Hello everyone,

I've played Brood War several times and came up with an idea about more varied Heroes available to players. I was a little bit disappointed that only 7 heroes are available in Brood War set, and decided to improve it. There are many heroes not used in StarCraft board game that played important role in original StarCraft universe. Here are my personal game modifications that I believe complete the game:

At the Stage II, whenever a player would choose his Leadership card, he may choose a hero belonging to his faction instead.

Protoss Heroes:

TASSADAR (Tassadar Faction)

Place a High Templar with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

At the start of a battle: If Tassadar is present, you may choose to draw 2 additional Combat cards.

End of destroy units step: If Tassadar was not destroyed, recharge a Reinforcement Technology card.

FENIX (ZEALOT) (Aldaris Faction)

Place a Zealot with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +2 Attack and +2 Health in the skirmish.

This hero counts as being 2 Zealots for the purposes of "Leg Enhacements" technology card benefits.

ARTANIS (Tassadar Faction)

Place a Scout with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Attack and +1 Health in the skirmish.

This hero ignores "Limited Orbital Defense" and "Anti-aircraft Defenses" abilities of enemy Air Support modules.

ULREZAJ (Any Protoss Faction)

Place a Dark Archon with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

This hero can use Archon Combat cards and suppport value and no longer counts as an Assist unit.

Terran Heroes:

S ARAH KERRIGAN (GHOST) (Arcturus Mengsk Faction)

Place a Ghost with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Attack and +2 Health in the skirmish.

At the start of a battle: If Sarah Kerrigan is present, your opponent must play his Combat cards faceup in skirmish containing this hero.

ALAN SCHEZAR (Any Terran Faction)

Place a Goliath with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +2 Health in the skirmish.

End of destroy units step: If Alan Schezar was not destroyed, recharge a Combat card.

EDMUND DUKE (Arcturus Mengsk Faction)

Place a Siege Tank with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

Then, you may research "Siege Mode" technology for free. You may choose to add 1 of these cards directly into your hand.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Health in the skirmish.

Zerg Heroes:

HUNTER KILLER BREED (Queen of Blades Faction)

Place a Hydralisk with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area. When it is present at the start of a battle, receive +1 attack in each skirmish containing a Hydralisk as a front-line or support unit.

When you reveal a Build order and this character is not in play, you may place him on any friendly area on the active planet.

YGGDRASILL (Overmind Faction)

Place a transport with a hero token underneath it on any navigation route.

This transport is not destroyed if it does not have a adjacent planet with a friendly base on it during the Regrouping Phase. Whenever you reveal a Mobilize order, you may move this hero to any navigation route.

When executing a Mobilize order, units transported by this character ignore "Limited Orbital Defense" abilities and gain Detector in every skirmish if they attack an area.

So these are my personal ideas to improve the game. I know Yggdrasill haven't played a big role in StarCraft universe but I like the idea of a transport hero Tell me if you have any suggestions, or if you have more ideas about new Heroes.

Cheers!

Really good work

Few thoughts about your heroes:

Overally, you should not copy heroes that already exist in the game, because it's possible to have two different heroes in the same skirmish. This problem can be avoided by renaming such heroes like Sarah Kerrigan, Tassadar, Fenix, Edmund Duke

I was comparing your ideas with others, including mine (read threads below):

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/474565/new-set-of-5-factions

Protoss Heroes:

Tassadar - rename to: "Aldaris", he also should not be immune to Splash Damage (otherwise too hard to kill)

Fenix - he also could receive Leg Enhacements for free (it's an expensive technology).

Artanis - very interesting special ability, better than my version (with recharge of Standard Combat cards).

Terran Heroes:

Sarah Kerrigan - rename to: "Alexei Stukov". My version ot fhis hero kills one additional unit in "Resolve Splash Damage" step, which I believe is better (Ghosts have really weak Combat cards and without technologies can't match with other units). Btu if you like your version more, I suggest to force the opponent to place his all Combat cards first (also when he is the defender).

Alan Schezar - he seems to be too weak

Edmund Duke - except the name, everything is OK

Zerg Heroes:

Hunter Killer - very similiar to my version, your is weaker, but hero is almost immortal (like Torrasque) - you don't even need to pay for it

Yggdrasill - too bad, another immortal hero for the Zerg, moreover making attacks too easy :/ He should require Agressive module to attack the base (although hero still would not be destroyed) and it could be moved only at the end of Regroping Phase. Detector is not necessary.

Another ideas of additional heroes:

TOM KAZANSKY

Place a Wraith with a hero token underneath it in any empty or friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Attack and +1 Health in the skirmish.

This hero can use Battlecruiser Standard Combat cards.

MAGELLAN

Place a Science Vessel with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area. This hero is not immune to Splash Damage.

At the end of each Regrouping Phase:

If this hero is in play, you may purchase one technology with discount of 1 mineral or gas. Add all purchased cards to Combat deck (if necessary).

WARBRINGER

Place a Reaver with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Health and Collateral Damage in the skirmish.

DANIMOTH

Place an Arbiter with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.Then, you may research "Recall" technology for free. This hero is not immune to Splash Damage.

You may use "Recall" technology to move any number of your units to the area containing this hero.*

* (obeying unit limits - I don't remember all rules on this card)

UNCLEAN ONE

Place a Defiler with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area. Then, destroy any enemy unit on the same planet. This hero is not immune to Splash Damage.

At the start of the battle:

If Unclean One is present, your enemy must withdraw one of his units at the end of "Resolve Splash Damage" step of the battle.

Hi there, thanks for your comment. I really appreciate your advice.

First of all, renaming heroes is not quite necessary, in my opinion it's better to just modify rules to prevent players from having more than one hero of the same name (such as "You can have only one Fenix in play, either Zealot or Dragoon"). Yet, it still won't prevent the two basiclly same characters from meeting together in battle (Sarah Kerrigan as a Ghost could still fight her other self as the Queen of Blades ).

About your threads, I haven't seen them before, I invented my heroes quite independently. Nevertheless, these ideas seem great, entirely new factions for Brood War make the game even more intresting, I've gotta try them myself .

Secondly, after I wrote my post here, I created some new heroes as well as made several modifications to existing ones, hope they're better now:

New Heroes (made before I read your threads):

JUDICATOR ALDARIS (Aldaris Faction)
Place a High Templar with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
An area containing this hero counts as a Strategic Area.

MATRIARCH RASZAGAL (Tassadar Faction)
Place a Dark Templar with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
While this hero is in play, you may place 1 free order at the start of each Planning Phase. This does not count towards your limit of 4 orders per Planning Phase.

GUI MONTAG (Arcturus Mengsk Faction)
Place a Firebat with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
When this hero is present at the start of the battle, all your Firebat units in the same battle gain Ground Splash Damage ( note : it overrides splash that is limited to Marines, Zealots and Zerglings ).
When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Attack, +2 Health and Ground Splash Damage in the skirmish.

HYPERION (Jim Raynor Faction)
Place a Battlecruiser with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
If this hero is present at the start of a battle, receive +1 Health in each skirmish.

Modified Heroes (also modified before reading your threads):

PRAETOR FENIX (Aldaris Faction)
Place a Zealot with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
At the end of each Planning Phase, you may place a free Guard token in an area containing this hero.
When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +2 Attack and +2 Health in the skirmish.
I changed him from being offensive to a more defensive one, as I remember him best for his unlucky defense of Antioch. I also read somewhere that he and Artanis have successfully won a war against some different species, despite being outnumbered 30:1, so making Fenix a "Guardian" seemed obvious to me.

ULREZAJ (Any Protoss Faction)
Place a Dark Archon with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
This hero can use Archon Combat cards and suppport value and no longer counts as an Assist unit. As long as this hero is in play, you can't build High Templar or Arbiter units
When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +1 Attack and +1 Health in the skirmish.
That's it, perhaps the most powerful and most devastating unit in the game, as he was, if I remember correctly, created through merging seven powerful Dark Templars. Preventing player from building High Templars and Arbiters resembles Ulrezaj's hatred for Judicator caste.

LIEUTENANT KERRIGAN (Arcturus Mengsk Faction)
Place a Ghost with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.
End of destroy units step: If Lieutenant Kerrigan was not destroyed, you may destroy 1 additional enemy unit of your choice.
Seems that I came up with an almost identical conclusion as you. Ghosts indeed are weak in combat, but are suited well for covert operations, such as eliminating enemy key units. Only difference between our ideas may be that in my version the player controlling Kerrigan may choose which unit to destroy (so it may end up with destroying Battlecruiser in place of a Marine ). Renamed, as you suggested, you may also treat her as Nova (Ghost hero from StarCraft: Ghost).

HUNTER KILLER BREED (Queen of Blades Faction)
Place a Hydralisk with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area. When it is present at the start of a battle, receive +1 attack in each skirmish for every Hydralisk present in the skirmish.
When you build a hydralisk unit and this hero is not in play, you may place a hero token underneath that hydralisk and treat him as Hunter Killer Breed.

Changed the wording, granting +1Attack for every hydralisk, not only for one. I tried to re-create Hunter Killer squads without making multiple hydralisks with hero tokens (they were only few Hunter Killers per Zerg Brood, making multiple hero hydralisks would suggest that entire Brood is composed of them). Also, to "reincarnate", it now requires building a standard hydralisk.

YGGDRASILL (Overmind Faction)
Place a transport with a hero token underneath it on any navigation route.
Whenever you execute a Special Mobilize order, you may move this hero to any navigation route adjacent to the active planet.
When executing a Special Mobilize order, units transported by this character ignore "Limited Orbital Defense" ability of enemy Air Support modules and gain Detector in one chosen skirmish if they attack an area.
I also thought he was too powerful, so it now requires Special Mobilize to be moved, is destroyed as a normal transport, and his Detector is limited only to one skirmish. Hope it makes him more balanced.

Finally, my opinions about your heroes:

Tom Kazansky seems great, Wraith with Cloaking and Yamato Gun can be really devastating. Also, a nice idea to resemble his abilities as the best pilot in Terran Dominion.

Magellan is in my opinion great for smaller games (1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2), as it helps player build technology without wasting 1 of his four orders for Research.

No offense meant, Warbringer is nothing special, just extra health and collateral damage already included in Increased Reaver Capacity. Nevertheless, it's a free Reaver, which sometimes may be all you need to achieve victory

Danimoth is one of my favourites, second only to Tom Kazansky, it functions as a mobile Warp Gate and is not limited to use only once per round. Great idea, it really helps Protoss be more mobile.

Unclean One seems similar to Gantrithor, as it automatically destroys one unit. Can be really helpful sometimes. About forcing 1 unit to withdraw, It's use may be situational, as it may sometimes help your opponent to gain control of more areas.

Thanks again for your opinions. I'll try to further improve my heroes

It wasn't my intention to let Tom Kazansky use Yamato Gun cards, this would make him more powerfull than heroes-Battlecruisers (that's why I wrote: " Standard Combat cards"). Even without those cards he will be strong enough.

For Warbringer, I think you underestimate this hero. To trigger Collateral Damage, it just need to survive the skirmish, that +1 to health will help it a lot for this. Collateral Damage itself is always devastating and it will make the enemies lots of troubles. With this ability, you may research other technology instead for your forces, and with Increased Reaver Capacity card you will be able to destroy both workers and base / installation in the same area.

For Unclean One, remember how withdraw works - it must be executed on the same planet, otherwise unit will be destroyed. It's also ability with status "At the start of the battle", so you decide if you want to use it. It's also helpfull for such abilities like "Infest Terran Command Center". I added killing one chosen unit to make him more attractive for Zerg player (which may have problems with destroying tougher units of other races). However, this ability is weaker than that of Ganthrithor's - it doesn't affect bases and installations.

About new heroes:

Aldaris - really nice,although I believe such bonus would fit better to Raszagal, Aldaris could have the ability concerning e.g. Event cards:

At the start of each Regrouping Phase:

If Aldaris is in play, take one Event Card from any of your opponents. You may play it additionaly in "Play Event Cards" step of this Regrouping Phase.

Raszagal - I remember this hero in video game also as a Corsair, in this form she could have +1 to Health and (optionally) improved Disruption Web (it could affect also Ground attack). The ability you suggested makes her only the mobile Cerebrate Daggoth

Gui Montag - You should not mess up with Splash Damage of other Firebats, that would make them too powerfull. My suggestion for this hero:

Place a Firebat with a hero token underneath it in any friendly area.

When this hero is a front-line unit, gain +2 Health and Ground Splash Damage in the skirmish.

When this hero is in play, all your Firebats gain +1 Attack. (also includes this hero)

Hyperion - excellent choice of special ability although I'm not sure if it will not make this hero too strong support for Terran.

About modified heroes:

Fenix - OK, it makes this hero much better

Ulrezaj - It's the ability of using Dark Archon technology cards what makes this hero most interesting for me, I'm not sure if additional +1 Attack and Health is really necessary, but it's still OK, together with other rules

Sarah Kerrigan - I really don't like the idea of Kerrigan fighting vs herself... Moreover, your ability would be too powerfull - enemy should at least have chance to decide what he wants to have destroyed. Note that in step "Destroy units and discard cards" it's still possible to resolve Cloaking (which would save such unit if it had that ability). In my version of this hero he/she must still be present at the end of the battle, so that the enemy has the chance to avoid special ability of the hero (if he forces him/her to withdraw due to Cloaking before Splash Damage step).

Hunter Killer - Now I see your point, the hero looks OK for me

Yggdrasill - I still don't like that with this hero Zerg would not need an Agressive module, moreover moving this transport in Action Phase still makes almost impossible to destroy him.

Well, it seems I misread Tom Kazansky's ability to use only Standard Battlecruiser cards, my mistake. Nevetrheless, I still like this hero very much

I understand what you meant for Harbringer, extra health with standard Protoss +1 shield cards makes this hero more than difficult to kill. Collateral Damage together with Splash (which is also printed on some standard Reaver cards if I remember correctly) make indeed a deadly combo. What I said about being nothing special was that he's nothing more than buffed up Reaver. Although I expected something more original, such as Fenix using Templar cards, it seems really difficult to come up with a 'fresh' idea for him, if you know what I mean. I don't have a better idea so I have no right to criticize you. After all, even in computer game he's only more powerful Reaver so he's fine as he is

About Raszagal, copying Daggoth's ability was not original at all, yet I tried to give her more thematical touch. Her will and power over Dark Templar people fits the extra order each phase well in my opinion. You may be right about giving her Aldaris' ability instead, she was an important figure for their people and I remember how Zeratul and his allies fought hard to recover her from Infested Kerrigan's hands.

By the way, I don't remember her in Corsair form, I've seen her only once during the game as a Dark Templar with red cloak, seconds before Zeratul slain her. I couldn't find a Corsair hero in my StarEdit either. Where has she appeared as a Corsair? Tell me, please.

Kerrigan may seem too powerful against forces that focus on heavy-hitting expensive units, yet she's not that powerful in my opinion. You know that StarCraft is paper-scissors-stone game, every strategy has its counteract strategy. Sarah has no health and attack bonuses, uses weak Ghost cards and is not an Assist unit, so she could be easily swarmed by Zerglings or other cheap meat shields. Her strength depends on the situation. Of course, changes in wording you suggested are necessary, yet I think I'll stay with choosing the target to destroy by player controlling Kerrigan. Otherwise, I can still experiment with my older version (the one that requires opponent's cards to be placed faceup).

Also, she does not have to fight herself. Just rename her to Nova or add special rule that player controlling Arcturus Mengsk may not choose this hero if playing against Queen of Blades faction

About Yggdrasill, tell me how would you see that hero in play. I know there no transport heroes in basic game, but I think it's nothing wrong to try and experiment on it

Vectivus said:

I saw such hero in some UMS maps, not in the campaign. So it's probably player-made.

I'll just write my suggestion of rules for Yggdrasill:

YGGDRASILL

Place a transport with a hero token underneath it on any navigation route.

This transport is not destroyed if you use your Offensive module. If you are the attacker, gain Detector in battle on planet adjacent to the navigation route containing Yggdrasill.

At the end of each Regrouping Phase:

If this hero is in play, you may place it in any other navigation route

PS: If all those heroes would be ready (rules and other details), I could try to prepare the cards for them, like for those new factions (although I think most of them would overpower some factions).

cyb3k said:

Custom units were impossible with Starcraft, without all involved players running a special mod.

However, there were a few units in the game data, that weren't normally visible in the editor:

Arcturus Mengsk. Battlecruiser. Wireframe looked like "blank". Did not have spells.

Gerard DuGalle. Battlecruiser. Wireframe looked like a battlecruiser.

Aldaris. High Templar. Wireframe looked like "blank". Did not have spells.

Raszagal. Corsair. Wireframe looked like a corsair. Disruption Web needed to be researched before she could use it.

There were also 2 additional scouts that couldn't move, and one building that looked exactly like a scout. All other "hidden units" just made the game crash.

Basically, these units existed, so that their portraits could be used in the Mission Briefing and Transmissions during the game.

Their use is quite limited, as they often share the weapon with another unit (Aldaris uses Tassadar's weapon, and therefor always does the exact same damage as Tassadar). Also, they could not be created using triggers. Instead, they had to be placed on the map at the start of the game, and then given to the player at some point.

The High Templar looking like Aldaris and the Dark Templar looking like Raszagal are actually normal High and Dark Templars renamed, while the Transmissions constantly showing other faces makes it look like they are the real Aldaris and Raszagal. Would've been nicer if they made them into actual working units, and for that matter, made hero units out of all the BWL units.