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Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion

Yes, but that was partly my point. I didn't mean necromancy so literally, just that the magic involving using death in some way (dead material in the case of the Ebon Armor) has a different (alchemical) take on it rather than something involving souls. It's not to say Arctorus can't have necromancy as well, just my one example even relating to it gives a different tone, and one I wouldn't mind seeing continue.
 
As an update on the availability of the Dread Guard miniature, I have heard back from paizo and they have 10 in stock. That brings the total to 70, a tad lower than I'd prefer but I hope not prohibitively low.
 
Urk by Ninja Status did not pass United Fanscape review and is removed from the process.

Though many liked the overall design, the most common criticism was the broad and unrestrained boost granted by Mob Swarm. While a number of members did not like its scalability, a few others did not like that it applied to heroes as well as squads, unnecessarily limiting future Goblin Hero designs.
 
Prince Al’kahora by capsocrates

Prince Al’kahora aims to be the first human to come from the past of Arctorus, a world shrouded in mystery, but rooted in high fantasy as well. He attempts to balance the roles of prince and knight, the noble with the heart of a warrior. We’ll see how he measures up.

Balance

There are a lot of 80 point melee heroes. Many of these are support units, or units that mainly use a ranged special attack. Although a decent comparison can be made with Concan, I think one of the closest comparisons is actually with a 70-point hero: Martial La Hire. The Prince, for 10 points more, has one less defense and one more move. But whereas Martial only has an opportunity to attack twice conditionally, Al’kahora gets to use either his double attack or his defense weakening attack each turn. Seems fair as a starting point.

Theme

The Prince has a lot going on thematically. He’s a Prince, he’s a Knight, he’s got weird mystical abilities with serene naturalistic sounding titles. Despite all these competing ideas, he does form a solid and clear picture in my mind. It sounds like there is a Eastern-leaning mystic culture on Arctorus with a class system similar to Western Feudalism. The Prince is merely a product of his culture, so much so that he epitomizes all classes of it.

I will admit that the class of Knight scared me at first. Not because I didn’t see him as a Knight in his own context, but I didn’t see the existing Knights as fitting with him. I did come to realize that Heroscape classes are broader than their original definition (Guard, Warden, Soldier, Warlord), so that became less of an issue. My personal class choice would be Warrior, but Knight does not strike me as wrong.

Creativity

The names of the powers and of Prince Al’kahora himself is certainly very creative, and the design is too. The interplay between Razorpetal Stance and Strike of the Puma is very fun, especially when you have the choice to engage two opponent’s figures, which would grant the opportunity to use a double attack the next turn if you fail, but also gives up a chance at using Strike of the Puma on the subsequent turn.

Playability

Prince Al’kahora is very versatile, with both a hard-hitting attack option and a multi-attack option. Because of that, he fits well in many armies, but he also lacks hard synergy. It’s very difficult to make use of his Knight synergy, because he can’t keep up with a Knight army. But as a generic melee beatstick, he does very well. He’s fast enough to overtake ranged squads, and has a good enough attack output to almost guarantee a kill of a squad figure if that’s what you need. But he also can do significant damage with Razorpetal Stance, which grants him two attacks if he doesn’t move.

Despite his attack output, the Prince is a bit of a glass-jawed figure. With only 3 defense and 5 life, you can’t be sure how long he’ll stay around, especially when he is in the middle of combat. If your opponent manages to tie him down and get 3 or 4 attacks on him, he’ll only last 2-4 turns, depending on who he’s facing.

But one of Al’kahora’s main assets is that he can’t be ignored. Once he’s in the middle of the fray, if he’s not taken down, he can do some serious damage. So with careful OM placement, you can use the threat of Prince Al’kahora to provide other units time to develop.

The Prince is actually a decent Rats counter. If he begins his turn engaged to a Deathreaver, and attacks and kills it, if a second one engages him he gets to use both Razorpetal Stance and Strike of the Puma, which is a neat side effect.

Summary

I liked playing Prince Al’kahora. He’s a very interesting figure to play because of his two conditional powers. I would prefer if his class was Warrior, but Knight doesn’t bother me. Despite being a medium, fantasy, stand-alone hero, Prince Al’kahora is one of the coolest figures in that category.

I vote :up: to induct Prince Al’kahora into the Soldiers of Valhalla
 
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Congrats to capsocrates, that is now 4 votes for Prince Al'Kahora. Pending approval by 3CV, there will be another new addition into the SoV/VC!
 
Congrats caps, one figure I am really looking forward to playing with.
 
Thanks guys. I'm glad to see that the Prince passed muster.
 
Just an FYI, the figure name is Ian Nottingham, not "Ian Nottinham", as detailed in Caps proposal post. Just thought I'd let anyone know who was having trouble finding the figure. Also, congrats sir :)
 
Just an FYI, the figure name is Ian Nottingham, not "Ian Nottinham", as detailed in Caps proposal post. Just thought I'd let anyone know who was having trouble finding the figure. Also, congrats sir :)
Thanks for pointing that out. The typo has been corrected.
 
So much boldness in this custom. What a twist in the Heroscape meta.

Can't wait to try this guy in game.
 
So much boldness in this custom. What a twist in the Heroscape meta.

Can't wait to try this guy in game.
He is the first 80-point unique melee hero, and relatively flexible as unique heroes go. A small role in the meta, but a useful guy to have around when army building.
 
So much boldness in this custom. What a twist in the Heroscape meta.

Can't wait to try this guy in game.
He is the first 80-point unique melee hero, and relatively flexible as unique heroes go. A small role in the meta, but a useful guy to have around when army building.

How do you mean? The first without explicit synergy? The 80 point tier is loaded with Range 1 80 pointers, and even if we strip away the ones with ranged specials or bonding (including Kumiko's VC bonding) we are left with the four Kyrie (Concan, Raelin, Saylind, and Kelda).

Still, I agree that his role is different than the others, and it will be interesting to see him getting play.
 
So much boldness in this custom. What a twist in the Heroscape meta.

Can't wait to try this guy in game.
He is the first non-cheerleader 80-point unique melee hero, and relatively flexible as unique heroes go. A small role in the meta, but a useful guy to have around when army building.

Clarified. There are also elves and Erevan that are 80 points and melee, but they have higher range, attack, and versatility on their special attacks, so they hardly count.
 
There is already too much standalone heroes in this range of cost in my opinion.
I hope we will not have to do a Martial-like for 60 points, and 90 points and 75 points etc...

Also if he's as usefull as Martial, thank you but I'll pass. From the games I played Martial did at best nothing and at worst lose the game all by himelf.

A melee hero without synergy at less than 100 points is just too hard to be effective with, and way too risky OM wise. In most of competitive games it's just a dead weight. It's just how the game works.

Anyway J15 is like 10 times more usefull and versatile than this guy for only 10 points more.
 
Foudzing, it sounds like you're angry with Prince Al'kahora's creator and submitter for creating and submitting the unit. Did caps do something wrong?
 
How do you mean? The first without explicit synergy? The 80 point tier is loaded with Range 1 80 pointers, and even if we strip away the ones with ranged specials or bonding (including Kumiko's VC bonding) we are left with the four Kyrie (Concan, Raelin, Saylind, and Kelda).

Still, I agree that his role is different than the others, and it will be interesting to see him getting play.
When you have 90 points left in your build and want to add a hero that can take out the big tough threats, you pick up Crixus (or any of several other options). When you have 80 points left you pick up ________?
 
There is already too much standalone heroes in this range of cost in my opinion.
I hope we will not have to do a Martial-like for 60 points, and 90 points and 75 points etc...

Also if he's as usefull as Martial, thank you but I'll pass. From the games I played Martial did at best nothing and at worst lose the game all by himelf.

A melee hero without synergy at less than 100 points is just too hard to be effective with, and way too risky OM wise. In most of competitive games it's just a dead weight. It's just how the game works.

Anyway J15 is like 10 times more usefull and versatile than this guy for only 10 points more.
Martial is one of my favorites and has often come through big for me. :shrug:
 
Foudzing, it sounds like you're angry with Prince Al'kahora's creator and submitter for creating and submitting the unit. Did caps do something wrong?

No, no special problems with Caps or the Prince. The problem is and will always be, the sov system (not judges, system).
Except Dok customs all sov figures are rather quite weak or quite non-exciting.
I feel that if you try something a bit out of the bounds, and not weak so it could be part of the meta, you have way less chance to go throught.
The amount of interesting designs (way more than this prince, sorte Caps) that have been abandoned because of this system is saddening.

The system as it is does not encourage sexy stuff.v
 
I feel that if you try something a bit out of the bounds, and not weak so it could be part of the meta, you have way less chance to go throught.
Apparently you have forgotten every other conversation we've had on this subject.

The amount of interesting designs (way more than this prince, sorte Caps) that have been abandoned because of this system is saddening.
Which designs? List them please.
 
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The amount of interesting designs (way more than this prince, sorte Caps) that have been abandoned because of this system is saddening.
Which designs? List them please.

Gur'vath, Green Wyrmling, Rat Swarm, Horned Skull Champion, Bulcaners of the endless sea, Kophawet, Tentacles of the Kraken, Shaitan, Wraith of Bleakwood, Kheris, Sundol, Kar-Su-Na, Gruoark.

Yes all of these have maybe obvious playability or balance problems, but they have in my opinion a more exciting and interesting design than a simple melee hero knight.
The fact that they'll probably never be inducted is sad, the idea was here, the figures were available, the only thing left to do was to balance and make the thing playable, which is the easiest part.

In brief in the SoV system there is way too much energy spent on judging and not enough at all on actually improving the custom. Actually there is nothing made to improve the custom.

Once the custom has pass the review, there is a one year delay where nothing can be done to improve the custom, as we have to wait for judging.
If it's a NO then it was almost a one year waste because the custom goes out of the sov the same as it was before, with almost no councils from the judges, who are just roughly pointing out what's wrong.

So you have to work on your custom once again and wait another year.
You don't want that this is way too long.

Basically the system works only if the judges already receive an almost perfect custom. But for custom with an original and innovative design, this is difficult especially if you want your custom to not be weak.

I think a better system would be, instead of spending all the energy and time to say "no the custom is not perfect", actually spend it to make the custom perfect.
 
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