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.