Tips on mounting a large map, large army campaign?

[Sterius]

For my birthday last year, my friends randomly found on a curb, 5 milk crates full of Heroscape board hexes. This, combined with my existing collection is enough to fill an entire room of my apartment. My plan is to spend a few hours with some pals making a giant board, building some huge teams, and then embarking on a game. My main concern is that we will just spend way too much time getting across the board to fight, and the sheer size of our teams will be too unwieldy, making the game go slowly and thus, be boring.

I have thought about having some other elements, like ways to get the figures around the board more expediently. As well, I have considered having some "Game Events" which happen randomly like a meteor shower that blows up units, or other X-factor type occurrences. However, I thought I might ask all you reddit board gamers out there who might have done this, or some other similar large-scale table top game. Any advice would be much appreciated!

[lefton4ya]

Nice find Steruis and welcome to the site! For large maps for 4 people, try the Warzones Of Valhalla (http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=31187) but for campaigns try using the search feature on the top bar and selecting "search titles only" and select the Maps and scenarios forums and search for the word large or huge. This link (http://www.heroscapers.com/community/search.php?searchid=2331171) will work for a bit will give results but follow my instructions to do it yourself. also, check out the downloads section under maps (http://www.heroscapers.com/community/downloads.php?do=cat&id=7) there are 4+ and 5+ master set maps.

As a new Scaper, I also recommended clicking the "new here" link in my signature below.

[Sterius]

Thanks lefton4ya, this looks helpful!

[Cavalier]

Here is another thread detailing one group's method for handling large scale scape: Speeding up Massive 'Scape (http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=33694)

[kolakoski]

Well met!

The Gang of Four often plays on large maps at chas' Game Palace, and there have been times, especially with only chas and I playing, when traversing the entire map to chase down the few remaining units (in chas' army, of course :lol:) was an issue. For the purposes of your game, I'd suggest teleporters. A couple of my blogs (links below) describe what went on with us when we used them, but I'm sure that they would be a fine solution to your particular gigunda map issues.

http://www.heroscapers.com/community/blog.php?b=1199

http://www.heroscapers.com/community/blog.php?b=1216

[TheAverageFan]

There are several ways in which you can speed up large games, and depending upon how you and your friends play, some of these ideas may speed up the game. I often play with large armies, and thus large journeys between armies does indeed get boring.

1: Objective gameplay. Giving a particular team an objective will push teams to move their armies instead of everyone staying on the defense for the sake of laziness. This can be something as simple as a height advantage to an empty castle stashed full of glyphs. We all know how easy it is defending a castle from an enemy with an equal point army, so that ought to get people moving.

2. Teams. You can get a lot more units out in the field with more turns. Thus, having a three of one battle, for instance, can speed things up, allowing one player to have his whole army right there to less figures by three turns. Also, place armies away from the map border so they can start closer and spread out if they wish.

3. MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! Marching. Add this rule: During a player's turn, instead of moving, they may move all of their figures up to 4 spaces. The figures moved must be unengaged during the entire move, from start to finish. A player who does this cannot attack this turn. Edit this rule to fit you and add it. Much faster!

Other than that, I'd have to just recommend multiple turns per order marker and elimination. Or you could just go with all figures during your turn. Then it'd be real short.

[Nickydude]

...my friends randomly found on a curb, 5 milk crates full of Heroscape board hexes.

Lol! Sounds like someone having a dodgy excuse! "Ahh...officer... the reason I have two rabbits down my pants is..."

As for the long game, can you keep the board up over a period of days? If so why not play for a certain length of time over a period of days? :)