Wow, was this thing really announced a year ago? That can't be true, can it? Yup, after looking through some of the archived comments, I realize that Marvel Heroscape was indeed announced back in 2006. And after an inital release date of January 2007 was pushed back for no real reason all the way till summer, this puppy is finally here, as I type, in just about every Wal-Mart I've been in...roughly a month after I ordered (for about ten dollars more) from Amazon.

I'm a Marvel Comics fan and collector more than a gamer. What is Heroscape?

Heroscape is a "game system" released by Hasbro back in 2004. Basically it's a minitures battle game based around several main selling points.

1. Figures include representations from "all time and space" meaning its possible to have old west cowboys fighting robots and stuff like that.

2. The game is available at just about any big box store, which makes it excellent for those who can't or dont want to, travel to a more niche gaming store to get it or its expansions.

3. It's not collectible, meaning that there are no "rare" figures to go hunting for. All expansions are produced in the exact same amounts, so no one really has to do any trading or anything like that.

4. The "board" is a 3-D construction made up out of many plastic hex pieces that can be fitted together in infinite ways, meaning players can customize their battle terrains any way they see fit.

How familer with Heroscape do I have to be to play the Marvel version?

You can walk into Marvel Heroscape completly cold if you want. This "master set" is meant to be a standalone game, so if you want to be a sourpuss and not dabble in anything else 'scape related, you can buy this set and stop if you wish. There are a handful of refrences in the instruction manual that do refer to things that wont come into play with the master set alone (water, falling damage, squads), which may fustrate some, but the book does do a good job of mentioning this when it does happen.

So it does combine with Original Heroscape?

Yup. As Im sure just about everyone reading this is aware, Marvel Heroscape is almost 100% compatible with the O.H. Yes, there was some talk very early on about it not being "recomended," but that talk appears to have just been...well, I have no idea why that was said.

How well does the Marvel Heroscape Master set stand on its own?

Before it arrived at my door, I was actually kind of figuring it wouldnt. Just going by the stats, this "Master Set" seems a bit halfassed comapred to the "Rise of the Valkrye" set that got the O.H. ball rolling.

You only get a third of the terrain pieces, only ten figures and enough turn markers for two players (the ROTV set was built for up to four). I mean, what fun is it going to be to have this mega powered figures if your playing field isn't that big to begin with.

But after setting up the game I kind of came around a bit. I'm guessing that the guys down at Marvel really pressured the designers to make a game that stood alone as much as possible from O.H. for marketing reasons. And while this doesn't have the out of the box possibilities that the ROTV master set did, it holds up better than you'd think just on its own.

Why?

1. They give you a pretty good amount of in box scenarios, and some of them are pretty clever as well, such as "Hulk Smash" where it's just about everyone against the Hulk, and you can only damage him if your figure has posession of some sort of item that can get knocked away from you.

2. Its suitable for those who may want to play a quicker version of the real thing. This seems a bit silly to say, since Heroscape was created to be a lighter expereince. But after three years now, with all those expansions and all those terrain tiles, playing a game of Heroscape now can pretty much be an all night affair. Hell just drafting teams can take 30 minutes or so. The marvel version, what with its figures that roll about 6 dice on the average when attacking (as opposed to 3 or 4) and its generally small playing area is pretty much just about pounding the stuffing out of your opponent.

Do the characters here have all new powers as opposed to O.H.?

It's a mix. Those expecting to see new figure abilities are going to be a bit dissapointed. Basically, it's a mix between some all new stuff old stuff, and a few abilities from Heroscape that have been slightly modified and re-named.

Do the figures have an appropriate "cost" compared to the original game?

For those that dont know, all figures in Heroscape have a cost. In each game, players can only bring a certain point total of figures into the game. In O.H., the most power figures (Dragons and what not) clock in around 180 to 210 or so.

The reason why this is important (and its one of the factors I think some people fretted about when the game was announced) was that if you are intending to bring a Marvel figure into O.H., one may wonder if...

1. The Marvel Heroscape figures would be "super-hero" enough if pulled into the Heroscape world, and...

2. ...their cost levels were proper to do so.

In other words, it wouldnt be fair to port the super-powerful Hulk into the O.H. for the cost of an Elf, or conversely, it would really suck to pay big time points to put Thanos into battle just to have him taken out by a robo-rat or something stupid. Looking back, this is probably the only way the designers could have "locked" the game so that it wouldnt be worth the trouble to bring it into O.H.

No need to worry, the figures in this game are a. about two, or sometimes three, times as powerful as any regular Heroscape figure, and their costs values are sky-high to boot, meaning that if you want to have some Marvel comic backup to whup some Roman soldier behind, you're going to have to pay for it.

So, what's the deal with the figures? Who's all here? What do they do?

Here's a brief rundown, with some pros and cons to be added later in a future edit.

Captain America: He can throw his shield at up to three different targets; He provides an attack and defense bonus to friendlies next to him, and he's got a counterstrike ability that causes unblockable damage back to low rolling attackers.

Spider-Man: Everyone's favorite wall-crawler has a 50/50 chance of cancelling out any attack against him, before flying away with a swing-line movement. He can also fire his webs in an attack that lowers the defender's defense level.

Hulk: Currently the most expensive figure to EVER be released, his massive attack is made stronger by the fact that it goes up for every wound he takes (up to a maximum of 11!) and he can also stomp to attack every figure around him. He's got a mega leap that can send him clear across even the longest terrains.

Silver Surfer: A favorite, he has a long range blast that can rob a target of a turn if it connects, but if you use it you cant use his hyper-speed ability which lets him zoom away at the END of a turn.

Iron Man: His ability is mostly in his fighting stats, which include a pretty high ranged attack. That and the fact that he can attack twice. He's my favorite character of the game, simply because his stats speak for themselves.

Thanos: Again, his mega powerful stats are the show on this one. That and the fact that even if you do kill him, there's a 2 in 20 chance EVERY TURN that he'll come back from the dead fully healed!

Abomination: Kind of the same as Hulk except not as strong.

Venom: Ditto. The same abilities as Spidey, only not as effective, but his fighting stats themselves are a bit higher.

Dr. Doom. He's got a four in twenty chance of taking a turn with ANY hero close to him after his own turn. I love to posesses someone's O.H. figure and send it flying off the top of the fortress to break it's neck.

Red Skull: He can forgo his own turn to take a turn with ANY friendly hero in his sight range, making him a good wild card to confuse your opponent. Plus, he's got a two in 20 instant kill ability for those to try to get in close. Underrated, you just have to keep him protected.

Does this mean that the Marvel figures are pretty much indestructable if ported over to original Heroscape?

No, not at all. Don't get me wrong, figures like the Hulk are going to rip through most squad figures like a pavement saw, and just about any Hero with a defense of as high as 4 is going to have to take care. Yet, these assembled heroes and villains do have their weaknesses.

For one, SOME of them, despite their raised attack and defense stats, STILL have an average number of Life Points to their name (that's the number of how many hits they can take), which means any "cheap" wound you can score is worth gold.

By my reasoning, the Marvel figures are vulnerable to any power that causes "insta-wounds" like Self-Destruct, Toxic Skin, or Enhanced Rifle.

Complete takeover powers like Mind Shackle become all the more terrifying now that the possibility of permanently stealing a superhero or villian for yourself is hanging out there.

Instant-kill powers like Chomp or Sharpshooter also become a daring ploy for those going up against the Marvel horde. Sure the chances of them paying out may be small, but the the slighest chance of totally wiping out a Marvel figure with one roll (and taking out a huge point advantage) is just too tempting.

So basically, any attack that bypasses a Marvel figure's defense roll is going to be needed as well as all sorts of wild card powers (like Morsbane's magic staff which totally cancels out the target figure's special game text).

Anything else new rulewise?

Yes, there are a few new wrinkles added to the Heroscape world.

1. Eight of the ten figures are endowed with "Super-Strength" (indicated by the S on the bottom of some of the cards. At this time, the Super Strength ability has only two real functions: Characters with SS make the destructable objects more "destructable" by cancelling out any extra shields that they may get upon defending, and secondly, they are also excempt for any damage they may get from falling or from "serious" falling (or whatever they call it), although this seems a bit unnecessary since most of these characters can fly, meaning they can't fall, although I suppose it's there to account for the possibility that they might get robbed of their abilities.

Actually, the SS factor seems to be there as a factor for more rules that will get "unlocked" as more expansions come out, very much in the same way that the ROTV Master Set had a figure that referred to Orcs, even though no orcs were available at the time.

2. Another destructable object. The game comes with what looks like the corner of a run down warehouse. It's got an overhang that a figure can stand on, and also has a lower section with a removeable part for when a character breaks through it (making it only the second such destructable object, following the castle door from the Fortress expansion). Using this set alone it's OK, and looks great, although on both of the two map cofigurations given, it's more likely that a figure is just going to either fly or jump over it instead of trying to break through.

And in an odd rule twist, characters standing on the top "floor" of it CAN'T simply step of the edge and drop down off the front of it. I dont see why this is unless the object is meant to represent an entire warehouse and not just a ruin.

And that's about it. For nearly a year, I wanted nothing but this game. I mean, for a while there I thought I was going to go crazy from the wait. And now that I have it, that excitement is tempered somewhat by the fact that for the most part, it's just Heroscape with known characters. For some, that may be enough, especially for those who have kept up with all the O.H. sets or for those (like me) who love the O.H. but feel like the designers have been coasting a bit on the theme (after a while, all those samurai and elves start to look bland). For Marvel collecters doing a drive-by, it's quick fun, although I have a feeling the pull to buy more stuff to add to it (once again, the rulebook is full of refrences to elements that wont apply to this set alone) is going to be undeniable. And the fact that Marvel-only boosters will be arriving is only going to make that worse, since, unless you fork out for a O.H. master set, you'll just be cramming more characters onto a small battlefield.

Thanks for reading!