Suggestions for the C3V

[Mossman]

They're like Warforged tadpoles!

[Evar-Scarcarver]

Originally Posted by Mossman

They're like Warforged tadpoles!

[Ixe]

I just reread through the old Thormun's journals (it's a shame that they stopped doing those) and realized that Tyrian was a character from those. After scouring through the journals, excluding the occasional obscure and unnamed character and the Valkyrie's themselves, there are some possible units to be made from the book:

Thormun: No longer a Valkyrie after being cut off from the wellspring, this aged Kyrie was referenced multiple times as wielding a hammer.

Beldun: A kyrie leader under Ullar, he is referenced as wielding a sword which he was able to kill another with in a single swing in Entry #29.

Servants of Vaelentela: Described as four beautiful kyrie women wearing deep violet, these are the servants of the Looking Glasses of Vaelentela (Entry #32). They alone carry special glasses that allow for communication among them. I'm imagining a unique squad under Einar that could allow for some sort of ordermarker manipulation among those that they are adjacent to. Perhaps upon revealing an order marker on a unique hero, if they are adjacent to one of the servants, you may instead take a turn with any other unique hero adjacent to a (different?) servant.

Kyire of the Moon Tribes: Described in Entry #45, these kyrie of Aquilla wear animal furs and the feathers of birds. In entry #47, they apparently have deep red brown skin as well. No reference is made to their weapons, but the fact that they were mistaken as scavenger birds can provide a suggestion as to their tactics. Perhaps more elusive and more effective on wounded units?

I don't have any miniatures in mind for any of these, unfortunately, and they all appear to be kyrie as well which adds another level of challenge to find a winged miniature that matches any of these descriptions. Nonetheless, keeping these on your mind as a possibility would certainly be nice in unearthing some old flavor and bringing it to life.

Lastly, I at one time voiced that I think it would interesting and perfectly okay to make alternate versions of the same character. Strictly speaking, you wouldn't actually need a new sculpt since you can't have multiple unique units with the same name, anyway. Mirror matches against the old unit with the new one would really be no more confusing than when you have a straight mirror match in the first place. Heck, with the invention of uncommon heroes, it has been demonstrated that it is simple enough to mark units to differentiate them anyway. I say this because, having reread the journals, it is quite clear that Raelin's personality is changing quite significantly throughout the course of the war, to the point where she was ready to abandon all hope. Coupled with Thormun's visions of an eagle transformed into a snake, one could imagine a wild leap that Raelin's character could eventually succumb to the hopelessness and join the dark side. Imagine a dark Raelin with an inversion on her defensive aura that decreases the number of defense dice rolled by your opponents figures. As it was, Sgt Drake's role was changing where apparently he was going to take some sort of mantle of the hero, Thorian. Could he not continue to grow as well? Even without direct reports of the growth of other heroes, that doesn't necessarily end the possibility of making new versions of any of them.

Lastly, with 3D printing become more and more accessible, has there been any consideration for designing 3D models of new units that can be printed in these low cost printers? The technology is probably not yet cheap enough, but it is fast approaching with options already available under $2000 USD. Something worth considering, at the very least. Matters such as painting these miniatures is not so much to ask when a unit like Tyrian is already a repaint of an existing unit and any of the double hexed units C3V releases must also be re-based.

[Xotli]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Lastly, with 3D printing become more and more accessible, has there been any consideration for designing 3D models of new units that can be printed in these low cost printers?

Oh, we'd love to do something along these lines. There are two basic problems:

• Someone has to actually design the sculpts. This is not strictly a matter of just being able to sculpt figures. Sculpting things for 3D printers currently involves some computer mojo, like being able to operate PhotoShop crossed with a CAD/CAM program. We don't know of anyone who has those skills currently.
• Once you print it, you still have to paint it. You cite Tyrian as a reason why unpainted figures are "all right," but Tyrian is a very big exception. If we were willing to consider unpainted figures, we'd have a hell of a lot more options to blow through before we got the point of needing to print custom figures.

So there's two reasons, although IMHO the first one is the bigger hurdle. But the second one is pretty significant too.

[Ixe]

Originally Posted by Xotli

Oh, we'd love to do something along these lines. There are two basic problems:

• Someone has to actually design the sculpts. This is not strictly a matter of just being able to sculpt figures. Sculpting things for 3D printers currently involves some computer mojo, like being able to operate PhotoShop crossed with a CAD/CAM program. We don't know of anyone who has those skills currently.
• Once you print it, you still have to paint it. You cite Tyrian as a reason why unpainted figures are "all right," but Tyrian is a very big exception. If we were willing to consider unpainted figures, we'd have a hell of a lot more options to blow through before we got the point of needing to print custom figures.

So there's two reasons, although IMHO the first one is the bigger hurdle. But the second one is pretty significant too.

Yes, I noticed that Tyrian was SoV at that, and I can see having unpainted minis could open a whole new world of options. I more of meant it as something to keep your eye on since they technology is only going to improve and many of these hurdles could diminish and perhaps even disappear with time.

Even if the technological and financial barriers were brought to acceptable levels, this wouldn't even necessarily be an-all the time thing, but perhaps just to help provide units with a very particular style that would be practically hopeless to find, much less in the proper numbers. I'll be shocked if we ever see a Kyrie squad for Aquilla, for instance, because of these limitations.

Again, not saying you need to. Just keep your eye on it.

[faure]

For a good example of how rapidly 3D printing is evolving, check out this Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...top-miniatures

Still a pricey option, but an increasing array of flexibly customized figures.

[johnny139]

Yeah, I don't think we're necessarily there yet but it feels like 3D printing is getting cheaper and easier by the day. I don't doubt it'll be an option sooner or later.

[nyys]

Not to get off topic here, but what really blows me away about 3D prtining is that they're pretty much the 'cave man' version of Star Trek replicators. They're already being used to 'print' edible items. Just a matter of time folks, but probably won't be during our time.

[Lyrgard]

Soon, the only problem will be to find something able to design 3D models of figures, because some 3D printer can already print full color shapes
It is not perfect yet, but in a futur not this far... The article I link was already a year ago !

Now, we can do this :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcor3dprinting/9213422511/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcor3dprinting/9036011072/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcor3dprinting/9036011422/
Those model were not painted after being printed, they were printed in full color.

So who want to learn 3D designing ?

[Evar-Scarcarver]

The Upcoming Pathfinder set Wrath of the Righteous looks like it has lots of potential. What stood out to me is the Apocalypse Locust (A possible flying Mezzodemon Hero, perhaps?) and the Slime Demon, which looks like it might have the right color scheme for a marro. (Maybe a new Warlord?) There are also many winged miniatures, possibilities for Kyrie that follow Utgar, Valkrill, Aquilla, or maybe even Vydar.

[Reapy]

I know this is pretty drive by on the site here, and from searching looks like it has been brought up in places, but anyway my kids had recently received a huge set of plastic dinosaurs, and I noticed that there were a lot of duplicates in the box.

As I was lining them up I was struck with the thought that they were all about the right size and shape to get mounted on bases and work as common squads of dinos. There are about 5 types of 3 to 5 identical dinos, all painted and of a good scale (little bit on the small side).

Wasn't sure if anybody had already explored platic dino land (some of the trees in the animal kingdom dino box would make good stand ins as well), but just wanted to drive by and mention it seems a pretty staple source of cheap painted minis, and the ability to make them into squads I think is pretty interesting.

[obfuscatedhippo]

I have been looking at low-cost figures that we can use for Squads (not sure if they are Common or Unique). These are figures from Lord of the Rings (LOTR) and Marvel "Thor" Heroclix sets.

Each squad should be about $10.

No specific ideas for WHAT these Units will do ... but sometimes the figures come first : )

Anyway thought that I would share.