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Originally Posted by UtahScott
Re: Dragon's Gulch --
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Originally Posted by BiggaBullfrog
Oh, if someone can come up with a better name for this map, I'd be glad to hear it. I like the name, and the map, just not together. They don't really jive, IMO.
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Bigga, now that Dragon's Gulch is about to be dissected for the Battlefields of Valhalla, I've got a few comments on it.
You could change the name to Moltenclaw's Gulch; he presents some issues. (The map was designed long before his appearance.) From either level six molten lava tile, he controls most of the board, save a few hexes bordering the far start zone. While there, he can be hit only by ranged fire, lava-friendlies, or height 6+ adjacent melee figures on water tiles. If the opponent has none of these....  Moltenclaw LOS issues there need testing, and the actual figure won't be out for another month. (Would rotating the 3-hex outcrop make any differences?)
The other obvious problem is figures exiting a startzone, going along the left edge. The level 3 stone ridge is one hex wide around the single rock outcrop, and bottlenecks same-turn squad rushes. This is an attempt to balance the left glyph being closer than the right one; will it work well enough?
Regardless, looking forward to the judging. 
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That's a really good point, Scott. I knew Moltenclaw would have an advantage on the inside Lava Rock hexes-I hadn't even thought about those Molten Lava spaces. This also means that maps that put Molten Lava on columns to make them line-of-sight blockers will also favor Moltenclaw (edit-I'm real slow on the uptake here; I hadn't realized this whole deal before, but after a quick look-over of Moltenclaw's Pre-Release thread, everyone else has-I'm just cool like that). It'll be interesting to see how the judges handle this-kind of like small Z-Bomb friendly maps, but much more extreme, which probably means I'll have to make changes to it, and maybe fix some of the bottlenecks.
Speaking of the bottlenecks, though, in my playtesting I've found that the tight areas usually don't have as much impact in the overall game than I expect them to. Usually the fighting is spread enough, scrambling to get height, that the small passages aren't a big deal. But, I haven't really played a wide range of players on it, so maybe someone with a different play-style will find the bottlenecks too restricting.
Thanks for bringing that up, Scott, and thanks a load for the nomination.