r/DuneImperium

Covered foam cliffs with Sculptamold and painted them a desert color. Next up the Apoxie base.

First and foremost, thanks for all of your feedback.
The first draft was pretty well received, but some things did get brought up, so I hope you'll help me assess them.

I've also played three solo games, and I do have some thoughts/misgivings that I'd like to discuss here. The result is three different drafts of Scytale. All three revolve around him being an Assassin and using his Face Dancing to infiltrate.

Like I said: 3 suggested versions. But there is also the option to mix and match across versions.

Version 1.1
I reworded the abilities a bit, most importantly to mention Combat Intrigues.
Assassin: I really like the concept/mechanic, but I'm not sure it feels right in actual play. You're never winning Conflicts with this - just picking at the edges and picking up 3rd places. The problem/frustration is that it doesn't combine with adding actual troops.
Some people have found the ability to be quite powerful, but it sure doesn't feel that way (in solo). It's going to take a while to acquire Sword cards and get them in your hand, and by that time Combat strengths will most likely have escalated beyond your ability to keep up.
Face Dancer: I really like that this is very different from a traditional Signet (after all Scytale isn't a House leader). As a few people have pointed out, the "only to occupied spaces" breaks the rules for how the Agent Box works, but I'm kind of inclined to ignore that - if for no other reason then because the official Kwisatz Haderach card does a similar thing.
Should this bother me more?
Just like Assassin, the ability feels pretty week. Cool, with potential, but also weak. If you're early in the turn, if few people have their Swordmaster or if people go to faction spaces, then your options can be extremely limited. In one of my solo games I even Trashed the Signet. Then again, and Solo the Rivals avoid some of the spaces that the Signet can take you to...

I like this version of Face Dancer, but overall Scytale1.1 frankly feels a bit weak to me.

Scytale 2.0
Face Dancer: Unlike the 1.1, this comes with no downsides. It opens up a few extra board spaces for you, as you mimic the First Player. And the First Players first board space is usually prety good. Every few turns, (when you are the First Player), it does nothing. (I did contemplate having it also work when you are First Player, but I figured it would be too easy to abuse - like going three times to Carthag, or multiple times to the same (free) Faction space).

Assassin: This is really just a simple(r) version of Duncan Idahos official leader ability - where Duncan can move his Signet Agent into the Conflict. I chose this simpler version because base D:I does not have the required rules to make distinctions between units and troops.
Using a regular unit instead of the Agent piece should be net neutral: Official Duncan couldn't block opposing players with his Signet Agent, but on the other hand he could sometimes go to the same space with two consecutive Agents.

This is more straightforward than v1.1, and also has the advantage of being very close to an official leader (so has been "tested").

Scytale 3.0
This version loses the ability to access additional board spaces, but uses the Face Dancer mimicry in a Conflict focused way - making Scytale fully Conflict focused.

Face Dancer: Kind of like a Bindu Suspension - you get to pass an Agent turn, which means you are very likely to go last, if you want to. Very nice in Conflict! It does mean though, that you have to delay your last Agent, which means available board spaces will be restricted, so this is by no means free.

Assassin: You straight up assassinate one troop. This sounds good, but it is usually weaker than just gaining 1 troop yourself, as with gaining 1 troop you get +2 strength over everyone rather than just over 1 player. (So this is usually weaker than the 2.0 version - but perhaps more thematic for a sneaky Assassin rather than a Warrior (Duncan)). That said, if someone has only 1 troop in the Conflict, you can take them out, so people trying for a cheap third place reward need to look out for that.

I like how thematic Scytale 1.1 is, but I like the simplicity of the others.

Thaks for reading :)
Martin

OK, so I created 8 additional leaders for base game D:I (no expansions).
They can all be found on my Google Drive.

Now, at the risk of not stopping in time, I'm considering adding one last leader to the set, simply because he plays such a pivotal role in the story: Scytale.

I still want to stick to my own rule of making these leaders quite simple and to get them into A-tier or B-tier.

I've seen other fan made takes on Scytale. They either let him copy another Signet Ring or they let him copy a card ability from the Imperium Row. I find both of these abilities cool, but also entirely impossible to balance, since some leader Signets are vastly better than others, and some cards are vastly better than others.

So, I'm considering the above card.
My guess is that it's a but underpowered, but I'd love to hear what you think.

The Assassin ability might land you a few 3rd places in the early game, but is no good in the late game. Encourages a sword-heavy strategy.
The Face Dancer ability is a double edged sword. It can sometimes give you crucial access, not least in the Swordmaster rush, but it can also prevent you from using your best access card to go where you want - especially if you are early in the turn. (It's like a considerably weaker version of Helena's Passive, though, admittedly, it would be overly good with the IX expansion).

Thoughts?

Cheers
Martin

Second start position, took foldspace and bought troop transport. (also a luxury, getting to control shipping for half the game and having troop transport on turn1).

What would you choose and why ?

Edit:
I ended up taking the shadows + guild bankers. While i normally avoid "cheap cards" like the plague and try to only take a small number of the strongest possible cards in my deck and that made me doubt taking the 2 cheap ones over the strong 5 cost picks, these are probably the strongest in their cost bracket.

The main argument to pick them snatching them before the enemy could take them and hoping i could buy the 5s as well before they did. That failed of course. Both these cards dont help you develop the deck further. I didn't get to buy much more strong cards during the game. Mostly being low on purchasing power until i spent my water in the final 2 turns to draw all my cards.

In the end i had an unnatural Beast game where i didn't fight a lot of battles. I won with 2 alliances (and of course all 4 base influence points), 1 combat victory and 3 SMF. On the final turn the bankers allowed me to buy 2 SMF in a single turn.

Tried the strategy with revealing swords, and got to 18 combat strength with one troop deployed (ranked game, no intrigues). It’s probably not optimal, but damn was it fun. It went to round 8 and I ended up winning cause I beat a heighliner with 2 troops deployed and no combat intrigues lol.

Now it's time to get back to work on the diorama. This project has morphed into more than I initially planned.

Poor Goose.