Here’s a game for the common folk. Awash in the desert of the same dry board games found on the shelves of department stores everywhere, I always keep and eye out for that diamond in the rough. Every now and then something new makes an appearance that catches the corner of my eye. And that’s what Heroscape has managed to do. Sitting unobtrusively on the shelf among the common chaff, it hardly stood out. I think the word “battle” on the box commanded my attention. That, and the variety of different good looking miniatures made me reach for a closer look. Turning it over I discovered shots of 3D hexagonal terrain displaying an incredible battlefield. “The heck with what the game’s about” I thought, “I’ve got to have this for the terrain bits”. Fortunately for most folks, there’s plenty more to enjoy about this game.

Enough banter, lets get into what the game is and who’ll end up liking it. At its core, Heroscape is a hack and slash miniatures game. We’ve seen them before from the deep and richly woven story of Warhammer by Games Workshop to the Mage Knight and Mechwarrior clix games by Wizkids. But the difference here is you won’t need to refer to a volume of rules to play, nor will you need a case of boosters to find that incredibly rare collectible that will render your opponent to a smoldering mass of plastic on the first attack. It’s basically a u-go-I-go game where your heroes and squads will move taking the best advantage of the terrain around them, fire on or attack an opposing figure, and defend against the same. Thrown in are some special power-up bonuses to be hunted down, a few character abilities, and objectives. All makes for playable and enjoyable scenarios that go beyond the “eliminate all opposing units” mentality. And this is to be had on just a few pages of simple rules. Given the simplicity of game play, and the components enclosed with the game, there’s plenty of room to let your imagination run wild with homegrown mayhem. But if you’re looking for a trademark story line with an all-star lineup of figures from the likes of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings then it’s time to look elsewhere. The same applies if you want complex rules for combat, in depth terrain modifiers, and special abilities that change with ever hit your units take. This is definitely not Heroclix or Flames of War. It’s a miniatures game and purebred Euro gamers need not read any further. But… if you like simple fun hankering back to the days of playing with army men, you might want to sneak a peak at this gem.

So with that said, let’s delve into the box and pull out the toys. There’s a lot packed into this comparatively small box giving it a lot of heft. Virtually no trees were killed in the making of this product. You’ll find five layers of 1¾ inch wide, raised plastic hexagons filling the box. They range in size from single hexes to seven hex pieces and even larger layouts of about 15 hexes. The hexes interlock with each other both along the side and in stacking to create formidable looking terrain layouts. The terrain currently comes in four flavors of grass, stone, sand, and water. The interesting thing about the water hexes is they are half height giving a nice relief when creating rivers and lakes. Each hex level of terrain represents one level of elevation. This will be important later in determining movement for figures changing elevation. Further included terrains are two fortress walls (or garden walls given the size of the figures) nicely antiqued and crumbling. They fit neatly along the hexes anywhere on the terrain. The hexes are easily stacked to create a variety of landscape to include caverns and cliff overhangs. I’ll go off on a tangent here to mention that this terrain is perfect for use in other games and well worth the overall cost of the game alone if this is your cup of tea. I have found the hex terrain useful with other games I own from clix miniature games to creating 3D terrain for alternate Memoir 44 and Battle Cry scenarios. I can see where D&D fans could make good use of the enclosed bits as well. There’s also a wealth of tabletop games where this low cost alternative may be viable. With two sets I was able to blanket a 3x4 foot area with plenty of terrain relief features. And best of all, a river runs through it.

Once getting past the scenery, we find 30 sculpted miniatures of approximately 1/35 scale. They are all painted! The quality of the paint job is nothing less of what you find in many of the current Collectible Miniature Games (CMG’s) on the market today and again, they alone are worth the cost of the game. That’s to say they’re pretty good looking and well worth it. There’s something found to please everyone. You have a team of ninjas or samurai, a squad of army troops that look like they’re out of Sgt. Rock’s platoon, a bunch of “Men in Black” figures that would make Mulder of the X-files proud, a group of ghoulies that look like a cross between an Alien and Skeletor, some battle mech robotic types, Vikings and Norse galore, a huge winged dragon (my favorite), and a warrior on a dinosaur the size of T-Rex. Each themed group of figures seems to have a specialized hero figure that’s either larger and/or more powerful than the rest of its teammates. The figures sit on either a single round base, or a doublewide base covering two hexes for the larger ones. Some folks might be turned off by the variety of figures in the game ranging from the present day to fantasy and sci-fi, but as I alluded to earlier, if you’re looking for a single flavor of ice cream, go buy a different box. This is Neopolitan. The beauty of it is that if you only like the chocolate and vanilla in the package, you don’t have to play with the strawberries.

The rest of the sundries in the box include plastic “glyphs” that represent either objectives to be captured during a scenario or items that provide special abilities to your units such as extra range, more attack or defense dice, or better initiative. There are also plastic “hit tokens” to keep track of damage and even more plastic flags that govern the order that players will activate their figures. Finally there are character cards (plastic coated) that show the stats of your chosen warriors. The only thing other than the box that’s not plastic is the rule and scenario booklet which I’m sure must be made from recycled paper thereby making tree-huggers happy as well.

The story line is nebulous at best but very appropriate for this style game. Something about Vikings that discover a spring of vitality making them live longer and stronger. It’s probably all something akin to modern day Viagra. Anyway, power corrupts them and pretty soon creatures from across time and space are showing up to do battle in Valhalla. Who cares! This is “miniatures for the masses”. It’s more fun knowing my Battle Mechs are going to take out your dino rider, or all that fancy samurai sword play may impress the ladies, but let’s see how it holds up when a few grenades lobbed into the mix. Actually this is all just great marketing to please the masses. Plus, the mixing bowl of characters is what makes the game stand out. But does it all hold up to fun game play? I think it does.

The simplicity of the rules ties the potpourri of characters together fairly well. There are two sets of rules though the latter advanced ones just add to the basic variety. Under the basic version, your characters are rated in four areas: Attack, defense, range, and movement. They all have 1 life point and a basic number on their character card that represents their height. Your actions are very basic as well. You activate a unit or squad of units, move it, and attack. Movement is easy. One hex equals one point of movement. Entering water stops a unit, and each level up equals one unit of movement. Your unit can climb up to a level that is less than their height. Moving down off higher elevation is even simpler with a cost of 1 point regardless of height. The danger is when jumping off something higher than your figure’s height. There’s a chance of damage in that you must roll a die to see if you take a hit. As far as attacking goes, two basic conditions must be met. First you must have the range to hit your target (most are only from adjacent hexes) and second, if attacking with a ranged weapon, you must have a clear line of sight (LoS) to your target. If you can see your target and reach it with your weapon range then you’ve got LoS. Elevation provides a simple advantage to the unit that is higher in that it gets to roll an additional die either in attack or defense. Once in close combat (adjacent hexes) there’s a risk when choosing to run away in that the opponent may take a 1-die attack swipe at you possibly hitting and eliminating your unit. The dice come in two varieties: red ones for attacking and blue for defending. You have a 50% chance of hitting with a red die (3 hit sides and 3 blanks) and a 33% chance of defending on a blue die (2 shields and 4 blanks). If more hits are rolled than shields to block them, the excess hits get through. With only one life point for characters in the standard rules, it only takes one excess hit to be deadly. The basic rules are two pages in length with ample illustrations and examples. They’re really not needed but they are rather a nice touch since they’re easy enough to get your 8 year old into the game with a good understanding of the mechanics and without bogging them down in additional rules to remember. Simple scenario objectives involve either eliminating all your opponent’s figures or taking and holding a location or “glyph”.

The advanced rules add just enough to up the game to a more strategic level. They are very well written with plenty of illustrations and examples as well. The flip side of the character/squad cards contain advanced additional information required. Figures and squads are now rated for points. Each player may build up an army based on points. Further stats are also given such as special abilities, creature types, and disposition. For example, the little baby mechs get to shoot further when firing from adjacent to the momma mech, the dragon has a multi-attack flame breath, and so on. Certain units have flying ability that allows them to ignore terrain height when climbing. Life points also come into play such that most units now require more than one hit to eliminate. All characters and teams in this set are considered “unique”. This is important when building armies where players are only allowed one each of the unique units in their mix. Finally, some of the finer points of terrain masking are addressed such as a big creatures just won’t be allowed to fit into small spaces such as under a low overhang. The advanced scenarios now include objectives to be met and special rules that apply to the overall situation. Again, it’s all enough to push the game into the realm of serious, yet light, miniature gaming.

The mechanism used for play is well thought out. Each player receives four action flags with the numbers 1 to 3 and one with an “X” on it. Players start a round by rolling a d20 for initiative to determine which player will move a character first. Figures are set up according to the scenario played. You place your flags on any choice of character cards in any manner desired. So say you have a grunt squad, a dragon, a mech, and a grunt hero. You could place one flag on each card or even all on one card if you desire. The “X” flag acts as a bluffing token so your opponent won’t really know which unit might not be activated. Players then alternate activating, moving, and attacking with the unit(s) on a given card in the order of their tokens. You have the choice of pushing a unit three times in a row but if it gets eliminated, you lose the extra actions. As in most miniature games, the movement of your units and how they can be used to support one another is a critical strategy. The same is true in this game. Since the players alternate activations, it’s critical to have a strategy or you might find one squad wiped out before your backup gets into a good firing or attack range. Paying attention to who wins the initiative is just as important. Of course, choosing the right elevation to attack or defend from goes without saying. One round of the game consists of each player taking three actions. Each scenario specifies the number of rounds to be played. At the end of the scenario, victory conditions are checked to determine the winner. In the advanced game it’s possible for both players to have units remaining at the end. This is where the point value of squads or heroes comes into play since they higher remaining point value will carry the day.

Speaking of scenarios, the game comes with a scenario booklet and ten different scenarios. Five are for use with the basic rules while the other 5 employ the advanced ones. The booklet shows how to build up the terrain for each encounter through a step-by-step process that reminded me of following Lego instructions. Still, it is very well thought out and presented. There’s encouragement to develop your own scenarios, armies, and terrain layouts to your heart’s content. I had plenty of fun playing the basic scenarios. There's plenty of luck involved with the dice, but I had a blast with my last samurai going down swinging from the top of a hill against two Vikings attacking on each side. It was all very honorable.

The rules make mention of future sets to include “common” squads where you might be able to build immense armies of fodder to take on the Ubermensch. If supported, this game could have a bright future. There is plenty of room for expansion of units, unit abilities, different terrain, and more plastic. But even if this is the only incarnation put out (though expansion units have been seen at Gencon) the game is perfectly self-contained “as is”. There’s plenty of long-term miniature fun to be found in the box.

Overall, I really have to give this game a high rating of the upper 80’s to low 90’s on the Muldermeter. It loses a few db on theme and perhaps box part organization. Truly minor quibbles when compared to the character of the game as a whole. The box fart factor is nonexistent. However, there really is no new ground being explored here. All the bits and pieces that make up Heroscape can be found in other games on the market. But as I started out saying, this is a game for the common folk. It’s not going to lure away the hardcore 40K fanatic or your Panzer Miniatures aficionado, nor is it meant to. This is a perfect game for mom or dad to get the kids when they want but can’t afford the cost of CMG addiction or the $250 plus price for a complete Tyrannid army. It may become expandable but the true beauty is that it’s not collectible. It’s the type of game to play with friends and family where everyone will learn and understand the rules in less than 5 minutes and spend the rest of the time having fun. And who knows, maybe it will have the effect of drawing more people into the miniature gaming hobby much like I always hope to lead more board gamers to new horizons.

This type of game won’t appeal to everybody. But, if you’re tired of trading grain for brick, auctioning off paintings, moving meeples, or bidding on railroad property and want some gratuitous violence, then Heroscape fits the bill. And you won’t have to track down a hobby shop or specialty store on the web to get it. It’s on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart or among the mass of games for the common folk at Toys R Us retailing for $39.95. And with any luck, it will find its way to the aisles of Woolies as well for our overseas enthusiasts. Just look for the diamond in the rough.

Cheers and good gaming.
Walt Mulder
8/22/04