This is the first in a series of articles featuring custom units that can be built from a starter set and an infantry pack, cavalry pack, and booster bundle from a specific faction. My hope is that it will be useful for people who want the extra power of custom units, but are still a bit intimidated by the unit builder.
To use one of these units, simply click on the appropriate link below, and you can view and print the unit from its page on the official site. As an added bonus, since the user name on the card is not Drake the Great, these cards will make your opponent over-confident.
This first article is about the Han.
The heart of any Han army is its archers. The most basic custom artillery unit is the Raven Annihilator. This shoots with 10 dice, enabling it to match the defense of basic turtle units. It also has Precision so it can be used to shoot into melee, a useful trait when you're defending your other archers from a striker or applying Call the Iron Rain.
The corresponding Kyudo unit is the Kyudo Annihilator. This unit has fewer range dice (9 instead of 10), but if it has not moved or attacked previously in the turn it gets the awesome power of Way of the Bow. If you have a full army set as described above, you can put both Annihilators in the same army.
The remaining common archers from your set can be put together on a sortie base to produce the Phoenix Squad. The Squad only has 6 range dice, but it takes only two order points to move and shoot with it, and 6 range dice is better than a lot of Roman artillery formations.
The Han also have mounted archers. The Lightning Riders are slightly more expensive than the standard Lightning Division, but you can move and attack with them in a single turn without regrouping. This is a significant advantage, because order points are precious.
If you have an infantry pack as well as a starter set, then instead of a standard Tiger Division, you have the option of the Charging Tigers. The Charging Tigers have Hustle, enabling them to move faster when pushing. Because this is a hard-charging unit, it is configured as a column, something that's helpful when trying to maneuver through terrain or other units.
The truly souped-up version of this unit is the Charging Terror. The Charging Terror uses Lord Muira to add 3 attack dice and 1 defense die. In addition, Fear means your target will be deprived of a defense die, and you can use Confusion to spin the target onto a bad side. At full strength against a non-Han opponent in a purely Han army, the unit's Xenophobic ability yields a total of 13 attack dice.
The Han's best infantry figure is the Shoyosei Infantry. The basic formation unit for this figure is the Ashi Line, which has 8 attack, 5 defense, and Elusive.
If you have two extra Shoyosei, you can create the double-Elusive Deadly Shadow. The Shadow only costs 950 points, its 9 attack dice is respectable, and the extra 2 order points required to attack the unit is a formidable defense in its own right.
The sortie unit for the Shoyosei is the Ashi Patrol. The custom version of this unit is the Ashi Squadron. It costs the same, but uses a pair of Terracotta Spearmen to get additional attack dice and hit points.
Another useful sortie is the Glory Squad. The Glory Squad has a base movement of 5 and Hustle, allowing it to get to the center of the board in one turn. It will not last long once it's there, but at 350 points, you aren't losing much when it goes away.
If you have two hustling sorties, you can threaten both control points at the same time. A good alternative if you don't have terra cottas coming out of your ears is the slightly more expensive Has Chargers.
One of the most problematic figures for the Han is the spider-like Jorogumo. The base card for it requires 4 figures, but the booster packs only come with three. A card with 3 Jorogumo has Resentful to give it extra attack dice against Human units (which are very common), but it has only 4 attack dice. To get the maximum power from these figures, you need a commander to provide extra dice, and you need a multi-peg figure that won't slow them down. The resulting unit-- the Entangling Spiders-- is extremely expensive, but highly versatile.
Fireburst is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. The only base unit that has it in full measure is the Face of Chaos, which is prohibitively expensive because of its use of the Hundun Spirit. What you need to get the most out of this ability is cheap sorties that move fast.
The basic fire-thrower is the Flame Striker, which uses 5 hustling terra cottas to fill out the card. There are several basic principles to note in the card's design. First, the movement is on the green-circle figures so that the unit is still mobile after all the support figures are killed. It's purpose, after all, is to do Fireburst, so those figures are the ones you want to keep as long as possible, and a unit that can't move is at a significant disadvantage. Second, all the defense icons are clustered on a single figure so that you can keep maximum defense as long as possible. Finally, because it is Fragile, it has a full 8 health to keep it alive longer.
The next step up is the Flame Runner. This unit uses Chen Xiaotang to give it the Hustle ability. That means that you can push it to move 12 in a single turn, making it a threat from a distance of over four and a half feet. The downside is that it's more expensive, and your opponent gets an extra point for killing it.
A slightly slower unit, but one that is harder to kill, is the Torch of the Tiger. This one uses Marching Han Infantry to fill out the card. The resulting unit moves 4 steps instead of 5, but it has more defense and is not vulnerable to the extra damage from Fragile.
The high-cost flame-throwing unit is the Immortal Fire. This sortie uses Zhongli Quan to add the Calculating ability to the unit. Calculating gives you an extra victory point if you kill an opposing unit that's on or adjacent to control terrain. Place the Immortal Fire in range of the control point and use it to finish off enemy units for extra victory points. In a pinch, you can also close with it to invoke Call the Iron Rain. Because the unit has an expensive commander on it, Shoyosei Infantry-- who have the highest defense for peg of any Han common figure-- are used to fill out the card. Its problem is that it capabilities require a lot of icon stacking, so the cost is pretty severe.
The revised special abilities have made Call the Iron Rain more important than ever. Once you get Zhongli Quan in amongst your opponents, he can draw an attack from the Kyudo Annihilator that has the full power of Way of the Bow. More important, he allows you to get your artillery into the fight without risking a counterattack from your opponent's striker units.
The problem is getting him into the fray without getting him killed. By far the best unit for doing this is the Immortal Steel. The Steel is a turtle unit with an incredible defense of 7 against close combat and 11 against ranged combat. In addition, it can be healed by Artificer units like Nuwa's Irregulars. It's problem is that it requires Shield Golems, which are only found in Roman boosters.
The purely Han alternative is the Stone Rain. This unit uses Elusive to increase the cost of making an attack, has 7 defense, and includes a Foo Lion to absorb damage. Unlike the Immortal Steel, it can make a respectable close-combat attack.
The sortie version of the Stone Rain is the Elusive Rain. This unit is much easier to kill, so it has Healing to give it extra life. After you've used Call the Iron Rain to soften up an adjacent opponent, you can finish it with a close-combat attack, and get an extra victory point from Calculating. Because the unit is so vulnerable, you'll probably need to push it to get it into the fight before it's killed.
Cavalry units are expensive because the multi-peg figures force you to stack lots of icons on a single slot, and icon-stacking is one of the biggest expenses in building a unit.
The basic Han cavalry unit is the Charging Thunder. The unit is initially configured for movement and defense. After pushing to move it into base contact with your opponent, you regroup to attack, delivering 9 dice against a Han opponent and up to 11 against a different faction (thanks to Xenophobic. Unfortunately, once you've done that, you've lost all your defense and you're going to get hammered. Still, 11 dice can wreak a lot of havoc, and the unit only costs 950 points, which is pretty cheap for a unit that has a striking distance of 14 steps.
The Trampling Thunder uses heavy cavalry units to squeeze out more defense at the cost of some speed. It attacks with 8 dice normally, and 10 against infantry and artillery units (thanks to Trample). After pushing to get it into position, you can configure it for full attack without giving up all of your defense. This gives it a chance of surviving to attack again.
You can improve these units by adding a Qilin. The extra figure not only gives you better attack and defense, but leaves you with more on the base after pushing. The Elite Thunder uses this technique. Note that the Qilin has no icons on it. Because it is a green-circle figure, you can't move it or move another figure onto its slot during regrouping. It's therefore designed to be sacrificed the first time you push.
The ultimate cavalry warrior using this approach is the Heavy Thunder. It's very expensive (1450 points), but after pushing to move into position, it can reform for 9 attack (11 against infantry and cavalry) and a full 6 defense (7 against close combat).
A few units are commonly useful, but don't fit into the above categories.
When you are 150 points short, you need the Butterfly Squad. The Squad has virtually no attack or defense capability, but it's cheap, and it only costs one order point to move it around.
For healing terra cotta units (and other constructs), consider Nuwa's Irregulars. This unit uses Shoyosei Infantry to provide Elusive, which helps to protect it. This is important, as Nuwa's Artificer power is fairly short range, and she will likely be in the thick of things where she's vulnerable to attack.
A slightly cheaper variant is Nuwa's Tigers. This unit uses Healing to keep it alive longer.
One of the problems with dragons is that each dragon unit is only a single figure, so they can't be pushed. This makes them easy fodder for your enemy's archers, who can usually kill the dragon before it is able to get into base contact with an opposing unit. You can change this dynamic using a unit built with the alternate-stat Hundun Spirit. This figure confers the new special ability Master of Monsters. With Master of Monsters in effect, you can push a dragon for movement without downing a figure (much like Stormrider works for Xiongnu cavalry units). This allows the fastest dragons to move into attack position from a distance of 12 steps, enough to get first strike on most artillery units. The Master of Dragons sortie contains a single figure and distributes its icons so as to provide access to Master of Monsters for a relatively low build cost.
So, here is a 7000-point army made with the above units and the stated restrictions on figure availability (starter set, infantry pack, cavalry pack, booster bundle).