Well, Swarm of the Marro is a Heroscape product, so you know I had to purchase it and lucky enough for me I was able to pick up two of them at Gen Con and have had some time to give them some good playing.

Gameplay - I have already reviewed Heroscape, so in this review I will mostly stick to the things that are different in Swarm of the Marro.

The new rulebook appears to only have one game play change, and that is to allow double-spaced figures to flip for free anytime during their movement. The old rule had the flip costing one movement point. I like the simplification of allowing the free flip and in general most double-based figures have a hard enough time moving around the map as is, so in general I like this change. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it makes Major Q9 even a little better than he already was.

The new swamp terrain pieces do not have any new rules for them, and the swamp water tiles, although having water in their name do not hinder movement, but can be used for abilities that specify being on water.

The very cool new Marro Hive has its own clause in the rulebook stating that it can not be given any movement bonuses or summoned by anything, as well as stating that figures can not move through it even with abilities like Ghost Walk.

Swarm of the Marro also introduced new versions of two of the original master set figures: Sgt. Drake Alexander and Raelin. These two new releases prompted a new rule stating that only one of any unique named hero can be in an army, so no double Raelin or Drake.

There are several new scenarios that are included, but I haven’t gotten a chance to play them all yet. One new and interesting thing they did in this set of scenarios is to have a campaign style storyline that moves the heroes forward through several scenarios. I think that sounds like a bunch of fun, and I look forward to trying it out.

Another cool addition to the Swarm of the Marro set is some new glyphs. I was hoping we would get some in a wave again sometime, but since we haven’t seen any since Wave 1, I am glad to see them now.

Glyph of Ulvania – This glyph grants unique figures a +1 to their attack rolls, so depending on your army’s makeup, it is a weaker than Astrid, which I consider to be about the most powerful widely accepted tourney glyph.

Glyph of Crevcor – This glyph is the opposite of Ulvania and increases common figures attack by one. I think this one is slightly more powerful than Ulvania, as common squads will generally see more play than uniques.

Glyph of Wannok - This glyph is kind of interesting, but probably one of the least powerful in the game. At the end of the round the controlling player rolls a d20, on a one he or she is forced to wound one of his or her figures, but on any other number, his or her opponent must wound one of his or her figures. Considering it will only do one wound a round and it has a possibility of wounding its controller, I feel that it is hardly worth holding in most cases.

Glyph of Thorian – This one is one of the more powerful glyphs in the set and also a bane to range which I kind of like. The controller of it grants Thorian Speed to all of his or her units, so that his or her opponent must be adjacent to attack with a normal attack.

Glyph or Proftaka - This one is probably best used in scenarios. It is a pit trap that disallows a figure from moving off of it until there is a friendly figure occupying a friendly space. Presumably, this is to simulate helping to pull the other figure out of the pit.

Glyph of Brandar – This is just like the old Brandar and does nothing on its own, but some scenarios key off of it.

Glyph of Nilrend - This is one of the two temporary glyphs and is very powerful. When a character land on it the owner may choose one of his or her opponent’s unique figues and roll the d20. On a 1-4 nothing happens, on a 5-20, the opponent’s figure gets a negation marker and loses all its special powers for the rest of the game.

Glyph of Oreld – The other temporary glyph keys of the d20 as well. On a 1-9 nothing happens, but on a 10-20 the player gets to choose one of his or her opponent’s order markers at random and remove it from the army card it was on.

Swarm of the Marro also introduces a lot of new figures to us with seven unique heroes and two sets of three common squads.

Raelin the Kyrie Warrior – Swarm of the Marro gave us two updated versions of old heroes, and Raelin happens to be one of them, along with the other Jandar Unique Hero in this set, Sgt. Drake Alexander. Raelin kept her old statistics, but her point cost increased by 40 points to 120 points. She still has flying, but now instead of her Defensive Aura, she has Extended Defensive Aura that increases its range frout to six, but decreases its bonus to just one defense die. She also now has Whirlwind Assault that allows her to attack all adjacent opponents like the Shaolin Monks. One other change is that instead of being Merciful, she is now Resolute. I like the new Raelin, but I am unsure if she is worth 40 more points than the old Raelin.

Sgt. Drake Alexander – The other updated character gets a boost in his stats with his life moving up to six, his move up to six as well and his defense up to four. Drake kept his old Thorian Speed special ability even though I was hoping it would get a boost and protect from special attacks as well. His Graple Arm special ability did get a boost and now allows him to move up to four spaces with it and can move up and down 45 levels when using it. Another great addition to Drake is his new Pistol Fire Special Attack. I was very happy to see Drake get a ranged attack, and I thought it was a cool little caveat to not allow his special attack to target other Jandar figures. Overall, I think the new Drake is really cool, but 170 points is probably too much.

Sonlen – Ullar gets a new elf with the addition of Sonlen. At 160 points, he is a little spendy, but he gets decent stats and alright special abilities for his cost. He has six life, and can move five with a range of six, attack of four and defense of three. His Dragon Healing allows him to heal one wound from any Hero figure within 4 clear sights spaces of him before moving if he rolls 15 or higher on the d20. His dragon Swoop does the opposite and causes a wound on 15 or higher with the d20 to a figure within four clear sight spaces. I am a little hesitant to spend 160 points on his three defense and six life when his special abilities have such a low success rate.

Major Q10 – At 150 points, Major Q10 is Vydar’s contribution to the set. He is a pretty versatile unit, but unlike Major Q9 he dies a little too easy with four life and five defense. He keeps the same move of five, range of eight and attack of four like his predecessor Q9, but he also has different special attacks that fit in the same versatile vein of Q9’s special. Q10 gets a Machine Pistol Special attack that has a range of seven and attack of two that he can use four times in the same turn. His Wrist Rocket Special Attack has a range of four and an attack of four that he can use twice in one turn. I think Major Q10 isn’t a strong enough figure that one will build an army around him like Q9, but when you want some good versatile range and you have 150 points available for it, Q10 will certainly fit the bill.

Shiori – Arguable the weakest hero in the set, she also has the lowest point value of 60. Einar’s contribution to this set will probably not see a lot of play with her life of three, move of six range of one and attack and defense of three. Shiori also gets several specials including the Shuriken Special Attack that gives her a range of five and an attack of three against figures her size and smaller, but only two dice against larger beings or destructible objects. Shiori also gets Phantom Walk that allows her to move through all figures and leave engagement without being attacked. Her final special ability, Concentrated Will is one of the more innovative special abilities in the game to date. If Shiori has one unrevealed order maker on her, she gets an additional defense die. This ability isn’t too powerful, but I like the idea of it, and so far I think there is only one other unit that has a speical ability like that, and that is Spartacus, who never sees play.

Tor-Kul-Na – A powerful new addition to Utgar, Tor-Kul-Na boasts powerful stats with six life, six move, one range, six attack and five defense. He should be able to take some pain and dish it out as well. Tor-Kul-Na also comes with probably the longest special abilty yet, but it is called Trample Stomp and it boils down to him being able to move next to an opponent’s figure and roll the d20, on an 8-20, that figure takes a wound. If it is destroyed Tor-Kul-Na can continue to move and trample. It can be very useful against common squads, and especially high defense/point cost ones that are clumped together. All this power comes with a hefty point cost of 220 though, so I think Tor-Kul-Na is well in check, as one must devote a good chunk of their army to play with him.

Marro Hive – The other Unique Hero from this set is one of the most innovative additions to the game yet. The Hive is a draftable unit that comes with a six hex swamp water tile that it sits on in one’s starting zone. The Hive even comes with its own new rules in the master set rulebook, which I talked about earlier. It has six life, but it only has two defense, so it can die pretty easily when attacked. It is also very susceptible, because it can’t move or be moved and it is huge so it can be seen from most of the map. I think that it is kind of funny and cool that the hive can actually attack with one die at a range of one, so it can kind of defend itself. Where it really shines though is its special abilities. Its Hive Mind special ability allows it to take a turn with any common Marro squad within 12 clear sight spaces. I think this ability is going to be even better when Wave 8 comes out with the Marro Cavalry. Also, the Marro Hive has the Marro Rebirth ability that allows one to revive a dead common Marro squad figure on a 13 or higher d20 roll. All this come for just 160 points, which is pretty good, but I think the Hive will really shine in high point games where one is fielding multiple common squads.

Marro Drudge – These guys are arguably the bottom of the barrel in this set. They are only 50 points for a common squad of three with five movement, five range and two attack and defense. So, they have rather low stats, but their special abilities will make up for that, right? Well actually I don’t think they do. Their Swamp Water Strength adds 1 to their attack and defense, but if they are on swamp water, they are unlikely to have height advantage, and there are not a lot of maps that have swamp water. Their other special ability is pretty cool except it also references swamp water, but the Swamp Water Tunnel allows them to move to another swamp water space within five spaces when they end their move on a swamp water space. Unfortunately, their specials only work on swamp water and doom them to the fate of the other terrain specific units that will rarely see play.

Marrden Nagrubs - The small Nagrubs are an interesting addition to the Heroscape world. At only 30 points for a common squad of three, they have a really good ability with low stats to match their low point cost. They can move six spaces, attack at a range of one and roll two attack and defense dice. They have the special ability of Climb x2 to help them navigate the board, but their powerful ability is Hivelord Life Bonding. This ability lets them take a turn with any Hivelord their player controls, but also before doing that, the Hivelord can destroy an adjacent Nagrub to heal a wound. This ability is very cool with both Su Bak Na and Tor-Kul-Na and I think it will be even cooler when the new Hivelord comes out in Acquilla’s Alliance next month. The Marrden Nagrubs have the potential to pack a powerful little punch.

Marro Stingers – I think I saved the best for last. The Marro Stingers are generating a lot of buzz for their very solid stats to point ratio. For only 60 points they provide a player with a common squad of three figures that can move five, attack at a range of five with three attack and defense. They also have the Stinger Drain special ability, that although can be dangerous, can often be used at the right time to turn the tide of battle. With the Stinger Drain, a player can roll the d20 and on a 10 or higher add an attack die to the Stingers attack rolls. The dangerous part is that on a 1-4 the player must kill a Stinger and end their turn without attacking, with the really bad part of that negative effect being losing the turn of attacking. However, if a player chooses the right time to juice their Stingers up, they should be able to do some major damage attacking from height with five or even six with a glyph of Astrid or Crevcor. I have seen it happen and it is scary. The most valuable unit in this set is by far the Marro Stingers.

I feel that the gameplay in Swarm of the Marro deserves 9 hexes out of 10.

Look and Feel - Heroscape tends to be a killer in the look and feel category, and this set is no exception. It really looks really good overall.

The figures are overall really well sculpted and painted. I especially like the Hive. It looks amazing and had some pretty high production value placed on it. It was made in several pieces and fused together; so that they could have some clear plastic bubbles through which you could see the Marro spawn being generated. It is just uber-goodness!

Tor-Kul-Na is also a very cool looking piece. It is just a massive monstrous looking hero with a little Marro man riding him; there is just something impressive about this figure. I also like the attention to detail with a little bag strapped under the saddle that contains Tor-Kul-Na’s traveling stuff.

I think Sonlen is another really good looking piece. His color scheme is great and his sculpt with the little red draon and his pose is very cool.

I also really liked the addition of color to the Marro figs in this set unlike some of the older Marro, these guys all pretty much got some colors that pop off of them. The Stingers have big dark green and gold guns, while the drudge have a nice purple cord attaching their silver guns to them and the Nagrubs have a nice green color on the crests of their heads.

The tiles are also very nice as with the original set. It contains some of the same tiles as the old set, but it also adds the swamp tiles and swamp water tiles. I really like the look of the swamp tiles with the lighter green and dark green tops. They are still just as fun to build with as ever, but this set is a bit skimpy on the quantity of tiles given, so one can’t build quite as much with it. I do think the production value of some of the other component’s can help offset that though.

The art on the glyphs is once again good and matches the old ones.

The game comes with 23 wound markers a round marker and negation marker which are all just like the markers that already exist for the game. However, the 16 order markers are green to match the swamp theme, and I think that is a cool little touch. The dice are also the white new style with skulls and shields on them, and the d20 is a black one like the original set. It would have been kind of cool if the d20 would have been green too.

Another interesting thing is the cards in this set have a little bit of a new template with vines and such around the edges to kind of go along with the idea of swamps and the new jungle set that will be coming out soon.

The look and feel of this game earns Swarm of the Marro 9 out of 10 hexes.

Overall Score - 9 hexes out of 10

Final word - Obviously, if you already love Heroscape you have bought this. If you haven’t picked up Heroscape yet, this is a good starting point, but I would still recommend getting the original Rise of the Valkyrie set first as you will get a bit more terrain in it. This set is a great addition to the Heroscape universe and introduced several things that make me very excited for the future of the game.