Holiday Heroscape in Action

Our local high school has the occasional evening of open boardgaming in the cafeteria. Students and teachers (and select <ahem> boardgamers, such as myself) are free to drop in and play some games on hand or bring their own. There were two gaming events in November and December. The first was just a night of fun while the second was pitched as a “decompression” time just before finals hit in earnest. Attendance was pretty good on both nights and one of the main attractions was the Heroscape setup I brought along. Heroscape is an excellent miniatures combat game that is great for family play. While the name “miniatures combat game” would normally imply a rules-heavy game of thick rulebooks, slow moving, somewhat tedious combat. (A miniatures wargame player would want to defend the genre by pointing out the huge strategic depth available within a game.) In contrast, Heroscape provides a game where a wide diversity of miniatures clash together across colorful hexagonal landscape. The bad news is that the game has been out of print for years, but the great news is that Renegade Games has just rereleased a whole new line of Heroscape content so it is a great time for new gamers to jump in.

Rawr! Here comes my dragon!

Gameplay is simple. All of the minis have basic attack, defense, and movement scores and typically just one (or two) special abilities written right on their information card. This makes it easy for a player to glance down and see all their abilities. The basic rules are very straightforward: Can you move there? Simply count hexes, adding 1 for moving higher. Can you see someone to shoot? Simply bend over to “look” behind your mini – can you see the other mini? Then you can shoot them! (No “line of sight”, blocking units, or other funny business.) Each figure’s special ability provides a fun “exception” from the basic rules without overwhelming a new player with information. The result is a great “smash some minis together and chuck some dice” game that can also provide more experienced players the opportunity to make cool strategic moves. If the “special abilities” of the figures are too much, the backside of each figure card can be used with no special powers – but this is so simple I’ve never even tried – the base game is perfectly graspable by an 8 year old or even younger.

The attractiveness of the game does it great service. Once the game gets out onto the table, it naturally piques the interest of any teenage warlord wanna-be wandering by. This is why the game did so well on the family game nights. I brought along my Heroscape stuff and set it up on two tables. It quickly garnered a couple interested teenage boys and I got them up and running in a game in less than 5 minutes of explanations. Meanwhile, a friend and I took on his son over at the other table (I got rocked…) Things went so well, everyone had me swear I would bring the games back for family game night #2…

For more experienced games, the depth of the game comes from deciding which units to pick into our starting army. Every unit (or unit group) card has a point value. Players can build up relatively even armies by picking enough miniatures until a specified point limit is reached. Small battles (my favorite, because they can take as few as 30 minutes) of 300 points are common as is 500 points but there’s nothing against huge battles (of which my sons are fans) of 1000 points or more. Just expect a multiple-army 1000 pt game to take the better part of an evening. The points keep games relatively balanced but a smart player will pick figures with special abilities that compliment each other. Some are rather obvious – like figure X allowing figure Y to also take a turn when X goes. Others require more thought, such as a mini who can kill others to heal themselves BUT can transfer that power to another if it dies. Just who or what would make best use of a creature like that? Regarding the family game night, I had “built” a few armies ahead of time all around 300 pts of value so that people could just walk up and grab the army that they thought looked the “coolest.”

This leads me to the bottom line, how much does all this cost? Well, if you wanted to play Heroscape a year ago, you had to shell out hundreds of dollars to the aftermarket just to dip in your toe – this despite the wide release of the game over its lifetime. Now? It’s not cheap but it isn’t crazy exorbitant. The game now comes in two flavors: unpainted miniatures and painted ones (they used to all be painted.) The painted ones are kind of pricey but they do look good on the table. I’d suggest anyone just starting with Heroscape and on the fence about the cost go with the unpainted stuff. I think it’s far more fun to spend money on getting new units with which to play than it is to play with fewer options albeit fancy, painted ones.

 

Two teens ponder their next move…

I brought all my new (Fall 2024) sets to the school game events and they were enough to keep two tables of players occupied for the entire gaming evening. If you are trying out the game for the first time, the Battle for Wellspring ($45) can give you a small stand-alone taste of the game. The larger Age of Annihilation Master Set ($125) is the jumping off point for someone wanting to see what the game truly can offer. If you want to expand further, I recommend the very cool techno-undead figures in the Revna’s Rebuke: Necrotech army ($45). There are several other releases of additional terrain and dressing for purchase. Of note, if you want a bigger battlefield the Land of Valhalla Terrain Expansion ($70) should about double your available selection of interlocking hexagonal terrain. All those prices for sets with minis in them are for the unpainted versions. Look to pay 50% more or so if you want them in unpainted versions.

 

Fear the polar bear army!

Renegade continues to pump out new pieces (hooray!) and terrain with new ones coming online early this winter. Prices look to be about the same. I know I struggled to make very many competent 300 point armies with just the fall releases so a few more armies in the mix should help even things out. Of course, had I gone with larger armies there would have been much more flexibility in army design. One funny note is that the first (fall) releases were pretty sparse on ranged attacks so the ranged-attack fans will have to wait and see if more options become available this winter.

However you play it (and however much you own of it), Heroscape is a great game for tween gamers or anyone wanting to go back to those simpler times of smashing some good, cool figurines together by rolling some dice. While I have received many of my Heroscape figures in exchange for a review, I coughed up my own $$ to buy all the available fall armies (and the extra terrain) for a close friend and his son. They’re coming to visit in a couple months and I expect some Heroscape battles to clash between his kids and my own. Hopefully, us dads might even get a chance to take over the table.

 

Discussion Area - Leave a Comment




Tired of typing this out each time? Register as a subscriber!