Dr. G's Customs 2.0

[Dr.Goomonkey]

As you may know, I recently got some miniatures from @Sir Heroscape on the Pay it Forward thread. A good portion of those miniatures were demons... You know what that means!


I also recently got Oblivion, so these guys are based off the imps in that.

Spoiler Alert!

Sparkspell Imps
Demon
Common Squad
Minion
Tricky
Small 3
Life 1
Move 4
Range 1
Attack 2
Defense 3
Negation Bolt Special Attack
Range 4. Attack 3.
Start the game with one brown Negation Marker on this Army Card (or cards...). When a figure receives at least one wound and is not destroyed by Negation Bolt Special Attack, you may move the Negation Marker from this Army Card to that figure's Army Card. All of that figure's special powers are negated while the Negation Marker remains on their Army Card. Move the Negation Marker back onto this card after an order marker is revealed on that figure's Army Card and a turn is taken with that figure, or at the end of the round. Wizards and Clerics roll 1 fewer defense dice when defending against Negation Bolt Special Attack. Sparkspell Imps may only use Negation Bolt Special Attack once per round.
Flying
Points 50(?)




Also, there are a couple of @IshMEL 's demons that I own the figures for, and they look pretty cool; so I think I'm going to include them with mine.

Spoiler Alert!

[Pumpkin_King]

I love the imps! Negation bolt is interesting, for sure.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Isn't this "Hill Giant Chief" a great looking mini? Even complete with snot, but the bundle of sticks is a little lackluster.
Not anymore.

Spoiler Alert!

BOOMSTICK

Bob Oom
Giant
Unique Hero
Warhulk
Reckless
Huge 8
Life 8
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 7
Defense 4 (apparently giants have to have defense 4)
BOOMSTICK
Bob Oom starts the game with one Boomstick Marker on this card. After making a normal attack, if Bob Oom rolls 4 or more skulls, you may (must?) roll the 20-sided die. If you an 14 or higher, all figures within two spaces of the defending figure receive 2 wounds*, and remove the Boomstick Marker from this card. If the Boomstick Marker is not on this card, Bob Oom rolls one fewer attack die and cannot use Boomstick.
BOOM-BOOM TOUGH
Whenever Bob Oom receives wounds from a Special Power or Special Attack, he receives one fewer wounds.
Points 200(?)

*I'm also thinking "...all figures adjacent to the defending figure or BoBoom...", but I like the big area of effect., and the quasi-range 3.

[TheAverageFan]

I do love that mini, and the paint job really twists the theme nicely. He's scary based on his base stats alone. Does the defending figure receive the wounds as well from Boomstick?

~TAF

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

I do love that mini, and the paint job really twists the theme nicely. He's scary based on his base stats alone. Does the defending figure receive the wounds as well from Boomstick?

~TAF

Hmm, I was thinking yes. It would be interesting if they did not, however. His base stats are a bit up there, but I also think they are right where they are. Lowering his attack by two after his Boomstick goes off might be better, but also I think with that he should have to roll for it.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

A couple of days ago Bob Oom and Zirnelkies both got played for the first time. Zirnelkis seemed very well balanced, helped to web trap an Omnicron and ran around doing some damage. Climbing is a super helpful power, thanks PK.

I don't know about Bob, but this performance was definitely not a good judge of him. He whiffed on his first attack against a Stinger, then got 6 skulls and blew up his boomstick, killing only that one Stinger (maybe that was a bit too reckless to attempt). He only got one normal attack on the Hive and did one or two damage. Lesson learned: Murphy's Law works wonders with Bob's Boomstick.

Bob Oom

Spoiler Alert!

Giant
Unique Hero
Warhulk
Reckless
Huge 8
Life 8
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 7
Defense 4 (apparently giants have to have defense 4)
BOOMSTICK
Bob Oom starts the game with one Boomstick Marker on this card. After making a normal attack, if Bob Oom rolls 4 or more skulls, you may (must?) roll the 20-sided die. If you an 14 or higher, all figures within two spaces of the defending figure receive 2 wounds*, and remove the Boomstick Marker from this card. If the Boomstick Marker is not on this card, Bob Oom rolls one fewer attack die and cannot use Boomstick.
BOOM-BOOM TOUGH
Whenever Bob Oom receives wounds from a Special Power or Special Attack, he receives one fewer wounds.
Points 200(?)

Zirnelkis

Spoiler Alert!

Arachnid
Unique Hero
Predator
Wild
Medium 4
Life 4
Move 7
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 3
Web Trap
Start the game with 4 Web Spaces on this Army Card. After moving and before attacking, you may choose one land space within 3 clear sight spaces of Zirnelkis. If there is a figure on the chosen space, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 15 or higher or there is no figure on the space, place a Web Space on that space. Non-arachnid figures on a Web Space are trapped. Trapped figures cannot move off of the Web Space (two-spaced figures may move as long as one space remains on the Web Space). The trapped figure can move off the Web Space only if a friendly figure occupies an adjacent space. Add 5 to your roll for Entangling Web if the chosen figure is on a Web Space.
Climbing
When climbing up levels of terrain, count every four levels as one movement point. When climbing, you may triple Zirnelkis' height.
Points 75

[Sheep]

Thanks for playing the game with me yesterday! I had a lot of fun. A few things about Bob Oom (as promised ):

-I like the 7 life we used yesterday. And odd number for an odd figure.

-I'm trying to word Boomstick so that rolling the D20 happens after the defending figure rolls defense dice. Unless that's not what you want. Maybe the defending figure doesn't roll defense and just takes the two wounds.

-A problem with the 2 spaces is that one of those spaces could theoretically be on top of a castle space, which would be a theme break for an explosion. However, if you add in a clear sight restriction if the defending figure is turned away from his friendlies, his friendlies aren't affected, which is a worse theme break.

-It's curiously fascinating that the Boomstick affects more area if it whacks a double-spaced figure.

-I think the D20 roll for Boomstick should be lower, maybe even an 8. Leaves Bob less room to whack hard, and like you said, when he does, odds are that the stick is gonna blow. (Maybe increase the amount of skulls to 5.)

-I moved a couple things around for Boomstick to read a little more fluently.

-I like the two fewer attack over one fewer attack. Shows that he really relies on the Boomstick.

-I added "one or more" to Boom-Boom Tough just to keep that wording in line with precedent (Microcorp Agents).

So here's my jab at wording both powers (along with the numbers I think work well):

BOOMSTICK
Bob Oom starts the game with one Boomstick Marker on this card. After rolling attack dice, if Bob Oom rolled at least 5 skulls, immediately roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-7, the defending figures rolls defense dice normally. If you roll an 8 or higher, remove the Boomstick Marker from this card. The defending figure does not roll defense dice and instead the defending figure and all figures who are within 2 spaces of the defending figure whose bases are no more than 8 levels above the defending figure's height or 8 levels below the defending figure’s base receive 2 wounds. If the Boomstick Marker is not on this card, Bob Oom rolls two fewer attack dice and cannot use Boomstick.

BOOM-BOOM TOUGH
When Bob Oom receives one or more wounds from a special power or special attack, he receives one less wound.

As you told me, the theme with the boomstick is that it explodes if Bob Oom hits his opponent too hard. As he is right now, 4 skulls is considered a "big hit". The problem I see is that there's a 50% chance of rolling at least 4 skulls with 7 dice. That's a lot of "big hits". Now with all these "big hits" you would think the boomstick would explode often - except it doesn't. It's explodes on a 15 or higher, or just 30%, so less often than the times he his having "big hits". Combined it makes the explosion happen 15% of the time.

Requiring 5 skulls makes the big hits less likely to happen (just over 20% of the time), and the lower D20 roll makes the big hits more likely to explode the boomstick (65% of the time). Combined there's just over a 14% chance (1 of every 7 attacks) that the Boomstick will explode each game, which is on par to where the numbers are right now, just more fittingly to the theme, IMO.

I'm not sure how this would affect his points, if in any way, yet. Hope that's useful!

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Thanks @heroscaper2010 ! It was quite a fun game. I like just about all of your input as well, the lower number for exploding while needing 5 skulls makes sense... I really like your breakdown of the stats there, too.

The restrictions on the explosion and explicitly starting that Boom-Boom Tough works on special attacks are definitely going on there.

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by Dr.Goomonkey

Thanks @heroscaper2010 ! It was quite a fun game. I like just about all of your input as well, the lower number for exploding while needing 5 skulls makes sense... I really like your breakdown of the stats there, too.

The restrictions on the explosion and explicitly starting that Boom-Boom Tough works on special attacks are definitely going on there.

Do you have time today to play? I'd probably have to start by 2. Just let me know. I'd love to help you keep pushing Bob forward playtestinh wise.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Well, I might as well post the current, possibly final, version of Bob.

Bob Oom
Giant
Unique Hero
Warhulk
Reckless
Huge 8
Life 7
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 7
Defense 4
BOOMSTICK
Bob Oom starts the game with one Boomstick Marker on this card. After rolling attack dice, if Bob Oom rolled at least 5 skulls, immediately roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-7, the defending figures rolls defense dice normally. If you roll an 8 or higher, remove the Boomstick Marker from this card. The defending figure does not roll defense dice and instead the defending figure and all figures who are within 2 spaces of the defending figure whose bases are no more than 8 levels above the defending figure's height or 8 levels below the defending figure’s base receive 2 wounds. If the Boomstick Marker is not on this card, Bob Oom rolls two fewer attack dice and cannot use Boomstick.

BOOM-BOOM TOUGH
When Bob Oom receives one or more wounds from a special power or special attack, he receives one less wound.
Points 190

Big thanks to heroscaper2010 for all the playtesting and power tweaking on this guy! Boomstick words good.

[flameslayer93]

Pretty nice unit, and (final?) revision. It's hard to gauge a good cost for this fellow, but 190 should be about right. Charging him into some big group can do a lot of damage. Even if his bomb doesn't go off, he still has great defensive stats so that when the group swarms him, he should get another go at it. He suffers against range, but most melee only units do.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

In light of the update to my repainting thread, I thought I'd pull this one back to the front page too. Since the Bloodletters and Gatekeepers are actually painted now, they got played with a few times.

First impressions are that they are good. The Bloodletters did well, but I think 40 for 2 is more reasonable. Babauligos being 100 points seems low, considering he is a Kato Katsuro type figure, but in practice seem reasonable. Boosting his price and lowering the other Demon heroes' prices might be justified. I think the Gatekeepers are about right. The Imps have seen no action, and that'll probably stay that way for a while... Here's some more in depth rambling about each of them, and the games.

Babauligos

Spoiler Alert!

Demon
Unique Hero
Marquis
Militaristic
Medium 4
Life 4
Move 5
Range 1 4
Attack 3
Defense 2
Demon Command
After revealing an Order Marker on Babauligos, and instead of taking a turn with the Babauligos you may take a turn with two differently named Demon Army Cards in your army.
Acid Blood Slime
When Babauligos receives a wound from a normal attack from an adjacent figure, all skulls rolled count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.
100 points

Even though this guy has been in every game with the demons, he either doesn't see combat or dies pretty much as soon as he does. Bumping up his points could be good, and that would allow the other two heroes here to be cheaper. I bumped his range up to 4 mostly because it feels right with the sculpt and theme... Mechanically that has gone untested so far but I think will give him a little more of a chance at turning the game around should his army fail him.

Beliazal

Spoiler Alert!

Demon
Unique Hero
Brute
Tormented
Medium 6
Life 5
Move 6
Range 1
Attack 4
Defense 3
Ram Charge
When attacking with Beliazal, if the defending figure was not adjacent to Beliazal at the start of this turn, Beliazal receives 2 additional attack dice, if he moved at least 3 spaces. If Ram Charge is active and the defending figure rolls defense dice and is not destroyed by Beliazal, you may knock the figure back by placing it on any space adjacent to its current location and not adjacent to Beliazal. The space must be on the same level as or lower than its current location. A figure moved by Ram Charge never takes any leaving engagement attacks. A non-flying figure moved lower by Ram Charge can receive any falling damage that may apply.
Frightening Presence
Common figures attacking Beliazal with a normal attack subtract 1 from their attack dice.
120 points

120 seems a little high for this guy. He's scary, but he isn't Krug scary... 100 would probably be better, maybe even 90... Comparing him to Ne-Gok-Sa, I would take Ne-Gok-Sa.

Nelchom

Spoiler Alert!

Demon
Unique Hero
Marquis
Terrifying
Medium 6(not confirmed)
Life 4
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 3
Face of Death
After moving and before attacking, you may choose a figure adjacent to Nelchom. Roll the 20-sided die. If the figure is common add 7 to your roll. If you roll an 18-19 the figure receives one wound. If you roll a 20 destroy the figure.
Stealth Flying
When counting spaces for Nelchom’s movement, ignore elevations. Nelchom may fly over water without stopping, pass over figures without becoming engaged, and fly over obstacles such as ruins. When Nelchom starts to fly, if he is engaged he will not take any leaving engagement attacks.
110 Points

Nelchom has seen a few games before this recent batch. He seems very reasonable, actually. The card I have has Stealth Flying on it, so I changed this version to that. It thematically is his version of Frightening Presence, and enables him to really hunt down targets with Face of Death.

Bloodletter and Gatekeeper figures:

Spoiler Alert!

The two black ones are the Gatekeepers, if you couldn't guess.

The Gatekeepers

Spoiler Alert!

Demon
Unique Squad (2)
Guard
Merciless
Medium 5
Life 1
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 4
GATE OF ACHERON
A Gatekeeper may target any figure adjacent to either Gatekeeper for an attack. Friendly figures occupying the same space as one Gatekeeper may move onto any empty space adjacent to either Gatekeeper. That first sentence makes these guys too scary. There should be some penalty for leaving one in your start zone.
ACHERON SACRIFICE
When a Gatekeeper is targeted for an attack and receives enough wounds to be destroyed, you may destroy one friendly figure adjacent to the other Gatekeeper to ignore all wounds inflicted by that attack.
Points 70.

Demon Bloodletters

Spoiler Alert!

Demon
Common Squad (2)
Bloodletters
Wild
Medium 5
Life 1
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 3
Defense 3
LET THE BLOOD FLOW
If the Bloodletters destroy at least one figure with their normal attacks this turn, you may attack again with any two Bloodletters you control. You may continue attacking with two Bloodletters until they do not destroy a figure. A Bloodletter cannot attack again if it has already destroyed a figure this turn. Even though that last sentence makes them sound more balanced, they aren't OP without it, and it doesn't feel right.
BLOODLETTING BRIGADE
If no Bloodletters attacked this turn, you may move up to two Bloodletters who did not move this turn.
Points 50 40.

The two games I played recently with these guys were pretty different from each other. The first one was 4xBloodletters, Gatekeepers, Babauligos, and Beliazal vs. 2xRomans, Marcus, Q10, and 1xDeathstalkers. The Bloodletters and Beliazal took out the Romans, but Q10 came in and took out the remaining Bloodletters with ease, and the game ended without the Deathstalkers even having to move.

The next game was Babauligos, Nelchom, 4xBloodletters, Gatekeepers, and Grimslake (he didn't get used, you can see him in the OP if you're curious though) vs. 2xGrok Riders, Ne-Gok-Sa, Me-Burq-Sa, and Kee-Mo-Shi. First of all, the Marro army wasn't played very well. Second of all, the Demons absolutely dominated. After getting a Gatekeeper positioned, the Bloodletters and Nelchom were free to bring destruction practically uncontested. I think Nelchom did die, but it was extremely brutal.

I don't think the second game was a very good test, but it might show that 50 points is reasonable for the Bloodletters.



On a technical thread note, a lot of my cards were lost when SumoPaint dumped all of my pictures... I'll make them up again at some point soon, and I'll definitely back them up this time.