Heroscape Is Fun

The battle of all time rages throughout the war-torn land of Valhalla. Warriors from every corner of the universe duke it out for control of the precious wellsprings. Winged Kyrie warriors fight to control the skies and robots battle monks. Alien Marro drones and Blade Gruts charge towards a castle held by WW2 soldiers and the 9th Roman Legion. Werewolves tear the throats from elves, and a massive giant punches a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the face. An enormous zombie horde led by the Esenwein vampire family rips apart MacDirk Highlanders. A gigantic white dragon wheels through the sky, sending clouds of ice at his opponant, who retaliates with a stream of fire. The Knights Templar charge the Marro Grok Riders, and Sir Dupuis cuts down the Marro Warlord Me-Burq-Sa, taking a shoulder wound from a plasma rifle in the process. Marrden hounds savage Gorillinators. Viking warriors mount a suicidal attack on a massive Marro army and somehow survive. The Marro Hivelord Su-Bak-Na swoops through the sky on the back of a skeletal dragon, lashing out with his scythe to drop a Sentinel of Jandar. The Kyrie crumples, and he falls through the air. Suddenly a voice carries over the din of battle. Sgt. Drake Alexander, commander of the allied forces of Jandar, Ullar, Vydar, Einar, and Aquilla, has sounded the retreat. Einar’s disciplined samurai warriors serve as a rearguard. The good guys have taken a beating today.

What the heck is going on here, you may ask. One word: Heroscape. Heroscape is a board game where players build a battlefield using hexagonal terrain tiles, some (like water) with special properties, draft armies according to a points system, and try to accomplish some objective (usually wipe out all other armies). There are two types of characters-heroes and squads. Heroes are powerful, but have only one figure on their card. Squads are weaker and have more characters per card. Each card has a move number, a range number, an attack number, and a defense number. Move number is self-explanitory, range is the amount of spaces a figure can attack in, attack number is the number of attack dice the character roles, and you really should be able to guess what the defense number means. Most cards have special powers, which makes drafting an army a process requiring real thought. Every character is affiliated with one of six Valkyrie Generals. The good generals are Jandar (primary good guy), Ullar, Vydar, Einar, and Aquilla. The evil General is Utgar. There are two currently available master sets, and expansion sets featuring new characters are released every year. I would personally recommend buying the Rise of the Valkyrie Master Set and multiples of every Common squad pack you can get your hands on. If you can, buy the Knights Templar. They’re just fun to play as. Good Heroes include Nilfheim, Charos, Major Q9, Su-Bak-Na, Tor-Kul-Na, Sgt. Drake Alexander, Raelin the Kyrie Warrior, and Cyprien Esenwein. Good Squads include swarms (3 or more squads) of: Blade Gruts, Arrow Gruts, Marro Drones, Roman Legionares, Ashigeru Yari, Ashigeru Harquebus, Zombies of Morindan, and Marro Stingers, any amount of Knights Templar, Knights of Weston, Sentinels of Jandar, Minions of Utgar, Einar Imperium, 4th Massachusetts Line, 10th Regiment of Foot, Blastatrons, Gladiatrons, Grok Riders, and Anubian Wolves.

By the way, this thing is so long because 1. I actually care about the subject, and 2. I’m trying to compete with Gabe (enumba8.wordpress.com)