Ixe's Custom Units

[Ixe]

I'm in the mood for crafting a faction, and I've wanted to see some devils to contrast the demons we've been seeing, so here is the stone for my metaphorical birds.

This is the Legion Devil from D&D Savage Encounters.


NAME = Legion Devils
GENERAL = Utgar
PLANET = Toril
SPECIES = Devils
CLASS = Soldiers
PERSONALITY = Disciplined
SIZE = Medium 5
COMMON SQUAD

LIFE = 1 (4 Figures)
MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 90

LEGION TELEPORTATION
Instead of moving with a Legion Devil normally, you may choose an empty space, same-level space adjacent to another Legion Devil you control within 8 clear sight spaces. Place this Legion Devil on the chosen space. If a Legion Devil is engaged when it Teleports, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

LIFE OF THE LEGION
At the start of the game, place 1 Life marker on a Legion Devils Army Card for each Legion Devil in your Army. When a Legion Devil receives any number of wounds, before removing that devil, you must remove that number of Life markers from its army card. If you do, ignore any wounds. When the last Life Marker is removed from this Army Card, destroy all Legion Devils you control.

LAVA RESISTANT
Legion Devils never roll for molten lava or lava field damage, and they do not have to stop on molten lava spaces.


Saying that Legion Devils are made for war does not even begin to describe them. These infernal foot soldiers have been crafted solely to fight for the Nine Hells. One of their arms has been bloated and deformed into a shield, while their other has been replaced with a sword. They communicate with each other telepathically and form a virtual hive mind, coordinating their tactics to fight as a single unit.

However, they take their cohesiveness to new extremes with their powers. With Legion Teleportation, they can easily keep formation by instantly teleporting to the side of their brethren, capable of surrounding the enemy out of nowhere. With Life of the Legion, they all collectively share the same life pool, being made stronger and more resilient the more of them you have. However, it is not without its risks, being made more vulnerable to high attacks or area of effects and risk having the entire army die in a single stroke.

In all, this is a fairly faithful representation of the 3.5 D&D Legion Devils from Fiendish Codex II. I wanted to capture two of their most iconic powers and hope that they translate into Heroscape in an interesting and fun way. Given that there is only a single sculpt for the figure, I was very reluctant to make it a common squad but there really wasn't a good way to make them a common hero pseudo-squad and still hit all the points that I wanted. I also want all of my devils to demonstrate their characteristic immunity to fire for reasons that will become apparent later.

I have some concerns that Life of the Legion will make them play a bit like the Mezzos by encouraging you to leave most of your army behind, but I hope that the teleportation will allow and provide incentive to spread them across the board and give some versatility to their use. In any case, comments are greatly appreciated.

[mtl1998]

Originally Posted by Ixe

I'm in the mood for crafting a faction, and I've wanted to see some devils to contrast the demons we've been seeing, so here is the stone for my metaphorical birds.

This is the Legion Devil from D&D Savage Encounters.


NAME = Legion Devils
GENERAL = Utgar
PLANET = Toril
SPECIES = Devils
CLASS = Soldiers
PERSONALITY = Disciplined
SIZE = Medium 5
COMMON SQUAD

LIFE = 1 (4 Figures)
MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 105

LEGION TELEPORTATION
Instead of moving with a Legion Devil normally, you may choose an empty space, same-level space adjacent to another Legion Devil you control within 8 clear sight spaces. Place this Legion Devil on the chosen space. If a Legion Devil is engaged when it Teleports, it will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

LIFE OF THE LEGION
At the start of the game, place 1 Life marker on a Legion Devils Army Card for each Legion Devil in your Army. When a Legion Devil receives one or more wounds, before removing that devil, remove that number of Life markers from its army card. If you do, ignore any wounds. When the last Life Marker is removed from this Army Card, destroy all Legion Devils you control.

LAVA RESISTANT
Legion Devils never roll for molten lava or lava field damage, and they do not have to stop on molten lava spaces.


Saying that Legion Devils are made for war does not even begin to describe them. These infernal foot soldiers have been crafted solely to fight for the Nine Hells. One of their arms has been bloated and deformed into a shield, while their other has been replaced with a sword. They communicate with each other telepathically and form a virtual hive mind, coordinating their tactics to fight as a single unit.

However, they take their cohesiveness to new extremes with their powers. With Legion Teleportation, they can easily keep formation by instantly teleporting to the side of their brethren, capable of surrounding the enemy out of nowhere. With Life of the Legion, they all collectively share the same life pool, being made stronger and more resilient the more of them you have. However, it is not without its risks, being made more vulnerable to high attacks or area of effects and risk having the entire army die in a single stroke.

In all, this is a fairly faithful representation of the 3.5 D&D Legion Devils from Fiendish Codex II. I wanted to capture two of their most iconic powers and hope that they translate into Heroscape in an interesting and fun way. Given that there is only a single sculpt for the figure, I was very reluctant to make it a common squad but there really wasn't a good way to make them a common hero pseudo-squad and still hit all the points that I wanted. I also want all of my devils to demonstrate their characteristic immunity to fire for reasons that will become apparent later.

I have some concerns that Life of the Legion will make them play a bit like the Mezzos by encouraging you to leave most of your army behind, but I hope that the teleportation will allow and provide incentive to spread them across the board and give some versatility to their use. In any case, comments are greatly appreciated.

Life of the Legion is mandatory, correct? That's how I read it, but I wanted to check.

[Ixe]

Life of the Legion is mandatory. I just threw a "must" in there to make it more clear. If it weren't, I think you'd just let the devil die if it received any more than a wound with an attack.

[IshMEL]

Great looking unit, and a very creative power set. Get one of these guys to the front with Theracus or Saylind, and boom!

I'm still unclear on Life of the Legion. Do you remove 1 Life Marker per Devil removed, or per wound taken by that Devil? I wasn't sure what "that number" means. I think from the comments that you mean the latter. Perhaps this would be a bit clearer?

When a Legion Devil receives any number of wounds, before removing that devil, you must remove that number of Life markers from its army card.

So essentially, for 210 points you can have an 8 Life "pseudo-hero" with 4 attacks of 3. Cool.

It occurs to me, what about Chomp? Is "destroy a Squad figure" the same as "take one wound"?

[Lyrgard]

I see a litlle problem with the wording : "Instead of moving with a Legion Devil normally, you may choose an empty space, same-level space adjacent to another Legion Devil you control within 8 clear sight spaces."

what does "a space adjacent to a figure" means ? Adjacency is only a notion defined between two figures in Heroscape, because the heights of the figures are involved.

[Ixe]

Thanks for commenting! You are absolutely right about the intent of the power. I put your wording in since it is more clear.

As with units like the Microcorp Agents, destroy effects will bypass any wound prevention so Grimnak can chomp his way through them even if they still have tons of life markers on their card.

I think viewing them as a variable "pseudo-hero" is probably a fair assessment, although I hope that they play in a way where they still maintain board presence and not just leave most of them in the start zone. When you put it that way, 2 squads may actually be the sweet spot for them.

In this particular case, these guys are an adaptation of a D&D monster that I've always loved. Since I didn't invent how they function, I don't necessarily feel creative for presenting them, although I must admit that it has taken some consideration to work them into a form that is both true to the source and still functions within the game. Since they are so unconventional with both their movement and life powers, I feel that I'd need to test them especially to understand how they work.

[Ixe]

Ninja'd by Lygard. The teleportation power probably could use some word tweaking, but the basis of describing adjacent and same-level is taken from the Marro Warriors. In this instance, the intention is that, if Legion Devil A is trying to teleport, he can choose a space that is adjacent and same-level to Legion Devil B and place himself on it, as long as Legion Devil B is within 8 clear sight spaces of Legion Devil A.

[mtl1998]

I really like the Legion Devils. Yep, that's all I have to say. I like 'em.

[Scytale]

The Legion Devils are interesting. My initial reaction is that they are overpriced; 105pts for a squad of four 3/4 melee units is really high. But Legion Teleportation is curiously powerful; you do not need to worry about bringing up reinforcements as long as at least one stays on the front lines (more or less). But you won't have a lot of reinforcements at that price point... Combined with Life of the Legion, a single advance force could theoretically be all you need to keep up the pressure. So it's difficult to judge; I'd have to play them to see.

[Ixe]

Thanks for commenting, Scytale. I've also gone back and forth on their price and trying to figure out how they function between the teleport and the life. In many ways, the life power can be a bit of a downside, but it also makes helps them from missing attacks by keeping their figures within threat range as they are damaged. IshMEL may be right that they could be considered an 8 life pseudo-hero with 4 attacks of 3 and 4 defense for 210 pts. That doesn't sound like an unreasonable unit to me.

Their powers can work out interestingly in concert, as well. Imagine if I'm in a situation where they I have 4 of them at the front of enemy forces with a cheerleader like Raelin hiding just behind the enemy line. I can move one of the devils over and even take some leaving engagement attacks to put him in position right next to Raelin. I can then teleport chain three guys from my start zone right next to her as well and enjoy 4 attacks against what would have been a protected figure. All the while, whatever was left "protecting" her may still be tied down in engagement with my other legion devils that I had left behind.

In all, I think they are just unconventional enough that a lot of typical theoryscaping techniques don't quite apply. I definitely agree that they'd need playtesting to get a handle on them.

[Lazy Orang]

The Legion Devils are really different and awesome - I hope you do something with them, cause if you do, I'm almost certain to want to add them to my collection.

[Ixe]

I'm glad you like them. I am intrigued enough by them that I will definitely playtest them but I can't guarantee anything for them beyond their design. abprices is not giving them a promising start on availability with only 5 listed and I only know of the single miniature representing them, something that is definitely frowned upon for a squad. If other miniatures in suitable numbers could be found, I wouldn't be opposed to having them nominated for SoV.