My Thoughts on Heroscape: Age of Annihilation's Wave 3 Units || "Rising Tide"

[@doggindays2631]

NOTES/CORRECTIONS: -1:37:36: Not a correction, just something I forgot to cover on Queen Maladrix's section. I spend a second focusing on the fact that she's a Queen, which for VC players, means she can bond with Crypt Guardians! Not that you'd take them over her Honor Guard if you had them, but might be fun to throw one or two mummies in as honorary Honor Guards. -1:44:35: Just some follow-up thoughts on Thyraxis Dragoon I didn't cover in my section on him here. I forgot in my comparison with Tor-Kul-Na the fact that giving up Trample Stomp is a big downside to taking Thyraxis. While it's true that with careful play you can win many matchups with Tor-Kul-Na without Trample Stomping, it's such an important tool to have in an event where you might come into small/medium-heavy armies. Great way to thin out commons and auto-wound into tougher heroes. So while TKN's 25 points more expensive, you have to decide if getting those 25 extra points with Maddening Chitter is worth giving up Trample Stomp. Maybe it is in some matchups, maybe not. The other item I forgot with Thyraxis is that an opponent facing Thyraxis can, if I understand the card right, make use of their fakeout X marker as a decoy that the Thyraxis player could choose if they score a Chitter roll. Still very excited for Thyraxis mechanically, but I'm not sure he'll dethrone TKN as my preferred competitive Hivelord. We shall see.

[@RRSlugger]

GREAT point about a stat line being a way to give figures character! I 100% agree with your assessment there. 👍

[@Sunderved23]

Didn’t think we would be getting new content coverage for a while! What a pleasant surprise. Also, how did I not make the Star Fox/Vorid connection before? 😮

[@purpletoweljh]

"I do like demons" Doggindays, 2025

[@purpletoweljh]

"valkrill his goal is destruction he just wants to destroy, and i like that, i think thats kinda cool" doggindays, 2025

[@Brandon-tz6vf]

2:13:55 Wow you just completely called me out lol. On the subject of painting, I definitely recommend getting into it if you have the time. For me, it was something I wanted to start doing after receiving wave 2. I just thought those paint jobs on the wave 2 figures were not very great, and it would be more worthwhile to buy the cheaper unpainted options and do it myself moving forward. I started painting near the end of last year, and I was kind of surprised at how simple it is. I personally take a lot of time because I value the quality of the paint job, but in general I think it looks a lot harder than it is. Plus, it introduced me to a new hobby that I found out I really enjoy. But best of all, the finished products are so satisfying and worth it! Anyway, great video again Doggin! You are spoiling us with 2 videos in the span of 2 weeks, haha.

[@doggindays2631]

Hah! I see you, painters! Seriously, on painting, I appreciate the encouragement and what you shared of your experience. "Looks harder than it is" is how I imagine it'll be. I think once I do invest in a setup that would accommodate it, I will fall in love. I'm hopeful it'll be more economical too than buying the "premium" paints, and you're able to put more time and care into the designs, resulting in a better final product. One of my favorite Heroscape videos on KZbin is RogueScaper's alternate paints of classic figures. Pure inspiration.

[@thatamericanidiot6787]

I did write up my normal large comment giving my thoughts as well, but KZbin isn't letting me post it. I might make a post on Heroscapers instead, just let me know!

[@doggindays2631]

No worries. I'm not super active on Heroscapers (something I need to change) but I did finally make an account. If you meant simply messaging, feel free to send one over there: www.heroscapers.com/members/doggindays.343833/ Cheers!

[@ralphiemay8933]

Doggin, you should picture what Hallucia can do to Grut builds with Onshu as his familiar. Onshu's weak range special can kill a few gruts to make a path for Hallucia to maximize his ride by special, then Hallucia uses his special to carve a path to the gruts heroes and hopefully kills a few gruts along the way. Once he is engaged with any of the grut heroes his 5 attack is plenty to threaten any of them. I can see this working against both blade and arrow grut builds. In the case of arrow grut builds you could also make good use of Kita since the arrow gruts won't be able to shoot her on her way in and their weak defense means she can probably kill a few of them while also making the grut player waste precious attacks on her. People underestimate the value of soaking up any amount of attacks with a cheap little 30 point figure.

[@doggindays2631]

Great points. I read this comment a while ago and only now am sitting down to reply. But since I read it, I've been thinking more on Halushia. Aside from his threat to squads as you pointed out, the only unit with 5 or higher attack at 7 move is Kalagrith from VC. And while her attack is 6, she's much more expensive at 190 points (same in classic and Delta pricing). Right after her is Halushia. And as you say, absorbing enemy fire with cheap heroes like the familiars is helpful. Goes for him, Raakchott, and Ewashia. Appreciate these thoughts.

[@Leotheanimal87]

2:10:50 Leo here! Keep up the good work on these videos! So according to the lore found in the rule book of the new master set for the scenario “The Shattered Table”, it hints that Revna may have taken the life of another valkyrie. Speaking to my friend that works at Renegade that came to one of our tournaments, this is Renegade’s way to legally get around Valkrill since they can’t use him since Wizards of the coast owns him.

[@doggindays2631]

My man! Appreciate the comment and insight! That's really cool info. When I opened the Master Set manual and read that scenario, my initial take was "someone's framing her" for that murder. But from the sound of it, it likely was her as a way to get Valkrill out of the picture and not mention him again as proper official Heroscape carries on outside of Wizards. Probably for the best, and certainly implies that Revna is a sinister force. However, if she killed Valkrill because she thought he was a terrible evil that needed to be destroyed, there's a more sympathetic way to view Revna. That would be the sort of writing I'd love to see. Either way, I can mourn the implied (and likely forever unconfirmed) loss of Valkrill at the hands of Revna, but can celebrate her replacing him in the aesthetics and lore. Great food for thought, so thank you again!

[@Leotheanimal87]

@@doggindays2631 of course! Would love for the lore to take a sympathetic approach to Revna! To me she doesn’t seem evil. She’s more true neutral to me.

[@Garenex]

Thematically, I'm most excited for Sonlen 2.0. I don't think he'll see much competitive play due to the lack of survivability. I think he needs 1 more defense, since he needs to be in the action to use his abilities. Competitively, I'm very excited for Tuck and Major Q11. Tuck I think will be a common filler, and Q11 has the survivability and attack to be effective up close, but can also ping from 7 when he needs to.

[@prons_gaming5083]

1:37:43 I'm definitely in that group. She's been in my top 2 figures in all of AoA since the beginning of the Haslab campaign. Maladrix and Scavorith were by far my 2 favorites. And Maladrix has really good abilities/synergy with the Honor Guard. Not looking forward to any other figures more than her and her guard!

[@doggindays2631]

We LOVE the Queen!

[@RogueScaper]

Ordo+concan+ thorgrim + Raelin ( if available) scares me. 8 defense, 7 range, 3 attacks of 4. Not even factoring height. Visually, I love the harpoon bears so much more than the frost claws, the glowing eye is a fun detail! Thanks for the thoughts on these these units Also, In my playing with him, sonlen hits like a truck once you engage, but really struggles once he's engaged with a couple squad figures. He really should be used like Cyprian, targeting a unit that strayed from the pack, and eliminating them...but he doesn't have stealth flying to make this easy to use

[@doggindays2631]

Thanks for the comment, and that terrifying prospect with Ordo. While a scary thing to face, it makes me happy that the Ordo give a compelling reason to dust off Concan and bring him to more events. By no means a bad unit, but I've yet to see him at any event I've been to since I started going competitive. And regarding Sonlen, Dragon Assault makes him sound pretty offensively powerful. And he's still got his range, so very versatile.

[@connorcowan7606]

This is the first time I've seen Heroscape figures that worry me in terms of their power. The Knight Primus and the Centaur Wizard in particular seem really pushed. But I really hope I'm wrong!

[@prons_gaming5083]

Queen Maladrix seems quite powerful to me. She has an autokill, double attack, and bonding with a 5 unit squad. So potentially 7 attacks per turn, plus the aforementioned autokill at the end of the round. Tor-Kul-Na and his Nagrubs have always been my favorite army to use, and the Queen and her Honor Guard may just take their place. They look so fun to use. Edit: Also, I forgot to mention; if Queen Maladrix dies, you can save your order markers by transfering them to the Festering Honor Guard army card, as well as buffing them. Super strong hero/squad synergy

[@MegaSilver]

Primus is a variation of Grimnak.

[@doggindays2631]

I can certainly see that concern on a few. Primus looks great, Ordo have lots of potential, and I'm personally very worried about Q11 (though he goes well with an army I adore, so I should be celebrating). Interesting you think Halushia might be OP. That 7 Move with 5 Attack is pretty threatening, plus bonding with familiars. We've got lots to explore in the coming months...

[@aurtosebaelheim5942]

@@MegaSilver That comparison looks pretty favourable for Primus though. More move on a 1-space model means it's much harder to outmaneuver him. I'm always taking auto-wound vs. 25% chance to auto-kill. Smaller base means it's harder to tie the bear down with disengagement and more wounds means he can take a few disengagement wounds without it putting him in too much risk. 5 attack vs. Grimnak's 2 means he's less of a 1-trick-pony - you'll probably get better results with Primus vs. the high-health heroes you'd want to Chomp. In Grimnak's defence, he 1-shots Necrotech Wraithriders while Primus only wounds them - maybe that makes a difference sometimes. He has proven synergistic bonding options while Primus' bonding options are speculative and might not work so well in builds that would want him. He's got the buff, but that's tricky to leverage when he's a 2-space figure and it only affects melee units. He's also 30 points cheaper. My very uninformed wild speculation is that Primus will shift the meta, pushing out a lot of small/medium squads (especially elite squads) and heroes. In the shifted meta he'll be competitively B or C-tier but the meta will get stale in a way that can only be fixed by hiking up his points until he's unviable.

[@nicksnyder6370]

He can't bond but imagine concan on a hill with ordo borealis theyd have 5 attack 7 range 6 defense and 2 life

[@doggindays2631]

Yeah, they're looking really nasty with those possibilities. Even in Delta where old Raelin goes up to 140 now, you could do Ordo (110) + Concan (80) + Raelin (140) and get 8 Defense, 7 range, 3 attacks of 4 (props to RogueScaper for pointing out Raelin with Ordo). To make things scarier, even in Delta, in a 500 point game, you could afford Taelord. Put him in that pod and the Ordo are now 3 attacks of 5. Setting that up might be more trouble than its worth, but I imagine it would be disgusting to fight if it was set up.

[@nicksnyder6370]

@doggindays2631 hefty range is a cool new thing

[@nmatses012]

Wave 3 units were legal today in our Massachusetts event, by using a reasonable proxy. The official cards are public, no need to wait if you wanna try these units today!

[@doggindays2631]

That must've been fun, and I respect you guys being chill enough to allow proxying. Totally get the idea behind proxying before one owns the figures. I've proxied a few times with figures I don't have for other classic/DnD/VC units, and it's certainly a good way to get a feel for their mechanics. But especially with these new official releases, I tend to delay until I get their actual figures. Personal preference...though I might make an exception with Thyraxis... Appreciate the comment!

[@clocktamer]

One thing I’d prefer is the old card design with the art of the new cards. The new cards look too sterile, too clean