SoA's Customs: ULLAR CAVALRY FACTION, 4/24

[Son of Arathorn]

Gas Bomb was intended to be a bit of a fringe power- but because of the limit of activating on attacks by Heroes, maybe it could stand to come into play more often. It’s trigger mechanic is sort of a reverse Smoke Powder 13, so I might move it’s cutoff to 13 for now.

[Son of Arathorn]

A high clamor of ringing steel and ragged war cries echoes down the alpine valley. Snowdrifts tremble on the heights, threatening to engulf the battle below.

Grut archers, spurred on by their Swog Riders, loose another rain of arrows into the seething mass of Dreadgul Raiders. One northman falls, then another, even as the tide of men pushes forward inch by inch, over the corpses of their brethren.

One raider lowers his iron-banded shield to charge the line of archers, and realizes his mistake too late. A bowstring snaps, an arrow flies, and the warrior closes his eyes. The arrow bites deep into flesh, and the warrior's eyes snap open.

He's twenty feet off the ground, held firmly, but gently in the massive hand of a towering giant garbed in animal skins and white war paint. The giant sets the warrior down at his side, shielding him from the hail of Grut arrows.

Skrymir snaps the orc dart out of his hand, leaving a trail of steaming blood in the snow, and turns back to the battle just in time to see a Swog Rider leaping towards him over the icy crags. Snatching up the mount and rider, Skrymir bellows furiously and hurls the unfortunate orc into his own Grut archers. A sickening crunch of armor and bones sends the remaining orcs scuttling down the pass, away from the fearsome giant.


The figure used is the Hill Giant, from the upcoming Pathfinder Battles Kingmaker set.


NAME = SKRYMIR
GENERAL = JANDAR
PLANET = FEYLUND
SPECIES = GIANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = TRIBESMAN
PERSONALITY = WILD
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/9

LIFE = 7
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 175

THROWN ENEMY
When Skrymir attacks an adjacent opponent's figure and it is destroyed by Skrymir's attack, you may choose an opponent's figure within four clear sight spaces of Skrymir. The chosen figure receives one wound.

PROTECT THE LITTLE ONES!
Once per turn, when a small or medium figure adjacent to Skrymir would be destroyed by a normal or special attack, you may ignore any wounds that figure received and place the defending figure on any unoccupied space adjacent to Skrymir. After using Protect the Little Ones!, Skrymir receives a wound. Figures moved by Protect the Little Ones do not take any leaving engagement attacks.


Notable Synergies

• Wild Strategic Bonding As a Wild Giant Unique Hero, the Dreadgul Raiders may take a turn with Skrymir before themselves taking a turn
• War Cry As a Tribesman Unique Hero, the Mohican River Tribe may take a turn with Skrymir if at least 2 Mohican River Tribesmen are engaged at the end of their own turn

Notes: Continuing last week's theme of cross-factional synergy, Skrymir brings new hefty stats to the Tribesman faction and a new bonding option for the Raider faction. The tricky bit is not to make Jotun obsolete, while adding to the Wild faction. Between his two powers, Thrown Enemy will probably see the most use, and its reliance on an auto-wound instead of rolling attack dice means you can throw a screen back at the ranged units pounding your own forces. Protect the Little Ones! isn't meant to be used often, since each time it's used you expend a little over 20 points, and unless you're saving a Hero from multiple wounds, you're probably not saving as much as you're spending. Prime spots to Protect the Little Ones! include holding or seizing Glyphs and high ground with a small or medium figure, pulling figures out of range, saving Unique Heroes, and making sure the Order Markers on a squad don't get burned before they can be used.

Changes Index:
- V 1.0

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = SKRYMIR
GENERAL = JANDAR
PLANET = FEYLUND
SPECIES = GIANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = TRIBESMAN
PERSONALITY = WILD
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/9

LIFE = 8
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 175

THROWN ENEMY
When Skrymir attacks an adjacent figure and it is destroyed by Skrymir's attack, you may choose an opponent's figure within four clear sight spaces of Skrymir. The chosen figure receives one wound.

PROTECT THE LITTLE ONES!
Once per turn, when a small or medium figure adjacent to Skrymir would be destroyed by a normal or special attack, you may ignore any wounds that figure received and place the defending figure on any unoccupied space adjacent to Skrymir. After using Protect the Little Ones!, Skrymir receives a wound. Figures moved by Protect the Little Ones do not take any leaving engagement attacks.

[Son of Arathorn]

This design doesn’t have a widely available miniature, nor am I even sure it can fit on a peanut base without some serious modding. But it looks cool! I count 41 available from non-ebay sellers. It goes for about $10.

The figure used is a Huge Crab Droid from the Star Wars Miniatures Bounty Hunters set.




NAME = VULCANMECH HUNTER-KILLER
GENERAL = VALKRILL
PLANET = ALPHA PRIME
SPECIES = SOULBORG
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = HUNTER
PERSONALITY = MERCILESS
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/7

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 7
POINTS = 165

DOUBLE ATTACK
When the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer attacks, she may attack one additional time.

MERCILESS TARGETING
When attacking normally, if the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer attacks the same figure with her second attack as her first attack, add one attack die to the second attack.

RAISED CHASSIS
Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer can move through all small and medium figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement with those figures.

Notable Synergies

• Melee Soulborg Bonding: as a Soulborg Hero with a Range of 1, a Hoplitron may take a turn with the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer before taking a turn itself.

Notes: Man, do I wish this miniature had better availability. I'm so happy with how this design turned out. This mini screams Valkrill Soulborg! Where the Vulcanmech Incendiborgs feel slow and methodical (while still being terrifyingly effective), the Hunter-Killer is meant to surge ahead of your main army, walking right over screens to crush high-value targets with a double-whammy of 4/5 or 5/6 attack dice with height. At 4/7 Life/Defense, it's as tough as Q9, but since a melee 'borg necessarily will weather more attacks than a long-ranged shooter, and the Hunter-Killer doesn't have as great a spread of crowd-control, I priced the H-K 20 points lower than Q9.
I don't have many reservations about this design- really just the unit name (which I pulled from a certain kind of submarine) and the power name "Raised Chassis," which doesn't have quite as much oomph as I'd like.

[Pumpkin_King]

WOAH! I looooove those last two designs. Love Skrymir's Thrown Enemy.

[flameslayer93]

Sweet design!

[Pumpkin_King]

I actually kinda want to pick up that crab droid mini now. Do you have it on hand?

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_King

I actually kinda want to pick up that crab droid mini now. Do you have it on hand?

Thanks for the kind words guys. I don’t have the miniature in hand, and from the looks of it online, the Huge Crab Droid might create serious denial issues on a HS battlefield (the two raised claws seem to touch the ground in some photos. If I ever pick it up, I thought I’d try the boil-and-freeze trick to make sure the two raised claws stay up, and that the legs supporting it are close enough together to fit on a peanut.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

NAME = SKRYMIR
GENERAL = JANDAR
PLANET = FEYLUND
SPECIES = GIANT
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = TRIBESMAN
PERSONALITY = WILD
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/9

LIFE = 8
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 175

THROWN ENEMY
When Skrymir attacks an adjacent figure and it is destroyed by Skrymir's attack, you may choose an opponent's figure within four clear sight spaces of Skrymir. The chosen figure receives one wound.

PROTECT THE LITTLE ONES!
Once per turn, when a small or medium figure adjacent to Skrymir would be destroyed by a normal or special attack, you may ignore any wounds that figure received and place the defending figure on any unoccupied space adjacent to Skrymir. After using Protect the Little Ones!, Skrymir receives a wound. Figures moved by Protect the Little Ones do not take any leaving engagement attacks.

I love both the Dreadguls and Mohican River Tribe designs, so seeing two roles fulfilled with this guy is really neat. On a cursory glance of the stats, I'd say that he's better than Jotun (same survivability, better move (especially if he's single-spaced!), but slightly lower attack for 50 points less). Thrown Enemy is also much better than Throw on a bruiser like this, and honestly I'm concerned about its strength.

I would highly suggest making Thrown Enemy only be able to be activated on opponent's figures (otherwise, each Ashigaru Yari that you surround him with becomes a 10-point auto-wound for any figure within 4 spaces), especially since it's in the name of the ability. It could also potentially use a D20 roll or Small/Medium restriction, like most abilities that ignore defense dice.

Protect the Little Ones! doesn't excite me. Initially, I didn't think that the theme came through clearly enough, but the bio made it a lot clearer. I think that it's a lot of extra text to emulate Capt. Varan's Purple Heart, though, and would personally prefer to see it either focused only on him taking wounds for others or him rearranging friendly figures slightly (such as a form of carry without him moving).

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

NAME = VULCANMECH HUNTER-KILLER
GENERAL = VALKRILL
PLANET = ALPHA PRIME
SPECIES = SOULBORG
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = HUNTER
PERSONALITY = MERCILESS
SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE/7

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 7
POINTS = 165

DOUBLE ATTACK
When the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer attacks, she may attack one additional time.

MERCILESS TARGETING
When attacking normally, if the Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer attacks the same figure with her second attack as her first attack, add one attack die to the second attack.

RAISED CHASSIS
Vulcanmech Hunter-Killer can move through all small and medium figures and is never attacked when leaving an engagement with those figures.

I like this direction a lot. You've made a more practical version of Raised Chassis, in my eyes, and it fits this design really well. This unit seems fast, dangerous, and brutal when combining that with 7 move and an attack of 4 and one of 5. The 4 life/7 defense feels a little high to me given the offensive output and points, but that could just be because I'm not a big fan of high-defense units with decent life.

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Name- Rhamsean Guard
Follows- Einar
Species- Golem
Type- Common Hero
Class- Guard
Personality- Disciplined
Size- Large
Height- 6
Home-world- Feylund

Basic Stats
Life- 1
Move- 5
Range- 1
Attack- 4
Defense- 6
Points- 40

Special Powers
Fight For The Ruler
At the start of the game, choose a Unique Emperor or Queen Hero you control to be the Ruler for all Rhamsean Guards you control. When a Rhamsean Guard attacks, it may attack 1 additional time for each wound marker on its Rulers Army Card, to a maximum of 3 additional times. You can choose only one Ruler for all the Rhamsean Guards you control.

Protect The Ruler
If a Rhamsean Guard’s Ruler is attacked with a normal attack by an adjacent opponent’s figure and receives 1 or more wounds, you may destroy a Rhamsean Guard you control adjacent to that Ruler to ignore any wounds the Ruler just received.

Guardian March
After taking a turn with a Rhamsean Guard you control, you may move 1 other Rhamsean Guard you control up to 5 spaces.

I really love this unit. I know that this is an older design of yours, but I was looking through the OP and just wanted to throw it out there that just about everything about this guy looks awesome. I'd love to try them out with Zelrig or Braxas sometime, and the sculpt looks great.

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I love both the Dreadguls and Mohican River Tribe designs, so seeing two roles fulfilled with this guy is really neat. On a cursory glance of the stats, I'd say that he's better than Jotun (same survivability, better move (especially if he's single-spaced!), but slightly lower attack for 50 points less). Thrown Enemy is also much better than Throw on a bruiser like this, and honestly I'm concerned about its strength.

I would highly suggest making Thrown Enemy only be able to be activated on opponent's figures (otherwise, each Ashigaru Yari that you surround him with becomes a 10-point auto-wound for any figure within 4 spaces), especially since it's in the name of the ability. It could also potentially use a D20 roll or Small/Medium restriction, like most abilities that ignore defense dice.

Skrymir actually has better survivability than Jotun with 1 more Life, but Protect the Little Ones! means some of that tanky-ness is sunk in elsewhere. Skrymir and Jotun also have the same Move value of 6.

I do think you're right that his value approaches Jotun's as currently written- a doubly important concern since they bond with the same squad. I'll probably bring his Attack and Life values down by 1 each to start. Fewer uses of Protect the Little Ones!, and Thrown Enemy, but ultimately more in line with a unit like Sgt. Drake 2.0. I'll also change Thrown Enemy to only activate on the destruction of opponent's figures- it's a complete thematic failure for a Jandar Giant to hurl his friends at the enemy. I'm not inclined to limit the power any further- reducing his attack to 5 will make it less likely to activate in any case.

Originally Posted by Astroking112

Protect the Little Ones! doesn't excite me. Initially, I didn't think that the theme came through clearly enough, but the bio made it a lot clearer. I think that it's a lot of extra text to emulate Capt. Varan's Purple Heart, though, and would personally prefer to see it either focused only on him taking wounds for others or him rearranging friendly figures slightly (such as a form of carry without him moving).

Agree to disagree I think it's pretty simple, and a neat way to twist the Purple Heart and Throw mechanics into something new.

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I like this direction a lot. You've made a more practical version of Raised Chassis, in my eyes, and it fits this design really well. This unit seems fast, dangerous, and brutal when combining that with 7 move and an attack of 4 and one of 5. The 4 life/7 defense feels a little high to me given the offensive output and points, but that could just be because I'm not a big fan of high-defense units with decent life.

Glad you like the design.
Is there another design that uses Raised Chassis that I haven't seen? I honestly thought it was kind of a dull name!
When I sketched out the Hunter-Killer, I essentially wanted to make a Q9 for melee combat- not with the same amount of attacks, but with similar survivability and effectiveness. But one of the fundamental differences between them, and one of the reasons I felt ok pricing the Hunter-Killer 20 points lower than Q9, is that the Hunter-Killer can't take full advantage of its mobility and consistently benefit from Raelin's aura, Laglor's aura, or even high ground, which is what usually makes Q9 so hard to take down, and therefor so punishing over a drawn-out game.
In a nutshell, a melee Soulborg with identical survivability to a ranged 'borg will have to weather more melee attacks than a ranged 'borg, which tend to involve more attack dice, and so 4/7 Life/Defense with a Range of 1 shouldn't be nearly so hard to crack as 4/7 L/D with a Range of 6 (Queglix Gun SA) or 8 (normal attack).

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I really love this unit. I know that this is an older design of yours, but I was looking through the OP and just wanted to throw it out there that just about everything about this guy looks awesome. I'd love to try them out with Zelrig or Braxas sometime, and the sculpt looks great.

Boy, there are a lot of old designs in this thread that fell of my mental radar. In the context of the Crypt Guardians, I would probably design the Rhamsean Guard a bit differently (no need to map Zelrig or Emperor Andask into their synergy web). But stacking attacks based on another figure's wound markers (instead of stacking more attack dice like the MacDirks do with their chosen Champion) still intrigues me.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Glad you like the design.
Is there another design that uses Raised Chassis that I haven't seen? I honestly thought it was kind of a dull name!
When I sketched out the Hunter-Killer, I essentially wanted to make a Q9 for melee combat- not with the same amount of attacks, but with similar survivability and effectiveness. But one of the fundamental differences between them, and one of the reasons I felt ok pricing the Hunter-Killer 20 points lower than Q9, is that the Hunter-Killer can't take full advantage of its mobility and consistently benefit from Raelin's aura, Laglor's aura, or even high ground, which is what usually makes Q9 so hard to take down, and therefor so punishing over a drawn-out game.
In a nutshell, a melee Soulborg with identical survivability to a ranged 'borg will have to weather more melee attacks than a ranged 'borg, which tend to involve more attack dice, and so 4/7 Life/Defense with a Range of 1 shouldn't be nearly so hard to crack as 4/7 L/D with a Range of 6 (Queglix Gun SA) or 8 (normal attack).

Not had time to read through, but I have to question the wisdom of using Q9 as a benchmark for... well, anything.
I do love Skrymir, though.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Skrymir actually has better survivability than Jotun with 1 more Life, but Protect the Little Ones! means some of that tanky-ness is sunk in elsewhere. Skrymir and Jotun also have the same Move value of 6.

I do think you're right that his value approaches Jotun's as currently written- a doubly important concern since they bond with the same squad. I'll probably bring his Attack and Life values down by 1 each to start. Fewer uses of Protect the Little Ones!, and Thrown Enemy, but ultimately more in line with a unit like Sgt. Drake 2.0. I'll also change Thrown Enemy to only activate on the destruction of opponent's figures- it's a complete thematic failure for a Jandar Giant to hurl his friends at the enemy. I'm not inclined to limit the power any further- reducing his attack to 5 will make it less likely to activate in any case.

I could've sworn that Jotun had 8 life and 5 move, but memory can be a funny thing. In that case, Skrymir definitely outclassed him, so bringing down the attack to 5 and life to 7 is a good start. I do still think that he's a better option than Jotun, but to be fair, most figures are.

I think that Thrown Enemy is still fairly likely to activate with 5 attack and could pose a serious balance concern without restrictions against Deathwalkers or other things at 4 range, but that would really only be determined with playtesting.

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Glad you like the design.
Is there another design that uses Raised Chassis that I haven't seen? I honestly thought it was kind of a dull name!
When I sketched out the Hunter-Killer, I essentially wanted to make a Q9 for melee combat- not with the same amount of attacks, but with similar survivability and effectiveness. But one of the fundamental differences between them, and one of the reasons I felt ok pricing the Hunter-Killer 20 points lower than Q9, is that the Hunter-Killer can't take full advantage of its mobility and consistently benefit from Raelin's aura, Laglor's aura, or even high ground, which is what usually makes Q9 so hard to take down, and therefor so punishing over a drawn-out game.
In a nutshell, a melee Soulborg with identical survivability to a ranged 'borg will have to weather more melee attacks than a ranged 'borg, which tend to involve more attack dice, and so 4/7 Life/Defense with a Range of 1 shouldn't be nearly so hard to crack as 4/7 L/D with a Range of 6 (Queglix Gun SA) or 8 (normal attack).

Ironically, I was using a very similar ability with the same name (just inverted to become a negative power) on my Valkrill SoulBorg M.A.R.S. I ended up cutting the power because it didn't suit my design, but this seems like a better implementation of the same theme.

I do have to echo Lazy Orang, though. Using Q9 as a basis for anything is a dangerous game, especially since he was already so underpriced. Many of my games against Q9 have been with melee armies, and even when I do engage him, his high defense and good life are incredibly tough to break through. It's true that he can't benefit from Raelin or other auras as easily, but he still looks pretty tough for his aggressive style.

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

Boy, there are a lot of old designs in this thread that fell of my mental radar. In the context of the Crypt Guardians, I would probably design the Rhamsean Guard a bit differently (no need to map Zelrig or Emperor Andask into their synergy web). But stacking attacks based on another figure's wound markers (instead of stacking more attack dice like the MacDirks do with their chosen Champion) still intrigues me.

The Crypt Guardians definitely overlap with the Rhamsean Guard a fair bit, although I personally like these guys more. It helps that Zelrig is one of my favorite figures and I have more than a little bias towards him, but I actually like that they work with Emperors more than that they work with Queens. Of course, it's a little weird given that the only classic Egyptian Heroes were a Queen and a Darklord, but it didn't bother me too much.

Just as a quick note, Emperor Andask isn't actually an Emperor. For some reason, all Kyrie heroes have the class of Warrior (even ones like Empress Kiova), which is a personal pet peeve of mine.

[Son of Arathorn]

Originally Posted by Astroking112

I think that Thrown Enemy is still fairly likely to activate with 5 attack and could pose a serious balance concern without restrictions against Deathwalkers or other things at 4 range, but that would really only be determined with playtesting.

I had a similar concern when I first typed up Skrymir- but considering that Deathwalkers rarely see tournament play, and when they do, they're often accompanied by Zettian Infanty (which can neutralize Thrown Enemy), I just don't see much need to cater to that particular corner case.

And I was just looking at M.A.R.S. a week ago, too. I remembered the mechanic, but forgot the name.

As far as echoing Q9 goes, I understand what you and Lazy Orang are saying, and your comments are valuable. Here's one part of why I disagree that using Q9 as any kind of benchmark should disqualify a unit from consideration:
To quote Jexik's invaluable article, "What's in an Order Marker?"

Originally Posted by What's in an Order Marker?

Improved A: Q9 with Support (mattser’s GenCon 2007 tournament winner)
Major Q9 (Menacer)
Raelin (Cheerleader)
Laglor (Cheerleader)
Krav Maga Agents (Menacer)
Marcu (Cleanup)
Isamu (Cleanup)

The question when fighting this army isn’t “Can I take out Q9?” It’s, “Can I take out Q9 backed up by all of that crap?!”

^ This is essentially my point. So many fights against Q9 aren't about 4/7 L/D, but about 4/9-10 L/D, depending on height advantage. I might bring the Hunter-Killer's points up by 5-10, but until what little playtesting the unit will get (because the miniature lacks the availability to even consider sending it through the SoV) shows her to be certainly OP, I'm comfortable with this draft. The only dial I'd seriously consider turning would be her cost.

It's not just that Q9's underpriced (he is, but not enough to account for all the frustration he inspires)- it's that 2-3 heroes that make him much better are pretty easy to fit into an army with him: Raelin, Laglor, and Beorn Boltcutter (in order of importance).