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.
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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.
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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
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{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
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{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
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.

The Tactical Combat Unit

So, it is finally time to reveal my Tactical Combat Unit to readers of my blog. It has been under quite a few tests, and hopefully will receive a few more. So here it is!

They are a 3 man soldier squad with a lot of subtle parts mixed in

Overall, a pretty simple unit. Although I'm using toy soldiers for the figures, I can still enjoy the play-style these guys present.

Before I go into some of the battles where they have done well in, I will make a notice to their design. Those who are new to customs should pay attention.

First, I'll take a look at his threat range, or how many spaces at a maximum with base movement and range combine he can target figures at. I has wanted it to be the same as the Airborne Elite's, considering they are all Earthlings using Earth weapons (in this case guns). That 8 range is pretty good, so I toned it down to 7. To make sure the threat range was even at 12 for both the Airborne Elite and this custom, I bumped up their movement to 5. It is pretty obvious that with uphill terrain and water that their movement half of the threat range is considerably weaker than range (which you do not need to worry about elevations). In fact, I liked this part about them. Although they are more mobile than the Airborne Elite, they still have a "weaker" threat range.

Next, I got quite curious about allowing them to toss grenades a la Airborne Elite. This is the text:

GRENADE SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 5. Lob 12. Attack 2. Use this power once per game. Start the game with a grenade marker on this card. Remove the grenade marker to throw grenades. One at a time do the following with each member of the Tactical Combat Unit: Choose figure to attack. No clear line of sight is needed. Any figures adjacent to the chosen figure are also affected by the Grenade Special Attack. Roll 2 attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure rolls defense dice separately.

I realized that was not going to work, at least not for a common card. Plus, it could open up tons of new problems such as not being able to throw grenades with the Airborne Elite (which would be bad and possibly make them worse) and even having to throw grenades will every member of the Tactical Combat Unit. No, I think I'll pass on something that confusing.

The next part I thought of was other comparable units. That is, longer range gun toting common squads. Or, the Omnicron Snipers. I also took into consideration the base stats for the 10th Regiment of Foot.

An attack of 1 and a defense of 3

An attack of 2 and a defense of 2

The Omnicrons have a base set of stats with a combined 4 for attack and defense. The same goes with the 10th. The more powerful (and in some players' views the most powerful) Krav Maga Agents have a whopping 6! The difference is that they are Unique however, so I knew not to cross the line of 4 and 6.

So, then I remembered something I had heard from the HeroScapers ChatRoom. There had been a custom power suggestion for something along the lines of +2 defense for ranged attacks and +1 for melee. A cool concept, but pretty useless, as no matter what there will always be an extra 1 defense. So taking this, I formulated Bullet-proof Vest, with the reasoning that they can have a combined base value of 4, but can still be similar to the Airborne Elite with their base of 5. In fact, they would become more defensive than the Airborne Elite! So, I decided to go with 2 attack (because they are weaker) and 2 defense with a bulletproof vest (because they would be more defensive).

By now, I really just wanted to stick a bonding power on the card, make them cheap, and be done with it. It would be pretty straight forward, simply rush in with Drake and then use attrition to prevail. But, that was pretty boring, and the theme of the Soldiers is that although they can hit hard, it's mostly because they know where to hit. So, jacking up the price to make them a challenging unit to use would be essential. And so, I decided to try the old "fit it in" rule when pricing units. Pretty much the "fit it in" rule is simply to make 2 things equal an easy number to add onto.

So, I decided to back to the basics, and look at the oldest stuff out there: the units in Rise of the Valkyrie.

Upon myriad years of adding, I've found a few easy ones. The easiest would be the multiples 50's. Sgt. Drake Alexander and Ne-Gok-Sa was not only a simple 200 points, they also foretold what would become true later on. Attack was more important than Defense. Simply put, defending against attacks and never attacking will not lead you to victory (under normal game conditions). Surviving those attacks however, would. So, because Sgt. Drake Alexander and Ne-Gok-Sa are like the Yin and Yang in HeroScape, and I was essentially doing the same thing but with squads, I priced them at 90 points. Something to remember is that they are not priced to fit in with the Swarm of the Marro version of Drake, they were made to fit in with the original Drake. And as they are common, they could also fit in evenly with their "Yin", the Airborne Elite.

Now that I had them priced, I had to figure out their maximum parameters. Or rather, how strong their 2 powers actually were going to be.

As they were going to fit in with the theme of the soldiers, I felt as though making Bullet-proof Vest only working on normal ranged attacks would be best. Plus, how odd would it be if Mimring's Fire Breath was even hindered by some piece of clothing? I guess the Knights of Weston are masters of dodging it after several years, but lowly foot soldiers should be more like a deer looking at headlights. KaBlamm!!
 
Although I never got into the Marvel HeroScape scene due to a lack of a comics background, I later learned that it was a good thing I restricted their bonding power to only allow Jandar Heroes the bonus.

Captain America would have likely made the TCU broken beyond repair had it not been for the Jandar only restriction my mind subconsciously gave them

Yep, Captain America is an awesome figure, or so I'm told. Since I study the tournament meta-game a little, I can gladly say the Tactical Combat Unit does not boost him even further with a bonding power. But he can still boost them, but high priced squad figures with no bonding hero with a high priced hero who can act as a cheerleader doesn't sound too dangerous of an army too me. What a lucky add-on, PHEW!

After all of that, I moved onto the secondary design process. For anybody who's read the Fallen Customs Series page, you'll see that I have 2 design phases. The Bad Customs (which are ideas for customs, but were rejected quickly) and the Broken Customs (which are imbalanced, confusing, not fun, etc.). Of course, the Toasted Customs aren't bad, but I simply stopped working on them. This phase is relatively quick, I see if I achieved what I wanted. Then, I see if they are broken through TheoryScaping. Considering that the powers on the card aren't that complex and fit well with my desired theme of "fit it in", this passed on easily to the next step: Playtesting, and getting various feedback before all testing is completed.

Although I knew that my odd mutterings would soon be suggested be "dropped in price", I did hear a nice idea, "add a figure". While the few tests done on this custom at that point signaled that the toy soldiers seemed like a decent choice even at their price, I did TheoryScape out the possibility of them being a 4-man squad. But, I dropped the idea after seeing that it breaks much of the challenge I was enjoying with them. Or simply put, I don't like 4 man common squads that much and they always seem to be way overpowered. Even my beloved 10th Regiment of Foot seems like they have a sense of overkill with that 4th figure. The 4-man common ranged squads are not at all bad, but I feel they are too strong for melee units and most heroes to handle. And that took away from my custom, rather than adding to it. A good thought, but not what I had in mind.

So now I move onto the battles! The real part of customs one would say! Although my recollection of each army I have used them against is vague, I do remember some.

1 Army that has been fought has been the "Steamroller".

Sparticus
Crixus
Capuan Gladiators x2
Marro Warriors
They crushed this army, but the map had little hieght and few line of sight blockers.

Something with Warriors of Ashra
It was a small map, and the Warriors of Ashra tore the TCU and Drake to pieces.

A four player game located in this blog post

They went pretty close to a Marro Stingers x5, Raelin, and Torin build on a bridge map(with help from the Nakitas on the Soldiers' end). This was not my army idea, but rather SuperflyTNT's.

They can also tear into the Omnicron Snipers. They demonstrated this well against:
Snipers x2
Feral Troll
Raelin
Eldgrim

While they used:

Drake
TCU x2
Tarn Viking Warriors

A mean strategy was to simply keep the enemy Omnicron Snipers at your base range of 7. Their 5 movement won't normally get them within melee range, so Bullet-Proof Vest can continuously be in effect to help protect against Deadly Shot. The best way to keep the Omnicron from trying to stay on a hill however had to be Sgt. Drake, at 6 life he can easily take a wound or 2 and still have enough for leaving engagement attacks. Plus, bullets don't work on him, go figure.

Have a good one everybody, and I hope to see you guys come to love the TCU.

Why the 10th Regiment of Foot are Better

Because I said so.

Well, actually this is a very heated topic in the various communities that have knowledge of both the 4th Massachusetts Line and the 10th Regiment of Foot. Neither side is willing to budge about who is better. So, in favor of the 10th, I'll side with the brits.

A quick rundown of their base states suggests that they are pretty much the same thing. But it's their powers that make the two squads unique.

Personally, I prefer versatility and attack power. The 10th provide that for me. I feel that Wait Then Fire power being the primary assault power on the 4th is too restrictive. That's not to say either is better per se. This is just my opinion. Maybe the 4th are in their prime with their specific army, but I like how the 10th can fit in more kinds of armies. It's quite fun to try out 2 teams of Anubians and 2 teams of the 10th for a strong 300 point core. Or heck, make it 3 of each and toss in a hero like Brave Arrow who works as a great Jack of Trades figure.

Bad Blood, Anyone?

Welcome back to the show. I'm going to talk about the Runaway Gunnerbot.

For the most part, it is incredibly simple. It's Missile Fire should be useful, but not overpowering. Relatively weak, this will be a great filler unit.

And now, I'll reveal the first scenario For Master Set 5!

Kallos Path (Rush Kallos City) is available for download here. Your mission is relatively simple: stop the siege of your hometown and protect it once more!!

A short blog today, but maybe a long one tomorrow? See ya later.

HeroScape: The Card Game??

Well, there's not really a card game(yet), but Summoner Wars is as close as you can get. From the last few games I've played, many of the effects looks similar, and feel similar to powers in HeroScape. Of course, it's designer, Colby Dauch (aka truth on the heroscapers forum) was heavily inspired by HeroScape.

So to enjoy the similarities, I'll begin with...

ArchAngel

He seems very similar to any of the Kyrie (who're supposed to be along the lines of angels).

The Fury Power

It is eerily simliar to Frenzy on the Venoc Vipers...

They even fall to almost any attack!

The Zombie Warrior

Zombies Rise Again, anyone?

And, the last one before Colby officically dies of laughter, DRAGOS!!!

Errr....wrong picture.

To all who don't have work today, Scape on or Summon a bunch of Herscape Units to a board with today.

Drafting to Drifting

Today is when I reveal the next custom for Master Set 5. And as the title suggests, they'll be drafted. But then they drift. Presenting the Saber Cruisers.

Overall, they are pretty powerful, and they can be dangerously mobile on any type of map. During the design phase, I was considering doing some sort of power that could inflict extra wounds. I also considered adding in Reach. In the end, I settled on a defense dropping power. For those who think that they originated from a bunch of random Lego's put together, you would be right. As for their lack of height and any sort of size modifier (Climb or Scale), I assumed they would be too unable to move vertically (well, upwards at least) due to their body structure.



As you can tell, their best defense is offense. Any sort of attack will likely punch through them. As such, a decent army could be....

Raelin (Swarm of the Marro)
Goldenseed (at 80 points)
4 teams of Saber Cruisers
Syvarris

Hit hard, and stay within the protective energies of Raelin's aura. Simple, but effective.

Stay in the game, stay in the game, and stay in the game. Later.

The First Three

As of September 1, 2011, the first members of "Wave 14" have made it though the portal to Valhalla.

I'll start with Zaeus.

His stability is only mid-level. Being a medium figure, he'll be affected by all of those nastier powers. Even worse, he doesn't have a lot of health to back that up. His Rail Gun is the only attack somebody will use. Seriously. His basic range is 1 and the attack values are equal. Gorillinator Attack Bonding looks to be based off of the Nakita's Movement Bonding. In this case, both of the cards suggest that monkeymen are too dangerous to get entire turns with.

A possible army core that will attempt to pick up plenty of synergies:
Nakita Agents
Zaeus
Gorillinators (1 team)

340 points worth of Vydar-loving goodness. The Nakitas can protect their teamates, and allow to Gorillinators to flee the battle. With the monkeys surrounding the foes, you can use Zaeus to call forth an artillery strike(a la Gorillinators) and use his Rail Gun. Throw in another team of monkeys for 430 points. But, the biggest problem with this build is that the Gorillinators still aren't too durable. Sure, they can pull out some quick strikes, but nothing in this build really helps them or screams powerful.

If I were to give him a power ranking, I'd go a C+ or B- at best. The monkeys need more support, but I can't see how this way works well. Gimme Laglor any day.
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Next up, I'll talk about Zogross Hardscale.

Unlike Zaues, he is really quite stable. Sure he can fall victim to anti-medium powers, but his powers do suggest plenty of defensive play. The bad part: splash damage. He needs his warriors or his protectors of choice adjacent to him to use Tribal Protection(and thus use Opportunity Strike). Splash Damage will override that. I can enjoy the "barrier" play style he uses however. A big point to make is his class and race combination. Yes, Roman Legionnaires can bond with him, but the Armoc Vipers can too. The Greenscale Warriors can go well with him as well, as he can become a Lizard King.

Army idea using Ullar. Good for General Wars formats.

Zogross Hardscale
Greenscale Warriors (two teams)
Protectors of Ullar (one team)
Warriors of Ashra (3 teams)

So this is a squad-heavy army for Ullar utilizing the "barrier" tactic. Whenever you wish to charge your opponent with the Greenscales and Zogross Hardscale, you can do so easily. When you mae a few kills, simply reform your barrier (placing the Warrioris of Ashra in front, and the kyrie close behind. Although to win against ranged armies, you generally need some sort of strong range (something that many dragons enable), you can get away with using the Protector's of Ullar to rain death upon heroes (plus Flying should allow them to gain a height advantage, assuming there's a hill their move value will take them to) and maybe a squad figure with a nicely sized gun.

As for a theory-power ranking, I'll give him a solid B. You just need some way to add in that crucial range.
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And finally, the last revealed unit for the day, I'll review Capt. John Varan.

This is a guy I can see myself using. Say hello to the Rambo of HeroScape. He can soak up wounds, and then dish them out again. This would lead me to believe that he definitely not durable. He's like Alastair MacDirk. He's going to hurt quickly, but he's going to knock a few heads. And, oddly enough, he can even take wounds for Alastair to boot. So, I'm gonna say this guy is protector of sharks. Assuming they are member's of Jandar's human faction of course. Of all of the units revealed, I must say I like this one a lot.

Shark Support:
Alastair MackDirk
Airborne Elite
Capt. John Varan
Ana Karithon
Mindflayer Mastermind (just one of them)

This hero-heavy army idea is based around protecting yourself, but still dealing out tons of damage. One of the most important parts of this is getting your air support out early to deal out quick damage, but still keeping them on the retreat. At least, to your own band of heroes. If you can bring in the enemy, you can overpower them. Now you might wonder why the only units that Capt. John Varan can aid is Alastair and the Airborne Elite soldiers. Well, the other two heroes serve functions that are especially important. Ana can heal any unexpected damage that is dealt out to your heroes in the early game(and perhaps soak some up, as she is a nasty surprise for Utgar swarms). She can also defend you against the Mindflayer turning against you. The Mindflayer is just as much of a weapon against swarms, and can even take a turn with the vast majority of your units(unleash a Rambo-like attack, reposition Ana, or get Alastair to the enemy or back towards Ana) on a lucky die roll. But, that's just extra gain, and is not the primary reason to use that Mastermind.  The captain has a simple role, take a few wounds in place of Alastair (2 is enough) and then heal up at the local friendly Cleric.

His ranking could be a B or B+. Overall, he's the Rambo of HeroScape.

Perhaps the next round of customs by the C3V will yield some new winners? Until then, 'Scape on.

Blogger Updates

As my fans may have noticed, I've added a few things to my blog. Although they aren't the most important of things, I'd still like to share them, so you guys know what they're all about.

Firstly, I've added The Fallen Customs Series to the list of individual pages. Feel free to dig in their and see some of my customs that never saw the light.

Next, I added a segment currently entitled Box of Fun. It's text will change, and perhaps even the name of it, to inform you of what's to be revealed as time wears on. Other times, I'll add a joke or something of that nature.

If you scroll past the Followers and the Archives, you'll see a currently short list of myriad heroscape sites.

Lastly, directly below the "About Me" section is the Follow by Email section.

And for those who didn't notice, when looking for this page, try to look for the favicon(a picture of a grass hex). It is no longer the "B".

I'll leave my comments for the first 3 C3V units for a later blog. Have a good one everyone!