Ixe's Custom Units

[Scytale]

Lt. Gill Harlow

Attack 4 at Range 9 is pretty potent. Not a lot of range units have a normal attack of 4. Add in a useful auto-wound ability, made likely by the high Attack, and this guy has some real value. I suspect 85 is low.

I don't have a problem with the ability, but I'm not thrilled with the name. Something more straightforward would work better here, imo.

[Ixe]

Thanks for all of the comments, everyone!

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

I like it! I did something similar in my line of mercenaries, making it a special attack instead, and I can tell you that it is quite a versatile power. Giving up movement is worth it.

Glad to hear it. It's also not that painful when attached to such a huge range.

Originally Posted by IshMEL

A long-range Cleave is pretty great.

That's almost the exact motivation of the power. I was tempted to be like cleave and make it only work on squads but I don't see any thematic justification for that. Besides there has been a real rise in common hero pseudo-squads which I feel ultimately have hurt the whole Hero and Squad thematic divide. Maybe I need to do more "non-unique hero" call outs in my powers even though I don't like how that sounds.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Attack 4 at Range 9 is pretty potent. Not a lot of range units have a normal attack of 4. Add in a useful auto-wound ability, made likely by the high Attack, and this guy has some real value. I suspect 85 is low.

I don't have a problem with the ability, but I'm not thrilled with the name. Something more straightforward would work better here, imo.

You're probably right. He's pretty frail overall but the chance for the extra wound might be a bit much. I'll bump him a bit but probably by not that much for now. I understand your qualms about the name. I have the same issue with it. Nothing great coming to mind on this ranged cleave, however. I'll think about it (I'm also open to suggestions).

[Ixe]

Thanks again for all of the comments. Here's the continuation of my mounted knight cycle for Ullar.

This is Female Elf on Great Eagle by Cool Mini or Not. The miniature is supplied unpainted.



NAME = Kaylia
GENERAL = Ullar
PLANET = Feylund
SPECIES = Elf
CLASS = Knight
PERSONALITY = Valiant
SIZE = Huge 10 (double spaced)
UNIQUE HERO

LIFE = 6
MOVE = 8
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 120

TALON FLING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack Special.
Instead of moving and attacking normally, Kaylia may use Talon Fling Special Attack. You may move her up to 4 spaces and choose an adjacent small or medium figure to attack and roll 4 attack dice. You may then move Kaylia up to 4 spaces. If the defending figure was destroyed, you may choose a figure within 3 spaces of Kaylia to attack and roll 3 attack dice.

FLYING
When counting spaces for Kaylia's movement, ignore elevations. Kaylia may fly over water without stopping, pass over figures without becoming engaged, and fly over obstacles such as ruins. If Kaylia is engaged when she starts to fly, she will take any leaving engagement attacks.


On her massive eagle Kaylia can fly in and out of battle. She wields a massive lance from atop her mount's back and can drive its tip to pierce through even the greatest defenses. Against smaller opponents, she spurs the great eagle to pluck enemies off the field as she flies over them and fling their lifeless bodies into other enemies.

Kaylia is relatively tough but still must be careful with only 3 defense. While she can quickly swoop in and drive her lance into enemies, it can be safer to have her fight on the wing and swoop her mount in and out of the front lines. If she manages to kill her target, she can avoid suffering a leaving engagement attack and even fling their body into other foes for an extra ranged attack.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[TheAverageFan]

I think I'd rather give Nilfheim a Rainbow-scales repaint than have to paint that thing--sheesh!

~TAF, otherwise impressed

[Ixe]

Thanks for the comment on Kaylia! Here is an expansion to the Havech cult on Marr.

These are the Augmented Mi-Go from Achtung! Cthulhu Miniatures. They are supplied unpainted:


NAME = Havech Latchers
GENERAL = Valrkill
PLANET = Marr
SPECIES = Maro
CLASS = Latcher
PERSONALITY = Tricky
SIZE = Medium 5
COMMON SQUAD

LIFE = 1
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 60

LATCH
Instead of attacking with a Havech Latcher, you may choose an adjacent large or huge Unique Hero and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 17 or higher, you may destroy that Havech Latcher and place it on that figure's Army Card.

CLINGING CONTROL
Instead of taking a turn with the Havech Latchers, you may instead choose a Unique Hero with at least one Havech Latcher on that figure's Army Card. Take temporary control of the chosen hero and immediately take a turn with that Hero. At the end of the turn, control of that hero returns to its previous owner. All order markers that were on that figure's army card will stay on that figure's army card.

GLIDE
Havech Latchers never roll for falling damage.

MECHANICAL COMPONENTS
Marro Hive cannot rebirth Havec Latchers with its Marro Rebirth special power.


The Havech faction on Marr finally managed to recreate some of the mind controlling powers of Ne-Gok-Sa and implement it in a mechanized forms. On Marr, when facing off against huge hivelords that revile their mechanical perfection, the clingers will charge forward and permanently latch on to the beast. They then deploy their mechanical wires into the creature and worm their ways into the skull. They can then take control and use the monster to fight for their own ends. Otherwise the Havech Clingers will usually hang back from a fight and fire their weapons from afar until a worthy target approaches. Their stunted wings are no good for flying but does allow them to glide down safely from any height.

In practice, the Havech Clingers will probably prove fairly niche. You only face off against large or huge unique heroes so often which otherwise leaves them on a similar and poor level as the Marro Drudge. Against bigger targets, they'll force the opponent to be wary of allowing them to latch on. Ranged targets may be tough for them to get to with their low movement and latching on to a figure isn't guaranteed but it can be powerful if you do. As long as you keep at least on latcher remaining, you can enjoy turn after turn with any of the heroes you managed to latch one on to. You can even turn them on your own heroes for some order marker flexibility, although that is obviously not without cost.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated!

[Captain Stupendous]

Very cool units! I absolutely love the way they fit into the Havech faction and their flavor text is excellent.

My first thought is that they are probably pretty weak. With only four move and two defense, they will get gunned down by most range units before they can reach them. Unfortunately, most of the figures that you would most like to target with Latch also happen to have potent ranged attacks. (Nilfheim, Q9, Zelrig, Q10, Zetacron, etc...). The problem with latching on to melee heroes, however, is that they would be much harder to use effectively against your opponent's army when you take a turn with them, since a smart opponent would just keep his other expensive units out of the latched unit's reach. Was there a specific reason why you felt they needed to be limited to four move? I think that increasing their movement to five or possibly even six would make them a much more viable unit.

I also think its neat to see someone else playing around with the temporary mind control concept I used on Ulrick. I think that the concept of temporary mind control is really interesting and opens up some new tactical possibilities you don't see very often in classic scape.

[TheAverageFan]

They are bizarre and niche indeed, but they're sorta weak enough that I like the idea. I'd argue for bumping up their price and making them more potent and/or reliable--those sculpts are pretty epic for such weak squaddies. I'd sooner take the Gnids in most scenarios, but again they are pretty niche so that's to be expected.

~TAF

[Scytale]

Kaylia
I really like the theme with this unit. Talon Fling is fun to picture happening. It's a bit on the complicated side, but not too much. I assume Kaylia will take leaving engagement attacks if she fails to kill the target figure but still wishes to move, and if she ends her additional movement engaged she must attack one of the engaged figures.

Havech X
Latch is similar to Cling, and it actually has the same problem (one I've been meaning to address with an Errata): that it is considered a movement and is therefore subject to leaving engagement attacks, including the figure it's Latching on to. That's not the intention, I'm sure. The roll is really high, like it should be for such a power, putting them in the same boat as the Shades. But super fun when you get it to work. I would have gone a different direction myself, making the roll much lower but destroying the Havech X or just having it fall off after one control. Though you are pushing the limits of the amount of text you can squeeze on a card.

[Ixe]

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Originally Posted by Captain Stupendous

Very cool units! I absolutely love the way they fit into the Havech faction and their flavor text is excellent.

Glad to hear it. That flavor really informed their design.

Originally Posted by Captain Stupendous

My first thought is that they are probably pretty weak. With only four move and two defense, they will get gunned down by most range units before they can reach them. Unfortunately, most of the figures that you would most like to target with Latch also happen to have potent ranged attacks. (Nilfheim, Q9, Zelrig, Q10, Zetacron, etc...). The problem with latching on to melee heroes, however, is that they would be much harder to use effectively against your opponent's army when you take a turn with them, since a smart opponent would just keep his other expensive units out of the latched unit's reach. Was there a specific reason why you felt they needed to be limited to four move? I think that increasing their movement to five or possibly even six would make them a much more viable unit.

All very good points. I was trying to keep them cheap. Originally I was about to give them flying so I made them slow because of it. I changed it to glide for space but I ended up keeping the move low. I certainly have a lot of dials to play around with these guys, the target roll # and the movement being among them.

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

They are bizarre and niche indeed, but they're sorta weak enough that I like the idea. I'd argue for bumping up their price and making them more potent and/or reliable--those sculpts are pretty epic for such weak squaddies. I'd sooner take the Gnids in most scenarios, but again they are pretty niche so that's to be expected.

Maybe you're right. I wanted to give a cheap alternative to the Eradicators within the Havech faction but it's probably forcing numbers to be too low given their desired function.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Kaylia
I really like the theme with this unit. Talon Fling is fun to picture happening. It's a bit on the complicated side, but not too much. I assume Kaylia will take leaving engagement attacks if she fails to kill the target figure but still wishes to move, and if she ends her additional movement engaged she must attack one of the engaged figures.

Powers like that end up being a little wordy but it kind of needs it to capture the theme. You're exactly right on how the power would function as far as leaving engagement and the follow up ranged attacks are concerned.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Havech X
Latch is similar to Cling, and it actually has the same problem (one I've been meaning to address with an Errata): that it is considered a movement and is therefore subject to leaving engagement attacks, including the figure it's Latching on to. That's not the intention, I'm sure.

That's what I get for using a placeholder X before I came up with the name. I forgot to replace it with Latchers when I came up with it (actually I somehow had put it next to Valkrill). It's fixed now. They are the Havech Latchers.

Otherwise I completely disagree with your interpretation of how Latch and Cling work with respect to leaving engagement attacks. Within the D&D rulebook on page 11, it clearly states:

Leaving an engagement: Your figure may move around an opponent’s figure
that it is engaged with, but as soon as your figure moves away (onto a space
that’s not adjacent), the opponent’s figure may take a “leaving engagement
attack” on your figure.

Moving a figure onto a card is removing them from the battlefield and it is most certainly not moving them onto a space of any kind. The attack doesn't happen until they move away, anyway, so what does it even mean to take a wound when they are on an Army Card? I don't see any basis of argument on how that would be relevant.

Originally Posted by Scytale

The roll is really high, like it should be for such a power, putting them in the same boat as the Shades. But super fun when you get it to work. I would have gone a different direction myself, making the roll much lower but destroying the Havech X or just having it fall off after one control. Though you are pushing the limits of the amount of text you can squeeze on a card.

You're already destroying them to sink their mouths into the opponent's figure so I'm leaning away from making it temporary (although that would keep them nice and cheap). Space is absolutely an issue for them as it is. I feel like they needed some flying or glide type power with their wings and mechanical components is a must for Havechs. While those two powers are short, it does tie my hands a bit with what else I can give them.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Otherwise I completely disagree with your interpretation of how Latch and Cling work with respect to leaving engagement attacks. Within the D&D rulebook on page 11, it clearly states:

That's an understandable but questionable interpretation. C3V determined that Cling constituted a new type of movement when they ruled that Cyberclaw would prevent Cling. There never was the concept of moving off the board before. I would argue that if Cyberclaw applies then all movement-related rules apply.

[Ixe]

Originally Posted by Scytale

That's an understandable but questionable interpretation. C3V determined that Cling constituted a new type of movement when they ruled that Cyberclaw would prevent Cling. There never was the concept of moving off the board before. I would argue that if Cyberclaw applies then all movement-related rules apply.

Cyberclaw prevents cling? While thematic, I really disagree with that interpretation. I do not see how placing a figure on an Army Card is considered movement. Placing figures onto Army Cards has been a thing since RotV with Finn and Thorngrim. Do you consider it a movement for the destroyed figure? You are removing them from the battlefield.

I think I'll go ahead and update my Havech Latchers to be destroyed before they are placed. I recommend the same errata for the Marro Gnids (I guess I'll pitch that there).

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Ixe

Cyberclaw prevents cling? While thematic, I really disagree with that interpretation. I do not see how placing a figure on an Army Card is considered movement. Placing figures onto Army Cards has been a thing since RotV with Finn and Thorngrim. Do you consider it a movement for the destroyed figure? You are removing them from the battlefield.

That one was created and ruled on before my time.