I ask, before I look at other vids. I am very smart! :D

Thanks for the comment, and with you. I have always been into the game and its mechanics more than the lore, but I appreciated the lore where it informed the game. And I agree with you that, however janky that lore was and however mix-and-match-y the army building process is, one of Heroscape's signature features was that each General represented a specific theme, which indirectly communicated the personalities and the battlefield priorities/aesthetic sensibilities of those Generals. I roughly saw it like this: JANDAR: Boy-scout "good guy" faction with honorable goals and intentions. Snowy, Nordic aesthetic. ULLAR: Noble, classic fantasy faction. Most "Tolkien-esque." Hospitable woodland aesthetic. Similar goals to Jandar but emphasizing different themes and approach. VYDAR: High-tech, shadowy faction. Nebulous intentions and goals. Prefers sabotage and "black ops" to traditional frontline fighting. Dark, rocky aesthetic. EINAR: Prefers "historical" units or units that bear resemblance to certain periods in human history. Presents with martial, imperial grandeur. Japanese/Oriental/"Eastern" aesthetic. Goals may be conquest, but not in an overtly malicious way. UTGAR: Standard evil faction. Pitiless, desires power for power's sake and pursues that goal without scruples. Recruits monsters, scoundrels, the power-hungry, the morally bankrupt. Fiery, volcanic aesthetic. AQUILLA: The "nature" faction. Where Ullar may have had nature themes before, Aquilla emphasizes the harshness and "wrath" of nature. Her faction comes off as a guardian or avenger of nature. Foreboding forest/swamp aesthetic. VALKRILL (and I guess now, REVNA, but we'll see): Evil faction of rot, decay, and death. Desires not power but destruction. Units often have some connection to death, decay, disease, or destruction. Dark, harsh cave aesthetic. You get the sense that disease is in the air wherever Valkrill armies set up shop. We'll see where the other new AoA Generals land but that was always my take on the classics. The point is that was largely gleaned from the cards and what little lore I read, and those are strong impressions/themes of each faction just from that. I agree that the new lore they've showcased isn't nearly as charismatic as the classics. But then...nothing ever will be.

Definitely making more! If you look up in the pinned comments, I added a note bumping the Venocs to B tier. They're really, really good and I seriously underrated them here (last time I played them I got obliterated, so that was biasing my opinion here). They're shy of A because they do have bad matchups, but they also clean house in their good ones.

Thanks for the comment! Yeah I should've thrown Dünd in there somewhere on my first year, but I just couldn't find a build/format for him. But there's plenty more Dünd on the way on this channel...

Southern California

I 100% agree - another vote for all of the above!

You're absolutely right. I made a hasty (and incorrect) assumption when writing that script that because skulls are more likely than shields on a die, that must've meant I had good odds of getting an attack through. But that's not how the probabilities work, as you no doubt know. Your comment actually sent me on a whole investigation to math out why that was the case, so I really appreciate the insight! As you said though, given my options, I also think it was the right call just to send Bol in and hope for the best. Paid off! And on Mellifera v Mohican, you may be right there too. I forget the exact circumstances that made me do that. I think I was afraid of an initiative switch in which the Mohican would've survived lava and would get a height attack down on Mellifera, so I wanted to even it out. But...that would leave me at the mercy of 50/50 lava roll anyway, so yeah. Probably an error. But I don't regret it! Was a game my friend Sammy and I still talk about and reference.

Sorry but I bursted out laughing at that one. 😂 Very cool video I am at 1/3 in, having a blast.

@@Foudzing Indeed! Such was the glyph pool decision. I'd like to know more about why it's so frowned upon in tournament settings (if you know), since I do appreciate how the possibility of a Pit Trap makes one think twice about going for a glyph. But then again, most glyphs are in extremely vulnerable positions already, so any glyph you go for incurs a cost/sacrifice of some kind. But glad it was good for a laugh at least!

We still bring it up with each other to this day!

Always a pleasure to play you! Whatever my score, as long as I get one in against you, win or lose, I'm a happy man!

@@doggindays2631 likewise 👍🏽

Absolutely!

I'm with you. I do love thematic armies, but in tournament settings, they often don't cut it. Maybe that's just due to Heroscape conceptually, which imagines a hodgepodge of different types of units fighting under a single General's banner. That, or the designers just weren't as concerned with thematic/aesthetic compatibility as they were with creating cool mechanics and synergies. Each General represents a story/lore theme, but even within their armies there's lots of wild visual diversity. Shame too. There's nothing like seeing two people with two different very thematic armies fighting each other. It'd be cool if there was a format like "thematic armies only," but what counts as "thematic" is too subjective for that to catch on I guess.

If they are, it's no big deal. As long as it all plays well, I'm fine with it. I guess it could be interesting narrative to have an existing organization as part of a planet's civilization that the Valkyrie summoned from. Like Jandar and other benevolent Valkyrie had visions of the Dryan Lifeborne Order and chose the noblest among them, whereas Utgar and the evil Valkyrie went after the evil members of the Order, suggesting that there may have been internal conflict in the Order itself. Just my thoughts running amok. Either way, is what it is. Appreciate the comment!

Thanks for the comment, and sorry it's taken me a while to respond. Really depends on what you want! I'd recommend learning the mechanics of the game first, and Sir Heroscape has a great primer going over the rules: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/edp_etiXrbSoYHU.html If you want to build your collection just from these AoA releases, that's totally fine, and I suspect they're trying to design their new releases for people who don't have existing collections. But if you want to get into past units, or the Valhalla Customs (VC) units, which I do recommend and which these AoA units are building off of, a few things to consider. 1) Cost The official figures from past Heroscape are often obscenely expensive these days since they've been out of print for so long. If you do want to get the original figures, I typically look for deals/auctions on eBay. I'm not on social media beyond KZfaq, but I know there are Facebook and Reddit groups that trade Heroscape and good deals can be found there. There's also All Things Heroscape. They're often on the pricier side, but occasionally do discounts. Website: www.allthingsheroscape.com/ Short of original figures, 3D printing has been (for me) the most affordable way to get the sculpts for the classic figures, and most tournaments are okay with you bringing unpainted figures since all that really matters for gameplay are the original hitzones of the figures, if you're not big on painting yourself. There are lots of tutorials online on how to do 3D printing if you're unfamiliar. And if you don't have the equipment to print, lots of places offer the service, including some public libraries that do monochrome prints on the cheap (I got 20 monochrome Wyrmling prints from a local library for a little under $15). Some sellers on eBay also do high quality prints of old figures, usually at a premium, but still cheaper than getting originals. Here's a forum thread with .stl files for most of the official figures: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=54977 And you can usually find most VC units on Thingiverse. If you want to learn about the VC, and the VC roster, here's their site: heroscapecustoms.wordpress.com/ 2) Casual, Competitive, or Both Next would be to decide how you plan to play. Do you want to play casually or for fun, or do you want to attend tournaments and play competitively? If you plan to play casually, you really can't go wrong with any figure in the game, official or VC. Regardless of "power level," all figures can be fun in their own right, and I don't knock casual play, as it can be a space to experiment with figures that otherwise wouldn't see tournament play. And that can lead to some amazing games. If you want to play competitively, then you'll want to be more discerning in what figures you invest in, as not all units are equally viable. I do tier list videos on this channel sharing my thoughts on competitive viability of official units, but I'm really following in the footsteps of master players who've ranked them all before. A great place to figure out which units to get is Heroscape.org's Autoload Army Builder. This is a comprehensive list of all official and VC units to date, and it was recently updated with AoA units I talked about in this video. Here's the link: heroscape.org/builder/ You can filter by "power rankings" to show which units are considered "strong" and which considered "weak." As you familiarize yourself with unit powers/abilities, you'll start to see certain army "builds" appear. Builds with bonding and order marker flexibility tend to be strong, but there are others. OEAO, one of the pillars of competitive Heroscape, has a "competitive buying guide" that can point you in the right direction of which units you should have in your collection as a competitive player, official or 3D-printed. Here's his piece on it: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=60710 Echoing some of his notes, the figures from the first Master Set (Rise of the Valkyrie) are still fairly cheap, and some of them are still very strong in today's competitive environment. Marro Warriors, old Raelin, Grimnak, and Krav Maga Agents are all very strong, and there's plenty other good ones from that set besides. I've given you a lot to read, but hopefully this gets you started. Would love to hear how your Heroscape journey goes as you get into it. Welcome to the family!

Gah! Knew I forgot something. In response to my first comment, here are the "Books of" indexes for official classic units and VC units. Official Classic: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=8099 VC: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=33402 These are great resources that will show you synergies units have with other units as well as ruling clarifications on some of their powers. For VC, these Books will tell you which figure was used for the unit and from what toyline, and you can often use that name to find the figure on eBay or another store. You may have to rebase them with Heroscape bases. Trexy3D has excellent 3D-printed Heroscape bases you can use for that, if you plan to get into it: www.trexy3d.com/ These Books also have all the images of the cards for the different units, which you can print out. Much cheaper than getting original cards. Hope this helps!

@@doggindays2631 Thank you for putting so much into that response! I really appreciate it. Looking forward to digging deeper, and reading through some of the "Book of..." articles. I ended up finding a nicely priced ROTV+misc collection, so I'm in!

That would be very welcome. There is something close to that on the forums: www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=41694 Generally, I want to keep in line with official pronunciations, but some old habits die hard. Long before this channel, my friends and I got used to our own house pronunciations of certain unit names, and I'll always find it hard to train out of them. Some though I just can't bring myself to change. I know Ullar's big dragon is meant to be pronounced "KAIR-ohs" or "KAHR-ohs," but...nah. On this channel, he's "CHAR-ohs." Thanks for the comment!

You sir have a spot on the corrections pin. Indeed they do! Completely forgot about the Varks. Thanks for pointing that out!