IshMEL's Customs: Updated 7/11/2018

[Ixe]

Capt Faraday Jones
He seems like solid support for soldiers and I like the idea for his plasma rifle. 120 feels a bit high but I'm not sure if I'm missing some other synergy that he has.

FPC Delta Team
Return Fire is an interesting, if limited version of a ranged counterattack. I like the theme on the Band of Brothers as well. Between the two powers it looks like they can give some grief to ranged squads and not lose that much attack strength as they go down.

Corbin Nine
Seems like a good figure for a Mariedian to me. His attack isn't quite a shotgun blast since it can affect him (you can't shotgun yourself) and the splash damage is a bit lower, although you will likely do more on your main target. Sabotage is a nice inclusion for a Mariedian.

Pheelix
Getting more defense against a precise figure doesn't quite feel right to me. I guess you are better protecting the obvious places to shoot at? Etheric Pulse probably isn't that great of a counter to soulborg abilities. While negating a hero or squad could be huge, you'll only succeed a quarter of the time and the effect only lasts until the end of the round. It can be great to get that off on your first attack for the round but it's far from reliable and will just wear off. Nine Lives is a cool power for him, though. All of that is pretty much irrelevant compared to his stats, however. As filler he can be nasty on clean up between his movement and range. He has whopping threat range of 14 and is fast enough to easily keep out of reach of most melee and just kite them to death.

Pavin Nahz
He seems interesting and I like the new angle. Do you intend for him to be able to help the same figure move along multiple times in the same turn (if they hop from engagement to engagement)? Getting figures past screens or just out of engagement can be cool, although you'll have to wait for your next turn to take advantage of it and hopefully don't lose them or have them become engaged again in the process. It's a little weird that the figure in question can't move if you destroy your target. In a pinch it is just a triple attack that can pick off some low defense goblins or vipers.

[IshMEL]

Thanks @Ixe as always for your commentary. Pheelix is an older figure and is due for an overhaul -- I'll figure out what to do to de-kite him. I'm inclined to drop the movement to the normal 5.

As for Pavin v2, I really don't remember why I included that "the figure is not destroyed" clause. Because a destroyed figure isn't stunned, I guess, but it doesn't seem necessary. As written the power could move a single figure up to 12 spaces under certain circumstances, but I think it's most likely that he'll take up a sniper position and attempt to nullify the opponent's screen. Well, we'll see how he plays out.

As I'm infectious these days (just the flu, folks), I thought I'd post a plague carrier:



"Yersinia pestis" is the plague bacteria.

I had run through a number of different mechanics involving Plague Markers, healing rolls, Wannok-like wounds, etc. It got complicated. So I thought, what's the primary thing you want to avoid with a plague carrier? Don't get near them! Miasma of Plague is a rethemed Toxic Skin, and Infectious Engagement represents a hero getting poisoned / sickened through proximity / contact.

Thanks for taking a look!

[Ixe]

My pleasure to provide comments. I'm all for building up a community of constructive feedback and I know you have been plenty helpful for all your comments on my custom thread (you were the first person to respond to my thread).

Yersina
Well, he's more useful than Khosumet. His plague die roll feels a little on the unlikely side since that is really all he is about but I guess it is as good as Kee-Mo-Shi for nearly half the price. Infectious Engagement is interesting but I don't think it's actually any good. While it could potentially take down a hero in a single go, it's not very likely and it doesn't even help you against squads. On average, it will deal the same amount of damage to heroes as a Coward's Reward and is worse against squads. Cool hero I just have trouble seeing him pull his weight. I may be overlooking some Demon synergy you have that punches him up a bit, however.

[Lazy Orang]

Yeah, cool idea, but honestly, without synergy, he's a wasted OM. 75 points for one single spaced hero with a poor attack, a plague ability with a slightly higher roll than the Marrden Hounds, and a slower move on average than the hounds? He's got a lot of potential, but I'd never take him as is. It should be easily fixable, however - I'd suggest that you:
1) Drop the roll for the plague. It's presently slightly worse than the Marrden Hounds, and theirs is inherently better anyway due to them being a double spaced squad of three - more surface area = more chances to hurt something, and it's not as though the hounds are shaking up the meta-game anyway. I'd drop the roll to 14, at the highest, if you want this guy to be worthwhile.
2) The next change I'd suggest is to do one of two things, depending on what kind of figure you want this to be:

1. Give him bonding - making him a Darklord to work with the Wolves of Badru or Relentless to work with the Death Knights (or both!) would make me much more inclined to take and activate him, so he can lead with your forces, tie your opponents down and, if you're lucky, get in an auto-wound. He'd actually make quite the interesting, cheap bonding hero, though I don't know if his cost would still need to go down a bit - 2 attack is puny, and 3 life won't stand up long.
2. Drop his points to, say, 20/30/40 and make him a filler unit. He's not enough to actually work on his own as a stand-alone hero at his cost, but he'd make an entertaining and potentially useful filler.

Also, might I be able to know what figure this guy uses?


Get better soon!

~ Lazy Orang, hoping she hasn't taken too many liberties by making so many suggestions, but thinking that this guy really has potential that she'd like to see explored.

[TheAverageFan]

If he were more durable I could see buffing his Move to 7 with Morgoloth and just lobbing him into a group of enemies, but otherwise I agree he may have a hard time getting 75 points' worth of damage unless you get a lucky passing swipe against an expensive Hero.

~TAF

[IshMEL]

Hey thanks @Ixe @Lazy Orang and @TheAverageFan for great input on Yersinia! All much appreciated. I had not considered going Darklord for him but that would be interesting. I think pairing him with some Wolves would be fun. Here he is with a Skull Demon and some Wolves, just for comparison.



He's on the large-and-nasty side of Medium, so my impulse would be to beef him up rather than make him a filler unit. Changing the Miasma roll to 14 or 15 seems right, and I think that instead of a "poison" roll for the Infectious Engagement, it would be more effective to just re-theme Coward's Reward and have him roll 2 engagement dice.

The figure is a Dreamblade "Blight Rat." (I put it right next to the card! ) Not very plentiful but you can probably find one for $2-3. I have a few Dreamblade figures in my menagerie -- the sculpts are pretty incredible. They are a bear to rebase, though, and anything "human" is too large for Heroscape, but the "monsters" are fine.

[IshMEL]

OK so here's version 2 of Yersinia:



I left the stats as is, made him a Darklord, and changed the powers to:

Miasma of Plague 14
After attacking, you must roll the 20-sided die once for each figure adjacent to Yersinia, one at a time. If you roll a 14 or higher, that figure receives a wound. Soulborgs, Constructs, and destructible objects are not affected by Miasma of Plague.

Infectious Engagement
Yersinia rolls one additional attack die against a figure leaving an engagement with it. Soulborgs and Constructs are not affected by Infectious Engagement.

Thanks again for your input!

[Ixe]

Yersinia
I like the new direction for it. Miasma of Plague is probably one of those tricky powers where it can do a ton of damage or simply not amount to much. I don't know where the right balance is for how likely the power should be versus the cost of the unit. This seems like a good start at least and a solid hero to back up Morgoloth alongside the wolves (easily a better option than Khosumet in that capacity).

[IshMEL]

Thanks!

OK so here's a revised version of Pheelix, hopefully with less of a kiting issue. And I removed the "Precise" thing from Gaussian Blur Device. I still want to do a power that interacts with Precise, as it's a pretty common Personality, but it didn't make sense in this context.



The only thing I'm thinking of changing is on the Nine Lives power, to make it once per turn instead of once per round.

[Lazy Orang]

Sorry, meant to post this earlier, but I really like Yersinia now - looks like a really fun bonding hero for the Wolves of Badru.

[obfuscatedhippo]

Originally Posted by IshMEL

Bellatrix has been updated with proper wording for the bonding power. Thanks again for the input.

Spoiler Alert!

Borrowing from your Warlord archer leader, Bellatrix - trying to help Roman Archers and Tagawa Samurai:
https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...&postcount=602

Needs wording for sure. What do you think?


KAZUMI MATSUKO

Figure: Combat Hex, Lord of the Rings (LotR), High Elf Archer

General: EINAR
Planet: Earth

Species: Human
Unique Hero
Class: Samurai
Personality: Disciplined
Medium 5

Life: 4
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3
80 Points

ARCHER COMMANDER
After revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Kazumi, you may choose either an Archer Squad or Samurai Squad with Range greater than 4 you control that follows Einar. After choosing, you may either take a turn with the chosen squad or move all figures in those squads up to 2 spaces each. A figure activated with Archer’s Commander must be within 8 clear sight spaces of Keiko at the start of its move.

TACTICAL FORMATION
All Archers and Samurai with a Range greater than 4 that you control within 2 clear sight spaces of Keiko add 1 to their attack and 1 to their defense dice.

COMBAT LEADER
If at least one Order Marker is on Kazumi, you may add 3 to your initiative roll.

[IshMEL]

Originally Posted by obfuscatedhippo

KAZUMI MATSUKO

Figure: Combat Hex, Lord of the Rings (LotR), High Elf Archer

General: EINAR
Planet: Earth

Species: Human
Unique Hero
Class: Samurai
Personality: Disciplined
Medium 5

Life: 4
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3
80 Points

ARCHER COMMANDER
After revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Kazumi, you may choose either an Archer Squad or Samurai Squad with Range greater than 4 you control that follows Einar. After choosing, you may either take a turn with the chosen squad or move all figures in those squads up to 2 spaces each. A figure activated with Archer’s Commander must be within 8 clear sight spaces of Keiko at the start of its move.

TACTICAL FORMATION
All Archers and Samurai with a Range greater than 4 that you control within 2 clear sight spaces of Keiko add 1 to their attack and 1 to their defense dice.

COMBAT LEADER
If at least one Order Marker is on Kazumi, you may add 3 to your initiative roll.

I think it looks good so far! It certainly makes more sense to have the commanding archer be an actual archer!

You'll have to fix the name (Kazumi / Keiko) in the powers. Is the Archer squad supposed to be Einar-only as well? In that case, it might be easier to just say "choose either a Roman Archer or Tagawa Samurai Archer Army Card you control." Or perhaps:

After revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Kazumi, you may choose either an Archer or Samurai squad you control. The chosen squad must have a Range greater than 4 and follow Einar. You may either take a turn with the chosen squad, or move all figures you control in that squad up to 2 spaces each. A figure activated with Archer’s Commander must be within 8 clear sight spaces of Kazumi at the start of its move.

I'm not sure if that is clearer or not?