Casters of Valhalla

[OEAO]

Welcome to Casters of Valhalla!



(Special thanks to Trex and The Grim Reaper's Friend for the logo!)

Casters of Valhalla (CoV) is a competitive HeroScape podcast focusing on reaching higher levels of play. We will be discussing various topics ranging from units to army selection to maps to strategy. We're excited to have discussions and learn from one another, and I hope you, the listener, learn with us as well!

I (OEAO/Mike) run the podcast, and I am fortunate to have some excellent co-hosts. Common co-hosts include Matthias Maccabeus (Ken) and infectedsloth (Nathan), as well as the other three members of the CoV, Major Q23 (William), ISB3 (Matthew), and Cleon (Cody). I've also had the pleasure of bringing on quite a few people as guests, from strategy genius Jexik to top-tier player Dok.

I recommend starting with Entry 3. The first two were very free-form, but the ones from Entry 3-on are much more focused. We've gotten much better at pretty much every aspect of podcasting, and each episode is better than the last.

Episode List:
Entry 1: Introductions and Unit Discussion
Entry 2: An Introduction to Luck and Skill
Entry 3: A+ to A Units
Entry 4: A- Units
Entry 5: B+ Units Part 1
Entry 6: B+ Units Part 2
Entry 7: Rankings Methodology ft. Dok
Entry 8: Behind the Scenes of GenCon
Entry 9: KenCon Wrap-Up
Entry 10: Bonding Melee
Entry 11: When in Rome... Bring Raelin?
Entry 12: Death Chasers and OnlineCon Recap
Entry 13: Strategy with Jexik
Entry 14: Sportsmanship and Competition at GenCon
Entry 15: Announcing ScapeCon!
Entry 16: ScapeCon Pricing and Prizing!
Entry 17: Pre-ScapeCon Hang #1
Entry 18: Pre-ScapeCon Hang #2
Entry 19: ScapeCon Bets
Entry 20: ScapeCon Meta Prediction
Entry 21: ScapeCon I Wrap-Up/ScapeCon II Announced!
Entry 22: Greenscales and Nagrubs
Entry 23: ScapeCon I Side Event Metas
Entry 24: The Competitive HeroScape Buying Guide
Entry 25: HeroScape AoA Crowdfunding Campaign Review
Entry 26: The History of Competitive Maps
Entry 27: Top 50 Maps of All Time (50-36)
Entry 28: Top 50 Maps of All Time (35-21)
Entry 29: Top 50 Maps of All Time (20-11)
Entry 30: Top 50 Maps of All Time (10-1)
Entry 31: Going to a Tournament: What Next?


We are now live on our website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Sounder.

Please engage with us on this thread and continue the discussions from the episodes! Let us know what you’d like to hear us discuss, as well as general feedback on ways we could improve.

Also, please leave your questions for us in this thread, here!

Resources:
My Power Rankings
Original Power Rankings

Jexik's Cookie Cutter Armies
Jexik's What's In An OM?

My Terminology Guide
Jexik's Competitive Abbreviations

Thanks for listening!

[OEAO]

CoV Entry 1: Introductions and Unit Discussion

Join us as we briefly introduce ourselves and dive into some unit discussion: Greenscales, Major Q10 vs Frost Giant vs Kaemon, and Romans vs Dwarves vs Death Chasers.

[OEAO]

CoV Entry 2: An Introduction to Luck and Skill

Join us as we begin exploring how luck and skill impact the game, some of our favorite and least favorite units, and what competitive HeroScape was like back in the day.

[Unhinged Manchild]

Sweet, more Heroscape content for me to listen to on my 50 minute commute to work! I’m excited to check this out!

[Dad_Scaper]

Excellent, thanks for sharing. I feel like I'm in Indianapolis. Good job, fellas!

[Sir Heroscape]

Very cool. I'll have to put this on while I commute...would be good to hear what ya'll have here.

[Pumpkin_King]

I’m lazy, so I’m following until you get on Apple podcasts, haha.

[Dysole]

Listened to the first one as the second one looks to be quite long and I don't have that time at the moment. Good things. I think I rank Romans, Dwarves, Chasers in double blind but it's an order I'm flexible to. (I do want to note that dok's 2015 army played Romans x2, MBS so it's possible to "splash" Romans like you do dwarves, but I do think there's a larger dropoff between the massed version and the splash version with Romans or Chasers than with Dwarves)

I also think the merciful Q10 is better than Frosty and Kaemon due primarily to 8 range and large immunities.

Also completely agree about A-/B+ scape vs A stuff. Q9 and 4th are some of my least favorite units because they win boringly.

~Dysole, looking forward to the future

[SuperSamyon]

Just listened to the first one. Great work! I'm glad our community is still producing content. Let's keep this game alive!

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by Dysole

Listened to the first one as the second one looks to be quite long and I don't have that time at the moment. Good things. I think I rank Romans, Dwarves, Chasers in double blind but it's an order I'm flexible to. (I do want to note that dok's 2015 army played Romans x2, MBS so it's possible to "splash" Romans like you do dwarves, but I do think there's a larger dropoff between the massed version and the splash version with Romans or Chasers than with Dwarves)

I also think the merciful Q10 is better than Frosty and Kaemon due primarily to 8 range and large immunities.

Also completely agree about A-/B+ scape vs A stuff. Q9 and 4th are some of my least favorite units because they win boringly.

~Dysole, looking forward to the future

Thanks for listening! Romans and Dwarves are both very good, so we see arguments for both sides. I think the “splash” comment had to do with running only running a few squads without any bonding; 1-2x Romans with MBS is certainly a valid option.

8 range and large immunities are certainly nice; I guess I don’t think that his benefits and losing Counter Strike is worth the 30 extra points.

[OEAO]

Thanks everyone for the interest! @Dad_Scaper had a great idea for us: a Listener Questions segment, where we can discuss any questions people post here. Please post any questions or topics you want discussed in the future!

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by SuperSamyon

Just listened to the first one. Great work! I'm glad our community is still producing content. Let's keep this game alive!

Thanks for tuning in!