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The Book of Brandis Skyhunter

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no baby bump - false alarm!
The Book of Brandis Skyhunter
Champions of the Forgotten Realms - Collection D1 - Heroes of the Faerun

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Spoiler Alert!
If you cannot see the Army Card graphic, check the Heroscapers Gallery for stats and special powers, plus "character biography" and other non-game unit info.

Heroscape Character Bio: (from Truth's front-page description) :
Brandis is a Half-Elf summoned by Ullar. He’s adept at tracking those that use the trees to hide their advance. With his SKY WATCHER power, he adds 2 attack dice against Flying figures, and with ARCHER’S GLORY he takes a free turn every time he destroys a non-adjacent unique hero, so look out if your army focuses on flying figures!

SKY WATCHER
If Brandis Skyhunter is attacking a non-adjacent figure that has the Flying or Stealth Flying special power, add 2 dice to Brandis Skyhunter's attack.

ARCHER'S GLORY
Each time Brandis Skyhunter destroys an opponent's non-adjacent Unique Hero, you may take another turn with Brandis Skyhunter.
_________________________________________________________________
-Rulings and Clarifications-
"Half-Elf" vs. "Elf"
Q. The card says Brandis is a "half-elf." Does that mean he gets synerg--
A. No (and you should really know better). ;)

SKY WATCHER vs. NEGATION
Q. Does Brandis's SKYWATCHER Special Ability give him an Attack bonus against figures whose flying ability has been negated, either by a wind glyph or by Morsbane's ROD OF NEGATION Special Ability?
A. No. Brandis loses the bonus against negated fliers, which previous rulings have stated should be treated like non-flying figures for abilities such as Jotun's THROW 14.
_________________________________________________________________
-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received
- ACOLARH : Ullar’s Amulet
As a follower of Ullar, Brandis Skyhunter may benefit from Acolarh’s ULLAR’S AMULET movement bonus.
Synergy Benefits Offered
NA
_________________________________________________________________
-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-
TBA
_________________________________________________________________
-Heroscapers Community Contributions-


Power Rankings

Jexik: Brandis Skyhunter- Well, he might do well in cleanup, or to try to assassinate a Dragon, until they engage him. Bring rats. C+

OEAO: C+

Cleon: Tier 1 (204/208)

dok (VC inclusive): C+

Master Index
Brandis Skyhunter Pre-Release Discussion
Brandis Skyhunter the Half-Elf and synergy

Unit Strategy Review
-TBA
brandis.gif

(Thanks to LordRaidor for the image.)
 
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My initial thought on Brandis wasn't too positive. I assumed Syvarris was better, but Brandis is great for counter-drafting!

Also, his 6 move might be the deciding factor between height advantage and no height advantage.

This guy imposes a threat on Charos, come on!
 
I really, really, just one time, want to see this guy kill Cyprien Esenwein, take another turn and kill the broken-hearted Sonya, then take another turn and get their daughter if she's on the board, too. Then, I really can call him Van Helsing.
 
You give Brandis Holy Glyph of Pelor (attack +2 vs. undead), have him kill CYprein with it, then Sonya, then Iskra, if she doesn't have Rechets on board, then Marcu.
 
I'm a little annoyed at his 5 range. Seems pretty short for an archer. His 6 move partially makes up for his forgetting to pull the string back all the way, but it's still only a threat range of 11.
 
OKay, so if the flier is negated then the Brandis won't get the bonus because he won't ever get his power back. But what if Someone had the wind glyph (the wind glyph makes flying impossible for all figures as long as someone is standing on it) Would the same rules apply, at least for the duration that the wind glyph power is in current use?
 
According to the Glossary of Glyphs thread, the wind glyph text says that all figures with the Flying special power "lose this power" while standing on the glyph. That would imply to me that Brandis wouldn't get the bonus while that glyph is being utilized.
 
According to the Glossary of Glyphs thread, the wind glyph text says that all figures with the Flying special power "lose this power" while standing on the glyph. That would imply to me that Brandis wouldn't get the bonus while that glyph is being utilized.

Allright, so in any situation where a figure is unable to fly Brandis won't get his ability, weather it be negation or wind glyph.
 
Direct quote from the FAQ:

FAQ said:
Jotun can only throw “non-flying” figures. If the wind glyph is in play and activated, or if Morsbane has negated the figure’s special
powers, and figure cannot fly, are they considered “non-flying” figures and can Jotun throw them?

Yes on both counts. Flying figures are considered non-flying once the wind glyph is activated. When Morsbane negates a figure’s flying ability, they are also considered non-flying.”

Based on this logic Brandis would not get his bonus. :(
 
I tried playing a couple of games with Brandis and it is difficult to get "Sky Watcher" to help for more than one turn. With the range of 5, Brandis typically will get only one "Sky Watcher" shot against the flying figure before the flying figure gets adjacent to Brandis. Dragons, Cyprien, or even a Sentinel or Minion can close the distance and take away the extra attack dice.
 
He might be able to earn back his Points against a Dragon or against the Esenweins, or if you're able to wound a few heroes and then use him to clean them up. That's about it.

I've found he's decent at being a heat-seeking, OM-Hogging missile at the beginning of the game. He goes straight for the flying cheerleaders everyone knows and loves. If you have to take disengagement to attack, do it. It may leave you in a less dominant map control position, but at the same time depriving the opponent of a Raelin, or putting big wounds on a Nilf can be worth it.

Other than this, so far I haven't been able to finagle him into even casual play...

...But I'll keep trying. maybe the community will find a solid slot for him to be in.
 
He was the last figure standing in a game some of my friends played last weekend. He took over after Sonlen died and killed two Izumi Samurai that had engaged him to win the game.

~Dysole, who notes that Brandis did win with one life left so it wasn't an amazing showing, but he did win...
 
Probably my least favorite new character. His range is sad, he gets very little synergy. Id take Sylvaris over Brandis any day just based on Sylvaris's range and the double attack. I was hoping he would be able to benefit form Acolarh or Kyntela Gwyn, but they must be prejudice against Half-elves. Brandis needs to file an injunction with the NAAHE to get a better bow, acceptance from his elven brethren, or even reduce his cost to match his overall usefulness... We know hes a Half-elf, just too bad the other half is halfhearted...
 
I played a game with a Hydra army (including Kelda and Raelin) against a friend.
He used Brandis in his army and was very effective. He put the final wounds on Raelin and glorifyingly rained fire down on Kelda. That turn was the watershed point of the battle. Though the Hydra kill Brandis on my next turn the Hydra's cheerleaders where dead and his remaining army was able to decapitate the Hydra head by head.
 
I played a game with a Hydra army (including Kelda and Raelin) against a friend.
He used Brandis in his army and was very effective. He put the final wounds on Raelin and glorifyingly rained fire down on Kelda. That turn was the watershed point of the battle. Though the Hydra kill Brandis on my next turn the Hydra's cheerleaders where dead and his remaining army was able to decapitate the Hydra head by head.

I've found he's decent at being a heat-seeking, OM-Hogging missile at the beginning of the game. He goes straight for the flying cheerleaders everyone knows and loves. If you have to take disengagement to attack, do it. It may leave you in a less dominant map control position, but at the same time depriving the opponent of a Raelin, or putting big wounds on a Nilf can be worth it

So Brandis is pretty effective as a Martyr? Sacrifice him early in the game for the greater good of the army. :lol: Poor expendable Brandis.
 
I also played against Brandis with an army comprised of Atlaga and Minions. He wasn't a martyr in that game. It was a very effective use of counterdrafting.
 
From all the talk it seems like his real job was to be a counter draft to the cheerleaders. He might have been designed that way so that Kelda and the others were less helpful. 5 attach on 3 defense is pretty good.

He's still slightly overpriced, but he's developing quite a niche, Air Elementals get thinned out by him very VERY well. all Kyrie heroes get busted (Runa, Atlaga, Cheersquad...etc). I'd be really interested to see if he could catch Mimiring or Othkurik out of place as he'd put some hurt on.

One of the best moves I've seen with him so far was a tricky OM placement (everyone at the table thought it was an X) on him; he snuck up and dropped an Air Elemental, Archer's Glory'd a second Air Elemental, and slink'd off onto high ground to wait his next opportunity.

He's really not too bad, I just wish he was even 10 less points as he'd be a very nasty 80 point hero.

I hate to say it, because I think Elemental killing would be a really cool way to Archer's Glory your way through an army, but sadly, the power only works on unique (and uncommon) heroes.

~Aldin, who still very much likes him in the anti-Kyrie role

:footinmouth: Whoops!

I had forgotten about that, in that game we were playing with a Braxas, and since she was required to roll for 17+ on the elementals, we treated them as uncommon heroes.

Oh well, thank you Aldin for the clarification. Leaving my post un-edited so those can learn from my mistake.
 
My feelings on Brandis changed today. I realized a problem with him, and that is how his abilities require the enemy to not be adjacent. If you can get him set up with height at max range against an engaged flying opponent, he'll get one good attack in. That's nice. The problem is the opponent is going to engage him and that takes away all of his abilities. If the words "non-adjacent" where taken out he'd be much better off. I also think that if he where a scout he would be quite a bit better.
I tried making him work in every game that I played in the tournament I went to today, but I just fealt at every chance I gave him he fell flat. Now Arkmer on the other hand can be a real major player.
 
I don't want to come off as putting down DnDScape, but I think Brandis is another one of those DnD characters that is kind of neat in his own way, moderately useful in a dungeon crawl, but doesn't really have a role to fulfill in a classic match.
Brandis is better than some of the others, but figures like the Feral Troll, and the Erevan really don't offer much worth having in even a mildly competitive setting.

If he had been an elf, or a scout, or both, he definately would have been more useful.
 
in my opinion he seems pretty much just suited as a cheerleader killer. with similar cost (to raelin and kelda) he can be a useful counter draft. probably won't see as much play in prebuilt armies. man i just wish this guy had frenzy instead of archer's glory :(
 
I don't want to come off as putting down DnDScape, but I think Brandis is another one of those DnD characters that is kind of neat in his own way, moderately useful in a dungeon crawl, but doesn't really have a role to fulfill in a classic match.
Well, I never liked any of the Ninjas, except for Isamu.
There are other heroes that don't see much play either.
I guess Heroscape has always given us a mix of characters. Some are competitive, some are of medium strength, some are situational.
Of the situational ones, some will always appeal more to certain players than others. Brandis is certainly not on the bottom of my list.
 
This s the Rev deletes posts hurrah, hurrah.
That little post says bye-bye hurrah, hurrah.
My post will continue to go hurrah, hurrah.

There was a time when I used Brandis to keep my slow knights from being killed by a bunch of flying guys. I sent him out knowing that my opponent was thinking "Oh, crap". It's fun to knock out Raelin with one shot thanks to a whiff. Then went a little thought, "Hey I should kill a squaddie now that I got so lucky". Whiffs happened a lot that battle.
 
I still think Atlaga is almost always better than Brandis. Not only is there the Witherwood potential but a ranged Flyer is pretty good too.
 
I still think Atlaga is almost always better than Brandis. Not only is there the Witherwood potential but a ranged Flyer is pretty good too.

When all we were talking about was one-shotting Raelin I had to agree. Truth is though, that Brandis has more speed, more life, kills Raelin more quickly 70% of the time, and gets an extra turn when he does. Brandis is more consistent than Atlaga and is THE guy I want for 90 points against opposing low defense heroes.

~Aldin, half-elvishly
 
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