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
to induct Prince Al’kahora into the Soldiers of Valhalla