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Old May 5th, 2008, 03:14 PM
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Gomolka Gomolka is offline
 
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Heroscape Game Night Ideas!

This past weekend, I had the chance to meet up with my friend Rick (rfedin510) and play several rounds of Heroscape. At first, we did a three person general battle with our other friend Jim, which are always fun, but after Jim fell asleep early on in our Heroscape Game Night, we decided to play some 1v1 games.

Our first two games were fairly competitive, and we played with our own pre-drafted 500 point armies on BoV maps. After about two matches of normal 1v1 play, and with the time creeping earlier into the morning, we decided to have a bit of fun, and we started coming up with different ideas for having more interesting games. These games were in no way competitive, and were incredibly fun. Here I will post some ideas, including some that Rick and I came up with, to making your Heroscape Game Night more interesting, as well as giving others the opportunity to share their ideas.

1.) General-Based Armies
In these games, each player chooses from one general, and must create an army with the amount of points given. It is recommended that, since players are dealing with a narrower selection of units, that the point limit increase in order to make more thematic armies. This also opens up the door to figures that don't see a whole lot of playing time, and to different strategies.
2.) Large and Interesting Maps (Glyphs, Terrain, Obstacles)
Games with large armies tend to last pretty long, but it's best to give each player several options on where to play within the map. These kinds of maps differ from the typical BoV maps for competitive play. One suggestion is to have separate parts of the maps have different themes, such as a forest, a glacier/ice area, a volcanic area, etc. This gives the maps a flare, and makes it more enjoyable to play on. Playing with Glyphs is definitely something that should be included in large games with large maps. If playing with more than one person, these glyphs should be placed so that everyone is fighting against each other for the glyphs, and that not one person seems to be getting teamed up on by the other players. I would suggest looking at StarOcean980's Map Thread for large map ideas. You can search through these maps depending on how many terrain sets you own. Fortress of the Archkyrie is definitely a fun terrain set to own for these types of maps. Using ladders, high walls, and doors are fun ways to create obstacles for players.
3.) Large Battles / Team Battles
  • Free-For-All - My first experiences with Heroscape were weekends with about 4-5 people around a large map, and a 750-800 point army free-for-all. These huge battles are what really grasped my interest for this game. I highly recommend this, especially in a casual environment, and for playing with rather inexperienced players. These games take rather long, depending on the point limit, but even after playing Heroscape more competitively, I would like to organize another weekend with several friends to have another large battle.
  • Team Battles Have several friends over, and want more than a huge free-for-all? Team battles take the cake on this one. The most common team battle would be a 2v2 match. I would recommend to create a map with four starting zones, and placing each team's player's starting zones across from each other. If you go around the map either way, you should get Team1, Team2, Team1, Team2 starting zones. This way, each alliance has to maneuver their armies into supporting each other and strategically taking down the other two armies. Each player only has control of his own army, but he can use bonding with the other army on the same team. This introduces a new strategy, as well as making the game more interesting.
4.) Objectives/Scenarios
General-based games, large battles, and team battles are nice, but many people have never really tried objective based maps. Those who are familiar with the Master Set Campaigns are familiar with these types of games. In this type of game, players compete against each other while at the same time trying to complete an objective. Some objectives can be:
  • Capture the Flag - Pretty self explanatory. I would suggest building a castle map for this one. One team holds one side with the flag, while the other tries to take it and return it to his/her starting zone. The team capturing the flag should have a larger point limit than the army holding the flag.
  • Rescue a figure - Same thing as capture the flag, but creates a different scenario.
  • Destroy a designated opponent's figure (President) - In this game, armies have an objective of destroying one of the opponent's figures that is designated as the target. This unit does not count towards either armies' point values, and once this figure is defeated, the game ends, and the assassin's team wins.
  • King of the Hill - Have a specific part of the map designated as the target area or "The Hill". The amount of turns being played should be decided amongst the players, but I suggest somewhere between 5-8 rounds, depending on the army size. Whichever team has the larger point value of units on top of the hill at the end of the round limit wins the game.
  • Crossing the map - This is a common scenario, in which Team1 must try to make it to the other side of the map with any figure, and Team2 tries to defend their side of the map. These games should have a round limit (10-12), and Team1 should have a point advantage since that team has an objective to follow, and the only way to win is to complete that objective.
5.) Choosing Random Armies
These games are probably the most fun of them all. They really allow for more units who are not usually played to be played, and also bring a lot of laughs to the table. In these games, players will most likely not have the type of army they want for competitive play, and their armies can be chosen in several ways.
  • Blindly Choosing - Players roll to see who gets to choose first. Players have a stack of cards in their hands consisting of every figure available. They shuffle through every card with their eyes closed, and then choose one at random. This card is now in their army. The next player then gets to choose. If, for example, the point limit is 500, and a player has 450 points already in their army, they must keep picking until they choose a figure under 50 points, or they can go over the point limit by a little if agreed upon by the other players, or players can agree to be allowed to choose one card when less than 50 points are available in order to save time.
  • Rolling to choose - Players roll to see who gets to choose first. Players then roll the D20 to choose. If they roll a 1-10, they choose a figure for their army. If they roll an 11-20, the other player chooses a figure for their army. The next player then gets to roll to choose, and the process repeats. If playing with 3+ people, you follow the rolling order for choosing opponent's figures for their armies. For example, the order goes P1, P2, P3. If any player rolls an 11-20, the next player would choose for them. P2 chooses for P1, P3 chooses for P2, and P1 chooses for P3.
  • Choosing pre-made armies - Players at the Game night can make their own non-drafted 500 point armies. Players can make as many armies as they choose, and then place the armies on the table. Designate each army to a number on the D20, and players take turns rolling to see which army they will play. For this type of army choosing, I would HIGHLY suggest using small themed armies, such as Q9/Q10/X17, KMA/Nakitas/Microcorp, Mittens/Venocs/Armocs. Playing these themed armies are really fun, and you will get to experience several different armies. This works for any type of play - 1v1, 2v2, FFA.
6.) Creating Custom Units
Here's an idea that I recently came across, and it's been one of the most fun yet! Before we got to my house to get started with the game night, we all paid a visit to our local Arts and Crafts store to look for mini-figs. I told everyone that they could choose their own mini-fig, and that they could make their own custom character (Reasonably powerful, of course. Though, most of them ended up being a bit over-powered). This really made the game night unique and fun. We had several different ideas come from everyone in our Scaping group. Some really went out there with their ideas, and others tried to incorporate their unit into an already established theme in Heroscape. My two favorites were:

Baby Godzilla | 250 pts; L8, M6, R1, A8, D5; Atomic Fireball SA - Range 4, Attack 4; Chomp; Tailwhip SA - Range 1, Attack 4, Hits all adjacent figures

McGuckin Werewolves | 100 pts, Common Squad; L1, M6, R1, A4, D4; Darklord Bonding; Wolf Pack Enhancement - All wolves within 3 clear sight spaces of any McGuckin Werewolf gets +1/+1 for attack and defense. This doesn't stack for each McGuckin Werewolf within range of each wolf.

Not only is this fun because it adds new and never before played units to the mix, but each player gets to play their own custom-created unit! This also worked really well for some of my friends who did not understand the game too well. What better of a way to help them understand than going through the process of making his own unit card! If you're still having trouble coming up with ideas to create your own custom unit, then you can always use one of the plentiful figures created right here in the Custom Units & Army Cards section of the forums.
These are just some ways to liven up your Heroscape Game Night. I'm sure many of you have used similar, or different ways to make things interesting. If you have your own way of making a game night more fun, or would like to add on to anything I have said here, feel free to post your ideas and opinions here.

Thanks for your time, and I hope that others find this useful for their next Heroscape Game Night!

Last edited by Gomolka; December 31st, 2008 at 06:56 PM. Reason: Added Custom Units Section
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