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Re: Silly and Serious Customs by Paronychodon
I figured that I would give this a bump with some of the reviews that have come in from the SoV.
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Originally Posted by Killometer
Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior by Paronychodon is a well-balanced and well-priced custom that serves solidly as an end-game clean-up unit.
Unfortunately, through the couple dozen games I played him his utilitarian role failed to spark with me.
He has an excellent base move, but with his humble range of 5 he rarely gets to take full advantage of it and can often easily be engaged. His relatively short range also makes it nearly impossible to keep him out of range of enemy units, and his 4/2 life/defense combo doesn't keep him alive very long, even when he can gain height.
Tyrian's specific combination of powers isn't seen on any official unit, but he feels very similiar to Syvarris and Atlaga, except he lacks their trade-mark ability to help him stand out.
I had the best luck with him when I kept him back until the end of the game, then dashed him out to take advantage of his double attack to assassinate my opponent's last few units.
Regretably this is a fairly narrow role, and I didn't feel like Tyrian brought much new to the table, therefore I vote NO to induct Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nyys
Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior by Paronychodon
Game Play
I found that in your typical 1v1, 300ish pt, BoV-type map match-up Tyrian is best used as an end gamer. Under sustained fire he's not going to last very long, so rushing him into the fray immediately was always a bad idea. But as a ranged flyer he was very valuable when I would run him out to pick off those last few annoying squaddies or to soften up a strong target who my opponent was lumbering across the battlefield.
In scenario driven play Tyrian was fantastic, never a hesitation to use him right away to deal with an ambush or to scout ahead.
Above 400 points Tyrian can get lost in the army. Even though his double attack is valuable, when you're playing 5-800 point armies, there are most definitely going to be better options amongst your ranks. It's even possible that Tyrian may just sit in the start zone for the duration when the points really climb.
Cost
At 110 points my thoughts immediately went to the Protectors of Ullar. For the same cost I get three ranged flyers, which begs the question: Why take Tyrian?
Abilities aside there is one huge difference between Tyrian and the Protectors, his movement of 7. I matched Tyrian up against a squad of Protectors of Ullar several times, and each time it was easy for him to beat the Protectors to height whether he got Initiative or not. They both share a range of 5, but with the Protectors only moving 4 spaces (unless they have Atlaga) Tyrian easily outclasses them in that respect.
Usually the Protectors where down one before getting to attack and if they didn't get Combined Arbalest going, they were in trouble. In contrast, when the Protectors were able to lock Tyrian down, he fell quickly with his defense of two and life of four. A pretty balanced match-up in my tests.
Models
The model used for this figure is one of the Protectors of Ullar. Much like all the GenCon exclusives it is a sculpt many of us already have, making it very easy to utilize the unit right away. You can repaint if you like and still use him as a Protector when needed, or you can do what I did (I don't like to paint) and just put a blue dot sticker on the base and done.
This is also a pretty easy proxy, use a Minion of Utgar, Sentinel of Jandar, or any of several Kyrie Heroes in the game.
Availability
If you have Wave 9, then you have Tyrian, or like I said, if you have a different Kyrie, then you have an easy proxy.
Conclusion
I'm not sure Tyrian will see much play in a tournament environment, but there is definitely a place for him in low point games and in scenario play.
I've been involved in conversations recently where some have asked what has happened to the simple Scape unit. One or two straight forward powers and go. Well Tyrian fits the bill perfectly. I found him to be both balanced and very playable in the right situation. There's not a whole lot that is unique about him, but coming from someone who likes to play single general armies, he's a great addition to the Jandar ranks.
I vote YES to induct Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior into the SoV.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper
Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior by Paronychodon
Tyrian brings a lot of good things to the table as a candidate for inclusion in the 'Scape canon.
For one thing, he is simple. In this era of elaborate customs and even in the recent era of elaborate WotC official units, he is a breath of fresh air. Two abilities, easily understood and familiar from a host of other cards.
For another thing, he occupies his little metagame niche all alone, as far as I can tell. He's not that much *like* anybody else, and certainly nothing like anything else Jandar fields. So he is both familiar and fresh, in the best possible ways.
I did, after giving it a great deal of thought, identify one figure he compares to in the way he plays. I wonder if anybody else came up with the same hero.
Tyrian is fast and mobile with 7 move and flight and will, map permitting, often have height. So his attack of 3 and defense of 2 can be deceptive. That said, his range of 5 is relatively short for a hero, and even on height his defense of 3 and life of 4 gives him a proverbial glass jaw. A butterfly with a dangerous sting, is our Tyrian. A terrible glyph holder but, as in the story, a speedy assassin.
Bringing us to my playtests.
I played him lumped in with various armies that could benefit from a mobile ranged unit that could seek & destroy. It was my plan to use him, as nyys did, in an endgame situation. I normally found, though, that temptation was too great for me and somewhere in Round 2 or 3 I would load him up with OMs to chase after something that had crept into his considerable threat range.
The one occasion I organized my army and strategy such that I could use him in the endgame, and willed myself to be patient, my opponent slipped past my defenses and slaughtered him in the start zone, which is going to be a danger with such a delicate weapon.
He is very mobile, obviously, but with his short range he normally found himself quickly fired on from range or engaged to some melee unit, from which I would sometimes disengage him to keep going after the original target.
Courtesy of Mmirg:
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Originally Posted by Mmirg
Some excerpts from the Journal:
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Tyrian puts a finger to his lips and makes a hand gesture beckoning me to follow him. He weaves his way through dark halls, as I follow. Tyrian has always struck me as an odd sort of fellow. He trained under Ullar as one of his protectors, and still carries their unique style of crossbow at his side, however shortly after the rise of the Valkyrie he joined up with Jandar and has acted as a sort of messenger.
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Quote:
Tyrian pulls back on the reins of his horse, he drops behind a grouping of Ullar’s Protectors and with a calm and deliberate look in his eyes he draws his weapon, points it squarely at the back of one of the Protectors, and fires. The crossbow bolt whistles through the air and finds its target with deadly precision. The Protector cries out in pain and then slumps over in his saddle. Confusion and chaos set in, horses whiney as they’re forced to turn sharply, their riders looking for the source of the attack. Before I can react with even a word of warning, because of a reloading mechanism in Tyrian’s crossbow, a second bolt is loosed as quickly as the first.
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Three of Ullar’s faithful Protectors lie scattered upon the ground and with them Jandar’s most trusted messenger, Tyrian the swift.
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The amazing thing to me about playing Tyrian was how closely he fit the source material from the books. Yes, he's eventually *dead* in the books, but the Tyrian I was testing was taken from the part before he was killed. And he was always eventually dead in my games, too.
Anyway.
I found at his absolute best he was good for roughly his point value, whether taken out of Sir Gilbert's hide or Charos'. He could get height easily enough but could be caught & disposed of before doing too much damage.
The sculpt is one a great many of us already own, which is a big advantage. He doesn't appear to have any deadly synergies (Raelin, etc.) and overall I thought he was fun and fresh and balanced at 110 points.
I vote yes to induct Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior into the Soldiers of Valhalla.
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Originally Posted by Lamaclown
Life is back to normal so I am now able to resume my duties as an SoV judge.
Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior by Paronychodon
OK, I was the one judge who voted NO to review Tyrian (technically, Killo did as well but stated later that he would have changed his vote if he had realized everything about the unit).
I originally voted no to review because I didn’t see much that Tyrian could bring to the table that we didn’t already have. Also, since I am big on theme, it seemed that more could have been done with the unit considering the character it was based on. He seemed generic rather than character based.
During testing I did appreciate the sheer simplicity of Tyrian. I enjoyed using him without ever having to look at the card. There was no rules lawyering or raised eyebrows, no wishing there was a FAQ to look at. Although I felt more could have been done with him thematically, I realized this would have ruined this admirable quality of the unit.
This, of course, isn’t enough to give him a yes to induct.
As nyys has already said, I believe, Tyrian was wonderful as an addition to a small army. He never became the keystone figure of the army but he pulled his weight just fine for his points. His speedy mobility gave him an advantage when army point totals limited the amount of squaddies on the map.
In higher point armies Tyrian doesn’t fare as well. His Life/Defense combo with his short range fails quickly when he is faced with a swarm. But of course, how many heroes can withstand a swarming onslaught?
In my testing he shined mostly as a clean-up unit. His mobility combined with his double attack made quick work of whatever the opponent had left, especially if I still had a few squaddies left for a screen.
Another plus is that I didn’t have to proxy him when I was playtesting him and won’t have to spend any more money to play him if he is inducted. I don’t have any “extra” squads of Protectors so I am doing what nyys mentioned- a blue sticker on the base and voila, Tyrian without losing a Protector.
So, I still think he doesn’t bring much new to the table, but, what he does bring is enjoyable and refreshing. My group has gotten into playing several lower point games rather than one large point game so I can see Tyrian getting some use in my group.
If you are looking for a simple unit that pulls his weight in a scenario based or low point game that you don’t have to worry about FAQs for, Tyrian is your man… errr, uh, Kyrie I mean.
I vote YES to induct Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior into the Soldiers of Valhalla. |
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Originally Posted by 1Mmirg
I vote YES to accept Tyrian into the SoV.
I think he plays to his theme perfectly, he is a lot of fun, he may be a bit overcosted (but that's good--a ranged flier is tough match, so better a bit high), but all in all, I think he is a great addition.
He looks just like a Promo from Gencon--a great repaint of a solid original sculpt. And I wish I had an extra that I could really paint well enough to be Tyrian. A fun and fair unit, imo.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZBeeblebrox
Tyrian by Paronychodon
Playability-
Well this has taken me a long time to nail down. At first, I was very unimpressed with Tyrian. I just felt like he was another Syvarris with wings, but was less useful that the original Elf. So I relayed my concerns to my fellow judges. The feedback I received from my compatriots was that I was playing Tyrian wrong and allowed my first impression to cloud my judgment on how he should be played. So it was back to the drawing board, and I decided to re-play all the tests I had done with him to make comparisons. And what I found was, this figure is a Sniping shark that is fun to play if played correctly. Instead of using as a sniping cleanup hitter, which was boring, you play him first…flying up to get the highest ground as quickly as possible and firing at important targets. Sometimes he goes down quickly other times he does his job well and takes down a important piece of your opponent’s army.
In one game, versus the Knights, I flew a tandem of Tyrian and Zelrig. Zelrig bombed the Knights and when he got locked down, I used Tyrian to snipe Sir Gilbert and Thorgrim, before the Knights could do anything about it. I lost Zelrig tin the process, but I make a big hole into the Knight Army by taking down their Heroes. Then my Deathknights move in for the mop up duty…a fun game, and the first time I realized exactly what we have in Tyrian…a sniping Shark that loves to take down the Big Guns.
Balance –
The points are fine, and he was balanced in my games.
Creativity/ Theme-
After much deliberation, Tyrian does add something new to the game and is a lot of fun; plus he is fashioned after a character in the Classic Heroscape lore.
Accessibility –
At first I was unsure about having to use another Heroscape figure for Tyrian, but as proven with Samuel Brown…you just have to make him distinguishable from the other Protectors and then its all good. So Yes, this figure can be found, you can even find another Atlaga if you want and mark him differently, since heroes are sometimes cheaper and easier to find than squads.
So it is my pleasure to give my vote of YES for inducting Tyrian the Kyrie Warrior into the Soldiers of Valhalla.
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Last edited by Paronychodon; January 19th, 2012 at 08:11 PM.
Reason: Last review! Yay!
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April 2nd, 2010, 03:17 AM
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