Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion

[Kinseth]

Thank you superfrog, I threw up in my mouth a little.

[Scytale]

Uzog has passed United Fanscape review and moves forward in the process.

[Kinseth]

Exciting news! Glad to hear it.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Elgos Knights by Ixe

The Elgos Knights are a custom whose name you should know, but are they the hippest trip in America or just a bunch of jive turkeys? As always in parting, we'll see if they have what it takes to make it into the... SOULDIERS OF VALHALLA!

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Balance

The Knights just don't look so good in this department. You can get the Horned Skull Brutes with the same base stats for a little over half their cost, or get the Minions for 20 points less and get around the same stats (counting 2 attack with deadly strike as roughly equal to 4 attack) all the time as the Knights have when fully charged. Both of those squads are common, and have augmented movement of some type, which are huge advantages for a melee squad. Even with the resurrection power, I'm not seeing the Knights being worth such a steep price over those two.

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Theme

Undead using souls as a resource is a pretty common fantasy trope, and it's clear what both of the powers are doing thematically. The minis all look suitably evil knightish and fit reasonably well together. Overall, very cohesive theme here.

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Creativity

Shield of Lost Souls is just Blood Lust for defense, but the addition Dark Resurrection makes the power more interesting than it otherwise would be. Not a bad little package altogether.

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Playability

They're too expensive to be worth using, simple as that. Even when fully charged, they're honestly nothing that special for their points. You'd be lucky to get them to that point in the first place though. They need kills to fuel either of their powers, and even against other melee squads it's pretty much a total gamble that they'll fuel up enough to matter before they're put down. Ranged squads and Unique Heroes are even more of a challenge for them.

Once you do get charged up, you are almost always going to have to immediately burn two of the markers to replace your loses. The choice between one or two figures with 6 or 7 defense and two or three figures with 4 defense isn't really much of a choice at all. Granted, bringing back a figure is a pretty good trick, but it's obviously nothing the original designers considered that game breaking, compare how much easier the Zombies, or Marro Warriors, or even the Dividers to a degree, can resurrect at far cheaper prices.

Overall, while they can have a good game with enough dumb luck (which you could say about pretty much any card), they never felt like they were worth drafting to me, and that's a pretty big problem.

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The Elgos Knights are going in an interesting direction, but at the moment they are far too expensive for what they do. Even at a lower price, I'm not entirely sure they'd pass, but I do know they're not up to par as they stand now.

I vote to induct the Elgos Knights to the SoV.

[Ixe]

Thank you for the consideration to the Elgos Knights. I will contemplate further changes to their design, but figure limitations are what moved them down from 4 to 3 figures in the first place and I pushed them out this round since it looked like availability was dropping further so prognosis is grim.

[Scytale]

The Elgos Knights have received two Nay votes to induct (Scytale and Soundwarp SG-1) and have been removed from the process.

[Scytale]

Uzog by Kinseth

In Heroscape lore the savages of the Durgeth Swamp were thought to be wiped out. Uzog disagrees.

Balance

Uzog's stats are very good for the price. He shares the Ogre Pulverizer's stat line and also bonds with the Death Chasers but lacks Double Attack and is 25% cheaper. Double Attack is certainly important for an attacking hero, though Uzog partially makes up for that with the ability to boost his Attack value. While both have a negative power, Uzog's inability to take turns is a doozy. I'd say 75 points is on the low side, but not clearly overpowered.

Theme

Is this what a Durgeth looks like? United Fanscape seems to agree.

The powers definitely paint a picture (a gruesome one) that goes along with the Savage designation. The Wild personality fits well enough (though "Single-Minded" or "Dumb" would fit him better) and it is important for his bonding potential. The mini is appropriately ugly.

Creativity

The Trophy Skulls concept is clearly inspired by the miniature and is implemented in an interesting way, giving Uzog both a positive power and a negative one. Both powers are simple, important for the unit, and thematic.

Playability

There are a handful of negative powers in Heroscape. Most of them don't have a huge effect on gameplay, and ones that do often have it as an option that can provide a big boost (like Stinger Drain). Uzog doesn't give the player an option; the big dope goes about turning his victims into trophies regardless of anything else around him. The inability to take turns is pretty painful, especially for a front-line fighting melee hero.

As such, he's generally bad alone. He's terrible at cleanup, for example, unless he's going up against a very small number of figures (which could be heroes). Walking into a crowd alone with simply get him killed, as he kills one thing per round and happily goes about creating his trophies while the other enemies beat on him.

Alongside other units, though, he can work quite well. Obviously, the best way to play him is with a squad that gives him free activations, like the Death Chasers. Not only do they provide order marker rerouting so you don't waste order markers on a Trophy Skull-ing Uzog, but they can bond with something else while the big Savage is busy. Not only that, but they also provide a more immediate threat for the opponent to focus on instead of a helpless Uzog. But he also works decently alongside other solo units, if you mix up your order markers and activate Uzog sparingly.

I actually found playing against Uzog more interesting than playing with him. After he gets his one kill he's no longer a threat for the remainder of the round, like a unit without any unrevealed order markers. That makes the other potentially-attacking figures more immediate threats. But ignoring him can come back to bite you, as he can put on quite the Gruesome Display if he's got a few trophies in his belt.

Summary

Uzog has really good stats for the price plus a self-boosting power. While his negative power is something that can be played around, it certainly affects play, both for the player that uses him and his opponent(s). Overall I did not find him to be overpowered or a "must pick" with the Death Chasers, but rather a different and valuable option. The big Savage does provide something new and unique, playing with and against.

I vote to induct Uzog into the SoV.

[Kinseth]

Glad to see you thought of the Savage as something new and unique to play along side the Death Chasers with. You are right about how an opponent can decide to ignore Uzog if he is "Stuck" for the rest of the round. Great review! Thanks for your time in reviewing him Scytale.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Viceron the Dark Knight by Ixe

He is vengeance... He is the night... He is... Viceron!
Viceron!
Viceron!
There is a song the good folks sing!
Song the good folks sing!
Viceron!
About a villain on the wing!
Villain on the wing!
Viceron!
He is Toril's Darkest Knight, the heroes' darkest fright, but can he turn on the signal light for the Soldiers of Valhalla?
Viceron!

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Balance

Viceron's a fairly expensive hero, but he has some beefy attack and defense, and two very useful powers to help earn that cost. The big area he's lacking in is threat range, he's an almost melee figure with only average move and no flying or other mobility boosting powers. Compared to most of the other solo heroes in his point range, he's going to have a tough time getting into the fight efficiently or chasing down ranged figures. Still, 150 seems reasonable considering the potential of Bloodstorm Ritual.

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Theme

The overall design works well thematically for me, he's an evil knight with blood magic, and it's clear what both of his powers are doing. Bloodstorm Ritual gives him some extra points here for sounding like a heavy metal album, which is just the right mix of awesome and silly that works for Heroscape. My only real complaint here is that the figure's head reminds me of Beaker from the Muppets, but that's pretty minor.

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Creativity

The tension between a powerful but self-harming attack or a weaker (when there are multiple targets to hit anyway) but self-healing attack is interesting and rather unique. No problems here.

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Playability

Viceron is definitely a light that burns twice as bright and half as long. You need to use Bloodstorm Ritual to get much out of a turn with Viceron against most armies, but you're slowly killing your own figure each time you use it, and Beaker isn't exactly cheap. It's not a pleasant feeling when you blank on your Bloodstorm attack roll and all your turn accomplishes is a wound to Viceron himself, especially since his life isn't terribly high to start with. Still, with a good attack roll and enough figures in range, Viceron can really earn his keep. That's basically all the strategy there is to Viceron, run at the enemy and hope you get to blow-up enough times with enough skulls before inevitable death.

Sanguine Sword can theoretically keep him in the game longer, but considering even at full health he's one or two bad rolls away from death, I rarely used it if I could get a decent Bloodstorm instead. I'd much rather potentially kill a bunch of enemy figures than only get a shot to kill one and heal a wound that might not even matter. The power is far from useless though, it's a nice 'reward' of sorts if you manage to mostly clear out Viceron's immediate area, letting him go be suicidal on some other group of schmucks later on.

As a said in the Balance section, Viceron lacks a bit in the mobility department, and it's hard to use your blood to kill everyone if most of it already leaked out of the bullet holes you got on the way to the fight. That makes carriers like Brunak and Theracus Viceron's best buds, and both have their advantages for Viceron. Theracus is faster and cheap enough that it's not the end of the world if he's a Bloodstorm causality. Brunak isn't as mobile and losing him is a bigger deal, but he can turn Viceron into a cruse missile with Ornak around. Either way, unless you're in a Heat of Battle game, I found having one of the two to be almost mandatory if you want the most out of Viceron.

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Summary

Overall, I though Viceron was great fun to play. He's a swingy figure, but a properly costed one. He might take out everyone around him, he might fizzle and do nothing, but either way, there will be blood. Rock on, Viceron.

I vote to induct the Viceron the Dark Knight to the SoV.

[Tornado]

"either way, there will be blood."

Nice. I really enjoy reading your reviews. Great work here everyone!

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Another review from yours truly. In case anyone is wondering, I'm not rushing these out or anything, I just like to review my assignments as a group. That I have time to take a step back and reflect on card while I'm working on someone else and not get burnt-out on one guy. So the end result is my reviews tend to come out in spurts like this, but I'd like to assure everyone that they're all getting plenty of review time from me.

Jaraptara by Kinseth

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an SoV submission,
Be she balanced, or be she broken
I'll grind her bones to make my bread... No wait, that's too violent (and not very tasty).
Actually I think I'll just see if she has what it takes to become one of the Soldiers of Valhalla!

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Balance

Jaraptara has a decent stat line for her point cost, especially compared to some of the other giants and big monsters near her price range. She is a low variance figure though, what you see is pretty much what you get here. While part of a unit like Shurrak's (who shares her stats, but is 30 points more expensive) cost is covering the unlikely-but-devastating chance that he'll knockback 3 heroes into molten lava and other craziness, all Jaraptara will ever do is give you a single attack that's sometimes long-ranged. Even with bonding, her point cost doesn't seem unreasonably low to me.

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Theme

I love the idea of a rock chucking giant, it's a very iconic image. The long range on Boulder Toss really works for me here; the 'thrown weapon' range in Heroscape is apparently 3 spaces for medium figures, makes sense that a giant is getting around double that distance. I'm not a fan of Reach in general, but it fits in well here considering she's clearly more of a ranged fighter than the other giants.

She's a little petite for a huge figure, but honestly the difference between large and huge is so vague it really doesn't bother me. It makes more sense for her to be huge mechanically (no Deathchaser bonding) and I like that it makes her vulnerable to Sir Denrick's Giant Killer.

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Creativity

It's nice to see another 'ammo' mechanic in the game, and this one is implemented in a reasonably simple, thematic way.

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Playability

Jaraptara is a fun addition to the Dreadgul army, even if I find Dreadguls bonding with Giants a little nonsensical personally, she gives them a decent heavy hitter and a ranged special attack for a decent price. She's not terribly useful solo, but that's true of many bonding heroes.

You're not always going to use Boulder Toss that much, especially since she also has Reach, but I love the options it brings to the table. The long range plus the lob means she can force melee and low range units to come to her and the Dreadguls, and that can make a big difference, especially in the end game. Granted, I also had games where I only threw one rock and never had a good reason to pick up another, but that's not a terrible thing; the Airborne's Grenade SA is still plenty useful as a one time deal.

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Summary

I really love having a rock throwing giant around, it's just plain fun. Jaraptara fits the bill without being overpowered, or unfun for your opponent, or what-have-you. Overall, she seems like a worthy addition to me.

I vote to induct Jaraptara into the SoV.

[Scytale]

I am pleased to bring you the finalized cards for Asterios! The PDFs will be available shortly.