Ages of Heroscape

wriggz · #1 February 28th, 2024, 04:59 PM

With the imminent release of Age of Annihilation, I thought it would be interesting to look back on the various ages of Heroscape. I divided all the releases from 2004 to 2010 into 5 “Ages” with approximately 40 units in each Age. Additionally, each age conveniently includes some terrain, that when added to some basic land tiles would make interesting master sets. Here are my “Ages”:

Golden Age – 37 units
• Rise of the Valkyrie
• Malliddon's Prophecy: Wave 1
• Utgar's Rage: Wave 2

Notes: The age that kicked it all off. My personal favorite, as a “complete” set. The high number of Jandar and Utgar units really sells the good vs evil vibe. So many great armies including Arrow Grut, Knights, 4th mass valiant, Vipers, Minions, and Roman Warlord. I love playing with these sets, especially at a slightly lower point total. These were simpler times with simpler units that are still a blast to play. Also, a great pool for drafting games without becoming overwhelmed. Truly a golden age.

Classical Age – 41 units
• Jandar's Oath: Wave 3
• Zanafor's Discovery: Wave 4
• Thora's Vengeance: Wave 5
• Orm's Return
• Road to the Forgotten Forest
• Volcarren Wasteland

Notes: The classical age expands on the golden age adding the Glads and Blast army and Deathreavers. Other than that a lot of fun units, but nothing really outstanding even when you include the large heroes found in Orm’s Return. Including the Volcarren and Forgotten forest terrain to collection of land tiles would make a cool master set for making maps.

Middle Ages – 33 units
1. Dawn of Darkness: Wave 6
2. Fields of Valor: Wave 7
3. Crest of the Valkyrie
4. Raknar's Vision
5. Thaelenk Tundra
6. Fortress of the Archkyrie

Notes: The Middle ages are heavy on horror and eastern units with stand outs including Kaemon Awa, Cyprien and the Zombies. Due to the way I split the groups, Heavy Gruts and Ashigaru suffer for their bonding heroes existing outside their age. There are some lackluster squads like the Imperium, Templars and Shade. This age suffers from including the Flagbarers who benefit from the largest pool of units possible. However, the middle ages include Raknar’s vision which might be the single best expansion ever. Adding the fortress and Tundra to a base set of tiles wouldn’t be too bad of a master set.

Renaissance – 46 units
• Swarm of the Marro
• Defenders of Kinsland: Wave 8
• Blackmoon Seige: Wave 9
• Valkrill's Gambit : Wave 10
• Aquilla's Alliance
• Ticalla Jungle

Notes: Kicking off with the second master set the Renaissance including Stingers and Q10. There are some awesome armies here led by the 10th, Mohicans, Dividers and Axegrinders. I like the diversity of the units with Ninja, Elves and Ullar Kyrie. There are a few duds due to missing synergy including the Gladators, Repulsors, Quasatch and Kato. Even still this is my second favorite age, with the Swamp tiles and hive perfectly accented with the addition of Jungle terrain.

Dark Age – 51 units
• Battle for the Underdark
• D1: Champions of the Forgotten Realms
• D2: Warriors of Eberron
• D3: Moltenclaw's Invasion

Notes: there are some that wouldn’t even want to include this in the ages of Heroscape and it is easy to understand why. Phantom Knights, Fen Hydra, and death chasers are rare gems in a sea of medium unique heroes. This age suffers from lots of common heroes, middling large, uncommon heroes and overall, a lack of synergy. While I enjoy the goblins, elemental and warforged, they pale in comparison to the squads of past ages. This really does feel like a different type of game focusing more on heroes and dungeon crawls rather than skirmish warfare. Aside from the rock outcrops the terrain is also drab, not helping the whole affair.

What do you think? How do you rank the Ages? How do you think the Modern Era (Age of Annihilation) will rank?

Modern Age – C3V and SoV

Spoiler Alert!

Notes: Due the nature of designing based on available minis as well as the ad hoc nature of the SOV a few interesting trends developed. The first is that a lot of the early synergy harked back to classic scape, which is not surprising since it is a fan project after all. Secondly, a lot of units are self contained like the Civil war soldiers and Buccaneers. Third, I was surprised to see synergy spread across the whole project like the Thrawls, Rouges, Mariedian, Demons, and Outlaws. Finally in the recent ages, it does seem the project really started to focus on building cohesive armies later in the project which more closely mimicked classic ages with the Wildwoods, the Monks and Xundar and the shadows.

I’m very impressed by the project as a whole, and it is interesting looking back to see how it has grown and changed just based on which units were released as it became less a fan project and more something that can really stand on its own. IF I had to pick a point, I would say the launch of the Varkaanan’s would be the critical moment of change.

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