What it looks like:
It’s a 3” by 11” by 16” box, featuring a montage of heroes and villains. The Hulk is featured prominently, but Spidey and Venom (movie tie in? ), Iron Man (not at all), and Doc Doom (it’s a coincidence) also feature. Inside, it’s not as tightly packed as the legendarily-full Heroscape Rise of the Valkyrie set was. The major items are the ten supers, eleven cards of stats, twelve “Combat” dice, a d20, eight order markers, two glyphs, and about two dozen wound markers. You also will find some terrain. It’s just about enough to set up a small section of a street and building area and has a breakaway wall from a building. Under certain circumstances, a section of wall pushes right out to show the superheroic action.
The figures themselves are very nice. Except for a couple where the wash was applied too thickly, they earn high marks. They capture expression and action (except maybe Captain America, who is blah) and show interesting details. (A separate review of the figures will be posted for any action figure geeks who might be out there.)
(Those familiar with Heroscape may want to skip to the Assessment section.)
Accompanying the figures are unit cards with the stats of each hero. Each card has a variety of descriptors. A figure’s name and illustration are featured prominently. On the left side of the card are some things to know that don’t hugely affect the game most of the time. Each gives a species, type, class, personality, and size for each. Spider-man, for example is a human, unique, crime fighting, tricky guy of size Medium 5. In the center of the card are the special powers for each character, things that let them break the game rules or perform some special bonus. Spider-man has Spidey-Sense, a Swing Line, and a Web Special Attack. If a character has super-strength, a stylized S appears at the bottom of the powers.
On the right side of the card are the combat numbers. A character has life, move, range, attack, and defense statistics, followed by a drafting cost. Life indicates how much harm a character can withstand, move is their speed moving around, range is how far their basic attack reaches. The attack and defense stats tell the player how many dice to roll when attacking or defending. Cost determines how many heroes or villains a player can afford. Spidey has 5 life (average), move 6 (average in this game), range 1 (except his web power), and 4 dice for attack and defense. He costs 160 and is the second cheapest figure in the game.
There is also a card for the breakable wall. It has only one power and two stats. It is not easily hurt by those without super-strength. It has four lives. It rolls 4 dice for defense. There are also two glyphs in the game, hexagonal tiles that give a special power or hindrance to the side standing upon them. Their powers vary by scenario.
The combat dice for Heroscape have six sides. One is blank. Two have blue shields and three have red skulls. As a result, a player is more likely to roll skulls than shields with the same number of dice. When attacking, roll the dice and count only skulls. When defending, roll the dice and count only shields. If a player is defending his hero’s last wound and rolls five skulls, then they don’t help him and he should feel free to say bad words if such is appropriate to his venue.
The order markers add a bit of strategy, or at least a little tactics, to the game. Each player has a shield marked 1, 2, 3, and X. At the beginning of a round, the player places them on the cards of his characters in any way he pleases, to indicate what he is doing each turn. The X is a decoy to make his opponent unsure who on his team is going next.
Gameplay
First, build a map. This will be a very short experience. There are just enough tiles to make a street corner with the damaged building and a little bit of street. There are maps and scenarios given in the rulebook, but after some time, most players will usually either just set up something that looks good or devise intricate maps with the help of computer programs fan-designed for the purpose. In Marvel Heroscape, this should take than five minutes, much like putting together a Lego floor on which to battle. In the written scenarios, each person has a starting zone. In improvised scenarios, the two players must agree where the starting zones should be.
Players roll the twenty-sided die and the higher roll picks first. The draft is a source of some good strategy in standard Heroscape. In Marvel, the Ro Sham Bo element of picking a counter to figure X are reduced, since each is competent on its own and is not particularly vulnerable to another figure. The first player picks one from all the figures. He places his pick in his starting zone. The second player picks two of the remainder (to make up for not picking first) and places them in the starting zone. The two players trade off picking and placing until each has reached the agreed-upon (or given in a scenario) point total, using those points from the bottom right of each card. Since the Marvel heroes are expensive, this can go very quickly.
Each player looks over his army and his opponent’s force. He places the 1, 2, 3, and X markers in the places they seem to do the most good. Both players roll the twenty-sided die. The highest roller reveals his 1 marker and moves and attacks with that character. His opponent reveals his 1 marker and does the same. The two alternate through the second and third turns, and after the entire round is over, they reset their order markers for the next round. The game includes a black counter to keep track of the round, Except for scenarios requiring a certain number of rounds, most people just use the black marker as an extra wound marker.
During a turn, the character moves and then attacks, possibly using special powers as appropriate. Each space costs one move, except when increasing altitude, each “hex side” of elevation also counts as one space. Many of the Marvel heroes have special movement powers to fly or swing up past elevations. Characters dropping altitude more than their height must roll a combat die. If they roll a skull, they add a wound to their own card. Characters with Flight or Super-strength need not worry until it’s off an office building, a height unreachable with the base game. For example, the Hulk leaps down from the second floor next to an unsuspecting Spidey, who has been ignoring his Spidey-sense. The enraged Hulk rolls an incredible nine dice due to his special powers! He rolls five skulls, two shields, and two blanks. That’s five skulls on attack. Spidey fails to use his Spidey-sense (special power) and rolls his defense, four dice. He scores two skulls, one shield, and a blank. The Hulk does five minus one, or four wounds to Spidey. Spidey’s player puts four wound markers on his card. Spidey can’t take another one of those! One more marker will equal his five, and he’ll be removed from the board.
In a nod to tactical thinking, characters higher than another figure are able to roll an additional attack and defense die when dealing with that figure. This is minimized in Marvel Heroscape since most setups will have only two high spots, the spaces in the damaged building.
Players continue until they reach the agreed-upon condition (wipe out the other army, move the object, escape with a glyph, etc.) and the game ends. In case of a “time out” ending, players can count their remaining points to determine who wins.
Assessment
I loved reading the cards and matching up the powers to the things I see in the comics. While there are going to be differences of opinion (why doesn’t Venom have a power negating Spidey’s spider sense?), each character has special elements that capture an element of his behavior in comics. There will no doubt be some outcry about the cosmic-level threats (Hulk, Thanos, Surfer) being dialed down in order to fit into the game, but I am well used to guns that don’t shoot as far as they “should” so that a wargame is fun and the characters stay close. I can rationalize it as changes made to make a competitive game.
I paid just over $30 for this at my local store. For my money, I received a game that I will play many times in July and then once in a while after that. I would have preferred to pay $25 for the game value I got, but I can see how much of that money went into the excellent figures. I anticipate more fervor for this game amongst my game club clientele at school (ages ten to seventeen) than I myself feel. I recommend it strongly if you have a comics fan nine year-old for whom to buy.
It’s simple and plays very quickly. Due to the large numbers of dice being tossed, a bad break can finish off a character quickly. This game has fewer tactical elements or modifiers than most wargames, than Heroclix, even than Heroscape original flavor. While order marker placement and tactical maneuvering help, most choices are fairly obvious. It probably will not grow an “organized play” tournament style since it is not randomly collectible. It doesn’t have some of the bonuses (battlefield conditions, etc.) that can change a clix game. As a result, I wouldn’t buy it for my complex-wargame-playing brother-in-law or GW snob nephew.
For Heroscapers
Two of my favorite elements of Heroscape are the order marker placement and search for height. Both of these elements are minimized in this game. It’s harder to “take out” an order marker before the figure goes because all figures are tougher. There’s not much height to be had here, just the one level. Players are rolling huge handfuls of dice, so flukes happen more than I anticipated. (One very good roll and one very bad roll meant Venom one-punched Spidey in one game and Captain America’s counterstrike KOed Venom in one blow in another.) If people teased you about Heroscape not being a proper wargame, well this is the ultimate in that direction.
I will probably not play this much . I will defy Skyknight and mix and match some figures and terrain here and there, but I expect this will more often sit on the shelf at school waiting for Friday game club instead of going home to be used during the week. More likely, I’ll use it with my library of conversions (to which the Heroscapers are adding) instead. I might play it more if there are several expansions with the Marvel Knights or other characters I enjoy.
Compared to Marvel Heroes
If you enjoy the multiple paths to power, bits of gaining experience, threat value villains, and multiple use of characters (support, active), then this is going to be awfully simplistic. It’s just a big slugfest, not a storytelling experience. (Except that most fights have a story – see the comics.) If you found Marvel Heroes a bit dry and rules-fiddly and wanted to get to the fighting, then this is the game for you. I prefer each game depending on my mood. Marvel Heroscape is the same urge that has me load up the Freedom Force computer game and smack the villains around with a lamppost. Marvel Heroes is better for the time when I have more focus (and can gather a gaming group with the same) for a roleplaying-like experience of fighting crime and the devious plots of my arch-enemy.
Compared to Heroclix
WARNING: I am not a competitive Heroclix player. If you are into the organized play portion of gaming, avoid this game like the plague!
Despite my warning in Assessment, I actually preferred this game to Heroclix. I’ve never quite been reconciled to the limited powers (they become unavailable as he loses focus due to damage or become available as he becomes desperate) and the move/attack fiddles. I’ve always wanted a game where Cyclops can run and blast and Wolverine can dash up to a guy and snick! Although this game is lacking some of the interesting chrome (battlefield conditions, team powers, etc.) of Heroclix, I also don’t have to go online to find the latest interpretations of rule X. This game is more of a superhero punch-up. Heroclix remains to me a battle game with characters inspired by my favorites, but there’s a definite dislocation between the source material and the way the models play. I will continue to buy clix – but as a source for customs for this game.
Posted Mon Jul 9, 2007 10:43 pm
