Fishfood or Asset?

Of the official units, there are 3 Gladiator Heroes. So many people give massive credit to the staying power of Crixus, and they are not without reason. But, similar to Rudolph, there is a Gladiator who is mostly shunned. And he goes by the name, Retiarius (and yes, I had to look at the card to make sure I spelled that right).

The easy way to make sure you get the most out of your Retiarius? Read through the article and the replies found here. Now then, if you want to hear other, not so rational strategies with him, keep reading.

There is a huge reason why the designers talked so well about Steamroller (the army that consists of Spartacus, Crixus and 3 squads of Capuans). It is brutal! But, it has been pondered...and pondered...and pondered...if Retiarius could actually make a decent sub for Crixus. Having done this myself, I'd say it works to a degree. Against low attack enemies, Retiarius' boosted defense (a wimpy 3 to a manly 4) as well as his very high attack power, can easily crush many enemies. But, against foes with 3 or more attack power, Crixus is usually the better choice. Because the "metagame" doesn't quite encourage 2 attack melee units, Crixus quickly comes into play as the superior Gladiator.

But, when your not playing in the metagame, if your using 600 or so points, you could even have all 3 Gladiators and as many squads of Capuans you can add!

There are a few units that Crixus isn't quite suited to fight. Of course, most of these units could be manhandled by the Capuan Gladiators, but sometimes the extra attack power will be of use. And in 600+ point games, these types of enemies tend to pop up more often.

To start, I'll look at HeroScape's very own Dracula: Cyprien! When it comes to that nasty Chilling Touch power, neither Spartacus nor Crixus want to see what happens on a 20. Even worse, Cyprien can actually be a real pain in the ass if you just charge in your Capuans. That's where Retiarius comes into play. The Net Trip power works very well with Retiarius' 5 attack (which should be getting a boost thanks to Spartacus). In fact, because the chance to inflict a near-kill versus Cyprien, if the Capuans can make it to the vampire, you've just made a serious dent in your enemy with a single turn!

Einar Imperium backed with Empress Kiova and possibly Raelin: Well, the fact that Crixus really hates Double Attack, and the fact that they are a squad of 3, Crixus shouldn't charge them. That trident-wielding guy, Ret-whataver, should do nicely. Yes, the Einar Imperium will likely filet Retiarius, but if Retiarius can engage Kiova...and then the Capuans can engage her...well the rest is Fish-story. 

The Undead Queen, Sudema, is a nasty threat to the life of Spartacus and Crixus. Just wipe her up with 1 part Retiarius, 2 parts Capuans (as in 2 figures, not 2 squads), and 1 part Skulls-on-dice. Feel free to top this treat with whipped cream.

Vakrill's Death Knights are really nasty towards Gladiators with their Soul Weapons and the opportunity to bond with the Air Elementals. Any D&D lover should have a ball if they faced the Steamroller. Crixus can be used to great effect if he's receiving the +1 defense boost from Spartacus. Although his defense rate will only be 2, his One Shield Defense power can protect Spartacus from those Soul Weapons. The real issue is when Crixus and Capuans just can't break through the walls of wind and some defense boosted Death Knights (Raelin, for example). That's when your going to need an expendable hit-man. Retiarius works well in this setting. When you send in Crixus, as per the usual Steamroller Strategy of also moving up the gladiator heroes who get left behind, also send up Retiarius. If the enemy targets Retiarius, just rush him in to do some sort of damage. If your opponent attacks Crixus, have crixus go after the Air Elementals while Retiarius cuts away Death Knights and deals heavy damage to a key hero. Either way, your opponent will have a high attack hero and numerous Capuan Gladiators breathing down their necks.

Rats! Okay, the Deathreavers, but Rats! is a much more appropriate term for these annoyances. When your gladiator based army sees these soulborgs and some sort of lethal ranged unit, like Major Q9 or Syvarris, you'd better be prepared to a slugfest. Now then, Retiarius can actually be of use against this sort of army (which is classified as a Control Army). By having him attack the rats with Net Trip, you knock out a Deathreaver. Okay, so Retiarius did 10 points of damage to your opponent's army and will probably be attacked by the enemy ranged unit. Is that all? Certainly not, this is when Crixus does his best to circle around the wall of Deathreavers while Retiarius' Net pretty much guarentees instant death to a rat. The Capuans that are accompanying Retiarius should not attack the Deathreavers unless they have some sort of attack bonus, excluding Gladiator Inspiration. You don't want Crixus to get engaged until the enemy Deathreaver count starts to dwindle. If a Deathreaver does engage him, you can risk the leaving engagement strike if your primary target is within the 7 spaces of his threat range. From this point, go for the kill!

And although this attack-oriented Gladiator still has more secrets to unveil, that's all I can give for the moment. We have more to learn, and until next time: 'Scape On.

Making them Unique

Unique Squads have long been a lesser designed type of unit in 'Scape. After the 1st Master Set (Rise of the Valkyrie), the Game designers only made a handful of Unique Squads.

Although I put some of my opinions in this thread, this blog posting will continue where I left off.

The original Unique Squads from Rise of the Valkyrie I shall consider to be the purest of all Squads. These were the Squads whom the original designers based every other around. Even today, most if not all of them are relevant units. For competitive play, the Krav Maga Agents are still a terror. Even the Tarn Viking Warriors, as slow as they are, can be a nice melee filler squad with a few nifty army options.

Of the Unique Squads who were designed later, many of them tend to have a slightly weaker style of fighting, but that comes with powers that are also much better than simple bonding (which is a useful option, but does get kinda boring, and as Therion stated, "Everyone and their Viking Champion brother has bonding"). The Nakita Agents, for example, had bonding; but that bonding only allowed moving Gorillanators. Their Smoke Powder and their Engagement Strike power both suggested a defensive unit, not unlike the original Agent Squad, the Krav Maga. The Kozuke Samurai and the Tagawa Samurai were both offensive terrors on the battlefield, pending specific circumstances.

Those who've spoken with me know I'm more about the "Fun" aspect of HeroScape rather than the competitive one. Winning is nice and all, but there's still something to be said about losing your main assault hero and another hero in the same game to the magical wonders of Ne-Gok-Sa. A certain LeftOn4Ya would know more about this, I'm sure. And, I happen to find playing Unique Squads very fun and challenging. No wonder I've made 2 killer common squads recently... But at least 1 of them can bond with a Unique Squad, so it's good right? Right?

That's all I've got for now. 'Scape On.

Epic Warfare!!!!!!!!

This is a battle report using the hilariously overpowered Melbu Frahma custom who has been modified to 480 points.

This unit was designed by TheKingsRook and I.

The Battle is up against...

8 Teams of Marro Stingers!!!

P1:
Melbu Frahma (480)
1 space

P2:
Marro Stingers x8
24 spaces

Round 1: Player 2 wins initiative...
End of Round Results: 5 Dead Stingers, 1 wound on Melbu

Round 2: Player 2 wins initiative...
End of Round Results: 10 Dead Stingers, 4 wounds on Melbu

Round 3: Player 1 wins initiative...
The Stingers knock out a life!
End of Round Results: 17 Dead Stingers, 3 Lives Left, 1 wound on Melbu

Round 4: Player 1 wins initiative...
End of Round Results: 5 Dead Stingers, 3 Lives Left, 2 wounds on Melbu

Round 5: Player 1 wins initiative...
Melbu Wins!
End of Game Results: 24 Dead Stingers, 3 Lives Left, 3 Wounds on Melbu

Special Thanks: Therion

Why I Love to Hate the Earth Elemental

An article pertaining to what makes the Earth Elemental a piece that should be fielded with a specific purpose:

The Earth Elemental always seems to be the 1 Elemental who gets drafted last in a Kurrok and Elements army, if at all (when he is not drafted, he'll often become a proxy to another element). Even I scarcely employ him. Simply put, it is quite difficult for this guy to do anything of extreme value like the massive damage a Fire can put onto the enemy, or map control like the Air Elementals can do. Even the Water Elementals are good on water-based maps, and even then they have range! Because the Earth Elemental is worth 35 points, I really need to try to derive some way to use him.

It may be about time to try comparing him to each individual elemental. Good luck Rocky!

Fire Elemental (35 points)
I'm going to start with most popular of the Elementals, at least at my games, the uber destructive Fire Elemental. The FE (Fire Elemental) has it's Searing Intensity Power, while the EE (Earth Elemental) has a Special Attack. As all of the FE's will use Searing Intensity, only activated EE's can use a Ground Slam. Both types of figures have to worry about Collateral Damage, but an army consisting of Kurrok and FE's doesn't have much to worry about. What could make the EE a bit better is that you can control the chaos.

Air Elemental (30 points)
There are 2 more Elementals to go, and the next one I'm going to compare the EE to is the Air Elemental. The Wind Vortex Power is cool in that it allows the AE (Air Elemental) to control the board (for the most part).  The 2 powers of the EE might account for "board control" but strictly a 2 space smaller radius. Even worse, this only deters enemies, rather than controlling their movements.

Water Elemental (30 points)
The last of the Elementals is up for comparison. As a pile of water, the Water Elemental can quickly traverse over water. The Underground Movement of the EE can somewhat match this, but it is most effective on hilly terrain. What really helps out the WE (Water Elemental) is it's range.

All of these comparisons seem to to show that the EE is like a watered down version of each of the other 3 Elementals.

Now then, there must be some way to find the true power of the Earth Elemental...

The first way to look at this guy, is in a draft scenario. When you see that your going to need something along the lines of a Swiss Army Knife, it may bee a good idea to use the EE instead of, say the AE. Also, in large scale games (think along the lines of 650+ points),  the Earth Elemental's Slam may be effective versus sleeping units, while the FE's would just burn the frak out of your own units. Also, the AE probably wouldn't stand up well, as too many Large or Huge figures find there way into these battles.

In team games, the Earth Slam could actually be useful. Why not try 300 points per player, in a 2 vs. 2 setting? Kurrok and 5 EE's while a partner has two teams of Protectors of Ullar and Thorgrim the Viking Champion could be effective because the Slam won't affect the kyrie while still affecting a small horde of enemy squad figures. If your playing against Kyrie, their base attack of 4 should strike through the enemy shields.

Don't forget Castle Siege Scenarios! An EE can move through the walls if it uses Underground movement. And unlike the AE, it can pose a real threat to the castle guard. Get to Slammin'!

In conclusion, the Earth Elemental is not a so-called A+ unit, but he is like everything else. He has shining moments, and it might be because of that, why he is worth just as much as a Fire Elemental. This can lead us to believe that the designers know what they are doing, whether we care to believe it or not.

'Scape On.

Special Thanks to: Chris Butler

Computer Glitches and Playtests and yada yada yada...

It might be a while before I get back on, as the video card is having a few...issues. Either way, for those who are reading, I have been keeping myself busy.

The Tarn Vanguard
He's in testing right now and a few more tests should give me an comfortable price.


Why I Love to Hate the Earth Elemental
A hand-written draft has been completed, look for it when I get back online.

Fish-food or Asset? You Decide!
A certain Gladiator gets a second chance at the 'Slayer Household.

Epic Warfare!!
I'm going to up a certain custom's price to 480 and pit them against 8 squads of Marro Stingers. Should be fun.

'Scape On.

Vanilla with Sprinkles

I like Vanilla Ice Cream. :)
Do you like Vanilla Ice Cream Sir Denrick?

Ummm... What is Vanilla Ice Cream?

Vanilla Ice Cream is delicious.

Ooh, ooh, I like Vanilla Ice Cream with Sprinkles!

Ne-Gok-Sa, this interview is not about you. Now shush.

OK...
___________________________________________
This was a short interview in order to derive at least one of the strategies that could, in theory, make Sir Denrick a monster on the battlefield. But, obviously having Sir Denrick envision that every enemy on the battlefield is Vanilla Ice Cream is not one of the best ideas. Ne-Gok-Sa on the other hand, might roll more 20's if he thinks the board is made of Vanilla Ice Cream... Maybe Sir Denrick likes Chocolate? I'll have to ask him later.

Sir Denrick is one of my favorite "Old Skool" heroes. Even if he doesn't have a use for his Giant Killer, he can be pretty Robust on the battlefield, so long as he has Knights backing him up -and- a fallback Human Champion so he can bond. But, the real draw of even bothering to draft Denrick is typically to use against Huge figures. For the most part, this line of reasoning can be further described here.

Why don't we look at other ideas, both official and otherwise, to make this Knight even more interesting to use?

As you can tell, unless your doing a draft game and someone pulls out a Huge figure, Sir Denrick isn't much more than a beat-stick with a power that really makes any opposing ranged figures annoyed. Maybe they get so annoyed at a charging knight with enough attack power to basically guarantee their doom and enough defense and life to survive at least a few raids? Using him to "attract attention" might not be such a bad idea, so long as in the end he makes a few kills. Regardless of strategy, let's notice what he doesn't have shall we?

 

 

So I listed all of the other Human Champions who both the Knights of Weston and the MacDirk Warriors can bond with. If you notice, 4 of the listed heroes have at least 1 power that supports the other units in your army directly. The other two figures have a "Attack everything in sight mentality". And those 2 both can fill vital roles in your army. Hawthorne can give you a Special Attack, because face it, normal attacks are boring. Alastair on the other hand, can boost the raw attacking power of the MacDirks simply by taking more and more turns. Of course, if Alastair dies, they go back to square one. Denrick, on the other hand only has a power that allows you a better chance versus HeroScape's biggest figures

As I said before, if you want to officially make Sir Denrick rock, try reading the How To article. That could give you some ideas. I shall take a look at one of the ideas I've heard of.

Giant Killer(revised): When Sir Denrick attacks a Large or Huge Figure, add 2 to his attack.

This change to Giant Killer certainly has a few advantages for the knight. It adds a lot of affected figures to his counter-pool. 26 figures is quite a lot of fresh new counters, especially when you consider what you get when you can counter them. Ulginesh is large, and really will not be happy if he saw Denrick coming in to close. The Templars, while not great, are also Large. Don't forget that the Arrow Grut boosting Swogs (and their Vanilla-flavored repaint Nerak) are Large. And once you take out the head, the body shall follow.

Another idea would be to in include customs that change strategies. My Throwers of the Tarn, are a great example of that.

They, when paired with the MacDirk Warriors, can actually create a use for Sir Denrick. Not only is Sir Denrick relatively durable, but after he makes his round against a Huge figure, he can flee with a few wounds and then send in the MacDirks and the Throwers to go on an expedition. Even better, is that neither the Throwers nor the MacDirks are really outfitted to take on a Huge Figure. After all, those guys are friggin' powerful!

So, in conclusion to this possibly unneeded blog, do you also like Vanilla Ice Cream?

Scape On.

The Start of a Plauge

For the Wave of Northern Assault, I've decided to dig into Warhammer to find ideas. And, I think I've just found some coll units in the Skaven!

Apparently, Skaven are like rat-folk who hate everything. They believe in their superiority to not only other races, but to each other as well. Even cooler is that they use technologies powered up with this stuff called Warpstone. It'll kill anything but a Skaven...and even they risk dying from it eventually.

These are going to be the grounds for a few of the customs. As is, a few ideas include:

Clanrat Soldiers
4 Skaven
Good Attack, low defense.
Scatter.
Some sort of power that will beef them up, bonding maybe?

Ratling Gun
A double-spaced gatling gun toting pair of ratmen.
Can attack many times at the risk of it exploding!

Grey Seer
A Hero for the Skaven.
Knows magic, and I'm thinking it will have a poisonous-like breath spell.
Average Attack/Defense.

So far, that's all I've got. Scape on.

The Throwers of the Tarn

They are the final result of old experimentation with this "Wild" personality that is so common in HeroScape. It's hard to deny that the units they boost could use a pick me up. They are...The Throwers of the Tarn.

A 2 man squad that is far from "Underpowered"

These guys were loosely based on a video game(not odd at all actually, at least not for me), and loosely based on mechanics.

I'll start from the video game perspective, mechanics can wait. In a game called Age of Empires: Mythologies (which I will refer to as AoE, for my convenience), the Norse are a playable culture. Now, I love the Norse because they have a good chunk of video games as well as the fact that the HeroScape storyline is heavily influenced by Norse culture. I played through a few skirmishes with each of the 3 cultures (and am in the process of going through the 2nd campaign), and studied the balance with each one. As you know, HeroScape is a strategy game with a few laughs mixed in so this extra "research" with AoE could also help my game a bit. In the Norse Culture, the units were almost all melee. Now in AoE, or any strategy game really, some sort of range is very valuable. So, I found my favorite unit in the Norse culture(after the heroes and monsters), the Throwing Axemen. In game, they had similar stats to their melee counterparts(with a bit less attack, mind you) as well as rather short range(for a ranged unit). Any range is better than no range after all!

Now for the mechanics! In AoE, it's obvious that taking a turn with all units you control is useful. Otherwise, when you end you day, you put yourself in a nasty predicament. Now then, I had to figure out a way to emulate that same effect in HeroScape, because otherwise a low ranged squad might not be much of a threat. Back to playing my game for "research" and ideas, I saw a few times where it was harder to max out the number of attacks you can make due to terrain reasons. I had to retreat numerous units to get combined or healed all while sending in fresh recruits. This made me come up with using the Throwers and a strong force to hammer in a foe.

Originally, before even a price or a completed power list was settled on, I had a thought to include the use of Heroes(particularly Vikings). The trouble? The fact that it's nearly impossible to differentiate Viking Heroes from Knight Heroes. So, relatively early on, that part got scrapped. But as far as Wild Jandar Humans go, I kept that, and it ain't going anywhere. So, in essence, I got the initial idea of "needs to be powerful" completed. The next part is obviously...

The stinking cheese rules! For goodness sakes, you can't take a single good squad bonding idea and keep it from becoming crispy bacon! Well, I thought I was through on them, then I got a sudden idea, "What about a 2 man squad?" The gears were set back in motion. From our current line-up of 2 man squads, nothing is particularly good. Of course, the Zettian Guards are fun and the Death Knights have some useful bonding, but neither paint the picture of "Major Q9" in your mind. Perfect, I say. Perfect.

It was at about this time that the Move/Range/Attack/Defense values also began popping up in my head. In fact, I based them off of the original Tarn Vikings themselves.

Perhaps one of my favorite uses for 50 extra points

I knew that I wanted to keep my Throwers on par or weaker than these guys, as it's not right to make a Common Squad stronger than its original Unique Squad. I decided on 4 movement, an amazing(for Vikings) 4 range, 2 attack power, and a Viking Standard of 4 defensive power. A good guy and regular chatting buddy on the HeroScape Facebook ChatRoom did make a suggestion to drop the defense by 1. And while yes, I can definitely understand his idea, like the TCU having 4 men, it makes them feel...wrong. They do have an amazingly small range in game(c'mon, 4 spaces?!?), and as such, if I made their main defense 3, it could theoretically get them smashed to bits by real ranged units. I'm not saying leaving a ranged unit with 4 defense is the best solution, but even the Zettian Guards have really big armor to protect them from guns and blades.

Yes, even the evil robots had a hand in the Throwers' creation

Leaving them with 4 movement would open up some prime opportunities for a movement bonus. A threat range of 8 is incredibly small, for a ranged unit anyways, and is only a little bigger than the common threat range of 6 for most melee units. Again, using the ChatRoom for my own amusement and custom-making, I heard some cool ideas about what the Vikings "needed" for their faction. Among them included bonding, range and another unit that uses the excellent Berserker Charge power. Little did they know that I already had the second one down. was working with the first(while it was in the Hero or Squad phase) and was about to feast on the last bit. See guys, you are useful to me!

The next step would be parameters, but as I had already long decided what those would be, I can actually skip this. All in a days work(or a couple of weeks of design). Sure, I had to fix the Berserker Charge power to only affect moving Throwers, but it's not hard to do in MSE. Chain bonding was fixed easily enough with the much more "card-game" sounding line of  "A Hero may not take a turn as a result of this power".

There was one missing thing(besides the figures). Points. Blasted, stinking points. I worked over and over to figure out where a good starting point would be. With range, and a combined set of base stats of 6, they would already be a bit expensive, but as they are a 2 person squad...well, let's just say that HeroScape doesn't have much room for a "base". So, I took a guess. Or at least, an educated guess. 50 points I say! Make them match their brother warriors in points, perhaps as a potential 100 point squad with a max of 6 attacks, they could be worth something on the battlefield. But, nope. A bit of logic told me that the Tarn Viking Warriors will still likely get slaughtered. Emphasis on the slaughtered. Sure, they have a lot of raw attack power (6 attacks is a lot!), but they have almost no mobility. Guns and smart kiting will wipe them out. Eventually, once 3 Tarns are down, the Viking Throwers will bond with themselves for 4 attacks of 4, and 2 chances for Berserker Charge, but with 1/2 the efficiency of a charge... Not as "army-like" as I'd like. So, the fit it in rule was out but then came the next rule. The "combination" rule. Or rather, "How much will this and this be worth?". If I put it together, does it make a strong army or a fun one? And while it can be great to make a fun army, I wanted something strong for the Viking Faction, so as they say, "less is more". I liked the 40 points per pairing I decided on and began testing as if they were a 40 point 2 man Common Squad.

Now it was about this time where I would get as much first response feedback as I could from the ChatRoom. I heard a few ideas...1 being to boost the cost of them to a whopping 65. That is a lot of points for a 2 man squad...so I had to reject it.

Now for the most important part of this posting, I'm gonna get into the playtesting.

The intro playtest with these guys ended up being a fun match!

Greater Ice Elemental
Valguard
Tarn Viking Warriors
Throwers of the Tarn (5 teams)

versus:

Arrow Grutsx3
Swog Riderx3
Mimring
Krug
Air Elemental

By slowly feeding the Throwers into the battlefield and having the Warriors rush in and then take up a defensive stance on the glyphs, the group narrowly beat out the Arrow Gruts and their Beastly allies.

There was another involving Tarn Viking Warrirors, Deathstalkers and something else, but I cannot remember any more details.

The Throwers proved to me that they screen themselves when they (paired with 2 squads of Rats who died too quickly for comfort) challenged a Gladiator Based army. Capuan Gladiators x3, Retiarius, and Crixus tried to run down the Viking army, but the endurance of  the Tarn Viking Warriors eventually took down both heroes and their mob of barely-armed warriors.

Another playtest involved them paired with Snipers and Agent Carr. The question I had wondered was whether or not they could fulfill a screen roll for other units. They already can create a screen for themselves. They had to challenge Einar Imperium, Tagawa Samurai Archers, and Empress Kiova. That battle was also quite fun, and led to the Einar Army to get a victory. In other words, the Throwers failed to win...

Throughout these tests, I began to see just how many different armies the Throwers could fit in. They could already bond with themselves, to create a giant mob of Throwers. They can bond with the Tarn Viking Warriors, to allow for 4 reasonably strong attacks, and then 2 weaker attacks. But upon entering the playtesting phase with the MacDirk Warriors, I was nearly dumbfounded at how many types of armies could be created.

As such, the test with Mac Dirks featured:
(The rules for this round were 500 points, 20 hexes)
Sir Hawthorne
Eldgrim
MacDirk Warriors x3
Throwers of the Tarn x3
20 spaces, 480 points

They faced:

Sgt. Drake Alexander (from Swarm of the Marro)
Guilty McCreech
Tactical Combat Unit x2
Deathreavers x3

The Mac Dirks were quickly gunned apart thanks to the TCU, but they eventually broke through Drake and the Deathreavers. With Drake down, all it really took was the natural endurance of the Tarns to take the victory. The map favored the TCU a bit, but the fact that Drake took 3 wounds in a single attack really made the difference. If it hadn't been for that good attack, I doubt the Throwers would have won.

Enjoy your day, and Scape on! Or the Throwers of the Tarn will get you!

Costumes and HeroScape

It's getting to be time for Halloween once again! And that means I have an entire day to get into all kinds of candy and mischief. All the while, Heroscape figures could be getting dressed up themselves. Its time for me to create a humorous scenario with all kinds of insane rules, once again!

HeroTrick or HeroTreat:
At the offset of the battle, create two piles of units. One must contain at least 10 Unique Heroes, priced anywhere from 50 to 200. Only squads who are priced below 100 points may be in this pile. Also, stick 4 Treasure Glyph cards in this pile. This is the Costume Pile. For the other pile, you must have 3100 points worth of base cards in it. There must be at least 10 Unique Heroes in this pile. No more than 1 of any type of card my be placed in this pile. This is the Trick-or-Treater pile. NOTE: If a card is in the Costume Pile, it cannot be in the Trick-or-Treater Pile too, and vice versa.

After these piles are created, players may draft 450 or 550 point armies from the Trick-or-treater pile. Then players may draft up to 300 points worth of costumes from the costumes pile.

When Drafting a Costume(not Treasure Glyphs), you must roll the 20 sided die. If you roll a 5 or higher, you add the costume to your pool automatically. If you roll a 2 to 4, a Hero costume costs 20 extra points. If it is a Squad Costume, it costs 100 points automatically. If you cannot afford the extra points, you lost the costume and are done taking costumes. If you roll a 1, although you paid for the costume it shrunk in the wash and cannot fit you anymore. You lose the costume.

If a player decided to draft 450 points instead of 550 points, they may take a randomly determined costume for free(they needn't roll for this costume), and get a +5 initiative modifier to use at any round.

Before placing the figures on the board, you may outfit each unit you have with a costume you have. Heroes can only wear hero costumes, while squads can only wear squad costumes. If there are more figures on the base card to a real squad than a costume squad, the squad cannot wear the costume. So a squad of Roman Legionnaires cannot wear a Zettian Guard Costume, but the Zettian Guards can wear the Roman Legionnaire costume. Remember, a figure can't wear more than 1 costume, so don't try to make the Fen Hydra even worse with both Regenerate and Cold Healing!

Now just what do costumes do? Any costumed unit has access to any powers that the Costume Unit has. So, a Zettitan Guard in a Roman Legionnaire Costume may use Warlord Bonding, and has Shield Wall. Feel free to rework powers so that they become relevant and/or not overpowered. In the Zettian-Roman example, Shield Wall can be altered to say, "When defending with a Zettian Guard, add 1 defense die for each other adjacent Zettian Guard up to a maximum of +2 dice for the Shield Wall power."

It is at this time when you set up the units and play the game as whatever you were going to play in the first place. The added costumes should prove to be quite fun!

Scape on!

That New Pack Smell

Recently I've acquired one of the Wave 13 boosters. I didn't previously own any of Wave 13, but here are my initial thoughts about the units in Icewind's Scourge.

The Frost Giant of Mohr looks like a brute. Although my copy of him features goofy looking eyes and teeth, this guy looks like he should do well. That Dying Swipe should also be quite fun.


















The Ice Troll Berserker has a few neat powers. Primarily, since he has Cold Regeneration, he can do a bit better on snowy boards. Bonding with the Arrow Gruts will also prove to be a nice touch!

And last but not least of the figures, is the Master of the Hunt. You may recognize that he is n the "Fighters' Side" of Einar's split faction and I certainly hope his Javelin throwing capabilities will be exciting when I use them.

Now that I have theses guys, I can do an Ice mission, and maybe even a few neat tricks with my campaign.

Scape on.

The Old World

This will be a post describing a bit about my pre-expansion customs.

For your information, at one time, I had a few sets (2 boxes of Rise of the Valkyrie, Swarm of the Marro and a handful of boosters). Nothing more, nothing less. Being much younger than many custom makers meant I did not have the funds to aquire any other types of of figurines. I had heard of D&D, but not of MageKniht, HeroQuest and more.

A few of my Old World customs that did not make it to the New World.

Shock-shield Knights
2 man squad using Knights of Weston sculpts. Common
Likely 4 Move, 1 Range, 3 Attack, 4 defense
A power that let them deal wounds to attackers. I believe they needed to block the hit and roll a 15.
40 or 50 points.

Some sort of Archers
3 man squad using Tagawa Samurai archers. Unique
Likely 5 move, 6 Range, 3 Attack, 3 Defense.
When the last one dies, it became a terrain piece. Sorta like a statue.
100 or so points.

Bloody Licker Zombies
2 man squad using Zombie of Morindan Sculpts. Common
Likely 6 move, 3 range, 2 attack, 2 defense.
For each squad you may insta revive one when it dies. Think of them like the Mezzodemon Warmongers.
60 points maybe?

Sandman Agents
3 Man squad using Krav Maga Agents. Unique
Likely 6 move, 6 range, 3 attack, 3 defense.
Instead of attacking, pick a fig within 6 spaces. That figure cannot move or attack for 3 turns.
I forget the number of points, probably 100 or so.

Heavily Armored Gruts
4 man squad using Heavy Gruts. Unique
1 move, and likely 1-2 range, 4 attack, 4 defense.
Ignore elevations while moving.
I think like 60 or 70.

Jungle Cat Rider
Hero using Swog Rider. Unique?
Likely 8 move, 1 range, 3 attack, 3 defense. 5 life?
Double Attack.
Mighta been 80?


___________________________________________________________________________________
Scape on.

Surviving the Night

So, rather stupidly I decided to revive Raelin rather than Sharwin. And the end result? The heroes get ambushed by an army of zombies. Oh well...

The Zombies began behind walls, and on a hill too close to my troops for my personal comfort. They got the first turn, and the Zombies of Morindan surrounded the groggy Airborne Elites. Only one died from the attacks, but this would prove irrelevant later on. For a while it went on like a small group of units trying desperately to survive. Darrak made an arrival and cut through a few zombies himself with his Neutral turn. Mogrimm immediately ran (or more like a gallop, Dwarves have a hard time running) to Darrak. At the end of the match, the group had no casualties and even got to revive Sharwin.

Final Results:

Mogrimm Forgehammer
Darrak Forgehammer (1 Wound)
Raelin the Kyrie Warrior
Heirloom
Sharwin Wildborn (revived)
Tarn Viking Warrior (1 remaining)
Airborne Elite
Rotten Venoc Vipers
White Wyrmling (2 of them)

Enemies:

Zombies of Morindan (3 squads killed)
Marden Nagrubs (1 escaped)
Rotten Izumi Samurai (all dead)

___________________________________________________________________________________
Now that Sharwin is revived, the rest of the army can sleep easy.

I'll be taking a break from this campaign to test out my Throwers of the Tarn a bit. Happy 'Scaping!

Bonding: A Game of All or Nothing

Bonding is a very powerful ability, mostly because you can take an additional turn for the same Order Marker (or the same turn if you opt not to use Order Markers). But it also allows you to apply extra force onto your opponents that you normally wouldn't be able to apply. Or you can use that force to split up your units so you can get board advantage. So, in a way, Bonding becomes similar to a game of All or Nothing. Of course, any turn where you accomplish something that's beneficial to you isn't nothing, but it may be beneficial to use your 3rd Order Marker on a loss of initiative for Bonding powers and to gain ground. In this scenario, attacking with an buttload of units isn't always as important as getting ready for the next round. What more does a weakened group of enemy units want to see than a fresh group of soldiers ready to pounce?

Of course, Bonding powers can also irritate custom creators to no end. Chain Bonding! If you can get 3 units to take a turn and they weren't designed to, then that's where Chain Bonding comes into play. And believe me, as there is no precedent, its quite difficult to use power wording to define how a unit does not use Chain Bonding.

Now then, on to another topic...Glyphs!

Love 'em or hate 'em, they exist. Recently, I've been digging more into my own particular glyph pool (which I will discuss later), and found this excellent thread on heroscapers regarding one persons opinions about how to construct a glyph pool

Now then, onto my typical glyph pool!

In general, I have 2 or 4 glyphs on the table, facedown. Occasionally, I'll flip them faceup before or after picking armies. It really can ramp up what gets played and what gets left out.

Glyph of Astrid (Attack+1):
Both Crevcor and Ulvania seem too weak to me. Neither really scream out "Keep me defended" like a glyph that costs 180 points less then Taelord.

Glyph of Brandar (Artifact):
I use this one for myriad effects, including but not limited too: blowing up a Line of Site blocker (i.e. Ruins), Choice glyph, a dud that disappears when activated, and as an additional Proftaka.

Glyph of Dagmar (Initiative +8):
Perfect when trying to pull off initiative switches and even better, just trying to overwhelm your opponent. Just don't let that speed go to your head.

Glyph of Erland (Summoning):
Sometimes you just want to attract a unit to instant death. Or maybe you could use it to bring in an Anubian Wolf and hope to roll well at the right time. It's a cool glyph, and there are occasions where I like to place 2 in my pool.





Glyph of Gerda (Defense+1):
Nice to have, but unlike Astrid, it doesn't become a kingpin piece of the board. And that's the way I like it.

Glyph of Mitonsoul (Massive Curse):
For me, there is little more thrilling than seeing this one make its rounds. As the units just barely manage to shrug off the curse, I wounder what they think when their pal evaporates off the map? Plus, it really helps to add an aggressive playstyle in the event you lose a hero. Which is very nasty if your trying to defend something.

Glyph of Nilrend (Negation):
A fun glyph with a neat effect. As heroes get played quite heavily over here, this one is often found in my pool. It's great for negating problematic units too, or if you get it early, you can eliminate a unit you think your opponent is sending in first. Namely, Cyprien.

Glyph of Proftaka (Trap Hole):
Sure it has little effect on the game, but there always needs to be some risk.

Glyph of Valda (Move+2):
This one is only my pool half of the time. I think that it is a great tool, and really adds tension to the area located around it. But unless the map is smaller or at least somewhat compact, this one won't see light.

Glyph of Wannok (Wound):
Have some fun with middle of the rounds. That is all.

As far as the ones I don't use in the pool (but do own), here are my cuts:

Glyph of Crevcor/Ulvania (Varied Attack+1):
Neither really add the level of tension that I would hope for in a powerful glyph. Ulvania did get used, but as Squads often made up the other half of my army, it wasn't so useful.

Glyph of Ivor (Range+4):
Although I do like gun-wielding units, they are relatively overpowered as is and kiting just makes that worse. On dinky maps however, there is a chance Ivor will be drawn.

Glpyh of Kelda (Healing):
Originally, I did have this one in my pool, but the rules say it cannot be facedown. It sees "faceup glyphs" play when I do use them however.

Glyph of Oreld (Intercept Order):
Kind of a snore inducing glyph for me. You just gotta get lucky I suppose.

Glyph of Rannvieg (Wind):
It negates Flying. Sorry, I'm not seeing how it is as desirable as one could think. I tried it recently, but like anything else it hasn't grown on me. I might add it later on though, as it helps with the Risk/Reward system I've got with my pool.

Glyph of Sturla (Revive):
Nope! You let your figure get killed. Shame on you, you get no second chance. Plus, it's way overpowered with Slavi'Vaen. Can you imagine reviving Sgt. Drake Alexander or Cyprien Esenwein with the use of 3 Time Counters? Bad news.

Glyph of Thorian (Thorian Speed):
Make everyone like Drake! Nah, its useful for set scenarios where guns are a huge factor(for example the Swarm of the Marro Campaign), but otherwise, I'll let it be. It doesn't influence aggression or Risk/Reward enough either.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their days. Keep on, keepin' on!

Split Alliances

As we get ready for the Civil War, I'm gonna give the list of units who are in what faction.

The Units Who Are Loyal:

Empress Kiova, Ana Karithon, Einar Imperium

The Warring Factions:

Samurai                                                                                                Fighters

Kaemon Awa                                                                                         Crixus

Kato Katsuro                                                                                     Sparticus

Tagawa Samurai Archers                                                     Capuan Gladiators

Izumi Samurai                                                                    Blackroot Recruits

Shiori                                                                                               Guilty

 Sacred Band                                                                                      Retiarius

Parmenio                                                                                   Tandros Kreel

Haschel                                                                                               Kongol

10th Regiment of Foot                                                                       Valguard

Earth Elementals                                                                 Master of the Hunt

Renegade Troops

Red Wyrmlings

Units I do not own

Units currently in playtesting

Shifting Sands

VALHALLA TIMES

The few loyal soldiers to Einar are pleading with the allied generals for some sort of help

Your lead news reporter Sorveg, went around Einar's castle asking various kyrie what they knew of this. A few comments were as follows.

"That Samurai faction has taken over the Shinji Outpost, and now the "Blood Rebels" as they call themselves, are planning to storm it with everything they got"

"A Mana factory has been reactivated. How did they get it working again?"

"It's stupid, both factions think that they should be held in higher regards than the other. Do you really Einar would have summoned units he felt were inferior?"

Oddly enough, found in a garbage can was a common propaganda poster for Kato's Legions. Although many of the Kyrie soldiers and laborers in the castle seem to be unattached to the situation, its not hard to see how some made friends with the humans. Perhaps some have even been offered to join up with a faction. I believe its doubtful that any would join this Civil War...

This is a copy of that Propaganda poster... the Samurai aren't mechanically skilled. Too bad Einar never recruited Soulborgs!

Reporting from The Desert Castle, this is Sorveg, signing out!

Scape on, Readers.

United We Kill!!

It's a wonderful thing when the angels of war smile down on you. It's almost like they blessings of the Norse Gods are making this battle hard on you, just so you can receive a blessing to wipe out your enemies.

So recently, I got Ornak. Yes, the Utgar Flagbearer, double Hero-turn taking Ornak. The Ornak who is an Orc Champion. Words cannot describe it. This power that has been gained for Utgar's forces.

Red Flag of Fury looks to be fun

As Utgar is(and always will be) my favorite General, you can see why getting his flagbearer is no small thing for me. I've been formulating myriad armies to use him with.

So far I've come up with a few:

Grut Siege
Ornak
Grimnak
Nerak
Me-Burq-Sa
Heavy Grutsx4

A 600 point army with lots of synergy. With plenty of auras, your wall of Heavy Gruts should always have some sort of boost.

For a hero format, I'd like to use something like this:

Ornak
Fen Hydrax5

A perfect way to get around everything. Screw trying to play for fun, I'm just gonna mow the lawn.

An alternative to the 1st army, I could always try out:

Ornak
Grimnak
Krug
Nerak
Heavy Grutsx3

This build doesn't have as many Heavy Gruts, but hopefully the raw power of Krug should balance that. No range and no special attacks means his one could fail and fall, but at least they should be able to dig into the Tactical Combat Unit.

Care for some form of Death in your Orc?

Ornak
Deathwalker 9000
Grimnak
Heavy Grutsx2

This might be a cool one to play at 500. Use the 1st turn to deal as much damage as you can to squad figures and then your next two are for use with Heavy Gruts and Grimnak. Once Grimnak goes down, who's saying that Ornak can't try to inflict some damage, or at least put his minor attack boost to good use.

Cheers!

The Stench of Death

SEWER MAY STINK

Our heroes go into the smelly sewage. The baby dragons obviously object, but he remaining units make their way into a room filled with water.

Some Marro Warriors(3 members, the 4th is dead from the smell), a team of Rotten Venoc Vipers(unaligned), and a terrifying Hydra(unaligned) all greet and attempt to defeat as many heroes as they can. A White Wymling finds a slick road space among among the raw sewage and uses his ice breath on some Venocs. The other manages to flash-freeze a Marro Warrior. The Hydra comes in and completely fails to hurt the Wyrmling. Eventually, a big fight with the Hydra and Marro Warriors makes the little dragon that could die.

Mogrimm manages to cut down the Hydra's first 2 heads, but when Sharwin engages the Hydra(so Mogrimm can use his crossbow) she cuts devoured. In a desperate attempt to win, the Tarn then engages and proceeds to get eaten. Aggravated, Heirloom comes in and uses his Force Orb to crush the Hydra into little serpent bits.

Stunned at this display, the squad of Rotten Venoc Vipers join the heroes.

Final Results:

Heroes of Must:
Mogrimm Forgehammer
Sharwin Wildborn(dead)
Raelin(revived by offering up a Treasure Glyph)
Tarn Viking Warriors(the last one survived)
White Wymlingsx2


Enemies:
A Single Rotten Venoc Vipers(but as they are undead, the other two are alive again)
Marro Warrior(1 left alive)
Fen Hydra(leader)(killed)

___________________________________________________________________________________
{Rush Mission}
Some campaigners like to send in really fast units to do as much damage as they can without risking their heavier units. The Vipers make great Rushers, and in an Evil campaign, Cyprien can do serious damage}

With no "Night-Seer" in their party, the heroes got ambushed by Zombies. The swarm isn't the largest, but with Rotten Izumi Samurai in their midst, the melee dominate party will need to be careful.

Something seems bad, like there is somebody following the party...Maybe they are allies? Or they could be enemies?


Scape on folks.

A Custom Blender

Well, a real blender (or cartoon one shown here), probably isn't a good idea to use to get rid of HeroScape, but is an interesting object that describes HeroScape.

HeroScape is a world full of blended together themes and ideas. And that is basically how it should work. Now then, I tend to not be a stickler for how people make customs. And as such, I think simply the act of making them shows some sort of creativity.









But, there are a few things that, although I do not mind seeing, I probably won't comment too much on or even read. Of course, it shouldn't be taken against the creator, just merely that I don't want involved in that custom.

1. HeroScape Story Characters, especially if I do not know them, or if they are a General. If they are just some obscure character I might just assume them to be a cool idea and name.

Tyrian, by Paronychodon, is a HeroScape Story Character

2. Video Game Characters who can be interpreted in too many ways. The way I see it, I've already made a Link and he is vastly different than the Links other folks have made. Although I can help clean up the wording and such, ultimately I'm only going to get so far with one of these.

(Look around heroscapers for many instances of Link, Mario and Master Chief)

3. Text Customs, and to a lesser extent rectangular card customs. For me at least, blotches of text get tiresome to read, and sometimes your eyes can mix and match lines. Rectangular custom cards are better, but I think the format of HeroScape Cards was done really well as is.

Thilko will always annoy me, until I make a card for him. *Roll eyes* Then again, that means I have 1 less thing to look forward to.

Now then, the next part of this post... 


When you do decide to use another guy's custom, or even a project's custom, then you also need to realize that there may be some imbalances or "gamebreaks" when a custom of yours is used in cohesion with another person's custom. This could happen most easily if you aren't careful with who your bringing in. People base customs from what they own, Official HeroScape units, and perhaps customs of their own and/or a specific project. What makes this dangerous is that when you add a unit to your own pool from another creator and assume it'll be alright, is that the custom your bringing in is not tested to work for your metagame.

An interesting point to use is with my custom, the Tactical Combat Unit, and the C3V's Capt. John Varan. Both units synergize with each other, and this is great. Except that there is a chance that John Varan's worth could go up, down, or even become crisscrossed. Sure the TCU don't have any groundbreaking powers, but that's not to say they couldn't have.

An earlier point I can make is when I've played Kira Jax. One of the games I used her in(though not as a usual playtest) pitted her against another custom, the Blackroot Recruits. Why did I do this? Kira Jax needed to be "allowed" into my game. Basically, if she found some way to be a really messed up unit when being blended into my HeroScape world, she would be rejected. As she doesn't really break anything in my game world, she's in. Capt. John Varan is also admitted.

'Scape on.

Finishing up Wave 14...

Well, its been an entire week since the last 3 units in Wave 14 have been released, and I think it's been enough time to organize my thoughts on units(okay, just 1 of the units) so that I can finally post this blog.

I'll start with the Varkanaan Blade Dancers.

They have an interesting power is in Varkaanan Blade Defense. They can prove a great counter to Orcs(minus Grimnak) as the only way they really win against them is with the Archers+Swog combo or with really good luck. Seriously, the extra defense is that good when combined with an average defense of 3. I have nothing against that at all, especially as they are relatively expensive(for squads). They look to be very good units, and while they lack much synergy(again, Khosumet will work for them but otherwise nothing else) they don't seem to need it.

A good army could quite easily be something along the lines of:

Varkaanan Blade Dancers x5
Krav Maga Agents

You have anti-melee units, and anti range units. And everything hits hard. Very hard.

I can very easily see them becoming a B or B+ unit.
__________________________________________________________________________________

And the next group on the list? The M-43 Resistance Fighters.

They are a cooler unit, and very mobile to boot. Of course mobility is only so useful in this game, but I can really see them as a decent, fun team. But, their attack is on the low side as is their defense. Being on par with the Tagawa Samurai Archers, that's not saying much. It might be worth noting that they are similar to zombies with Guerrilla Tactics.

All in all, no army to report with these guys, as they seem heavily dependent on either numbers or better attack power.

Rated C to C+: Guerrilla fighting will often lose, but can win every once in a while.
___________________________________________________________________________________

The final hero of the Wave, and they make a cool filler unit. <Enter Kira Jax>

Her ability to tag a certain figure and negate it's primary defensive power is really neat. She provides a neat counter to Krav or the Phantom Knights, but even then, she won't last long enough. I truly think that this is a unit who's a gem and will gladly see her on my gaming table in the near future. 30 points can get you a lot, but now it can get you Kira.

Like her Resistance Fighters, this faction will need a bit more fleshing out before a good army will fit here...Stay tuned.

My rating, an A-. But a Power Ranking could easily say a B- or a B. A great filler unit, but she's still just that. Filler.

Tandros Kreel Kills

The title says it all. Tandros Kreel's small force of Orcs, plus a pair of of Zettians caused major havok on the Hero's party. The few Marro Drudge units and a Stinger of theirs also wanted to play. Kreel's Forces gained the initiative and blocked off a doorway(sans door). Raelin jumps in and killed lots of Orcs with her wonderful Whirlwind Assault all while providing a nice "opening" aura. Considering the small room, she had the incoming Tarns and a lucky 3 White Wyrmlings defensively covered. Eventually, the Stinger tore her to pieces, nailing her with a nasty 5 attack power. Tandros cut down the 3 remaining Tarn Vikings, and went to work on Mogrimm.

As the dwarf and the human engaged in combat, they spoke. Whatever they spoke about mortified Mogrimm, allowing Tandros to get some hits in. Eventually Tandros was felled, and the few remaining enemy units ran off. I've never seen a Zettian move at 6 spaces per turn!

Remaining Units:

Heroes Party

Mogrimm Forgehammer(4 wounds)
Sharwin Wildborn
Heirloom(1 wound)
Raelin(Killed)
Tarn Viking Warriors(1 man left)
Airborne Elite(never dropped)
3 White Wyrmlings(1 died)

Kreel's Forces

Tandross Kreel(Leader)(Killed)
Zettian Guards
A Single Marro Stinger
A Single Marro Drudge
A Single Heavy Grut
_________________________________________________________________________________
{The Ruins of Death?}
It's rumored that The Endless Ruins are where the fallen spirits go, as well as anything that is supposedly extinct will go. Comfrey Plants, anyone?

Not being able to survive going on the main road, likely full of Utgar's forces and perhaps worse, fortified areas, the heroes go down into the water channel. From the markings on the wall, it appears as though the Ruins were once used. The group is mostly silent; aside from trying to keep the baby dragons near them, they pretty much go single file into a smelly area...

Little do they know that there are still threats this way, well aside from the water...


See you later, and Scape on!

Drilling into the Orcish Forces!!

Our brave heroes venturing into the Endless Ruins cut down Orc after Orc, only being mildly hazed by a Marsh Striker firing off rounds from his small, battlement protected perch. A Swog Rider moving through the area managed to cut down a Tarn Viking Warrior, but otherwise the party made it through the area unscathed.

Results:

Surviving Heroes:

Raelin the Kyrie Warrior(hit with 1 wound)
Mogrimm Forge Hammer
Heirloom
Sharwin Wildborn(died, revived by offering the Defensive Glyph)
Tarn Viking Warriors(2 died, 1 Second Winded)

Orc Power:
Blade Grutsx2
Grut Archersx1
Swog Rider
Marsh Striker
______________________________________________________________________
{Character Bonuses}
Heirloom can help keep Earth Elementals away, thanks to his Gravity Based magic! But Air Elementals will come more often without some sort of repellant...

Our Heroes have decided to press into the ruins, and as the shorter ruined walls grow taller and taller, for the first time, Raelin spoke.

"Oh, heavens..."

He points her spear in a random direction, the dungeon crawling natives gawked at who they saw. Tandros Kreel, not MindShackled, not even trying to defend Ana Karithon. No, he was standing tall, proud on a foothill giving orders to a small mass of Orcs.



See you later and Scape on!

National HeroScape Day

So, I'm going to my state's National HeroScape Day event. We are having the games set at 415 points and 20 starting zone spaces. Right now, I have a few army ideas kicking around.

I'vepretty much ruled out using Deathwalker 9000. The point total doesn't seem to seem to friendly with him. And time is ticking...Umm maybe I'll try zombies? Zombies are fun units.

Zombies of Morindan x5 is 300..a good start, but I've still got 115 points. What a number to choose guys.

Expect a Tourney report within the next month, and scape on!

The Endless Ruins

A while ago, I decided to forge a band of heroes together to explore the depths of the supposedly Endless Ruin (awesome name I know). Eventually, they fell to a gang of Kyrie defending an entryway into a high part of the ruins. Well, the Valkyrie Circle decided that they still need those ruins investigated. This time, they will be sending in a better force. Here's hoping that the gifted warrior Mogrimm Forgehammer, the sweet and loving Raelin the Kyrie Warrior, the wondrous magic wielder Sharwin Wildborn, and the metallic Heirloom can survive much longer. I'm quite certain they will be seeing the old warriors who could not escape (or their corpses at least) should they advance far enough.

If nothing else, at least the group has the watchful eyes of the Eladrin Battle Mage, Sharwin Wildborn.  She has adapted to the darkness, and from the last foray into this vicinity is of any concern, that will be helpful. Getting ambushed by a group of Zombies walking around looking for brains was not a pleasant surprise by our previous heroes...



That's not to say that this next adventure has to be without some sort of support as well, before the Tarn Viking Warriors were able to help to clear out some of Utgar's vile Orc army who had already began invading. From the reports I have been reading, they are willing to help once more, and the Airborne Elite already are getting their parachutes shipped from Laur to the West Babican.

Utgar's forces are getting larger, even with the small army that Valkrill has amassed cutting it up. As it stands, Einar is getting more and more isolated, and perhaps divided. One of the recent battles forced his warriors to clash, so I don't think that Einar will be helping to navigate the ruins much, if at all.

Scape on, readers.

Let's Go Van Helsing!!

The next 3 custom units of the C3V have been released. Can we get a round of applause? No? Okay then, I'll just start on the customs.

Our first entry today, representing that evil new general Valkrill, is the rotting, smelly, swarmy, undead Preyblood Thrall!!

He stinks, very badly. And let me tell you what is fun about this guy if you decided to chuck him in your army. His Mindless Pack ability looks like it has be designed to make him something similar to the Zombies of Morindan, except with more basic attack power and the lack of a swarm. That Blood Hunger is also a nice touch. Unlike the Zombies, these Thralls are most certainly all about attacking!

A neat concept would be to mix and match Zombies and Thralls.

Preyblood Thrall (6 of them)
Zombies of Morindan (5 teams)
Marcu Esenwein

Talk about tons of rotting flesh! You can use the Zombies to tear apart the squad figures and then use the good old Thralls to clear away those thing we call heroes. With the masses of Zombies, Marcu's flying is actually a good complement so he can find a good glyph or a perch.

If I were to give these guys a Power rating, I would say...C or a C+. Sure the DnD wave brought us lots of new hero options, but range just tears these guys apart too easily
_________________________________________________________________________________

The bloodline of a Vampire is vast. The Esenwein family is no exception.

Quite the interesting counterpart to Cyprien, Nicholas has powers similar to him and yet feels more dangerous. Nicky seems to have many HeroScape figures mashed into him. Firstly, he has the obvious "Life Drain" that vampiric families rely on. That somehow gets mashed into the "Zombies Rise Again" power to create Bloodborn Rising. Aside from the obvious chance at healing Nicky a little bit, Squad figures essentially become Cyber-Clawed. That power is Squad Bane.

"Nightmare on Scape Street" will finally be had if we decided to send our enemies reeling. Long unlive the Undead!!

Nicholas Esenwein
Sujoah
Preyblood Thall(3 of them)
Fyorlag Spiders(2 squads)

Sure this army mixes the two last generals into the battle mix, but ironically using Sujoah to weaken heroes for the Preybloods to kill or Nicholas to revive dropped Preybloods might actually work. The Spiders will be helpful for the extra turns and glyph grabbing. If you ever do get a web going too, your opponent will be in some serious trouble.

A power ranking I would think that will fit him: B. Cyprien can do pretty much everything Nicky can, but better. Well worth the 10 points.
_________________________________________________________________________________

To destroy the enemy, you must become the enemy. And when you become the enemy, you destroy your friends.

Meet Van Nessing. It is as simple as this, he doesn't take any crap whatsoever. If you are a Werewolf in disguise or are just unholy, this guy will blast the crap out of you. Even if you aren't bad per se, he will still blast the crap out of you. I see Van Nessing as a great example of a counterdraft figure. Two-thirds of his powers are about anti-unholy goodness. The Divine Mission power seems to be more about a converted version of Overextend Attack, but instead of him getting hurt, you lost some of your tactical advantage. Even if nothing else, I would like to say this guy is a great homeage to Craig Van Nessing(aka one of the founders of HeroScape).

Other people have made good army ideas to use with him, but I think he doesn't have a specific army. Instead I would like to think he is similar to Sgt. Drake Alexander or Atlaga the Kyrie Warrior: he works well in a set army, but he fits in everywhere.

The Power Ranking I would give him? B to a B+. Great versus wolves and vampires, but decent verses everything else.

Scape on everybody. Cheers!

The End of the Project...Just to Start Another

Yes, the TCU are pretty much completed(gameplay wise), and quite frankly I'm glad to be done testing them. It's time to make the toy soldiers hop into epic the warfare part of my home games. The games that define what HeroScape could be called, and right now I'll take a look at what I've been able to keep up with.

The 5th Master Set, it's at the halfway point in design and hopefully I've been able to take parts of different games and make it as good as I can for my personal use.

The next wave, Northern Assault, is well on it's way to worming it way onto your computer screen.

And hopping back onto The Classic Heroscape Customs Guild 24 Hour Thread. Yeah, it's almost never a 24-hour process, but I like some of the customs that have gotten stamped.

I'm glad I can still enjoy this kids game, otherwise I'd be willing to waste my money on other kinds of plastic like D&D or HeroClix. The Pathfinder Minis are looking cool though. I might have to pick this one up for the Northern Assault.

This dual-wielding miniature might make a good Unique Viking Hero, I'd think. Sure he lacks a beard, but maybe he can't grow facial hair due to some sort of paste related incident? I might have to steal the idea that the Competitive Unit Congress had when trying to errata the Marro Drudge.
Give Marro Drudge new ability DUAL WIELD "If a Marro Drudge fails to inflict a wound with its attack, it may attack one additional time. When making its second attack, subtract 1 from the attack value of the Marro Drudge."

 I'm thinking that would work if I gave him 3 attack for the longsword, and 2 attack for the dagger. Or is it a long dagger?




I'll see you guys later, have a good one! 'Scape on!

A Bloodbath

So, yesterday I played a wonderful match that uses Capt. John Varan and the Tactical Combat Unit together. The soldiers found themselves in the midst of destruction, and all out warfare.

For the record, this was the army used:

This Means War!!

Capt. John Varan
Tactical Combat Unit (3 teams)
Sgt. Drake Alexander (the old version)
Tarn Viking Warriors

They found themselves in a gruesome battle against:

All You Need Is Love/War

Deathwalker 9000
Zettian Guards
Raelin (old version)
Deathstalkers (2 teams)
Isamu
Otonashi

The map had lots of pillars from the castle set(minus the road tiles on top and in some case even minus the bases) and the doorway(sans door). There were plenty of plateaus, but there were all low, and any gunfighting could only be made in the center were there was nothing block your Line of Sight. Needless to say, it was pretty cool looking map. I named the Swamp King's Ruins. Pretty fitting, I guess.

The Jandar player decided to lead out with the Tarns so that they could get a sort of a screen set up and advance to the glyphs. Pretty much the rest of the round was setting up your forces, but the Glyph of Negation got Raelin.

The second round proved to me lots of Humans dying at the paws of robotic dogs is very possible. The pitiful Earthling Weapons could not get around that 5 defense. Talk about insane.

The next round, Drake decided to step in killing one of the robo-bloodhounds and got torn apart by them the next turn. It was pretty much just Varan, 2 Tarns, and a little more than squad's worth of TCU left against pretty much the entire enemy force. Somewhere in there, Deathwalker got his infamous roll, dying to 2 skulls but he was able to blast apart an entire squad of TCU and inflict a wound on Varan with one missle. Blast you Bulle-Proof Vest!

The last two rounds went quickly, with all of the army getting decimated by Zettians. There was nothing that could've been done, the robots were to powerful this round.

On the other hand, it was a good thing that Negation got Raelin, otherwise the toy soldiers would be facing 7 defense Deathstalkers*faints*. Those puppies are no joke boys and girls, even if they never land a Maul, they still have impressive defense.

And that's the end of the show, I'll see you later. 'Scape on!

The Invasion Continues

Again, this week the Classic Customs Creators of Valhalla (who'll be referred to as C3V for my convenience) has released 3 more Classic customs.

So, the 9th Elf Wizard has been unofficially officially released. By that I mean that Haduc is a custom, but will likely be good enough to be the last of the 9. I'll start my initial thoughts on him now...

Well, overall I like this guy. Although Elvan Supremacy is kinda bland at it's surface I can see how that Aegis power will work well. In fact, I think he is even trying to overshadow Kyntella! All in all I can see this guy almost becoming along the lines of your Rook, powerful and important, but if need be you can sacrifice him. As a cheerleader, I can even see this guy becoming early round fodder for swarm squads. I hope you counterdrafted with Jorhdawn! One downfall(but perhaps it's really a blessing in disguise?) is that there's really no need for multiple uses of Aegis, well unless you wish to be invincible. Or, as close to invincible as you can get without any healing.

At it's core, I'm going to try this one for size as an army idea...

Haduc
Ulginesh
Jorhdawn
Arkmer
Warriors of Ashra x2

At 500 points, nothing really takes of advantage of Elven Supremacy, but the Elves can still get quick assaults with Haduc and Jorhdawn on Turn 2 and then finish up with the Warriors of Ashra on Turn 3. You can leave Turn 1 however for a quick assault and the defense buffing of Haduc, repositioning Ulginesh so he can take advantage of his Mind Link on Turn 2, or simply moving in your non-magical units.

Now once again, if I could do a power ranking for this guy, I'd give him a solid B-. The Elves still suck versus swarms.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Beep, beep-do-beep.

Omegacron is up next. Beep...ERROR

Now, I wouldn't say this guy is really bad, but I do find him a little bit too much like this guy. Although I like the concept of him becoming an OM Sink, I'm going to have a hard time fielding this guy in an army build using units that already cost 100 points a pop! But, I'm going to go into a bit of theory with him. I'm thinking he was priced like an Omnicron usually is(read as: High) to potentially prevent players from taking advantage of his 180 point counterpart, Taelord the Kyrie Warrior. Instead of an additional attack die, (which is huge while considering Deadly Shot) you get Order Marker and unit flexibility. Although Double Attack is probably his biggest threat if he had to mano y mano with another hero, and his 6 defense is quite high, I wonder about his crude 4 life. Will that get smashed apart too quickly by units with decent ranged attack values, like the Marro Stingers or the Granite Guardians (these guys on hieght is scaaaaaaaaary) and enough numbers or great survivability to get past those double skulls?

This has been tossed around a bit, so I'm just reposting it here:

Omegacron
Omnicron Snipers x2
Omnicron Repulsor's x3

Although yes it's scary for Starting zone placement, it has pretty good levels of general attack power, and if played well you can potentially get +1 attack for your Snipers a la Beacons. But, it might get torn apart. Might.

The overall power ranking I'm giving him would a good C+ or a B-. An OM Sink all the way, but horrible on his own versus other high defense heroes.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Finally, some love for the ultimate General(behind me, of course)!! And who cares if I'm gonna proxy them as Deathreavers and Marden Nagrub?? I present to you my choice favorite after much consideration for these 3, the Marro Gnids!

Very awesome stuff, C3V. This is how to play with the framework of HeroScape and still get away with it. In essence these guys play as though they are Viking Champions with negative effects, rather than some sort of statistical bonus. Although they don't have real power behind them as is, I am thinking that Khosumet will gladly help them out, as they make sure that your opponents heroes won't murder him. This one is even more exciting when trying to think of them as guards to your Marro Hive. Forget about only using 3 man squads during a Hive Mind effect, with these guys you can go ahead and move 4 guys. Excellent. And their class is great, Parasite is very fitting considering how they rely on your other figures and your opponent's heroes to really be effective.

More on Khosumet...
Big Daddy K
Anubian Wolves x3
Marro Gnidsx3
Sahuagin Raiderx2

This *barely* fits in the typical 24 hex starting zone, but it offers tons and tons of love. Big Daddy K will work well for that Unleashed Fury, thanks to making the wolves stop being suicidal ad giving the Gnids the 3 attack power they want, nay need, to inflict a wound on your enemy hero. And who better than a Sahuaguin Raider to take advantage of a hero with this stinkin' parasite on it? At least Amphibious should help to keep them alive long enough for it to work. The Wolves can destroy your opponent's heroes, but are mostly for enemy squads until the Gnids>Raider combo cleans up the troublesome heroes. Even if Jotun comes your way, go ahead and roll a 20 to just whip out a perfect attack on the big blubbering baby. Well, you can also roll an 19, but that's not as much fun.

Their flameslayer93's power ranking is as follows: C. Heroes with high defense are the in thing right now, and against all things ranged, the Gnids at top speed likely won't do much with their pitifully low stats.

All things said, I should be able to play Capt. John Varan tomorrow along with the Tactical Combat Unit. My enemies? "All You need is Death/Love". Later.