Matt Carlson:  A Heroscape Christmas

As you read this, I’m well on my way up north to spend time with my extended family.  For the past few years, that also includes a Heroscape setup on the downstairs pool table.  I had a spare master set I left with my mother for the nephews to play with, and it has become an integral part of the grandparent experience.  In between the standard outdoor activities (skating, hockey, sledding, snowball fights, etc…), my nephews (and a couple nieces) have played an awful lot of Heroscape.  This Christmas I have an extra special surprise for them.  I was privileged to get my hands on a preview copy of the next Heroscape release, Master Set 3: Battle for the Underdark, that should be available in early January.  As it’s so new, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the new set.

The Game
To catch up anyone unfamiliar with the game, in Heroscape two to four players select an army of units (single “heroes” or multiple figure “squads”) and then face off against each other on a very nifty set of hexagonal-shaped terrain which can be used to construct all sorts of neat gameboards.  The rules are very simple and intuitive for a combat game, with things like line-of-sight determined by simply looking from one figure to another to see if there is a line-of-sight for an attack.  What gives the game its depth are the special powers given to each unit.  Every unit has an attack, defense, speed, and often a number of points of health.  But most units also have some sort of special attack or ability to give them additional flavor.  Units are assigned a point value that approximates their level of power.  A typical battle begins by players buying their armies up to a set point value.  (Unless you’re my nephews who just throw everything onto the game board and pay no attention to point values.) A master set for the game contains everything needed to play, including terrain, dice, markers, and some army figures.  Additional expansions come out several times a year and contain more figures.  Thankfully, the game is NOT a collectible one, so what you see is what you get whenever you buy new units.  Perhaps the largest drawback to the game is the time it takes to set up the terrain to be ready to play.  It can take some time to set up a predetermined scenario precisely as printed, but I find that I can slap together a passable battle area fairly quickly if I just slap together something myself.

Example terrain from previous master sets.

Theme
When I first heard that the Heroscape line was going to be transferred from Hasbro proper into the hands of the folks at Wizards of the Coast, I had mixed emotions.  While I knew there were very creative people at Wizards who have experience in developing complex interacting rules, I was very satisfied with the past Heroscape offerings and where the game seemed to be headed.  When I later heard that the new offering in January would be based around a Dungeons and Dragons theme, I was concerned.  I enjoy the D&D role-playing game quite a bit, but I’m not so sure I need or want it to seep into my Heroscape game.  After going through the rules and checking the new game out, I’m pleased that they haven’t changed anything fundamental to the game.  The new figures definitely have a Dungeons and Dragons theme (more on the figures later), but the newest twist on the game is in the provided scenarios.  Rather than several example scenarios, the rulebook has a set of four linked scenarios.  They are set up similar to a Dungeons and Dragons role playing game, where one player takes on the role of the “hero” figures and another controls all the enemy monsters.  The players fight through four different linked encounters.  (If you have multiple copies of the game, you can build all four battlefields as a linked set, since each area overlaps with the previous one.) Heroes who are healed between fights, but don’t come back if entirely defeated, so the “dungeon” side is trying to whittle down the enemy figures over the course of the scenarios.  The Hero player can improve their position by collecting treasure tokens (a new type of Rune that has an attached trap) on each map.  It adds a new way to play the game, and I think more options are always a good thing.  My only regret is that there isn’t at least one more standard scenario included, so that newcomers could get a feel for how the game has traditionally been played (as a single scenario army vs army combat).

What’s in the Box
While this new release is listed as a Master set (which means it contains all you need to play), it is smaller than the two previous Master sets.  Whereas they contained a fair bit of terrain and figures and all the bits needed for a four player game, this new D&D themed master set only has 10 figures and 50 pieces of terrain – comparable in size and scope to the smaller Marvel Heroscape master set released a few years ago.  On the plus side, I do like the new figures, it may be just my clouded judgment, but I think Wizards has managed to increase the quality of the painted figures compared to some of the ones produced in the past.  The new set also includes some nice rock outcroppings (similar to the ice towers seen before, but these are grey), two new kinds of terrain, and four new Glyphs.  The new terrain consists of a large selection of Dungeon terrain (sort of a grey-green) and a few pieces of shadow terrain (looks like black water tiles.) Shadow terrain adds to your defense when standing in it, and both types of terrain affect the game for special powers of included units.  All in all, there is a nice selection of terrain, I like the rock outcroppings that have been included.  I’d encourage people to purchase a second master set so that they could play 3 or 4 player games and build larger playing fields, but there is a large drawback.  Six of the eight included army cards are unique – meaning a player can only have one on their side, so anyone trying to field armies from two combined sets will have a fairly limited unit selection.

The Figures
Fans of Heroscape will probably be most interested in the new figures included in the game.  Here’s a quick rundown on what you will find in the game.  Half of the units are from Utgar (the bad guys in the Heroscape universe) and the other four units are unique Heroes from the various other Heroscape factions.

The four good-guy heroes will be instantly recognizable as classic Dungeons and Dragons icons for anyone who has played the role playing game.  There is a classic fighter, cleric, thief, and wizard hero.  The fighter has both a cleave (does damage to a second figure after hitting one) and a way to force opponents into attacking him rather than other figures.  The cleric hero can heal adjacent units and can affect “Undead” type units as well as help protect units from the Utgar (evil) faction.  The thief can disarm traps (frequently found associated with the new treasure type of glyphs), hide in dungeon and shadow spaces, and even has a sneak attack if you can surround an enemy.  (As a side note, the thief hero is a dwarf by the name of Darrak Ambershard for anyone who’s been listening to the D&D podcasts for the past year…) The wizard hero can teleport (he’s an Eladrin) once per game and has a nice short ranged attack that will sometimes go off more than once.

The bad guys consist of two Drow units, a leader and a squadron of 3 commons.  All have special abilities that work with the shadow and/or dungeon tiles.  The squad has a poison attack that does extra damage on a hit while the leader piece has a particularly vicious special that destroys one of the squad figures as a side effect.  There’s an iconic Dungeons and Dragons troll (ie. built like the 4th edition troll figurine) that has very low defense, high health, regeneration, and has a stronger attack against damaged opponents.  The capstone of the bad-guy figures is the Black Dragon.  This has a two-hex base, flying, a standard breath special attack, but also has some nice bonuses to attack if he starts his turn in swamp or shadow spaces (making his standard attack 7!)

The Bottom Line
So, should you get the newest game?  If you’re a Heroscape fan, it probably is no question.  The new units have some fun new abilities to add to your armies, particularly if you include the new terrain (dungeon and shadow) that are used for some special abilities.  The new terrain is nice (for fans who haven’t already bought too many extra master sets) and the chained scenarios give gamers a new way to play the game.  For a newcomer, this slightly smaller master set does give a taste of the Heroscape game, but it is fairly limited.  Battles will need to be restricted to close-in affairs due to the smaller amount of landscape tiles available.  With fewer units to choose from, there are a handful of unit match-ups, compared to the dozens of different armies that could be fielded in the larger master sets.  One can experience the Heroscape game with this set, but anyone wanting to expand beyond this set (with more figures, etc…) will also want to have more terrain to work with – requiring another master set.  Unfortunately, two copies of this Battle for the Underdark master set will provide the additional needed terrain, but will not significantly increase your army options.  Clearly the crossover of Dungeons and Dragons into Heroscape is a great way for Wizards to raise interest in the role playing game.  I like how they were able to incorporate many familiar themes into the game without changing the rules.  The provided linked encounters also gives players a new way to play Heroscape (although I’m sure home-brewed “campaigns” have been around for quite awhile).  Viewed as a large expansion with terrain, I think this set has a lot to offer a Heroscape gamer.  However, anyone unfamiliar with the game and wanting to “get into” the game would be better served by tracking down one of the previous master sets (#1 - Rise of the Valkyrie or #2- Swarm of the Marro).  Master set #3 – Battle for the Underdark is best as a supplement to a player’s existing Heroscape setup.

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