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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
 |
| 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 |
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.
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