W4 Khorvairian Assassins (shadow assassins) - ready for final

We got in a few play-tests with the Assassins (Derek, Damon, and Jacob each got a turn with them). One game was one a 3-player heavy shadow map and the Assassins won it in a thriller (the last Assassin took out the last Drow Chainfighter).

Some changes: changed to Vydar, increased 20-sider roll by one. Here are the updated powers that can be copied into the OP. We still need to come up with the name, but these guys seem like they are ready to go.

ASSASSINS (Name to be determined)

General: Vydar
Planet: Eberron

Species: Human
Common Squad
Class: Shadow Assassin
Personality: Tricky
Medium 5

Life: 1
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
90 Points

SHADOW STRIKE
If a NAME Assassin starts its turn unengaged and on a shadow space add 1 to that NAME Assassin's attack this turn and that NAME Assassin may attack 1 additional time.

ONLY A SHADOW
If a NAME Assassin is attacked and at least one skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-12 roll defense die normally. If you roll a 13 or higher, you may, if possible, move that NAME Assassin up to 5 spaces and ignore all wounds. NAME Assassins do not take leaving engagements when moving with Only a Shadow and must end it's movement on a shadow space.

BLEND INTO SHADOW
The NAME Assassins start the game with up to 2 shadow tiles on their Army Card. If a NAME Assassin ends its movement on an empty land space, you may place a shadow tile from their Army Card on to a space they occupy if the shadow tile fits normally on that space.

Awesome, I am glad that you guys got to test them out.

If we bump the d20, can we drop their points? I could see them coming down to 70 or 80. The Deepwyrm Drow are 70 points and aren't very good for that amount. I know that the Executioners get to add shadow-tiles to the board but if they miss their 'Vanish' they are pretty much toast with only 2 defense.

I would concur with dropping their points if there was no chance they would be playing on a map with a bunch of shadow already on it. It seems that keeping them at 90 for now is prudent. On the game on the shadow map, it was almost impossible not to be able to get to a shadow tile when I hit the d-20 roll and I was able to double attack of four most of the time (which is better than the Imperium attack). Perhaps more testing to finalize points is needed.

Nomad wrote:I would concur with dropping their points if there was no chance they would be playing on a map with a bunch of shadow already on it. It seems that keeping them at 90 for now is prudent. On the game on the shadow map, it was almost impossible not to be able to get to a shadow tile when I hit the d-20 roll and I was able to double attack of four most of the time (which is better than the Imperium attack). Perhaps more testing to finalize points is needed.

Good point. I think points are supposed to be balanced more for Tournaments and therefore BoV maps. I'd have to run numbers officially but I don't think there are more than 8 shadow-tiles on BoV maps. That's still a good chuck but since Armies rotate in tourneys, the Executioners won't get the bump too often. Sort of like Lava Resistance .. it doesn't come in to play very often for Shurrak or the Iron Golem.

Derek S wrote:Ordered us each 2 more of these.  Thanks for all the playtests Kai.  I need to get my playtesting hat on.

Thank you for the x2 Executioners! I really love this custom squad so I'm glad to put away the Ninjas of the Northern Wind proxies to have the full Shadow Assassins on the field in all their glory!!

Wow, has it really been since JULY 2015 that we posted?! After some 'Scape this weekend, I was thinking of resurrecting a few threads here.

I love this design, and even if we don't develop a whole bunch of figures - maybe we can churn out a mini-expansion pack with a few of our customs that were near completion.

ASSASSINS (Name to be determined)

General: Vydar
Planet: Eberron

Species: Human
Common Squad
Class: Assassin (dropping Shadow so that they can benefit from future 'Assassin' class)
Personality: Tricky
Medium 5

Life: 1
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
90 Points

SHADOW STRIKE
If a NAME Assassin starts its turn unengaged and on a shadow space add 1 to that NAME Assassin's attack this turn and that NAME Assassin may attack 1 additional time.

ONLY A SHADOW
If a NAME Assassin is attacked and at least one skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-11 roll defense die normally. If you roll a 12 or higher, you may, if possible, move that NAME Assassin up to 5 spaces and ignore all wounds. NAME Assassins do not take leaving engagements when moving with Only a Shadow and must end it's movement on a shadow space.

BLEND INTO SHADOW
The NAME Assassins start the game with up to 2 shadow tiles on their Army Card. If a NAME Assassin ends its movement on an empty land space, you may place a shadow tile from their Army Card on to a space they occupy if the shadow tile fits normally on that space


..
Moved the Only a Shadow back up to 12+ instead of 13.

I think these guys just need a "Name" and they'd be good to go : )

Funny that you posted here first, Kai. I started working on the card on Sunday. Just need to get the figure images in and it is ready to go. Maybe we can start brainstorming some names for this squad, although Shadow Assassins kind of works for me.

Whatever you guys think best on the roll, 12 or 13- I'll consider it a bit before pushing one way or another. The class was to mirror Mika Connour's so I wouldn't mind keeping it Shadow Assassin. I have no thoughts on the name. I will see what I can find on Eberron, Shadow Assassin's from the D&D world- I don't know if we should go with something Tribal, Cultish, or just call them Shadow Assassins. Suggestions would be awesome.

I am glad there is a renewed interest in our project, especially in finishing up some things. Hopefully you guys had a good time Saturday playing some Scape.

After our extensive play tests back in July, below are the powers/numbers that Derek and I settled on (see earlier post).

I still think the name needs to be changed from Shadow Assassins because Mika had a power called Shadow Assassin and she and these guys have a class of Shadow Assassin. I'll start throwing out more ideas for names when I get some time.

ASSASSINS (Name to be determined)

General: Vydar
Planet: Eberron

Species: Human
Common Squad
Class: Shadow Assassin
Personality: Tricky
Medium 5

Life: 1
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
90 Points

SHADOW STRIKE
If a NAME Assassin starts its turn unengaged and on a shadow space add 1 to that NAME Assassin's attack this turn and that NAME Assassin may attack 1 additional time.

ONLY A SHADOW
If a NAME Assassin is attacked and at least one skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-12 roll defense die normally. If you roll a 13 or higher, you may, if possible, move that NAME Assassin up to 5 spaces and ignore all wounds. NAME Assassins do not take leaving engagements when moving with Only a Shadow and must end it's movement on a shadow space.

BLEND INTO SHADOW
The NAME Assassins start the game with up to 2 shadow tiles on their Army Card. If a NAME Assassin ends its movement on an empty land space, you may place a shadow tile from their Army Card on to a space they occupy if the shadow tile fits normally on that space.

Khorvairian Assassins as the name?

Khorvaire is the main continent of the planet Eberron, from which Mika (and these guys) hail from.

Here is the card . . .

Card looks great! Love the images of the figures!

Khorvairian is a mouthful though : )

I thought the cards turned out nicely as well. Khorvairian is just a placeholder. Got any ideas?

I like Khorvairian Assassin's. All the cards are looking awesome. Thanks for your work here Damon.

Derek S wrote:I like Khorvairian Assassin's.  All the cards are looking awesome.  Thanks for your work here Damon.

Let's go with that name then.

I'd still like a 12+ on their "vanish" (Only a Shadow). That extra 5% chance can help their survivability.

Here are the human nations on the continent of Khorvair on the planet Eberron (where Mika is from, and she came from the pack "Heroes of Khorvair"):

Aundair
Breland
Karrnath
Lhazaar Principalities
Thrane

These were once united under the The Kingdom of Galifar.

Perhaps we could come up with a name conducive to all (I do like Khorvairan Assassins). Here are some ideas:

Assassins of Khorvair
Assassins of Aundair, Aundairian Assassins
Assassins of Breland
Assassins of Karnath, Karnathian Assassins (Karnath is the militaristic nation)
Assassins of Thrane, Thranian Assassins
Assassins of Galifar

House of Deneith - the mercenaries of Khovair. Perhaps Assassins d'Deneith or something.

Khorvairan Assassins is my favorite.   Karnathian Assassins next, with Assassins of Thrane in the mix.  

After considering the 20-sided die roll, I am ok with keeping it at 13.  We had earlier discussion that got us there and I think these guys are pretty dangerous as they stand for their point cost.  But if Damon is good with 12 you two would out vote me then

When we did some extensive play testing back in July, we came to the conclusion that the roll should be 13+, which is where I'm happy to keep it at.

Bump.

I'd like to drop them to 80 points and then I think we're good.

80?

With all of the play testing, I thought we were pretty solid at 90. I think this squad is better than the Warforged Soldiers who are at 80 points.

How about we price them at 85 and call it good?

Sold at 85 points!!!

5 pts is nothing for me to argue about, so 85 sounds good!

Here are the stats/powers for any final play-testing we need. Notice that I tweaked the first couple of words of the Blend into Shadow power to address a question Kai had long, long ago.

KHORVAIRIAN ASSASSINS

Species: Human
Common Squad
Class: Shadow Assassin
Personality: Tricky
Medium 5

Life: 1
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
85 Points

SHADOW STRIKE
If a Khorvairian Assassin starts its turn unengaged and on a shadow space add 1 to that Khorvairian Assassin's attack this turn and that Khorvairian Assassin may attack 1 additional time.

ONLY A SHADOW
If a Khorvairian Assassin is attacked and at least one skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-12 roll defense die normally. If you roll a 13 or higher, you may, if possible, move that Khorvairian Assassin up to 5 spaces and ignore all wounds. Khorvairian Assassins do not take leaving engagements when moving with Only a Shadow and must end it's movement on a shadow space.

BLEND INTO SHADOW
Each squad of Khorvairian Assassins start the game with up to 2 shadow tiles on their Army Card. If a Khorvairian Assassin ends its movement on an empty land space, you may place a shadow tile from their Army Card on to a space they occupy if the shadow tile fits normally on that space.

KHORVAIRIAN ASSASSINS
NWHC Wave 4 - Wave Title - Pack Title





PDF DOWNLOAD, front
PDF DOWNLOAD, back

Figures: Confrontation, The Age of Ragnarok, Griffins of Akkylannie, Executioners Unit Box

General: Vydar
Planet: Eberron

Species: Human
Common Squad
Class: Shadow Assassin
Personality: Tricky
Medium 5

Life: 1
Move: 5
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 2
85 Points

SHADOW STRIKE
If a Khorvairian Assassin starts its turn unengaged and on a shadow space add 1 to that Khorvairian Assassin's attack this turn and that Khorvairian Assassin may attack 1 additional time.

ONLY A SHADOW
If a Khorvairian Assassin is attacked and at least one skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-12 roll defense die normally. If you roll a 13 or higher, you may, if possible, move that Khorvairian Assassin up to 5 spaces and ignore all wounds. Khorvairian Assassins do not take leaving engagements when moving with Only a Shadow and must end it's movement on a shadow space.

BLEND INTO SHADOW
Each squad of Khorvairian Assassins start the game with up to 2 shadow tiles on their Army Card. If a Khorvairian Assassin ends its movement on an empty land space, you may place a shadow tile from their Army Card on to a space they occupy if the shadow tile fits normally on that space.


Character Bio:
-Forthcoming


- Rulings and Clarifications -

-N/A

- Combinations and Synergies -

Synergy Benefits Offered

-Otonashi: Tricky Speed 4
Having a Tricky personality, a Doggin Tracker may aid Otonashi’s TRICKY SPEED 4 ability.

Synergy Benefits Received

-N/A

Synergy Imposed

-N/A

Solidy matches with these guys today. Nomad ran them to victory against my Cultists in convincing fashion. I ran them into a hail of gun-fire against the Gorillanators for a loss but they were doing quite well up until one turn when Huskies16 took out my Cyprien and I lost an OM.

Huskies16 felt like they were a little over-priced at 85 for just a 3-person squad with 2 defense.  Maybe a drop to 75 or increase their move to 6 would be my suggestions. They have a lot of potential when you set up the double-attack but they require lots of strategy. Huskies16 saw how the Only a Shadow power worked and moved his Gorillinators to my shadow tiles to block 'vanish' rolls.

But incredibly fun! still one of my favorite units that we've done.