W5 - Kayla Willowsong and Varinn, Final

Here is the second pair of Xmas 2014 customs - they are a set of Rangers that adding bonding options for Warriors of Ashra, Eilan Sidhe, the Aubrien Archers, and everyone's favorite Half-Elf - Brandis Skyhunter.

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Update June 2016:

Some new ideas:

Unit Name: VARINN
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Warrior #17
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Precise
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 90
Stats
Life: 5
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

FRENZY ENHANCEMENT
For each wound marker on this Army Card, you may add 1 to your die roll when you roll for the Frenzy power on any Army Card.

OVEREXTEND ATTACK
After taking a turn with Varinn, you may place a wound marker on Varinn and take another turn with him.  You may only use this power once during a round.



Unit Name: KAYLA WILLOWSONG
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Sorceress #22
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Tricky
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 70

Stats
Life: 4
Move: 6
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

CLOAK OF THE WOODLANDS
Kayla starts the game with one Invisibility marker on her Army Card.  While the Invisibility marker is on this card, Kayla has no visible Hit Zones, never takes any leaving engagement attacks, and adds 1 automatic skull to her normal attack rolls.  After Kayla attacks, remove the Invisibility marker.  At the start of a new round, place the Invisibility marker back on this Army Card.

SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an order marker on this card, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may first take a turn with up to 2 different unique Ranger heroes you control that follows Ullar. Kayla may be one of the 2 Rangers. Any Ranger taking a turn instead of Kayla must be within 10 clear sight spaces of Kayla before moving.

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Archive from 2014

Spoiler:

Wow, these are a couple of great ideas. I really love the benefits for Aubriens, Brandis, and Ashra. Very nice. I have a few suggestions for the wording on the powers if these aren't done and if OK with you. Also, I would like to redo the cards if we are going to add them to NWHC. Have these been play tested yet?

Nomad wrote:Wow, these are a couple of great ideas. I really love the benefits for Aubriens, Brandis, and Ashra. Very nice. I have a few suggestions for the wording on the powers if these aren't done and if OK with you. Also, I would like to redo the cards if we are going to add them to NWHC. Have these been play tested yet?

I am totally open to modification to wording, powers, re-doing the cards. I just wanted you guys to have new 'Scape for Xmas : P

I play-tested the Vampires but not these two Rangers.

I do like how they turned out, and I think there is some potential for them. The figures are cool too, and were only about $3 each, so not expensive.

But they certainly need some play-testing : P

Very cool looking.

Bump

After play-testing the cards as they are now are sort of broken when both Rangers are in the Army.

I like the concept of the "Alliance Bonding" - I think it just needs some work to balance out. I think if I dropped the Ranger Bonding it would be less broken.

Do you think that the Warriors of Ashra or Aubrien Archers need some help?

Overall, cool figures ... need some more brainstorming.

Kai wrote:Do you think that the Warriors of Ashra or Aubrien Archers need some help?

Not really. There are other elves that boost with defense, summoning, and/or the d-20 roll. I like the concept and think we can develop it.

The Song of the Rangers has some issues that I'm unclear on . . .

1) I flip an OM on Kayla and decide to take a turn Varinn before I do with her
2) Instead of taking a turn with Varinn, I use his Alliance of Aubria to take a turn with the Archers or Onyx Vipers (or more, if I hit frenzy) - all with +1 attack.
3) Now I take my turn with Kayla, but instead, I use Alliance of Ashra to take a turn with the Ashra or Sidhe - all with +1 attack.

I really do like the concepts here - I just think powers need to be lessened. Dropping Ranger bonding might help, but I like that it brings Brandis in to the mix.

Let me ponder some more.

Nomad wrote:

Kai wrote:Do you think that the Warriors of Ashra or Aubrien Archers need some help?

Not really. There are other elves that boost with defense, summoning, and/or the d-20 roll. I like the concept and think we can develop it.

The Song of the Rangers has some issues that I'm unclear on . . .

1) I flip an OM on Kayla and decide to take a turn Varinn before I do with her
2) Instead of taking a turn with Varinn, I use his Alliance of Aubria to take a turn with the Archers or Onyx Vipers (or more, if I hit frenzy) - all with +1 attack.
3) Now I take my turn with Kayla, but instead, I use Alliance of Ashra to take a turn with the Ashra or Sidhe - all with +1 attack.

I really do like the concepts here - I just think powers need to be lessened. Dropping Ranger bonding might help, but I like that it brings Brandis in to the mix.

Let me ponder some more.

Yeah the combo of Kayla + Varinn ended up being "broken." They basically were a 160 point Kato (take a turn with 2 squads with 1 OM) so much too powerful. Frenzy just added to timing questions. I think dropping the Song of the Rangers keeps it less broken but it takes away from the concept of helping Brandis out. I really liked the "Alliance" power for linking Aubria and Ashra but that might be more of something for the Bio than an actual power.

Some new ideas:

Unit Name: VARINN
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Warrior #17
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Precise
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 90
Stats
Life: 5
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

FRENZY ENHANCEMENT
For each wound marker on this Army Card, you may add 1 to your die roll when you roll for the Frenzy power on any Army Card.

OVEREXTEND ATTACK
After taking a turn with Varinn, you may place a wound marker on Varinn and take another turn with him.  You may only use this power once during a round.



Unit Name: KAYLA WILLOWSONG
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Sorceress #22
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Tricky
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 70

Stats
Life: 4
Move: 6
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

CLOAK OF THE WOODLANDS
Kayla starts the game with one Invisibility marker on her Army Card.  While the Invisibility marker is on this card, Kayla has no visible Hit Zones, never takes any leaving engagement attacks, and adds 1 automatic skull her normal attack rolls.  After Kayla attacks, remove the Invisibility marker.  At the start of a new round, place the Invisibility marker back on this Army Card.

SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn Kayla and one other Unique Ranger Hero you control that follows Ullar, or, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with two other Unique Ranger Heroes you control that follow Ullar.

I like the new stats and powers for both figures. They add something and they should be fun to play.

Suggestions:

Rename Varinn's 2nd power to Overextend Attack to be the same as Eldgrim, Alastair, and Nicholas.

Change Kayla's 2nd power to include only Unique Ranger heroes (just Varinn and Brandis at this point). The only other Ranger is a common hero, the Dark Rangers (Gnolls and Valkrill) . . . just my preference.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Changes made and I dropped Kayla from 4 defense to 3.



Army Ideas:

# 1
Varinn ... 90
Aubrian Archers x3 ... 300
Kayla .. 370
Brandis ... 460
Arkmer ... 510

# 2
Varinn ... 90
Brandis ... 180
Kayla ... 250
Warriors of Ashra x3 ... 400
Syvarris ... 500

I vote we move these figures to "play-testing".

Nomad wrote:I vote we move these figures to "play-testing".

Cool.

I was trying to figure out some wording for Kayla that would allow "Song of the Rangers" to let any 2 Ranger Heroes take a turn (either her + 1 other, or 2 others).  Do you think that is okay?


SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an order marker on this card, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may first take a turn with up to 2 different unique Ranger heroes you control that follows Ullar. Kayla may be one of the 2 Rangers. Any Ranger taking a turn instead of Kayla must be within 10 clear sight spaces of Kayla before moving.

SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn Kayla and one other Unique Ranger Hero you control that follows Ullar, or, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with two other Unique Ranger Heroes you control that follow Ullar.

My attempt at rewording. I would drop the 10 spaces - she has a strong singing voice!

Nomad wrote:SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn Kayla and one other Unique Ranger Hero you control that follows Ullar, or, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with two other Unique Ranger Heroes you control that follow Ullar.

My attempt at rewording. I would drop the 10 spaces - she has a strong singing voice!

Great re-wording!! I was following Ulginesh's Mind Link which has a 6-space limit. 10-spaces seemed reasonable but I am happy to remove it altogether. Maybe we play-test it without a limit and see if it is too powerful.

Really the largest abuse is two ranged attacks from Varinn and Brandis Skyhunter. If Varinn over-extends and Brandis destroys a unique flyer that could be 4 attacks with one OM's (but that is rarely going to happen).

I wouldn't think that the figures would ever be much more than 10 spaces away from each other unless you are on a really big map, that was why I suggested dropping the 10-spaces. Let's give it a try without.

2nd play-test with the Rangers and they continue to be strong. "Song of the Rangers" is solid - and leading out with OM1 with Varinn and Brandis works well. It leads to 3 attacks of 3 from range (if Varinn over-extends). Kayla was certainly in the Assassin role with her attack from invisibility. She took out a Deltacron in one shot, and so did Varinn (after getting height + attack treasure). It made for a short play-test for the Omnicron Squad Leader so it made me wonder about how good the new Jandar soulborg was designed.

I am considering lowering Varinn's life to 4. That would mean a maximum of +3 on Frenzy, and a 13 for Frenzy is pretty fantastic. He's also a full elf that shouldn't have more life than Syvarris. Brandis gets 5 life because he's a Half-Elf : )

Kayla is fairly strong - especially with her No Hit Zones. I am considering making it more like Thorian speed - where Special Attacks can still target her.

Other than that one play-test we got in with these figures a couple of years ago, I haven't really seen/thought much about how good they are. And they were really good in that battle. Stats and powers have changed since then. I will let you theory-scape some more and come up with your best idea before I play-test.

VYDAR:
Major Q10
Pulsar Soldiers x5

vs

ULLAR:
Varinn
Aubrien Archers x2
Raeza
Greenscales x2

Map: http://www.heroscapers.com/downloads/sirocco1_I4P.jpg

Ran two playtests to give the Pulsar Soldiers another run as well as try two Ullar units: Raeza (Dragon) and Varinn (Ranger).
Raeza: concerns that she is over-priced at 150-points. Have only seen a few play-tests.
Varinn: he was amazing when paired with Kayla Willowsong (Ranger) so trying him solo with Aubriens.

GAME 1: Vydar completely dominated this game, certainly the help of poor luck on Ullar’s side. Raeza moved up early – took a few wounds from Pulsar Soldiers – and then fell to Wrist-Rockets while rolling 0/7 on defense twice in a row (jungle tree + Rampage). Wasn’t much of a play-test for her.

The Pulsar Soldiers were great. The game mechanic for Charge Markers continues to be a fantastic idea (thanks Nomad). As a two-person Squad, I have some concerns about their Attacks per Order Marker – but with an option for a double special attack – they can make up for it.
Varinn came out for Ullar and had some luck with Over-Extend. The Archers had only 1 frenzy the entire game and when Varinn had 3 wounds, I should have backed him off – as the Pulsars jumped him and he went down without being able to buff his Archers.

GAME 2: Ullar had more luck in this one, and I was more conservative with Raeza (planning to save her for late-game clean-up). The Aubriens had two frenzies (both natural rolls without need for Varinn) and both came late.
The Pulsar Soldiers put pressure on early, taking an Intercept OM (but not a successful roll) and dropping a few Archers early. Raeza had an opportunity to jump out and take on two Pulsar Soldiers with an initiative switch. It works and she took out one Soldier in the water on the Defense glyph (4 attack vs 6 defense) and then the other with 3 attacks vs 5 defense. The Greenscales jumped on the Defense glyph and held it for the rest of the game (3 full rounds).

Raeza took a few wounds while protecting the Greenscales as Ullar moved up more Archers. The Pulsars tried a few blasts but didn’t take down any Archers. The Archers grabbed an Initiative +8 glyph (and also held it for the rest of the game.
With Initiative a likely option for Ullar, Raeza flew across the board to take on Major Q-10 (who was just a few spaces out of the start zone but on height). She popped a few wounds on the big Soulborg and then took a few hits back herself. She was at 6 Attack & Defense but only 2 Life remaining for several OM’s. Her tail-whip worked well – swinging as the Major and taking out a Pulsar for a few OM’s. The Greenscales had to take time to catch up to their Dragon Queen but eventually they had 2 around the Major (who was holding on with 1 life).

The Major eventually won the war against Raeza (height helping during the conflict). But the Dragon did enough damage to the Squad and held Vydar’s attacks at bay. The Archers moved up to take shots at the Major and the Pulsars with little effect but then Varinn moved up on the OM switch and destroyed a Pulsar then over-extended to finish the Major. A late game Frenzy by the Archers closed out the game.

Overall, Raeza was hit-and-miss. I don’t think she is worth 150-points (certainly not in the same class as Cyrpien). I would drop her to 120-points to line up with Krug. Her defense does get a boost from Rampage but her double-attack can’t be used on the same figure.

Varinn was average for a supporting Hero. His Frenzy enhancement didn’t come into play before he was destroyed. His over-extended attack was a nice to give a hero two shots. I think he was better with Kayla and other Rangers but he’s a nice filler for an “All-In” Aubrien army.

Pulsar Soldiers were fantastic and fun to play (even in the loss). The game mechanic is excellent and I really like how they play.

Considering swapping powers around:

Moving Song of the Rangers to Varinn and adding Alliance to Kayla.

ALLIANCE OF THE ELVES
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with any Elf or Half-Elf Hero or Elven Squad you control that follows Ullar.


This would provide some OM flexibility for Elven armies.  It would help with Wardens of the Wood and perhaps alternating between Aubrien Archers and Warriors of Ashra.  Might also help bring in other Elven Heroes (Sonlen, Syvarris, Arkmer for example).

The "Bio" will talk about a marriage between Kayla (Ashra) and Varinn (Aubria) bringing the Elves of Ullar together.

Some new ideas:

Unit Name: VARINN
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Warrior #17
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Precise
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 100
Stats
Life: 5
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

FRENZY ENHANCEMENT
For each wound marker on this Army Card, you may add 1 to your die roll when you roll for the Frenzy power on any Army Card.

OVEREXTEND ATTACK
After taking a turn with Varinn, you may place a wound marker on Varinn and take another turn with him.  You may only use this power once during a round.

SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn Varinn and one other Unique Ranger Hero you control that follows Ullar, or, instead of taking a turn with Varinn, you may take a turn with two other Unique Ranger Heroes you control that follow Ullar.


Unit Name: KAYLA WILLOWSONG
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Sorceress #22
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Tricky
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 60

Stats
Life: 4
Move: 6
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

ALLIANCE OF THE ELVES
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with any Elf or Half-Elf Hero or Elven Squad you control that follows Ullar.  Any figure taking a turn instead of Kayla must be within clear sight of Kayla before moving.

CLOAK OF THE WOODLANDS
Kayla starts the game with one Invisibility marker on her Army Card.  While the Invisibility marker is on this card, Kayla has no visible Hit Zones, never takes any leaving engagement attacks, and adds 1 automatic skull to her normal attack rolls.  After Kayla attacks, remove the Invisibility marker.  At the start of a new round, place the Invisibility marker back on this Army Card.

hmm, that does change things up quite a bit. I would propose direct dialogue on this one. I have partaken on a play-test or two the way it was and now have to shift my thinking around. Almost like starting from scratch. Let's talk.

Let me know how your talks go.

I think going back to the original play-tested ideas is best at this stage. Kayla becomes the 'lead' for activating Rangers.


Unit Name: VARINN
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Warrior #17
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Precise
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 90
Stats
Life: 5
Move: 5
Range: 7
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

FRENZY ENHANCEMENT
For each wound marker on this Army Card, you may add 1 to your die roll when you roll for the Frenzy power on any Army Card.

OVEREXTEND ATTACK
After taking a turn with Varinn, you may place a wound marker on Varinn and take another turn with him.  You may only use this power once during a round.



Unit Name: KAYLA WILLOWSONG
Figures: Mage Knight – Dark Riders - Freeholder Sorceress #22
General: ULLAR
Species: Elf
Type: Unique Hero
Class: Ranger
Personality: Tricky
Size: MEDIUM 4
Points: 70

Stats
Life: 4
Move: 6
Range: 1
Attack: 3
Defense: 3

CLOAK OF THE WOODLANDS
Kayla starts the game with one Invisibility marker on her Army Card.  While the Invisibility marker is on this card, Kayla has no visible Hit Zones, never takes any leaving engagement attacks, and adds 1 automatic skull her normal attack rolls.  After Kayla attacks, remove the Invisibility marker.  At the start of a new round, place the Invisibility marker back on this Army Card.

SONG OF THE RANGERS
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn Kayla and one other Unique Ranger Hero you control that follows Ullar, or, instead of taking a turn with Kayla, you may take a turn with two other Unique Ranger Heroes you control that follow Ullar.

We still need a sit down dialogue . . . man, time flies.

First take on the card for Varinn . . .

Rewording slightly. I am wondering if we need to rename the Frenzy Enhancement power . . . the traditional text of that power only adds 1 to the d20. Perhaps "Enhanced Frenzy Enhancement" or "Frenzied Enhancement" or "Wounded Frenzy", ha.