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Custom Units & Army Cards Fan-created HS army cards for units, glyphs, and equipment


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  #1  
Old September 21st, 2023, 03:25 PM
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nextguy nextguy is offline
 
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Nextguy's Customs

These are all the customs I'm tweaking and playtesting to get them to the point where I feel comfortable submitting them to pre-SoV, and later, SoV. Each design has an individual comment in this thread containing more information, including my thought process, motivations, and hesitations. The text quotes of each custom contain the latest version of the design.

Feedback on any designs is welcome and encouraged!


Wildwood Caretaker
Spoiler Alert!

Wildwood Creepers
Spoiler Alert!

Wildwood Ancient
Spoiler Alert!

Eilan Sidhe - BIO
Spoiler Alert!

Last edited by nextguy; October 13th, 2023 at 07:19 PM. Reason: Design changes after playtesting
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  #2  
Old September 21st, 2023, 07:57 PM
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Myriadite Myriadite is offline
 
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

Looking forward to seeing how the cards turn out! The Wildwood faction is one I have just recently purchased and have yet to try.

By the way, welcome to the site!
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  #3  
Old September 22nd, 2023, 12:46 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

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Originally Posted by Myriadite View Post
Looking forward to seeing how the cards turn out! The Wildwood faction is one I have just recently purchased and have yet to try.

By the way, welcome to the site!
Thanks! Good to be here

The Wildwood faction is definitely in my top three, but I thought it could use a bit more variety in options. Cards added, let me know what you think!

Last edited by nextguy; September 22nd, 2023 at 03:40 PM.
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  #4  
Old September 22nd, 2023, 03:11 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

Design of Wildwood Ancient

Idea
Living in California, I'm surrounded by impressive trees. Coast Redwood's so tall their tops fade into the sky, Giant Sequoia's so wide it would take 50 people to encircle it, Coast Live Oak's old enough to have shaded my great great grandparents in their youth, Black Oak's branching like lightning upwards, Douglas Fir's as abundant as grass in the mountains, Monterey Pine's drooping with lichen in the fog, the list goes on. So, I thought, wouldn't it be sick as hell if there was a massive, towering tree figure in Heroscape?!

Theme
The pinnacle of the Wildwood faction is the Wildwood Monarch. It's the concentrated essence of the forest, the living embodiment of nature, but it's only half as tall as a small evergreen tree. So, how can there be a Wildwood faction member bigger than the Monarch (and much bigger at that)? Well, maybe the current Monarch is young, after all, it has to reform every time the previous Monarch is slain! What if there was a Monarch that was never slain? Maybe it was the first Monarch, as old as The Awakened Forest itself and grew too weak so it was replaced, but lives on, still a protector of the forest. I hope that makes sense to others, because to me that lore is really cool.

With that rough backstory, it obviously had to be a Unique Wildwood Hero, who is a Protector. I chose a Resolute personality to match its motivations, although I am open to changing that. Obviously, it needed to be huge, because the figure is huge, but also so a Wildwood Sentinel cannot VERDANT GROWTH into it, as that would not fit it's biography.

Figure
After a lot of research, the Dimari-Daji figure from the pathfinder Mwangi Expanse is perfect! It is super tall, looks old, has lots of green foliage, and is decently available. However, it is $90 MSRP, which I realize is not ideal and feasible for everyone. For me, it is so worth the look on the board (pictures forthcoming after I rebase). The only other downside is the roots on the figure may need to be trimmed to cut back on encroachment on nearby hexes.

Because of the high price of the perfect figure, I picked out an alternative figure that is 1/3 the price (~$35). It looks old, but has no leaves and is not nearly as tall or impressive, which takes away from the theme. But, it works.

Powers
ASCEND 4
Same as the original 3 Wildwood heroes, but I had to to try to reword it to work with a double space figure. I am not super pleased with the wording.

CROWN OF THE AWAKENED FOREST
The Awakened Forest is all connected, so, like the other heroes, it is thematic that the Ancient would also be connected in movement to the other Wildwood faction members. However, balance when taking a turn with up to 4 heroes on one turn is delicate and messy, so I addressed this with a simple condition:
> The Wildwood Ancient cannot attack the turn you use the bonding. This keeps the Ancient near the action (not the starting zone) while mitigating some of the balance issues that come with too many attacks.
There is technically another condition of line of sight, but this tree is so tall it will likely on be relevant in very specific scenarios.

BENEATH THE CANOPY
An ability to keep the Ancient relevant and add tactical complexity to its positioning, even if it cannot attack due to bonding. The figure also really has a massive canopy which almost does actually shade the spaces around; super cool visually. It is slow, REAL slow, so testing is needed to see what impact this ability actually has, but -1 DEF payoff after trapping an opponent next to it could be huge. Oh, -1 ATT to wildwoods because plans need sunlight, not shade.

ANCIENT GROWTH
The forest must survive which means the lifecycle must continue. I didn't want to make this SEEDLING or TANGLED GROWTH like the Monarch and Caretaker have, because that would incentivize not taking either of them and the Ancient. Lore wise, it is thematic to leave that possibility open, so I went with a different type of growth: the option to destroy your Wildwood figures to heal one on the Ancient. This allows you to tactically position your wildwoods to maximize on the lifecycle each round. I don't anticipate this being overpowered, but just a tool in the wildwood belt.

Stats
Life 5 - same as the Monarch
Move 2 - same as the Monarch
Range 1 - same as all Wildwoods; playing with range 2 internally
Attack 5 - slightly weaker than the monarch, as it is old
Defense 5 - same as all Wildwood Heroes
Points 160 - tweaking, but it should be slightly higher than the Monarch given its power, flexibility, and additional lifecycle options. 180 seemed to high in testing.
-----
Thanks for reading. I hope you find the Wildwood Ancient as fun and cool as I do!

Last edited by nextguy; October 13th, 2023 at 07:33 PM.
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  #5  
Old September 22nd, 2023, 03:41 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

Design of Wildwood Caretaker

Idea
The Wildwood Sentinel specifies it can grow into any large Wildwood Hero, which is really interesting. I like the idea of having to choose which large Wildwood Hero to take or taking multiple! Furthermore, based on the list of unreleased C3V figures in the works, I do not believe that we will be getting another official option soon. So, I thought, what if I tried to create one?

Theme
I envision The Awakened Forest as one connected organism, sort of like a hivemind like the Marro, but even more physically connected. One massive plant focused on survival and expansion, and evolving different, natural, protection mechanisms to increase it odds of success. The Wildwood Monarch is its center, its heart, its trunk. The Ancient, the first Monarch, the crown, is evidence of a major evolutionary success that has kept the forest growing all these years. The Sentinels and Wildwood Runners are other mechanisms of defense, branches and twigs, each serving their purpose. But, how does the forest retain all its knowledge? How can it learn to fight different threats and coordinate its defense forces? It needs more than instinct, it needs a brain.

In a similar vein, if the Wildwood Monarch is the truck and the Wildwood Ancient the crown, what major plant part should this brain work through? How does it carry our tactics? What major plant part is left? The roots; the physical, shared connection of every part of The Awakened Forest!

With the backstory drafted, it obviously had to be a Unique Wildwood Hero. I chose a Caretaker class because that is what it does, sees to the success of the forest, and the other Wildwood Heroes set a precedent for creating new classes. I chose a Tricky personality to match its motivations, and how it might be perceived by opponents in combat. Obviously, it needed to be large, to work with VERDANT GROWTH.

Figure
I landed on the Northwind and Red figure from the D&D Wild Beyond the Witchlight Carnival set because it is the right size, doesn't appear stronger than the Monarch, and it is cheap and widely available. It also has a bonus squirrel I find hilarious. The only alteration needed is removing the unfitting wings, which is easy enough with a knife.

Powers
FOREST RESTORATION
This is a weird one, and it is difficult to get the wording to make sense while not being lengthy. Essentially, add three evergreen trees to the map that were not on the map before. On top of that, don't place the trees in dumb places like on top of lava, or inside a figure, etc. The reasoning here is the Caretaker is tasked with protecting and EXPANDING the forest. It makes sense that it would have abilities related to expansion, and thematically, evergreen trees are used in other Wildwood abilities. It would be lame and not very good if those abilities couldn't be used because their were no evergreen trees on the map.

ROOTS OF THE AWAKENED FOREST
This is one of its brain/tactical abilities. It is linked to the whole forest through the roots, therefore it can have bonding with multiple figures, ie. a squad. Similar to the Monarch, but different enough to be unique. Definitely wanted to avoid infinite bonding loops too!

GROVE ARRANGEMENT
Another tricky ability to word concisely. I guess that comes with the tricky personality. This ability allows you to move up to 5 different small or medium Wildwood figures or evergreen trees 1 space each, and obviously not to dumb places like on top of lava, or inside another figure, or up 50 levels, etc. This also tries to again tie into that brain/tactics lore. As the tactician, it can move forest protectors and even the trees themselves at will. I think it is really cool being able to move the terrain, wall off your opponent from road, block height, etc. I worry this ability will only be used to move figures. If that ends up being the best use of it, maybe only allowing evergreen trees may be its final iteration, or trees and a select size hero. TBD.

TANGLED GROWTH
Every Wildwood figure needs a connection to the Wildwood lifecycle. With the Caretaker, I wanted to tie it into expansion as well. I landed on one squad figure, to again feel a bit different and less powerful than the Monarch while thematically tieing into expanding the part of the forest that connects it all, the roots. If this is too strong when combined with the Monarch and/or Ancient lifecycle ability, then I could make this ability name shared with the Ancient's rather than independent from it.

Stats
Life 3 - same as the Sentinel
Move 3 - same as the Sentinel
Range 1 - same as all Wildwoods
Attack 4 - same as the Sentinel
Defense 5 - same as all Wildwood Heroes
Points 120 - tweaking, but it should be slightly higher than a Sentinel given its special powers. 140 felt like too much.

Stat-wise a Sentinel growing into a Caretaker does not get stronger, or weaker, it gets smarter. If that feels too weak, the life could be raised to 4.
-----
Thanks for reading. I hope you find the Wildwood Caretaker as fun and cool as I do!

Last edited by nextguy; September 22nd, 2023 at 05:52 PM.
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  #6  
Old September 22nd, 2023, 03:42 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

Design of Wildwood Creepers

Idea
I thought about creating an alternate small Wildwood hero and having the Wildwood Caretaker and Ancient use SEEDLING, but it felt unnecessary, and made the Wildwood Monarch seem less powerful. So, I thought, what if I created a squad and expanded the lifecycle?

Theme
As mentioned in the Caretaker's design post, I envision The Awakened Forest as one connected organism, sort of like a hivemind like the Marro, but even more physically connected. One massive plant focused on survival and expansion, and evolving different, natural, protection mechanisms to increase its odds of success. The roots are the physical, shared connection of every part of The Awakened Forest, used by the Caretaker to communicate its commands, and the Sentinels to know when a Monarch has been slain and needs replacing.

However, roots do more than that. They absorb water and nutrients allowing the plant to grow. Aren't plants cool? These roots, however, are not cool to face. They're wild, unpredictable, and solely focused on expanding the forest.

With the backstory drafted, and with roots abundant in The Awakened Forest, it obviously had to be a Common Wildwood squad. I chose a Creepers class because that described their behavior, weaving and searching, and, again, the other Wildwoods set a precedent for creating new classes. I chose the Wild personality to match its unpredictability; they are the WILDwoods after all. Perhaps Ravenous might also fit. The size is not super important here, so long as they are not large, but the figures look to be about medium 4. I need to officially measure after rebasing.

Figure
Root and plant figures are surprisingly few and far between, so I allowed myself to be generous with the colors and went more vine-like. As a result I landed on both the Creeper Vine and Crimson Vine from Pathfinder's Jungle of Despair. They are the right size, have a design that matches the theme, have decent availability (especially for a common squad) and allow for some color variety in the squad. The exact number of each color doesn't matter, so whatever you can find (I like two creeper one crimson per squad). The biggest downside is they are from 2021, so although they're abundant, they are a little pricier each. Unfortunately, plant figure options are limited.

Powers
CONNECTED ORGANISM
Like all Wildwoods, they needed to be slow, but I wanted to allow for a conditional burst of movement since they, theoretically, should be under and on every tile in The Awakened Forest. It felt thematic to have that movement increase be tied to proximity to trees. This also allows for some fun evergreen tree planning with the Caretaker's GROVE ARRANGEMENT, to guarantee this movement increase.

BLIND ADVANCE
This might be a case of ability creep, but I love this idea too much to leave it out unless feedback indicates I should. The Wildwood Creepers are roots, so they don't have eyes, thus no line of sight. However, they attack at range 1 so they don't need line of sight. Well, why not have their height advantage be conditional, requiring a large or huge Wildwood hero, like the Caretaker, to guide them to get that advantage. With all the trees around, this might actually be a decent hinderance, unless of course you bring along the Ancient to overlook the whole forest. Just typing this out makes me want to go and playtest more! Fun stuff.

FERTILE GROWTH
The final piece to the new, expanded Wildwood lifecycle. Whenever a Creeper dies, it has a 25% chance of turning into a destroyed Runner in an immune system like response to damage to the forest; another defense mechanism that The Awakened Forest has evolved over its life. This lifecycle extension essentially maintains the power level of the Monarch's SEEDLING ability, while allowing the Caretaker and Ancient's lifecycle abilities to still connect with the greater cycle without being too overpowered by bringing back to much material each turn. If this is still too strong, the probability of success can be further reduced by increasing the die roll required to 16, 17, etc. Yay for fine tuning!

Stats
Life 1 - it's a squad
Move 2 - low base move with more conditionally via ability
Range 1 - same as all Wildwoods
Attack 1 - weak to justify low point cost, thematically fits in the lifecycle because Creepers are before Runners, and increases importance of maintaining height advantage and the BLIND ADVANCE ability
Defense 3 - two lower than all Wildwood heroes, but still robust for a 40 point squad
Points 40 - same point cost as a Runner. How many of each will you bring?

1/3 for ATT/DEF feels decent, if not underpowered. You kind of want them to be more of a threat and easier to kill to revive Runners, so 2/2 also feel decent, if not a little too strong. Tinkering.
-----
Thanks for reading. I hope you find the Wildwood Creepers as fun and cool as I do!

Last edited by nextguy; September 22nd, 2023 at 06:03 PM.
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  #7  
Old September 23rd, 2023, 05:39 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

I love these guys. They add a lot to the cycle, making something that players can get a little more creative with in-game. I've not playtested them or anything but I have some first reaction thoughts.

WildWood Caretaker:
Grove Arrangement needs a timing specification. When does it occur? Before WC moves? After her turn? End or beginning of a round? I'm also worried that moving 5 trees at a time might be a bit strong. It's smart that you can only move them one space each, but it's not difficult to make bottlenecks on certain maps.

Creepers:
Blind Advance reads a little weird. To me at least, it reads as if you can't make an attack at all if you have height on another figure. Perhaps "Creepers do not receive an additional attack die when attacking with height advantage unless a large or huge Wildwood hero has clear line of sight on the targeted figure" would be better. I like the idea a lot thought as well as Connected Organism

Ancient
This one seems a little less focused. It has a weird risky burst option in Forest Guardian which while cool, seems disconnected, especially sense it doesn't mesh well with CotAF, as that prevents you from using the attack benefit. And it has a respawning ability that steps on the toes a little bit of the Caretaker. Perhaps changing it so that instead of respawning, you add to the Creeper's Fertile Growth roll? Or provides some other benefit to other WildWood respawning abilities like healing them as they come back or something?

All these add some variety to a faction that could really use it and I like what I see. It's a good sign when reading through a set of customs that I start imagining different strategies, army builds and scenarios with them!
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Old October 13th, 2023, 07:40 PM
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Re: Nextguy's Customs

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthLegolas View Post
I love these guys. They add a lot to the cycle, making something that players can get a little more creative with in-game. I've not playtested them or anything but I have some first reaction thoughts.

WildWood Caretaker:
Grove Arrangement needs a timing specification. When does it occur? Before WC moves? After her turn? End or beginning of a round? I'm also worried that moving 5 trees at a time might be a bit strong. It's smart that you can only move them one space each, but it's not difficult to make bottlenecks on certain maps.

Creepers:
Blind Advance reads a little weird. To me at least, it reads as if you can't make an attack at all if you have height on another figure. Perhaps "Creepers do not receive an additional attack die when attacking with height advantage unless a large or huge Wildwood hero has clear line of sight on the targeted figure" would be better. I like the idea a lot thought as well as Connected Organism

Ancient
This one seems a little less focused. It has a weird risky burst option in Forest Guardian which while cool, seems disconnected, especially sense it doesn't mesh well with CotAF, as that prevents you from using the attack benefit. And it has a respawning ability that steps on the toes a little bit of the Caretaker. Perhaps changing it so that instead of respawning, you add to the Creeper's Fertile Growth roll? Or provides some other benefit to other WildWood respawning abilities like healing them as they come back or something?

All these add some variety to a faction that could really use it and I like what I see. It's a good sign when reading through a set of customs that I start imagining different strategies, army builds and scenarios with them!
I really appreciate your feedback. I've iterated on the designs today. You are absolutely right about the previous version of the Ancient. It was weird and was not fun in testing. I think the new version fits better thematically and opens up a lot of tactical gameplay options.

Another major change in the new iteration of the Wildwoods is the inclusion of synergy with the Elian Sidhe. Currently, they are a bit of a weak, loner squad in the C3V, but they fit in perfectly with the Wildwoods thematically. Tying these factions together in lore and gameplay should allow them to shine in more scenarios, and open up more drafting options and interesting gameplay choices for the Wildwoods. Looking forward to testing these out more!
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