




Lava Elemental:

A new Elemental to be revived by the elementalist. I do want to make an elemental for each Valkyrie, so I figured this one fit in Valkrill best.




Magogs:

Demon Bonding makes these figures something to fear. With new squads of demons joining in, but keep in mind they'll lower friendly figures attack as well. So be sure to keep them separate from all non valkrill figures.
Which as we know, is most of them.



Plague Knights:

I don't think this is what Sir Dupius means when he can buffed by knights. But these guys are slower and can slowly widdle down heroes if they have unlucky rolls. As well as a passive buff that can snowball.




Predator Plants:

High attack, and the capability to ignore wounds, just be sure to gain enough markers on them before you feel comfortable having them fight heroes.




Scout Knight

Sacrificial fodder that may increase the low mobility of knights, or perhaps even let your knights ambush an enemy if they stay close to him.




Shieldbearers:

My personal favorite, I have new models that fit the card better arriving for them also. Ever had someone at the game night that spammed Syvaris from the tower in everyone's starting position? Taking out waves of allies? Well, these were made to completely counter him. This is where the different disengagement rules come into play. Originally they had a Cyberclaw type effect, but after some practicing we had to change them so you don't want to disengage them, but you still have a chance to be safe if you have high defense.



Werebears:

Random dice rolls are fun, so here's Anubian Wolves but opposite.




Cataphract:



While Roman Legionnaires already had a big use of advancing with a warlord, this changes the way they can be played, by having them support the Cataphract in his advancement. Being very anti swarm with his abilities, he makes any Marro squads think twice about charging into his range.

[TheAverageFan]

Welcome to the site, Avendoram!

I like a lot of your customs and ideas so here's my rambling feedback per unit if you are interested in that sort of thing:

Spoiler Alert!

Albino Crayfish: First of all if you want to avoid chains with bonding in the wording of the card you can include the clause of "After revealing an Order Marker on SOSO's card, before taking a turn with SOSO you can first take a turn with any X Squad or Hero you control". Since you only reveal one Order Marker a turn this prevents chaining bonding for other units with the same power. This of course doesn't solve the issue of other squads that already have bonding like Cataphract with the Legionnaires but I digress. At any rate this is a pretty unique fast little defender squad, although I'm curious if they are meant to have some form of Slither as their 8 Move in water doesn't help much if they're facing more water.

Alton: "It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!" This guy's got a great and highly unique special power. The clear sight clause keeps it from being broken and it'd be great to see this champ up on top a castle tower sniping folks from dozens of hexes away (like something outta Dark Souls). He is extremely fragile though so getting him to high ground alive may be very difficult on many maps.

Ant Swarms: Protect the Queen is a unique power; I like it. Gives them a lot of identity.

Balton: He's pretty interesting upon some thought. He has a very specific range you want him to be in to get a good attack value, but at the same time he needs to stay next to Archers if you want to buff them. Forces some decision making. Also the backstory of a short mini for Alton the Longbow becoming Balton the Shortbow is great

Chokers: Very strange unit. They're unstoppable if your opponent's invested all their points in a single figure; kind of useless when outnumbered. The high move and defense + Stealth Dodge certainly makes them good for tying up enemy units. It might also be difficult to keep track of which figures are being Choked or not.

Clay Golems: They're certainly better Guards than the Obsidian ones Four guys with 5 Defense for 50 Points is good value for defending chokepoints. I approve of Sand-themed powers as well; it's an underappreciated tile (as far as I know).

Fort Defenders: I always wondered why the castle didn't come with a thematic unit to go with it I like their adaptability as guards as well as their ability to attack enemies hugging the walls below them.

Lava Elemental: A little niche (much like the Ice Elemental), but boy is a Ranged Attack of 5 quite good if you can get them fighting on their home turf. Add some Height Advantage and well, you're playing with fire

Magogs: Their Price and vulnerability to ranged fire ought to keep their bonding and high attack in check.

Plague Knights: This is a cool mini. They've got an interesting mechanic. If you can get enough markers on a hero, they might be worth just keeping alive so you can maintain the buff they're giving the Knights (provided they lose the buff when the hero is destroyed).

Predator Plants: Very very swingy. If you can hit first and get them going they could be very destructive, but that could prove difficult against ranged units. This is a good ambush unit if you can force your opponent to fight on your grounds of choice.

Scout Knight: The mechanics of taking a turn during someone else's turn (especially an opponent's) could become quite complicated. What happens if Kato Katsuro engages your Scout eight times with Ashigaru? Or does the bonding chain rule limit this ability to once per turn? I like the personality choice of Devout though: it's like he knows he's fodder

Shieldbearers: Very high cool points with the Tower Shield unit They present an interesting challenge to an opponent: death by Leaving Engagement Attack or risk the Counterstrike to get Shield Bashed away from them. Tower Shield as a power could get complicated, since not every ranged attack comes from a straight line. As a hex-based board, how far to the side does a unit need to be before the knight's shield no longer counts as facing them?

Werebears: Anubian Wolves but with Defense. What a clever reversal of an idea Though you'll be rolling that d20 a lot per turn against squads.

Cataphract: Fully Armored is a neat power. Trample 15 is very strong provided it works against multiple figures, though a 25% activation rate keeps it in check. He's strangely slow for a cavalry unit but I suppose he doesn't want to outpace the Romans.

At any rate, thanks again for posting

~TAF

[Avendoram]

Glad you liked them! I have many more custom cards that I haven't spent the time to ms paint the figure in yet. I love individual feedback!

As for Albino Crayfish I wanted to balance them as a bond squad to many different hunters, they are very versatile so to balance them I felt they shouldn't be best in water, but can sprint out of water to attack hiding ranged units!

Balton in play testing was actually better than I ever thought he'd be, he's really fun, and makes Roman Archers not the worst ranged unit option if he's in your squad!

As for scout Knight, We kept it at a once per turn thing, so after the enemies engage, you can quickly move your knights forward, or quickly hound that one figure who dared engage with scout knight. However, he's still 1 life and weak to other attacks, especially ranged.

Cataphract does mean "Fully Armored" so I think that horse is weighed down quite a bit! He was a huge issue in a 1v1v1 fight taking the center (He is 90 points after all with only 3 life). Until he randomly decided to disengage to try to trample someone and with the disengagement rules, ended up rolling 0 shields as a marro warriors hit 4 skulls due to height and Finn bonus!

After a bit of practice with the Shieldbearers they were way too broken with a Cyberclaw ability. As they'd have to rely on other units to help them out of the situation if I engaged a squad of low attack units, such as Gorillinators. So mid test we either decided they gain the samurai 5 defense, or adjust the "Forced Engagement" Cyberclaw ability. We decided to make them not TOO easy to disengage with, as the 1 attack was pitiful and made their disengagement way too easy to get out of, and unlike Deathreavers, didn't have the scatter and disengage to go along with it. So having them use their defense as the disengagement seemed to be the easier option. We also decided to nerf the "Forced Engagement" ability as well and gave the adjusted version to the Clay Golems.