Ixe's Custom Units

[Ixe]

Viceron the Bloody

Here is my first public custom, Viceron the Bloody. Thematically, he is a blood knight that can use his very life force to power a massive cone of destruction. His sword is capable of draining the life out of those he kills to regain his own wounds.



The miniature is the Thrall of Blackrazor from Unhallowed from D&D miniatures. I count 47 off of abprices alone selling from $2.79-$8.99.

The cone is probably not worded correctly, but I still felt that an attempt at such an area was worth while. I've tried the power with Brimstone's explosion area which plays similarly and can be switched if need be.

In play, Viceron is practically a dragon. His Life Draining Sword and 5 defense can keep him alive despite his 4 life. Sacrificial Cone gives him a powerful and interesting AoE attack that can double as a short range SA. I kept his life lower at 4 so that the SA doesn't get spammed round after round. If is often a tough choice on whether to simply attack or use the SA because of the interaction with wounds. Even with 5 defense, 4 life is awfully fragile and Viceron will lose to many lower cost options in a straight fight. He can fare a bit better against squads because of the Special Attack. While squads can space out to try to minimize the damage from the cone, it can be a little tricky to stop him from getting two or even three figures if he moves around enough. Still, it can sometimes be a greedy choice to rely on the SA only to whiff the attack roll and put yourself down another life in the process.

Unfortunately, Viceron lacks the maneuverability that a dragon typically has and suffers for it. Also, with only 4 life, he is easy enough to tie down in melee and blocked from getting a good cone. He can hold up well with his 5 attack, but with only 4 life the prospect of taking a leaving engagement strike to then use the cone sets him right on death's door. Catching clustered enemies with the SA encourages him to act earlier in a battle, but unsupported he will fold quickly to attacks from the enemy. He is slow enough that many order markers are wasted with him simply moving up.

As such, Viceron plays best by far with bonding and comes to consistently reach or exceed his point total with that. When bonding, he has the best of both worlds by being able to act early and catch clustered enemies while still having a squad to support him. I tried him as a darklord, a warlord, and relentless to bond him with the Wolves of Bardu, the Romans, and the Deathknights respectively. In all of these cases were really where he had the chance to shine. That said, I have him as a Merciless Knight right now with no current bonding options. This is partly aspirational since I would love to see a squad that bonds with a Knight hero and be able to dust off Sir Dupuis again. It is also because I feel that those other plausible bonding classes and personalities are already a little saturated or would conflict too much with already existing options.

The Ornak-Brunak slingshot was absolutely a concern for me in making a medium unique hero who follows Utgar with a large AoE attack. In practice, I found that it is not necessarily so devastating. For one, there are very few maps where that is even a feasible option to get that off in the first round. Two, the opponent must set up an attractive area for you to cone. Three, you must win initiative. Four, you must roll well and they defend poorly. After all that, it is still a challenge for Viceron to drop his points' worth in one shot and not terribly difficult for the opponent to drop the wounded hero before he gets the chance to try again. After that point, your army has spent 360pts on a combo that has essentially used itself up and has not really advanced a board position. It can certainly end some matches in the first round, but largely will come up short.

That said, I feel that Viceron is bringing a novel idea forward among the interplay of his stats, self-wounding special attack, and Life Draining Sword. Even if the build is wrong, I feel that it is wrong in an interesting way and certainly worth looking at. While it may not be the right wording, I feel that having a cone AoE would only add to the game.