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Old January 4th, 2018, 12:38 AM
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Re: Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion

Maltis Tez by Leaf_It

We’ve already got Seleena in the “35-point Hybrid Cat Person that’s hard to pin down” category, so how does this offering for Aquilla fare in comparison?

Balance

There’s a straight-up comparison you can do here with Seleena: both have 3 life and 2 attack, and are Hybrids. Both have powers that boost their attack. Seleena has range, Maltis is fast and maneuverable. Definitely not breaking the game with the low stat line, which matches the low point cost.

Theme

The miniature is dynamic, and the powers accurately reflect that. Maltis Tez certainly looks capable of jumping in and out of engagements for quick strikes. But in a nice show of restraint, the stats and powers seem to reflect the low power level you’d expect from such a miniature.

Creativity

Strategic Repositioning is a novel power, and has interesting uses. First Assault is a nice re-use here. Designing a high-speed, low-cost unit that has enough attack power to be useful is difficult, but this is a power set that can combine those without breaking the unit.

Playability

Maltis Tez is often filler. That’s okay. He(?)She still has some uses, and fits nicely into some armies.

Scout synergies make him interesting to play with the Venoc Warlord. With 9 move, Maltiz can grab glyphs quite quickly. Even glyphs that are 10 spaces away can be grabbed with 9 move, a first assault of 5 dice (assuming height), and a strategic repositioning onto the glyph. Holding the glyph is often worth those 35 points, and if not, there’s a chance Maltis can take a well-timed Order Marker and go play clean-up at the end.

Hybrid synergies make you consider the Werewolf Lord. This works okay at the beginning of the game, as a few Moon Frenzies can get Maltis into the action. But this doesn’t work with the WWL’s best army (Wolves of Badru), and Maltis often doesn’t get time to shine before Lycanthropy comes into play, often with better, more disruptive options.

By far the most effective I found Maltis to be was with the Teeth of the Makwa. As a scout, heshe can take turns at the beginning of the game (glyph grabbing, probably), while your Makwa develop. Played like this, heshe might only get one attack or so in the game, but that’s usually worth it to advance development and grab glyphs at the same time.

Maltis Tez has a few other tricks, like being able to hop off of a glyph to attack and hop back on in the same turn, or taking over an opponent’s position after a kill to provide blockage.

But a lot of the time, none of this comes into play. Maltis Tez often falls flat. That’s okay, though. He'sShe's only 35 points.

Summary
Maltis Tez upholds the iron triangle of sculpt/theme/mechanics. HeHhe has enough of a dynamic design to warrant inclusion into the right army, although heshe doesn’t have so much punch that heshe overwhelms hisher low point cost.

I vote to induct Maltis Tez into the Soldiers of Valhalla

Last edited by superfrog; January 4th, 2018 at 08:54 AM.
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