Thread: Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion
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Old May 23rd, 2022, 07:06 PM
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Re: Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion
Gonna drop a short review here for M.A.R.S. by @Astroking112

For Balance the obvious concern is the double explosion with a potential for 14 single space targets, or 18 if you’ve got a couple double-spacers involved. Other than that the stats aren’t noteworthy for the point cost.

For Creativity and Theme I want to point out how much I like the 4 move and 4 range combo. The theme there is good and the interplay with the missile barrage attack is creative. Militaristic is interesting but depending on your view of militaries in general it may very well be very correct.

With those out of the way the main focus is Playability. M.A.R.S. (as stated above) has world-breaking potential with 14 targets. Luckily, there are three main ways that this potential is kept in check.

The first is that your opponent knows that M.A.R.S. does indeed have a double explosion, and won’t just clump up 14 figures for you to blast at. In practice, this limits M.A.R.S. to 2 targets, sometimes 3. This is nothing to write home about, and is mostly useful in preventing your opponent from clogging up the map and waiting to pounce (since they don’t want explosions).

The second way this is kept in check is with M.A.R.S.’s low threat range. Planning a SZ rush? Well don’t. You’re not gonna get there in time. This is not a Zelrig situation. There will be no update to mapmaker’s guidelines that says “please make sure M.A.R.S. isn’t broken on this map.”

Others have alluded to M.A.R.S.’s third deficiency, which is that 3 dice is quite unreliable. My biggest (in terms of numbers) explosion in testing was a 9-figure double explosion (I think, maybe Sir H remembers) that occurred when I took an initiative switch to run 8 spaces and blast the SZ. I got 1 skull and killed nothing. And of course, this is no surprise: 50% of the time, you’ll get 0 or 1 skulls.

This is not to say that M.A.R.S. is unplayable or bad: He can have some pretty powerful games, especially when you utilize your own figures to connect the dots for some explosions. Occasionally you’ll put all the pieces together with a decent number of targets in range and roll a 2- or 3-skull blast to clear a section or two of the board.

And other times the 4 dice is helpful if M.A.R.S. needs to clear out a single adjacent figure without getting wrecked by his own 3 dice. My overall Conclusion is that M.A.R.S. is a fun design that does a good job of limiting its theoretical power output and it definitely deserves a place in Valhalla. to induct.
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