Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion

[Super Bogue]

We are open for business!

Just as a reminder, these are the general features that we will be judging on, so keep them in mind for your nominations:

• Balance-Are the points correct?
• Playability-Are the powers clear and understandable? Are its master stats appropriate? If it is Large or Huge, what type of base does it use? Is it visually distinct from pre-existing units?
• Creativity-Does it add something new to the game?
• Theme-Does it fit in the HS universe?
• Accessibility-Is the sculpt, or sculpts, available, at a reasonable price, and with limited modification? To help with this, it is encouraged that a link to the mini is included with the nomination (check out Lamaclown's list of mini sites for help with that). Per our new guidelines, we are no longer considering this at the time of review.

Our mission is to review custom units for balance, playability and creativity and to approve deserving candidates for inclusion in HeroScape play. Approved figures will fit in the HeroScape canon thematically and will be suitably priced.

We rely on community involvement in nominating units which will then be playtested by a panel of judges. The current judges are 1Mmirg, Capsocrates, hivelord, nyys, Scytale, superfrog, Super Bogue, and vegietarian18. Judges are permanently appointed, and serve until they choose to step down.

Soldiers of Valhalla display thread (inducted units)
SoV & C3V Books of Index

Week at HSers SoV Interview Part I
Week at HSers SoV Interview Part II


units pending acceptance for review

units currently being reviewed
Rorshack by William099
Yes-0 No-1 (superfrog) Pending-4 (1Mmirg, capsocrates, hivelord, and Super Bogue)
Shaitahn by Son of Arathorn
Yes-1 (Scytale) No-1 (vegietarian18) Pending-3 (hivelord, superfrog, and Super Bogue)
Kheris Fehn by DanieLoche
Yes-1 (Scytale) No-0 Pending-4 (1Mmirg, capsocrates, superfrog, and Super Bogue)
Grommel Bronzewielder by Son of Arathorn
Yes-0 No-1 (vegietarian18) Pending-4 (1Mmirg, capsocrates, hivelord, and nyys)
Sundol by vegetarian18
Yes- 1 (Scytale) No- 0 Pending- 4 (capsocrates, nyys, superfrog, and Super Bogue)
Jarek Guy by fishguy
Yes-0 No-0 Pending-5 (capsocrates, nyys, Scytale, superfrog, and vegietarian18)
Thoresby Woodsmen by Tai-Pan
Yes - 0 No - 0 Pending - 5 (1Mmirg, hivelord, nyys, Super Bogue, and vegietarian18)

units under unified fanscape review
Tokanto Dashi by qt.bangerang
Thrangir by superfrog

[Super Bogue]

SECTION 1: Submission guidelines and tips
1. Nominations are limited to one per post.
2. Nominated units require a card formatted in a manner that is easy to read.
3. Sculpts must be known, readily available and appropriately scaled, with consideration taken for cost and for labor, such as paint, required to obtain the sculpt. sites that sell minis (maintained by Lamaclown)
4. All units suggested should fit thematically within the Heroscape universe. Units should follow a Heroscape general and should normally include an origin world that is part of the Heroscape canon.
5. Anyone can nominate a unit for consideration. Nominated units require a majority vote (50%+1) of the Council before they will be considered for review.
6. Do NOT slap a unit together and nominate it for consideration. Game play experience and observations are encouraged. The SoV is a tool for ensuring balance, not for helping refine a rough draft. (The CHCG24 and 3FG are good places to look for help refining a unit before submitting it here)

SECTION 2: How units are judged
Units nominated for consideration will go through the following process after a majority of acceptance votes by the judges:
1. Units accepted for review will be playtested competitively at least once by five judges.
2. Consideration for approved units will be given, generally, based on the following criteria and in this order: balance, playability, creativity, and theme.
3. Time for consideration is: as long as it takes for the judges to make an informed decision.
4. Great units will be approved, not good ones. Don't let this discourage you.
5. Judge discussions will occur in public and private forums on the non-official Heroscape web site: Currently www.heroscapers.com
6. Reviews on units will be public with status and results presented.
7. Units must receive 4 reviews supporting induction and no more than 1 review against induction in order to be considered for acceptance into the Soldiers of Valhalla, after which they will be reviewed by the C3V and if approved there will be re-formatted and given the Soldiers of Valhalla Seal of Approval and admitted into the C3V as well.

SECTION 3: Self-governance
1. The Council will contain a number of judges that the sitting judges find appropriate, but never less than 5. The current judges are: 1Mmirg, capsocrates, hivelord, nyys, Scytale, superfrog, Super Bogue, and vegietarian18.
2. Judges will maintain their position unless:
a) They are not heard from by fellow judges on the official non-official Heroscape web site for a period of 31 days, or
b) They abstain for a total of three months or for three consecutive units under review, whichever comes later.
3. If a vacancy on the council occurs, judges will be replaced by those who:
a) show interest in serving, and
b) after consideration of the sitting judges receive 75 % vote of approval. Voting and discussion of a replacement judge may occur in private.
4. Judges will not be allowed to vote on their own units. During the judging of their own units their vote will be considered an abstention for the percentages needed to both playtest and approve the unit. Their vote will NOT be counted as an abstention for purposes of the "three consecutive units" portion of Section 3-2-b.
5. These by-laws may be changed and amended at any time by a 75% vote of sitting judges.


Units that were reviewed but not approved for Soldiers of Valhalla:
link to YES reviews link to NO reviews

Gor'Vath by robbdaman
Zombikazes by hextr1p
Priscus by Filthy the Clown
Gatekeepers by Darkmage7a
Blood Raptor by krysto2002
Eremon Vandel by clancampbell
Unukk by GameBear
Crypt Guards by Super Bogue
Green Wyrmling by killercactus
Ibixian Ridge Raiders by Typhon2222 and Sertorius
Herd Chief Baabas by Typhon2222 and Sertorius (withdrawn by designer)
77th Infantry Division by tcgkln (withdrawn by designer)
Deepwater Warrior by dok
Skeleton Archers by Typhon2222 and Sertorius
Rat Swarms by Killometer
Horned Skull Champion by qt.bangerang
Gargoyle by dok
Gor'Vath by robbdaman
Clyemne by DeathDoom
Vargach by Kaemon Awa 123
Buccaneers of the Endless Sea by Super Bogue
Khophawet by Typhon2222
Dashi Takainto by qt.bangerang
Threforian Raptor by Fi Skitara
Kantono Daishi by qt.bangerang (withdrawn by designer)
Horned Skull Champion by qt.bangerang (withdrawn by designer)
Tentacles of the Kraken by qt.bangerang (withdrawn by designer)
Wraith of Bleakewood by qt.bangerang (withdrawn by designer)
Ragweb Spider by Son of Arathorn (did not pass unified fanscape review)
Greenspawn Assassin by boromir96 and awesomeunleashed (did not pass unified fanscape review)

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by Killometer

1. Nominated units require a card formatted in a manner that is easy to read.

Does that mean I could create my own card layout if I wanted to?

[1Mmirg]

It does mean that, though in the end I believe that we are looking for cards to fit fully within the Heroscape world (note #3 above). So, it's likely that we'd end up doing a revision of the card to match other Heroscape cards.

This is still a point of some discussion among the judges, but in my mind #3 implies a standard Heroscape card at some point.

[Killometer]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

Does that mean I could create my own card layout if I wanted to?

Yes, any well organized card is allowable for review, but accepted units will be reformatted to a traditional HS-style card.

[tcglkn]

Do you have an art guy for this project? I would be totally willing to lead on that front. I just do not have the time to playtest that would be needed to judge.

[1Mmirg]

Thanks for the offer. We'll talk about it and let you know. Of course, first a card has to actually make it past our grueling review--might be months, even years... .

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by 1Mmirg

Thanks for the offer. We'll talk about it and let you know. Of course, first a card has to actually make it past our grueling review--might be months, even years... .

Why do you think I am willing to help? Won't be much work. But I would love to design a stamp, then create a good card for each unit we passed with the stamp. atmospro is supposed to hook me up with his production quality template soon.

[Lamaclown]

Since any nominated card must have an available miniature to go with it you can check the availability of your miniature using the links below to various online miniatures games stores.

Site Sponsors:

Auggie's

Cool Stuff, Inc.

Miniature Market

Troll and Toad

Wargamer's Headquarters
(House Mouse Games is a Site Sponsor as well. The above list represents the Site Sponsors who carry other games in addition to Heroscape)

Other Stores:

Fantization (one of my favorites)

Games Empire

FRP Games (another really good one)

RPG Shop This one seems to have disappeared

Noble Knight Games

Paizo

The Warstore

Reaper Mini

Crocodile Games

Privateer Press (Hordes, Warmachine, Monsterpocalypse, Voltron [if only Voltron was the right scale])

Role 4 Initiative (D&D)

Wyrd Miniatures (Malifaux)

Games Workshop (I know, I know, but some people do use their sculpts)

Icon USA

Team Covenant (they specialize in Monster Apocalypse)

There are others but if a miniature used for a custom can't be found on any of these sites, chances are it is no longer available.

Also, sites like Cool Mini or Not probably wouldn't be acceptable as a source for availability. It has a gallery of some incredible paint jobs (visit it if you've never been there) but it isn't a good source to purchase from.

If you know of other stores that offer something in miniatures that you don't think any of the above offer feel free to let us know through PM and it can be added to this post.

[quozl]

I'm not allowed not to nominate yet but I'm thinking about nominating Deathwalker 10000 by krysto2002.

[flameslayer93]

I can probably figure out a good nomination for a card. I'll wait on it though

[Dad_Scaper]

One sneak peek:

Valkrill is ok by us. We're all about evil.