Minis roundup #3: Heroscape

Finally, Heroscape.

Heroscape is a game that brings minis into an entirely new dimension... literally. This is a great game, and I'll tell you why. First off, the most striking feature of Heroscape is that instead of a flimsy paper map or homemade cardboard terrain, Heroscape has plastic hex tiles that can stack and interlock to form complete 3D terrain. You can also have walls, rivers, glaciers, trees, roads, bridges, even a castle.

Apart from the scenery, though, is the game any good? Short answer, yes. Heroscape doesn't try for anything too fancy, and scores with its intuitive, straightforward rules that barely need to be taught. Unit stats and abilities are printed on cards. This is so much better than being on the figs (less worry about wear and tear) or in the rulebook (no need to look things up in an expensive, overwhelming codex). Having special cards allows each unit to have unique, explicit special abilities, spicing up the game experience while keeping the core rules simple.

The funny thing about Heroscape is that it's made by Hasbro and is supposed to be a mass market toy, meaning it's found in Toys R' Us, not in Neutral Grounds. Unfortunately, this wasn't really marketed in the Philippines, so most pepople here haven't even heard of it. And since it was released in 2004, this makes it pretty scarce. The Master Set (read: starter) is incredibly good value. The booster packs have roughly the same MSRP cost per fig compared to Clix and Dreamblade, but they're not random. If you just want orcs, go ahead and buy the box with orcs in it.

It's probably a little to early for me to say this for sure -- but I think that Heroscape is the best prepainted minis game around.

Minis roundup #2.5: Warmachine

This one is a little different. I never got any Warmachine figures. Just a rulebook - a thick, hardbound, illustrated, full-color rulebook. It's definitely awesome, but to be honest, it cost more than I had spent on Heroclix.

Warmachine (as far as I can tell), plays great. The gameplay is pretty similar to Mageknight, but with more stats, more abilities, and more variety - Mageknight designed by serious gamers. Oh, there are some issues about how mechs drain resources too much compared to infantry, but that's something that has a lot of countermeasures.

Warmachine looks good too... but is where I have a problem. Warmachine comes from the grand old tradition of unpainted pewter minis. It comes as little metal bits that you have to assemble using glue, tiny drills and pins. Then you paint the little guy by hand -- primers, body and wash. And hey, that sounds like a fun hobby, but I don't think it's for someone who just wants to play a minis game.

The funny thing is, I casually suggested to a couple of Warmachine players that it would be nice if the game went prepainted, and they started ranting at me like I was a goat-horned heretic. I guess from their point of view, playing with pre-painted minis is like playing with a pre-constructed Magic deck - yeah you can do that, but then what's the point?

I printed out some chits to try the game out, and the truth is I really like it. But having to take up painting and modelling as one more hobby on top of gaming is a really big barrier to entry - a line I'm not willing to cross.

Minis roundup #2: Dreamblade

I got into Dreamblade almost a year ago, but I don't think I've ever written about it. Which is a shame, because it's flat out amazing.

Dreamblade is a really really good game. It's a mix of Ameritrash and Euro-style elements... and it works. There's combat with a ton of dice rolls, like a minis game, or Descent. The movement is strategic, somewhat like a light abstract (like checkers or chess). The victory point scoring is straight out of a Eurogame. What's impressive is that it all hangs together -- forming a coherent, fun game with the best of everything. The variety of figures is pretty impressive, even with just the base set, and the four factions differentiate themselves well.

Unfortunately for Dreamblade, it was packaged as a collectible game with a horrible theme (nightmare monsters, wtf). They're well designed, well sculpted, and well painted, but at the end of the day who's going to make an effort to collect an army of two-headed gorillas? It would really have helped if it were packaged as a boardgame with all the bits in one box. Yes, I know I say that about everything but in this case it's exceptionally true. Unappealing figures and a high barrier to entry killed this game.
So how do you get into a dead collectible game? In this case, I got a few starters when they were on sale, shopped for some singles on local forums. Last month I finally finished my goal of getting two of each common and one of each uncommon in the base set. Fortunately, the way the numbers work out it's easy to put together straight up preconstructed faction armies (ie. One of each blue and red common VS two of each green common). Treating it as an out-of-print boardgame instead of a dead CMG makes it much more appealing to play.

Overall, I really like it. I should bring it out whenever there's an opportunity for a two player game.

Minis roundup #1: Heroclix

I still have an unhealthy fixation on plastic manz, so I ended up getting a couple of minis games last month (and also this month). This could be kind of long, so I'll break it down into bite sized parts.

I found some Heroclix: Batman Alpha boosters on sale at Neutral Grounds, just 150php (normally around 450php). It seemed like an ideal way to start a heroclix collection, so I grabbed a booster (or ten). Now, thing about the Batman Alpha set is that it's geared towards starting players. The character selection here is good: It's just a small set, and the characters are all fairly popular. Opening a booster, I do feel fairly happy unless I get mostly duplicates. And hey, it's Batman! Who doesn't like the motherfucking Batman? Admittedly, I wouldn't have done this at full MSRP, but it's fun to open boosters when it's on sale. On the downside, the figs are mostly mediocre - bland sculpts and thick painting. I'm sick of playing on flimsy paper maps. Also, the idea of having clix bases is interesting, but ultimately I think it's better to just have stat cards and statless figures.

As far as the game goes: Heroclix Alpha comes with dumbed down starter rules that are okay, but have a much shallower gameplay. It does offer a more interesting win condition: Kill 5 units, and everyone respawns when killed. Compared to "kill everything", this makes it easier for a player to catch up, and more attractive for multiplayer. The full rules are a mixed bag; the core gameplay is good, but you can see that grime and clutter has been added to it over the years. (this is not really relevant to the material in the Alpha sets, though).

Overall, I'm happy with what I got. Hey it was cheap! I wouldn't really bother to get more though, and I definitely wouldn't even try to get into it competitively. So... is anyone interested in picking up my duplicates?