Heroscape: Game System Master Set

Heroscape is not really a kid’s game. By which I mean, it’s not a game only for kids.

But it *looks* like one, and the eye candy is definitely there for children of all ages, so having a kid around is a good incentive to pick this bad boy up.

If you are lucky enough to get what’s linked here, the original Rise of the Valkyrie Master Set, the first thing you will notice is how heavy the box is. This box is *loaded* with stuff. There is so much stuff in this box that you will need to track down the specialized instructions necessary to put it all back in the box, if that’s where you want to keep it. No, I’m not kidding, and it’s a *big* box.

You will open the box and see a bunch of good looking prepainted minis but what may be most interesting to you is the mountain of “terrain,” or interlocking tiles showing hexagons of various colors. Single hexagons of water; double hexagons of sand; seven hex pieces of stone and twenty one hex pieces of grass, and countless others. You may find yourself building terrain battlegrounds before you even read the directions.

The minis look great and you will immediately see robots, dinosaurs, WW2 era soldiers, orcs, and a dragon. This game pulls from everywhere. Expansions include cowboys and ninjas and zombies and pretty much anything else you might find in an action novel.

The directions include a section for the “Basic” game and a section for the “Master” Rules. Don’t bother with the Basic game. It’s dumb and even an 8 year old can handle the advanced stuff.

The rules are straightforward. Each of the minis has an associated card which tells you how the mini behaves on the battlefield. How far it moves each turn, how many dice it rolls when attacking, how many when defending, how much it costs to include it in your army, and so on. There are limited battlefield effects: There is height advantage, you do have to stop when walking through water. There is not flanking or first strike or facing or firing arcs unless so indicated by the special ability on a card.

Play proceeds in “rounds” of 3 turns each. You will have four order markers, numbered 1-3 and one of them marked X. You will place them on the cards associated with the minis you’re using in that battle and, one at a time, you will play your 1 order markers, then your 2, then your 3. The X doesn’t get played; it’s just there to make your opponent guess which of your order markers is where. After you’ve both played your 3’s, reset your order markers, roll to see who goes first for the next round, and start over with the 1’s. Games can be kill ’em all or have other objectives.

It is possible to play this game with just this Master Set, if you are lucky enough to find one, and it is also possible to play with just the Swarm of the Marro Master Set. Or you can track down the terrain and some units without every buying *anything* NIB; it’s all out there for you. I recommend http://www.heroscapers.com for all your Heroscaping needs, including talk about the rules, customs, and where to find a tournament (!) near you. I highly recommend the tournament scene. I used to do M:tG and chess and would never return to either of those circuits; these tournaments are awesome.

There is still a *lot* of ‘Scape available on the open market, just not so much at a store near you. Besides the Master Sets there are a bunch of expansions and all kinds of awesome. At the heroscapers.com community a couple projects are developing customs with existing minis from other games that fit seamlessly into the Heroscape canon to keep the game dynamic, though to be honest the game is plenty dynamic enough with the countless units and terrain variations already out there from “official” sources.

Follow eBay closely; check Craigslist, and so on. It’s out there. Get it. Enjoy.

It is my belief that playing board games is a little dorky. I think we try to make it more main stream and less dorky with more mainstream games like Ticket to Ride, but when you bust out the miniatures and custom terrain you’ve reached dork level 99. That being said, I love Heroscape and wish not only was it a game still in my collection, but one that was still in production as well.

GAME PLAY:
You are leading a group of heroes selected from across time and dimensions on a battlefield in Valhalla. With the army you have drafted you battle your foes through the rolling of attack and defense die. Each hero or band of heroes has special abilities only that can perform to give your squad the upper hand in battle. If you can use your army to navigate the custom terrain and formulate the perfect strategy you can be the victor!

COMPONENTS:
The components in this game are very nice. All of the miniatures are full color plastic with decent detail to cuts and shadows. The terrain pieces are equally nice and durable. It is also nice that there are a crazy number of additional miniatures that you can find around the web or on eBay to add to your collection.

PROS:
• The rules are very straight forward and easy enough for anyone or any age to understand, which is really great. You can play it with your little 8 year old brother or your gaming group of adults.
• Building your own terrain is awesome. The starter box will give you enough terrain for maybe a coffee table, but of course you can add to that and make it as big and wide and tall as you like. Your imagination really is the limit.
• You can have control of the time of the game, as in you can decide how big of a game you want to play. You can draft an army that is 500 pts. or 5,000 pts. depending on how long you want the game to last.
• With all of the different expansions / player packs you can buy, there is lots of replay value. Sure you will have your favorite characters, but you can mix and match different armies to formulate different strategies. Same with custom terrain. Board with this board, tear it down and build a new one!

CONS:
• It is getting harder and harder to find different pieces for this game as it is no longer in production. The pieces you do find are also becoming more and more pricey as they become more rare.
• Its difficult to store. The pieces may never fit back into their box and you will have to get a tub at the least as your collection grows.
• Tear down & set up can be a pain if you have to do this every time you play. Its best to have a place out of the way where you can keep your landscape.

OVERALL:
The pros by far outweigh the cons. This game is great on an epic level and is one that many people are searching for parts to like the holy grail. It’s a shame that Hasbro has not kept this game in production as it is loved by many. Personally, Heroscape is one that I’m looking to add back into my collection as I regret letting it go.

Heroscape took my social group by storm in college. We loved this game and played it constantly. The premise of the game is that you’re in Valhalla, the Norse afterlife for heroes, and all of warriors from history (WWII paratroopers or Samurai), other dimensions (aliens), and the future (cyborg bots) are fighting.

Awesome.

In Heroscape, you use plastic hex tiles and pieces to build game boards with elevation and structures. Game boards might be arenas where teams fight to the death, or perhaps objective based (king of the hill or capture the flag). The game provided several pre-designed scenarios, but it’s really easy to create your own or combine sets to make really elaborate settings.

Then, players form teams (we usually played 2 vs. 2) and pick their armies. Each player has a certain number of points to spend on units. Really good units cost a great deal of points, which means you may get just them. Or, you can buy several weaker units. The units are really great, nice plastic miniatures. No painting! Also, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to field an army.

Units in Heroscape are incredibly streamlined. They detail their movement and attack range, attack power (number of dice you roll) and defense power (number of dice you roll). And health. It’s really easy to see what a unit does, approximately how good they are, and play. Some units have special abilities which are written in text.

Then, players use little numbered tokens to denote their first, second, and third movement. In order, players take their first unit’s turn, then second, etc. This is a bit of a bluffing mechanic, but also, it’s a fun choice as you HOPE to use the unit when you want to use them, but things change.

Due to the vast scenarios, units, and streamlined rules, I really recommend this game if you can find it. There are also tons of add ons to buy if you want to expand the game further. This was really fun and I’m glad Hasbro made this game.

Essentially a perfect game. I’m not just talking gameplay — I’m talking the entire execution of the product. This is a game designed to appeal to ages 3 through 100, has magnificent components that are designed to be brutalized by small children with little or no damage resulting, and to appeal to all on three levels — building, role-playing, and competing. Nothing in the marketplace is at the same level as Heroscape from an overall packaging perspective.

Available for $18US for a period of time, I simply don’t think any other game has ever provided this level of value at this price point. Or even close. None ever will again, because the nature of the World’s economy has fundamentally changed. The door has closed on this level of material for that kind of price.

Great for boys between five and ninety-five. I’ve played the advanced rules with my five-year-old twins. A bit of patience was required, but they had fun. The big pieces make for an impressive look and feel which is not lost on kids. Many expansions — you could drop a few buckazoids on this critter, but you don’t have to. Requires a bit of time and space to set it up, but once it’s there it is positively glorious. The quality of the components is simply magnificent — gorgeous AND tough.

My kids love all aspects of it — playing pretend, setting up the boards like a puzzle, playing. This is THE game for young boys of this generation to own. This is the one they’ll talk about with each other on the golf course fifty years from now.

This basic set is the one to go for — nice variety of pieces and plenty to play with — you need never buy an expansion. Simple rules means thirty minutes to master the concepts, then you can play for hours. Short quick battles, huge drawn-out campaigns . . . anything is possible given the modularity and variability of the pieces and their basic concepts.

Simply the best birthday present you’ll ever give a seven-year-old boy. If you see this grab two copies — you’ll likely have grandsons someday.

The base games comes with plastic hexagonal tiles that represent different terrain types and can be linked together to form a playing field map. You have individual heroes and squads of 3 figures per squad. Each figure(s) belongs to a faction and has a point value. Pick a point value and build an army(usually for fighting) and face off against other armies. There is no restriction on combining different figures really but it is easier to challenge one faction versus the others. There were 9 character expansions with 4 sets per expansions as well as a superhero version and a D&D version with a couple of expansions for that one. It has been a few years since any of his game was produced, but last year a new version called Magic The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers was released. It is the Heroscape system with a few new tweaks and new factions. If you like the original system or want to try it out this is a much less expensive version of the game.