Heroscape: Age of Annihilation is here! Back it on Haslab!

[Dartheyegouger]

Originally Posted by Hogg

They talked about a few of the units. It's implied that there will be squads.

There is a Shark character with a harpoon weapon that is hammerhead inspired. It is part of a "bunch" of monster hunters with oversize weapons to "slay dragons."

The 4 armed character has a gas mask and four blades. It is fast, agile, and able to "run straight into combat to slice and dice"

I think they called the dragon "Dryon Lifeborn Order Dragon."

Thanks! Do you have the timestamp for when they talk about that stuff?

[Agent Minivann]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Assuming this is crowd funded, I for one am all about having a $500 tier where folks can get prepainted minis in the release (assuming the painting is done by industry professionals for that cost).

I will not be purchasing it, but I'm all about it being offered.

Maybe if Skyknight painted it.

[Agent Minivann]

Originally Posted by Riku4470

i mean ya thats the extreme low end but when would it ever end at 30 dollars? thats not realistic. Also the minis would look like crap from the paint you described its to thick. At the vary least you would need to get modeling paint. Like army painter or something. Vallejo is alright too. Seeing how big that large dragon is it would be a pain in the butt to use a paintbrush on that. Air brushes save a lot of time on things like that. I wonder how many products they plan on releasing. They did say there is a Release schedule they cant talk about. Like personal time is important too. I just hate how painting minis turns into a part time job or at least that what it feels like.

I did see one guy mention contrast paints, perhaps that would be a good route to go. Those save alot of time too if anyones interested but those cost like 8 bucks a color i think.

It all comes down to taste and standards. In my poor starving student days I painted minis in that very way, and they are good enough for me. Applying WH40K hobbyist standards to what essentially is Heroscape custom standards is not a 1 to 1 comparison.

[Agent Minivann]

Originally Posted by Hogg

I just want to remind everyone again, that during the 12 years HeroScape has been discontinued, Wizkids has been making appropriately priced, pre-painted Heroclix minis the entire time and have released thousands of figures during HS's break. It is clearly not impossible, Hasbro is making a choice.

You're talking a blind purchase game that is designed to sell large numbers of minis to individual buyers hoping to get the small handful they actually want. That is a different animal with a different scale. Not to mention maintaining their sweatshop contracts the whole time.

[Tritzix]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

You're talking a blind purchase game that is designed to sell large numbers of minis to individual buyers hoping to get the small handful they actually want. That is a different animal with a different scale. Not to mention maintaining their sweatshop contracts the whole time.

Agreed, with starting up a new manufacturing line for a product that may or may not succeed, the best idea may be not hiring a ton of people to hand paint minis. Plus with the HeroClix companion, I've heard the rarer minis look great, the super common ones look.... mediocre...

[Hogg]

Originally Posted by Dartheyegouger

Thanks! Do you have the timestamp for when they talk about that stuff?

4:33:00 is about when they start discussing the minis.

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

When Chris Nadeau saw me at the booth, he came over and told me that he dropped some hints (he wouldn't say about what) in the "stream" today. He said no one on site at GenCon seems to have caught the hints (I didn't even know there was a stream, so...). If y'all don't know what I'm talking about maybe you can look into it. Some kind of GenCon Hasbro stream.

Um, yeah it would have been nice if he said what the "hints" were about.

Originally Posted by Dartheyegouger

Thanks! Do you have the timestamp for when they talk about that stuff?

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1553012656?t=04h31m58s

His descriptions of the minis didn't reveal any BIG news really. If there were hints about something bigger I didn't catch it.

When describing the Dragon, he said "first show piece to start showing off some of the big marquee pieces in the collection" and "one of the major pieces of our soon to be announced product offering". So maybe there was a hint in those statements but I didn't catch it.

Edit: Maybe with words like "show piece" and "pieces in the collection" he was hinting at being able to buy bigger more expensive figures separately. And another thing ... if the minis are truly unpainted, it is extremely misleading to tease us with beautifully painted sculpts like the ones they are showing. Just maybe... there will be a pre-painted option that's for those of us willing to shell out some serious money. IAmBatman has "hinted" this a couple times already. @IAmBatman , are you in the know on this?

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

Maybe if Skyknight painted it.

Get the $ up front, then hire the painters. If there isn’t enough $, no one really cares that much.

I assume Sky would cost more, though.

[hextr1p]

While I understand the intent behind the the stance that under the Hasbro umbrella, WizKids has kept their figures painted, the argument falls a bit short because the whole story about those prepainted figures isn't being told. With that argument, we also need to take into account a few details about HeroClix.

First, the HeroClix paint jobs are ridiculously subpar compared to first edition Heroscape miniatures. HeroClix also never included a wash, so the poor paints look even worse.

Next, the actual figures and sculpts of HeroClix are subpar compared to Heroscape. Sure, there are a few HeroClix examples where this isn't the case. But more often than not, when trying to find a custom figure that I felt would fit with the quality of Heroscape figures, it was very difficult.

Basically, WizKids is sacrificing a considerable amount of production quality, which saves them some production costs. But last I checked, the upcoming 10 figure HeroClix X-Men set will MSRP for over $70. This set also includes 2 dice, and various paper (cards, map tiles, rules, etc). So to say HeroClix is still doing prepainted miniatures is true... but they charge a helluva lot for the low quality product and paper bits they produce.

Translate that $70+ MSRP as it relates to Heroscape, a product that was and is still superior in production quality to HeroClix in figures alone, and include the paper bits of the Heroscape rules and unit cards... and then add to that our beloved interlocking plastic terrain pieces (which are also painted), more battle dice (which also have screen printed symbols), plastic wound markers, plastic order markers (which also have screen printed numbers), and plastic terrain objects (like walls) often included in master sets. That all adds up to a hefty price to produce in the current market.

So for Hasbro to make a decision to not include painted miniatures to better allow this new edition of Heroscape to be at least a little more accessible to more people is necessary. Especially if they want the line to continue in the coming years. Is this decision ideal? Of course not. And people have the right to be upset and voice their opinion about this decision. But when presenting an argumentative stance, try to consider and convey all of the details before including other games that still include prepainted miniatures.

[Hogg]

A lot will hinge on the price point. Is it unpainted but still at the $40 RotV/SotM price point? Or is it unpainted closer to the $135 revived HeroQuest price?

It could be either one of those, less, or more. It depends on who they want to sell it to and how much they want to sell.

Edit: I still don't know how they got to $400 though. HeroQuest is $135, has 35 unpainted minis and another tray of (unpainted) furniture that weighs almost twice what the mini tray weighs. It also has a board, a sheet of cardboard tokens, and two rulebooks. If HeroScape comes out at a similar price, how would it cost $265 to paint the figures?

Edit 2: Hasbro (crowfunded) Galactus for $400 and it is nearly 3 feet tall, had 70 joints, lights up, comes with three regular figures, had Marvel licensing, and had free shipping included. They sold 30,000+ https://hasbropulse.com/collections/...gends-galactus

[IAmBatman]

It won’t be $40.

[hextr1p]

Originally Posted by Hogg

A lot will hinge on the price point. Is it unpainted but still at the $40 RotV/SotM price point? Or is it unpainted closer to the $135 revived HeroQuest price?

It could be either one of those, less, or more. It depends on who they want to sell it to and how much they want to sell.

I can guarantee this new Master set will not retail for $40. Especially considering (from what I gather and correct me if I'm wrong) they are launching the initial Master set via Hasbro Pulse. You mentioned the cost of the recent "HeroQuest" set. In addition to that, the most recent edition of "Betrayal at House on the Hill" (also produced under the Avalon Hill brand) was also launched there, and that game (with considerably less plastic than Heroscape) currently retails for about $56.

That said, there are other factors to consider that would play into further lowering production costs, such as long term contracts with manufacturers for current and future product, production terms within the contract that are met or exceeded, predicted higher quantities of sets that would be produced, the impact and clout Hasbro has in the production industry, and so on.

All of which to say... I'm just as curious as every one else as to where this price point will fall. But based on current trends and where I'm feeling they're going to direct this game (which does NOT include big box stores like WalMart), the initial Master set and future sets will most certainly have a higher price point.