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?


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Scape on.